Happy Holidays!

Whew!  We made it through finals!  The faculty and staff at the DiPietro Library would like to wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season.

The Rindge Campus, including the DiPietro Library, will be closed from December 23 - January 2.  We'll see you in the new year!

National Gaming Day @ your library

Join the Gamers Club from 11am -1pm this Saturday, November 12th as we participate in the 4th Annual National Gaming Day@your Library.  Fun! Games!  Fun AND games!  Here's a post from KQED on "Ten Surprising Truths about Video Games and Learning."

November's Featured Resource -- RavenRequest

This month's featured resource is RavenRequest - a web site that allows you to create online Interlibrary Loan requests.  RavenRequest is linked from the library's front page or can be accessed directly at http://ravenrequest.franklinpierce.edu.  RavenRequest can be accessed with your FPU network username and password. You will need to create an account upon your first login.  Once you have created an account you can track your interlibrary loans (both books and articles), find out when materials have arrived or are due back, see past interlibrary loan requests, and coming soon -- pick up articles directly through RavenRequest.

Several of our databases allow users to submit interlibrary loan requests directly to us, those can also be tracked via RavenRequest.  You can copy and paste author/title/journal information from websites directly into RavenRequest, saving you further time.  Give it a try!

After a long absence, we greet you!

October's Featured Resource: DiPietro Library Online Reference Shelf

It’s a great place to begin your research, learn more about a topic, or grab some facts. Credo Reference is an online collection of over 500 Reference books, including some of the same ones we have in our paper Reference Collection. (For a complete list of titles click here.) Additionally, we have links to EasyBib and other citation help, statistics, and subject specific References. We also subscribe to the Oxford English Dictionary – the world’s most complete dictionary of the English language.

Precision Search the Web

Sometimes it's hard to get at the information you want on the web- the results are full of junky sites, or you only want results from a particular kind of webpage. Blekko is a new search engine that helps you target only the sites you want by using "slashtags." For example, adding /conservative to a search will pull up only sites with a conservative viewpoint. Confused? Watch the demo to get a better sense of it. You can even join and create your own slashtags to search your favorite sites or help edit the tags that have already been created.

Happy searching.

Moving Files

Image from Flickr user VeloSteve

Moving electronic files around can be as time consuming at paper files.  Emailing files fills up your mailbox, putting them on your flash drive requires finding your flash drive.  Moving files can be especially frustrating if you've 'left' it on your work computer when you meant to bring it home or vice-versa.

There are easier ways to do it.

- Save files to your network (F:/) drive. Franklin Pierce offers access to your F:/ drive from home, instructions (PDF) can be found on the IT Department's eRaven page.

- Use Dropbox or one of another file-hosting services.  Dropbox is a convenient way to move files from one computer or device to another.  Files placed in Dropbox are also available on many mobile devices.  It can also be used as an easy way to share files between two people without filling up your email.

Got a favorite file sharing tip? Let us know below.

Updated:  Podcast of Wil Wheaton talking on Marketplace Techreport about how he uses Dropbox.