Google Docs as a Group-Work Tool

Do you have a group project or assignment?

Are you having trouble coordinating meeting times?

Google Docs is a wonderful tool for collaborating online AND it's totally FREE and easy to use!

Click here to see what it's all about.

Create documents, spreadsheets and presentations online:

• Create basic documents from scratch or start from a template.You can easily do all the basics, including making bulleted lists, sorting by columns, adding tables, images, comments, formulas, changing fonts and more. And it's free.


• Upload your existing files.Google Docs accepts most popular file formats, including DOC, XLS, ODT, ODS, RTF, CSV, PPT, etc. So go ahead and upload your existing files.


• Familiar desktop feel makes editing a breeze.Just click the toolbar buttons to bold, underline, indent, change font or number format, change cell background color and so on.

Share and collaborate in real time:

• Choose who can access your documents.Just enter the email addresses of the people with whom you want to share a given document and send them an invitation.


• Share instantly.Anyone you've invited to either edit or view your document, spreadsheet or presentation can access it as soon as they sign in.


• Edit and present with others in real time.Multiple people can view and make changes at the same time. There's an on-screen chat window for spreadsheets, and document revisions show you exactly who changed what, and when. Viewing a presentation together is a breeze, as anyone joined in a presentation can automatically follow along with the presenter.

Guest Speaker to Give Lecture via Video Conferencing

Thursday September 23rd from 7:30 to 8:30 pm will mark the college's first live video-conferencing lecture! The lecture is also a Cultural Enrichment event, and will be held in the library's Auditorium. Guest Speaker Bill Freudenburg has been invited by the library and the college to speak on "Learning the Lessons of Katrina". In light of this upcoming event the library wanted to offer a little bit of background info about the guest speaker:

William Freudenburg is the Dehlsen Professor of Environment and Society at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has published extensively on society-environment relationships, particularly on resource-dependent rural communities and on natural hazards and risks. His articles have been published in interdisciplinary journals such as Science, Risk Analysis, Risk, and Technological Forecasting and Social Change, as well as in numerous sociological journals, including American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, Annual Review of Sociology, Rural Sociology, Social Problems, and Social Forces. Much of his recent work has focused on “disproportionality” -- the tendency for environmental damage to be associated with a surprisingly small fraction of the overall economy. His latest book, with Robert Gramling, Shirley Laska, and Kai Erikson, is Catastrophe in the Making (Island Press, 2009), which analyzes the lessons to be learned from the "un-natural disaster" of Hurricane Katrina.

He has received numerous awards and honors for his work, including the Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Sociology of Environment and Technology from the American Sociological Association (ASA), and "best article" awards from the Pacific Sociological Association and three different ASA sections. He won the Award of Merit from the Rural Sociological Society (RSS) Natural Resource Research Group, as well as winning the RSS's inaugural (2006) Fred Buttel Award for the Best Article of the previous several years. Dr. Freudenburg is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has served as a panelist or member of five different committees of the National Academy of Sciences/ National Research Council. He has also served on numerous other scientific advisory committees, including those for the U.S. Departments of Energy and Interior, and he was the first American Sociological Association Congressional Fellow to serve in the House of Representatives.

Needless to say, we at the library are very excited to have a speaker with such credentials to lecture at LaGrange College. Not only does it promise to be a culturally enriching event, but also it is the perfect opportunity for the library to utilize some of its technological features, such as the brand new video-conferencing system and the other multi-media aspects of the library's auditorium. It is our hope that this event will be the first of many video-conferencing lecture and events to come!

LaGrange College Football 2010

This is the first in a series of promotional videos that Archives and Special Collections are using to advertise (and archive) events a LaGrange College. This particular video was shot and edited by Archives work study student Grant Evans, and is now playing on the library's Media Tiles. The footage is from the LaGrange College Football team's home game on 9 / 11 / 2010:

Identifying Journal Types

Here are some helpful hints for identifying journal types when browsing or searching for periodicals:

Scholarly Journals

• Audience: scholars and students
• Authors: scholars or experts in their fields - articles are always signed
• Purpose: to report research findings
• Length & Credits: articles are usually lengthy and have extensive footnotes & bibliographies. Article sources are always cited.
• Pictures & Ads: articles rarely include illustrations, but may include charts or graphs. Journals rarely include advertisements.
• Titles: usually include words such as "research", "review", or "journal"
• Examples: American Historical Review, Reading Research Quarterly

Substantive Magazines

• Audience: general public
• Authors: reporters, free lance writers, or experts in their fields
• Credits: articles are usually signed and credentials of the author are given. Occasionally articles may include sources.
• Purpose: to provide information to a broad audience
• Appearance: generally attractive with some advertisements
• Examples: Time, Newsweek, Fortune, Scientific American

Popular Magazines

• Audience: general public
• Authors: usually staff writers, articles may not be signed
• Purpose: to entertain and inform
• Appearance: generally include photographs and illustrations, and many advertisements
• Length: generally very short articles
• Examples: Better Homes and Gardens, Self, Parents

You can find a link to our periodical holdings list on this blog's LINKS page.

Special Check Out Items

The library at LaGrange College has many special items for check out to students and faculty alike. These items can only be accessed through the Circulation desk. These items include Reserves, Headphones, Study Rooms and Laptops.

• Reserves - any item placed on reserve by professors for the purpose of a specific class or discipline can be checked out for a specific amount of time. It is up to the professor to set that amount of time. Many items on reserve are for "library use only", other items are for "1-day" or "1-week". These items may include books, articles, dvd's and cd's. Education Theses are also a type of reserve item, and may be checked out by graduate students of the MAT and MED programs. When requesting a reserve item, let the circulation desk attendant know which class and which professor the reserve item is for.
• Headphones - headphones may be checked out by students and faculty for "library use only" to aid in viewing and listening to materials online, and on cd's and dvd's.
• Study Rooms - many group study rooms are available throughout the library, and are open to students on a first come basis. These rooms may be reserved by students and faculty for hosting group study sessions, organization meetings, and class sessions. All study rooms are equipped with white boards and dry-erase markers, as well as adequate seating and study tables. Two rooms also have a vhs and dvd player with a small television for those needing to watch films as a group or alone. There is also a Media Lounge which has a large flat-screen television and a dvd and blu-ray player. This room is ideal for larger groups to meet and view assigned media. If you would like to reserve a study room or the Media Lounge, please see the attendant at the circulation desk. The Multi-media Classroom and Auditorium are also available for reserve, but this can only be done by consulting with a librarian.
• Laptops - laptops may be checked out individually by students and faculty. In order to check out a laptop, you must first fill out a laptop form at the circulation desk. Laptops are also library use only, and may be checked out for 3 hours at a time. When checking out a laptop, you must leave your student I.D. at the circulation desk with the attendant, who will give it back once the laptop has been returned.

NOTE: "library use only" items (such as laptops) may NOT enter the 24-hour study.

Inter-Library Loan

Inter-Library Loan or ILL is a wonderful service offered by LaGrange College that not all students are aware of. This service allows students and faculty to request books and articles that are not a part of our library's collection. These items are then sent from other libraries across the country to our college's library so that our patrons can have access to a larger variety of items. Dr. Arthur Robinson oversees the ILL services at LaGrange College. If you would like to request a book or article through ILL, you can do so by filling out an ILL book or article form (located at the Circulation and Reference desks).

Tutoring Center Hours for Fall 2010

Looking for a tutor? Take advantage of the FREE services provided by the LaGrange College Writing & Tutoring Center, located in the 24-hour study at the Frank & Laura Lewis Library.

Chemistry

• Sunday 7 to 9 pm
• Wednesday 7 to 9 pm
• By Appointment mphall@lagrange.edu

Economics

• Monday 7 to 9 pm
• Wednesday 7 to 9 pm
• By Appointment dbladuron@lagrange.edu

French

• Monday 7 to 9 pm
• Tuesday 7 to 9 pm
• Wednesday 7 to 9 pm

Math

• Sunday 6 to 9 pm
• Tuesday 6 to 9 pm
• Thursday 6 to 9 pm
• By Appointment welong@lagrange.edu
• By Appointment krpoole@lagrange.edu

Political Science

• Monday 6 to 9 pm
• Wednesday 6 to 9 pm
• Thursday 7 to 9 pm
• By Appointment jcbradford@lagrange.edu

Problem-Solving

• Monday 7 to 9 pm
• Tuesday 7 to 9 pm
• Wednesday 7 to 9 pm
• By Appointment mrabernathy@lagrange.edu

Psychology

• Sunday 6 to 9 pm
• Tuesday 6 to 9 pm
• Wednesday 6 to 9 pm
• Thursday 6 to 9 pm
• By Appointment tajenkins@lagrange.edu

Spanish

• Monday 6 to 9 pm
• Tuesday 6 to 9 pm
• Wednesday 7 to 9 pm
• Thursday 6 to 8 pm
• By Appointment srojas@lagrange.edu

Writing (ALL disciplines)

• Sunday 6 to 9 pm
• Monday 6 to 9 pm
• Tuesday 12 to 3 pm, 6 to 9 pm
• Wednesday 6 to 9 pm
• Thursday 6 to 9 pm
• By Appointment dwmiller@lagrange.edu

Welcome to the LaGrange College Library Blog!

Welcome to the library's new blog! Starting now, this blog will be used to communicate timely information related to the library at LaGrange College. That information may include, but is not limited to:

• advertising events, classes and lectures taking place at the library or in the library classroom or auditorium
• advertising events and other goings-on across campus dealing with academics, the arts, and student life
• communicating information about the 24-hour study, tutoring center hours, and helpful study and research tips
• presenting library resource highlights & web-interviews with students and faculty about their favorite library resources
• announcing new book and resource arrivals & presenting virtual tutorials on how to use technology in the library

The library at LaGrange College hopes this blog will be used by all of our library patrons as a valuable resource. As this blog grows, you will be able to search through past blog posts using tags (labels). Each blog post will be tagged/labeled with a descriptive keyword or phrase (for ex. music resources, cultural enrichment events, tutoring, etc.). You can search through these tags/labels by clicking on them in the right-hand column.