Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Etiquette: Business or Otherwise.

Hello everyone, 

It is Carl, your intrepid Technical Services Librarian at the keyboard, and I'm writing to you again from the deep recesses of Lane Library where amazing things happen.  Many of you know that your Lane librarians serve as representatives (liaisons) to various academic departments on campus.  As part of what we do, we often look at resources related to our liaison departments.  Since I work with the business department, I recently had a business book cross my desk that most everyone might find interesting.  The book is titled:  The essentials of business etiquette : how to greet, eat, and tweet your way to success.  It is written by Barbara Pachter who is a public speaker and regularly does workshops on this topic.  Upon reading the first few pages, it was obvious to this reader that she is an expert on this subject.


Pachter includes five general topics in this book:  greeting people, maintaining your profession image, how to eat with grace, how to properly handle phones and social media, and how to improve your career.  Her writing style is easily accessible, down to earth, funny and informative.  This text is so full of excellent advice that I had a hard time putting it down.  Of special note, section four starting at page 185 is especially helpful for the job seeker.  Soon to be graduates, This Means You!  Remember not to sell yourself short.  Take chances when applying for positions.  Do your research on the company you are applying at and ask good questions if and when you get the interview. 

So, dear reader, will this book benefit someone who is not a business major or minor?  I ask, will you ever have to go out on an interview?  Are you going to have a career someday?  Ladies and gentlemen, don't let the word "business" in the title of this book fool you.  Everyone who has to interact and communicate with other people ought to read this book.  This is the text for you and is well worth your time.  I highly recommend it and intend to use as much of the advice as I can recall from my one reading of this book.

We'll "chat" again soon.  In the meantime, I hope you have fun reading and learning new things.

Your trusty librarian,

Carl Z.



Wednesday, April 16, 2014

National School Library Month

Award winning books added to our collection this spring.
In celebrating National School Library Month, we would like to recognize Ripon College Education Department in helping to develop our future teachers.  Libraries are vital resources to educators, and these current education students will be the future leaders in engaging children in reading, both for learning and pleasure.  Our education department ensures that our library's juvenile collection stays up to date with the latest award winning books for the students.

It has been a busy month with new books, and we added a wide variety of new juvenile fiction.  This includes the Newbery winner, Flora and Ulysses and some of the Newbery honor books (Year of Billy Miller).  The Printz (In Darkness), Orbis Pictus (Splash of Red), and Corretta Scott King Award (P.S. Be Eleven) winners and a few select nominees have also been added.  You can search the catalog for past winners by searching for the award, such as "Newbery Honor Books."

To keep in touch with all of our new books, please look through the new books listed on the Lane Library Catalog home page.  http://catalog.ripon.bywatersolutions.com/  This is updated daily when any new books are added to the collection.  It is a fantastic way to do some old-school browsing of new books.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Credo: New Reference Database at Lane Library

Lane Library is now offering Credo, a reference database of more than 600 full text reference works from over fifteen disciplines:
Art, Business, Food & Beverage, General Reference, Geography, History, Language, Law, Literature, Medicine, Music, Philosophy, Psychology, Religion, Science, Social Sciences, Technology

This is a great place to start your research, where you can get a quick overview of a topic rather than sorting through questionable results from Google or wondering if a Wikipedia entry had been recently altered by a prankster. Credo also offers mind maps, which assist in brainstorming related topics.
 (Below: Mind map for Hank Aaron)

 

After getting background information on a topic, Credo seamlessly connects you to academic databases and other information sources by placing links to the left of your search results. Clicking on one of these links will run the same keyword search in the selected source.

 

Credo is listed among the databases on the Lane Library homepage.