Know any other appearances of the Duke Libraries on film?

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As the other floors open later in the summer, we will see materials move out of temporary quarters in the Perkins Levels; other books will spread out from the over-full shelves in Perkins Lower Level 2.

To keep up-to-date on the locations of call numbers, always consult our Book Locations for Perkins/Bostock, and if you have any trouble finding things, Ask a Librarian for help.

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(But if it does inspire you to appreciate your librarian this week, go for it!)

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Another school (Georgia Tech) set up a system like this, and a student cartoonist in their paper replied with the following:

If you are uncomfortable asking someone to give up a computer even though she is hanging out on Facebook and you really need the statistical software because your paper is due at 5pm, ask a librarian at the desk. We can find you an open computer or help remind others that people using the library computers for academic work should have priority.

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Last night about 50 students took a study break and came down to the computer classroom in the basement of Bostock Library to play video games. If was the first of what we hope will become a series of game nights in the library.

Our friends in ISIS and the Dean of Students Office brought over a couple of XBox 360 consoles, a Wii, a Playstation2, and a Playstation3, along with some high end desktop computers for gaming. Most importantly, though, they also brought a complete set of instruments for the game Rock Band. We rearranged some of the tables in the classroom, projected the game consoles onto big screens, turned up the volume, and transformed the room into a concert hall and gaming room for one night.

Students “rocked the ’stock” for about 3 hours to the tunes of Iron Maiden, R.E.M., Soundgarden, Boston, Bang Camaro, and more. Others played Halo3, FIFA 06, Atari Anthology, Brawl, Wii Sports, and other video games, while snacking on pizza and soft drinks courtesy of the game night’s three sponsors, the ISIS Program, Duke Libraries, and the Dean of Students Office.

Check out these photo sets in Flickr and a set of short videos in YouTube for a better taste of the evening.

• Game Night!! - Flickr photoset
• Game night at the library - Flickr photoset
• More game night photos - Flickr photoset
• Game night at Bostock Library - YouTube videos

We hope you’ll come out and join the fun too next time…

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Laptop thefts are a financial blow to students, but they often cause academic harm as well. Many students do not regularly back up their files, so the loss of a laptop can mean the loss of projects and papers you haven’t turned in yet.

Sometimes it feels like we’ve seen it all at the Reference Desk (there was the squirrel living in a trash can on Perkins 4 one spring), but we never get used to the heartbreak of seeing students who have lost significant work. I’d estimate that laptop theft is the number 2 cause of loss of student work; the number one cause we see is saving to the desktop of a public computer, then getting logged out (which wipes the desktop of all files). Take the time to back up your files, and keep your belongings with you. It’s worth it.

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You have automatic access to all the library’s article databases and other resources while you are home (or in Myrtle Beach.) Use the “database search” box on the library home page to find the resource you need, and when you click through to it you will be prompted for your NetID and password. More information on remote access is here.

We’re here for questions via email, IM, and phone. We’ll be keeping short hours during the week, but if you email overnight we’ll get back to you first thing in the morning.

For those staying in town, come on by! We’re only open days, but we’d love to see you.

(Photo of Myrtle Beach taken by Curtis and Eric, found at Flickr, and used under a Creative Commons license.)

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Can’t find a seat in the Carpenter Reading Room or The Perk at the Pavilion? Try one of these more out-of-the-way study spots:

Lower Level 2 Perkins, with soft seating and wooden tables
Lower Level 1, the connector between Perkins and Bostock, has a computer cluster and a few tables
Bostock 4 has open carrels along the windows facing the Fitzpatrick center and some of the less-used group study rooms
The Old Perk, located outside the Gothic Reading Room, is a great space for groups to meet and talk
Tower Room 201 on Perkins 2 opens to evening student use towards the end of the semester, and is available during the day if not booked for library meetings

When the upper floors of Perkins open this coming summer, there will be an increase in study seating and group study rooms. If you’ll be here next fall, come by and stretch out.

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But what I really want to get at is the human element. There is talk of the future irrelevance of a Reference Desk, if not the actual Reference librarians, whose minds presumably will be accessible in other modes and places. Here’s an excerpt from the TAIGA Forum Provocative Statements:

Within the next five years…There will no longer be reference desks or reference offices in the library. Instead, public services staff offices will be located outside the physical library.

Or, to expand on this line of reasoning:

If the truth be known, as a place to get help in finding information, the reference desk was never a good idea. A reference librarian standing behind a desk waiting for someone to say, “I can’t find what I’m looking for; can you help?” might be justifiable if, as is the case with other service professionals, that librarian was the reason the person came to the building to begin with. But reference librarians have not served so central a function. They have stood ready to help “just in case”-just in case navigating the building isn’t clear, just in case the catalog doesn’t produce wanted results, just in case the collections seem not to contain the desired material or information. In short, reference service-in particular point-of-need reference service-has been an afterthought, something to be considered after the building’s signage or the finding aids or the collections fail the user.
(Anne G. Lipow, “Point of Need Reference Service: no longer an afterthought,” in ALA-RUSA The Future of Reference Services Papers)

Do you come to the Reference Desk for f2f consultation with a librarian? Why or why not?

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Photo by absent.canadian from the Photo Scavenger Hunt - any interest in doing a new hunt in the new semester?

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