Bridging Cultures: Muslim Journeys Bookshelf

Credit: Short sleeved kaftan with a Çintamani design (detail), Late 15th century, 117 cm, Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul, inv. No.13/6.

Thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and hard work by GPC librarians across the 5 campuses, we have the opportunity to enjoy and learn from the Muslim Journeys project, a year-long educational experience which will feature speakers, panels, films, and lots of discussion. Over 900 libraries across the country have won this award so it will be a shared national experience. The mission of Muslim Journeys is to provide “resources for exploring new and diverse perspectives on the people, places, histories, beliefs, and cultures of Muslims in the United States and around the world.”

There is something for every taste in the collection of books and movies on offer. Concepts have been organized by themes: American Stories, Connected Histories, Literary Reflections, Pathways of Faith, Points of View, and Art Spots. GPC librarians have prepared a thorough research guide as an introduction. Or, go to GIL for a list of all the items included in the collection.

Credit: Circular ornament, Iran, 16th-17th century, Steel overlaid with gold, Purchase F1940.9, by permission of the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.

In addition to the books and movies, we have access to the powerful Bridging Cultures: Muslim Journeys Bookshelf website. All of the themes include an extended web essay written by a scholar in the field. These essays really provide context to enhance the Muslim Journeys experience. Every book and movie has a short review, links to additional articles, and citation information.

Visit your GPC library and look for the Muslim Journeys Bookshelf. As we go into fall, multiple copies of the books and movies will be available. If your curiosity is piqued, get a sneak preview this summer by checking out some of the books and movies.

~Sherry Durren

iCollege on D2L: The Library is there!

When iCollege transitions to the D2L platform on May 8, library links, resources, and services will be there for you. This means iCollege will not only have a fresh new look, but the functionality should be improved and there will be some new features.  These new features include a mobile-friendly interface and the ability to set up text or e-mail notifications about assignment due dates and course announcements.

Many students enjoy the fact that they can access GALILEO through iCollege without having to know the GALILEO password.  This feature will still be available in the D2L version of iCollege, but access to GALILEO will be even easier: There will be a link to GALILEO on the top of every page!   There will also still be a link to the library website on the iCollege homepage.

Here’s how it will look:

If instructors or students want to recommend library resources in their iCollege classes, it’s easy to do!  Just follow step-by-step instruction in the Faculty Toolkit.  You can include lists of books, links to e-books and articles in GALILEO, images from Artstor, and videos from Films on Demand or American History in Video.  Library services can also be embedded or linked: Ask a Librarian chat/text service, Ask a Librarian FAQ knowledge base, Research Guides, or library video tutorials.  (One of our most popular videos gives an overview of how to use GALILEO.)

If you need extra help, of course you can always Ask a Librarian!

~Mary Ann Cullen

North Sea Journeys: The Vikings and Norse Myths

Image from Flickr Creative Commons

The Vikings have arrived at the History Channel this month and it’s the perfect time for today’s topic:  Norse Mythology and Vikings.

Norse mythology and Viking history are colorful and daring, full of battles of conquest,  plunder—human and material, and the compulsive desire to explore the world beyond the horizon.  Their need to understand the world and its mysteries are evident in their mythology.  Joseph Campbell explains why mythology is so powerful to any culture in the world, including Vikings.

“Mythology is a universal event and Mythology is not a lie, mythology is poetry, it is metaphorical. It has been well said that mythology is the penultimate truth–penultimate because the ultimate cannot be put into words. It is beyond words. Beyond images, beyond that bounding rim of the Buddhist Wheel of Becoming. Mythology pitches the mind beyond that rim, to what can be known but not told.”

― Joseph Campbell,  The Power of Myth

Georgia Perimeter College Libraries are the perfect place to begin your Viking and Norse Mythology voyage.

For books, use GIL Find. Try a “Subject” search on Vikings, Norse mythology or Norse folklore and you will find plenty of books to fire your interest.

If you want to read articles on the Vikings, Norse Mythology, Icelandic Sagas, Thor, Loki, Freyja, or any of the Norse gods try searching in GALILEO databases.   I highly recommend these databases:

GALILEO Discover Tool

 Project Muse                                                      

Bloom’s Literary Reference Online

JSTOR                                                                    

Ancient and Medieval History Online

Films on Demand                                

World History Collection

MLA International Bibliography

 In addition to GIL Find and GALILEO, there are a few select web sources you can use for research:

Encyclopedia Mythica

University of Nottingham, UK Centre for the Study of the Viking Age 

Smithsonian Institution:  Vikings: The North Atlanta Saga

If you have any questions about library sources, please stop by and see us at the Reference Desk at your Georgia Perimeter College Campus Library or visit our website : http://depts.gpc.edu/library/

~Ellen Barrow

 

Our Books are on Fire!

One of the biggest complaints we hear about the Amazon Kindle is that it does not support borrowing of library e-books. If you are a proud owner of a Kindle Fire, you’ll be happy to know that this complaint is no longer true. According to the Amazon website, more than 11,000 public libraries in the United States offer books for Kindle.  The OverDrive app for reading Kindle and ePub books is available from the Amazon Appstore.

You can use your Kindle not just for pleasure reading, but for school work too! In academic libraries, many e-books are in ePub or DRM – protected PDF formats. Installing an e-book app that supports Adobe Digital ID is your best choice if you want t0 borrow e-books from Georgia Perimeter College Libraries.

To enable the installation of apps from outside the Amazon Appstore, you need to open the settings menu on your Kindle Fire, select Device, then turn on “Allow installation of applications from unknown sources”.  Your choice of apps is endless, but here are  two that we tried and found easy to use:

Aldiko – an ePub app that offers ample formatting options and is one of the few Android apps that supports Adobe DRM e-books. You can use it to read Academic eBooks on EBSCOhost or eBooks on EBSCOhost titles. It also supports PDF files, so you can download chapters and articles from Gale Virtual Reference Library.

BlueFire Reader is familiar to iPad users, but is also available for Android and  Kindle Fire users. It supports Adobe DRM and will open ePub and PDF e-books, so it is a great choice for all GPC e-book collections.

Before downloading a library e-book, you must authorize your e-reading app with an Adobe ID.  To create an ID, visit this Adobe page.  If you have already created an Adobe ID to borrow e-books from your public library, you can use the same ID to transfer GPC Libraries e-books to your device.

For more information about GPC Libraries e-books and using them on mobile devices, please visit our E-Resources and Mobile Devices subject guide.

Take advantage of the GPC Libraries e-book collection and tell us about your experience and your favorite e-reading app.

~Sonya Slutskaya

Oxford Islamic Studies Online

The GPC Libraries have a new database!

As a part of a National Endowment for the Humanities and an American Library Association Muslim Journeys grant, Georgia Perimeter College Libraries received a one year subscription to Oxford Islamic Studies Online (OISO). [Note: If you are accessing the database from off campus, you will be prompted to enter your GPC username and password. For more information on accessing GPC resources off campus, see this page.]

OISO is an authoritative resource that provides the best current material in the field. OISO covers global Islamic history, concepts, people, practices, politics, and culture, and will help students to have a more accurate and informed understanding of the Islamic world.

Students can search a variety of resources: primary sources, images, biographies, and maps. Specialized features include a timeline, date converter, and a Qur’an verse lookup.

Take a guided tour of OISO and explore our new database!

~Amy Bursi

Using Zotero Can Make Your Next Group Project Easier

Image provided by openclipart.org

Join the Online Business Club at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, March 27^th for a webinar on a great, free citation tool called Zotero.  Zotero is an extension which can be added to the Firefox, Safari or Chrome browser to capture citation information from library catalogs, databases, and even some web pages.  It’s a great way to organize and save time doing research.  In Part One, participants learned how to set up Zotero and how to create bibliographies.  Part One Archive – Click here. (The link will take you to a Wimba room and the presentation will play. You can use any user name to log in.)

In Part Two, we’ll show how to add a Microsoft Word plug-in to insert citations into your papers and add them to a bibliography.  Additionally, we will see how you can make a group library to share resources for cooperative class projects.

Everyone in the GPC community is invited to attend.  Here’s how:

1. Go to http://www.gpc.edu/business.
2. Click on Business Clubs on the left-hand side of the page.
3. Click on Online Business Club (OBC).
4. Click on the “Live” Speaker’s Forum tab in the top menu.
5. Read the narrative beneath the link to the virtual lecture hall first; then click on the link.
6. Click on Participant Login; enter your name; and click Enter.

~Pat Ziebart

Of Primary Importance…..

Good research requires many types of resources. For example, you may be asked to include primary sources as part of your literature or history assignments.

When talking about literature, a primary source is the actual work — a novel, short story, poem, biography, or other genre of literature – that is the central focus of analysis and evaluation for the assignment. For example, if the project concerns Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield, then that book is the primary source. Any interpretations such as literary analysis articles accessed through GALILEO and online databases such as Literature Resource Center, Literary Reference Center, JSTOR, or Bloom’s Literary Reference Online are secondary sources.

When dealing with history, primary sources are original records created at the timehistorical events or incidents occur or well after the events in the form of memoirs and oral histories. “Primary sources include original manuscripts, original research or thought, diaries, memoirs, letters, journals, photographs, drawings, posters, film footage, sheet music, songs, interviews, government documents, public records, eyewitness accounts, newspaper clippings,” and other items of a similar nature. (Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science by Joan M. Reitz).

Secondary sources are the books, articles, analysis and interpretations of the original events or works. A secondary source is “any published or unpublished work that is one step removed from the original source, usually describing, summarizing, analyzing, evaluating, derived from, or based on primary source materials, for example, a review, critical analysis, second-person account, or biographical or historical study” (Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science by Joan M. Reitz). Secondary source documents are often located in books, documentaries, journals, and magazines.

To clarify, video recordings of the 2001 airplane crashes into the Twin Towers in New York are primary sources for that event. However, authors writing an article today about the 2001 airplane crashes in the Twin Towers in New York, quoting or referring to primary sources in their article, would be secondary (unless it’s a memoir or oral history that could alternatively be considered a primary source).

If you need help locating primary resources for your assignments, projects, or other research, visit our online guide Primary Sources – History or just ask one of your friendly librarians!

T. Wesley Stewart, Librarian

The images in this post are by Why Tuesday? and Snowlepard and are available under Creative Commons License.