Cowles Library Blogs

Manipulate data and add statistical charts to your research papers with resources from The Statistical Abstracts of the United States.  This venerable government source of statistical data from the census bureau and additional government agencies was once available only in print or one long PDF file. Now available through ProQuest with keyword searching. All tables can be exported into Excel or viewed as individual PDF files.

Due to a malfunction of the door controls, After-Hours will not be available until Tuesday, September 2. We regret the inconvenience, but this is out of our control. Sorry. We are open Monday, Sept. 1 from 1 pm – 10 pm.

Due to hardware upgrades connected to the new campus building access system, After-Hours will be unavailable from 5:00 p.m. on Friday, 8/15, until Monday, 8/18. We regret any inconvenience.

InterLibrary Loan services will be down during a scheduled maintenance window on Saturday, July 26, from 9:00 P.M. to 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, July 27.

UPDATED: (1:20 PM) – Maintenance has been completed and all Interlibrary Loan services are available.
Our vendor is talking our Interlibrary Loan system down for one hour this afternoon, June 16, 2014, beginning at 1:00 p.m. to correct a misconfiguration following a software update. This means you will not be able to request Interlibrary Loans or view electronic deliveries during the shutdown. We regret any inconvenience. Full service will be restored by 2:00 p.m.

15,903 books were stored in the Morehouse Ballroom during the Archives/Special Collections construction project in Summer 2013. It’s been a year and now they are coming back to the Library. Catch some photos in our Facebook album! Here’s a sample:

15,900 books stored on temporary stacks in the Morehouse Ballroom.

Juneteenth is coming.  Here are three youtube videos from the Texas Institute for the Preservation of History and Culture that describe the origins of Juneteenth, the celebration’s spread throughout Texas and the rest of the country, and its continuing significance. The first is embedded below.

Part 2 is here.

And here is Part 3.

Library faculty have had a busy week presenting at two Iowa Library Conferences, the Iowa Private Academic Libraries (IPAL) and ILA/ACRL (Iowa Library Association / Association of College Research Libraries) Spring Conferences.

Professor Bruce Gilbert presented on Experiential Learning and Info Lit: Bridging the Gap at IPAL.

Dean Rod Henshaw presented with Richard Fyffe of Grinnell College on Learning from Leading: the Central Iowa Collaborative Experience at IPAL.

Professor Teri Koch, Cyd Dyer and Pam Rees presented at Friday’s (May 2, 2014) Iowa Library Association – Association of College & Research Libraries Annual Conference in a session entitled: CI-CCI: A New Model for Shared Print Collections Develops in Iowa.

Teri Koch, Collection Development Coordinator, Drake University; Cyd Dyer, College Librarian/Archivist, Simpson College; and Pam Rees, Library Director, Grand View University.

It’s the end of semester crunch time and seating — especially in our quiet study areas — is at a premium. We’ve allocated additional quiet study space (100+ seats) for the next two weeks. Here’s where!

Room 201 (the fishbowl) is dedicated to quiet study at the end of the semester. There are more than 60 seats — all of which have great access to electrical power and a nice view of campus.

The Reading Room is always a great spot to study! We’ve added 10 tables and an additional 40 seats. Not all have good access to power, but many do.