August 12, 2022
by Leeward CC Learning Commons
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Learning Commons & Library Hours
August 15-19
Monday: CLOSED for staff training
Tuesday – Thursday
Friday: CLOSED in observance of Statehood Day
If you have any questions, please contact our circulation desk (x210 or lcccirc@hawaii.edu).
July 26, 2022 by Cheryl | 0 comments
Exciting news! We’ve recently gained perpetual access to a wealth of new content on JSTOR. While we formerly subscribed to just 3 collections (Arts & Sciences I, II and III), we are now entitled to ALL of the following collections:
This gives us new access to thousands of scholarly journals across many disciplines. If you’ve never used JSTOR before, this would be a great time to check it out!
JSTOR is a digital library of academic content in many formats and disciplines. The collections include top peer-reviewed scholarly journals as well as respected literary journals, academic monographs, research reports from trusted institutes, and diverse primary sources.
Our JSTOR collections primarily focus on archival content. Journal coverage starts with the very first volume published and ends at a “moving wall” of 3-5 years prior to the current year. Our other databases generally do not provide such extensive backfiles. If youʻre looking for the most up-to-date information, JSTOR may not be the best choice; however, it can be a fantastic resource for historical information. For example, hereʻs a timely article from the November 2, 1918 issue of Scientific American:
Wearing a mask at work? Seems like the more things change, the more they stay the same!
To get started with JSTOR, navigate to our A-Z Databases page and find JSTOR in the list. If you are off campus, you may be prompted to enter your UH login. Once you get to the JSTOR home page, you should see “Access provided by Leeward Community College” at the top of the page.
You may use the basic search box to enter your keywords. There are options for restricting your search to author, title, or publication name. You may also choose to search for images.
Use the filters in the left sidebar to narrow your results. You may add another keyword, specify the content format, indicate a date range, or choose a subject.
Once you identify an item of interest, JSTOR makes it easy to download, cite, or link back to the item.
There are many other ways to find content on JSTOR. Check out these brief video tutorials for more information:
JSTOR’s Text Analyzer is a nifty tool that can help you quickly find relevant keywords and articles related to any document. Simply copy and paste your text, or upload an entire document to the Text Analyzer, and JSTOR will generate search terms and related articles! Click on the picture below for a quick video demonstration [opens in a new tab].
To get started with Text Analyzer, click on the Tools tab near the top right corner of any page and select Text Analyzer from the drop-down menu.
At the next screen, you may copy and paste in your text, or upload a file from your computer. It may take a few minutes for JSTOR to analyze your submission.
Now you will have a list of terms and related articles available on JSTOR! You are free to add or remove terms, or adjust their relative weight. The list of related articles will change accordingly.
With thousands of scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences and life sciences, JSTOR has something for everyone. Here are a few significant titles:
We hope you enjoy our new, expanded access to JSTOR. We’ve barely scratched the surface of what JSTOR has to offer, so please explore it on your own and see what treasures you can find. For more information, check out JSTOR’s YouTube channel, reach out to your librarian subject liaison, or contact us at lccref@hawaii.edu.
July 12, 2022 by Cheryl | 0 comments
Over the past two months we introduced you to resources for streaming videos at Leeward CC, including Academic Video Online (AVON), Feature Films for Education/Swank Digital Campus, and Docuseek. For the final post of this series, we’ve saved the (arguably) best for last: Kanopy.
To access this resource, start at our A-Z Databases page and select Kanopy from the list. Kanopy requires you to use a (free) personal account. If you already have an account, click on LOG IN in the top right corner. If you need to create an account, click on LOG IN TO LEEWARD and follow the prompts. For security purposes, do not use the same password that you use for your email.
Browse through the new releases and categories of interest on the page, or use the Browse and Search functions in the top left corner.
Click on any title to get to the video page. From this page you may Play the film or add it to your Watchlist. Select the Share tab to generate direct links and citations.
Any films added to your Watchlist are accessible by clicking on My Lists from the top left corner and selecting the My Watchlist tab.
Kanopy has many other features, including captions, transcripts, custom playlists, and a mobile app. For more detailed information, please visit Kanopy Help.
Kanopy offers a wide variety of quality films in an attractive user interface, so it’s a very popular resource. Our Kanopy usage has increased steadily over the years, peaking during the pandemic-induced pivot to online learning. The downside is that higher usage leads to higher costs, since the great majority of our titles are pay-per-use. The chart below illustrates the trend in our monthly pay-per-use costs from 2019 – 2021.
Fortunately, there are steps we can take to keep Kanopy affordable. You can help us out by notifying your library subject liaison or lccref@hawaii.edu if you intend to assign a Kanopy film for your class. Why?
What’s popular on Kanopy? Over the past 12 months, the following videos were the most viewed:
We hope you’ve learned something new about all of the great video resources available to you through your library. If you have any questions, please contact your library subject liaison or lccref@hawaii.edu. We are always happy to help!
July 6, 2022
by tashawil
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WRITING CENTER (WC)
We offer tutoring assistance in-person, by phone, and via Zoom for any writing assignment on the following days
Monday – Thursday (10am – 3pm)
To make an appointment, create an account via Penjiapp using your UH email.
Visit our Writing Center website, email writers@hawaii.edu or call (808) 455-0409 for more information about tutoring and our focused workshops.
LEARNING RESOURCE CENTER (LRC)
We offer subject-specific tutoring in-person and via Zoom on the following days
Monday – Thursday (10am – 3pm)
We offer tutoring for the following courses this summer
– ACC 201, 202, 252
– BUS 101, 120
– CHEM 162 & 162L
– ECON 131
– ICS 111
– MGT 121
To check subject-specific tutor availability, please go to Penjiapp and create an account. Select the LRC Community.
To make an appointment, create an account via Penjiapp using your UH email.
Email lrctutor@hawaii.edu or call (808) 455-0409 for more information.
July 1, 2022
by Ralph Toyama
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As mentioned in the recent post about MLA Handbook Plus, the Modern Language Association’s citation style is largely the same in the recently published 9th edition of the MLA Handbook as it was in the 8th edition. These are some of the differences.
The Contributors element, formerly called Other Contributors, has been expanded to include key contributors like film directors, music conductors, and if citing a live performance, groups like dance companies and choirs. (5.38-5.47)
URLs that run three full lines or longer should be truncated. (5.96)
A Digital Object Identifier (DOI) should be presented as a URL starting with “https://doi.org/”. This is also how the APA citation style now presents DOIs in the current 7th edition of their publication manual. (5.93)
With MLA 8th, the words University and Press in the names of academic presses should be abbreviated as U and P, e.g., U of Hawaiʻi P. With MLA 9th, if the publisher’s name does not include the word University, Press should be spelled out. (5.65)
When presenting variant forms of an author’s name, (e.g., an author’s real name for a work published under a pseudonym), use square brackets instead of parentheses. The expanded guidance in the 9th ed. gives you some latitude in presenting the information in a way that you feel is most helpful to the reader. (5.14)
When citing a social media post, MLA 8th had you use the author’s online handle as the author name, with the author’s real name in parentheses. MLA 9th calls for using the real name, followed by the online handle in square brackets. The online handle can be omitted if it’s similar to the real name and a URL to the post is given. (5.16)
When a publication date includes a season, the season is not capitalized. The rationale is to bring this guidance in line with the practice of not capitalizing seasons in prose. (5.79)
Sources: MLA Handbook, 8th and 9th eds., Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th ed.
June 28, 2022 by Cheryl | 0 comments
Over the last few weeks, we gave you an overview of the library’s streaming video platforms, introduced you to Academic Video Online (AVON), and shared some great resources for feature films. This time our focus is on Docuseek, our newest streaming platform.
To access this resource, start at our A-Z Databases page and select Docuseek from the list. If you are off campus, you may be prompted to enter your UH login first.
The home page displays popular/timely films and top subjects.
Click on the Browse link at the top of the screen for an A-Z list of films available, the Subjects link to view films categorized by hundreds of subject areas, or the Search icon to perform a title or keyword search.
After performing a search or browsing the A-Z list of films available, you may filter your results by subject, year, or source (distributor). Enter your criteria in the left sidebar, then click on the Filter button. Advanced search functions are available by clicking on the More search options button.
After selecting a video, you may generate a direct link by clicking on Embed. Many videos have transcripts, which may be viewed by clicking on the Transcript button. Some videos even have interactive transcripts that allow you to click on a section of text to skip to the corresponding part of the video.
Additional features, such as creating clips and playlists, are available to registered users. Register for your free personal account by clicking on the Register link at the top of any page.
Docuseek is a very recent addition to our streaming video platforms, but these are the most popular titles so far:
Native men return to Hawaii after their cultural reawakening at a private prison in the Arizona desert.
Diagnoses the ‘disease’ of materialism and prescribes its antidote, simple living.
Adam Smith, The Birth of the Free Market
Episode 1 of the Capitalism series. Capitalism is much more complex than the vision Adam Smith laid out. Indeed, it predates Smith by centuries and took root in the practices of colonialism and the slave trade.
Internet cafes have existed in Japan for well over a decade, but in the mid 2000’s customers found a new use for these spaces: living quarters.
Investigates the electronics industry and reveals how even the smallest devices have deadly environmental and health costs.
Intrigued? It’s hard not to be when compelling stories are brought to life so vividly through film. Experience these stories, and hundreds more, at Docuseek.
Tune in next time, when we’ll cover one of the library’s most popular resources: Kanopy!
June 27, 2022
by Ralph Toyama
0 comments
The library now subscribes to MLA Handbook Plus, an online platform which gives access to the 9th edition of the MLA Handbook, the guide to academic writing from the Modern Language Association. Students now have unlimited access to comprehensive guidance for using the MLA citation style. Also in MLA Handbook Plus are two additional e-books: Guide to Digital Literacy and MLA Guide to Undergraduate Research in Literature.
MLA Handbook Plus also has a “Courses” section, which currently features MLA Style 101, a series of short video lessons about the core elements of the MLA citation template. Each lesson shows how to find the information for that element, and how to put that information into a citation.
While the MLA citation style has changed little since the 8th edition of the handbook, the guidance for citing sources has been expanded and reorganized in the 9th edition. Hundreds of sample citations have been added, as have many illustrations. Among the changes to the citation style are an expansion of the contributor element, options for the handling of long URLs, and changes to how social media content is cited. There are also changes to how pseudonyms, Digital Object Identifiers, certain publishers, and publication dates with seasons are shown.
The 9th edition of the handbook has significantly more content than the 8th edition, including bringing back past handbook content not included in the 8th edition. There is new or updated guidance on quotations and paraphrasing, avoiding plagiarism, formatting papers, footnotes and endnotes, and annotated bibliographies. It also has new writing advice, including guidance for spelling, punctuation, abbreviation, grammar, capitalization, and inclusive language.
Sources: EasyBib’s MLA 8 vs. MLA 9: Updates and Highlights and MLA’s How Does the Ninth Edition of the MLA Handbook Compare with the Eighth Edition? and the What’s New in the Ninth Edition of the MLA Handbook webinar.
June 21, 2022 by Cheryl | 0 comments
Has this ever happened to you? You stumble upon a series on Netflix, watch every episode, and really enjoy it. A year later, you decide to re-watch it, only to find that it has vanished without a trace! What happened?
In short, Netflix doesn’t own all of the content that is made available through the platform. They negotiate licensing agreements with the content owners, and some of these agreements expire. If you want guaranteed access to your favorite show, you usually need to purchase it, either on DVD or through a different streaming service.
Many of the library’s electronic resources operate in much the same manner. Read on to learn about two of our main access models–subscription and perpetual–and how the type of model may affect the resources you use.
With the subscription model, we usually pay an annual fee that gives our users access to everything that is currently included in the collection. Examples of subscription resources:
If you’ve ever found yourself in a situation where you can’t find an ebook or video that you know you’ve seen before, chances are it was a subscription title that was removed from the platform. Vendors generally add and remove content throughout the year, but some do their large removals in the summer and at the end of the year.
For example, this is the list of ebooks that will be removed from Ebook Central after June 30, and this is the list of videos leaving Academic Video Online after July 11.
With the perpetual access model, we purchase the titles we want, and they are ours for as long as we have access to the platform. This purchasing model is available on many of the same platforms that offer subscription collections.
Unfortunately, you probably can’t tell, so it’s best that you contact your library liaison or lccref@hawaii.edu to check. If your title is part of a subscription package, it is sometimes possible to purchase it under a perpetual access model, as well. For some streaming videos, limited-term licenses may also be available; this works well in situations where the video is needed for 1-3 years, but not permanently.
The key takeaway here is that it is a good idea to contact us if you are planning to use an ebook, streaming video, or other library resource for a class assignment or other important purpose. We cannot guarantee that perpetual access will be available for everything, but we will make every effort to prevent unpleasant surprises from happening.
Now, if Netflix would only bring back Friends . . .
June 14, 2022 by Cheryl | 0 comments
In the past few weeks, we gave you an overview of our streaming video platforms and an introduction to Academic Video Online (AVON). This week, our focus is on feature films. Many of our streaming platforms offer at least a few feature films, but two of our resources really showcase them: Feature Films for Education and Swank Digital Campus.
To access this resource, start at our A-Z Databases page and select Feature Films for Education from the list. If you are off campus, you may be prompted to enter your UH login first.
Use the search box in the top middle of the page to enter a video title or keywords, or click on the Menu in the top left corner to browse by title or genre.
After entering a search, you may use the filters in the right sidebar to specify a genre, language or copyright date.
Click on the film you wish to view. From the next page, you may generate direct links to the video, or press the Play button to see playback options.
Select one of the playback options to view the video. Some films also have audio in Spanish. You may expand the video to fullscreen, skip forward or backward, and play the video at a faster or slower speed.
What’s popular on Feature Films for Education? Over the past 12 months, the following videos were the most viewed:
Our second major resource for feature films is Swank Digital Campus.
To access this resource, start at our A-Z Databases page and select Swank Digital Campus from the list. If you are off campus, you may be prompted to enter your UH login first.
Next, you will be prompted to indicate your campus role. Select Student if you simply wish to view the films available in our portal. If you are an instructor and would like to request a title for your class, you may select Instructor and create an account. View this video for information on creating an instructor account, and this video for the title request process.
Note that a few titles have special restrictions that prevent them from being visible to students in our portal, even though they are licensed to us. These Restricted titles may only be shared with students via direct link (ideally through Laulima). If you are an instructor and request a restricted title, we will send you the direct link once the title is licensed. You may also generate a link by logging in with your instructor account.
Click on any film, then select the Watch button to view it, or the Share button to generate a direct link.
When playing a video, you may click on the Menu icon (3 dots in the lower right corner of the screen) for audio and subtitle options. Depending on the film, various languages may be available.
If you would like to request a video for use in your class but don’t want to create an instructor account, please contact us at lccref@hawaii.edu. We have a limited number of licenses available each year, but will do our best to fulfill your request.
What’s popular on Swank Digital Campus? Over the past 12 months, the following videos were the most viewed:
Next week we’ll switch gears a bit and share some great resources for documentaries. Stay tuned!
June 8, 2022 by Leeward CC Learning Commons | 0 comments
The Learning Commons & Library will be closed Friday, June 10th, in observance of King Kamehameha I Day. Please leave us a message at x210 or lcccirc@hawaii.edu