Author and Activist Gloria Steinem on campus!

Writer and activist Gloria Steinem kicks off MTSU’s celebration of National Women’s History Month.

On Tuesday, March 2 she will deliver the keynote address at 4:30 p.m. in the Tennessee Room of the James Union Building. (the lecture is free and open to the public. Call the June Anderson Women’s Center at 615-898-2193 for more info).

Steinem, co-founder of Ms. magazine, also helped to found the Women’s Action Alliance, a national organization dedicated to nonsexist, multiracial children’s education, and the National Women’s Political Caucus, a group that strives to increase the numbers of pro-equality women in elected and appointed offices at all levels of government. A 1956 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Smith College, Steinem is collaborating with her alma mater’s Sophia Smith Collection on a project to document the grass roots origins of the U.S. women’s movement.

To get more information on Gloria Steinem check out these Library resources:

Title: Marilyn

Call Number: 791.43 M75, St3, 1986

Location: Walker Library 3rd Floor - Main Collection

Title: Moving beyond words

Call Number: 305.42 St35m

Location: Walker Library 2nd Floor - Main Collection

Title: Outrageous acts and everyday rebellions

Call Number: 305.4 St3o

Location: Walker Library 2nd Floor - Main Collection

Title: Revolution from within: A book of self-esteem

Call Number: 155.2 St3r

Location: Walker Library 2nd Floor - Main Collection

Title: Beyond killing us softly : The strength to resist

Physical Description: Videorecording

Call Number: B02383R

Location: LRC 101

Title: BEYOND KILLING US SOFTLY : THE STRENGTH TO RESIST THE IMPACT OF MEDIA IMAGES ON WOMEN AND GIRLS

Physical Description: Videorecording

Call Number: H08401a

Location: LRC 101

Title: Feminism and Democracy

Physical Description: Sound Recording

Call Number: A00178a

Location: LRC 101

Title: Gloria Steinem : the distinguished journalist discusses women, racism, war & politics. Physical Description: Sound Recording

Call Number: A00113a

Location: LRC 101

Other Links of Interest:

http://www.gale.cengage.com/free_resources/whm/bio/steinem_g.htm

http://www.biography.com/articles/Gloria-Steinem-9493491

http://www.feminist.com/gloriasteinem/

http://www.equalitynow.org/

http://www.feminist.org/

http://www.ms.foundation.org/

http://www.msmagazine.com/

http://www.vday.org/

http://www.womensmediacenter.com/

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mindykittay/ / CC BY 2.0

'>Flickr

Protect Your Stuff

Caution! There has been a recent increase in thefts in the library. Never leave your backpack, books, or other personal belongings unattended in the library. Bad guys might steal your stuff and sell it to get money for guns, drugs, or to pay off their overdue fines.

photo credit: mag3737 on Flickr

Training: Web of Science and Web of Knowledge

Do you need to use electronic resources like Web of Science and Web of Knowledge for your classes, but you don’t quite know how to find what you need? Several online training modules have been released that may be of use to you then!

Would you prefer to take part in a live web seminar? If so you can find more information on what is offered, when the seminars are offered and sign up for the live web seminars here.

If you prefer recorded training materials that you can use at your leisure, there are many to recorded sessions on a number of databases available here. You can also find further information from Web of Science and Journal Citation Reports which may help you with other research needs.

How to take notes & study

The Academic Support Center presents:

Note Taking & Studying

Wednesday, February 17th from 3-4pm in Cummings Hall 107

OR

Tuesday, February 23rd from 4:30-5:30pm in Cummings Hall 107

Call 898-2339 if you have questions or need more information. We hope to see you there!!

For information on future Success Series presentations visit:
http://www.mtsu.edu/advising/AcademicSuccessSeries.shtml

Study: MTSU freshmen need library instruction

In a recent study, 368 of MTSU's incoming freshmen participated in Project SAILS (Standardized Assessment of Information Literacy Skills) through their Fall 2009 University Seminar classes. This project, created by researchers at Kent State University, seeks to measure undergraduates' research skills through a standardized test and compares them to students from peer institutions. The test measures eight unique skill sets:

1. developing a research strategy
2. selecting finding tools
3. searching
4. using finding tool features
5. retrieving sources
6. evaluating sources
7. documenting sources
8. understanding economic, legal, and social issues related to information

MTSU's participation in this study found that:

• MTSU's incoming freshmen score, on average, score lower than their counterparts at peer institutions on all eight skill sets.
• MTSU freshmen scored highest on selecting finding tools, but their biggest weakness was retrieving sources.
• There is a great need for teaching faculty to bring their classes to the library for library research instruction.

The Walker Library's participation in this project was funded through an MTSU Instructional Evaluation and Development Grant. A copy of the full score report can be found here:
http://library.mtsu.edu/reference/SAILS_mtsu.pdf

Questions? Please contact Jason Vance, Information Literacy Librarian, at jvance@mtsu.edu or 615-494-7871.

Display in lobby

Celebrating Black History Month

A new exhibit entitled "The Beautiful Music that Surrounds You" has been installed in the Library atrium. The nine-panel display celebrates the life of John W. Work, III, of Fisk University. He was born in 1901, in Tullahoma, Tennessee, to a family of professional musicians. He attended elementary and high school at Fisk's Daniel Hand Training School. He later earned degrees from Columbia and Yale before returning to Fisk, where he taught and directed the Jubilee Singers.

Work began composing while still in high school and continued throughout his career, completing over one hundred compositions in a variety of musical forms—for full orchestra, piano, chamber ensemble, violin and organ -- but his largest output was in choral and solo-voice music. Among many notable accomplishments was his work in recording African-American hymns and folk music in the 1930s and 1940s.

The papers, photographs and records reproduced in the display are archived at the Center for Popular Music. The exhibit was created by the Arts Center of Cannon County with support of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Tennessee Arts Commission. A companion CD of music recorded by Work has been released by Springfed Records, a project of the Arts Center.

Wanna try a netbook?

The Walker library is considering the purchase of netbooks (those teeny, tiny laptops) for students to use and we are interested to know what you think about them.

We currently have one netbook available for checkout among our regular laptop rentals. If interested, go to the Reserves Desk on the 1st floor of the library (with your I.D.) and ask to check it out. Fill out the comment card and you could win a prize.

Thanks for your help!

Black History Month

February is Black History Month. It celebrates the many contributions of African-Americans. The 2010 theme is The History of Black Economic Empowerment.

Check out our display of new books to celebrate Black History Month, located in the display cases on the 1st floor, just beyond the elevators. If you are interested in checking out these titles please check the online catalog to check the availability and get their location.

If you Need Help locating these or other items go to the Reference Desk on the 1st floor, chat with us or text us at 265010.

For more information about Black History Month activities here at MTSU click here.

Need Tax Forms?

The MTSU library does not have printed copies of the 1040 booklet or other tax forms, but never fear: you can get everything you need from the IRS website and print it off in the library computer labs.

Links to the most commonly needed forms are on the left of the screen, or you can search for other forms from the search box at the top of the page.

Not sure if you need to file a tax return? See this page.

Don't forget: Your tax return must be e-filed or postmarked by April 15.