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Follow a librarian April 11-22, or just take a peek at our tweets.

The Florida Library Association (FLA) wants you to know what it’s like to be a librarian.

To give library students and  other interested folks an idea of the typical workday of  the Florida librarian, the FLA Library Personnel Recruitment Committee has put together the FLA Virtual Job Shadowing program.

Librarians will each choose a day to post on Twitter between April 11 and 22, adding the tag #libjobshadowFL to each tweet. Visit FLA Virtual Job Shadowing on Facebook to read biographies of participating tweeters. I’m on deck for April 15 – follow @librosee to see how much instruction, question answering, and coffee drinking I do in a day, or follow the #libjobshadowFL tag for up-to-the-minute status updates of all participating Florida librarians.

Let’s see just how typical librarians’ jobs really are!

RSS is alive and well!

Whether you believe that RSS is dead or not, you’ll find the familiar orange icon adorning lots of information resources in the Evans Library.

If you’ve used RSS before, you know that it’s a fantastic tool for delivering updates directly to your feed reader of choice. If you haven’t used RSS, why not give it a try? To get started, all you need is a feed reader and a feed!

Both Google and Yahoo offer free, easy to use readers – just download, create an account if you don’t already have one, and start using them.

You’ll find RSS feeds for many of the Library’s databases, Summon, the Research Guides, and, of course, our blog. Look for the RSS icon (it’s usually orange, but not always) and click to create an automatic feed that updates in your reader whenever new content is added.

JSTOR offers RSS for your searches.

Summon's RSS icon is a bit more subtle than the familiar orange box.

Get updates about new content in Research Guides with RSS.

Once you have your reader set up, all that’s left to do is open your browser, type in your reader’s URL, log in, and catch up with all of your favorite information in one simple space!

QR codes easily link you to information on the spot. Try it now!

Since the new year, Evans Library’s Assistant Manager for Information Technology, Nathan Miller, has been answering questions before they’re even asked. No, Nathan isn’t conjuring magic with the Magic Geek set he got for Christmas. He’s making QR codes.

The almost inconspicuous Tetris-style images cause some students to instantly reach for iPhones and Androids, others to pause briefly to wonder aloud, “what are these?” In a nutshell, Quick Response (QR) barcodes contain lots of information – they can link to websites, display text, open e-mail forms, and more – and provide easy access to this information on the spot using mobile phones and webcams.

Strategically placed on Library doorways and lobby display cases, the codes link users to more information about where they’re standing or what they’re seeing. For example, codes like the one above placed near the study spaces link to a listing of room reservations, so students can view available rooms and make reservations from wherever they are in the building. Miller anticipates future code placements to put students, faculty, and staff in touch with Library services and information.

Most QR readers (including Qrafter) allow for easy sharing of content via e-mail or Twitter.

To get started using QR codes in the Evans Library, you will need a QR reader. Several free reader applications are available for download to your mobile phone (view some at mobile-barcodes.com or search the iTunes Store). Depending on your reader, you can view content and then share it instantly with friends and colleagues via e-mail or Twitter.

Look for the codes on your next visit to Evans Library. In the meantime, take a peek at some mighty tasty QR codes from NYC Resistor.

The tours’ detail and perspective are amazing… the next best thing to being there! You can navigate through the galleries as if you are standing in them, read the history of the museums, and zoom in for a closer look at the art.

Below is an example from the Palace of Versailles.  This is a great resouce for the art lover and the humanities student alike. If you need to analyze a painting that you don’t have direct access to, this is the way to do it. Of course, nothing can compare with the first-hand experience of standing in one of the world’s greatest museums, but Art Project by Google gives you the chance to explore several museums in one visit. Try it!

Wait! The Evans Library has a new search tool to add to your arsenal.

Summon, the newest tab on the Library website, is a single repository of almost all of the Library’s books, articles, newspapers, databases, and more — that you can search the same way that you search the open web.

Summon the magic of instant access to the Library's authoritative content.

Summon performs a Google-like search of the Library’s physical and electronic content at one go, stacking the most relevant resources at the top of the results list. So instead of searching the catalog for books, and then the databases for articles, and then the Internet for open-access material, you can search all of these places at once with Summon.

Just as with the Library databases that you are accustomed to, Summon allows you to limit results to full-text, peer-reviewed articles within a certain date range, as well as many other options. You can also expand your results to include holdings beyond the Evans Library collection, and request those items easily using your ILLiad account.

View only the items you want to see in your results lists.

Some resources (like SciFinder Scholar) and reference materials cannot be found using Summon, so if you are not retrieving what you expect to find, check your favorite databases and reference materials directly.

It’s simple, it’s fast, and it’s familiar. Though Summon is certainly not the only tool that the serious researcher should reach for, it’s a great, one-stop place to start.

We hope you enjoyed your break, and it’s good to see so many of you hitting the books early in the semester.  As you complete your assignments, don’t forget that you can find many resources online, from e-books to journal articles to research guides.

Hitting the books this spring? Hit the Library!

Need help using Library resources?  Visit the “How Do I?” tutorials or Ask a Librarian link on the Evans Library website.

The Strawbridge Art League, which hosts studios for working Melbourne artists, installed its Go Green exhibit on Wednesday to the delight of Florida Tech students, faculty, and staff. The collection, which includes pieces categorized as either Florida Wildlife: Fish to Feathers, Use it up: Recycle, or Our Green Earth: Lagoon to Estuary, comes to us after a showing at the Brevard Art Museum.

Library IT Assistant Manager Nathan Miller admires "Florida Cracker," by Mindy Colton, at the Go Green exhibit.

Among the contributions, you will see sculpture, paintings, paper arts, and even a mobile or two. Find these beautiful and creative art works in the Evans Library lobby through spring (the Library’s hours are posted on our website).

Several students stopped by the Service Desk late Wednesday evening with warm cups of coffee to comment on their favorite pieces. Which is yours?

FREE COOKIES! FREE COFFEE!

We'll make the coffee... you make the grades.

We will have delicious cookies and fresh coffee available each night between 8  and 11:30 pm. Remember that you are always free to bring your own food and drinks, but please respect your library by tossing napkins, empty cups, pizza boxes, and stray cookie crumbs into one of our many strategically placed trash cans (we appreciate this).

We wish you a great finals week, and we will see you in the library!

EXTENDED HOURS
Monday 11/29 – Thursday 12/2 – 8 am – 2 am
Friday 12/3 – Saturday 12/4 – 8 am – midnight
Sunday 12/5 – Thursday 12/9 – 8 am – 2 am
Regular hours Friday 12/10 – 8 am – 5 pm