Library Acquires Region Free DVD player

The Library has purchased a Region Free DVD player which can play a DVD from any region in the world. It is combined with a VHS player that will play PAL coded videocassettes. This player will reside in the Fourth floor Audio/Visual area near the Reserve desk. The Library will now be able to acquire AV material that is only available in alternate region formats. The player is now available for use.

World Region codes for videos:
Region 1: USA, Canada – (also known as NTSC)
Region 2: Europe, Japan, South Africa, Middle East, Greenland – (also known as PAL)
Region 3: S. Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Parts of South East Asia
Region 4: Australia, New Zealand, Latin America (includes Mexico)
Region 5: Eastern Europe, Russia, India, Africa
Region 6: China
Region 7: Reserved for unspecified use
Region 8: Reserved for cruise ships, airlines and so on
Region 0: Un-coded and can be played world-wide -- (also called All-region discs)

DVD and VHS in alternate formats such as PAL in the library collection will soon be identified as such. Talk to the Reserve Desk staff for assistance with the region free DVD player.

--M. Hopper

Dagoberto Gilb Reading at the Library (March 4, Tuesday)

DAGOBERTO GILB
Reading & book signing

TUESDAY, MARCH 4
3:30 pm
The Wittliff Collections
Southwestern Writers Collection
Alkek Library Seventh Floor

FREE and open to the public

The Wittliff Collections host acclaimed author Dagoberto Gilb reading from his new novel, The Flowers, published by Grove Press. The reading will be followed by a Q&A and book signing. Books will be for sale courtesy of the University Bookstore.

DAGOBERTO GILB received the Texas Book Festival Bookend Award for Ongoing Literary Achievement in 2007 and is editor of Hecho en Tejas, the Southwestern Writers Collection anthology of Texas Mexican literature. A tenured professor in the Creative Writing Program at Texas State and member of The Wittliff Collections Advisory Board, Gilb has seen his work translated into French, Italian, Japanese, German, Spanish, and Dutch. Other books by Gilb include The Last Known Residence of Mickey Acuña, Woodcuts of Women, and Gritos: Essays. His first published collection of short stories, The Magic of Blood, won the PEN/Hemingway Award.

For more information, contact The Wittliff Collections at 512.245.2313.

Importing Library Catalog Records into RefWorks

RefWorks is a bibliographic management tool that enables you to save, organize and use your citations for assignments, research papers, and other academic work. Most of the article databases offer an option to mark citations and "export to RefWorks." What isn't so obvious is how to get records from the library catalog into RefWorks. The process is easy once you've done it a couple of times.

Here's how:

• Log-in to your RefWorks account.
• Search the catalog for books, videos, etc.
• Save the records by clicking the "Save to List" button.
• View your "Saved Records"
• Check the "End Note/RefWorks" and "Send list to Screen" buttons then hit "Submit"

By using the "Send List to Screen" option, an .html version of the records will look like this:

• Highlight and Copy all the text on the page
• Next, go to your Refworks account choose the "Import" option under the References heading.


• For the Import Filter/Data Source option pick Innovative Interfaces
• For the Database choose the Endnote/RefWorks format
• In the text box below, paste the records from the .html page and click the import button.

This completes the process. For more information about using RefWorks, you can drop in for a RefWorks class offered throughout the semester, use this RefWorks guide for tips on various databases and RefWorks, or you can also watch the RefWorks tutorial to learn about RefWorks.

Mystery Writers & Live Music at the Library (February 23, Saturday)

LONE STAR SLEUTHS DAY
Meet & Greet with Fifteen Texas Mystery Writers
plus Acoustic Noir Songs Performed Live

FEBRUARY 23, Saturday
2:00 to 5:00 pm

THE PUBLIC IS INVITED to LONE STAR SLEUTHS DAY celebrating the new Texas crime fiction anthology in the Southwestern Writers Collection Book Series with UT Press. Fifteen of the contributing mystery writers and the three editors, Bill Cunningham, Steven L. Davis, and Rollo K. Newsom, will be on hand to talk with guests and sign books.

SCHEDULED AUTHORS
Susan Wittig Albert, Neal Barrett, Jr., Paula Boyd, Susan Rogers Cooper, Bill Crider, A.W. Gray, Rolando Hinojosa, Joe R. Lansdale, David Lindsey, Ben Rehder, Rick Riordan, Jim Sanderson, Jesse Sublett, Doug J. Swanson, Mary Willis Walker

LIVE MUSIC
Author/musician Jesse Sublett and country singer Kasey Lansdale will perform acoustic noir songs.

Catered refreshments will be served.
Books by all attending authors will be for sale.

Free and open to the public.

ATTENDEES, PLEASE RSVP
to southwesternwriters@txstate.edu or (512) 245-2313.

THE WITTLIFF COLLECTIONS
Southwestern Writers Collection
Alkek Library Seventh Floor
Texas State University-San Marcos
(512) 245-2313
http://www.thewittliffcollections.txstate.edu/

Read more about Lone Star Sleuths: An Anthology of Texas Crime Fiction from UT Press
http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/books/cunlop.html

Library Collections Unite Under New Name: the Wittliff Collections

The Southwestern Writers Collection and Wittliff Gallery are now The Wittliff Collections at the Alkek Library.

When the Southwestern Writers Collection was founded at the university library in 1986, its collecting activities focused on the literature, film, and music of the region. It was only several years later that the collection of photographs of the Southwest and Mexico began to form, and in 1996 the Wittliff Gallery of Southwestern & Mexican Photography was formally christened.

Each collection, although operating as one organization within Texas State, continued to function separately for the most part in terms of archival activities, exhibitions, and public programming. However, it became increasingly complicated to explain how each repository was separate, but not separate.

In an effort to convey the composite nature of the collections, unite them under a common name, and acknowledge the great and generous contributions of the founding donors, the two counterparts will now be known officially as:

The Wittliff Collections

Where necessary, the terms “Southwestern Writers Collection” and “Southwestern & Mexican Photography Collection” will be used to refer to the components of The Wittliff Collections.

Bookmark the new website address: www.thewittliffcollections.txstate.edu which can be accessed for exhibits and events info, author and artist inventories, and much more.

We are in the process of changing all pertinent materials and documents.
At this time, all location codes in the library catalog will remain as they are.

THE WITTLIFF COLLECTIONS offer a dynamic archival, exhibition, programming, and research environment designed to further the cultural legacy of the region’s literary and photographic arts, and foster “the spirit of place” in the wider world.

The Southwestern Writers Collection preserves and exhibits the literary papers and artifacts of principal writers, filmmakers, and musicians, including the major archives of Cormac McCarthy, Sam Shepard, and John Graves, Fox’s animated series King of the Hill, and the CBS miniseries Lonesome Dove.

The Southwestern & Mexican Photography Collection includes the major holdings of such renowned artists as Kate Breakey, Keith Carter, and Graciela Iturbide, and houses the largest archive of modern and contemporary Mexican photography in the United States.

Connie Todd, Curator
The Wittliff Collections, Alkek Library, 7th floor

Library Research Grants Awarded

Seventeen faculty members have been awarded Library Research Grants for materials to support their research projects. Members of the Library Committee, the library’s faculty advisory committee reviewed the proposals and recommended grants to the following recipients:

Dr. Bahram Asiabanpour, Department of Engineering
Dr. Ulrich E. Bach, Department of Modern Languages
Dr. Ziao Chen, Department of Computer Science
Dr. Ian Bruce Davidson, School of Music
Dr. Daniela Ferrero, Department of Mathematics
Dr. Michelle Hays, Department of Art and Design
Dr. Charles R. Hurt, School of Music
Dr. David Lemke, Department of Biology
Dr. Kerrie Lewis, Department of Anthropology
Dr. Jacquelyn D. McDonald, Department of Health, Physical Education and Recreation
Dr. Francis A. Mendez, Department of Computer Information Systems and Quantitative Methods
Ms. Nelly Rosario, Department of English
Dr. Elizabeth Morgan Russell, Department of Family and Consumer Science
Dr. David Snyder, Department of Mathematics
Dr. Raphael Travis, Department of Social Work
Dr. Garland R. Upchurch, Jr., Department of Biology
Dr. Selina Vasquez-Mireles, Department of Mathematics

Congratulations to the winners!

More information about the library research grants, including application time line, can be found here.

Finding Reserve Materials by Using the "Hard Copy Reserve" Search

Have you ever wanted to know if your professor has your textbook on reserve but you weren't sure how to find out? Did your professor tell you to read an article from a book that's on reserve at the library? Or do you want to know if there are any old tests on reserve to help you study for your next exam? Finding the answers to these questions got a lot easier last year when the new library catalog was released. The catalog now houses all the reserve items in a way that can be searched by everyone.

All you need to do to find reserve items for your class is to click the "hard copy reserve" link on the main library catalog page. Next you will see the option to search by course or professor. The course search uses the same abbreviations the university uses, "bio," "comm," "mc," etc.

Enter the last name to search for the professor, lecturer, or instructor.

If you do not find a textbook on reserve by your professor, sometimes you can find it under another professor's name...especially for the larger core classes that use the same textbook. Try searching by course too.

Another thing to remember: this is different from the "electronic reserve." E-Reserve, or ERes for short, is for electronic access to reserve materials. In order to access ERes materials, you will need a password, given to you by your professor. The materials (usually articles or book chapters) can be downloaded and printed. Hardcopy reserve will be on the 4th floor at the Researve desk and most items must be used in the library. Photocopying articles or chapters is allowed.