DANA BY DESIGN

VIA's buses carry Dana Morris' latest design effort, the College's "Create Your Tomorrow"campaign print advertisements. However, brochures and posters are her forte. "I must have designed some sixty brochures last year," she adds. Morris is the new senior multimedia specialist with the Educational Multimedia Services unit of the LRC.

The Washington D.C. native has painted since she was ten years old. She was talented enough to sell portraits at age 14. She worked for twenty years as an FTD florist in Corpus Christi and San Antonio. Fine arts classes at Del Mar College and Palo Alto College led to an Associate's of Applied Science degree in print graphics at San Antonio College.

Stints at the Sutherland Advertising Agency and the San Antonio Business Journal "prepared me for just about anything," Morris explains. While at the Sutherland Agency she worked on the political campaigns for former city council members Roger Flores, Bobby Herrera, and Juan Solis, former Judge Wayne Christian and current state representative Ruth Jones McClendon. "Now those two, Bobby Herrera and Juan Solis, were colorful characters," Morris adds.

She is working on a second degree in the College's electronic graphics program. In her spare time Morris enjoys classical music, designing jewelry, and "living on my eight acres of country."

Stephen C. Dingman
Reference Librarian

GOOD NEWS: ACCESS TO LIBRARY DATABASES NOW IS EZ!

'Proxying' allows a library to authenticate the status of individuals wishing to use subscription databases from off-campus locations. Our old proxy system required users to download/configure a Web browsing program (Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator) in order to use the Library's Proxy Server. This was a cumbersome and error prone procedure and frustrating for everyone involved. Many wished for a better way and their wishes were granted!

Useful Utilities developed a program called EZproxy that did not require web browser configuration. This new program also worked better with proprietary web browsers like AOL's. Fortuitously, SAC Library's integrated library system by Innovative Interfaces, Inc. (Triple-I) was recently enhanced with the EZproxy technology after the Triple-I company reached an agreement with Useful Utilities. Last August John Hammer, the Systems Librarian, was able to make the switch to EZproxy. For most of our users, the change went unnoticed--unusual for any computer upgrade. This new technology makes it easier for users to gain access to valuable resources and it makes the librarians more productive by allowing them to help users actually use the databases rather than spend time on trying to access them.

We want our users to find what they need as quickly and easily as possible. Please call the Library's Reference Desk at (210) 733-2477 if you have any questions or problems accessing the databases or, if you want instructions on selecting or searching databases. You may also submit questions to the Library's email reference service by clicking on the link "Ask a Librarian" on our homepage: http://www.accd.edu/sac/library/

Karen S. Balcom
Reference Librarian / Webmaster

IN MEMORIAM: SERGEANT PAUL RANGEL

The San Antonio Express-News for February 10, 2003 noted that the drunk driver who killed police Sergeant Paul Rangel was granted probation. What some of you may remember is that Paul Rangel was our photographer before he joined the police. Paul was intelligent, humorous, and a supremely graceful flirt. If you've ever had clumsy flirting thrust at you, you would appreciate masterful flirting. Whenever I wore a particular color of shoes, Paul would clap a hand over his heart and lean against a wall saying, "Tina, you know what red shoes do to me!" I'll never forget the time he came to say goodbye. I asked why he was joining the police. He said a friend begged him to take the police test with him--the friend failed and Paul passed!

A few years later, I was on jury duty, taking a lunch break and sitting on a bench in front of the courtroom. I noticed a tall, good looking man out of the corner of my eye, and he kept looking at me out of the corner of his eye--finally we both burst into laughter. Turning to him I asked, "Didn't you use to work at SAC?" He said, "Yes, Tina, it's me, Paul!" He told me he had risen in rank, but that his most exciting news was he had married and was about to have his first child. I said, "Surely you of all people have a picture of your wife?" He showed me a picture of a truly beautiful woman. "Wow, did you luck out!" I said. His last words to me were, "I am the luckiest guy in the world." Paul's legacy of kindness to a stranded motorist, his fine record in the police force, his excellent photography here, and his devotion to his family made him a truly outstanding man, I am happy that I had the privilege of knowing him.

Christina H. Petimezas, Professor
Head of Technical Services

MUSINGS ON PROJECT MUSE

The Learning Resources Center is delighted to announce that a subscription to Project Muse has been purchased. Project Muse allows our users access to journals never before available at San Antonio College. Launched in 1995 by Johns Hopkins University Press in collaboration with the Milton S. Eisenhower Library at Johns Hopkins University, this database has grown to include 200 quality journal titles published by 30 scholarly publishers. Project Muse covers the fields of literature and criticism, history, visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics and others. A list of the full-text journals included in Project Muse may be found at muse.jhu.edu/journals/ . New journal issues are added as published and all previous issues are kept online, as well.

This database may be searched using keyword or Boolean methods. One may search all of the journals in the database at one time, search selected subsets of titles or search only a single journal title. The tables of contents of individual journal issues may also be viewed. Special features include page numbers from the print edition embedded in the electronic text for easy citation and referencing; illustrations, in full color where possible, that are larger and sharper than those in the print edition; and full text displays designed for easy on-screen reading.

This database is available 24 hours a day and may be accessed from home and well as on campus. To access Project Muse go to the LRC homepage at http://www.accd.edu/sac/lrc. Click on "Database". Click on "Alphabetical List". Click on "P-Z". Scroll down and click on "Project Muse". See for yourself what a good thing this subscription is!

Candace Peterson
Periodicals Librarian

netLIBRARY eBOOKS - A DREAM COME TRUE

You may have come across them in the library catalog. An eBook? What's that? you wondered and then moved on to a book with a "real" call number and location. But just what are these eBooks? And most importantly, how do you check them out?

SAC students, faculty, and staff have access to over 18,000 online eBooks in netLibrary. The collection is quite diverse, from fiction romances to non-fiction books covering subjects in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences. eBooks work just like their print counterparts, allowing you to "turn the pages" just as you would in a printed book.

So exactly how can you get to these eBooks? You have two choices. If you come across an eBook while searching in the library catalog, you can simply click on the link provided and browse the eBook online. You can also access the netLibrary eBook collection directly by following the links from the SAC Library home page to Databases > Reference > eBook or netLibrary. (Note: for off-campus access, students, faculty and staff must follow these links.) Searching in netLibrary is exactly like searching the library catalog -- author, title, subject, or keyword. You even have a choice in searching keywords in just the description of the books or throughout the entire text.

In order to check out an eBook, you have to create a free account with netLibrary. It's super-easy, quick, and checking out an eBook ensures that you have continuous access for the 24 hour check out time. Just click on the "Create an account" link once you get into netLibrary. After checking out an eBook you have access to unique options such as highlighting text, creating a "my favorites" list, and making notes in the margins. Other tools available in netLibrary include an automatic dictionary that gives definitions of any word that you highlight, keyword searching throughout the text of the book, hotlinked table of contents and indexes, and an email alert to let you know when your favorite eBook is back "on the shelf." After you create your account with netLibrary, you can simply go to http://www.netlibrary.com from any location in the world and have access to all 18,000 titles. Now that's flexibility!

netLibrary eBooks are great for anyone who can't always make the trip to a physical library and are an especially wonderful resource for distance learning students and faculty. And with netLibrary, there's finally a way to check books out and have them magically return to the shelves when they're due. Which, of course, is every librarian's (secret) dream come true.

Celita DeArmond
Reference & Distance Learning Librarian

REFUGEE FROM WINTER: EILEEN OLIVER!

Our next-newest librarian is Eileen Oliver, who once told me she moved to San Antonio to get away from Ohio winters. Eileen grew up in north central Pennsylvania and attained a B.A. in Spanish from Penn State. She lived in Miami for a few years, enjoying the sand and weather, and teaching ESL at Miami-Dade Community College. She then taught history and English at a bilingual middle and high school in Santa Marta, Columbia, and while in the area, traveled to Bogota and Cartegena for R&R. Eileen also enjoyed two trips to Cuba and one to Puerto Rico. She says, "I love Cuban music and hope one day to actually learn how to dance to it." After spending time at other institutions (of higher learning), some of which were located in snow belts, SAC was finally able to entice Eileen here, promising her she would never have to worry about the cold! Here's what Eileen says about life here:

I enjoy living in San Antonio. I appreciate the weather (well, I could do without the July through September heat), and love taking day trips to the Hill Country, and listening to live music at Gruene Hall and other Texas-style venues. I really enjoy working at SAC-I especially appreciate the collegiality of this institution and working with our diverse student body. I'm always happy when I get to practice my Spanish at the reference desk!

Take a look at Eileen's web site: ESL & Foreign Languages and Culture . Eileen is also responsible for collection in the areas of foreign language and foreign literature. We hope she doesn't let a little 27 degree weather interrupt a long and happy stay at SAC.

Christina H. Petimezas
Head of Technical Services

SO YOU WANT YOUR STUDENTS TO ACCESS OUTSIDE READINGS ONLINE, EH?

Electronic Reserve? What's that? Well, if you want your students to read a book chapter or journal article, or review your lecture notes or sample tests, you can increase their chances of completing the task by taking advantage of Electronic Reserve. Electronic Reserve allows the library to scan items such as book chapters, articles, notes, or tests, place them on the World Wide Web, and make them available 24 hours a day for viewing and printing by students. Students access Electronic Reserve items by course name and number (e.g., English 1302) or instructor's name through the SAC Library Catalog . After typing in their names and social security numbers, students get access to the full text of Electronic Reserve items just as if they had checked out paper copies of items from Reserve in Moody Learning Center 315.

Items placed on Electronic Reserve must comply with copyright law. Instructors interested in taking advantage of Electronic Reserve can read the guidelines and procedures for this convenient service at http://www.accd.edu/sac/library/info/circpoli/reserfac.htm.

Ralph E. Domas
Circulation / Reserve / ILL / Student Personnel Librarian

USAA INSURES A GOOD HOME FOR ITS LIBRARY

In a surprise move, USAA, one of the largest insurance companies in the world, decided to 'go virtual,' closing out its library of 4,171 books. USAA then decided to offer the books to San Antonio College. When asked why they chose SAC, the USAA librarian said, "A lot of our employees attend SAC." This supports my belief that sooner or later, everyone attends SAC! The collection includes 2,643 books in the area of business, with the rest covering law, psychology, science, and technology, and other areas.

Of course, no gift goes unpunished! The personnel in Technical Services divided up a list of USAA books in order to check for duplication and older editions. This personnel included: Betty Walters, Pat Schultze, Sylvia Chavana, Amory Irby, and Juanita Flores. The day before 300 boxes of books arrived, Juanita called in sick and promptly delivered a beautiful baby boy, Antonio Alejandro--when Juanita calls in sick, she means it! Meanwhile, Ralph Domas' staff in Circulation took the list of duplicate titles and checked to see if SAC's copies were still in the building. Only around 10 were missing, and the USAA books will replace the missing copies. All other duplicates will be offered to other ACCD libraries.

Until the subject specialists can go through the USAA lists, some of Circulation's student assistants are putting the boxes in order and listing the call numbers within each box. The boxes are being laid out in somewhat of a maze, with full access to fire exits, of course. By the end of summer, most of the USAA books will be in their final homes. The USAA librarian asked what we were going to do with the USAA logo inside each book, and I told her it would serve as the memorial notice of the source of the book. She just hoped that bewildered people wouldn't try and return the book to USAA!

Christina H. Petimezas
Head of Technical Services

WEB WANDERINGS

Wandering through the puzzling maze that the World Wide Web has become, I have encountered weird or somewhat bizarre web sites that both entertain and educate the user. The following is a listing of these sometimes useful, often funny, but always interesting web sites:

Chocolocate: the Chocolate Lovers' Page < chocolocate.com/ >
Are you a confirmed "chocaholic?" Personally, I have a well known aversion to that evil, dark colored treat. But for the countless legions of choco-freaks out there, Chocolocate is the heaven-sent answer to their nightly prayers.

dMarie Time Capsule <www.dmarie.com/timecap/ >
If you were born between 1800 and 2001, you can find major news headlines, cost of various products, hit songs, top television shows, academy award winners, best-selling books, etc. for your birth date.

Fifties Web < www.fiftiesweb.com/search.htm >
Do remember the tag line: "Hey kids, what time is it?" Or perhaps you laughed with your parents at the antics of Milton Berle, Jack Benny, Imogene Coca, and Sid Caesar. Do shows like "Death Valley Days" and "Sky King" ring a vague bell? If so, you are probably a child of the 50s who will enjoy the memories searched through the Fifties Web.

FreeTranslation.com < www.freetranslation.com >
Do you need a quick translation of a English phrases / sentences into French, German, Italian, Portuguese, or Spanish and vice versa? FreeTranslation.com provides literal translations that can easily be applied to daily conversation.

John R. Deosdade
Reference Librarian

SOUP TRIVIA

How were PEZ candies named? PEZ comes from the first, middle, and last letters of the German word for peppermint, pfefferminz: *P* *E* *Z*.
Source: The PezList [ http://www.pezlist.com ]

Wintergreen lifesavers, when crunched or crushed, emit small blue sparks.
Source: The Straight Dope: Fighting Ignorance Since 1973 [ http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_129 ]

Celita DeArmond
Reference & Distance Learning Librarian

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  Last modified: Tuesday, October 25, 2005
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Library Soup photography by
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