You spoke and we listened. Based on requests from the University Student Senate, Drexel Library will be open until 2am after Thanksgiving through the end of the semester (Monday, November 30 through December 10, Sunday – Thursday). Thanks to the University Student Senate for making this possible!

In addition, Drexel Library will once again be open 24/7 during finals (December 13- 19). So go ahead – find a quiet spot and settle in for the night.

Please note: During these extended hours (12 – 2am and 12 – 8am) there will be no technical or library assistance. A valid SJU ID is required to use Drexel Library. Security escorts are available by calling x1111.

Around this time of year, SJU Facilities turns off the cool air in campus buildings and gets ready to heat buildings for the oncoming winter months. Once the A/C is turned off for the season, the unit is cleaned and cannot be turned back on. Due to the recent warm weather, the number of running computers, and some heating during an early cold spell, Drexel Library and other buildings on campus have become very warm. Although the heat in the library has been shut off, the building is still rather warm.

Drexel Library is working with Facilities to fix this problem. Until it is solved, the Library will add fans around the building to cool things off. The Library understands your need for a comfortable place to work and study and we are working on solving this problem as soon as possible.

Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.

For all those history buffs out there, take a quick break from the daily grind for a little historical perspective with the History Channel’s This Day in History site.  A quick one-minute video will tell you some interesting factoids, or, if you’re really interested in a particular subject, the left-hand menu will get you to more extensive articles about Sports, Presidents, Disasters, Wars, and lots more.  It’s a great site for reflecting and remembering on events that you lived through and learning more about events that you didn’t.

Thanks to Marian Courtney for recommending the site!

Join us outside the Library cafe this Wednesday at 3 p.m. for a lesson on the History and Making of Chocolate, including a rousing talk by Robert Weinberg of City Food Tours in Philadelphia.  Stick around after the talk for a chocolate tasting.  It’s a free event that’s bound to tickle any chocolate lover’s fancy…not to mention their taste buds!

To meet the needs of student course work, Drexel Library has renovated Room 218 into a Presentation Practice Room with the assistance of a Competitive Advantage Grant. The room is fitted with a white board, LCD screen and large meeting table and is designed to assist students with their group projects and presentations. Students can connect their laptop to the screen as well as rehearse an upcoming presentation. The room is available only to currently enrolled SJU students.

SJU students can reserve the room during the following hours:

8:30am – 10:00pm Monday – Thursday
10:00am – 6:00pm Saturday
10:00am – 10:00pm Sunday

To reserve the room, fill out our reservation request form. For more information regarding the use of this room, please contact Anne Krakow at akrakow@sju.edu, 610-660-1906.

AK.

Celebrating freedom of speech and the right to read as one chooses, the American Library Association holds an annual celebration of all books that have come under the fire of censorship or attempted banning with their Banned Books Week — this year, September 26 through October 3.  In honor of the week, and to promote awareness of censorship issues, the Library is holding an exhibit featuring some of the books that have faced criticism for content and attempted censorship from our own collection, and a timeline marking some important dates in the history of censorship.  Stop by the cafe anytime this week to take a look!

We all have our different channels for keeping up with the world’s most important events, developments and opinions – websites, publications, and programs that we tune in to every day to stay updated.  Cnn.com, for instance, is one of the most popular websites around (it’s in the top 20 of most popular sites in the U.S.), and a lot of people depend on it for their news fix.

Every once in awhile, though, it’s a great exercise  to take a step back and try out new tools for staying abreast of current events: it can expand our worldview, spice up our routine, and even entertain us for awhile.  Try some of these news aggregators for a change of pace:

If you’re looking for numerous stories on a single topic, try the flashy news aggregator Day Life.  If you’re interested in up-to-the-minute news blog-style, try Blogrunner.   Want more relevant results as you search for a particular news item?  Try Silobreaker.   If you’re more into graphics and looking for a quick overview of the news, take a look at Newser.  Browse away, and let us know what you think!

Join us at the Drexel Library on Thursday of this week, during free period for an Information Fair extravaganza, complete with refreshments, give-aways, demos, and of course, information on new resources and tools that are bound to wow even the savviest of Library users. We’ll be showing you how to search across numerous databases at once with our new One Search system, how to create instant bibliographies with Refworks, and how to get the most out of the Library Toolkits and the Library building itself. Come with general questions you might have about the resources as well, we’ll be happy to answer them! We hope to see you there!

The Library would like to welcome everyone back on campus – welcome back old students, and welcome to the new ones! We hope your stay at Saint Joseph’s is memorable, fun, and, of course, educational. Early in the summer, we worked with students to make a fun promotional video for the Library that should give you a bit of background on the Library building, the resources, as well as a general introduction to research at the college level. Check it out here, and we hope to see you in the Library soon!

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Disciplines that depend on historical analysis are varied: an English scholar might want to trace the public reception of Great Expectations at the time of publication, an Economics instructor might need to pinpoint the inflation rate of the British pound in the early 1800’s, or a Linguistics student might be investigating the use of the masculine pronoun over time.  Searching through primary sources is the cornerstone of this type of research,  and it often involves combing through yellowing pamphlets, thumbing carefully through crumbling personal letters, or leafing through old newspaper clippings.  Fortunately, as more and more of these documents are digitized and embedded into searchable databases, scholars and students alike have to bury themselves in the archives less and less often to access these primary sources.  The Drexel Library recently acquired an important online collection that will help with just such primary research: a digital archive of The Times, an important British newspaper, stretching all the way back to its first publication in 1785.   Not only does this database make the content of The Times available in full until the year 1985, it also allows you to view the content in its original format, with the original newspaper page layout.  Take a look at this amazing collection, and keep it in mind for future research projects!