This winter term the Portland State University Library is offering an array of workshops for students, faculty, and staff interested in learning more about library research and citation management tools. Many of these are live online sessions that you can join from anywhere with internet access.

To register, please visit http://library.pdx.edu/workshops/ and choose the registration link for the session you would like to attend.

January 13 - March 23, 2011
Millar Library, 1st Floor Elevator Lobby 

In early modern Europe, Time was seen as a destructive figure, relentlessly gnawing away at the works of man. The remnants of the ancient past that manage to survive were often described as having escaped his "envious tooth." This exhibition highlights original printed works from the Portland State University Library Special Collections, ranging from the fifteenth through eighteenth centuries, including the collection's latest Gordon Hunter Fund acquisition, a rare 1613 edition of Cesare Ripa's celebrated iconographic handbook, Iconologia.

This exhibit is curated by Jesse Locker, Assistant Professor of Renaissance & Baroque Art, Department of Art, Portland State University.

Learn about past exhibits here.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012
7pm
Smith Memorial Student Union, Room 333

Free and Open to the Public 

Join Portland State at the annual celebration of the life and poetry of the late William Stafford, Oregon's poet laureate. Several poets will be reading their favorite Stafford poems plus one or two of their own. Readers will include Professor Emeritus Shelley Reece, Professor John Beer, Portland State MFA graduate students, and a very special guest, Oregon poet laureate Paulann Petersen. There will be an open microphone for your favorite Stafford poem and one of your own poems. Refreshments will be served at the reading.

For more information about William Stafford, please visit the Friends of William Stafford web site.

The PSU Library, with a significant funding assist from Research & Strategic Partnerships (RSP) and the Budget Office, is now subscribing to the complete Wiley Blackwell Electronic Journal Collection for the next three years. The collection consists of 1330 journals covering subjects as diverse as architecture and art through systems research and zoology. More than 1100 of the titles were not in PSU's collection prior to the agreement either because the title had never been held here or budget cuts had forced cancellations. Many of the newly available journal titles in this collection have been requested through Interlibrary Loan (ILL) during the past five years.

These full text journal titles are cataloged and linked in the PSU Library online catalog:
http://library.pdx.edu

You can also access them through the Wiley Blackwell list of titles:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/browse/publications?type=journal&activeLetter=

The Wiley Blackwell titles area also listed at the Library E-Journal Portal:
http://wq5rp2ll8a.search.serialssolutions.com/

Portland State University is a co-sponsor of Multnomah County Library's Everybody Reads 2012. Everybody Reads is a community reading project to encourage discussion of issues that matter and celebrate the power of books in creating a stronger community.

The tenth annual Everybody Reads selection is The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow. This debut novel tells the story of Rachel, the daughter of a Danish mother and a black G.I. who becomes the sole survivor of a family tragedy. With her strict African American grandmother as her new guardian, Rachel moves to a mostly black community in Portland, where her light brown skin, blue eyes and beauty bring mixed attention her way. Growing up in the 1980s, she learns to swallow her overwhelming grief and confronts her identity as a biracial young woman in a world that wants to see her as either black or white.

The University Library has about 100 copies of the book available at the Circulcation Desk (Millar Library, first floor). These special copies may be passed on to others, so encourage your friends, coworkers and neighbors to participate.

Everybody Reads Events at the University Library

Admission to events is free and open to the public. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

The Girl Who Fell from the Sky: A Literary Round Table

Monday, February 6, 6pm
Millar Library, Room 160

Portland State University professors Maude Hines (English), Ann Marie Fallon (Honors) and Inger Olsen (World Languages and Literatures) lead an in-depth discussion of Heidi W. Durrow's novel.

Center for Academic Excellence Civic Engagement Breakfast: Catching The Girl Who Fell from the Sky

Tuesday, February 14, 9-10:30am
Millar Library, Room 160 

Join PSU campus and community partners to a) briefly learn about the state of our Metropolitan region regarding diversity, social indicators, etc, and b) to dialogue with PSU faculty who have intentionally and effectively integrated the topic of diversity into formal PSU curricula. This engaging gathering is designed to inform, inspire, and challenge all of us to be better teachers, learners, and actors in our classrooms and in our community. With Portland State University Professor Emeritus Dalton Miller-Jones (Developmental Psychology) and PSU Chief Diversity Officer Jilma Meneses.

Growing Up Biracial

Thursday, February 16, 7pm
Millar Library, Room 160 

Join a panel of biracial adults from the Portland State University community as they talk about childhood experiences. With PSU Assistant Professor Ethan Johnson (Black Studies), graduate student Adrienne Croskey and student Kevin Thomas.

Child-Rearing and Identity

Tuesday, February 21, 6pm
Millar Library, Room 160 

Portland State University professors Martha Balshem (Sociology) and Alma Trinidad (Social Work) and psychologist Cheryl Forster (Student Health and Counseling) will discuss issues related to identity and development.

Portland's Albina District: Retrospect and Prospect (Room 160)

Wednesday, February 29, 10am
Millar Library, Room 160 

Join Portland State University Associate Professor Karen Gibson (Urban Studies and Planning) for a panel discussion with long-time Albina residents.

On Tuesday, January 10th, Portland State University Library opened up its new collaborative technology space, the appropriately named "Sandbox." This exciting new space is part of the redesigned Learning Ground that opened in Fall 2011. It is aimed at fostering student collaboration through the use of innovative and experimental technologies. The Sandbox features wall-embedded LCD displays that can be used with laptops or iPads, touch-screen computers, floor-to-ceiling writeable walls, and a range of comfortable, inviting furniture. Groups of all sizes will be able to find a space and a technology within the Sandbox to suit them.

The Sandbox will be open during Library hours and is available for student-use on a first-come, first-served basis. As part of the Learning Ground, this project has been a collaboration between the University Library and Office of Information Technologies (OIT) and was generously sponsored by the Associated Students of PSU (ASPSU).

PSU Librarians can now respond to your questions via text message.

Text Us @ 66746

Start with the word PDX the first time you text us.
Example: PDX what time does the library close?

Usage charges from your carrier may apply.

Add us to your contact list:

• Create a new Contact
• Save 66746 as the phone number
• Save PSU Library as the first name
• Save PDX as the last name

You can also continue to ask questions via chat, email, phone, and in person.

The University Library is piloting a textbook reserve program with funding from a generous alumna for Winter Quarter 2012. The program will provide multiple copies of Art History required texts for borrowing up to 4 hours at a time. Students can check them out at the Circulation desk.

To help the Library assess the impact of this program, we are asking all students of Art History to complete the Art History Textbook Survey.

Any questions about the program, please contact Fine and Performing Arts Librarian, Professor Kris Kern at kernk@pdx.edu.

Construction has started to transform the northwest corner of Millar Library’s 2nd floor into the new home for PSU’s Learning Center.

The University Library’s new strategic vision emphasizes the importance of students’ academic experiences in its spaces, just as the newly reorganized Learning Center plays a vital role in supporting student academic success through its peer support programs such as tutoring and Supplemental Instruction as well through its curricular components of College Success and Chiron Studies courses.

The move will allow students to find the Learning Center more easily. Students will also be able to take advantage of the Library’s computers and group study/presentation spaces as they work with tutors and Supplemental Instruction leaders.

The Learning Center will continue to operate in its current location in Room 439 in Smith Memorial Student Union until construction is complete sometime in late February.

Oregon’s First African American State Legislator’s Papers Featured on Display
December 8-22
Oregon State Capitol

Portland State University’s Library will unveil an exhibit of photographs, letters, posters, and clippings drawn from the Avel Louise Gordly papers housed in its collection.

Gordly was appointed to the legislature in 1991 and re-elected in 1992 to represent the 19th legislative district. In 1996 she was elected to the state senate, where she served until 2008, when she retired to teach at Portland State University. Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, Gordly is the first African American woman elected to the state senate in Oregon’s history.

The exhibit contains one-of-a-kind materials from Gordly’s public and private life. Gordly gifted her personal papers to the PSU library and Black Studies Department in 2007. She is also a Portland State graduate, having earned a degree in Administration of Justice in 1974. The Avel Gordly Collection is open to researchers and students by appointment at Portland State University Library.

The exhibit also highlights elements from Gordly’s recently published memoir, Remembering the Power of Words: The Life of an Oregon Legislator, Activist, and Community Leader published in 2011 by Oregon State University Press. It was the press’s inaugural volume of their new Women and Politics in the Pacific Northwest, edited by Melody Rose. It is available for purchase in the capitol gift shop.

The exhibit is on display in the capitol December 8th through 22nd and is free and open to the public.