Writing Center Workshop

The Writing Center is running a workshop on Research Writing Basics—defining a topic, gathering information, evaluating and integrating sources, editing and revising, MLA/APA formatting and citations on Thursday, November 8th, 12-1:45pm in H-507.

The workshop is applicable to any discipline.

Google allows cutting and pasting

of its books in the public domain. For more information, click here.

What is ILL?

ILL is an acronym for Interlibrary Loan. OK, so the next question becomes - What is Interlibrary Loan? In short, an interlibrary loan is a request from Library A to Library B to borrow some material that Library B has which Library A does not have. Libraries rarely work independent of one another, but are part of consortiums or library councils with reciprocal agreements which enable interlibrary loans to occur.

Say you're working on a research paper, and you are looking for an obscure book that the library doesn't have. If you stop by the Reference desk with the title of the book (and as much publication information that you might have about the book), we can supply you with the form needed to submit an ILL request. Once the request is made, it is sent to Technical Processing for research and review. Often Reference can verify that the book is available through a local resource. From there it takes about 1 - 2 weeks for your title to come into the library.

The same applies for requested articles. If our databases don't have what you are looking for, we should be able to find it for you at some other location.

Guidelines for ILL are supplied through the American Library Association (ALA). For the most part, ILLs are FREE! (In rare cases, there may be a small charge levied by the lending library to cover their expense). Different libraries allow different media to be lended, subject to their ILL policies.

Interlibrary loan through DCC is available to current faculty, staff and students.

Online books available!

Besides the NetLibrary and Ebrary, there are other places to find books online. Project Gutenberg, The Internet Archive, and Google Books have thousands of books ready to access at the click of a button. Generally speaking, these are books that are a little older and have fallen out of copyright. So use them if you have an assignment where you need primary sources or are studying classic works of literature, philosophy, history, or science. Formats vary from Plain Vanilla ASCII to DjVu.

Project Gutenberg

Internet Archive

Google Books

Microsoft


*Google has scanned books both in and out of copyright. Books protected by copyright are only avaliable in a limited preview. You can modify your search to include or exclude these works.

Primary Sources of Information

Do you know what a primary source of information is?

A chair made in Boston during the Revolutionary War that still exists today tells a story about the creation of furniture and the materials used during that time period. A person's autobiography from the 1960's would likely reflect the changing times, attitudes and social occurrences that shaped the decade. These are primary sources!

Primary sources give you insight to the times. They are actual informational resources reflecting a particular event or time in history. The items on the list below would be considered primary sources.

• Autobiographies
• Diaries
• Documents
• Eyewitness accounts
• Film footage
• Laws
• Letters
• Newspaper articles
• Novels [written in that period]
  
• Objects from the time
• Oral histories
• Photographs
• Poems, art, music
• Speeches

This list was taken from the internet article, "History Day - Primary and Secondary Sources" by Jennifer Rosenburg.

This being said, the question is then raised, "How can I find primary sources online?" There are a number of choices available. From myDCC or the library computers, click on the History link. From there, you can see a list of links to primary sources through DCC's databases, including the New York Times Archives and Original Sources through Encyclopedia Britannica.

American Memory provides photographs, film, music and documents from by-gone eras.

The Avalon Project covers documents in "law, history and diplomacy".

Many other primary sources can be found online. Ask a librarian for help if you are having trouble finding what you are looking for!

Did you know...?

Instead of lining Google's coffers in gold, your internet searching could have a more beneficial impact. The site is called Goodsearch and for every search you perform a portion of the proceeds goes to charity. If you don't have a charity in mind simply select one from the list on their main page. The search engine is powered by Yahoo so the results are very similar to ones you would get using other search engines. You can read more about Goodsearch on their webpage: http://www.goodsearch.com/

Fire Safety

Dave Walsh and the Emergency Services Club present:

"October is Fire Safety Month"

If you don't want to choke

Crawl under the smoke.

Get down on the floor

And head for the door.

Visit the Francis U and Mary F Ritz Library

Display Case in Front Lobby
3rd Floor - Hudson Hall