Talking in the Library

New additions to KREx

Pop quiz-What is KREx? Pat yourself on the back if you said it is K-State Research Exchange. This is where any K-State student, staff, or faculty member can deposit their scholarly work (these/dissertations, journal articles, poster presentation, etc) and have it preserved and shared with the world.

Check out some of the newest submissions that you might find interesting.

Education and Action for a Sustainable Future
Effects of freezing pork chops on warner-bratzler shear force and cookery traits
Health care issues in rural areas

Take a Closer Look and Win

You may have noticed we switched out half of the Hale Library 2nd floor exhibit recently.  This time, we're going with a bit of a contest: Take a Closer Look @ K-State Libraries. 

Between now and the end of the semester, we're giving you five opportunities to take a closer look at K-State Libraries. With each opportunity comes a chance to enter to win a $100 gift card to the K-State Student Union! Use it for next semester's books, graduation announcements, art supplies, K-State gear, or whatever else you need.

All you need to do is identify the mixed up items we've magnified in the exhibit cases, then head to the contest webpage to enter for each round. One entry per person per round, please. Winner drawn and announced on May 3rd. 

Round schedules and themes are:

• Round 1: Leisure Reading Collection bestsellers, on display Feb 16-28
• Round 2: Databases, on display March 1-12
• Round 3: K-State Libraries branch locations, on display March 22-April 2
• Round 4: Current Periodicals, on display April 5-16
• Round 5: Hale Library hotspots, on display April 19-30

So, you have through Sunday to check out the Round 1 exhibit.  You don't have to enter every round to win, but it certainly would improve your chances! We'll leave all the rounds open until April 30th, so you can submit your entries at any time.

Good luck!

Short Cuts: The MLA International Bibliography: Easy to Use and Expansive in Nature

The MLA International Bibliography (MLAIB) is an excellent database. Although the MLAIB is most often identified with the study of literature, there are a wide variety of topics covered in the database. For instance, I recently did a simple search for “Kahlo, Frida” (a twentieth century Mexican painter) and pulled up 62 citations for a mix of books, articles, and dissertations. 

Although MLAIB does not include much full-text, it is easy to access the full text with the help of the GET IT button. By clicking on the GET IT button, you can search other databases for the full-text of the article, search the catalog for books (here in the library) that are cited in MLAIB, and/or we’ll try to get it for you, links you to the Interlibrary Services web site and lets you request items that we try to borrow for you from other libraries. (And, no, you don’t need to know what other libraries might have the article or book, just ask us and we’ll try to find it for you.)

To find the MLAIB, click on the Databases link on the Libraries’ homepage. Then, from the alphabetical menu, click on “M” and scroll down until you find the MLA International Bibliography.  Students will sometimes mistakenly select the MLA Directory of Periodicals, which is listed first. However, that database is only good for finding information about the journals indexed in the MLAIB. It is not possible to search topics in it. Instead, skip down one to MLAIB.

If your topic has cultural, literary, cinematic, and/or philosophical elements I recommend searching in the MLAIB.

~E. Pankl

2010 Black History Month Film Series in the DowMRC

This year's Black History Month Film Series will run from Feb 23rd - Feb 25th in the Dow Chemical Multicultural Resource Center on the 3rd floor of Hale Library. These showings are free of charge, and anyone is welcome to attend. The showtimes are:

Feb 23 (Tuesday)
11:30 Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (108mins)

1:30 To Kill a Mocking Bird (129mins)

4:00 Akeelah and the Bee (112mins)

Feb 24 (Wednesday)
11:30 Akeelah and the Bee (112mins)

1:30 Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (108mins)

4:00 To Kill a Mocking Bird (129mins)

Feb 25 (Thursday)
11:30 To Kill a Mocking Bird (129mins)

2:00 Akeelah and the Bee (112mins)

4:00 Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (108mins)

The three films selected for this year's Black History Month Film Series offer us a look at race issues in three eras of American history, and give us perspectives on how far our society has progressed. The characters in the three movies all have very different wants, they have very different backgrounds, and they face different obstacles. The three movies tackle these issues in their own unique ways, and engage us with entertaining approaches. 

To Kill a Mockingbird is a faithful adaptation of Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize winning novel. The story takes place in Alabama in the 30's about a lawyer who accepts a case to defend a black man accused of raping a white woman. 

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner is set in liberal San Francisco in the 60's. A interracial couple seeks their parents' approval to get married, this Stanley Kramer film has some serious star power with Spencer Tracey, Katherine Hepburn, and Sydney Poitier. 

Akeelah and the Bee is an uplifting film about an 11 year old African American girl from a poor family who wants to compete in the National Spelling Bee. It's an interesting portrayal of class and racial divide in our world today. 

If the Founding Fathers had made a music video...

...it would have been called "Too Late to Apologize". 

A little late for Presidents Day, but still fun.

Short Cuts: Why I’m Illin’ for ILL

So I work at the library. That makes me a librarian, right? Well, almost. I finish my MLS (that’s Masters of Library Science, btw) this semester. Last semester, I was horribly sick with bronchitis and a sinus infection and I fell a little behind on my homework (I know, shocking, right?). I was freaking out because I had assignments due in a couple of weeks and when I did research, I was bummed because we didn’t have the articles I needed at K-State Libraries.

Happy Birthday K-State!

February 16, 2010 marks the 147th birthday of Kansas State University!  To read about "The Birth of a College!" and K-State's impressive beginning in 1863, I encourage you to read a previous K-State Keepsake (number 10 in the series)  that I posted on this topic. 

Enjoy, and Go K-State History!

Anthony R. Crawford, University Archivist

100 years of Grain Science

Do you love to eat things made of grain?  Enjoy tasty baked goods? You can thank the Department of Grain Science and Industry for your happiness.

In 1910, using an experimental flour mill set up in the chemistry building, the Department of Milling Science was founded at K-State to explore more efficient ways of milling Kansas wheat and to improve grain quality.  Since then, the department, now known as Grain Science and Industry, has emerged from those humble beginnings to become a unique and internationally distinguished program.  The original milling science undergraduate program has been joined by baking science and feed science degrees, and K-State is the only university in the world offering all three of these programs.

To celebrate their 100th anniversary, the department is hosting a six-part lecture series featuring speakers discussing the future of agricultural science and industry as it relates to global challenges.  "The Centennial Lecture Series will be a great opportunity to highlight the many, many contributions to the grain industry we've made here at Kansas State University and to challenge our perspective on the future. The uniqueness of our program is recognized both nationally and internationally and we're looking forward to welcoming outstanding speakers from the grain-based food, feed, biotechnology and cereal nutrition fields," said Dr. Dirk Maier, head of the department.

The Centennial Lecture series kicks off this week in the Hale Library Hemisphere Room at 2pm Wednesday. Dr. Julie Miller Jones will speak on "Grains of Truth:  Separating Grain Nutrition Myths and Facts".  The lecture is free and open to everyone, and is followed by a reception that has a good chance of featuring some of those tasty baked goods.

At the department website, you can see the complete schedule of lectures and read interesting recollections from the history of the department.

In a torrent of sorrow nary an umbrella can keep you dry

Libraries staffing will be a little light this afternoon. Many of us will be taking time off to remember our colleague and friend, Pramila Tummala.  Pramila worked at K-State Libraries for more than twenty years, retiring this past fall.  Not long after her retirement, she learned that she had a particularly advanced cancer. She chose to spend her last months surrounded by family and friends, and passed away on New Year’s Day 2010, just after her 71st birthday.

Library users from both Farrell and Hale will recall Pramila from various versions and locations of the reference desk, and from her time spent in the Dow Multicultural Resource Center. A frequent nominee for the Libraries' Classified Employee of the Year, she won the award in 1999. We who worked with her will miss her gentle, kind spirit and her warm, welcoming manner more than we know how to express.

If you learned it, then you should have got an A on it!

This makes me want to be a teacher.