Are You Ready to Par-tae? (for real this time)

Tomorrow night is your chance to party with SJT! Don't miss the blowout, which concludes with a massive gathering on the Mount Vernon Quad. This is your chance to send SJT out with style while enjoying food and fun and a free t-shirt. I know it will be hard for you to leave the cozy happiness that is Eckles, but it is just for a few hours and then you can come back to you favorite study spot!

You can find out more about about the House Party here: gwired.gwu.edu/gwhousing/SJTsHouseParty/

Happy Fountain Day!

Fountain Day was fun for all! The weather was (almost) perfect, the music was good and the Paradise ice cream was extra delicious. Congratulations to all of the hard working people who planned and executed such a great event!

In case you missed it (and I feel sad for you if you did), here are a few photos to help you feel the Vern love!

No one was more excited about "the re-spoutin of the fountain" than the Mount Vernon Campus Life staff.


GW band Jukebox the Ghost were awesome! I knew I was going to love them when the keyboard player came on stage in a t-shirt that said, "J Street Stole My lunch Money."




Students enjoying Ben Kweller (and some serious Vern love) on the Quad.

Just One Week!

You have just one more week to distinguish yourself! Submission for the Eckles Prize must be received by Friday, May 4th.

Click on the "The Eckles Prize" on the menu to the left for more information, including the submission application.

Come on...you know you want a new iPod!

All Your Dreams Come True !

Who among us hasn't dreamed of watching the sun rise gracefully over the Vern from the 3rd floor windows, while sipping delicious free coffee??

Now, this delight will be available to you for an entire week! That's right

Eckles Library is going 24 hour!!

From our 11am opening on Sunday, May 6th until the 9pm closing on Friday, May 11th, the Library building will not close.

As if that weren't exciting enough, Eckles will continue the tradition of offering free coffee and snacks from May 3rd until May 15th. To celebrate our 24 hourness Eckles will also host 2 Midnight Study Breaks featuring make-your-own PB&J sandwiches and milk.

Wow...Eckles really rocks.

Genocide Book Display

April 6th marked the 13th anniversary of the beginning of the genocide in Rwanda. All of the news coverage of the anniversary, as well as the ongoing situation in Darfur made me think about the concept genocide...and our latest book display was born. Check out a few of the many interesting titles on display:

East Timor: Genocide in Paradise
by Matthew Jardine
"In 1975, after centuries of Portuguese rule, tiny East Timor - population 700,000 - declared its independence. Nine days later, Indonesia - current population 200 million+ - invaded. Since that day, well over 200,000 East Timorese have died...yet Indonesia's actions are supported diplomatically and economically, by the US and most other western countries."



The Bridge Betrayed: Religion and Genocide in Bosnia
by Michael A. Sells
"The Bridge Betrayed reveals the crucial role of the religious mythology of Kosovo in the destruction of Yugoslavia and the genocide in Bosnia."




Hotel Rwanda
Okay, it's not a book and it is not on the display, but it is available as an Eckles Flix DVD. Hotel Rwanda is the true story of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager in the Rwandan capital of Kigali who in 1994 saved 1,200 Rwandan "guests" from certain death during the genocidal clash between tribal Hutus, who slaughtered a million victims, and the horrified Tutsis, who found safe haven or died.

Tuesday's Tip

So, while you should be busy getting ready for finals, you're probably also trying to figure out what to do with your summer. Well, here are a few resources that will make your search easier:

Finding a job or internship:
GW Career Center: gwired.gwu.edu/career/StudentsAlumni/skills/Consulting/

Job Resources:
www.idealist.org
www.summerjobs.com/
www.coolworks.com/
www.studentjobs.gov

Preparing your resume:
Electronic Books (Just search for these titles in the ALADIN Catalog):
Resumes for College Students and Recent Graduates
The Resume Makeover 50 Common Problems with Resumes and Cover Letters by John J. Marcus

Web Resources:
Writing a Resume: www.csuchico.edu/plc/resume.html

GW Career Center Career Resources:
gwired.gwu.edu/career/CareerResources/

Getting ready for the interview:
Web Resources:
Successful Interviews: www.csuchico.edu/plc/interview.html
Interviewing Tips: www.ocs.fas.harvard.edu/students/resources/interviewing.htm

So you could travel to a far away, exotic land to help a thirsty community build a much needed water well or you could roll up your sleeves in your own community. My main point is that you should get off your parent's couch this summer and do something!

Next week . . . study tips for those final exams.

Cutest Baby EVER!

In case you haven't met her, this is Annasophia. She is the official baby of Eckles Library and isn't she the cutest baby ever? No need to even ask - of course she is!

That other lovely lady in the photo is Sarah. In addition to being the best damn Reference Librarian this side of M Street, she is also Annasophia's mother.

Alternative Spring Break Reception

Friday night Eckles hosted a reception and special viewing of the New Orleans 2007 photo exhibit. It seems like the entire Alternative Spring Break crew showed up to eat some tasty beignets and discuss the photos and their experiences in New Orleans. A good time was had by all!

Eckles is always looking for new and interesting student exhibits for the gallery wall. If you have some artwork you think should be seen, please email us at eckles@gwu.edu!

UW20 Posters

Come into Eckles this weekend to check out some outstanding research done by students in the University Writing and Research Program. As part of the UW20 Symposium, Eckles is hosting an open poster session on Saturday, April 21 at 1pm. This will be a public session to view the posters and for the students to discuss their work.

If you miss the poster session you can still view the posters in the Eckles 1st floor study room through Friday, April 27th.

Mmmm...Beignets!

Friday at 6pm, Eckles is having a reception and special viewing for the Alternative Spring Break photo diary, New Orleans 2007. I know many of you have already been through the exhibit and you may be wondering why you should plan to attend this reception. Well, I can sum it up in one word:

Beignets!

That is right! This reception will feature beignets and coffee, a real New Orleans favorite! You might ask, "What is a beignet?" It can only be described as a square, fried, powdered-sugar coated piece of heavenly deliciousness. And if you have to ask, you need to come to Eckles on Friday night to try some!

Announcing the Eckles Prize for Freshman Research Excellence!

Freshmen students are encouraged to submit a research project of any length or format, along with a one page essay summarizing how they used library resources to complete the project. Students should submit only one project that reflects their best work of the year.

The winner will select one from the following prizes:
$250 Gift Certificate to JetBlue
OR
30 GB iPod
OR
$250 iTunes Gift card

All submissions must include:
Application Cover Sheet - Due May 4, 2007
Research Project - Due May 4, 2007
Research Essay - Due May 4, 2007
Faculty Support Form - Due May 11, 2007

Submissions can be delivered to the Eckles Library service desk or emailed to eckles@gwu.edu. Email submissions should include all of the above information.
The winning project and research essay will be made available to the public.

The Application Cover Sheet and Faculty Support Form will be available from this site later this week as will a complete Selection Criteria Matrix. If you have any questions please contact Sarah Palacios Wilhelm at palacios@gwu.edu.

Par-tae in the House!

Have you heard about SJT's House Party? It's going to be quite the blowout and it concludes with a massive gathering on the Mount Vernon Quad. Don't miss your chance to send SJT out with style while enjoying food and fun and a free t-shirt. I know it will be hard for you to leave the cozy happiness that is Eckles, but it is just for a few hours and then you can come back to you favorite study spot!

You can find out more about about the House Party here: gwired.gwu.edu/gwhousing/SJTsHouseParty/

Tuesday's Tip

Those final paper due dates are looming and hopefully you've already started tracking down your resources. But, how would you like to refine your skills and boost your results? Lucky for you, we've got your back. You can find strategies for finding books and articles here:

Books: http://www.gwu.edu/gelman/catalog/tutorial/
Articles: http://www.gwu.edu/gelman/database/articles/

Of course, you could always IM EcklesInfo or GelmanInfo...

New Orleans Book Display

It is hard to walk away from the powerful exhibit of photographs taken in New Orleans by the participants in this year's Alternative Spring Break and not have some questions about Hurricane Katrina and it's aftermath. We've brought together a few books for a book display about New Orleans' past, the impact of Katrina and plans for the future. Here are a few I thought looked the most interesting:

Stormy Weather: Katrina and the Politics of Disposability
by Henry Giroux
In his newest provocative book, prominent social critic Henry A. Giroux shows how the tragedy and suffering in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina signals a much larger crisis in the United States. Questions regarding who is going to die and who is going to live are driving a new form of authoritarianism in the United States. Within this form of “dirty democracy” a new and more insidious set of forces – embedded in our global economy – have largely given up on the sanctity of human life, rendering some groups as disposable and privileging others. Giroux offers up a vision of hope that creates the conditions for multiple collective and global struggles that refuse to use politics as an act of war and markets as the measure of democracy.



New Orleans: Playing a Jazz Chorus
by Samuel Charters
In December 1950, Samuel Charters first journeyed to New Orleans in search of its jazz sources and its musicians. In December 2005, he returned to his beloved city to find what still was left of this musical heritage after the catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina.
In this highly personal portrait, Charters decribes staying with his son's family in their small, temporary apartment, as he explores the new music scene in the undamaged French Quarter and revisits old haunts like the celebrated Preservation Hall.
Amid the inevitable destruction and chaos, he found hope. Clarinet player Pete Fountain sums up the feelings of many fo the New Orleans musicians, old and new: 'I have two of my best clarinets. I can still toot.'



Federal Disaster Programs and Hurricane Katrina
Editor: Douglas D Syzerhans
Preface: Federal disaster programs kind of sit there and gather moss after all the expenses of running the government agencies responsible for rendering assistance to the disaster victims are spent on staff salaries, computers, travel and all the accompaniments of perceived power. Hopefully there will be no disasters. Otherwise, let them be small disasters which might not inturrupt lunch. In the case of Hurricane Katrina, the federal disaster programs were themselves disasters which were limp responses to the thousands dead, hundreds of thousands homeless and entire sectors of America destroyed. This new book tries to examine the initial disaster programs, recovery disaster programs designed to cover-up for the initial flaws and the programs planned to prevent more disastrous disaster programs.

Wow...that was fast!

Thanks to the quick work of your faithful Eckles Crew, 35 new movies are sitting on the shelf just waiting for you to check them out. Hurry in and be the first in your residence hall to see them!

Alternative Spring Break Exhibit

Do you wonder what New Orleans looks like today, more than 18 months after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita? Well, parts of it look like this:









And like this:









But thanks to the hard work of 45 GW students from Alternative Spring Break and the good people of Habitat for Humanity, parts of it also look like this:


Come in to the First Floor Gallery space at Eckles Library and view more of the extraordinary photographs of New Orleans taken by the participants in Alternative Spring Break!

Tuesday's Tip

Did you know that you can customize Google Scholar? Wait, let me back up - did you know there was a Google Scholar search engine? Google Scholar (www.scholar.google.com) allows you to search through scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, and professional literature. Now, there are limitations to Google Scholar, the main one being that you don't always have full access to the information you find on Google Scholar. However, you can customize Google Scholar to include the resources available to you through Gelman to maximize your search power. Here's how:

Go to www.scholar.google.com
Select *Scholar Preferences* (to the right of the search box)
In the *Library Links* section, search for *George Washington
University* and add GW to your library links

** Bonus Tip: In the *Bibliography Manager* section you can also
set Google Scholar to export to bibliographic management software, such
as Refworks or Endnote.**

Now select *Save Preferences*

Now every time you use Google Scholar you will notice a "FindIt@GWU Libraries" link. Select this link to see if you have access through Gelman Library and then, when possible, Google Scholar will link you directly to the resource. However, don't let this be the starting and ending points of all of your research, if you can't find something find a librarian! We've got special research powers, if its out there we'll help you track it down.

ttyl - Sarah