Welcome! Library Services Overview

Welcome to Fall Quarter everyone! Just a quick reminder of the many services and resources we have available for you. Students, did you know you can:

• Call a librarian at the Library Reference Desk at (360) 475-7252 (on campus ext 7252)
• Find Library Hours on our web page?
• Chat live online with a librarian for help on your research 24/7?
• Talk with a librarian in person for help with what books or articles you could use for a paper?
• Explore the many online databases and encyclopedias we subscribe to?
• Use group study rooms?
• Find Course Reserve material in our catalog from your instructor?
• Check out brand new laptops from our circulation/check-out desk?
• See displays of the library's new books?
• Find quiet, pleasant places to study and use your wireless laptop?
• Review custom research guides for particular OC classes as well as general subjects?

Come explore! Talk with us, we want to help!

What happened to my database?

Over the next few months you will see some changes to the search screens and/or the results lists in some of our most popular databases, including Proquest, EbscoHost, and ScienceDirect. Most of these changes are intended to result in more intuitive searching for our users, but if you get confused, be sure to Ask A Librarian for help! You can stop by the Information Desk, Phone, Email, or Chat.

New Hours for Summer Quarter

The Libraries at all three campuses have shortened hours during summer quarter. Click the link above for a complete listing of hours.

Need help when the libraries are closed? Click here to chat with a college Librarian somewhere in the United States, 24/7/365!

New Reference eBooks!

Just in time for those research papers that require you to use some book and/or "reference" resources, the library has purchased a number of new electronic subject encyclopedias that you can use from anywhere!

These new titles can be accessed from our guide to online resources: http://libguides.olympic.edu/databases, and include titles such as, Encyclopedia of Substance Abuse Prevention, Treatment, & Recovery, Encyclopedia of Political Theory, Encyclopedia of Medical Decision Making, Encyclopedia of Politics, the Media, and Popular Culture, Star struck: An Encyclopedia, Encyclopedia of Animal Rights and Animal Welfare, and Leadership at the Crossroads.

Need other "reference" titles? Try out our current trial to Reference Universe. Type in your keyword(s) and your results list will tell you which reference books in OUR LIBRARY have entries on your topic! Try it now, from on-campus only (trial ends May 17th): http://refuniv.odyssi.com/

Out With Winter, In With Spring...

Well, another quarter has flown by. We hope Winter quarter went well for all of you and we look forward to seeing you here in the Library in Spring. The Libraries will be closed from March 19th through the 28th, 2010.

Enjoy your break everyone!

New Electronic Resource: Violence against Women in Families and Relationships

Violence against Women in Families and Relationships is a new electronic resource added to the Olympic College Libraries collections. This research-based, scholarly resource aims to provide a map of the scope and significance of the domestic violence revolution. The work contains four searchable volumes: community-based services (Volume 1), the family (Volume 2), the criminal justice response (Volume 3), and popular culture and the media (Volume 4).

All Olympic College Libraries' electronic resources can be used by students remotely at any time. All that is required is your ID number and last name.

We have a New Gazeteer for Geographic, Historical, and Cultural Information

Olympic College Libraries have just acquired a subscription to the Columbia Gazeteer of the World. This is a comprehensive encyclopedia of geographical places and features. The entries vary from a brief notation on a small village to an essay on a country or region and can include information on demography; physical geography; political boundaries; agriculture; cultural, historical, and archeological points of interest; transportation lines; longitude, latitude, and elevations; and official local government place-names.

Many entries will have direct relevance for OC students. One example is the entry on Botswana where the entry discusses the San people. This will be useful to OC's Anthropology students. Here are snippets of the entry on Botswana to give you an idea of the kinds of information in this Gazeteer:

"Botswana (bots−WAH−nah), republic (□ 231,804 sq mi/600,372 sq km; 2004 estimated population 1,561,973; 2007 estimated population 1,815,508), S central Africa; • Gaborone. Bordered N by Zambia at a narrow strip, N and W by Namibia, E by Zimbabwe, and E and S by South Africa. ... [more]

Geography
The terrain is mostly an arid plateau (c.3,000 ft/910 m high); in the E are hills. The Kalahari Desert lies in the S and W.

History to 1900
San (Bushmen) were the aboriginal inhabitants of what is now Botswana, but they were supplanted by the Tswana, and they constitute only a small portion of the population today. Beginning in the 1820s, the region was disrupted by the expansion of the Zulu and their offshoot, the Ndebele. ... [more]

People
The country’s people are known as Batswana, which is also the name of the largest tribe (constituting 50% of the total population); other groups living here include the Bakalanga, Bakalagari, Bayei, Basubiya, Hambukushu, Khoi, Ovaherero, San, and a small number of Europeans. ... [more]