From Information to Story: Visual Narratives Inspired by Special Collections

WHO: Anyone interested in books, art, design, or telling stories
with pictures!
WHEN: One night only! Monday May 4, 6:00-7:30pm
WHERE: Barnard Room, 3rd Floor, Providence Public Library (Central
Library).
WHAT: Exhibition, opened with commentary, and a reception with
light refreshments.


Presenting the work of RISD graduate students in graphic design,
inspired by their explorations in special collections, and created
for professor Bethany Johns' Visual Narratives course. Twelve
stunning 3-panel poster projects and the student artists who
created them will be introduced by professor Johns and Richard
Ring, Special Collections Librarian.

Self Publishing sources for graduate theses

What are some websites where I can print and bind my own book or thesis?

Follow this link to learn 6 Ways to Publish your own Book

1st floor of the library - midnight hours

Monday, May 4 - Thursday, May 7, 2009

Sunday, May 10 - Thursday, May 14, 2009

Sunday, May 17

Concept Mapping a Research Topic

Concept mapping was developed in the 1970s and first used in the sciences. Concept mapping is a visual approach to developing one's thinking on a topic. This tutorial applies concept mapping to library research. Mapping a topic as the initial step in the research process will help to articulate questions, gather vocabulary, and uncover related facets of a topic. Use these questions, terminology and related terms when searching RISD Library's online subscription databases and the web.

Concept Mapping Tutorial

Related link: how to log in to RISD library databases from off campus

Spring Break Library Hours

RISD Library Hours
RISD Spring Break, March 21-28, 2009

Saturday, March 21 (FIRST FLOOR ONLY) 10am-6pm
Sunday, March 22 LIBRARY CLOSED

Monday, March 23 - Friday March 27 8:30am-4:30pm
First Floor + 2nd Floor- Visual Resources & Picture Collection

Special Collections & RISD Archives, 2nd Floor Hours
Monday, March 23 - Friday March 27 9am-4pm

Saturday, March 28 LIBRARY CLOSED

Sunday, March 29 - the Library Resumes Normal Hours
which are:
FIRST FLOOR - Circulation & Reference, noon-11pm
SECOND FLOOR - Special Collections & RISD Archives, Picture Collection
11am-7pm

Limiting to English language articles in online databases

In Margot Nishimura's AH 102 Medieval Art History class yesterday there was a discussion about how to limit search results to articles in English in the online article databases.

Here are some tips:

In Art Full Text/ Art Retrospective there is a Language of Document field in the drop-down menu on the front search screen. The default for the menu is "smart search".
Also in AFT/Art Retro's html full text documents is the option to translate the article to (French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Arabic, or Dutch) or to listen to an audio file of the article.

In Art Bibliographies Modern, BHA, DAAI, and DAR, the initial search screen has a check box to select, Limited to: English only.

In Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals there is a Language selection box on the Advanced Search screen.

In AFT/Art Retro, ABM, BHA, DAAI, DAR there is the option to choose the language of the search interface - a fairly new feature.

In JSTOR, Limit to English on the Advanced Search screen.

New database - Commercial Patterns Archive

CoPA Commercial Pattern Archive
The Commercial Pattern Archive database, CoPA, provides a unique tool for researchers and designers to recreate or date clothing from 1868 to 2000. There are several collections from the States, Canada and the UK represented in the database which functions like a Union Catalog of pattern collections. The cornerstone of CoPA is the Betty Williams Collection. Betty Williams, a theatrical costumer in New York City, pioneered research on commercial patterns in the early 1980s. She became a leader in the field, establishing a major personal pattern collection and encouraging others to actively participate in the collection and storage of patterns. Betty passed away in 1997 leaving a wealthy legacy of research, and an extensive pattern collection now housed at the University of Rhode Island. The Williams Collection is combined with the URI and Joy Spanabel Emery Collections in the Commercial Pattern Archive in URI Library Special Collections.
To login, contact the RISD Library Reference Desk for the username and password.