Quick Tip: Finding Play Reviews

So, your Theatre or English professor needs you to find some reviews of performances of “Our Town” by Thornton Wilder or “Barefoot in the Park” by Neil Simon.  Where do you go next?  Well, a good place to start would be EBSCOhost, which has three key databases that provide access to play reviews: News, Newspaper Source Plus, with (literally) millions of full-text articles from 860 newspapers, and MasterFILE Premier.  On the EBSCOhost Search screen, click on ”Choose Databases,” then select these three from the list.  Type in the name of your play and the word ”review” in the search fields.  Then click that big green search button and you’re on your way to getting your reviews.

To narrow your results down to just reviews,  look to the left hand side of the screen, where you’ll see a sidebar with categories of search limiters.  Click on the category for “Subject,” then check off “theater–reviews” and click “Update.”  All that extra stuff you don’t need will be instantly weeded out, and you’ll be left with just play reviews.

Finally, if your professor wants you to use only reviews of performances given in, say, the last 10 years, you can adjust the date range under the “Refine your results” category, to match that span of years (2003-2013).  When you click “Update” this time, you’ll be left with only recent reviews from the last 10 years…and, hopefully, a little less anxiety about your Theatre or English assignment.

Thanks for reading and see you in the library!

Attention Nursing Students! Check Out Our New Nursing Reference Center

The library is proud to offer a brand new database designed especially for nurses.

Search Nursing Reference Center for drug info, evidenced based care sheets, clinical practice guidelines and more. Nursing Reference Center is available to all Atlantic Cape students 24/7.

For more information, including how to access NRC from off campus, contact us at library@atlantic.edu or text us at 66746.
Be sure to include the keyword askaccc then a space at the beginning of your text message.
It should look something like this:
askaccc how do I get to Nursing Reference Center from offcampus? 

A librarian will get back to you ASAP.

 

Library Display – A “mini” Celebration of Chinese Culture

You may have seen the display case in the library , or passed it on your way up to the second floor, and wondered, what is that stuff in there?  Well, among the various plaques, coins, and traditional eating utensils, there are three particular items that have important significance to Chinese culture, and are identified by the numbers in the picture below.  Keep reading to find out a bit more about these items, their connection to Chinese cultural history, and for a few book recommendations if you’re interested in delving more deeply into the subject of China.

1. The first item–actually items–of interest are the miniature figurines in the top right corner of the display case.  These figurines are models of the much larger, life-size terra-cotta soldiers that make up the underground army that was found in the tomb complex of China’s first emperor, Shihuangdi, of the Qin dynasty.  Shihuangdi was known for unifying the empire, starting the Great Wall of China, and building himself a massive tomb, complete with 9,000 of these terra-cotta soldiers, which are arranged in military formation, poised for battle, and facing East, in the direction of the emperor’s enemies.  For more info, check out this article in Brittanica.

2. The second item on display is a set of miniature (you’re probably noticing a theme here ) masks that are decorated with makeup styles from traditional Chinese opera.  The stories of Chinese opera are told through a blend of music, art, literature, and makeup styles that use lines and colors to tell the audience about each character’s personality, role, and fate.  The color red can signify loyalty and bravery; the colors yellow and white, treachery; and the colors gold and silver, mystery.  Click here to read about Chinese performing arts through the ages.

3. The third item in our display includes two cases of small bottles painted with a running scene that resembles the famous Chinese painting, “Qingmingshanghetu” or “Along the River During the QingMing Festival.”  This famous panorama–sometimes called the Chinese Mona Lisa–was painted during the Song Dynasty by Zhang Zedoun and shows the bustling streets and waterways of Bianjing (modern Kaifeng) during the Qingming festival.  To see the original, you’ll have to visit the National Palace Museum, but, until then, you can check out this cool, interactive painting on the museum’s website.

For more information on these items and Chinese culture, check out these books in the college library:

Cambridge Illustrated History of China (DS 706 .E37 1996)

China: A History (DS 735 .K39 2009)

Fodor’s Exploring China, 4th edition (DS 712 .K66 2001)

See you in the library!

Sources

“Along the River During the QingMing Festival.” China Online Museum. 21 Mar. 2009. Web. 1 May 2013. http://www.chinaonlinemuseum.com/painting-along-the-river.php

“Chinese Opera.” TravelChinaGuide.com. Web. 1 May 2013. http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/arts/chinese-opera.htm

“Qin tomb.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 01 May. 2013. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/111785/Qin-tomb

Getting what you need from E-Books

Having trouble finding the information you need from a physical book?  With E-Books, you can instantly view chapter and section titles from the Table of Contents.  So… for example, say you’re looking for information about media influence on beauty.  Once you’ve found an E-Book with a title that looks relevant, you can quickly pinpoint the section with the info you need by clicking on Table of Contents, which instantly reveals chapter titles and even smaller sections within chapters.  Then, it’s just a matter of clicking on the section that has the info you need.     

Another option for locating specific information in an E-Book is to use the Search within feature.  Once you have opened your E-Book, click on the first icon (it looks like a paper with a magnifying glass over it) from the list of Tools on the right side of the screen.  This will open up a search box, and you can search for a specific word(s) within the E-Book –and you will be taken to sections containing that word(s).  This is a great way to quickly find information without having to click through page after page of the E-Book.   

Once you’ve located the pages with the info you need, you can print or email those pages easily by clicking on the print icon (mini printer) on the right side of the screen under Tools and specifying the page range you wish to print.  Or, you can email the pages/section to yourself by clicking on the email icon (mini-envelope) and typing in your email address.  The pages will be emailed as a PDF file. 

 Well, there you have it!  Just a few tips for finding research quickly and efficiently using E-Books.  See you in the library!

E-Books to the Rescue!

Do you need a book but are too busy to visit the library? Try downloading a library e-book to your android or Iphone. Here’s how:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAbmmu94I0g

For more information on how to access the library’s e-book collection, see our Ebook Libguide.

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Write Smarter: MLA Citation Basics

Click the link above for EasyBib’s new companion guide to the MLA Style Handbook. Learn about parenthetical or in-text citations and see examples of how to cite tricky sources such as websites and ebooks. If you need more help with your MLA or APA style paper, please visit the Learning Assistance Center writing labs: http://www.atlantic.edu/studentServ/lac/tutoring.htm.

Do You Know How to Talk to a Library Database?

Databases are online libraries that contain among other publications, thousands of articles from magazines, newspapers and scholarly, peer reviewed journals. Databases have information from sources that may not be available through search engines such as Google. In addition, there are databases that specialize in a specific area or discipline such as psychology, business or medicine. However, getting the very best results from a database requires well thought out search terms. Check out this video from Kent State University Library for tips on how to “talk” to a database.

http://www.schooltube.com/organization/225869/

Test drive a library database from home. Contact the library for your username/password combination and login by clicking the off campus database log in link at the top of this page:

http://www.atlantic.edu/library/researchDatabase.htm.

Need more help with searching databases? AskALibrarian!