Mural Project Updates

Tags

Kirkwood Community College Library, Mural, Odds and Ends

This post was guest written by Sarah Young, Library Services Department Assistant.

It’s been several weeks since Library Services and Arts & Humanities launched our collaborative mural project. Thanks to the staff and students who have participated so far, the library is becoming much more colorful!

There are still plenty of opportunities to join the fun! Sign up to paint at Calendly and watch this space for future updates.

After the first day of painting.

Pat Reading tries his hand at Keith Haring.

Alex Weissenberger (One Stop) and Jacki Delaney (Admissions) came two days in a row to spend some time together during Alex’s last week at Kirkwood. They said the experience is a lot of fun and would totally recommend it.

A group of international students from Tunisia taking a break from classes (and the heat) with some painting.

Even library mascot Eggbert joined the fun!

Thanks again to all of our mural painters! Looking forward to seeing more people join the fun in the coming weeks.

Help us add color to the library!

Tags

Kirkwood Community College Library, Mural, Odds and Ends

This post was guest written by Sarah Young, Library Services Department Assistant

As anyone who has walked around Main Campus recently has likely noticed, there are some big changes coming to the library. While the end results will be nice, in the meantime, we are left looking at some ugly temporary walls.

Never fear – we have a plan! Sarah Uthoff, one of our librarians, suggested that a mural would add some nice color to the space. Jennifer Cunningham and Ben Jensen from Arts & Humanities suggested that a collaborative painting project would be a fun way to add color and let people across campus get involved (think Chalk the Walk, but with a wall and acrylic paint). Ben and I discussed a plan and artworks, and we will soon be ready to paint!

Beginning July 8th, we will be painting famous artworks and cover our temporary walls one section at a time. If you would like to paint a square, you can sign up at Calendly: https://calendly.com/kirkwood-arts/painting-a-mural?month=2021-07

Here’s a preview of a couple of the artworks we’ll be recreating:

Wassily Kandinsky, Squares with Concentric Circles, 1913

Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) was one of the founding members of the German Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). Expressionism moved away from depicting the world as it and instead focused on art as a depiction of subjective experience. Kandinsky was especially interested in color and the different energy each color conveyed, which he explored in his 1910 treatise On the Spiritual in Art. These interests led Kandinsky away from representational imagery altogether, and he is credited as being one of the first abstract artists.

Want to learn more about Kandinsky? Here are some resources from Kirkwood Library:

• Browse these and other print books at the Main Campus or Iowa City campus libraries in the circulating collection at 757.7 K16 or request to have them held or delivered to any campus:
  • Wassily Kandinsky by Max Bill – covering his interest in music and influence on modern art
  • Kandinsky exhibition catalogue from the Guggenheim Museum – features writings by the artist and previously little seen artworks
  • Paths to the Absolute: Mondrian, Malevich, Kandinsky, Pollock, Newman, Rothko, and Still by John Golding – discusses how each of these artists developed their approach to abstraction
• Explore eBooks and streaming video about Kandinsky

Keith Haring, Retrospect, 1989

Keith Haring (1958-1990) started as a graffiti artist in the New York city subways and developed a iconography of pop art cartoon-like images including babies, barking dogs, and flying saucers. He was one of the first graffiti artists, along with his friend Jean-Michel Basquiat, to gain recognition by the high art market. Haring was interested in breaking down the barriers between “high” and “low” art and opened his Pop Shop in New York City in 1986, so anyone could have a bit of his art affordably. Haring, who was openly gay, also used his artwork as a form of advocacy for issues he cared about, including AIDS awareness and his mural Crack is Whack.

Want to learn more about Keith Haring? Here are some resources from Kirkwood Library:

• Browse these and other print books at the Main Campus library in the circulating collection at 759.13 H or request to have them held or delivered to any campus:
  • Keith Haring exhibition catalogue from the Whitney Museum of American Art – retrospective of his career with more that 300 illustrations
  • Keith Haring: Heaven and Hell – focuses on his painting and drawings and the iconography in his work
  • Keith Haring by Jeffrey Deitch, Suzanne Geiss, and Julia Gruen – follows the history of Haring’s career
  • Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, and Walt Disney – Haring drew inspiration from both Warhol and Disney
  • Future Primeval – captures an overview of Haring’s work and includes essays by William Burroughs and Timothy Leary.

Excited about recreating these artworks? Sign up at Calendly: https://calendly.com/kirkwood-arts/painting-a-mural?month=2021-07

Construction Comes to the Library 2021

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Kirkwood Community College Library

The Cedar Rapids campus of Kirkwood Community College has been under the jackhammer for awhile now. With recent completions of new space and/or remodeled space for Michael J. Gould Recreation Center, the new Automotive Technology Building and all the progress that has been made with Iowa Hall, the construction work has moved into the Cedar Rapids branch of the library.

Construction has begun with the construction fence in front of the library up and a cement path to the new temporary library doors finished. This cement path will be part of a covered walkway that will lead you from in front of the bookstore to the temporary doors of the library. One set of the exterior doors from the entryway have been moved over to the space that used to be a big window by the Popular Books section. A tablet will be located by the door for self-COVID tracing sign in. Some of the furniture will be moved including taking everything out of the Popular Books corner (find the popular books now on shelves along the southern wall). Some of the furniture moved for COVID control measures will be put back and new furniture storage space will be found in the library. If you are looking for the AED (Automated External Defibrillator – See note) it has been pulled from the lobby area outside the library ask at the desk.

The major construction work will be to the front of the building and to the area around circulation (the desk with the purple wall behind it). On the first floor there will be a temporary wall built blocking off the current doors and the current COVID tracing sign-in station. The lobby area right outside the library doors (including the vending machine area, stairs to the 2nd floor of Benton Hall, and the lobby elevator) will be closed during construction. You will still be able to use the stairs within the library. The second floor of the library will be open, but a similar sized area will also be blocked off behind another temporary wall upstairs. There is an elevator in the 1st floor bookstore hallway if you need to get to the non-library space on floors 2&3.

The outside book drops have been removed. Please plan to return any materials only when the library is open. Materials may also be returned to the Iowa City Campus Library’s outside return at any time.

We will try to limit the noise as much as possible, but there will be unavoidable noise. Any time construction is underway there will NOT be quiet study available in the library.

Construction is currently scheduled to finish in December 2021.

NOTE: An AED (Automated External Defibrillator) is an automatic device for emergency first aid. A voice walks you through the process of using it to determine if someone is having a heart attack. It has a built in defibrillator that can shock the patient and hopefully get their heart going correctly again before the paramedics arrive. Or it can tell you that they do not need a shock.

Top 7 things People Don’t Know About the Library

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Kirkwood Community College Library

Front of Kirkwood Cedar Rapids Library 2018

Top 7 things people often don’t realize about the library:

7. We have a 2nd floor – If you’ve ever come into the library and thought “where are all the books?” most of the books you can check out are on the second floor. It’s also our quiet study floor and the location of our group study rooms. You have to take either the elevator or stairs within the library to find it.

(Due to COVID-19 these small group study rooms have been converted to single person, Zoom class use only. Ask at the circulation desk. Find other group and individual spaces around campus. We expect once the medical crisis is over to restore these to group study rooms again. )

6. We help with citation APA/MLA – Have to do a research paper? Your instructor will normally tell you they want it in APA or MLA. These are both citation systems to help you give credit to where you find the information you use. They are similar overall, but differ a lot on the details. Stop by the reference desk if you need help and find our guides at the link above.

5. We have popular books – Need something relaxing to read? While most of the library’s collection is purchased with an eye to supporting assignments, we do have a collection of popular books in a corner of the first floor for people looking for a light read.

4. We have DVDs – Looking for DVDs? We’ve got them. It’s a pretty small collection over by the copiers, but it has a lot of good stuff. You can also stream movies on the two library film databases, Kanopy and Films on Demand.

3. We’re on social media – There is more to the online library than just the library website. Find us on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter to keep up to date with the library and to have fun with words, reading, and information literacy.

2. We have more databases than EBSCO – For a long time the library only offered the EBSCO set of databases. It was so long that all over campus people started to think that EBSCO and database were the same thing. Luckily today the library has A LOT more databases than just the basic EBSCO products. Click on our All Kirkwood Databases list on our website to explore all the different databases we now offer from the New York Times to videos to medical information to countries around the world and beyond!

1. We have a mascot – Last fall we got a new resident at the Cedar Rapids library, a stuffed baby eagle that you’ll be seeing more of in our online promotions. Last year we had an election for its name. The top vote getters was Eggbert. Look for him around the library and on our social media.

Sarah Uthoff is a reference library at Kirkwood Community College. LIKE the Kirkwood Community College Library on Facebook and find links to Sarah all over the web at her About Me Profile.

Some Changes for Fall Semester 2020

Tags

COVID-19, Kirkwood Community College Library, Library Hours

A Library Update:

With the public health concerns related to coronavirus, the library has made some changes to the services and resources available in person. However, we want you to know that we are still dedicated to providing high quality information resources, and excellent research help and information literacy instruction.

 

Research consultation appointments: Students and faculty may schedule an individual research consultation conducted via Zoom. More information and a link to the scheduling form can be found here: https://guides.kirkwood.edu/research. With or without an appointment, the library’s chat service has been enhanced with screen share and video chat.

Library hours have changed slightly, closing a little earlier, and offering only online help on Saturdays. Librarians are available during the fall semester:

• Monday through Thursday 8am to 9pm (chat or in person)
• Fridays 8am to 5pm (chat or in person)
• Saturdays 10am to 4pm (chat only)
• Sundays 3pm to 8pm (chat or in person)

Class instruction is still available: Librarians offer instructional sessions through Zoom. Contact us through email, chat, telephone, or online form to schedule your class. If you prefer, we can help curate a collection of online resources such as guides, videos, and tutorials for posting to Talon.

Course reserves suspended during pandemic: Frequent handling of materials on reserve is problematic due to the inability to sanitize some items, especially paper.

Use of print materials: Students and faculty will have access to the library’s print materials as usual.

Laptops: Laptops will not be available until the third week of September and then will only be available for 48 hour check out with NO renewals. These are set up to be short term and/or emergency use. Unfortunately at this point neither the library nor anyone else is doing long term laptop checkout.

Hotspots: The library will be checking out hot spots for the college. However, our supply is pretty limited. You may put a hold on the record and see if you get one.

Food: Food is no longer allowed in the library since you have to take off your mask to eat it.

K-Numbers: The college administration has asked us to keep a record of everyone going into and out of the library. This is only to be used if there needs to be a contact tracing from a positive COVID-19 case. Please have your k-number, either memorized or ready to read off your card when you enter and leave.

Study Rooms: The library is no longer going to be the place for groups to meet. The Cedar Rapids campus study rooms have been transformed into space for students to take Zoom classes. You may reserve them ahead or ask at the circulation desk if there are any available.

Print from Your Own Device: They have commandeered our normal self-printing printer for another spot on campus trying to make it easier for students to print with less congested areas. So we are directing in library print from your own device to BH_152B_5002 which is the copier closest to the reference desk.

Please keep an eye out for more changes and library news.

Thank you!

Kirkwood Library Services

 

 

Please contact the library if you have any questions:

• Cedar Rapids Campus Reference Desk: 319-398-5697 or library@kirkwood.edu
• Iowa City Campus Reference Desk: 319-887-3612 or refdesk@kirkwood.edu
• Chat at kirkwood.edu/library
• Text a Librarian at 319-774-6491 (New service!)
• Facebook Messenger @ Kirkwood Libraries

Anti-Racism: Learning to Confront Bigotry

Tags

books, Kirkwood Community College Library, Kirkwood Library Services, reference, research

In the days since May 25, when a white police officer killed George Floyd in Minneapolis, protests and passionate conversations have focused our attention on racial prejudice. As the following books help us to see, this bigotry has been a disease in American society since its origins. Perhaps with continued study we can understand more fully why racial injustice has remained so intractable, and our conversations could, we hope, carry us closer to a time when we might finally begin to grow past it.

The books listed below are available through the Kirkwood Library in eBook format, so our Kirkwood community of students, faculty, and staff can read these even while the campus library locations are closed due to the pandemic. This is just a small sample of the materials in our collection to aid in the study of anti-racism; we encourage you to seek out additional book titles and articles using our catalog search at www.kirkwood.edu/library. When the campus reopens, our print books will be available as well (a few important print titles in our collection are listed at the end of this post).

Because our current crisis has as its focus the oppression of African Americans, the books listed here tend to focus on the black experience in America; of course oppression takes on many forms, and additional materials are available that address discrimination against other groups and in global contexts.

We are also offering an Anti-Racism libguide (research study guide) with further recommendations for study of racial injustice from our library databases and internet sources, plus a few notes on developing news, that can be viewed at guides.kirkwood.edu/ under “Anti-Racism.”

Note: Because Kirkwood buildings, including the library locations in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, are currently closed due to the pandemic, the following are eBooks that can be read online by the Kirkwood community. The links will take you directly to those. Below it are print books in our library collection that will be available as the campus begins to open.

eBooks:

Antiracism, Inc.: Why the Way We Talk About Racial Justice Matters by Felice Blake. Punctum Books, 2019.

Art for Equality: The NAACP’s Cultural Campaign for Civil Rights by Jenny Woodley. University Press of Kentucky, 2014.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley. Ballantine Books, 2015. Temporarily available via Internet Archive. Also in print format, Call Number: Iowa City Library Popular Books HAL; Main Library 320.5 L778a 2015

Beyond the White Negro: Empathy and Anti-Racist Reading by Kimberly Chabot Davis. University of Illinois Press, 2014.

Black Marxism by Cedric J. Robinson. University of North Carolina Press, 2000.

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. 1970; Vintage International, 2007. Temporarily available via Internet Archive. Also in print format, Call Number: Iowa City Library OR Main Library 813.54 M882b 2007

Crisis Music: The Cultural Politics of Rock Against Racism by Ian Goodyear. Manchester University Press, 2009.

The End of American Lynching by Ashraf H.A. Rushdy. Rutgers University Press, 2012.

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin. 1963; Vintage International, 1993. Temporarily available via Internet Archive. Also in print format, Call Number: Iowa City Library 305.896 B181f

Long Past Slavery by Catherine A. Stewart. University of North Carolina Press, 2016. Also in print format, Call Number: Iowa City Library 305.896 S849L

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. New Press, 2011. Also in print format, Call Number: Main Library 364.973 A377n

Racism and Anti-Racism in Europe by Alana Lentin. Pluto Press, 2004.

Rethinking Racism: Emotion, Persuasion, and Literacy Education in an All-American White High School by Jennifer Seibel Trainor. Southern Illinois University Press, 2008.

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde. Crossing Press, 2007. Temporarily available via Internet Archive. Also in print format, Call Number: Iowa City Library 814.54 L867s

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. 1937; Perennial Classics, 1998. Temporarily available via Internet Archive. Also in print format, Call Number: Iowa City Library OR Main Library 813.52 H966t 1998

 

Print Books

links are to the Kirkwood Library catalog. We are also acquiring eBook versions of some of these titles:

Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism by Safiya Umoja Noble. New York University Press, 2018. Call Number: Main Library 025.042 N752a

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Spiegel and Grau, 2015. Call Number: Iowa City Library OR Main Library 305.896 S982b

Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine. Graywolf Press, 2014. Call Number: Main Library 811.6 R211c

How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. One World, 2019. Call number: Main Library 305.8 K335h

Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America by James Forman, Jr. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017. Call Number: Main Library 364.973 F724L

Racism Without Racists by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva. 4^th edition. Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2014. Call Number: Main Library 305.8 B715r

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo. Seal Press, 2018. Call Number: Main Library 305.8 O529s

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo. Beacon Press, 2018. Call Number: Main Library 305.8 D538w

CITATION GENERATORS: CHECK AND REVISE!

Tags

APA Citation System, Citations, Kirkwood Community College, Kirkwood Community College Library, Kirkwood Library

Struggling with citations? One of the very helpful features, when using the library’ catalog and databases, as opposed to Google, is that they all provide help in creating your citation. You even get to choose the style you want – MLA, APA, Chicago, and various other styles peculiar to their disciplines. However, as with most things, there is always a caveat to proceed with caution. A computer generated citation will NEVER be as precise as what you can create. ALWAYS check and revise!

To complicate the accuracy of database citations, in October 2019, the American Psychological Association (APA), released an update, the 7^th edition, of their citation format. This is the citation style used by nursing, allied health and the social sciences. So for the last few months, online libraries have been playing catch-up.  APA 7^th edition updates have just begun.

What this means for you, as a student, is to pay close attention to the edition listed when using the catalog and database citation tools. Right now, for example, you will see EBSCOhost using 7^th edition APA, while the Gale products, like Opposing Viewpoints, are still using 6^th edition.

Of course, if you take your librarians’ and instructors’ advice, you, the savvy Kirkwood student, already know that when it comes to citation helpers ALWAYS – Check and Revise!

Kirkwood Library: Still here for you!

Tags

Chat with a librarian, Email a librarian, Kirkwood Community College Libraries, Kirkwood Community College Library, Zoom with a librarian

While the Kirkwood campus is closed, please know that the Kirkwood librarians are still here to help you (online) with your research and citation questions. We realize that this is a stressful time for students, so we hope you will reach out to us with your questions. Any and all questions are always welcome!

Until the campus reopens, these are the library services available to you:

1. Chat with a Librarian – You will find the icon for this on the library’s homepage at http://www.kirkwood.edu/library, right next to our catalog search box. Also, if you explore our library pages, and linger for a little while, a pop up will appear asking if you would like to chat now. This is the best and quickest way to get help from a librarian. Chat services are available from 8AM to 9PM Monday through Thursday and 8AM to 5PM on Friday. Our chat feature allows you to attach and send a document to a librarian and we are even able to share our desktop with you while answering questions. After hours, you can still click on the Chat icon and you will be brought to the library’s Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page. An email form is available on the left side of this page if you don’t find the answer you are looking for
2. Email a librarian – This feature is best used when Chat is unavailable. The library’s email address is library@kirkwood.edu
3. Call the library reference desk at 319-398-5697 for Cedar Rapids or 319-887-3612 for Iowa City. Please leave a voicemail and a librarian will respond during the hours we are online.
4. Zoom with a librarian – Call, email, or use the chat function to schedule a time to consult with a librarian one on one using this service.

Of course, while the campus is closed, there are a few services we are, unfortunately, not able to provide. These include access to print books and journals, campus printing and computer and Internet access. However, the library has many e-books, online articles and videos for you to use and the number is increasing as many database vendors open up their resources for free during the pandemic. (Please note that Interlibrary loan is still available for electronic articles and e-book chapters only, but may be a little slower than usual.)

So while classes will remain online through the spring semester, your Kirkwood librarians will be here to help you though, just as we always are. AND we look forward to the day we can open our doors and welcome you into the library once again.

Do You Know About Using our LibGuides?

Tags

Kirkwood Community College Library, Library Newsletter, Library Services

Citation LibGuide

LibGuides are a platform where the library can gather and share resources. They allow us to collect resources on a particular topic or for a particular assignment for student use whether they are books, articles, ebooks, videos, websites, etc. Find more information on how to work with the library to create a LibGuide for a subject or assignment for your class. We also have a collection of LibGuides we make for the general population that get a lot of use.

The LibGuides that get the most use are:

Citation Guides (APA/MLA)

What Are Scholarly Journal Articles?

Web Resources Evaluation

Open Textbooks, OER & Other Open or Free Resources for Faculty

Library Hours

Distance Learning

Print from Your Own Device (PYOD)

Faculty Services

Interlibrary Loan (ILL)

Take a minute and take a look.

 

We have a few of extra things to mention this month.

The library reserves an extra classroom around the Cedar Rapids campus for additional groups space during finals week or the week before. Ask at the reference desk for more information.

Info to Know – Do you know about all these services around campus?

Kirkwood Library Faculty Survey Results from Spring 2018

Kirkwood Librarians publish in The Communique

How To Craft an Effective Syllabus via Chronicle of Higher Education (full text available through the library)

What College is Like for First Generation Students via Chronicle of Higher Education (full text available through the library)

Google Images Should Now Show Credit (open web article)

Small Studies Show Students Retain More Detail Reading Print Over Digital (click through to the studies Kirkwood databases provide access to the full text)

Links to Some of The Books Recently Added to the Collection:

I Heart Books!

Cookbooks and Food Books

Information Literacy 2018

Looking for Biography

Odds and Ends 50

Paranormal Happy Halloween 2018

Self-Improvement Fall 2018

Student Life Part 4

Our Special Display This Month

Nonfiction November

Event – Special Event

All Kirkwood Reads

Where all of Kirkwood gets a chance to read one book to think and talk about together.

Exam Cram –

Our annual kick-off to the intensive study for finals season will be
Thursday, November 29, 2018, 8am-9pm

EVENT – SPECIAL HOURS

Thanksgiving Break –

Both library branches will be:

• Closed Sunday (Nov. 18, 2018)
• Open 8am-5pm Monday and Tuesday (Nov. 19-20)
• Closed Wednesday thru Saturday (Nov. 21-24)
• Cedar Rapids only will be open Sunday (Nov. 25) 3pm-8pm

Research Tips

Banned Books Week 2018

Banned Books Britannica List Tell Me Why

Banned Books Preview

Copyright Update – Can I Use This?

MLA Citation Handout Updates Fall 2018

Information Literacy Bad Historic Twitter Feeds

Information Literacy Private Browsing

Information Literacy Tracking Down a Study

Tech Tips

Kirkwood Slash Gives Helpful Links

OER Search Tool

OER at Kirkwood: Survey results & Looking ahead

Want a Specialized LibGuide for an assignment to help your students find stuff?

Click Here

Want to schedule time in the library or for us to come into your class?

Click Here

What if the library doesn’t have a book you want?

Click Here

And remember you contact us at the library any time by phone, e-mail, chat, or stop on by! We’re always glad to see you! Look for the next issue of our newsletter. And remember you contact us at the library any time by phone, e-mail, chat, or stop on by! We’re always glad to see you! Look for the next issue of our newsletter.

Welcome Week Fall 2018 Cedar Rapids Kirkwood Library

Tags

Kirkwood Community College Library, Welcome Week

We got a lot of feedback on our surveys this spring that there were students who even at the end of spring semester didn’t have any idea where the library is located on the main Cedar Rapids campus. So we hope to remedy that by encouraging everyone to come to the library sometime during the week of August 20th. Please come, pass this on, and bring a friend!

Activity Details

Monday, August 20th – Movin’ and Shakin’ table  (11AM – 2PM)

Tuesday, August 21st – Welcome table with informational handouts, cookies, and “Win a Bookish Box” door prize. (11AM – 12:30PM)

Wednesday, August 22nd – free popcorn (1PM – 3PM)

Thursday, August 23rd – Same as Tuesday PLUS “Take a Photo with Sammy the Eagle” (11AM – 12:30PM)

Friday, August 24th – Fun and Game Day ALL DAY

All events are in Kirkwood’s Cedar Rapids library except for Movin’ and Shakin’.