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Showing posts from August, 2007

Special Library Hours

In observance of Labor Day, the library will be closed on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, September 1-3. The library will be open Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, September 4-6, 7am – 8pm; and Friday, September 7, 7am – 5 pm. Hours for the Academic year will begin on Saturday, September 8. Saturday, 12 noon – 5 pm Sunday, 12 noon – 12 midnight Monday through Thursday, 7 am – 12 midnight Friday, 7 am – 5 pm

Goodbye Mica

Oregonized Dakota Mica RN Hearing Dog SEP-12-1993 / August 25 2007 Mica arrived in Rapid City on Halloween Day 1993 via Delta Dash. By Christmas break she was coming to work at the library ½ days to begin learning her new job. By summer of 1994 she was working full time on campus. She continued to work on campus until she retired for medical reasons in the summer of 2004 (that’s more than 70 dog years!) In her off duty time she enjoyed rally, loved heeling to music, and humored me by participating in agility. Mica spent her retirement years helping to teach Trooper (Oregonized Weekend Warrior) what he needed to know to be a hearing dog and helping my mom around the house. She will be missed.

In the News -- SD floods

SDSMT Campus June 1972. Flash floods made headlines locally in the wake of last weeks thunderstorms. Many older residents of the area vividly recall "The Flood" and are relieved to see that the floodplain worked in Rapid City. A look at the situation on Battle Creek reminds us that things can get bad in a hurry. http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2007/08/21/news/top/doc46cb703cb5b23535795898.txt For books about "The 1972 Flood" , for flash floods in general , for journal articles about recent floods and flooding http://firstsearch.oclc.org/ (GeoRefS, EnvironmentS, and GEOBASE) If you are looking for journal and archival information about The 1972 Flood you may want to contact the library staff for assistance.

Reading at Risk -- cont.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20381678/ One in four adults read no books last year "There it sits on your night stand, that book you’ve meant to read for who knows how long but haven’t yet cracked open. Tonight, as you feel its stare from beneath that teetering pile of magazines, know one thing — you are not alone."

Reading at Risk

NEA's Reading at Risk reported that less than 1/2 of American Adults read literature. Full report . The report describes the benefits of reading for pleasure to the individual reader and society. Patrick Welsh, an English teacher at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Va., tells us in USA Today that his students struggle to with "required reading"and suggests that teachers “start leading kids to books that will truly engage them — and not just the classics.” The Devereaux Library has been using the http://www.goodreads.com/ website in an attempt to lead our students “to books that will truly engage them — and not just the classics.” Cornell University has a “ New Student Reading Project ” which attempts to address the problem by having the entire incoming undergraduate class read and discuss a work of literature which “stays with you. When we pick up a great book, we are entering into a new world that has been crafted and expressed in a very personal way. It is a

Devereaux to appear on national television!

Mark your calendar! Program your video recorder! Join us at the library! On Monday, August 20, PBS is scheduled to air the History Detectives investigation that was filmed in part at the Devereaux Library. The series is aired on South Dakota Public Television Mondays, 7 pm MDT. Last May detective Gwen Wright and crew traveled to the Black Hills to investigate a curious letter written by Mount Rushmore sculptor Gutzon Borglum to Lakota leader James Red Cloud. Resources at the library were used to help solve the mystery. The main floor of the library will be open Monday evening for this event. Come join us - we’ll be watching History Detectives on the big screen. Highlights of this episode may be viewed at http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/index.html

In the News -- Computers

From the airports we fly into, the music we listen to, to the ballots we vote with computers impact every aspect of modern life. Now, we are told that computers very likely will bring the terrorists to our living rooms. Many good books provide more in depth information about the computers in our lives. Some are: Brave new ballot , Does the Internet Increase the Risk of Crime? , Cyber terrorism : political and economic implications , Internet forensics , Fighting terror in cyberspace , Inescapable data : harnessing the power of convergence , No place to hide Other books can be located by searching your library catalog or by searching worldcat.org Many journal articles about computers and computing can be located by using one of Devereaux Library's Periodical Databases such as Engineering Index . For assistance selecting the right database for your particular search, contact the library staff .

Which book are you?

Take this fun (and short!) quiz, and if you don't like your results, go back and change one answer and it will take you through an entirely different path. Apparently I'm "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." The quiz includes html you can use on your networking page or blog. http://bluepyramid.org/ia/bquiz.htm Source: http://testpattern.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/08/13/311645.aspx

In the News -- Crandall Canyon Mine

Looking for more technical information than is commonly found in news reports ? Try the Mine Safety and Health Administration pages for this incident or the general MSHA page. For books about previous mine accidents, try worldcat.org . Some books you might want to check out are: Death underground : the Centralia and West Frankfort mine disasters, The deep dark : tragedy and redemption in America's richest silver mine, Fire and brimstone : the North Butte mining disaster of 1917 Last man out [the story of the Springhill Mine Disaster] For general coal mining information search Worldcat.org for coal mines and mining . A couple of books, recently added to the Devereaux Library, Hard at the rock itself and Hole in the Ground with a Liar at the Top: Fraud and Deceit in the Golden Age of American Mining are worth a look as well. The Devereaux Library also has a number of mining and geology related databases and journals. For research assistance contact the library.

In the News -- I35W

I don't know about you, but I tend to take many of the engineering marvels that surround me for granted. It rarely crosses my mind that the building I'm in might fall over, or that the bridge I'm driving on might collapse. This is, of course a tribute to the engineers, architects and construction crews who designed and built the structures that surround me. The I35W collapse brings to mind other infamous crashes. Some of them are very well known, such as the Tacoma Narrows Bridge others are less well known, but no less interesting. To find out more, check your local library catalog under the subject Bridge failures . You might also use the catalog to find books by Henry Petroski who writes excellent books about engineering and engineering failures. You could also check Engineering Index (you must be on the SDSM &T campus to use this link) and Wilson's Applied Science and Technology Index (also SDSM&T campus only) for technical information about bridge

Scirus Scientific Search Engine

Scirus is the most comprehensive science-specific search engine on the Internet. Driven by the latest search engine technology, Scirus searches over 415 million science-specific Web pages, enabling you to quickly: •Pinpoint scientific, scholarly, technical and medical data on the Web. •Find the latest reports, peer-reviewed articles, patents, pre prints and journals that other search engines miss. •Offer unique functionalities designed for scientists and researchers. http://www.scirus.com/