This fall the librarians have been busy helping students who are working on research papers for Bib Studies.  The entire wall of Bible Commentaries has been heavily used as well as other Bible Reference books.

Bible Commentaries: Anchor Bible New Interpreter’s Bible Word Biblical Commentary Bible Speaks Today

Bible Dictionaries: Anchor Bible Dictionary New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

Not only are these resources  helpful when writing a Bib Studies paper but they are helpful when preparing a Bible Study, a Sunday School lesson or doing  personal Bible study.  For example, if you are looking at one of the prophets such as  Jeremiah or Ezekiel you could look at the article “Prophet’s in Israelite Society” in the New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible to help you understand  the role of a prophet.  Or you could use a Bible commentary to help you understand the meaning of a particular scripture passage.   So please stop by and use these outstanding Bible Reference tools.

Note:  Bible Commentaries and Dictionaries can’t be checked out.

Note:  Please do not write or make personal notes in these books.

Each December, Ramaker Library displays several crèche sets that were donated to NWC by Henrietta Van Maanen.  These sets are from many different countries around the world.  Van Maanen owns more than 600 sets!

You can read more about Van Maanen and her collection in the November 28, 2009 issue of the Sioux City Journal and the Winter 2008-09 Northwestern Classic. 

Stop by the library to see these beautiful sets up close!

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.  Colossians 3:15

The staff at Ramaker Library wishes you a happy Thanksgiving.  We also want to remind you that our hours do change for the holiday:

Tuesday, Nov 24:  7:30am – 5pm
Wednesday, Nov 25: 8am – 4:30pm
Thursday, Nov 26: Closed
Friday, Nov 27: Closed
Saturday, Nov 28: Closed
Sunday, Nov 29: 6pm – 12am (reference librarian available from 6-9pm)

Enjoy your break!

Today the New Oxford American Dictionary, part of Oxford University Press USA, announced its choice for Word of the Year:  unfriend.  According to Oxford, unfriend is a verb that means, “To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook.”

While the word certainly has a new meaning, it’s not really a new word.  In fact, when searching the Oxford English Dictionary Online, references will be found for the verb “unfriend” back in the 17th century — well before the Facebook era. Other words in the running for this year’s top word included birther, green state, deleb, hashtag, intexticated, funemployed and netbook.   If you’re wondering what any of those means, check out this blog post by Oxford.

If you’re ever curious about the development of a word or phrase, give the Oxford English Dictionary Online a try; this authoritative source tracks the history and usage of the English language.

CQ Researcher is a VERY popular resource at Ramaker Library.  It contains full-text reports on current issues and is a great place to start your research.  Each report provides charts, graphs, stats, as well as background information.

The newest report is entitled: 

Online Privacy:  Do Americans Need Better Protection – As the author Patrick Marshall states,  ”millions of americans store important personal data on the internet from credit-card numbers and bank account information to family photos”.   How vulnerable is that information to being stolen by computer hackers?  How do you feel about advertizers collecting information about your personal marketing behaviors(what you buy over the internet) and selling that information to others?  Find some answers to these questions and more in this latest report.  

Other interesting reports coming up include: 

• Women in the Military
• Value of a College Education
• Prisoner Reentry 

CQ Researcher is located on the library homepage in the Quick links box.

Finding journals can be a little tricky.  Sometimes Ramaker has journals in print on our shelves, sometimes we subscribe to a single journal in its electronic version and sometimes we have access to a journal through a database subscription.

If you wonder whether we have access to a certain journal, your best first step is to visit our Journal Finder.  (It’s the link at the very top of our Quick Links list on our home page.)

Here, type in the name of the journal you are looking for.  NOTE: The search function here is for journal titles; entering an article title or article keywords will not return relevant results.

For example, let’s say you were looking for the Journal of American History.  Type that title into the search box.

On the results screen, scroll to your title.  The list below the title shows Ramaker’s holdings.   Journal of American History is available in Academic Search Premier, E-Journals from EBSCO, History Cooperative, JSTOR and in the stacks at Ramaker.  Be sure to pay attention to the dates; not all issues are available in all locations.

If you have any questions, please let a librarian know.

Last year we surveyed the juniors and seniors about the library, getting their feedback on our facility, services and collections.  Students indicated their desires to have more titles, especially more current titles, that offer specifically Christian perspectives on current topics.

This fall, we added a number of titles in Religion and Christianity.  While this is not a comprehensive list, some interesting additions include the following:

• Christians, The Care of Creation and Global Climate Change edited by Lindy Scott, 2008, New Book Display BT695.5 .C473 2008
• Church, state, and citizen : Christian Approaches to Political Engagement edited by Sandra F. Joireman, 2009, New Book Display BV630.3.C49 2009
• Crazy for God:  How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back by Frank Schaeffer, 2008, BR1643.S332 S33 2008  

 

• From Faith to Fun: The Secularisation of Humor by Russell Heddendorf, 2009,  New Book Display BR115.H84 H45 2009  

 

This summer Ramaker Library began creating subject guides for students. These guides, named LibGuides, are intended to help you begin researching in a topic.  We understand that the library can be a confusing place at times; there are just so many online and print resources that it can be difficult to know where to look for information.

These guides point you to the best databases, reference books and journals we have. We also offer tips on how to conduct searches and how to use interlibrary loan.  Some guides also include industry news, recommended web sites and even podcasts. 

While we do not have subject guides created for every subject, we are continuing to add new ones frequently.  To see what is currently available, visit our LibGuides home page.  You can also click the Subject and course guides button on the Ramaker web site.

Each year, Ramaker staff looks through parts of the collection and removes items that are out-of-date or damaged. We did not want these books to end up in a landfill, so we began partnering with Better World Books, who resells them, donates them to literacy charities, or recycles them properly.  Did you know that 97% of a book can be recycled as usable fiber?  Here’s how Ramaker’s partnership with Better World Books has impacted our environment.

• 291 books were either reused (sold or donated) or recycled, that’s 394 pounds of books
• 5 trees were saved
• 3,002 gallons of water were conserved
• 416 pounds of greenhouse gases were avoided
• 965 kilowatt hours of electricity were conserved

Pretty cool, huh?

Librarians aren’t the only ones saying it.  Professor John Vonder Bruegge reminds students to read each time they walk into Ramaker.  As the recipient of Northwestern’s Teaching Excellence award, his poster now hangs on the Ramaker mezzanine.