Let Your Mouse Clicks Be Heard: Re-Envisioning The UC Berkeley Library Survey

Say goodbye to those ol’ coke bottle glasses because the Library is going Lasik, baby. The future is here, and the Library wants to hear from you about what it might look like. So, take the Re-Envisioning The UC Berkeley Library online survey. The survey can be found on the Re-Envisioning The UC Berkeley Library webpage. The undergraduate version should take about 5 minutes; the other versions are likely to take around 10 to 15 minutes. The survey closes on May 31, 2012. Let Your mouse clicks be heard!


Our Trash, Your Treasure: Free Literary Journals and Magazines For the Taking in Graduate Services

History journals free for the public to take were put on the shelves as you walk into Graduate Services a few years ago. And they pretty much sat there until we removed them from the shelves six months ago. Not one to learn from our past actions, Graduate Services has once again graced these shelves with more, yet different, journals. And some popular magazines. Old issues of The Paris Review and other literary and poetry journals are now up on these shelves for you to take home with you as you enter or leave Graduate Services. There are also older issues of some popular magazines on these shelves too: National Geographic, Vanity Fair, The New York Times Book Review and Magazine to name four. Lots of one off issues of older poetry journals too. I mean like 1980s old. When Robert Pinsky and Stephen Greenblatt were teaching here old. But where did these come from you ask? Don’t worry, we’re not pulling these journals and magazines from the UC Berkeley library collection. No, these are duplicative copies donated from our sibling library, the Morrison Reading Room. And with the Library Book Store closing, they might be past their prime down there, but we have the shelf space for them right up here in Graduate Services. Come in and grab a few. You probably won’t regret it.


Summer in Alaska: Winter Break Hours in Graduate Services

Starting December 18th and going through January 15th, Graduate Services will have abbreviated hours. Graduate Services will be open Monday through Friday, 10am to 5pm. A month of no nights or weekends. That said, Graduate Services will probably then be like Alaska in the summer this next month. They don’t have weekends there do they? If you have any other questions, I hope our hours online can help you out. They can be found here. Have fun winter breaking.


For Your Dissertation Writing Pleasure: Renovation of the Dissertation Writer’s Room

About a year ago, the room in the back of Graduate Services was christened the Dissertation Writer’s Room (brevity is the soul of wit, so it’s the DWR from here on out). It was a room. You could definitely work on a dissertation while in this room. And that was about it. There wasn’t really much more to say about the room, though I tried and probably said too much (no, not soulful or witty in the least). Well, now I don’t have to try to say something about the DWR, because there is a lot to be said about it. Feedback from doctoral students using the room has led to the room’s renovation this summer, and now it is ready to be used by all users who are doctoral candidates working on their dissertation. New tables, chairs, shades, lamps, rugs, paint, prints, and most of all, lockers. Yes, say hello to lockers to put your stuff into if you are a doctoral candidate working on your dissertation, and goodbye to the drag it was of dragging that bag full of books and your computer back and forth between your place and Graduate Services.

Now, there are 24 lockers of which 19 can be checked-out for an academic year, while the remaining five can be checked-out for the day. Lockers are issued on a first come, first served basis. Keys to the lockers can be checked out at the Graduate Services circulation desk if you are a doctoral candidate working on your dissertation. And only at the Graduate Services circulation desk. And only if you are a doctoral candidate working on your dissertation. You won’t find the keys to these lockers anywhere else. And we won’t check them out to anyone else but doctoral candidates working on their dissertation. So, come on in and get them while they’re here. It’s what you wanted. We know. You told us.

 


Hubba-Hubba: Research Hub Is Here For You To Connect To With Others.

Below is a message from the Graduate School of Education about a new web-based enviroment that would probably be better to spend time in than Second Life. That is if you want to get some collaborative research done that might be recognized by your department.

 

We are pleased to announce the release of Research Hub, a web-based environment that provides powerful and easy-to-use tools for collaborating with colleagues, and organizing and enriching research data. Research Hub was developed by the Research and Content Technologies (RCT) department of Information Services and Technology (IST).  It is envisioned as a hub for active research, connecting campus researchers to other scholars, online collections, analytical and visualization tools, publication portals, and archival repositories.

With Research Hub you can:

  • Quickly create sites for your research teams and projects. Built-in wikis, blogs, discussion forums, and other tools support group communication.
  • Organize your content using folders, tags, comments, and descriptive information.
  • Browse documents using thumbnail images and document previews.
  • Use full-text search and advanced filtering to find what you’re looking for, fast!

Additional projects underway include:

  • Guest IDs for off-campus colleagues.
  • Integration with California Digital Library archive and preservation services.
  • Connection to scholarly collections, such as Early English Books Online, HathiTrust, and the Perseus Collection.

All data is safely stored in the UC Berkeley data center and can be accessed from anywhere, via desktop, laptop, or mobile device.  A basic, no charge, account includes 10 GB of storage, but additional storage is available for purchase.  Contact hub@berkeley.edu for more information.

Research Hub is one of a number of IST initiatives designed to support research at UC Berkeley. It is available to all current faculty, students, and staff.  To get started, go to the Research Hub website–hub.berkeley.edu–and log in with your CalNet ID.


Upgrade and Afterlife: Canon Printers are Being Replaced by Cal1Card Book Scan and Print Stations

Say goodbye to the Canon copier in Graduate Services this week, because it will be retired by the weeks end. The UC Berkeley Library’s contact with Canon ends August 31, but Graduate Services will receive its new book scan and printer station August 17th. Or so I am told. This new book scan and print station will not take the old Equitrac print cards, as it will be brought to life by Cal1Cards each time you need to delve into some duplication. But don’t fret, if you have a few bucks still jingling inside an old Equitrac card, there will be an old timer copier sitting in the Reference Hall right outside Graduate Services you can use. But make sure to use up all the change on those Equitrac cards, because all the Canon copiers will go the way of the Ford Pinto come the end of August. So, put some funds on your Cal1Card card and bring a flash drive with you to grab some duplications from the new book scan and print stations in Graduate Servcies. A loaded Cal1Card and flash drive are now the keys to your research success. More information on this newfangled process can be found right here. Enjoy.


Time is Money and Abbreviations are Gold: Intersession Hours in Graduate Services.

Yes, it is intersession time again, and sadly Graduate Services will not be open our usual hours. From August 15th to the 24th our hours will be abbreviated like a text message conversation. We will only be open from 10am-5pm Monday through Friday. But chipper up, Graduate Services will be like a good, long, old fashioned telephone conversation before you know it, as normal hours return August 25th.


Summer Deal: $10 An Hour For One Hour To Help The Library Improve Its Website Which In Turn Will Make It Easier For You To Use

The UC Berkeley Library is trying to get a better understanding of how our patrons use our website (http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/) and we need your help! We are looking for any current UC Berkeley students or faculty who would like to sit down with a Library staff member and show us how you use our site. Whether you use our site everyday, intermittently, or have never used it we’re interested in speaking with you. In exchange for about an hour of your time we’ll give you a $10 gift certificate to the FSM Cafe in Moffitt Library. We will record the session, but all recordings and data collected will only be used internally for website redesign purposes. If you are interested in helping us please email Matthew Prutsman at mprutsma@library.berkeley.edu by Thursday, July 21.


Four Days For You: Spring Break Hours in Graduate Services

Graduate Services will not be open until 9PM during the week of Spring Break (March 21-27). We will be open until 5PM though Monday through Thursday (Friday is a holiday–closed–and both Sundays bookending the break; well, the library will be closed then too (March 20 and 27)). The hours can be found here if you are wondering. Now, don’t be that way. Look at the brightside through the rain coming down: Last year we were closed the whole week and the year before that we didn’t open until 10AM. This year, if we are open, we open at 9AM. Spring Break in Graduate Services. Can you feel it? I sure can.

 

book surfing


A Room of One’s Own As Long As You Share It With A Few Others And Are Working On Your Dissertation: Announcing the Dissertation Writer’s Room in Graduate Services

Starting — or seeking to finish — work on your dissertation? Would a dedicated space encourage focus and concentration on your writing? Would being in the quiet company of fellow doctoral candidates from humanities and social science disciplines lend moral support to your efforts?

Graduate Division Dean Andrew Szeri and Doe Library’s Graduate Services staff are pleased to offer a new space dedicated to doctoral students advanced to candidacy: the Dissertation Writer’s Room, opening Monday, June 21, 2010, in 215 Doe. 

Located at the rear of Graduate Services at 208 Doe Library, DWR hours will be the hours Graduate Services is open. Currently and during each semester, Graduate Services hours are Monday through Thursday, 9AM-9PM; Friday, 9AM-5PM; and Sunday, 1PM-9PM. Graduate Services hours change during intersession periods, but current hours can always be found here. As Graduate Services is reserved for the exclusive use of UCB graduate students, faculty, and staff, please remember to bring your UCB ID to show when you enter 208 Doe. 

The DWR’s current capacity accommodates six students using the study tables and two using the reading chairs; this will be expanded as utilization increases. AirBears enables wireless Internet connections. 

Overall, Doe’s Graduate Services is a study space for graduate students, housing ~25,000 volumes and a reserve library for graduate courses in the humanities and social sciences. The core collection comprises standard editions of core texts, works of major theorists, titles on Master’s exams reading lists, and other materials heavily used by graduate students in the humanities and social sciences. Graduate Services also houses the Modern Authors Collection (XMAC), comprised of the works of major 20th century English, American, and Anglophone literary authors,and a small collection of English and foreign language dictionaries. More information about the Graduate Services collections and its policies can be found here.

By the way, in addition to the study spaces in Graduate Services, study carrels in the Gardner (MAIN) Stacks can be reserved by graduate students. Graduate students may apply at the Doe Circulation Desk for these carrels, and books from the Gardner (MAIN) Stacks may be charged out and kept in the carrels.

We hope you will check out this new space over the summer and in the coming academic year. Your feedback is most welcome; please write to graddean@berkeley.edu.