Have you heard of SLED? It stands for the Statewide Library Electronic Doorway and houses some amazing information resources for all Alaskans to access and use! If you haven’t already, we encourage you to take a look at some of the great resources they have available here: https://lam.alaska.gov/sled.

A few new resources have been added for access through the summer, including Audio Book Cloud, eBook Public Library Collection, and Business Source Ultimate. You can also find resources like Learning Express, which provides test preparation and study materials on a variety of topics. Access them here: https://lam.alaska.gov/databases/a_z

Don’t forget that if you need any help finding information or resources, the Reference Librarians are still here to help – virtually! Check out our previous post for ways to contact us.

When it’s hard to get to the library, it’s a good time to take a look at some ebooks that you can get to from home – you can find all of these works by searching on their titles in QuickSearch on our home page.

Now, I’m talking Pandemic City here – I’ll cover more distracting titles another time, but these ebooks will help in better understanding pandemics that are thankfully past, all-too-present, and (sigh) yet to come.  Most of them are firmly about one kind of pandemic or another, but others address pandemics as being only part of a larger context of potential disasters that could occur, just in case COVID-19 hasn’t provided enough excitement for you already.  Anyway, while we’re all a little sharper on pandemics than we were not all that long ago, good basic information never hurts:

* Pandemics: What Everyone Needs To Know – Doherty, Peter C. Oxford, 2013

* Pandemic Influenza: Emergency Planning And Community Preparedness – ed. by Jeffrey R. Ryan CRC Press, 2008

Of course, we have an excellent work on everybody’s favorite plague:

* Encyclopedia Of The Black Death – Byrne, Joseph P. ABC-CLIO, 2012

And to paraphrase Tina Turner, what’s politics got to do with it?

* When Science And Politics Collide: The Public Interest At Risk – Schneider, Robert O. Praeger, 2018

COVID-19 is certainly not the only pandemic humanity has ever faced; some authors look to the past:

* Flu Hunter: Unlocking The Secrets Of A Virus – Webster, Robert G. Otago University Press, 2018

* The Great Manchurian Plague Of 1910-1911: The Geopolitics Of An Epidemic Disease – Summers, William C. Yale, 2012

* Africa In The Time Of Cholera: A History Of Pandemics From 1815 To The Present – Echenberg, Myron. Cambridge, 2011

* Plows, Plagues, And Petroleum: How Humans Took Control Of Climate – Ruddiman, William F. Princeton, 2005

* The Pandemic Perhaps: Dramatic Events In A Public Culture Of Danger – Caduff, Carlo. California, 2015

While other authors look to the future, at a somewhat different definition of Alvin Toffler’s phrase ‘Future Shock’:

* Humanity On A Tightrope: Thoughts On Empathy, Family, And Big Changes For A Viable Future – Paul R. Ehrlich and Robert E. Ornstein Rowman & Littlefield, 2010

* Global Catastrophes And Trends: The Next 50 Years – Smil, Vaclav. MIT, 2008

* Megadisasters: The Science Of Predicting The Next Catastrophe – Diacu, Florin. Princeton, 2009

* Germ Wars: The Politics Of Microbes And America’s Landscape Of Fear – Armstrong, Melanie. California, 2017

I’ll finish with a couple of good print volumes in case you find yourself actually in the Consortium Library.  First is a good overall work:

* REF WA13.E564 2008, v.1 and 2     Encyclopedia Of Pestilence, Pandemics, And Plagues – ed. by Joseph P. Byrne Greenwood, 2008

And this last one is one good for nursing students, with one chapter about emerging infectious diseases and pandemics:

* WC100.W38 2012    Netter’s Infectious Diseases – [ed.] by Elaine C. Jong and Dennis L. Stevens Elsevier, 2011

Still, as a postscript, this has been such a serious subject for piling one difficult title on top of another that I can’t help but leave you with a diverting link to some amazing photographs that have – I promise! – absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with coronavirus, courtesy of the BBC:

Antarctic Seal Wins Top Prize
https://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-52007548

We know how it is. Your spring break is unexpectedly extended, you may have to deal with housing issues, and you STILL have homework due?!  That big research project you’ve been avoiding thinking about is probably due in less than a month. Enter full panic mode!

via GIPHY

Never fear — the Consortium Library Research Help Desk is here! Our reference librarians are available at the desk on the first floor of the library Monday-Thursday 9 am – 8 pm, Friday 9 am – 5 pm, and Saturday-Sunday 1 pm – 6 pm. Still looking for sources? Worried about how much information you have to wade through? Confused about how to use all the information you’ve found? And how in the world do you cite things? No matter what stage of research you’re on, we can help.

On that note, DO chunk your project up into bite-sized pieces. It’s easy to feel paralyzed by stress and anxiety, so set attainable daily goals for yourself. Identify 5 articles you could use one day, skim them the next, then write a paragraph summarizing what you learn from them on the third day. It may mean breaking a college-career-long habit of writing things at the last minute, but why make things harder for yourself right now? Give yourself some scholastic self-care.

If you’re working on some super specialized research, try reaching out to one of our subject librarians. They’ve specialized their research help based on discipline, and appointments with them could completely change the scope of your research (and hey, maybe bump you up a letter grade!).

We get it — sometimes it’s hard to leave your house or the coffee shop when you’re in the zone (or quarantined). You can also reach out to the reference librarians by email, chat, and phone. Click here to find out how. 

We’re all in this together. Take care of yourselves and each other. Go Seawolves!

If you are concerned about venturing out due to the COVID-19 outbreak, or if you’ve relocated out of the area for the time being, don’t worry — reference librarians are still available to help you. Just contact us with your questions via SMS text, chat, or email. We can assist you in locating and accessing resources.

To contact us, visit our main page, https://consortiumlibrary.org/ and select the “Ask Us” link located at the top left-hand side of the page. From there, you have the option to chat directly with us (if our chat is online). Or, you can always call, email, or text us, or even schedule an appointment (via phone or Zoom) for a time that works for you.

Until further notice, the Consortium Library is currently open only to UAA and APU students, staff, and faculty. University ID cards are required to enter the building. Currently, we will be closing at 8 pm each evening. Information about the Consortium Library during COVID-19 is available on our website.

For more information and resources about the COVID-19 outbreak, check out this helpful LibGuide from Portland State University:  https://guides.library.pdx.edu/covid-19 .

We hope you’re getting some rest during Spring Break, but if you’re working on projects or papers this week, the Research Help Desk is still here to help! We are open every day this week except Friday. You can always check the open hours of the library, the Research Help Desk and other departments here: https://libcal.consortiumlibrary.org/hours/

Working on assignments from home? No problem – you can contact us by email, phone, text, or chat! Find more information on our Ask Us page here: https://ask.consortiumlibrary.org/

If you’re doing research off-campus, don’t forget to log in for off-campus access to ensure you’re able to access all the articles and databases we are subscribed to. Log in from the homepage using your UA login.

Happy Spring Break!