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11/13/2009

NEASC reflections from the OWHL, Part one

The Academy is currently undertaking a self-study in preparation for our re-accreditation by NEASC. This comprehensive process, which occurs only once a decade, provides an excellent opportunity for all areas to reflect on what we do. This is the first in a series of posts that will hightlight aspects of the program and services of the OWHL.

The Oliver Wendell Holmes Library sits at the physical center of the Academy Campus. That was not an architectural accident. Traditionally, academic libraries have occupied positions at the heart of their campuses, in both the physical and intellectual senses. The OWHL is, second to Commons, the most active building on campus. The library is open seven days a week, for a total of 86 hours. During the course of an average day, more than seven hundred students pass through our doors. Members of the library staff have more meaningful contact with more students than any other adults on campus. Students come to the library to study individually and collaboratively, to interact with their peers, to find materials to meet their academic and personal needs. They also come to learn how to navigate the vast, confusing information landscape in class instruction and individual research consultations with instructional librarians who are at the same time information professionals and skilled instructors.

Phillips Academy strives to be a school that educates outstanding youth from every quarter by effectively challenging them to develop their potential and to depart as thoughtful, versatile, responsible participants in the global community. In the 21st century, it is not sufficient for our students to fully master the content of a rigorous curriculum. Rather, they must become critical thinkers and effective and ethical users of information so that they can continue learning throughout their lives. This skill is sometimes referred to as “Information Literacy” and it is the core of the OWHL’s instructional program. Moe about teaching at the OWHL in Part two next week.

Posted at 11:54 AM by Elisabeth E Tully | Category: Information Literacy | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

Veterans Remembered at the OWHL

Phillips Academy has a long tradition of military service. The Academy supported the Revolutionary war effort through the work of Samuel Phillips, Jr. who owned the gunpowder factory that produced the gunpowder for Washington’s army. Eliphalet Pearson, the first Academy Headmaster, developed the formula for this gunpowder. In remembrance of all the Academy men and women who have served in WW I and WW II, we have created two displays, one on the south wall and the other in the case outside the Garver Room. The Archive holds materials from these and other American wars. If you are interested in learning more, please contact interim Archivist Tim Sprattler.

Posted at 11:50 AM by Elisabeth E Tully | Category: Events | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

OWHL Hosts the Alumni Council

Eleven members of the Alumni Council received a special tour of the Archive and Special Collections from Tim Sprattler, interim Archivist, last Friday evening. The group paused to consider the current displays on Student Rebellions and miniature books before heading upstairs for a tour of the Archive office. The tour highlight was a trip to the cavernous library attic, where the group examined paintings and pictures of current and former school buildings. They were intrigued by the enormous bound copies of the London Times and student records from the early days of the Academy. They were enthusiastic about the prospect of digitizing selected archival material and making these treasures of school history available over the Internet. Tim explained one of the OWHL’s digital initiatives involving the Internet Archive, and showed them a link to one of the enhanced records in the library catalog. These catalog records each point to a physical item in our special collections, but they contain a link taking the user to an electronic full text version of the item.

Posted at 11:43 AM by Elisabeth E Tully | Category: Events | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

10/29/2009

Want to learn a new language?

We now have a 30-day trial of Mango for Libraries, an online language-learning program. You can use this link to try it. The link takes you to a page that includes more information about the Mango system, and an option to "Ready to Learn? Click Here to start!"

You'll see two versions of the program. The one labeled Original is the current version of the system, with nine languages (Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Greek, Russian, and Mandarin Chinese) plus three ESL versions (for speakers of Polish, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese.) There's also a preview of the "2.0" version of the program. Just a few of the languages are available in the preview, but they include Arabic, Greek, and Hindi.

Please take a look at this and let us know what you think.

Posted at 8:37 AM by Elisabeth E Tully | Category: Featured Resource | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

10/28/2009

Halloween Tidbits

Halloween, is fast approaching, and we thought that you might be interested in these statistics.
• The total production of pumpkins by major pumpkin-producing states in 2008 was 1.1 billion pounds. Illinois led the country by producing 496 million pounds of the orange gourds. The value of all pumpkins produced by major pumpkin-producing states was $141 million. Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service http://www.nass.usda.gov/index.asp
• The per-capita consumption of candy by Americans in 2008 was 23.8 pounds. While not all of this candy was consumed in October, Halloween is responsible for the lion’s share of the annual consumption. Source: Current Industrial Reports, Confectionery: 2008

Posted at 3:10 PM by Elisabeth E Tully | Category: Events | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

Too fragile to use?

What happens when a student doing a research project needs to use fragile, rare, and valuable materials from our special collections? Thanks to the magic of digitization, we can provide them with access to these materials without harm to the originals. Sometimes we need to scan the item ourselves, but frequently Google Books or the Internet Archive has already digitized the book. In this case, all we need to do is add a link from our online library catalog to the full-text version of the book. For example, a senior recently requested the use of James Pike’s “The Prostrate State: South Carolina under Negro Government”. When the book was retrieved from the special collections, we noticed that the first twenty or so pages had broken off from the text block. The student looked through the book very carefully, but it became apparent that the book was too fragile for use. Fortunately, Tim Sprattler, who is in charge of the special collections, was able to find a link at Internet Archive and has added it to the library catalog record. The result was a happy student, and a book that did not sustain further damage.
Here is what the record looks like.

Posted at 3:04 PM by Elisabeth E Tully | Category: Archives | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

Resource of the Week: CIAO

As one of the most comprehensive resources for documents relating to foreign and international affairs, Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO) is an excellent resource for advanced history projects (International Relations, Economics, etc…). The database includes original full-text research and writings published in working papers from university research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, conference proceedings, books, journals and policy briefs. Although the emphasis is research and policy papers, CIAO also contains some International Affairs case studies as well as special features on major events (9/11, Cuban Missile Crisis, etc…)
CIAO has both a simple keyword search feature and a more advanced search function with the ability to limit and sort by world regions or specific document type. Some sample searches revealed a wealth of information and papers on microfinance, international education, human capital, and immigration. One nice feature is the ability to list the major policy centers and think tanks and the papers and studies they produce on international topics. CIAO is an underused resource that deserves a second look. Find this resource on the A to Z list of e-Resources on the OWHL web page. Stop by the library for questions or help.

Posted at 2:55 PM by Elisabeth E Tully | Category: Featured Resource | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

Librarians attend session on new open-source catalog

Through our membership in NOBLE, the OWHL is participating in a grant-funded project exploring the implementation of the Evergreen open-source Library Automation System. Elisabeth Tully and Jeffrey Marzluft, the Director and Associate Director of the OWHL, recently attended a presentation by NOBLE's Electronic Resources and Database Working Group on the possibilities for the new online library catalog. Presentations highlighted features that could become part of a new web interface, including those that affect searching and navigation, displaying and working with results, enhanced content from other vendors or created by our own users, and the many tailored features and functions that could be associated with a patron's online account. If there are features or functionality that you would like to see in the new catalog, please contact Elisabeth or Jeffrey. We want the new system to work for you.

Posted at 2:51 PM by Elisabeth E Tully | Category: Electronic Resources | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

10/21/2009

E-resource of the Week: The World and I School

Most of the electronic resources that we purchase at the OWHL can be associated with a specific discipline. It is not easy to do that with The World and I School Online. It is a cross-curriculum resource featuring current news and analysis, viewpoint essays, biographical information, ethical dilemmas in science and technology and much more. The product contains a complete introductory course in Spanish as well as weekly articles geared to more advanced learners. The World and I School began life as a print publication, and the electronic version of that publication makes up the core of this resource. Users can browse issues back to 1986, or search the complete collection by keyword. The advanced search capabilities permit the sorting of retrieved articles by relevancy, date, or author, and support more refined searches of the articles. The product emphasizes global cultural studies, and includes both images and world cultural perspectives. “Special Collections” such as Shedding Light on Islam, are well organized and invite lengthy browsing. There is truly something for everyone in the product.. Find this resource on the OWHL homepage, e-resources A to Z list. We think that you’ll be hooked.

Posted at 4:12 PM by Elisabeth E Tully | Category: Electronic Resources | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

Librarians to Speak at Parents’ Weekend

Have you ever wondered what student life was like at Andover back in its early years, and down through the years? Are you curious about how the OWH librarians tackle the difficult job of helping students to learn the information skills that they need for lifelong learning in the digital millennium? Then you should plan to drop in on the presentations that Tim Sprattler and Elisabeth Tully will be giving during Parents’ Weekend.

Sprattler, the acting Academy Archivist, plans to introduce the Westminster Assembly Shorter Catechism, the guide to being a good student that was used shortly after the founding of the Academy. He will also show other artifacts dealing with the life of an early scholarship student, and present evidence that 19th century PA students were often in their twenties rather than their teens. Additional highlights of the presentation include the Abbot girls Walking Program and the Military Clubs and Secret Societies.

Tully, the Library Director, will discuss the library’s instructional program. She will highlight the programs’ goals, and demonstrate some of the pedagogical approaches useful in working with intelligent and motivated students who are over-dependent on the free Internet as an information source, and ill-equipped to evaluate the information they find.

Both programs will be held on Saturday in the McLean Gallery of the library, beginning at 3:45.

Posted at 4:10 PM by Elisabeth E Tully | Category: Events | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

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