Learning Commons News & Much More!

Leeward Community College

The Big Library Read: A Very Typical Family

July 13, 2023 by Cheryl | 0 comments

Screenshot of cover art for A Very Typical Family.

The Big Library Read, hosted by OverDrive, comes but thrice a year. If you’ve been wanting to join in on the fun, you’re in luck! The summer Big Library Read is happening NOW, July 13-27, 2023.

Billed as “the first global ebook club,” the Big Library Read offers one title, free of charge, to OverDrive users around the world. This summer’s selection is A Very Typical Family by Sierra Godfrey.

About the book

Cover photo of A Very Typical Family.

Natalie Walker is the reason her older brother and sister went to prison over 15 years ago. She fled California shortly after that fateful night and hasn’t spoken to anyone in her family since. Now, on the same day her boyfriend steals her dream job out from under her, Natalie receives a letter from a lawyer saying her estranged mother has died and left the family’s historic Santa Cruz house to her. Sort of. The only way for Natalie and her siblings to inherit is for all three adult children to come back and claim it—together.

Written with delightfully dark humor and characters you can’t help but cheer for, A Very Typical Family is an uplifting family drama that will have you reveling in the power of second chances.

Accessing the book on OverDrive

Ready to read? Just click on these direct links to access A Very Typical Family on OverDrive:

If this is your first time using OverDrive, you’re in for a treat! More than 500 ebooks and 4,700 magazines are available for your reading pleasure. We also have a small (but growing) selection of audiobooks–perfect for making those long commutes a little more bearable.

OverDrive screenshot.

For reading on the go, be sure to check out OverDrive’s mobile app, Libby. Borrow ebooks, audiobooks, and magazines, then read/listen to them right from the app. You may also manage your loans, even across different OverDrive library collections (such as the Hawaii State Public Library System’s). Click on the graphic below for a video introduction to Libby.

Libby promotional graphic.

A discussion board for A Very Typical Family is available, but beware of spoilers! Happy reading!

Streaming Video Updates

June 21, 2023 by Cheryl | 0 comments

Picture of a movie theater screen with text: streaming video updates.

Seen any good movies lately? Crowds may be flocking to the theaters for live-action Disney mermaids and high-jumping Nintendo characters, but the library provides you with the best in academic video streaming from the comfort of your own home . . . or maybe even from the beach, weather permitting!

Kanopy, Docuseek, Academic Video Online, Feature Films for Education, and Swank Digital Campus are among our major streaming film platforms. We introduced you to all of these (and more) in a series of blog posts last summer. Perhaps you may recall, from the post on electronic resource access models, that some of our platforms regularly add and remove titles from their collections. Today’s post will give you content updates from two such platforms: Kanopy and Docuseek.

Kanopy Additions and Removals

Picture of a film strip with text: New update Kanopy.

There’s been a lot of activity on Kanopy, one of our largest streaming services.

Additions 😊

Removals 😢

If you notice that a film you need for your class has been (or is scheduled to be) removed from Kanopy, please contact your librarian subject liaison or the Reference Desk. It is possible we may be able to acquire it in another way, or help you explore other options.

Docuseek New Additions

Picture of a movie marquee with text: New Films on Docuseek.

More than 100 new titles have been added to our Docuseek platform recently. The titles below, with vendor-supplied descriptions, are just a handful of the newly available documentaries.

Filmmaker and philanthropist Abigail Disney grapples with America’s profound inequality crisis. The story begins in 2018, after Abigail encounters workers at the company that bears her name struggling to put food on the table. Could she, a descendent, with no role in the multinational conglomerate, use her famous last name to help pressure Disney and other American corporations to treat low-wage workers more humanely?

A chronicle of resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), WE ARE UNARMED bears witness to this historic event from the first week of September 2016 to forced evacuation on February 23rd, 2017. Award-winning filmmaker Gwendolen Cates goes behind the scenes with three Lakota women who play central roles – Kelly Morgan, the tribal archaeologist, Phyllis Young, the longtime activist who became the movement spokesperson and strategist, and Holy Elk Lafferty, the young camp leader.

ZERO GRAVITY follows a diverse group of middle school students from San Jose, CA, who compete in a nationwide tournament to code satellites aboard the International Space Station. Their mission: compete with teams across the country to write the most strategic code for surveying satellites, known as SPHERES. These satellites will help map out a GPS system to successfully orbit Mars in the future, opening the door to infinite opportunities and exploration on the Red Planet.

A story about the challenge of keeping Dolpo’s ancient culture alive as the area becomes less isolated. It centers on Pema’s parents’ expectation that Pema will return to Dolpo when he completes his education, marry a Dolpapa woman, and manage the family’s land. As the only son, this is his role in Dolpo’s traditional culture. Pema is torn between his duty to the family and his desire to live the modern life that he now prefers.

Town Destroyer explores the ways we look at art and history at a time of racial reckoning. The story focuses on a dispute over historic murals depicting the life of George Washington: slaveowner, general, land speculator, President, and a man Seneca leaders called “Town Destroyer” after he ordered their villages destroyed during the Revolutionary War.


As a reminder, all current Leeward CC faculty, staff and students are welcome to use our streaming video services. When accessing our electronic resources from off campus, you may be prompted to log in with your UH credentials first.

There are countless hidden gems waiting to be discovered. Let us know what you find!

New Ebooks on JSTOR

May 9, 2023 by Cheryl | 0 comments

Images of book covers from new JSTOR ebooks.

More good news for ebook lovers! We have recently gained access to 8,000+ titles on JSTOR, including more than 1,000 from University of Hawaiʻi Press! A few notable titles are pictured below.




Cover image of Night is a Sharkskin Drum.

Night is a Sharkskin Drum

Haunani-Kay Trask


Cover image of Kanaka Oiwi Methodologies: Moolelo and Metaphor.

Kanaka ʻŌiwi Methodologies: Moʻolelo and Metaphor

Katrina-Ann R. Kapā‘anaokalāokeola Nākoa Oliveira




Unlike many other database platforms, JSTOR puts no restrictions on the number of simultaneous users or the amount of material that may be downloaded and/or printed from each licensed ebook.

Our JSTOR ebooks are included in our Library Catalog (Primo), but exploring the JSTOR platform directly may also be helpful, since book chapters and journal articles are integrated and cross-searchable.

To access JSTOR, start at our A-Z Databases page and select JSTOR from the list. As with all of our electronic resources, access is available to current Leeward faculty, staff, and students. If you are off campus, you may be prompted to enter your UH login credentials first.

Screenshot of JSTOR home page showing Leeward CC access indication and search terms in search box.

If you see the “Access provided by Leeward Community College” message at the top of the page, you are ready to discover our licensed content on JSTOR. To get started, enter your search terms in the box. If you are looking for a specific book title or author, you may select the appropriate option show in the drop-down menu.

Screenshot of JSTOR search results page showing filters for "Content I can access" and "Book Chapters."

The filters in the left sidebar allow you to refine your search results. Although we have more than 8,000 licensed ebooks on JSTOR, we do NOT have access to every title on the platform, so it is a good idea to keep the “Content I can access” button checked. To filter for book content (not journals), select the “Book Chapters” box.

This 7-minute video offers helpful tips for searching JSTOR.

For more information on JSTOR, including working with items of interest and using the Text Analyzer tool, please see this earlier blog post.


Summer 2023 Hours: May 15 – Aug 11

May 8, 2023 by Leeward CC Learning Commons | 0 comments

Interim Week: May 15-19
Learning Commons & Library CLOSED

The Learning Commons & Library will be closed during Interim Week.

  • Staff will be available by phone & email, 8am – 4pm
  • Students will be able to return their semester loan items at the door

Thursday, May 18th: Staff will be attending the Academic Services retreat and will not be available. 

Summer 2023: May 22 – August 11
Learning Commons & Library Hours
Monday – Friday: 8am – 4pm
Hours subject to change

If you have any questions, please contact us at x210 or lcccirc@hawaii.edu. Mahalo!

 


 

New Hawaiʻi-Pacific Ebooks!

May 2, 2023 by Cheryl | 0 comments

Cover shots of various new ebooks.

We are excited to provide new electronic access to some treasured Hawaiʻi-Pacific titles!




Cover image of Fragments of Hawaiian History.

Fragments of Hawaiian History

John Papa ʻĪʻī


Cover image of Ruling Chiefs of Hawaiʻi.

Ruling Chiefs of Hawaiʻi

Samuel Kamakau



Other new additions:

Tales of the Menehune
Mary Kawena Pukui

Hawaiʻi Island Legends: Pele, Pīkoi, and Others
Mary Kawena Pukui

Arts and Crafts of Hawaiʻi
Peter Henry Buck

Folktales of Hawaiʻi = He Mau Kaʻao Hawaiʻi
Mary Kawena Pukui

He Moʻolelo Kaʻao o Kamapuaʻa = [A Legendary Tradition of Kamapuaʻa, the Hawaiian Pig-God]
Lilikalā Kame’eleihiwa

The Works of the People of Old = Na Hana a ka Po’e Kahiko
Samuel Manaiakalani Kamakau

Ka Poʻe Kahiko = The People of Old
Samuel Manaiakalani Kamakau

Tales and Traditions of the People of Old = Nā Moʻolelo o ka Poʻe Kahiko
Samuel Manaiakalani Kamakau

Please note that most of these ebooks are limited to one simultaneous user, so if another person is currently accessing the book, you may need to check back a little later.

As with all of our electronic resources, access is available to current Leeward faculty, staff, and students. If you are off campus, you may be prompted to enter your UH login credentials first.

Arstor Trial Thru May 1

April 4, 2023 by Cheryl | 0 comments

From now until May 1, Leeward CC faculty, staff and students are invited to explore Artstor’s vast collection of more than 2 million high-quality images, hosted on the familiar JSTOR platform!

Artstor contains multidisciplinary images contributed by museums, libraries, photo archives, artists, and more, all cleared for use in non-commercial education and research.

To access Artstor, start at our A-Z Databases page and select Artstor from the list. If you are off campus, you may be prompted to enter your UH login first.

Screenshot of Youtube video on searching Artstor
Click on the image above for a brief video on searching Artstor.

If you would like to give feedback on Artstor, please fill out the survey

 


 

LC Updates: April 3-7

April 4, 2023 by Leeward CC Learning Commons | 0 comments

Learning Commons Updates logo

Tutoring Services

Free Writing Tutoring and More at the Writing Center!
The Writing Center offers free writing tutoring for any Leeward CC class, as well as scholarship essays, college applications, resumes, and more! Tutoring is provided by our friendly Writing Consultants, who are fellow students with a passion for helping others. Since Friday is a holiday, we are only open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday-Thursday (appointment only from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m.). Visit our website at go.hawaii.edu/Gp8 to make an appointment, or stop by our physical location on the second floor of the library for a drop-in. In addition to tutoring sessions, the Writing Center offers Focused Workshops that cover sentence structure, grammar, and various college success skills. Click here to learn more, or email writers@hawaii.edu. We look forward to working with you soon!

The Leeward CC Creative Writing Club
Join the Creative Writing Club hosted by the Writing Center and unleash your creativity! The Creative Writing Club is open to all Leeward CC students, and anyone with an interest in writing is encouraged to participate regardless of experience or ability! New members are always welcome! The Creative Writing Club meets every first and third Thursday of the month. Meetings are held from 3-4 PM in the Writing Center. Feel free to join our next meeting this Thursday, 4/6! Alternatively, if you are unable to attend in-person, you have the option to join our sessions via Zoom through our hybrid meetings! Please see our creative writing club flyer, email us at writers@hawaii.edu, or give us a call at (808) 455-0409 for more information.

Join Us for This Week’s Success Connection Workshop: Protect Your Data and Future
You are invited to attend this week’s Success Connection Workshop (SCW): Protect Your Data and Future on Wednesday, April 5th at 12 PM presented by Petersen Gross via Zoom! Hackers and malware are our nemesis while online. They want to steal our information and access our online accounts. Come and learn how to protect your valuable information and protect your information online. Feel free to view our flyer or this semester’s SCW schedule for more information. If you’d like to attend, please RSVP at this link: https://go.hawaii.edu/kFV. We look forward to seeing you there!

Take Advantage of Free Tutoring at the Learning Resource Center!
Come by the Learning Resource Center (LRC) or make an appointment via Penji for tutoring in Japanese, ICS, Hawaiian Studies, Human Anatomy and Physiology, Chemistry, Biology, and Oceanography! The LRC tutors are helpful, friendly, and here to help you succeed. Please view the LRC’s Spring 2023 flyer for more information. Visit the LRC’s website to view tutor availability, browse online resources, and make an appointment via Penji. Please contact lrctutor@hawaii.edu or call (808) 455-0409 for assistance. Happy tutoring!

 


 

RFID’ing in the Library: UPDATE

" "

33,563 books have been RFID tagged as of Monday, April 3rd. Our project is a little over 75% completed! 

The Library is implementing a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) theft detection system for materials. In September, library staff and librarians began the conversion process, which involves pulling books off the shelves and affixing RFID tags to each book. Each RFID tag is encoded with a book’s barcode number, format type, and the library’s unique OCLC code. Tagged books are then returned to the shelf. With over 45,000 individual books in our collection, we estimate that the conversion process will be completed in the late spring or summer of 2023. For more information about this project, please read our RFID Conversion Project blog post.

 


 

Student Involvement Fair

The Library & Tutoring Services will be at the Student Involvement Fair – Wednesday, April 5th, 10am – 1pm. Drop by to learn about our services!

 


 

Image by jarmoluk via Pixabay

CLOSED Friday, April 7th

The Learning Commons & Library will be CLOSED Friday, April 7th, in observance of Good Friday. We hope you enjoy the holiday weekend!

 

LC Updates: February 27 – March 3

February 27, 2023 by Leeward CC Learning Commons | 0 comments

Learning Commons Updates logo

RFID’ing in the Library: UPDATE

" "

28,802 books have been RFID tagged as of Monday, February 27th. Our project is a little over 60% completed! 

The library is implementing a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) theft detection system for materials. In September, library staff and librarians began the conversion process, which involves pulling books off the shelves and affixing RFID tags to each book. Each RFID tag is encoded with a book’s barcode number, format type, and the library’s unique OCLC code. Tagged books are then returned to the shelf. With over 46,000 individual books in our collection, we estimate that the conversion process will be completed in the late spring or summer of 2023. For more information about this project, please read our RFID Conversion Project blog post.

 


 

Closed Friday, March 3rd, for HISSI

We will be closed Friday, March 3rd, for HISSI. A few presentations the Learning Commons & Library staff are offering: 

  • Beyond Textbook Savings: A Panel on the Intersections of Open Education and Social Justice – Presented by Karen Cangialosi, Rebecca Vasquez Ortiz, Sheryl Shook, Ashley Biddle, and Wayde Oshiro
  • Cross-campus Meeting: Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Taskforce – Presented by Tasha Williams Moses, Syreeta Washington, and Piʻikea Hardy-Kahaleoumi
  • Cultivating an Equity-minded Culture at the Leeward CC Learning Commons and Library – Presented by Annemarie Paikai, Wayde Oshiro, and An Hollowell
  • Making OER Count in Tenure and Promotion: Resources to Support Your Efforts – Presented by Carina Chernisky, Junie Hayashi, Soledad Lencinas, and Jason Yamashita
  • Making OER Count in Tenure and Promotion: Your Colleagues Share Their Real-World Experiences – Presented by Daniela Dutra Elliott, Thomas Scheiding, I-Chia Shih, Carina Chernisky, Junie Hayashi, Soledad Lencinas, and Jason Yamashita
  • OER Special Topics Session – Presented by Wayde Oshiro and Sunny Pai
  • Plagiarism?! Four Perspectives – Presented by Donald Carreira Ching, Anika Gearhart-Edwards, Tasha Williams Moses, and Michelle Igarashi
  • Right Foot Forward: Applying Lessons from Dance to Help Us in Life and Work – Presented by Kale Kingsbury

Check the program for times and locations

 


 

The Nikkei Incarceration: A Reflection in Documents and Images

Learning Commons & Library display coming soon!

Dates: March 6-17
Location: Learning Commons Entry Display

Spring 2023 Hours

January 6, 2023 by Leeward CC Learning Commons | 0 comments

The Library

January 9 – May 12

  • Monday:  8am – 4pm
  • Tuesday:  8am – 6pm
  • Wednesday:  8am – 4pm
  • Thursday:  8am – 6pm
  • Friday:  8am – 4pm

Hours subject to change.

For more information, email lcccirc@hawaii.edu or call (808) 455-0210

 

The Writing Center

Starting January 17

  • Monday – Thursday
    • Drop-in & Appointments:  9am – 3pm
  • Friday
    • By Appointment Only:  11am – 3pm

For more information, email writers@hawaii.edu or call (808) 455-0409

 

The Learning Resource Center (LRC)

Starting January 17

  • Monday – Friday:  9am – 3pm

For more information, email lrctutor@hawaii.edu or call (808) 455-0414

Finals Countdown at the Learning Commons: Dec 5-16

December 2, 2022 by Leeward CC Learning Commons | 0 comments

Aloha Leeward CC Faculty & Staff,
Please encourage your students to prepare for finals at the Learning Commons! Our Finals Countdown period begins Monday, December 5th. 

Fall 2022 Finals Countdown Flyer

Extended Library Hours: Monday – Friday, 8am – 6pm
Extra hours for studying & using library resources!

Research Support: Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm
We’re here to help you find and select resources for your assignments!

Tutoring & Focused Workshops
Our friendly tutors are here to help you! To make an appointment or check subject-specific tutor availability, visit our website.

De-Stressing Activities
Visit our Kapunawai room to play games from all around the world, color and doodle to your heart’s content, or just breathe in some essential oils to relax and get your mind in the right place!

Study Snacks
FREE snacks provided by Student Government. Validated Leeward CC ID required.

For more information, visit our Finals Countdown webpage at go.hawaii.edu/feE

Skip to toolbar