October has arrived, so here is an overview of our Reference Statistics from September.
38% Reference Questions
33% Directional Questions
20% Computer Questions
9% Other
Total RefDesk Questions: 705
Total in Sept. 2007: 607
Total in Sept. 2006: 589
Total in Sept. 2005: 578
Email Questions: 10
IM Questions: 19
Phone Questions: 33
Total Transactions by Hour:
8:00 – 9:00 7
9:00 – 10:00 15
10:00 – 11:00 55
11:00 – 12:00 35
12:00 – 1:00 49
1:00 – 2:00 70
2:00 – 3:00 58
3:00 – 4:00 80
4:00 – 5:00 66
5:00 – 6:00 48
6:00 – 7:00 55
7:00 – 8:00 65
8:00 – 9:00 59
9:00 – 10:00 42
Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read is
observed during the last week of September each year. This year it is
from Sept. 27 – Oct. 4. Observed since 1982, the annual event reminds
Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted.
Banned Books Week (BBW) celebrates the freedom to choose or the
freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be
considered unorthodox or unpopular. It stresses the importance of
ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints
to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist
only where these two essential conditions are met.
Between 1990 and 2000, of the 6,364 challenges reported to or recorded by the Office for Intellectual Freedom:
- 1,607 were challenges to “sexually explicit” material (up 161 since 1999)
- 1,427 to material considered to use “offensive language” (up 165 since 1999)
- 1,256 to material considered “unsuited to age group” (up 89 since 1999)
- 842 to material with an “occult theme or promoting the occult or Satanism” (up 69 since 1999)
- 737 to material considered to be “violent” (up 107 since 1999)
- 515 to material with a homosexual theme or “promoting homosexuality” (up 18 since 1999)
- 419 to material “promoting a religious viewpoint” (up 22 since 1999)
- 317 to material involving “nudity” (up 20 since 1999)
- 267 to material involving “racism” (up 22 since 1999)
- 224 to material involving “sex education” (up 7 since 1999)
- 202 to material considered to be “anti-family” (up 9 since 1999)
Links
Proclamation from the Butler Libraries
Quotes relating to Banned Books Week
Lately several librarians have been having problems with LibGuides. Specifically, things not displaying (or not displaying correctly) in Internet Explorer. I think just about all of the problems have arisen from copying/pasting from MS Word into LibGuides. Word carries with it a LOT of extra unseen code that apparently Internet Explorer doesn’t know how to handle. Ironic, since they’re both made by Microsoft.
Anyway, the solution is to NOT paste directly from Word into LibGuides. Instead, there’s a button on the LibGuides toolbar (when you’re entering text) that says “Paste from MS Word.” Use that button and paste into the text box that pops up. This will strip the pasted text of all the MS Word coding and let all web browsers display it properly.
Faculty, do you need an image for your in-class teaching? Students, would you like an example of a particular art form to go along with your class project or presentation? Then check out: Scholars Resource at: https://ezproxy.butler.edu:8443/login?url=https://content.butler.edu/index.php/
Butler Libraries, in partnership with the Global & Historical Studies core curriculum course and Information Resources, has made available a set of Scholars Resource images. The database of art images includes: painting, sculpture, architecture, and decorative arts from various time periods. This resource also includes photos
taken by Butler faculty who have traveled to various countries for teaching
research in support of Butler’s Global and Historical Studies course.
Besides the above direct link, the database is also accessible by going to the Library’s homepage: www.butler.edu/library and selecting ‘Databases’ and the ‘Full Alphabetical Database List’ link Note too, via the Library’s listing, that there is a PDF of the Scholars Resource images that can be found in the database.
Peruse this image database. It is literally an ‘Introduction to the Visual Arts,’ the images coming from the published texts: Gilbert’s “Living with Art,” 6th ed., Gardner’s “Art Through the Ages,” 11th ed., and Hartt’s “History of Italian Renaissance Art,” 4th ed.
The recent discussions about E-Books and getting to them has prompted me to create a new webpage for them. Go to the library website, click on “More Research” and you’ll see a new E-Books link under the Catalogs category. Please take a look and provide some input on the following questions.
1. Does this page suffice for gathering E-Book links?
2. Is anything missing that should be on this page?
3. Should we add a link to this page on the FRONT page? (Do we want to promote them enough to put a link on the front page of the website?)
4. What about “databases” that are more like “e-books?” (Compare Oxford Music Online, World Almanac, etc.)
5. Should we remove items like Credo Reference and NetLibrary from the “Databases” list and only have them on the “E-Books” list?
6. Any other questions or concerns?
Thanks very much for helping us improve this service.
Scott
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