Are you looking for some help with a writing assignment. Good news, the Library has a partnership with the Learning Commons Writing Center to provide tutors during evenings and weekends.
Hours in the Library:
Writing Tutors available in Rm 210: Mon – Thurs, 6-9pm and Sat – Sun 12-5pm
Additional tutoring services are available in the Learning Commons and online via Live Homework Help
Could you use unbiased reports that have been footnoted and fact checked, and include pro and con viewpoints? Try CQ Researcher for in-depth reports and “Hot Topics” that cover health, social trends, criminal justice, international affairs, education, the environment, technology, and the economy. As an example, this week’s featured report is on College costs: Does a four-year degree still deliver value?
For background information and general biology of animals, try Grzimek’s Animal Life Encyclopedia, one of our many ebook reference sources. Arranged in taxonomic order in 17 volumes, the encyclopedia provides information about distribution, reproduction, habitat, behavior, and much more. And best of all, it’s online!
If you’ve ever wanted to delve into a particular piece of music, there’s nothing like a good guide to give you context and show you what to look for. We have any number of titles on individual works, such as Avatar of Modernity: The Rite of Spring Reconsidered (M1520.S9 A82 2013) and Who Should Sing Ol’ Man River? (ML410.K385 D44 2015), but it often helps to have a series dedicated to explaining music in a standard format. One of the best is the Cambridge Music Handbook series; we have 44 of them covering such diverse works as Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons (ML410.V82 E84 1996), Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue (ML410.G288 S27 1997), and Sibelius’s Symphony No. 5; search in the catalog for Cambridge Music Handbooks and they should all come up. There’s even one for The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (ML421.B4 M66 1997), although that’s an exception to the generally classical works covered by the series.
Another good series is Unlocking the Masters by David Hurwitz; this listener-friendly series focuses on works by the same composer rather than being book-length treatments of individual pieces. Each book comes with a CD featuring works used as examples in the text. We have two of them: The Mahler Symphonies: An Owner’s Manual (ML410.M23 H86 2004) and Sibelius: The Orchestral Music: An Owner’s Manual (MT92.S63 H87 2007). There are another twelve or so titles in the series—including Shostakovich, Dvorak, Handel, and others—and I expect to get more of them in the future.
Finally, there’s an excellent book called Absolutely on Music: Conversations with Seiji Ozawa. Haruki Murakami, a well-known Japanese author (The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and others), had lengthy and very insightful conversations with the famous conductor. While we don’t have a copy in the Consortium Library, Anchorage Public Libraries does. It’s very enjoyable and well worth reading.
SLED, Alaska’s Information Dividend, is a free resource available to all Alaska residents. Paid for by the University of Alaska and the Alaska State Library, SLED (Statewide Library Electronic Doorway) offers access to a plethora of databases and other sources covering many different topics.
Here’s just a sample:
Live Homework Help (tutors available to help students with a variety of subjects)
Learning Express (practice tests, career prep, and info for more than 4,000 schools)
Heritage Quest Online (genealogy resources)
Alaska’s Digital Archives (historical photos and more from AK museums and libraries)
Auto Repair, Hobbies & Crafts, Home Improvement, Small Engine Repair (DIY resources)