Need some help relaxing?

Studying for finals is stressful. Taking finals is stressful. Waiting to see how you did on the finals is stressful. How do you deal with all this stress? Here are some ideas for you:
Relaxation exercises 
Guided exercises (with audio)
Online games - of the relaxing sort

photo by Jenisse Decker

Summit request now working with a new feature!

The Summit request system is back up and running normally, but with the recent upgrade, all patrons can now cancel their own requests.  Step by step directions are included below.

Step 1: Click Find Books on the main library page                      

Step 2:  Next, click the Summit Link                                            

Step 3:  Click on Sign In to access your Summit account             

Step 4:  Select Saint Martin's University from the drop down list  

 

Step 5:   Type your Last Name and University ID                            

Step 6:  Click Cancel Request to stop a pending loan                        

!!Alert!! Requesting Summit items temporarily unavailable early Tuesday, Nov. 27th

You won't be able to request Summit materials during the morning hours of Tuesday, Nov. 27th. The system is scheduled to be down from midnight to noon. You will still be able to search for books through the catalog, and you can request materials via Interlibrary Loan (ILL). Once the system is back up, library staff will reroute to the Summit system any ILL requests that can be filled more quickly through our regional partner libraries.

Cooking with an International Flair

The International Taste of Culture on November 14th may inspire you to try new dishes or find out more about food from different cultures. O'Grady Library has books to fill your need on both counts! For cookbooks, try the Curriculum Room. There is "The multicultural cookbook for students" by Albyn and Webb or "Holidays of the world cookbook for students" by Webb. If you hunger for knowledge mixed with the recipes, "The anthropologists' cookbook" by Kuper and Koster in the Upper Level stacks promises a feast for both taste buds and your mind. One of my all time favorite books on food is also in the stacks at O'Grady, "The art of eating" by MFK Fisher. So head on over to the library and get those gastric juices flowing!

Library is closed November 12th

The O'Grady Library will be closed Monday, November 12th for Saint Martin's Day. Saint Martin of Tours is the patron saint of Saint Martin's University, most known for cutting his cloak in half to share with a beggar during a snowstorm. His actions reflect the Benedictine tradition of hospitality.

New Manuscript for the Special Collections

The Psalms Shine Out in New Manuscript at 

Saint Martin's University

Just one of many illuminated pages from the Psalter

A copy of an illuminated medieval manuscript of the Book of Psalms has arrived at Saint Martin's University. It comes from the Spanish publishing house Moleiro.  The artisans and bookbinders at Moleiro have produced an exact copy of the Great Canterbury Psalter (also called the Anglo-Catalan Psalter). So exact is the reproduction of the Psalter that even includes the thumb smudges of the original pages and has the smell of the original  The manuscript is a gift of the Fr. Benedict Auer Poetry Endowment, which views the Psalter as a fitting testament to the power, beauty, and influence of sacred poetry. Since the original Psalter was crafted by the Benedictine monks over 800 years ago, it reflects well our University’s commitment to its Benedictine heritage. It will be on display in the O’Grady Library.

The Great Canterbury Psalter begun in Canterbury around the year 1180, but was left unfinished. In the year 1200 was taken to Catalonia (today’s northeastern corner of Spain) perhaps as gift. In mid-1300s the illumination of Psalter was completed by Catalan artists, possibly working out of Barcelona. 

The final Psalter produced in Catalonia includes three parallel columns of texts written in Latin, Hebrew, and Catalan. The gifted Catalan artists also added illuminated scenes from the Old and New Testaments at the beginning of the Psalter. The manuscript measures 20” by 14”, has 356 pages with 140 miniatures embellished with real gold, and includes 190 ornamental letters upon gold backgrounds. The Great Canterbury Psalter is truly a book to behold.

Fr. Peter Tynan, OSB

Special Collections Librarian

Saint Martin's University

Cite that quote

Avoid plagiarism and boost your credibility by using citations in your research paper. Citations show people the source of your information and help them evaluate its worth. Information on diabetic dietary needs from the journal "Diabetic Medicine" will carry more weight with your readers than material from HealthyHints.com. For a link to a variety of citation styles, head on over to:
http://www.stmartin.edu/library/guides/citations.aspx

Get your ghoul on

Do you want some ideas on decorations or goodies to help you celebrate Halloween? Check out "Halloween Treats" by Carolyn Haywood or "The Halloween Book" by Jane Bull. Perhaps you are interested in the history of this holiday; if so "Death Makes a Holiday" by David J. Skal is for you. Whatever your desire, O'Grady Library has the resources you need for your Halloween research.

Library hours over Fall Break

Thirsting for some library time over Fall Break? Don't worry, we won't desert you completely. Though hours may be shorter on Thursday, the library is still open regular library hours on Friday, Oct. 12th through Sunday, Oct. 14th. Here are the O'Grady Library hours for Fall Break:

Thursday, Oct. 11th	7:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 12th	7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 13th	10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Sunday, Oct. 14th	1:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Are you a budding Kasparov?

O'Grady Library now has a portable chess set, complete with clock, for check out from the library. The set comprises a fabric board, 34 chessmen (2 extra Queens), a double clock for timing moves and a handy nylon carrying case. For those times when you need a break from studying, think about playing chess! The set can be checked out for three days to accommodate those who like to take their time moving.

Laptop deprived?

If there are times when you could really use a laptop but the budget just won't budge, check with the Circulation Desk at the O'Grady Library. There are Dell Latitude laptops available for one and three day checkout. These come in handy carrying cases for toting around campus.

No available computers for student use in the Information Commons? Think about checking out one of those Dell laptops for the day. The Upper Level of the library has tables and carrels available with wired and wireless access to the network.

Honey, I shrunk my homework!

Have you ever tried to print an 11' x 17" document at the library only to have it come out like this? To print 11"x17", you have to choose the OG-ML-Copier. What??? You say that printer is not in your default printers? If not, you can add it by the following method:
Go to Start - Devices and Printers - Add a printer
Click on "Add a network printer"
Click on "The printer that I want isn't listed" (don't you hate that?)
With the radio button clicked for "Select a shared printer by name", type "\\ps\" and you will see a list of printers. Scroll down and click on \\ps\OG-ML-COPIER.
If this makes your head spin, head on over to the Reference desk and they will be glad to do it for you!

Oh no, my paper disappeared!

Have you ever opened an attachment in an e-mail rather than saving it to a folder? It may look like a normal Word or Excel document, but if you have not saved it first to your hard drive, you will lose all your changes. Outlook opens the attachment in the appropriate program but it is held in a temporary file and not available the next time you log in. So save those attachments by going to File - Save attachments and put it on the desktop or in My Documents.

Checking your print account

Confused by the new printing system or just unsure of how it operates?  Log on to your print account on the web and check your balance, add money with a print card, cancel a print job or see a history of where your print money has gone. Go to “print.stmartin.edu” and log in with your Saint Martin’s user name and password. Need help navigating the menu? Check out this video on YouTube made especially for your edification!

Work study jobs available

The O'Grady Library is still looking to fill a number of work study positions. Work study employees staff the library's public services desks and should be reliable, approachable, and should approach challenges with a can-do attitude.

 If you're interested in working for the library this year, please come by the circulation desk as soon as you can. Positions are filling fast, and we'd like to have everyone hired by the end of next week.

Please note that we can only hire students with a federal work study award.

 Thanks, and we hope to see your applications soon!

Buy your software online!

If you were ever impressed with how easy and cheap it was to get your copies of Microsoft Windows and Office at the library information desk, then prepare to be even more impressed!

ITS has now made it so that you can download your software online for free. No longer do you need to come into the library and sign paperwork in duplicate. No longer do you need to bring cash or your checkbook. Instead, simply go to the ITS Software webpage, click on the link there near the top, and voila! Your very own copies of Microsoft Windows 7 and Office 2010 beamed through the interwebs and downloadable straight to your computer.

The ITS software page is here: http://www.stmartin.edu/its/TechnologyResources/software.aspx

If you require any assistance, please contact the ITS Help Desk at 360-438-4338.

Computer problems?

Mac users may have issues using our proxy servers today, in a situation related to this story. Our proxy server allows users to access our databases and other premium resources from off-campus, so if you're having proxy problems you likely won't be able to access those items.

Get in touch if you are experiencing issues. Also check out DNS Changer Working Group website for more information about this issue and to find fixes.

EZproxy is back up!

Edit: EZproxy is back up and everything should be working. Please get in touch with us if you are still encountering any problems.

EZproxy, our service that allows you to connect to databases and other purchased electronic resources from off-campus, is not working correctly this morning. We're working on a fix and hope that it will be back up soon. We'll post an update here when everything is back up and running.

R.I.P. Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury, author of classics such as Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and countless other books and stories, passed away this morning in his LA home at the age of 91. Bradbury was an outspoken agent against censorship (his own works were often censored) and proponent of libraries (if not colleges):

"I spent three days a week for 10 years educating myself in the public library, and it's better than college. People should educate themselves - you can get a complete education for no money. At the end of 10 years, I had read every book in the library and I'd written a thousand stories."

If you're looking for a good read this summer, the O'Grady Library has plenty of good Ray Bradbury books here on the shelves waiting to be checked out. All we ask is that you don't burn them.

Web 2.0 research tools

Looking for some online tools to help with your research, such as citation managers, article-finders, and more? This web-guide details 20 such tools and explains how and why to use them. Check it out on Scribd or just view the embedded version below. Web 2.0 Research Tools - A Quick Guide

Have you used any of these before? Have any favorites that aren't mentioned?

And he sailed off through night and day

Maurice Sendak, beloved author of notable children's favorites, including Where the Wild Things Are, In The Night Kitchen, and The Nutshell Library, passed away today at the age of 83. In remembrance of his works, the library has set up a display of his collection downstairs, just outside the Curriculum Room.

Read more in the NY Times article here, or listen to one of his many interviews on NPR's Fresh Air.

Rest in peace, Mr. Sendak. You will be missed.

eBooks, eBooks, eBooks!

If you've done many "book" searches in our catalog over the past month, you may have noticed a profusion of eBooks. Along with the eBook titles we've purchased and had available for some time (approximately 20,000 titles), the library has been trialing a number of eBook subscription services this past month, adding another 85,000 titles or so to the mix. With our near-100k print books, this nearly doubles our book collection!

We've just started another trial that includes another 70,000 eBook titles. Unfortunately we can't get these titles to show up in our catalog at this point (as we have with the other products), but you can certainly go take a look at them.

You'll recognize the EBSCO interface from our databases, but instead of articles, you get eBooks. Check it out and let us know what you think.

Click here --> EBSCO eBook Academic Collection

Quick questions: Have you noticed the influx of eBooks? Have they helped in your research?

EBSCO databases back up and running

Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier, ATLA et al are now back up and running after yesterday's outage. If you're still experiencing problems, please get in touch so we can help you troubleshoot. Email Ahniwa Ferrari at aferrari@stmartin.edu or call 360-486-8813.

You can access our EBSCO (and other) databases on our all databases page or through our subject guides.

EBSCOhost databases down

Academic Search Premier, ATLA, Business Source Premier, ERIC, MLA, PsycArticles, PsycBooks, PsycInfo, and other EBSCOhost databases are currently not available. Scheduled maintenance this morning has resulted in a temporary interruption of service to all EBSCOhost customers, including Saint Martin's.  EBSCOhost support staff are working on fixing the outage, but do not have an estimated time when services will be restored.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

O'Grady Library hours during spring break

In case you're sticking around over spring break and hoping to get a little extra studying in -- or if you'd like to check out a laptop, digital or video camera, other cool technology, or some light reading material -- the library will be open during limited hours. Here's the breakdown, starting tomorrow:

Sat-Sun, March 17-18:	Closed
Mon-Tue, March 19-20:	8:00am - 5:00pm
Wed, March 21:	Closed (Saint Benedict's Day)
Thu-Fri, March 22-23:	8:00am - 5:00pm
Sat-Sun, March 24-25:	Closed

If you're around, come on in and say hi! And since it's Friday, though it has nothing to do with anything, check out this video, which is one of the coolest things I've seen on the internet in awhile.

Check out our cool technology!

Gorillapod!

Despite our best efforts, many of you may yet be unaware that, deep within the recesses of the library (behind the circulation desk), there rests a veritable trove of technological treasure!

Thankfully, much like Indiana Jones (sans hat), our work study student, Cory, has discovered and documented these devices for your delight and edification.

From Flip video recorders, to voice recorders, to a Kindle, to a horde of digital cameras; the library has a ton of great technology available for you to check out. You can read Cory's descriptions over on the post she made, and come in and check out our fun toys anytime at the library circulation desk.

Check 'em out at SMU Tech Tutorials: Library Toys.