Let the library set you up on a blind date!

Blind Date Corner @ Shake Library

In honor of Valentine’s Day, Shake Library has entered the matchmaking business. No, not in the sense of helping people romantically. Instead we challenge you to go on a blind date with one of our favorite books, sight unseen. 

That’s right, pick out a wrapped book from our display at the circulation desk. Don’t worry… they’ve each got a little profile to give you a hint of what’s in store for you. Want to take a peek? Head over to our Facebook page and look at their profiles in our photo album. 

Loved it, hated it? Tell us what you thought by emailing us your review to libref@vinu.edu. We’ll post them on our FB page at the end of the week.

Pets, Lincoln, Edison, and Chocolate!

This weekend is shaping up to be a busy one for big celebrations.

You may have already seen the Google doodle for today commemorating Thomas Edison's 164th birthday.

At Shake library you can explore lots of Edison's inventions from the light-bulb to the electric chair. Why not flip through his biography in our ebook collection?

• Dyer, Frank L. Edison, His Life and Inventions. Champaign, Ill: Project Gutenberg, 1990. Ebook.

Image: Worldcat

Tomorrow we celebrate Lincoln's birthday! There's no shortage of books on him in our library (over 100 so far). Newly published is Richard Campanella's treatment of Lincoln's Flatboat Voyages which took him through Vincennes!

Campanella, Richard. Lincoln in New Orleans: The 1828-1831 Flatboat Voyages and Their Place in History. Lafayette: University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press, 2010.

In 1876 the abolitionist Frederick Douglass observed, "No man can say anything that is new of Abraham Lincoln." but that hasn't stopped scholars from continuing to explore the legacy of this incredible president. Curious to know more? You might want to check out Our Lincoln: New Perspectives on Lincoln and His World (New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2008.) by Eric Foner. Here you'll find essay's on Lincoln's views on race and citizenship, political acumen, his literary style, religious beliefs, and family life. 

Well, enough about these individuals, let's turn to this Monday's Valentine's day festivities. Whether you are eagerly anticipating the holiday or generally dreading the influx of red & pink, you'll find some great resources in the library. Such as: 

Critical Thinking About Sex, Love, and Romance in the Mass Media by  Mary-Lou Galician &  Debra L. Merskin. (Media Literacy Applications. Mahwah, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2007.) This book explores how romantic coupleship is represented in books, magazines, popular music, movies, television, and the Internet within entertainment, advertising, and news/information. 

Image: Worldcat

not interested? Well how about....Mort Rosenblum's Chocolate: A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light. (New York: North Point Press, 2005.)

Science, over recent years, has confirmed what chocolate lovers have always known: the stuff is actually good for you. It's the Valentine's Day drug of choice, has more antioxidants than red wine, and triggers the same brain responses as falling in love. Nothing, in the end, can stand up to chocolate as a basic fundament to human life. In this scintillating narrative, acclaimed foodie Mort Rosenblum delves into the complex world of chocolate. From the mole poblano--chile-laced chicken with chocolate--of ancient Mexico to the contemporary French chocolatiers who produce the palets d'or--bite-sized, gold-flecked bricks of dark chocolate--to the vast empires of Hershey, Godiva, and Valrhona, Rosenblum follows the chocolate trail the world over. He visits cacao plantations, meets with growers, buyers, makers, and tasters, and investigates the dark side of the chocolate trade as well as the enduring appeal of its product. (Publisher's Description)

Whatever you celebrate over the next 3-4 days don't forget that this month is Responsible Pet Owner Month!

Do you know how to protect your pets in an emergency?  Click here for information from the CDC

Do you know how to give first aid to your pet? Click here for information from the American Veterinary Medical Association

International Holocaust Remembrance Day

January 27 marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp. In 2005, the United Nations General Assembly designated this day as International Holocaust Remembrance Day (IHRD), an annual day of commemoration to honor the victims of the Nazi era. This year's theme is “Women and the Holocaust: Courage and Compassion”

“The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. ‘Holocaust’ is a word of Greek origin meaning ‘sacrifice by fire.’ The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933,  believed that Germans were ‘racially superior’ and that Jews, were deemed ‘life unworthy of life.’ During the Holocaust, the Nazis also targeted other groups because of their perceived ‘racial inferiority’: Roma/Sinti (Gypsies), the handicapped, and some of the Slavic peoples (Poles, Russians, and others). Other groups were persecuted on political and behavioral grounds, among them Communists, Socialists, Jehovah's  Witnesses, and homosexuals.” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)

If you would like to know more about the events of the Holocaust we, at Shake Library, recommend you take a look at this guide provided by Yad Vashem, the world center for documentation, research, education and commemoration of the Holocaust. This guide will help answer questions like:

• Is the Holocaust a singular event in history?
• How many Jews were murdered in each country?
• Who were other victims of Nazism?  
• Why didn't more Jews leave Europe before the war began?
• When and how did the Nazis decide to murder the Jews under their control?
• What were the extermination camps?  When did they start to function?
• How did the Nazis try to hide their atrocities?
• What did the Jews of America do to help European Jewry during the war?
• Why didn't the allies bomb Auschwitz? 
• What is Holocaust Denial?

You can view women's testimonies of the Holocaust by Clicking here.

Participate in the 2011 International Holocaust Remembrance Day

- Join the "I Remember" Wall on Facebook 

- Add your name to the list of people showing their support at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

More Resources

You can find more information about the Holocaust at Shake Library by searching our library catalog, VU Webcat

Related Documents
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)

Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948)

International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965)

Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief (1981)

A New Look for an Old Favorite

The New ProQuest Platform is here!

One of our most popular databases just got a face-lift. ProQuest is one of our biggest journal databases. In fact, chances are you provided one or two of the quarter of a million hits this database received last year! 

With the all-new ProQuest platform you can:

• Research topics for papers
• Browse within and across databases that Shake Library subscribes to from ProQuest
• Select specific databases or cross-search databases across subject areas for comparative studies 
• Find full-text-articles and scholarly resources with links to similar materials
• Search specific document types—including primary sources, peer-reviewed journals, dissertations, images, graphs, and tables
• Get formatted citations for a paper
• Cite, customize, manage, and share results via email and social networking links
• Set up alerts and RSS feeds to stay up to date with developments in the field

The New ProQuest can be found on the VU Libraries homepage: http://www.vinu.edu/libraries by clicking on the "Find Articles" link.

Don't forget to login to MyVU first if you are using our databases from off campus. You will need to authenticate yourself first in order to get access to the resources. 

Early closing 1/20/2011

Due to the inclement weather the library will be closing at 10pm today

ARTstor: 1000 uses and counting

What is ARTstor?
ARTstor is a nonprofit digital library of more than one million images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and social sciences with a suite of software tools to view, present, and manage images for research and teaching purposes. The collections comprise contributions from outstanding museums, photographers, libraries, scholars, photo archives, and artists and artists' estates.


What can I use it for?
When you need to put together any kind of quality presentation nothing makes your ideas hit home like a strong and relevant image that ties your points together. Using ARTstor will impress not only your classmates but also your professors. 


How can I find images? 
You can Search by:

• Keyword- So you can begin by finding images about the French Revolution by entering those two key words. 
• Advanced Search - This allows you to filter your search by date, collection, geography and more.

You can also Browse. This allows you to navigate through many categories at once to find images of interest. There are three way to browse:

• Browsing by Collection: Useful for when you want to browse existing groups of images. (example: Latin American Art, or Illuminated Manuscripts)
• Browsing by Classification: This database option divides the image library into sixteen broad classifications, including "Architecture and city planning", "Decorative arts", "Drawings and watercolors", "Maps, charts and graphs", and "Graphic design and illustration." Each classification can be sorted further by geography.
• Browsing by Geography: Allows you to focus on works created by an artist from a specific country or, in the case of architecture, the location of the work. Each county or region is further subdivided types of materials. So you can find images of Italian sculptures quickly without having to look through Italian paintings or tapestries.

How do I get images into my presentation?

• Download an image directly from the library onto your computer 
• Create an image group and share it with a custom URL
• Export an image group directly into PowerPoint

Where can I find it?

ARTstor can be found via the VU libraries website: http://www.vinu.edu/libraries  under the Find Media link. 
(If you are connecting from off campus don't forget to sign in to MyVU first in order to authenticate yourself as a student at VU.)


What if I don't have time to search the collections?
Checkout the Subject Guides: African American to Women's Studies  and jump to the subject area you want to look at!


What if I have more questions?
Ask Ariela, your Lending Services Librarian, for help.

Coming Soon!

Welcome back everyone. We are excited to be starting the semester up again and hope you are too. This semester we are looking forward to a number of new exciting changes in the library. Read all about them here!

New Multimedia Computer Cluster (MCC)

The MCC will be made up of four computers, a dedicated color printer, and Adobe Design Premium Software (CS5). We hope students can create competitive, eye catching, and creative projects while gaining skills and exposure to programs that are transferable to many jobs in the private and public sectors. We hope this project will extend and expand learning for students, faculty and staff by providing them with a dedicated productivity center in the library to maximize their efforts in producing print media and web projects.  

CREDO Reference: Topic Pages

One of our most popular databases is getting a makeover. CREDO reference is a go to database that will get you reference articles from all kinds of materials such as encyclopedias. Well now it's getting even better with the addition of over 9000 Topic pages which will provide you not only with the encyclopedia entries, but also with articles from our databases like EbscoHost, along with images and also books from our catalog.  Think about it... a one stop shop for all your research needs! Take a look at the picture to the right: Those categories will work for almost any class you have (business, history, literature, law enforcement, geography, nutrition, health and more). You can find Credo under "Find Articles" on our webpage.

We hope to see lots of you around this semester checking out our materials or just enjoying the comfy couches.

Don't forget our hours change for MLK weekend:

Jan 15 Sat   OPEN 12Noon-4 PM

Jan 16  Sun  OPEN   2-8 PM

Jan 17 Mon  OPEN  6pm -Midnight. Martin Luther King Day. No Classes.