RefWorks 2.0—RefWorks’ new interface—is now the default for Queen’s users! The new, easy-to-navigate interface will make managing and sharing your research even easier. Your favourite features, including Write-N-Cite, are still available. In fact, additions such as the “My List” folder option and the ability to create subfolders enhance already-popular features like RefShare and Create Bibliography.

The traditional interface—RefWorks Classic—will be available until the end of December, 2011. Until then, you may return to Classic by clicking the “Login using RefWorks Classic” link on the RefWorks login center page. Alternately, once you have logged in to RefWorks 2.0, you can click on the “RefWorks Classic” link at the top right of the page to set your default to RefWorks Classic. You will be able to switch between Classic and 2.0 until RefWorks Classic is completely phased out.

For more detailed information, please see the RefWorks 2.0^BETA Quick Start Guide, the RefWorks 2.0 demo, or the RefWorks 2.0 FAQs. For more information about RefWorks in general, or to sign up for an account, please go to http://library.queensu.ca/help/refworks.

Please do not hesitate to contact Jennifer Szwec, Academic Public Services Intern at Bracken Health Sciences Library, with any questions you may have about RefWorks Classic or 2.0: bracken.library@queensu.ca.

QLC Student Assistants 2011-2012

Job Description

As a Learning Commons Student Assistant, you will share your experience and enthusiasm for learning and research with other students and staff in the Learning Commons. You provide orientation and consultation services during assigned shifts in the Learning Commons, and work as a member of a team that provides ideas for Learning Commons services and programmes.

Learning Commons Student Assistants have a broad knowledge of all services and resources offered in the Learning Commons (research, IT support, learning strategies, writing and adaptive technology centre).They have a good understanding of electronic services and software in the Learning Commons and on the campus network, and they know how to use and support the major tools.

Responsibilities

1. Offer assistance to users and provide a welcoming, informative and learner-centred environment, at the Learning Commons information desks and throughout the Commons (this also includes giving tours of the Learning Commons).
2. Assist students with the use of computers, printers, scanners and software in the Learning Commons.
3. Assist students with Library orientation, navigating the Library’s website and using major electronic library resources and services, and refer them to the appropriate specialist for research support.
4. Offer workshops in MS Word, Excel, Power Point and HTML.
5. Assist students with QCARD access, setting up their Qlink accounts, email access, locations of wireless connections and other computer facilities, and self-service help on the IT Support Centre website; refer students to the IT Support Centre as appropriate.
6. Provide information about the services of the Writing Centre, Learning Strategies Development and Adaptive Technology Centre, and refer to the specialists / peer volunteers in those areas as appropriate.
7. Be familiar with campus resources and academic programs and services and refer accordingly.
8. Attend mandatory team meetings, participate in training (online and in person), development session on an as needed basis, and contribute ideas for the further development of Learning Commons services and programs.

Qualifications

• Must be a Queen’s student
• Excellent communication, interpersonal and presentation skills
• Strong commitment to service (Customer service skills)
• Information and computer/technological skills
• Experience as a student using library resources and services
• Knowledge of Queen’s and Kingston Community
• Ability to work effectively in a team environment

This year, we will encourage our successful candidates to apply for 2011-2012 Work Study

Please submit:

1. A completed job application (download the form, which is available in Word format, and save your completed copy) and résumé:
   • Job Application Form
2. Send the completed form and résumé to pattersp@queensu.ca (Patrick Patterson, Learning Commons Assistant).

Queen’s University is now a member of FADIS, the Federated Academic Digital Imaging System. This is a shared, free-to-members repository of art and architecture images. More specifically:

FADIS is learning management and courseware system developed for image based teaching of art and architecture. The goal of FADIS is the creation of a freely available common repository and delivery system for education and research available to contributing institutions.

You need to be a member of the Queen’s community in order to get a login name and password for access: please contact the Queen’s administrator for details.

A group exhibition of books, book objects and works on paper is on display at the W.D. Jordan Special Collections and Music Library this Fall.  The exhibit, titled The Nature of Words, features work by Reg Beatty, Sigrid Blohm, Wendy Cain, Mira Coviensky, Margaret Lock, Will Rueter, and Don Taylor.

The exhibition will be on display from October 13 – December 22, 2010.

Join us for the opening reception — all are welcome to attend:

The Nature of Words Opening Reception
Wednesday October 13 2010, 5-8pm
W.D. Jordan Special Collections and Music Library
(2nd floor, Douglas Library Building)

At 5:30pm: an introduction to the exhibition by Margaret Lock
At 6pm: an illustrated lecture on paper-pulp painting techniques by Wendy Cain

Light refreshments (tea, coffee, cookies) will be served.  A 50-page catalogue is available at the Jordan Library information desk for $15.

W.D. Jordan Library hours: Mon-Thurs 9-9; Fri 9-5; Sat-Sun 1-5

September 8 – October 6, 2010

W.D. Jordan Special Collections and Music Library
Second Floor, Douglas Library
93 University Avenue (at Union)
Mon-Thu 9am-9pm; Fri 9:00-5:00; Sat-Sun 1:00-5:00

Selected items from the personal collection of Robertson Davies, one of Canada’s most celebrated authors.

In addition to numerous first editions and signed copies, many volumes are richly annotated in Davies’ hand – providing fascinating insight into the personality and thoughts of a truly distinguished “man of letters.”

Open to the public.

Are you interested in working in a campus library during the 2010/11 academic year? We have a variety of positions available for students who qualify for the Queen’s Work Study Program.

For more information:

Visit our Student Employment Opportunities website and contact us soon!

The Library now has access to the Garland Encyclopedia of World Music.  According to the publisher, the Garland Encyclopedia of World Music online is a comprehensive online resource devoted to music research of all the world’s peoples.  Each volume contains an overview of a geographic region, a survey of its musical heritage, and a description of specific musical genres, practices, and performances. Articles include detailed photographs that show musicians, musical instruments, and the cultural context of dances, rituals, and ceremonies. Other images include drawings, maps, and musical examples for further study. Contains the full text of the 10 volume print encyclopedia (originally published in 1997), which is searchable all together for the first time.

Curated by Professor Gwynn Dujardin, Queen’s Department of English Language and Literature

June 1 – August 31, 2010

W.D. Jordan Special Collections and Music Library
Second Floor, Douglas Library
93 University Avenue (at Union)
M-F 8:30-4:30 excluding holidays
 
As computer technology now enables anyone with internet to contribute their insight into the English lexicon, this exhibition traces the history of the English dictionary, from medieval glossaries and Renaissance hard word lists, through the painstaking efforts of Samuel Johnson, James Murray, and Noah Webster, up to English-Arabic dictionaries produced after 9/11 and wiki websites in perpetual production online.

How did the dictionary emerge in England, and evolve over the next four centuries? How do dictionaries both reflect and shape the culture in which they are produced? How do English dictionaries differ in England, Canada, the US and other English-speaking countries, and how do they represent the language of national and transnational subcultures?  Answering these questions and more, the exhibit displays over 50 volumes from Queen’s collections, featuring:

• Rare publications from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
• First editions of Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language, the New English Dictionary (aka the Oxford English Dictionary), and Noah Webster’s Compendium of American English
• Volumes from Queen’s extensive collection of indigenous language dictionaries
• Specialized dictionaries of slang and regional English
• An interactive computer terminal with online dictionary sites

The exhibition opens to accompany the English Dictionaries in Cultural and Historical Context Conference (June 3-5, 2010), organized by Queen’s Department of English Language and Literature and the Strathy Language Unit.

Professor Dujardin believes the exhibit will appeal to more than local bookworms and armchair lexicographers. “This exhibition tells us what has mattered about English around the globe for the past four centuries,” she says.

Visitors are welcome during library hours.  Guided tours may be arranged by contacting:

Gwynn Dujardin
dujardin@queensu.ca
(613) 533-6000 ext. 74442

Queen’s Library has acquired the personal library of the late Robertson Davies, the celebrated Canadian author, playwright, theatre critic and journalist.

Davies is one of Canada’s best known and most popular authors.  His writings include Murther and Walking Spirits, The Lyre of Orpheus, and the award-winning Deptford Trilogy.

“Robertson Davies had a long association with Queen’s” says Principal Daniel Woolf.  “In addition to the honorary degree conferred upon him in 1962, he studied here in the early 1930’s and cultivated his roots in journalism as an active contributor to The Queen’s Journal.  The University is delighted to provide a new home for his remarkable personal library in its entirety.”

The collection comes to Queen’s through a combined purchase and gift arrangement.  Funds to secure the acquisition were provided by the Chancellor Richardson Memorial Fund, which serves to enhance scholarly research and teaching across a broad spectrum of Canadian studies at Queen’s.

“The collection reflects Davies’ deep interests in literature, literary criticism, art, music, theatre, theatre criticism, theatre biography and autobiography, film, drama, history and psychology,” says Professor Brian Osborne, Chair of the Chancellor Richardson Memorial Fund Committee.  “In addition to numerous first editions and signed copies, many of the volumes are annotated in Davies’ hand.   It is truly a remarkable collection, offering fascinating insights into the mind of one of Canada’s great literary luminaries.”

Housed in the W. D. Jordan Special Collections and Music Library, located on the second floor of Douglas library, Davies’ broad organization of the collection has also been maintained.  The items will be shelved according to room order in which they were kept at Windhover, the Davies’ country home in Caledon Hills.

“This collection is quite unlike any other authors’ library I know of” says Paul Wiens, University Librarian.  “We are thrilled to be able to make it available to students and scholars, who will undoubtedly find the items in the collection tremendously fascinating.”

The W.D. Jordan Special Collections and Music Library is open to the public.  Special collections items may be viewed in the Library’s reading room upon request; scholars requiring access to browse the full Davies collection may apply for an appointment.  A public exhibition of items from the collection will take place later this year.

Additional information is available at: library.queensu.ca/robertsondavies.  Please consult the library website for hours and additional information on the W.D. Jordan Special Collections and Music Library.

A Dickens of a Holiday

Selected holiday items and Dickens’ volumes from Special Collections, on display in Stauffer Library through the holiday period.

The Life and Work of Dr. F.R.C. Clarke

A memorial display in honour of Dr. Clarke, Professor Emeritus and former Director of Queen’s School of Music from 1981-1991, including a selection of his compositions, writings, records and ephemera from the Jordan Library collections.  Dr Clarke was a highly respected church organist, conductor, composer, educator, and expert on Dr. Healey Willan.  On display until further notice in the W.D. Jordan Special Collections and Music Library, 2nd floor of Douglas Library.