Winter Break!

Winter in the Finger Lakes is an especially beautiful place and time.  As we bid farewell to the fall semester for 2012, the librarians have compiled some fine winter traditions to share with you.  

Fox & Geese on the first snow!

This game needs at least 2 people and is better with more. Someone walks in a giant circle in the snow and then walks a line through the middle and then another line in the opposite direction, so that there are 4 pieces in the circle. Walk 2 more diagonal lines so that there are 8 pieces in the circle, which makes it look like a pie. Next walk a small circle in the center of the pie. 
 

One person is the fox, and the rest of the people are the geese. The fox chases the geese around the circle. If you go out of the lines, you automatically become the fox. The little circle in the center of the pie is a “Safe” zone. Essentially it’s tag, with one person “it”, the fox. The only rule is to stay in the lines of the circle/pie. 

Rum Log Cookies:

1 c. butter
2 tsp. rum extract
2 tsp. vanilla
3/4 c. sugar
1 egg
3 c. flour
1 tsp. nutmeg

Cream butter, sugar and extracts, add eggs. Add sifted flour and nutmeg. Shape dough on lightly floured board into logs 1/2 inch in diameter. Cut in 3 inch logs. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. Frost with rum-flavored butter cream frosting and add colored sugar to the top.

Full Moon Ski:

Gather friends for a cross-country ski at night during the full moon, heading to a bonfire afterwards. Someone always brings their guitar for a group sing-along. 

Maple Syrup Snow:

Pack as much fresh snow as you can into a baking tray. Pour pure maple syrup over it. Eat with spoon.

Hot Buttered Rum Toddy: 

In a cup or mug holding a liquid cup or a little less, fill 2/3ds with water.  Add small spoonful brown sugar to taste, a pat of real butter (preferably unsalted), and as much rum as your system wants to tolerate.  Microwave to a reassuring temperature, stir to dissolve and distribute, imbibe.

Happy and safe travels over the winter break!

Credits: Thanks to Juliet Boisselle for the backyard photo.   

Thanks to Katie Lamontagne, Emily Hart, Joseph Chmura and Jennifer Nace for their winter traditions.

New Arrival: Gaga Feminism by J. Jack Halberstam

The author of Female Masculinity, J. Jack Halberstam, comes out with a brief but infinitely quotable treatise on the politics of suppression and the liberation strategy of going gaga. 

From the text:
What if we gendered people according to their behavior?  What if gender shifted over the course of a lifetime-what if someone began life as a boy but became a boygirl and then a boy/man?  What if some males are ladies, some ladies are butch, some butches are women, some women are gay, some gays are feminine, some femmes are straight, and some straight people don't know what the hell is going on? ---p.8
And:
If we can figure out how to stop policing children's sexuality, we might also be closer to understanding how to disrupt the transmission of moralistic and inadequate narratives of sex, love, and marriage from one generation to the next. ---p.15

This is one of those books that makes you understand your own prison; it is like a quivering bird that follows you to the exercise yard and compels you to climb the walls.

~Jennifer Nace, Research and Instruction Librarian

Have you ever wondered?

What exactly have your colleagues been working on in the library this Fall?

Wordle created by Emily Hart, Research and Instruction Librarian

Enjoy the Thanksgiving Break!

Original Caption:
Bog Cranberries (High Bush Variety) Turn Bright Red in Autumn in This Clearing near the Prospect Creek Camp. Trees Are Black Spruce Typical of the Inferior Alaskan Taiga 08/1973 
Retrieved from Flickr via Commons License on November 20th, 2012

As a reminder:
The Library and other campus administrative offices will close at 1pm on Wednesday, November 20th for Thanksgiving Break, and will reopen at 9am on Sunday, November 25th.

Murder State: California's Native American Genocide, 1846-1873

Brendan C. Lindsay investigates the use of democratic government's petitions, referenda, town meetings and votes to carry out mass genocide against Californian Native Americans.  Inspired by his experience of campus resistance to the very idea that genocide had been committed, he set out to document it.  "The present is a product of the past," he contends.  Democratic actions, "perpetrated by democratic, freedom-loving U.S. citizens in the name of democracy, but really to secure great wealth in the form of land," built the state on a foundation of blood and theft.  The author hopes a work of history will illuminate California’s political questions of today, and make clear that democracy is no guarantee against the worst human behavior.

Brendan C. Lindsay is a lecturer of history at the University of Central Florida.  He holds a PhD in history from the University of California, Riverside.

Joseph Chmura
Assistant Director and Access Services Librarian

Need Citation Help?

Check out the guide!

http://library.hws.edu/instruction/citationhelp.cfm

October Break!

If you are staying in the area, you might want to check out these local delights--

Glass Farmers Market at The Corning Museum of Glass:
http://www.cmog.org/event/glass-farmers-market

The Finger Lakes Cheese Trail Columbus Day Weekend Open House:
http://flcheesetrail.com/

Enjoy!

New Arrival: Golden Holocaust

From the inside cover:

"In Golden Holocaust, Robert N. Proctor [Professor of the History of Science at Stanford University] draws on reams of formerly secret industry documents to explore how the cigarette came to be the most widely used drug on the planet, selling six trillion sticks per year."

Just by picking up this rather heavy and heavily documented book, you feel at once as if you are both wiser and more tarnished for the effort.  With over 100 pages of notes, a timeline of global tobacco mergers and acquisitions and a lexicon of industry jargon, you realize that Proctor's aim isn't so much to convince as it is to logically impress.  As if to say, what could be more obvious than the devious nature of big tobacco?  And now, for the solution!  As a culture that (sometimes) resists anything so Orwellian as bans and prohibitions and totalitarian belt-cinching, his argument may be difficult to embrace.  He has certainly succeeded in coaxing you to try.  

For a more detailed review by Peter Monaghan in The Chronicle of Higher Education:

http://chronicle.com/blogs/pageview/smoking-out-tobacco/30192

Jennifer Nace, Research and Instruction Librarian

New Library Chat!

You will notice that our library chat service looks a little different.

Do you need research help? Try chatting with a Reference Librarian. You can chat with us from any computer that is connected to the Internet, no matter where you are!

We’re available during these hours:
Monday – Thursday: 10 am – 10 pm
Friday: 10 am – 5 pm
Saturday: Offline
Sunday: 1:00 pm - 5:00pm, 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm

You can also add our Jabber username to your Buddy List/Chat List:
Jabber username: hws-library@chat.libraryh3lp.com

See our Library Chat page for more information: http://library.hws.edu/chat/

We hope to chat with you soon!!

Finding Your Passion

“Find something you're passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it.” - Julia Child

     This August marks, what would have been, Julia Child’s one-hundredth birthday.   As she is fêted in the media, that unforgettable face and voice have been a recurring backdrop of this summer. Child left a rich and varied cultural legacy - from a generation of inspired chefs, to a classic Saturday Night Live spoof.  While Child is perhaps best known for her television work, her passion for French cooking first took the form of teaching, and the production of a classic instructional text: Mastering the Art of French Cooking (TX719 .B388).  

      This summer, responding to the need to create more growth space for the collection, we rearranged over eight miles of books.  It is humbling to think that we have moved not only dusty books, but miles of ideas and expressions waiting to ignite another generation’s passions and interests.  Welcome - and I hope that the Library’s collection will proffer something that will inspire your passion.

~ Vince Boisselle, Director of the Library 

Your Research Wordle Exposed!

The students come to the Reference Desk with a variety of topics that they are researching.  Here is the spring semester's Wordle, reflecting the eclectic nature of scholarly research at HWS. 

Wordle created by Emily Hart, Reference and Instruction Librarian

A Conga Line Forms in the Library

Last night was one of the busiest nights of the semester in the library and apparently some of our guests thought dancing would make a nice study break.
We agree.  Dancing stretches the body and mind.
Their dance appears to be a Conga Line, with origins in Latin America.

For more information about the music that accompanies this dance:
http://voyager.hws.edu/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=234811

Oh, and in case you were wondering, dancing is allowed in the library.

Inventing Iron Man: the Possibility of a Human Machine

If you have ever wondered how Tony Stark, Iron Man, accelerates and decelerates in a metal suit without turning himself into a bruised puddle of protoplasm under massive G-forces, E. Paul Zehr’s “Inventing Iron Man: The Possibility of a Human Machine” is for you.

Zehr, neuroscience and kinesiology professor and author of “Becoming Batman,” examines existing and emerging technologies which might develop into Iron Man’s suit and their implications for the human-machine interface.

Whether or not Stan Lee’s classic strips fired your youthful imagination (guilty!), Zehr’s creative inquiry points to new costs coming along with new tools.

~Joseph Chmura

Assistant Director for Access Services

What is Zotero?

Do you need help organizing your citations?

Check out Zotero (http://www.zotero.org/), a free tool for managing your resources and citations.

Hear what HWS faculty have to say about Zotero on the Digital Learning Center's blog:

http://hwsdlc.wordpress.com/2012/03/28/cool-research-and-bibliography-tool/

Wellness Resources

Did you miss last week's health information clinic?
In support of the 7^th Annual HWS Wellness Week, the HWS reference librarians have put together a few key resources to support your health:

Beyond WebMD – Health Resources You Need to Know -

Discover freely available quality resources that cover a variety of health topics. Everyone has questions about their health. This clinic will introduce you to resources you can rely on when it matters most.

Google's New Privacy Policy

Starting Thursday, March 1, 2012. Google’s new privacy policy will go into effect.

Find out what you need to know and how to protect yourself. If you have a YouTube, Gmail, or Picasa account, or simply use Google as your search engine, this will affect you!

Listen to a summary of the changes, and how you can protect yourself:

http://www.npr.org/2012/02/29/147617359/users-can-control-what-google-knows-about-them (NPR - Morning Edition, 2/29/12)

Read and follow these steps to protect yourself:

http://www.npr.org/2012/02/29/147643649/protecting-your-privacy-amid-google-policy-changes (NPR - Tell Me More, 2/29/12)

Use these tips to take your privacy to the next level:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2012/02/29/147596859/how-to-adjust-your-privacy-settings-before-googles-big-shift (NPR - all tech CONSIDERED)

Emily Hart, Reference and Instruction Librarian

New Arrival: Cut & Paste

For the D-I-Y-ers out there, this is a wonderful collection compiled by Richard Brereton with Caroline Roberts. Subtitled 21st Century Collage, it contains biographical text and lots of full-color reproductions. This collection reminds us of the multidimensional medium of the mind.

Artists represented include:

Ashkan Honarvar
Julien Pacaud
James Dawe
Theo Mercier
Drew Beckmeyer

and many more...

~Jennifer, Reference and Instruction Librarian

Spotlight on...

Joshua Serrano, Class of 2015, works on a collaborative project for BIDS 229: Two Cities.

He says that the library's first floor is a nice space for the size of this kind of project and that it combines a social and academic atmosphere where you can talk to your group members and concentrate.

For more information about this course and the Urban Studies Program:
http://www.hws.edu/academics/urban/two_cities.aspx