Meet Deana, one of our new librarians!

Hello, I’m Deana Brown, the newest Librarian and Assistant Professor at Albertsons Library, and I'm super excited to be at Boise State! I’m from Oregon, but have also lived in New Mexico, and could have ended up in Kazakhstan. That’s a story for another time. I have been working in both public and academic libraries since 2004, and came to Boise State after serving as the Reference/ Instruction Librarian at Santa Fe Community College in New Mexico.

You might know me from such blog posts as, “Yarn bomb the Library!” I believe, and research shows, you retain more of what you learn when you’re having fun, and what better place to learn than the library? I have a B.S. in Fine and Applied Arts (Photography and Visual Design) with a minor in Arts Administration from the University of Oregon, and a Masters of Library Science from Emporia State University in Emporia, Kansas. This might seem like an odd combination, but I see them as a perfect fit. Art is all about problem solving and telling stories, and so are libraries!

I look forward to helping students navigate the library's resources while achieving their academic goals, and serving as the liaison to the Philosophy and Psychology Departments. I’m interested in breaking down physical and mental barriers to access, developing instruction tools that effectively incorporate technology, and discovering areas where art and design intersect with librarianship. I don't know everything, but will go to the ends of the earth to help you find it!

Another long story is my name. I’m going to guess about half of you pronounced it wrong in your head upon reading it above. So, since I have you here, I thought I'd clarify, in hopes of helping you avoid that awkward moment when you aren't sure how to spell/ pronounce it.

It is indeed spelled with one "N". Two N's would be De-anne-a.
It is pronounced - Dee-na. Alternately, Dean (like a man's name) and then "uh" (as in, "Uh, you have food stuck in your teeth.")

Don't worry if this doesn't stick, we'll just keep working on it.

I’m looking forward to seeing you around campus and at the reference desk!
- Deana

Meet Elizabeth, one of our new librarians!

In a crazy coincidence all three of the careers I’ve had have been involved with the organization and presentation of information: graphic artist, English as a second language instructor, and now, academic librarian. Although I loved my first career, I could see the huge impact technology was starting to have, and knew I would have to retrain whether or not I stayed in the field. I started taking Japanese language lessons, thinking a new language could be the key to new possibilities, and ta-daa, in less than a year I was living in Japan and teaching English to high schoolers.

I continued as an ESL teacher when I came back to the states, but eventually decided to go back to school to complete my graduate degree, finishing not long after the Great Recession – what great timing! I count myself lucky to have found a new job within a year, and even luckier to have eventually made my way to Idaho and Boise State. This area was never on my radar, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by all there is to see and do.

I’m currently liaison to political science, public policy, community and regional planning as well as outreach coordinator for the library. My research interests tend toward issues of diversity, inclusion and cross cultural competence, so I’ve enjoyed working with International Student Services and various diversity initiatives across campus. From my career overview you can see that I’m dedicated to the proposition that I’ll be a lifelong learner. It’s led me to some great adventures, including this latest at Boise State. I look forward to all that it’s sure to teach me.

Summer and research at the Library

It's almost Summer, and we're glad to have you in our temperature controlled, Wi-Fi enabled, air-conditioned building! We strive to make your research and study spaces as comfortable and useful as possible. Enjoy: 

• Hundreds of computers running Microsoft Office, Mac and PC laptops for checkout, scanners, and multiple BroncoPrint stations, including wireless printing from your laptop
• Access articles from journals and magazines from 280+ research databases
• Printing stations on 1st and 2nd floors, and color printing on the 1st floor
• Check out iPads, MacBooks, and netbooks from the Circulation desk on the first floor
• Streaming video databases on a wide range of subjects--watch online or on your portable device
• The library catalog sports a large & growing collection of eBooks--read books online or download it to your portable device
• Extensive subject guides in fields such as Public Administration, Anthropology, Kinesiology, Educational Technology and many more, via the library's subject guides
• Did we mention a Starbucks in the building? First floor, next to the library's entrance
• When is the library open? Check here http://library.boisestate.edu/about/hours.php
• A collaboration room (L109C) with scanners & computers
• Have questions about research, campus, or anything at all? We’re available to help you via our Help page, on Facebook, and on Twitter. We're well represented on Pinterest and Instagram too. Or you can text us your questions at (208) 546-9982

Here's to a fun & research-rich summer semester!

Library Closed on Memorial Day

The library will be closed on Memorial Day, Monday May 26th. Access the library's resources at http://library.boisestate.edu/ and library hours at http://library.boisestate.edu/about/hours.php

Regular Summer hours will resume on Tuesday, May 27th.

Don't Forget to Vote!

Photo by jamelah

In celebration of Idaho's May 20th primary election and our right to vote, here are a few samples from ScholarWorks to get you in the political mood.

• Urban West Revisited: Governing Cities in Uncertain Times
  
• Political Advertising in the 2012 Presidential Election: How Visual and Aural Techniques Are Used to Convey Meaning
  
• Towards Improved Paper-Based Election Technology
  
• Unauthorized Televised Debate Footage in Political Campaign Advertising: Fair Use and the DMCA
  
• A Bold, Hopeful, Tolerant, Progressive Way” – Progressives in the Idaho Legislature, 1908-1915

"Democracy is not just voting for your leaders; it's really premised upon ordinary citizens understanding the issues." --Howard Rheingold

Michelle Armstrong,
Scholarly Communications and Data Management Librarian

Congratulations to all of our excellent graduating seniors!

Each semester Albertsons Library honors senior graduating student assistants by placing a name plate dedicated to the student in a book of his/her choice. This semester we have 7 graduating student workers.

The Library could not function without our student employees. They tirelessly help patrons, check-out materials, pull books for staff and students, reshelve books, mail items, process new items, scan documents, assist patrons in the computer lab, move furniture and many other tasks.

Our graduates and their books:

Bader -- Don't Be Sad by Aid Quarni
Melissa -- Practical Botany for Gardeners by Geoff Hodge
Brittanie -- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Osciel -- Compañero: The Life and Death of Che Guevara by Jorge Castaneda
Belinda -- Illustrated Guide to Korean by Chad Meyer and Moon-ung Kim
Russ -- Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius by Brian Copenhaver
Cassi -- The Flower Man by Mark Ludy

Congratulations to all of our excellent graduating seniors!

Mary Aagard,
Head, Access Services 

Yarn Bomb the Library!

Are you a knitter? Want to share your love of knitting with others? Maybe you're not a knitter, but inexplicably inherited your great aunt Sigrid's knitting stash. Want to learn to knit? Perfect, let's yarn bomb the library and relieve some stress! Drop-ins and all skill levels welcome, some supplies provided.

What’s yarn bombing? It’s a little bit renegade and a little bit grandma. From Mandy Moore’s book, "Yarn Bombing", it is defined as merging "the disciplines of installation art, needlework, and street art, yarn bombing takes many forms. It generally involves the act of attaching a handmade item to a street fixture." In our case, each participant will knit a square to be stitched together into a collaborative yarn bomb. It will be installed around one of the columns in the library’s lobby, in time to celebrate International Yarn Bombing Day, Saturday June 7th.

Can knitting really relieve stress? Yes, it can! According to a study published by Riley, Corkhill, and Morris in the February 2013 issue of The British Journal of Occupational Therapy, “The results [of the study] show a significant relationship between knitting frequency and feeling calm and happy. More frequent knitters also reported higher cognitive functioning.” I’m pretty sure you’d like to feel calm and have higher cognitive function during dead and finals weeks.

Knitting can also help you achieve what Csikszentmihalyi refers to as a state of “flow.” He found that people engrossed in activities, such as knitting, experienced a loss of fear and anxiety. This melting away of everyday worries is one of the characteristics of the “flow” state of mind.

Want to be a part of the yarn bomb? Stop by the Starbucks entrance in the library, Monday through Thursday of dead and finals week at 2pm. We’ll be knitting up a storm! Can’t make it to one of the sessions, but still want to participate? Just knit a square on your own time, and drop it off with me before the end of the semester. I’ll make sure it gets included in the finished collaborative piece! We've even created a guide with links to knitting videos, patterns, books, and articles on the connection between knitting and stress relief. Check it out here, http://guides.boisestate.edu/stressrelief.

Happy knitting!

Deana Brown,
Assistant professor/Librarian