INTRODUCTION AND EDITORIAL
The library personnel work and work, and nobody notices. Oh sure, you see us going to coffee, then going to lunch, then leaving for the day, but have you ever wondered what we do between those precious moments? Well, we're working! Then it occurred to us that maybe it would help people to know what we do if we were to actually tell you about our activities-a great lightbulb flickered on, and this newsletter was born. We created a massive committee of volunteers-because no librarian ever works alone if they can drag 15 other people into helping-who were happy to have this opportunity to tell you about some of the exciting programs going on around here. We decided the newsletter would appear very irregularly, almost highly irregularly (library joke), and the title will change to fit the volunteer editor's whimsy or sternness of purpose.
Please enjoy our newsletter and news of our activities-letters to the editor may be sent to: Christina Petimezas at: sacdocs@accdvm.accd.edu. A notice will be sent to SACALL when another issue appears-probably next year. Meanwhile, the newsletter's home will be at www.accd.edu/sac/lrc which is our homepage. We plan to house the archives there as well, when we manage to write another issue.
REINVENTING THE WHEEL: NEW CATALOGING METHOD
For a couple of decades, Technical Services has used the same method to find catalog records for new materials. Now, in a leap towards the 21st century, the LRC has subscribed to a new service from OCLC called PromptCat . Our vendor, Baker &
Taylor, sends OCLC an electronic list of the titles we order from them, and OCLC attaches the catalog record. This has considerably shortened the time we spend searching for these records (the good news); unfortunately, since PromptCat is pretty new, it took OCLC and Baker & Taylor a good three months to set up our system (the bad news). It was a busy, busy summer with over $90,000 of materials coming in at once! The heroic technicians have handled the deluge-and massive amounts of boxes-with considerable élan and lots of coffee.
Christina Petimezas
San Antonio College librarians Tom Bahlinger, Eileen Oliver, and John Hammer have recently revised and expanded the Library's online tutorial.
This interactive tool will be useful to all SAC students, faculty, and staff who use the resources in the San Antonio College Library. The tutorial provides step-by-step instructions on how to search the Library's online catalog, two online journal databases, and the web, and it can be accessed from any computer on or off campus that has Internet access.
Located at http://www.accd.edu/sac/library/faculty/eileen/intro.htm, the tutorial includes four sections, each followed by a quiz. This resource is especially helpful for distance education students and other individuals
who cannot visit the library in person to receive individual or group instruction. Instructors interested in incorporating the tutorial into their class assignments are encouraged to contact Eileen Oliver
(eoliver@accd.edu) or Tom Bahlinger (tbahling@accd.edu) for additional
information.
Eileen Oliver
The Learning Resources Center has purchased the digital archives of the New York Times newspaper. This database represents 3.4 million pages and includes full-text and full-image reproductions of every page of every issue from 1851 to 1999.
This great new resource is available to faculty, students and staff twenty-four/seven via the Internet. To access the database go to the LRC web site at
Researchers can use the database to find news, editorials, letters to the editor, obituaries, birth and marriage announcements, photos, weather reports, advertisements and much more. Either individual articles or the entire page may be viewed. Searches may be limited by date and article type.
This database will replace 3485 reels of aging microfilm reels presently stored in four microfilm cabinets.
Candace Peterson
CELITA....BIENVENIDO, WILLKOMMEN!
She is a native of Clute, Texas, located 50 miles south of Houston, where the "Great
Texas Mosquito Festival" is held every year. DeArmond earned a Bachelor of
Music degree in Music History and Literature at Baylor University and a Master of
Science degree in Library and Information Science at the University of North Texas.
She previously worked as a reference librarian at the University of Texas at San
Antonio. During her tenure at UTSA, DeArmond was a member of the "Mariachi Los
Paisanos", a 15-member mariachi ensemble.
An avid proponent of library instruction, DeArmond hopes to bring the library to
distance education students. "I want all of our distance learners to learn about and learn
how to best use the library's tremendous resources," she adds.
Stephen Dingman
Joseph, who reads Science Fiction to relax, names as his favorite authors Isaac Asimov, Larry Niven, Robert Silverberg, and Arthur C. Clarke. Any of you who have enjoyed viewing Joseph's handsome displays on the third floor of the Moody Learning Center will be glad to learn that Joseph will continue to create them. Although Joseph has only been in his new job a few weeks, he has already proven his worth.
Tom Kuykendall
We are very excited to announce a new way to connect to the ACCD/SAC network while in the Library: wireless technology. Wireless has been placed in the public area of the third floor and in the Library's instructional laboratories located on the second floor of the Moody Learning Center.
There will be 24 wireless laptops available on the third floor for students to move around the stacks while accessing the catalog, read an email while sitting at a desk, or ask questions at the Circulation Desk while pointing to the item in question on their laptop screen. Before a student can check out a laptop, they must agree to the user policies. In addition, five laptops will be added to each of the Library's two laboratories, which will increase the number of computers available for students to have hands-on use during their library class.
If the laptop project goes well, we will likely expand the wireless network over the next few years to other floors of the Library such as the reference and periodical areas.
If you wish to learn more about our wireless project, stop by the Circulation Desk on the third floor of MLC. The wireless technology project was funded by a Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund Board (TIF) technology enhancement grant.
Barbara Knotts
And speaking of Celita, she offers SOUP TRIVIA for this issue:
Shortly before the premier of the Marx Bros. movie Duck Soup (1933),
the city of Fredonia, NY, complained about the use of its name with an
additional "e". The Marx Brothers' response was: "Change the name of
your town, it's hurting our picture."
URL: http://www.accd.edu/sac/library/lrcnews/soup1002.htm
Head of Technical Services
SAN ANTONIO COLLEGE LIBRARY TUTORIAL REVISED AND EXPANDED
Reference Librarian
NEW YORK TIMES DIGITAL DATABASE
Department Chairperson / Periodicals Librarian
Celita DeArmond is our new tenure-track Distance Learning Librarian. She will be
responsible for promoting library resources to the 3300 plus students taking classes
online and SAC's growing student population at the Northeast Campus.
Reference Librarian
The library is pleased to welcome Joseph Satterthwait to his new position as a Reference/Instruction Assistant. Joseph is not new to the library. He began as a work study in September, 1997, and progressed to a half-time permanent Learning Resource Assistant in the Circulation/Reserve Area before accepting his present full-time position. While working here, he has earned 98 hours toward his degree in Psychology [86 hours at SAC & 12 at Texas A&M at Palo Alto]-all while maintaining an overall GPA of 3.6!
Reference Librarian
LIBRARY INTRODUCES WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY
Media Services Librarian
Source: Internet Movie Database < us.imdb.com/ >
Catalog Databases Library & Media Services Home Page Library Soup Archive New Books
Web page designed by: John R. Deosdade
Last modified: Tuesday, October 25, 2005
© 2002, 2003, 2004 San Antonio College Library and Media Services
1001 Howard Street
San Antonio, TX 78212
Phone: (210) 785-6201
Library Soup photography by
Leonard Ziegler
