Share Books You Love on the Spark Joy Book Exchange Cart!

Donate a book.

Take a book.

Those are the two simple rules of the Spark Joy Book Exchange Cart! As you pack up your dorm room or straighten up your office before the end of the summer keep an eye out for books that were once meaningful to you but may no longer “spark joy.” Don’t let their luster fade. Share them with others!

Bring 2-3 books to add to the Spark Joy Book Exchange Cart on the Ground Floor of McCain Library. You can also just browse the cart to see if there is anything you’d love to read! Those donating books are encouraged to write a note to future readers describing what the book meant to the person donating it.

The cart will stay up until May 6th. After that McCain Library will sort through the donations to determine which should be kept for future events, which should be donated, and which should just be discarded.

McCain Library hopes to have Spark Joy events in the start and end of each semester so be on the look out for opportunities to share the books you love or discover new works.

Thank you to Mayra Tolentino ’20 for coming up with this fun idea!

 

Blind Date with a Book: Find Your Perfect Match February 10th – February 14th

In the advent Valentine’s Day, one of the most dreaded holidays of the year for some, perhaps you’re feeling a little apprehensive about what you will do that day. People are going on dates with their significant others, and some have even found a loophole in the system by planning an outing for their friends, but you still haven’t found something you wanted to do…

How about reading a book? Sometimes the best date you can go on is a date with yourself! Cherish your alone time! Feel like a kid again who didn’t have to listen to societal expectations of what Valentine’s Day should look like! Be a rebel! Capitalism’s worst enemy!

If this sounds enjoyable to you, check out McCain Library’s “Blind Date With A Book” event! Curated by your lovely staff members and student assistants, each book will be thoughtfully packaged in newspaper and decorated with festive cheer. You will also get to know the book by its “speed dating profile” before you check it out, which includes a few hints about its genre, the book’s country of origin, and a short blurb about its contents. People say it’s better than Tinder! The fun starts Sunday, February 10th!

Zotero Learning Lab: Get Help Citing Sources

Drop-in to a Zotero Learning Lab session with Mayra Tolentino and Casey Long to learn how to use the web browser add-in/extension Zotero to create footnotes and bibliographies and to organize your sources. It takes 15 minutes to install and learn the basics. If you are already a Zotero user drop-in with your questions and Mayra and Casey will help you expand your knowledge of Zotero.

The Zotero Learning Lab sessions will be held in McCain 211 on: 

• Tuesday, February 27 at 5pm
• Wednesday, February 28 at 4pm
• Wednesday, March 21 at 5pm
• Thursday, March 22 at 1pm
• Monday, March 26 at 5pm
• Tuesday, March 27 at 6pm

Additional sources for Zotero help:

• Zotero LibGuide: Provides step-by-step instructions for getting started
• Scottie Research & Rescue Desk: All of the student assistants at the Scottie Research & Recuse Desk can help you install Zotero to your computer and learn the basics of adding citations and creating bibliographies. Drop-in or set up an appointment!

Just need a quick reference for citing in a specific style? Try one of our citation style LibGuides!

• APA Citation Style
• Chicago Citation Style
• MLA Citation Style

Alumnae Video Chat: Careers in Library, Information, and Archival Science

Join McCain Library and Office for Internships and Career Development on Tuesday, January 30th from 6pm-7pm in Campbell 215 for a video chat with April Hathcock ’04 and Lindsay Cronk ’06.

These two illustrious alumnae librarians will share stories about their career paths, answer questions about the profession and graduate schools, and discuss what the future holds for individuals in this profession.

April Hatcock ’04 jokingly refers to herself as a lawyerbrarian since she holds both a J.D. and LL.M. in International and Comparative Law from Duke University School of Law and her MLIS from the University of South Florida. She graduated from Agnes Scott College in 2004 with a B.A. in French and Psychology. Currently she is the Scholarly Communications Librarian at New York University.  April is well known for her writing and work on intellectual property in a digital world and diversity in libraries. In addition to her own blog, At the Intersection, April  is noted for her article White Librarianship in Blackface: Diversity Initiatives in LIS.

Lindsay Cronk ’06 was named a Library Journal Mover & Shaker in 2017, just 5 years after graduating with her MLIS from Valdosta State University, in recognition of her incredible ability to leverage technology to build community and share ideas and resources. In her blog she shares resources she has created to further facilitate collaboration with her person and even writes about all the “wrong moves” she made as a new librarian that ultimately turned out right. Currently she is is Head of Collection Strategies at University of Rochester, River Campus Libraries in Rochester, NY., which means she determines the priorities and direction of the resources collected for her library. She graduated from Agnes Scott College in 2006 with a B.A. in International Relations and Studio Art.

Find Articles without the GALILEO Discover Search Box

Choose & Search a Database from the Databases A-Z list

• Interdisciplinary Research: Proquest Central or Academic Search Complete or JSTOR
• Art History: Art & Architecture Complete
• Economics: EconLit
• History: America: History & Life or Historical Abstracts
• Literature: Literature Online or MLA International Bibliography
• Music: RILM Abstracts of Music Literature
• Newspapers: News & Newspapers
• Philosophy: Philosopher’s Index
• Political Science: Political Science Database
• Psychology: Psychology Database
• Religion: ATLA Religion 
• Sociology: Sociological Database
• Women’s Studies & Gender Studies: GenderWatch

Cross-Search Multiple Databases

• Start with the database Academic Search Complete
• Then click on the Choose Databases link just above the search box
• Add all databases or select the ones that best fit your topic
• Note: Only databases owned by EBSCOHost will be available to cross-search
• Here is a video that demonstrates this process: https://www.screencast.com/t/osXOM5x3cFj

Need Citation Help?

Just in time for the completion of final papers, McCain Library has published two guides to help you whip your citations into shape. Check out our new APA Citation Guide and MLA 8th Edition Citation Guide. Each guide walks you through key formatting tips and provides examples of how to format popular types of resources.

If you still cannot figure out how to cite something, stop by the Scottie Research & Rescue Desk, email us at library@agnesscott.edu, or set up an individual appointment and we will do our best to help! We will not format your entire bibliography for you, but we are willing to answer tough citation questions! Good luck with all you need to do in the next two weeks!

 

Book a Research Appointment!

Making an appointment with a specific librarian has never been easier!

1. Go to mccainlibrary.youcanbook.me
2. Choose a librarian, Scottie Research & Rescue Desk, or No Preference
3. Select a date and time
4. Complete a short form letting us know how we can help.

You appointment will be immediately added to the calendar of the librarian or service point you selected and a confirmation message will be sent to your email account. Appointments must be made at least 24 hours in advance so if you need a time today or early tomorrow stop by the Scottie Research & Rescue Desk or email the librarian you want to meet with directly.

Banned Book Week: Find Free Books!

It is Banned Book Week! To raise awareness about books that have been challenged in schools and libraries and to generate discussion about why books are banned, McCain Library is hiding books around campus for you to find!

The book hunt begins on Tuesday, September 26th at 8 a.m and will run through Friday, September 29th. Each day a bundle of books will be hidden somewhere on campus. For clues on how to find the bundle of books, follow us on Instagram (@McCainLibrary), Twitter (@McCainLibrary), or the McCain Library Facebook page. If you find the books they are yours to keep or redistribute to friends, but please take a picture of yourself with the books and share with us via one of our social media accounts. Good luck hunting!

To learn more about books that have been banned or challenged in recent years, visit our Banned Book exhibit on the first floor of McCain Library near the spiral staircase.

Many thanks to all of our student workers and our Library Event Planning Committee members who helped imagine and implement this exciting event. If you would like to help McCain Library plan future events consider joining our Library Event Planning Committee. Email Christopher Bishop (cbishop@agnesscott.edu) for more information.

McCain Library & Decatur Public Library Meet and Greet – Thursday, August 24 from 3pm – 5pm

The library is so much more than books! Come learn how we can help you and what we have to offer to make your experience at Agnes Scott College even better! Decatur Public Library will be here signing people up for library cards. This event is the easiest way for students who live on campus to get a library card to an amazing collection of books and other resources, including passes to major Atlanta tourist attractions. We hope to see you there!