Streaming Ethnography Videos: Database trial from now until Feb. 9 2015

Each year, the library sets up a number of database trials which allow us to evaluate databases we may want to acquire in the future. These trials are accessible by students, faculty, staff, and alumni. For the next month, please check out the Ethnography Videos trial.

If you are interested in indigenous practices, you may find this collection of videos very helpful. If you search for the word 'spiritual,' many interesting videos pop up in the results list. Please note that the trial will end on Feb. 9th. Please send us feedback about this at refdesk@sofia.edu.

More about the Ethnography Videos Collection from the site:

Ethnographic Video Online is a comprehensive online resource for the study of human culture, behavior and society around the world. The collections contain over 1,300 hours of streaming video, including ethnographic films, documentaries, select feature films, and previously unpublished fieldwork. It’s also a resource for a study of the discipline itself: By placing examples of traditional ethnographic methodologies alongside indigenous-made films representing previously overlooked perspectives, scholars, teachers and students of anthropology can gain a sense of the discipline’s history and of its future direction.

We Feel Fine: Visualizing Emotions?

The web has given us many opportunities to look at our world and ourselves in new ways. With social networks and other media, we have tools to share how we are feeling 24/7. One research group has attempted to capture that zeitgeist in an interactive data visualization project.

We Feel Fine allows you to look at data about our emotions. Clusters form around keywords and demographic information. The site is playful: you can mouse over the opening screen dots to see what words have been used. Selecting Murmurs will load individual status descriptions onto the screen. The section labelled Mounds is actually a chart with jello-like mounds representing how many people have used a particular word to describe their state of mind.

While the site has a playful feel, the implications are deep. Does this really represent our emotional lives? What should we do with these insights? There is something tremendous and unprecedented in this project even if it is limited. In some ways it validates our depths. There is more to us than just the surface. It shows us how little we can know without someone being willing to share. When you see that thousands of individuals have used the keyword crying to describe their state, it tells us something. We feel better when we see that the keyword most used is better.

It is a site worth checking out. With 10 years of data, they add thousands of new emotion descriptions every day.

Library Catalog Downtime Today

EOS, our library catalog provider, updated our library catalog software yesterday. Due to some issues, the catalog is down today. EOS Support will get the catalog back up and running as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience!

If you need help, email us at refdesk@sofia.edu

Library Hours Shortened Today Due to Weather

Although the San Francisco Bay Area storms that were predicted today were lighter than anticipated--at least so far--the library's open hours have been shortened today to 10am to 2pm. We will still be virtually available! Please reach us by email at refdesk@sofia.edu if you need help. We will be back to our normal hours tomorrow, December 12.

Today: Databases Available on Campus Only

Today, IT is working on servers and our databases won't be available off campus for the day. After that, we will be back up and better than ever!

If you need to email us today, please email us at sofiauniversitylibrary@gmail.com or wait until tomorrow. 

Check out our database access links if you can make it  campus:

http://sofialibrary.blogspot.com/p/today-campus-only-access-to-library.html

Make the Most of Ebrary E-books

 We often get asked about how to best use ebrary, our largest e-book collection. Here is a handy infographic that spells out the options:

How do I read e-books in ebrary?
Option 1: Read online in your browser. Just find the book you want, click on the title, and click on Read Online. Take advantage of the Bookshelf and other features.
Option 2: Download chapters. Click on Read Online, then select the print icon. It will create an image PDF which you can save/print. Limit of pages per day varies by book. Keep forever.
Option 3: Download complete book. You can download and open in Adobe Digital Editions or Bluefire. The e-book will expire in 7-14 days. Most books allow this option. 

View/download a larger version of the infographic here.

Ready to read? Go to ebrary now.

New Students: Free Library Downloads in the Portal

Most of the library's main resources are found through the library's website, but two resources are actually found in the Sofia University Portal.


Go directly to the portal: https://portal.sofia.edu/ics/


Log in and click on the Student Services link.


Toward the bottom of the Student Services page is a section labeled Library Resource Packet. The following items are available for download.


APA Guide to Electronic References - this is a PDF of a guide to citing electronic sources. We purchased the license so that every student, staff and faculty member could download and use/print a copy.


Endnote Software - Endnote is powerful citation management software. We have a site license for every student, staff and faculty member. It is available for Mac and PC. Please follow the instructions for download.


The reason we stored them in the portal is to make them readily available to new students while still honoring our contract agreements with the providers.


If you have questions, please email us at refdesk@sofia.edu.