Technology in the library: sneak preview of new digital library

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Joanna DiPasquale is the Digital Projects Librarian at Vassar College.  Contact her at jdipasquale AT vassar.edu.

Vassar College astronomy class, 1878

Vassar College astronomy class, 1878

Vassar College’s new digital library presence is almost ready to go!  Built on open source platforms and brimming with new content, we’ll be going live for the research and teaching communities very soon.  But we want to give our readers a sneak peek before the public sees it:

http://digitallibrary.vassar.edu

Our new digital library includes:

  • Search capabilities that provide results across a variety of collections;
  • “Search inside the book” feature for many of the items available;
  • Ability to zoom in, enlarge, and navigate through items unique to Vassar College.

New features are coming soon!  They include:

  • “Search inside the book” feature available for all student diaries and letters;
  • New collections, including Bidloo’s Anatomia, Vassar’s millionth book;
  • Citation downloads;
  • …and more!
Elwell, Abbie (Nickerson). Diary, 1878

Elwell, Abbie (Nickerson). Diary, 1878

We’d love to hear your thoughts on what we’ve done so far.  Just go to http://digitallibrary.vassar.edu/contact and choose the category “Feedback about the digital library.”

Happy exploring!

Tips for Surviving the End of the Semester

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Hey, students! It’s almost the end of the semester and we know you are busy working on papers and studying for exams. Don’t forget to take advantage of the study space and services offered by the library. Check out the tips below to help you get through these last few weeks.

  • Need a place to study late? The library has an After-Hours Study Space located in the north wing of the library. This space is open Sunday through Thursday from midnight to 8 a.m.
  • Need help with library research? Click the yellow Ask-A-Librarian button on the library’s website to email, phone, chat, or text a librarian.
  • Need help citing sources for a paper? Check out our guide to citation styles.
  • Need a break from studying? Check out a film from the library! You can find films by searching the catalog and limiting to the video collection. Films can be checked out at the Reserves & Technology Help Desk (located in the north wing of the library). If you need additional help, check out this in-depth film guide.

Good luck as your semester winds down!

 

Primary Source Materials from CRL

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Center for Research Libraries

How would you go about finding/accessing primary source materials on laws about mental illness in 19th century Britain, education in India under colonial rule, or the life of Mary Kingsley, who, in the 1890s, explored Western Africa? Our library collection is pretty amazing and diverse, but so are the research interests of our faculty and students. Thanks to Vassar’s membership in the Center for Research Libraries, students working on these topics had easy access to newspapers, political documents, maps, and reports that the Vassar Libraries did not own. The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) collects and loans rare and expensive collections (in print, microfilm and online), thereby affording access to materials that otherwise would be unavailable to scholars at most college libraries. Sample collections cover US and foreign newspapers, NGO and government documents relating to human rights, Arabic manuscripts, and church records.

All materials available from CRL, irrespective of document type, may be borrowed via interlibrary loan. Please review the following information before making requests.

1.  To identify materials at CRL, search the CRL online catalog. Not everything in the CRL collection is cataloged. If you can’t find what you are looking for, contact a research librarian and we’ll find out whether or not the material is available.

2.   Requests can be made in two ways. CRL records are included in the ConnectNY catalog.   Order CRL materials you find in CNY the same way you request other ConnectNY books. If you’re ordering via ILLiad, use the book form and use the NOTES field to say you found this item at CRL. Most items in the CRL Catalog list an OCLC number at the top of the record; including this number in the OCLC # field will expedite your request.


3.  If you’re ordering multiple reels of microfilm via ILLiad, specify the date range in both the DATE and NOTES fields. You’ll need to check out and return all the reels at the same time. If you’re ordering multiple reels via ConnectNY, you must order each reel separately, and the reels need not be returned together.

4.  The loan period for CRL materials is 3 months.

5.  If you have any questions about finding materials in CRL, ask a research librarian. Contact the Interlibrary Loan department for questions about placed orders.