Regent University -> University Library

It's Too Cold in the Library!
by Elizabeth Keen, Circulation Supervisor

For years there has been one common complaint from students, faculty, and staff members alike: “It’s too cold in the Library!” We have tried to combat this problem through facilities work orders, fiddling with thermostats, and even going so far as to provide blankets for patrons. This program has actually been very popular, as blankets have been checked out over 350 times in the past two years. (Don’t worry, we do wash them!) Students have gone so far as to shove papers in study room vents in order to block blasts of arctic air.

I contacted Rich Jemiola, Director of Facilities and Engineering, to ask him a few questions about why we have been having this problem, and he had this to say about it: “The library is the largest building on campus with many very large open spaces. It’s the most utilized building with doors constantly being opened and closed causing fluctuations in many room temperatures. Couple these factors with each person’s “specific comfort level” due to different dressing habits and it becomes a challenge to satisfy all.” So… with this new knowledge, what’s to be done about it?

You may have noticed Facilities Services staff members working around the Library at various places lately, and you may have even noticed that it’s been a little bit warmer. Mr. Jemiola said that it’s because he has “called for a complete review of all room temperature settings.” There have been some adjustments, and Mr. Jemiola assures us that he will be closely monitoring the temperature settings over the summer.

So, for those students out there who were about to issue “Cold War 2008,” put down your weapons! The University has heard your concerns. Thanks to Facility Services, the boreal blasts in the Library are being replaced by breezes "as gentle as zephyrs blowing below the violet."^*

____________________
*Cymbeline IV.2. 220-1

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Regent Libraries Celebrate National Library Week
by Leanne Hillery, Assistant Librarian

*Jon Cash reads selections from his books*

From April 13 to April 19, the Regent University Library and Law Library celebrated National Library Week, an annual observance of the contribution of libraries in the cultural and civic life of our country. As in past years, the Library created the latest in the series of its “Faculty Recommends” posters, featuring the recommended reading of selected Regent faculty. The posters are currently on display in the Library lobby. As a continuing tradition, National Library Week was also “Amnesty Week,” during which all patrons returning overdue books had their fines waived.

*Library staff serve lunch to students*

The culminating event of the week was the Student Appreciation Luncheon where pizza and a celebratory cake were served in the popular reading section of the University Library. The program featured a performance by the Regent Varsity Improv Players, the announcement of the essay contest winners, and special guest speaker, Christian author and WAVY TV 10 meteorologist, Jon Cash. Mr. Cash, author of the titles The Age of the Antichrist, Thunder in Paradise, and Lost in Church, entertained the audience with a description of his background as a meteorologist and author, as well as his personal ministry. He also encouraged others in their dreams to write and described the process involved in writing and publishing. He concluded by reading excerpts from each of his books. After the presentation, Mr. Cash stayed to sign his books and discuss them with attendees. This event capped a wonderful week that brought the University Libraries to the forefront of University activity. Thank you to all who attended and made the event a resounding success.

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Communication Students Win Library Essay & Video Contests
by Harold Henkel, Assistant Librarian

As part of their National Library Week observance, the University and Law Libraries sponsored an essay and video contest. Regent students were invited to submit essays of not more than 250 words or videos of not more than five minutes on the prompt, “How would you persuade your fellow students to use the Regent University Libraries?”

Essay Contest Winner
Carla Beth Price

Eleven students submitted entries for a chance to win $150 cash for first place, $50 cash for second place, a $25 Amazon gift card for third place, or a $10 Amazon gift card for honorable mention. Judging the essays were Library Dean Sara Baron, Dr. Susannah Clements and Dr. Mark Gatlin of the School of Undergraduate Studies, William Magee of the Law Library, and Harold Henkel of the University Library. All essays were read blind and judged on the basis of development of the topic and writing quality.

1st place (essay): Carla Beth Price, Master of Arts student in the School of Communication
To read the winning essay, click here.

1st place (video): Santiago Leon, Master of Arts student in the School of Communication
To view the winning video click here.

2nd Place (essay): Lena Maslennikova, doctoral student in the School of Global

Video Contest Winner
Santiago Leon

Leadership and Entrepreneurship

3rd Place: (essay) Victoria Walker, doctoral student in the School of Education

Honorable Mention (essay): Olive Gatling, Master of Arts student in the School of Global Leadership and Entrepreneurship

The University and Law Libraries would like to thank all the contestants and judges for making the essay contest a success.

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By Faith the Walls Fell* : Law Library Renovations to Commence Soon
by Margaret L. Christiansen, Associate Director, Law Library

The Law Library is breaking through! The walls are coming down and every book and piece of furniture will find a new home before all is said and done. To make this a reality, the Law Library will need to close its doors this summer, from May 4 through August 17.

WHY?

Because its time! …because it’s the right thing to do! …because YOU asked for it!
It is always our goal to respond promptly and affirmatively to student concerns. However, the very nature of the space we occupy on the third floor (long, narrow, in a doughnut around the atrium) seems contrived to prevent us from addressing the greatest concerns. For years, the preponderance of comments on surveys has asked for:

More study space
More quiet study space
Better access to librarians and library services
Removal of the walls at the top of the “Stairway to Nowhere”
Access to the balcony from both sides

All this and more will be addressed in the remodel that will take place this summer. New carpet will be laid, carrels will be clustered in quiet corners away from the main flow of patron traffic, and a new atmosphere of quiet will be maintained. The new service desk will be a one-stop point of access for all Law Library services within easy access of study areas, providing reference, research instruction, database training, circulation, ILL, reserves and many other essential services (see the new floor plan - click here).

To access the Law Library, patrons will no longer need to find their way to the back stairs or to the elevator on the extreme left of the library building lobby. They will now go straight in through the beautiful new windowed entrance of the University Library and take either the elevator (across from Circulation) or the main stairs to the third floor.

While each Library will continue to operate as a separate entity with unique missions and services, all patrons will be able to move freely from one library to the other without having to exit the Library space, and with few exceptions, both Libraries will maintain the same hours.

Plan to join us for our grand re-opening celebration in the fall.

_________________
*Hebrews 11:30

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Faculty Services Spotlight
by Leanne Hillery, Assistant Librarian

With the conclusion of the spring semester, it is time to start thinking about your courses for the fall. Will your students have major projects or papers that could benefit from supplemental library instruction? Your library liaison is here to help. Liaisons will develop course specific instruction that will enhance research skills needed to successfully complete your course assignments and build upon the concepts introduced in the Library’s Information Research and Resources course.

These sessions can be conducted during a class period or online via Wimba for distance education courses. We realize that your class time is extremely important, so another possibility is scheduling sessions outside of class on evenings or Saturday. The names of students who attend these sessions could be passed on to the professor for possible “extra-credit” recognition. If you are interested in participating in this service, please contact your library liaison during the summer to schedule an in-class session and discuss the instruction needs of specific courses. As always, the library staff is waiting to serve you and your students.

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Research Tips
by Jon Ritterbush, Associate Librarian

Jumpstart Your Job Search at the Library

Students looking for employment in this summer’s tightening job market may need to look beyond Monster.com to find work opportunities. Regent University’s Career Connections provides a valuable career resource to students in each of Regent’s graduate and undergraduate programs. Job seekers should also explore other resources available online and in libraries.

One of the best resources published by the U.S. Department of Labor, the Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH), is now freely available on the Web at http://www.bls.gov/OCO. This extensive site is updated annually and describes the training and education required for each occupation, as well as typical duties and working conditions, average earnings, and expected job growth.

Print resources at Regent University Library can also open up other possibilities. The National JobBank 2008 (Call #: REF HF 5382.5 .U5 N34 2008) contains some or all of the following information about 20,000 American companies, both public and private, indexed by state and by industry:

Contact information for the main office and/or human resources department
Name of President, CEO, and/or key management staff
Internship information
Annual sales/revenues, and number of employees
Number of employees locally, nationally, and worldwide

The Career Guide 2008 (Call #: REF HF 5382.5 .U5 D86 2008) lists much the same information as the JobBank, but also includes listings of branch offices geographically, and disciplines hired. For those seeking to find employment outside the United States, the book International Jobs (Call #: HF 5382.7 .K62 2003) will contain tips on conducting a job search overseas, and contact information for multinational employers in the fields of business, non-profit management, communications, education, and law.

The Regent University Library website also includes links to other online career resources on its Virtual Reference website and on its Subject pages, specific to each discipline. Visit websites like the Salary Calculator to compare cost of living in different cities, and Intercristo to browse job opportunities with Christian organizations and ministries.

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Library Faculty Recommendations
by Leanne Strum, Ph.D., Head of Technical Services and Systems

Sabin Americana 1500-1926

Lurking in the shadows of the digital collections of Regent University Library is the archive Sabin Americana, 1500-1926. Based on Joseph Sabin's landmark bibliography, this collection contains works about the Americas published throughout the world from 1500 to the early 1900's. Sabin’s Bibliotheca Americana: a Dictionary of Books Relating to America from Its Discovery to the Present Time has been heralded as a cornerstone in the study of the history of the Western Hemisphere.

*Figure 1: Sabin Americana 1500-1926*

With over 6 million pages from 29,000 works, this collection includes books, pamphlets, serials and other documents that provide original accounts of exploration, trade, colonialism, slavery and abolition, the western movement, Native Americans, military actions and much more.

Sabin Americana, 1500-1926 offers researchers and students the opportunity to explore topics and concepts quickly and deeply. The easy-to-use interface offers basic and advanced search options. Users can search among or within specific works and view the results of full-text searches on facsimile pages from the original works. Researchers can also save lists of results, specific pages or works using InfoMark technology, e-mail citations for selected works, and print and download portions of the works.

Covering a span of 400 years in North, Central and South America, and the West Indies, this digital collection highlights the society, politics, religious beliefs, customs and momentous events of the time. A search on Thomas Jefferson pulls up an interesting document “Republican Notes on Religion.” Researchers can retrieve a facsimile copy of this book, written by Jefferson in 1786, as shown below.

*Figure 2: Republican Notes on Religion*

From sermons and political tracts to legislation and literature, this collection provides access to hard-to-find primary sources that offer original accounts of exploration, settlement, the Western movement, military actions, Native Americans, slavery and abolition, and more. It is an essential research tool for American studies and colonial history, providing an interdisciplinary perspective on American society, culture, history and politics.
Sabin Americana, 1500-1926 can be accessed on the “Database” section of the Library Home Page @ www.regent.edu/general/library.

Source Citation: Jefferson, Thomas. Republican notes on Religion; and, An act Establishing Religious Freedom, Passed in the Assembly of Virginia, in the year 1786. Danbury, 1803. 10pp. Sabin Americana. Gale, Cengage Learning. Regent University. 25 April 2008

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Collection Spotlight-- The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
Reviewed by Harold Henkel, Assistant Librarian

Reading Khaled Hosseini’s novel, I was reminded of Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago. Both works are, among other things, historical novels that bring their stories alive through descriptive detail (I could almost smell the combination of naan bread, wood-fired ovens, wintry air, and various exhaust fumes in the Kabul market). Both works also act as testaments for nations and lives destroyed by violence.

The Kite Runner and Doctor Zhivago also contain parallel stories that, depending on the temperament of the reader, either raise the narrative intensity or critically diminish the ultimate success of each novel. Just as equally intelligent readers of Doctor Zhivago have regarded the love story of Yuri and Lara as either profoundly moving or embarrassing kitch, I expect different readers will have similar feelings about the trajectory of Amir’s betrayal and redemption in The Kite Runner. Although I must confess myself to be among the second type of reader, I have no desire to ridicule this element in the novel. I will only mention that I don’t understand why it seems so critically important to Amir that part of his redemption should include having his face smashed in by Assef.

The great strength of The Kite Runner is the author’s broad sympathy for his characters. Some of the best writing comes in his treatment of the Afghan immigrants in Freemont, California. Hosseini conveys well the mixture of loss, nostalgia, pride, and occasional wiliness of exiles from a lost homeland. His portrayal of Baba, his father, is a tribute to the innumerable refugee-immigrants to America who have had to start all over after losing everything in their native countries. Returning food-stamps to the social services office immediately after being hired at a gas station, Baba explains in broken English, “Thank you, but I don’t want…I work always. In Afghanistan I work, in America I work.” At the same time, Hosseini does not shy from portraying less principled immigrants, such as Amir’s father-in-law, General Taheri, who keeps his family on welfare rather than work at a job he considers beneath him.

Another particularly admirable aspect of the novel is the way Hosseini conveys the hospitality and aristocratic mien and dignity of even the poorest Afghan people. On the road to Kabul, on his first night back in Afghanistan, Amir spends the night at the home of his driver’s (Farid) brother, Wahid. When Farid begins to speak insultingly about Amir, Wahid roars, “Farid! …Have you forgotten your manners? This is my house! Amir agha is my guest tonight and I will not allow you to dishonor me like this!” At suppertime, Amir and Farid are served alone, and Wahid explains that his family had already eaten. Amir later realizes that this was a lie and that the family had gone hungry so that the guests could eat.

The weakest portions of The Kite Runner are some of the long tedious passages on Amir’s life in California, and the book could certainly have been improved with better editing. To give one just one example, after Amir explains his father’s affection for Ronald Reagan following Reagan’s denunciation of the Soviet Union as the “evil empire,” we are informed by the narrator that Baba’s and Amir’s neighbors were “exactly the sort of blue-collar people who would soon suffocate under the pillow Reaganomics pressed to their faces.”

If The Kite Runner is not entirely successful as a work of literature, it is perhaps because its large ambition (the novel, in 329 pages, engages with themes of childhood, love, betrayal, war, Islam, and redemption, among others) is not yet within grasp of the author, for whom The Kite Runner was his first novel. (I have not read Hosseini’s second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns.) Despite its weaknesses however, it is a splendid achievement for a first-time novelist and the author is fully deserving of the accolades he has received for bringing to life for millions of readers around the world the beauty, dignity, and tragedy of Afghanistan and her people.

Are you interested in writing a book review for the Library Link? If so, please contact Harold Henkel at harohen@regent.edu.

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Marta Lee

Library faculty Marta Lee co-presented a workshop entitled “Peer-review 101: get ready to make your mark” at the American Library Association's Off-Campus Library Services Conference in Salt Lake City on April 23rd. The workshop dealt with the different aspects of editing manuscripts for scholarly publications.



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