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Screenshot of the new SuperSearch

On May 25th, the Drake Libraries completed the migration to a new platform for SuperSearch.

Designed to increase efficiency, the new system should provide faculty, staff and students a more streamlined research experience while also significantly reducing the time required for library faculty and staff to maintain search platforms.

New System Highlights

• You can simultaneously search the library catalog and SuperSearch in a single interface.
• Many features remain the same in the new SuperSearch, including the ability to search across print and electronic collections, limit by peer-reviewed content, and export citations.
• While you can search SuperSearch without logging in, using your Drake credentials to log in allows you to access content licensed by the libraries and provides other options, such as saving searches and accessing and managing your library account.
• The next phase of this transition, which we hope will take place in 2017, will connect SuperSearch to the print collections of several other libraries in Iowa, including the three Regents’ universities, Wartburg College, Grand View University, and others. Drake users will be able to search across the physical collections of, and place requests for physical materials from, those institutions. This collaboration will not include access to databases and e-journals, but it is nonetheless a major step forward in our access to scholarly content.

Mastering the New System and Migrating Personal Content

• We hope you find the new system to be fairly intuitive to use. Formal training opportunities will be offered in the fall. Once the system is running, librarians will also be happy to provide individual demonstrations and training upon request.
• A SuperSearch research guide provides additional information about the new system and how to successfully use it. The guide also has a form for providing feedback, so you can help us continue to improve your experience using SuperSearch. We will be adding more information, tips, and tutorials to this guide in the coming days.
• The current SuperSearch will be available through June 30, 2016. If you have folders set up under your personal log-in, please sign in to your SuperSearch account, open any folders with content you want, mark the items you want to save, and then use either the save or email options. Contact a reference librarian for further assistance.

Drake University’s Cowles Library invites applications for a 12-month, 3-year consecutive term appointment as the Campus Engagement Librarian beginning July 1, 2016. This faculty position with the rank of Assistant Professor has the possibility for reappointment.

As a member of the Public Services Team, the Campus Engagement Librarian will be responsible for coordinating the library’s user engagement efforts in both the online and physical library environments with a primary goal of contributing to Drake students’ academic success. Working collaboratively, the successful candidate will be responsible for the development, implementation and assessment of programming, activities, and projects designed to improve and enhance student success by engagement with librarians and library resources. This position is responsible for enhancing overall campus engagement with the library by developing relationships with the library’s user communities and utilizing information gathered from these relationships to identify and prioritize the users’ needs as they pertain to the library. The Campus Engagement Librarian will serve as library liaison to appropriate Social Science disciplines. This position reports to the Director of Library Instruction and will have reference, instruction, liaison, and collection development responsibilities, including some evenings and weekend hours.

The successful candidate will hold a Master of Library Science (MLS) or equivalent from an ALA-accredited program.

Salary is competitive (with a range beginning in the mid-fifties) and dependent on qualifications and experience. For the full job description and to apply, please submit an application letter addressing qualifications, a current vita, and contact information including email addresses of three references to Hire Touch or access this position directly. Follow the instructions to apply and upload requested materials. Questions may be directed to reference@drake.edu.

Review of applications will begin May 20, 2016 and will continue until the position is filled.

More information about Drake University’s work environment, employee benefits, faculty development opportunities, and the greater Des Moines area can be accessed at http://www.drake.edu/hr/.

Drake University is an equal-opportunity employer and actively seeks applicants who reflect the diversity of the nation. No applicant shall be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, national origin, creed, religion, age, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, genetic information or veteran status.

Pregnant with the Stars: Watching and Wanting the Celebrity Baby Bump by Renee Ann Cramer

Join us to learn what four things happened in 1991 to shape women’s reproductive lives in the year 2016.

Renee Ann Cramer, associate professor and chair of Law, Politics, and Society at Drake, will discuss her book Pregnant with the Stars on Wednesday, April 20 at 7 p.m. in the Cowles Library Reading Room. The conversation and a reception following are free and open to the public.

“Check out that baby bump!” Online and print magazines, television shows, and personal blogs are awash with gossip and speculation about pregnant celebrities. What drives our cultural obsession with celebrity baby bumps? Pregnant with the Stars examines the American fascination with, and judgment of, celebrity pregnancy, and exposes how our seemingly innocent interest in “baby bumps” actually reinforces troubling standards about femininity, race, and class, while increasing the surveillance and regulation of all women in our society.

This book charts how the American understanding of pregnancy has evolved by examining pop culture coverage of the pregnant celebrity body. Investigating and comparing the media coverage of pregnant celebrities, including Jennifer Garner, Angelina Jolie, Beyoncé Knowles, Kristen Bell, M.I.A., Jodie Foster, and Mila Kunis, Renée Cramer shows us how women are categorized and defined by their pregnancies. Their stories provide a paparazzi-sized lens through which we can interpret a complex set of social and legal regulations of pregnant women.

Cramer exposes how cultural ideas like the “rockin’ post-baby body” are not only unattainable; they are a means of social control. Combining cultural and legal analysis, Pregnant with the Stars uncovers a world where pregnant celebrities are governed and controlled alongside the recent, and troubling, proliferation of restrictive laws aimed at women in the realm of reproductive justice and freedom. Cramer asks each reader and cultural consumer to recognize that the seeing, judging, and discussion of the “baby bump” isn’t merely frivolous celebrity gossip — it is an act of surveillance, commodification, and control.

Renee Ann Cramer is associate professor and chair of Law, Politics, and Society at Drake University. Her second book, Pregnant with the Stars: Watching and Wanting the Celebrity Baby Bump, on our obsession with celebrity pregnancy, was published by Stanford University Press.

The University Archives honors the installation of Earl F. Martin as Drake’s 13^th President with a special exhibit: Drake Presidential History, Inaugurations 1881-2016.   Created by Archives Assistant and Drake senior, Cecilia Panella, the exhibit is in Cowles Library’s Collier Room (2nd floor).   Along with reproductions, the exhibit also includes original documents and historical photographs.  The President’s mace and medallion will also be on display just outside the Archives.  The exhibit, viewable through the summer, is free and open to the public during regular Library hours.

Henry Harmon is installed as Drake’s 7th President in 1941

Drake University’s Cowles Library invites applications for a 12-month, tenure-track position as an Assistant Professor with the role of STEM Librarian available July 1, 2016.  The successful candidate will take a leadership role to design and deliver innovative instruction, library programming and services that facilitate the curricular and research needs of students and faculty in the STEM disciplines.  Applicants will hold a Master of Library Science (MLS) or equivalent degree from an ALA-accredited program.  In addition, candidates should have earned a degree in the life or natural sciences, or have at least two years of experience as an academic science librarian or science teacher within the past five years.  The position entails additional library faculty responsibilities, including teaching information literacy skills and helping build the Library’s collections in appropriate areas.

Review of applications will begin April 7, 2016 and will continue until the position is filled.  Drake University is dedicated to building a culturally realistic community committed to teaching and working in a multicultural environment that strongly encourages applications from minorities, women and people with disabilities.

To view a prospectus on Drake University and the position: Drake STEM Librarian Prospectus.  Salary begins at $60,000 and will be commensurate with relevant experience.  To apply and to view the full job description: http://bit.ly/STEMLIB.  More information about Drake University’s work environment, employee benefits, faculty development opportunities, and the greater Des Moines area can be accessed at http://www.drake.edu/hr/.  

• Visible Body
• World History in Video
• Writing Workshop
• Speaking Center
• Student Center (IT?)
• Drop fines, 24/7 space

• ITS website
• New student information
• Computer recommendations
• Support Center information
• LMS, Blackboard

Everyone at Drake is invited to attend one or more thirty-minute sessions designed to give you a brief overview of some of the many new resources and initiatives at Cowles Library! Refreshments will be served! No RSVP necessary; there are three sessions, which are each given two times, so come to whichever suits your interests and schedules: