Off Campus Access to the Library

For off campus access to resources on our Articles and Databases website complete our Password Request Form at www.swccd.edu/~library/PasswordRequest/.

Currently enrolled students will receive a list of usernames and passwords within minutes, that can be used to access library resources.

Enjoy access to the library 24 hours a day and 7 days a week from home and other off campus locations. For more information visit the library's website www.swccd.edu/~library

Congratulations to the essay contest winners!

The winners of the Friends of the Library essay contest are Jennifer Rezendes and Marina Watanabe. Each will receive a check for $250 at the Student Awards Ceremony in May. Thanks to all who entered.

Closed Thursday in honor of Cesar Chavez Day

The Library is closed Thursday, March 31, in honor of Cesar Chavez Day. Regular hours resume Friday, April 1, at 8 a.m.

Visit the SWC Online Library any time to access e-books, full-text articles, 24/7 chat reference help, and other resources.

Check It Out

The Man Who Invented the Computer
by Jane Smiley
New Book shelf QA 76.2 A75 S64 2010

Novelist Jane Smiley explores the story of the now mostly forgotten John Atanasoff, a brilliant and engaged physicist and engineer who first dreamed of and built a computational machine that was the prototype for the computer. Smiley narrates the tale of a driven young Iowa State University physics professor searching for a way to improve the speed and accuracy of mathematical calculations.

One night the young physics professor got up from his dining room table and went for a drive along the Iowa back roads. "I was in such a mental state," he recalled dramatically, "that no resolution was possible." When he crossed into Illinois, though, Atanasoff spotted a roadside tavern. He went inside, ordered a bourbon and soda, took a sip, and then, the moment he'd waited for his entire life revealed itself. The design of the world's first working computer flashed before his eyes. He jotted down the plan on a cocktail napkin. It was 1937

While earning his PhD at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Atanasoff became sick of using a Monroe calculator--a typewriter-like device whose power was limited to solving simple equations. After landing a job teaching quantum mechanics at Iowa State University, he tinkered with existing calculators, including one created by IBM, to make them more powerful. With a graduate student named Clifford Berry and a $650 grant, he built a prototype of his computer, the ABC, in 1940. The book integrates into the story profiles of the computer theorists and builders
of the 1940s, including Alan Turing, John von Neumann, and Konrad Zuse.

Check out, "The Man Who Invented the Computer" available now in the library on the New Book Shelf New Book Shelf QA 76.2 A75 S64 2010

Got a Question? Need an Answer?

Try our Online Reference Chat Service

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24 hours a day, 7 days a week

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ARTstor: Contemporary Architecture, Urban Design, and Public Art

ARTstor has collaborated with ART on FILE to share more than 11,700 images of contemporary architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, and public art in the Digital Library. Photographers Colleen Chartier and Rob Wilkinson, have photographed 20th and 21st century architecture and landscape architecture projects around the world, in the United States, Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.

Chartier and Wilkinson focused on the cities of Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Dubai is the site of many recent large-scale construction projects, including the Burj Khalifa (Skidmore, Owings and Merrell), which was completed in January 2010 and is the world's tallest building at 2,717 ft. They also photographed the Meydan Racecourse (TAK architects), the longest building in the world and the Burj Al Arab (Tom Wright of W. S. Atkins PLC), a hotel constructed on an artificial island.

To view the Contemporary architecture in the United Arab Emirates collection, see the ART on FILE collection in the Digital Library: http://library.artstor.org/library/collection/artonfile

To view ARTstor from off campus locations you need to create an ARTstor account at http://www.artstor.org/ from any computer on the Southwestern College campuses

Check It Out

Import/Export for Dummies
by John Capela
New book Shelf HF 1416.5 C36 2008

The United States imports $1.2 trillion and exports $772 billion in goods on an annual basis. Import/Export For Dummies provides entrepreneurs and small- to medium-size businesses with the critical information they need to begin exporting their products around the world and importing goods to sell in America. This practical guide covers the ins and outs of developing or expanding operations to capture a share of this growing market, with details on the top ten countries with which America trades, from Canada to Germany to China.

Check out, Import/Export for Dummies available now in the library on the New Book Shelf HF 1416.5 C36 2008

This Week In CQ Researcher

National Debt by Marcia Clemmitt, March 18, 2011

Are higher taxes needed to reduce the debt?

Washington is wracked this year by intense budget politics. Spurred by the conservative Tea Party movement, Republican lawmakers point to the federal government’s $14 trillion debt as an emergency that demands big cuts in domestic programs, including Social Security, plus tax cuts they say will spur economic growth. But Democrats say government spending is needed to sustain the economy while the private sector struggles back to health. They call for government investment in infrastructure and education, plus tax increases to strengthen programs such as Social Security for future generations.

A decade ago the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicted that the federal government would run a $796 billion surplus in 2010, but that rosy future never materialized. Over the past 10 years, a severe recession, tax cuts and spending on two wars put the federal government, and also the states, deeply in the red.

• Should debt reduction be Washington’s top priority?
  
• Should Congress raise taxes to help cut the national debt?
  
• Is Social Security a cause of rising national debt?
  

To read this article and others visit our Articles and Databases webpage and select CQ Researcher. Select the Off Campus Access link for information on how to access this resource from off campus locations.

The Library Catalog is another good source for locating information on this issue.

New Electronic Books

We have just added over two thousand new electronic book titles to our collection. Search the Library Catalog to locate these digital treasures.

As an eBook user, you can access library resources anywhere and anytime, even when the library is closed. Once you have created your eBook account, eBooks can be viewed online using any Internet browser and do not require you to come to the physical library building. And, finally, eBooks have advanced search capabilities that allow the you to perform searches across thousands of books or within a specific book to speed research and reference projects.

Visit our eBook information webpage that explains how you can create an eBook account or Ask Us Now in the library by either text, chat, phone or email.

Transferring to a Four Year University?

Southwestern College Library and the Transfer Center will be offering three workshops this week called Researching Universities. This workshop will teach you research skills and give you resources to explore university options both public, private and out of state.

The first workshop is today at 11 am in L-244 and the other two workshops are scheduled for Thursday March 24 at 9 am and again at 11 am in room L-244 across from the entrance of the library. Contact the Transfer Center about registering or drop by L-244 before the workshop begins.

Got a Question? Need an Answer?

Try our Online Reference Chat Service

Real People - Real Help - Real Fast

24 hours a day, 7 days a week

http://www.swccd.edu/~library/ask.htm

Check It Out

American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half Of Its Food.
by Jonathan Bloom
New Book Shelf HD 9005 B654 2010

Food waste is a matter of individual decisions. We determine when and what to buy, stocking too-large refrigerators and too-capacious pantries with oversized containers of food that cannot possibly be consumed before they go bad.
Yet many of the decisions that result in that waste are beyond our control, made somewhere between farm and fork by corporate powers.

Journalist Jonathan Bloom follows the trajectory of America's food from gathering to garbage bin in this compelling and finely reported study, examining why roughly half of our harvest ends up in landfills or rots in the field. He accounts for every source of food waste, from how it is picked, purchased, and tossed in fear of being past inscrutable "best by" dates. In restaurants, portion sizes have ballooned under the mantras “Bigger is better” and “Would you like to supersize that?” And many Americans allow food to decay on refrigerator shelves out of carelessness, lack of meal planning,and sheer ignorance.

The author has found some hopeful signs that this trend may be waning. Many grocery stores and restaurants dispose of surplus edibles through food pantries and similar charitable outlets. Some socially conscious farmers are trying to revive the ancient practice of allowing the poor to gather leftover crops.

Check out, American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half Of Its Food available now in the library on the New Book Shelf New Book Shelf HD9005 .B654 2010

Have a Cell Phone? Text a Librarian?

Have a question? Text us!
We now offer free text message reference services.
(standard message rates apply)

Text us at 66746 and start your question with swclib
Example: swclib What are the library hours on Saturdays?

We will respond as soon as possible.

Save us in your contacts and send us questions when your on the go!

This week in CQ Researcher

Downsizing Prisons by Peter Katel, March 11, 2011

Should nonviolent inmates be incarcerated?

Budget crises are forcing states to re-examine the cost of maintaining their prison and jail systems, which incarcerate more than 2 million people, the biggest national prison population in the world. Politicians are divided on whether states should downsize their prison populations by changing parole policies and liberalizing some criminal laws, such as those governing drug offenses.

Proponents of downsizing, including conservative Republicans such as potential GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich, argue that states have been putting too many low-risk offenders in prison. They contend that expanding alternatives to incarceration would reduce prison costs and lower crime rates. But many prosecutors point to a sharp drop in crime in recent years as evidence that prison works. Lowering incarceration rates, they contend, would put society at greater risk of rising criminal activity – and eventually, rising costs to imprison a new wave of offenders.

• Can states afford to maintain their current prison populations?
  
• Are too many nonviolent offenders sent to prison?
  
• Can diversion programs substitute for imprisonment?
  

To read this article and others visit our Articles and Databases webpage and select CQ Researcher. Select the Off Campus Access link for information on how to access this resource from off campus locations.

The Library Catalog is another good source for locating information on this issue.

Check It Out

When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present.
By Gail Collins.
New Book Shelf HQ 1421 C64 2009

New York Times columnist Gail Collins’ latest book showcases the incredible journey of American women over the past 50 years. Ms. Collins first explores an era when women were not allowed to sit on juries in some states; she then follows the progress of the women’s movement and the civil rights movement as the passion for equality caught fire across the country.

This new title weaves the compelling stories of more than 100 women, ranging in age from 20 to 80 and includes information on dozens of well- and lesser-known female leaders, including Sherri Finkbine, Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Alice Paul, Margaret Chase Smith, Phyllis Schlafly, Helen Gurley Brown and Billy Jean King. The author provides examples of the sexism that women (and men) once accepted as the norm, and she backs up her often eye-opening stories with hard facts and solid statistics. From the opening anecdote of a woman expelled from traffic court in 1960 for appearing in slacks, to the closing one of a woman fired from her job as a bus driver in 2007 for refusing to wear slacks, this an engrossing account of how not just the daily lives, but the assumptions and expectations of women have changed so much in so short a time.

Check out, When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present available now in the library on the New Book Shelf New Book Shelf HQ 1421 C64 2009

This Month in CQ Global Researcher

Gay Rights by Reed Karaim, March 1, 2011

Is the movement gaining acceptance?

By some measures, the last 10 years could be considered the “Gay Rights” decade, with countries around the world addressing concerns of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) community. Beginning with the Netherlands in 2001, gay marriage metamorphosed almost overnight from a largely ridiculed notion to a legal reality in 10 countries. Sixteen other nations recognized same-sex civil unions.

Nevertheless, homosexual acts remain illegal in most of Africa and the Muslim world, with severe penalties for anyone found guilty of the crime. If Uganda approves a proposal to criminalize repeated homosexual activity, it will join the five other countries (and parts of Somalia and Nigeria) where homosexual activity is punishable by death. In Russia and other Eastern European countries, gay and lesbian “pride parades” have sometimes met with violent responses, leading some observers to believe a backlash against rapid gay and lesbian advances may be developing in parts of the world.

To read this article and others visit our Articles and Databases webpage and click on Global CQ Researcher. Select the Off Campus Access link for information on how to access this resource from off campus locations.

The Library Catalog is another good source for locating information on this issue.

Check It Out

Inside Steve's Brain by Leander Kahney
New Book Shelf HD9696.2.U62 J636 2009

This new title is an in-depth profile of Apple CEO Steven Jobs. The book begins with Jobs’ return to Apple in 1996, and his rescue of Apple from near bankruptcy, and the introduction of hit products like the iPod and iPhone that have renewed his reputation as a consumer tech oracle. And thanks to his intimate involvement in the development of those gadgets, the Cult of Apple has become just as much a Cult of Jobs.

In this new book you'll read about some of the changes Jobs made to arrest and reverse Apple's decline-flattening the company's organization, for example, as well as narrowing its focus to a few carefully selected products, and imposing a salary and stock option structure in lieu of bonuses and perks.

Check out, Inside Steve's Brain available now in the library on the New Book Shelf New Book Shelf HD9696.2.U62 J636 2009

Got a Question? Need an Answer?

Try our Online Reference Chat Service

Real People - Real Help - Real Fast

24 hours a day, 7 days a week

http://www.swccd.edu/~library/ask.htm

You could win $250 deadline March 10

Once again the Friends of the SWC Library are sponsoring an essay contest for currently enrolled SWC students. There will be two prizes of $250 each. The essay prompt is based on this year’s College Book, The Help by Kathryn Stockett.

Here is the essay prompt:

Pick a character from The Help about whom you have strong feelings . . . someone you really liked, or hated, or felt sorry for. Write an essay analyzing and explaining your choice. Use quotes and page numbers from the book to help support your explanation. Footnotes and Works Cited are not necessary.

Please note that only original submissions that are the student's own work will be considered. Please do not research or use any sources other than The Help. Failure to follow these guidelines will result in disqualification.

Essays must be no more than three pages and submitted by email to essaycontest@swccd.edu before 4 p.m. on Thursday, March 10, 2011. Late entries will not be accepted! A separate page (not counted in the three maximum) must give the student’s name, SWC ID #, email address, and telephone number. This page will be separated from the essay and a code will be assigned to the it so the judges will not know the identity of the student. No identifiers (name, ID #, etc.) are to appear in the essay itself.

Prizes will be given at the Student Awards Ceremony in May.

Questions? Contact Diane Gustafson at 482-6433 or dgustafson@swccd.edu

Women's History Month

March is Women's History Month and in honor of women throughout the world NewsBank has created a special report focusing on contemporary and historic issues, and newsmaking events. The report includes content from sources throughout the world to provide a global perspective, current and background information, statistics, maps, images, websites, and suggested search terms for additional information. New information is added daily to featured and current reports.

To view the Newsbank Special Report this month visit our Article and Databases website and select Newsbank Access World News . The next link will provide you with information about Off Campus Access for Newsbank and all the library's online resources.

Have a Cell Phone? Text a Librarian?

Have a question? Text us!
We now offer free text message reference services.
(standard message rates apply)

Text us at 66746 and start your question with swclib
Example: swclib What are the library hours on Saturdays?

We will respond as soon as possible.

Save us in your contacts and send us questions when your on the go!

Topic Pages - Trusted Information

If you're looking for reliable information on a topic try the Credo Reference Topic Pages. These user friendly guides cover a range of topics including hot button issues, historical events and famous people.

Each guide begins with an overview covering key concept, events, or people with the information coming from verified sources. The Topic Pages also include key definitions, suggested encyclopedia entries, images, videos and links you to related materials from other online databases provided by your library. All of these resources integrated together, it's a one-stop shop of information.

To access the Credo Topic Pages visit our Article and Databases website and select Crdeo Reference. The next link will provide you with information about Off Campus Access for all the library's online resources.