Library News

November has over the last decade become a month for personal challenges. One of the most popular is National Novel Writing Month.

The goal of National Novel Writing Month is simple: Produce a rough-draft manuscript of 50,000 words or more. That means an average of 1,667 words per day.

Although some participants eventually land book deals (the organization running the challenge reports about 250 successful publications, which is a small percentage of total participants), the goal of the challenge is not to produce a good book but a complete book. For an aspiring writer, completing a manuscript can be a daunting task, but “NaNoWriMo” encourages new authors to do exactly that.

Here are some tips:

• Write daily. For any author, writing regularly is vital. Professionals write at the same time every day, treating the task like a job.

• Don’t edit. To a beginner, this sounds counterintuitive, but the goal is to get that first draft done, not get it perfect. Write. If you dream of publishing, your job is not done once the draft is done: You have a second, third, probably twenty-third draft in your future, as well as editing by a third party. But all of that comes later.

• Remove distractions. Put the phone on silent and unplug the internet. Nothing kills composition like excuses to procrastinate. Some suggest having snacks or music, but most professionals face the blank page alone, without aids. Whatever you do, don’t let anything take your attention away from writing.

• Write when you don’t feel like it. Sometimes it flows, but often it doesn’t. The key is to get those words onto the page whether you want to or not.

• Write in the library. Want to meet up with others taking the same challenge? On Wednesdays at noon throughout the month (except during Thanksgiving Break), Room 101 in the J. W. Martin Library will be open to aspiring writers to write, brainstorm, or share their progress.

Come join us!

Even if you don’t consider yourself a writer or have plans to publish a book, sometimes it’s good to challenge yourself. So during November, write in the library!

PREVIOUSLY, DUE TO a series of technical updates in our software systems, our databases from Gale, Gale Literature Resource Center and Gale Virtual Reference Library, were unavailable to off-campus patrons.

This problem has at last been rectified. Both databases are once again plugged into our proxy system, and everything appears to be working.

If anyone is having any further difficulties accessing our resources, please contact the library at 580-327-8574 or nwlibraries@nwosu.edu.

THE SECOND WEEK OF APRIL is National Library Week, and this year, that falls on April 7^th to April 12^th.

The U.S. Census Bureau has an article on National Library Week. The American Library Association has one as well, which reads in part:

National Library Week is an annual celebration highlighting the valuable role libraries, librarians, and library workers play in transforming lives and strengthening our communities.

This year’s theme, Libraries = Strong Communities, illustrates how today’s libraries are at the heart of our cities, towns, schools and campuses, providing critical resources, programs and expertise. They also provide a public space where all community members, regardless of age, culture or income level, can come together to connect and learn.

Don’t forget to stop in at the J. W. Martin Library sometime this week. Remember that there are three weeks left in the semester, and we are here to assist you with all your research needs.

THE MONTH OF APRIL is National Poetry Month. This annual celebration was created in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets.

April 18^th is “Poem in Your Pocket Day,” when you are invited to select a poem, carry it with you, and share it with others. The National Academy has a selected list of suggested poems.

Don’t forget that we have educational resources for poetry. Our research databases include the Poetry & Short Story Reference Center and Bloom’s Literature. Both databases contain thousands of full-text poems as well as scholarly analysis. Be sure to check them out.

And keep in mind that Bloom’s is on trial, so please contact the reference librarian at dgdavidson@nwosu.edu for the login information.

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  Poetry & Short Story Reference Center

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  This full-text database provides a historically rich collection of hundreds of thousands of classic and contemporary poems, as well as short stories, biographies and authoritative essays on such topics as poetic forms, movements and techniques—including contemporary content from the finest publishers.
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  Bloom’s Literature

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  With a dynamic new design, exciting new features, and the largest addition of new content in the history of the database, the award-winning Bloom’s Literature has been rebuilt from the ground up, making it an even better tool for enriching the study of literature. We’ve added to the product more than 200 additional full-length performance videos (bringing the total number to more than 400), the full contents of more than 1,000 classic literary works, more than 350 books edited by Harold Bloom, and thousands of images. In addition, Bloom’s Literature now features a comprehensive Shakespeare Center with everything your students need to study Shakespeare—including the full text of all of his plays—plus a redesigned “How to Write About” section with improved functionality and special sections covering how to write a good essay. Bloom’s Literature’s new, intuitive interface features a clean, dynamic design that provides easy access to all of this rich content.

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  Access to this trial database requires a username and password. Contact the research librarian at 580-327-8572 or dgdavidson@nwosu.edu for the login information.

Two of our databases, the Gale Virtual Reference Library and the Gale Literature Resource Center, are currently inaccessible from off campus. We are working to fix the problem. The databases are, however, still accessible from any of our campus locations.

If you need access to the Gale Literature Resource Center and are unable to visit a campus, we recommend using the comparable database, Bloom's Literature, as an alternative. This database is password-protected, so please contact the research librarian at dgdavidson@nwosu.edu for access information.

If you are off campus and need access to information in either of these Gale databases, please email dgdavidson@nwosu.edu with your research request.