1908/1909 William Smith Catalogue

Rachel I Sutcliffe, 2002 William Smith Alumna, has found the 1908-09 William Smith Catalogue available on Google Books. Since it is the first WS Catalog, it's worth a look in this centennial year. There is also a link to it on the Archives page.

Historical news resources

The newest addition to our databases is World News Digest, published by Facts on File. This database contains an archival record of news stories dating back to November 1940.

For other historical news sources, try our full-text databases containing the New York Times dating back to 1851, the Wall Street Journal back to 1889, and the Washington Post back to 1877.

Two new databases

Two more databases are now available for your use. Women's Studies International covers the core disciplines in Women's Studies to the latest scholarship in feminist research. Coverage includes more than 586,600 records and spans from 1972 and earlier to present. This database supports curriculum development in the areas of sociology, history, political science and economy, public policy, international relations, arts and humanities, business, and education. Over 2,000 periodical sources are represented.

The Film and Television Literature Index covers scholarly and technical writing as well as journalism relating to a broad array of topics in film and television. It contains indexing and abstracts for over 300 journals in their entirety and selectively within another 300.

New art database

We've just added a great new database to our collection. Oxford Art Online is an excellent resource for art research. Most notably, it contains the full text of the Grove Dictionary of Art, with over 45,000 articles on topics in Western and non-Western art, more than 5000 searchable art images, and over 40,000 links to images at museums around the world. Oxford Art Online also includes access to the Oxford Companion to Western Art, the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, and the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms. All four titles are fully searchable.

Learning Commons open

It's official -- the Learning Commons is now open. To our first-year students: welcome! And to our returning students, faculty, and staff: welcome back! We hope you enjoy our beautifully renovated space and take advantage of all the services that are now available to you in the library. There are excellent new spaces for group work and for individual study, and many different types of technology available for you to use. You'll also find experts in research, writing, and technology here to help you develop your own skills as you tackle various projects.

We'll be giving tours to first-year students tomorrow afternoon, but feel free to stop by at any time and explore the new Learning Commons. We hope to see you here soon!

Myler Half-Dime Novels

Our archives has received a large collection of Half-Dime Novels from Gene Myler of Flowery Branch, GA, in honor of his father Joseph J. Myler.

Joseph J. Myler created the collection and was a member of the Hobart class of 1919, Chairman of the Hobart and William Smith Colleges Board of Trustees, 1948-1952, and recipient of an honorary doctorate in 1959.

It is a collection of 922 issues from Beadle's Half Dime Library, published between 1877 and 1905. Each issue is 16 pages and has a woodcut illustration on the cover. Most also have a title and an alternative title, such as "Ralph Boy, The Boy Buccaneer; Or, The Fugitive Yacht."

For more detailed information about the collection, see our finding aids for the Joseph J. Myler Collection of Half Dime Novels and other archival collections on the Archives website.

July 4th Holiday

In accordance with the Colleges' holiday calendar, the Library will be closed Friday, July 4, 2008. Have a safe and enjoyable long weekend!