Happy Halloween!

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

Need a graphing calculator?

New! Graphing calculators now available for check out in the Library!

The TI-83 Plus and IT-84 Plus CE graphing calculators may be checked out for one day with your SWC photo ID card.

Thank you to the SWC Foundation for their generous support of this service.

Research paper? We can help!

Thursday: Topic Discovery Workshop

Join us on Thursday for a FREE 30-minute workshop about how to define your topic and come up with useful search terms.

We'll see you in L-244 at noon!

Be sure to ask your instructor if extra credit is available for attendance.

Scary!

October in the Library is the scariest month of the year!

Whether it's witches, ghosts, zombies, and monsters... Stop by our our Halloween display to find some creepy books to read this Halloween.

One of those scary books on display is:

The Walking Dead. Volume 26, Call to Arms 

Authors: Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, Stefano Gaudiano, Cliff Rathburn 

Publisher: Image Comics, 2016 

Call Number: Leisure Reading 3785 

The Walking Dead. Volume 26,  Call to Arms presents a dystopian future in which the dead rise as zombies that feast on the living. Survivors in this zombie apocalypse band together in groups to fight to see another day.

 This graphic novel focuses on one survivor, Rick Grimes, who helped build a community of survivors to later be betrayed by them and forced to leave to create another one.

To check out this book, or any of the scary books on display, simply bring your SWC photo ID card because it serves as your Library card too.

Come to the Library to see more spooky graveyard-related titles on display.

Review by Arnold Josafat, SWC Librarian

Reference Book of the Week

Geo-Data : The World Geographical Encyclopedia 
John F. McCoy, project editor
Detroit : Thomson-Gale, 2003
Reference Section: call number G103.5 .G36 2003

Geo-Data: The World Geographical Encyclopedia provides entries on the physical geography of every country (as of 2003) in the world. Each entry includes maps of the country's geography as well as detailed text describing its features, climate and vegetation.

The entries for each country are standardized in format for ease of comparison, and include such fun facts for each country as largest city, tallest mountain, longest river, highest and lowest elevation, and types of natural hazards.

Review by Rachael Smithey, SWC Librarian

Math? Biology? Writing?

A Tutor Can Help 

Tutoring sessions are free! Sign up now at the ITC Desk on the 3rd floor of the Library.

Subjects include: Accounting, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Business, Economics, Computer Information Systems, Math, Writing, Reading, ESL, French, Italian, and Spanish.

What's a Primary Source and how can you find one?

Join us for a free Primary Sources Workshop

On Thursday, we'll be discussing how to tell if something is a primary source. The Library has great resources and tools to help you find primary sources. Spend a half hour with us -- Thursday at noon in L-244!

Be sure to ask your instructor if extra credit is available for attendance.

TODAY - last day to register to vote!

Are you registered to vote?

Today is your final opportunity.

It's easy!

https://registertovote.ca.gov/

See you at the polls on November 6th!

Website of the Week

National Geographic Mapmaker Interactive

https://mapmaker.nationalgeographic.org/

National Geographic Mapmaker Interactive is a web-based mapping tool that allows you to create and annotate maps online with lines, shapes, text, photos and videos.

Base maps include streets, satellite, and topography. You can also add included data layers such as earth systems (natural disaster hot spots, plate tectonics, surface elevation), climate and weather (climate zones, precipitation and rainfall), environment (municipal solid waste generation, superfund sites), culture (language diversity, major religions), and much more!

 To view the included data layers:
(1) select the Layers tab
(2) click the Add Layer button
(3) click to select your desired layers
(4) click Done to view your map.

To view the legend/info for the map you created, select the Legend tab. 

The Human Footprint map (below) shows the global human footprint, illustrating the environmental impact of human activity on Earth's ecosystems. Click on the image to see detail.

Review by Rachael Smithey, SWC Librarian

Stuck?

Ask us now!

Chat with a librarian

Free research assistance

Available for all SWC students

24 hours a day, 7 days a week

YES, the Library is open on Saturday!

Ready to get some of those assignments out of the way? Join us from 10 am - 2 pm on Saturdays. It's a perfect time to get a jump start on the week.

Doors open at 7:30 AM

Wake up, Sleepyhead!

The Library has computers, books, tutors, librarians, study rooms, quiet study areas, scholarly articles, and free wireless... it's the place to be at 7:30!

Free Tutoring in the Library

Don't fall behind now... 

Keep up the great work! Sign up for a free tutoring session on the 3rd floor of the Library (ITC Desk).

Workshop - join us Thursday!

Today: E-Books at the Library

Today's 30-minute workshop is about the new resources available to you in the Library. We'll see you in L-244 at noon!

Be sure to ask your instructor if extra credit is available for attendance.

This Year's College Book: Educated by Tara Westover

Check out your copy of Educated by Tara Westover

Bring your SWC ID card and grab a copy of the book off of the display near the Reference Desk to check it out for four weeks! Thanks to a generous grant from the SWC Foundation, we have multiple copies available!

Join us today at noon!

Today: New Resources at the Library

Today's 30-minute workshop is about the new resources available to you in the Library. We'll see you in L-244 at noon!

Be sure to ask your instructor if extra credit is available for attendance.

Online Resource of the Week

Nexis Uni Database

Free! San Diego Union Tribune Articles

Available in full-text through the Library's Articles and Databases page.

I saw "the Trib" through Nexis Uni on our database page the other day and played around with it for a bit. Wanted to bring it to your attention if you haven't checked it out yet. Some details below.

Note: it only goes back through December 1983. It has a little bit of a funny search page but if you take the time to read the descriptions of what searches are actually doing it makes sense. It is just laid out very literally for the user and who knows, maybe students might find this approach helpful. Of course there are a number of ways you can narrow and refine your search and it has the usual tools for printing, emailing, and exporting citations. It also has the option to use Google translate on any page so it can be viewed in 100+ languages. Pretty cool!

I ran an exact phrase search for "Junior Seau" and received 971 articles available in full text dating back to 1995; with the most recent being from today's paper, Saturday, October 6.

This resource is available to all currently enrolled SWC students, faculty and staff.

The San Diego Union Tribune 
Publisher: Tribune Publishing Publications
Coverage: From December 5, 1983 through current
Frequency: Daily/Monday - Sunday;
Update Schedule: Same day
Description: Access to certain freelance articles and other features within this publication (i.e. photographs, classifieds, etc.) may not be available.

The San Diego Tribune was formed in 1992 by the merger of The San Diego Union, established in 1868, and the San Diego Tribune, established in 1895. It is an all-day paper with multiple morning and afternoon editions Monday through Friday and morning weekend editions. Additional zone additions are added on Thursday and Saturday. Special subject emphasis is placed on San Diego, southern California, the military, Latin America, and international relations with Mexico.

Review by Nate Martin, SWC Librarian

Last call!

Are you registered to vote?

It's easy!

https://registertovote.ca.gov/

See you at the polls on November 6th!

Battleground: Government and Politics

Battleground: Government and Politics

by Kathleen Uradnik, Lori A. Johnson, and Sara Hower, editors

Greenwood Press, 2011

Reference Section, Call Number: JK275 .B37 2011 (2 vols)

------------------------------------------------------------

"Government and politics is an area in which there are no "right" answers, but much room for debate. Battleground: Government and Politics allows students and general readers alike to consider key political debates from all sides and to arrive at their own considered convictions, based on a firm understanding of the issues and points of view involved.

"This two-volume work explores dozens of the most contentious issues in contemporary life, issues that impact how our government is run today and how it will be run in the future. Each topic is examined in a balanced way, providing not only an overview of the issues involved, but an objective assessment of the stance of all sides. Readers can use these entries as thorough and solid summaries of the most contentious controversies in contemporary society, or as starting points for more in-depth research into the debates." (from Publisher website)

Selected by April Ibarra Siqueiros, SWC Librarian

Have a question?

Ask us now!

Chat with a librarian

Free research assistance

Available for all SWC students

24 hours a day, 7 days a week

Website of the Week

Open States: Discover Politics in Your State

https://openstates.org/

Open States is a collection of tools that make it possible for citizens to track what is happening in their state's capitol by aggregating information from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. 

To begin, you can either enter an address or select a state to see recently passed bills and detailed legislator information. Bill, legislator, committee and event data is collected from official sources, linked at the bottom of each legislator, bill, vote, committee or event page. 

The data is available to be downloaded from the Open States website or app.

Review by April Ibarra Siqueiros, SWC Librarian

Join us for 30-Minute Thursdays

Free Workshops Begin Tomorrow

Beginning tomorrow, join us at noon on Thursdays for free 30-minute workshops. Learn shortcuts to help you with your research paper or presentation. Attend one workshop or attend them all!

 Click on the image below for more details.

Be sure to ask your instructor if extra credit is available for attendance.

Check it out

Trick or Treat : a History of Halloween

by Lisa Morton

Reaktion Books, 2012

Stacks Call Number: GT4965 .M67 2012

Available for four-week check out with your SWC photo ID

Trick or Treat provides a thorough history of this most misunderstood phenomenon. Offering a fascinating overview of how Halloween has spread around the globe, it asks how festivals as diverse as the Celtic Samhain, the British Guy Fawkes Day and the Catholic Holy Days of All Saints and All Souls could have blended to produce the modern Halloween. The holiday was reborn in the United States – where costuming and ‘trick or treat’ rituals became new customs – with parallels in the related, yet independent holidays of Central America, in particular Mexico’s Day of the Dead. The recent explosion in popularity of haunted attractions is discussed and we see also how Halloween’s popularity is rising in non-Western countries like Russia, Japan and China. Finally, Morton considers the impact of such events as 9/11 and the economic recession on the celebration as urban legends and costuming wax and wane.

Halloween’s influence on popular culture is examined via the literary works of Washington Irving and Ray Bradbury, films such as John Carpenter’s Halloween and Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, and television series including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Simpsons and True Blood.
Examining Halloween in the context of its increasing worldwide popularity, and illustrated with over 40 images, Trick or Treat leads us on a journey from the spectacular to the macabre, making it a must for anyone looking beyond the mask to the deepest roots of this modern holiday.

-- Review from Amazon.com