Library winter break hours

Friday, December 19 - Friday, January 16

• Monday – Thursday 8:00 am – 6:00 pm
• Friday 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
• Saturday - Sunday CLOSED

Break Week

• Mon 12/22 through Fri 12/26 CLOSED

New Year's

• Wed 12/31 8:00am - 5:00pm
• Thu Jan 1 CLOSED

MLK Day Weekend

• Sat 1/17 10:00am - 6:00pm
• Sun 1/18 10:00am - 6:00pm
• Mon 1/19 CLOSED

Please refer to the Hours page for additional information.

Award-winning fiction for holiday enjoyment or gift-giving

During the past two months a number of major, national book award programs have announced their 2008 winners. Check out these stellar titles for yourself or as potential gifts for others.

The Man Booker Prize: The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
Video: watch an interview with Adiga

"The White Tiger is decribed as a compelling, angry and darkly humorous' novel about a man's journey from Indian village life to entrepreneurial success. It was described by one reviewer as an ‘unadorned portrait' of India seen ‘from the bottom of the heap'" (from the award announcement).

The National Book Award for Fiction: Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen
Video: watch Matthiessen's acceptance speech

"Inspired by a near-mythic event of the wild Florida frontier at the turn of the twentieth century, Shadow Country reimagines the legend of the inspired Everglades sugar planter and notorious outlaw E. J. Watson, who drives himself relentlessly toward his own violent end at the hands of neighbors who mostly admired him, in a killing that obsessed his favorite son" (from the publisher).

The Nobel Prize in Literature: Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, author of Onitsha
Video: Watch Le Clezio reading a passage from the book

Le Clezio is an "author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization" (from the awards site).

The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

"Diaz immerses us in the tumultuous life of Oscar and the history of the family at large, rendering with genuine warmth and dazzling energy, humor, and insight the Dominican-American experience, and, ultimately, the endless human capacity to persevere in the face of heartbreak and loss" (from the publisher).

New additions to ARTstor

The ARTstor digital library continues to expand. You can now access these image collections:

1,600 images of British architecture from the Brian Davis archive. The collection documents architectural and garden sites in Europe, primarily architecture in Britain from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century.

1,100 images of the cave temples at Ellora. This initial release focuses on Buddhist caves, the earliest structures at Ellora, dating from 500 to 700 C.E.

Try out the Enhanced Biosciences Database

BIOSIS Previews is now available via ISI Web of Knowledge!  This will replace Biological Abstracts in the New Year (January 2009).  Why care, you say? In addition to the information about journal articles that Biological Abstracts includes, BIOSIS Previews contains information about meeting papers, reviews, reports, book chapters, etc.  

All the content of Biological  Abstracts will be available in BIOSIS Previews, PLUS MORE. Not only that, but the content will extend back to 1955. But if searchers want to see only articles in the results, or just meetings, they will be able to limit their search to those document types.  In addition to the enlarged database, the content will now be available on the Web of Science interface.      

So give BIOSIS Previews a try today.  

Beth 

Reference Librarian

Library open 24 hrs during finals

The first floor of the Albertsons Library will be open 24 hours a day from 10:00 AM Sunday, December 14, through 7:00 PM Thursday, December 18. Staff will be on hand to answer questions and check out first floor reserve materials.

Security will be provided by the Boise Police Department; an officer will be on duty in the library all night and can provide escort service.

Free coffee and treats provided each night (while supplies last!) by the Associated Students of Boise State University (ASBSU).

For a complete list of holiday hours, please refer to http://library.boisestate.edu/hours/ .

Idaho Film Collection

On November 26, the Boise Weekly featured an article by Jeremiah Robert Wierenga on Idaho's film industry history and future. The article mentions the Idaho Film Collection, which is housed in Boise State University's Special Collections Department. 

Arranged by English Professor Tom Trusky, the Idaho Film Collection contains films, photographs, articles, correspondence, and posters relating to feature films made in Idaho. The collection features films created by Idaho silent film pioneer Nell Shipman and other filmmakers.

Read article

Writing Center in the Library!

To simplify your end-of-semester projects, the Writing Center will hold walk-in consultations on the first floor of the Library on the following two dates:

• Thursday, December 4th, from 5-8 p.m.
  
• Tuesday, December 9th, from 6-9 p.m.
  

Drop by during those times for a one-stop paper-writing extravaganza: librarians to help you research your papers; computers and technicians for your software needs; and writing center consultants to help you get the words out!

Albertsons Library on KBSU

President Kustra's guest on his radio program "New Horizons in Education" this past weekend was New York Times journalist Adam Clymer, who came to Albertsons Library in 2006 to use the Frank Church collection while researching his book, Drawing the Line at the Big Ditch: The Panama Canal Treaties and the Rise of the Right (University Press of Kansas, 2008).

The book explores how the conservative movement was able to parlay its opposition to the canal treaties in the 1970s into electoral success in 1980, including the defeat of Senator Frank Church. President Kustra mentioned Mr. Clymer's visit to Boise and his use of the Frank Church collection in his introduction.

The entire interview can be heard on the New Horizons website, - look for the Nov 28 program. The book is available for check out and in the Albertsons Library Special Collections department.