Lousy Doodlebugs

Traditional graffiti rationales suggest that signing or marking public spaces and objects allows underrepresented groups disenfranchised from mainstream media channels to express themselves and for the economically underclass to claim property.
Or, to simply say, "I am here."
Even I, seemingly mild-mannered librarian, had a period where I staked my claim on innocent inanimate objects with hopefully evocative but ultimately hard to read signatures, A.K.A. tagging.
But, you know what? I never wrote in books. Even in books I owned. Even in the text books the bookstore was kind enough "to lease" to me before I sold them back at the end of each semester.
And library books? Forget about it.

At little downtime for ERes around 1:30pm Tuesday Feb. 26th

We will be installing an ObieID login requirement for access to ERes tomorrow, Tuesday, around 1:30pm--- ERes may be down for about 5 minutes in order to do this work.

Change in access to ERes

Starting Tuesday afternoon, ERes users will be asked to log in with their OBie ID (i.e. email account name) prior to getting access to the ERes homepage. This security is in addition to the password they use to access materials for a specific course.

We are implementing this change in order to enhance security and fair use compliance on the ERes system. This change will not affect other ERes functions for faculty or students once you are logged in to ERes.

If you have any trouble with your OBie ID, contact cit@oberlin.edu.

Imagine that!

"Marquis Who's Who" is available now on the A-to-Z list of databases.
I can search by name, town, college, or political affiliation.
I did a search today by occupation for "performance artist" to see if there were any living in the area who might like to visit Oberlin.
I looked up Ray English, our own director of Libraries and arbiter of the eponymous "RAE board." Now I know a lot about him. He has a degree in German and a PhD from the University of North Carolina. He's been the Library Director since I was in the seventh grade. Imagine that.

Marquis Who's Who is known for covering the well-known and those perhaps only locally famous. Anybody can be selected for entry. If you are prominent in your field, Who's Who will find you.
If one is feeling left out, Marquis Who's Who accepts self-nominations.
Submitting your own biographical material means that notables in "Who's Who" update their own entries and keep them current.

If you would like to know Ray's birthday or perhaps something more mundane as Kazuo Ishiguro's employment history (it involves grouse beating), check out
Marquis Who's Who in the A-Z list of databases located on the library homepage.

Managing Multicultural Lives, a talk by Pawan Dhingra

On Wednesday, February 20 at 4:30pm Pawan Dhingra, Associate Prof. of Sociology, will speak about his new book Managing Multicultural Lives: Asian American Professionals and the Challenge of Multiple Identities (Stanford University Press, 2007). The book examines how Korean and Indian Americans bring together contrasting identities in their daily lives. It conveys a “new, more nuanced understandings of immigrant adaptation, multiculturalism, and identity management that pertain to multiple types of immigrant groups.”

Moffett Auditorium, Mudd Center

Database of the Week

Each week during the spring semester, we’re highlighting a “Database of the Week” to draw attention to new or lesser known online resources.

This week, check out International Medieval Bibliography (IMB).

Useful to researchers in history, literature, religion, music, art history, and philosophy, IMB is the world's leading database on the Middle Ages, covering Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa in the period 400-1500. With 330,000+ citations for publications dating back to 1967, the database indexes articles from 4,500 periodicals, as well as conference proceedings, collected essays, Festschriften (what the heck are Festschriften?), and exhibition catalogs. The project is based at the Institute for Medieval Studies at the University of Leeds, and the interface is a little funky, but with patience and exploration, you should have no problems (if you need any help, please contact us!). Once connected, chose “Enter databases,” then click on “Go” by the first item. Materials in over 30 languages are included; if you’re not multilingual, just click on Language and select English! Sorry, full text not included—check OBIS to find out if we own an item, and request those we don’t via OhioLINK or interlibrary loan.

An extra long list of new stuff

We knew you'd want to see what we were up to while you were slaving away over finals, etc., so this month you can see what the Library added in December and January all at once!

Main Library carrel sign-up starts on Feb. 9

You may sign up for your own study space in the upper levels of the Main Library beginning February 9 at the Main Library Circulation Desk.

Carrels are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis, and may be shared with one other person. All you need to sign up is your OCID and a list of preferred carrel numbers. We can provide maps of the carrels at the circulation desk.

For more information, consult our webpage or ask the circulation staff.

Azariah's spring semester hours

Azariah's cafe will be starting up its full service on February 10th. This semester we will have Sunday evening hours. The complete schedule of service can be found at the Academic Commons homepage.

Graphic Novels & Comics at The Library

Graphic novels and related materials – comic strips, comic books, manga, “serial art”, etc. – are commanding increasingly large and varied readerships and have become a focus of scholarly attention in the 21^st century. Come see the current "Spotlight on the Collections" featuring graphic novels, comics compilations, and related works from the Main Library.

And don’t miss the companion display of comics & graphic novels in the Art Library!