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SMC Library Summer Reading 100 Day Challenge

05/07/2025
Events
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cooler on popular reading bookshelf

The 100 days of summer are almost upon us. Rest, recharge and live longer* (!?) by reading a book! Join our summer reading challenge: download a reading log, and if you read 15 minutes per day, log it. 

 

Every 10 days earns you one entry into our raffle for awesome library swag, including this cool Carhartt cooler that keeps beverages and snacks icy cold on those hot Moraga days:

 

cooler on bookshelf

Grab a book from our popular reading collection or check out our database NoveList Plus to find your next best read to suit whatever mood you’re in. Try out NoveList’s super fun appeal generator! 

 

 

Instructions:

⬇️ Download a reading log (or pick one up in the library)

🖍 Color in a box on the log for every day you read or listened to a book for 15 minutes or more (May 24-Sept 3, 2025).

📷 Submit a photo of your log to bit.ly/smclsr2025

🏆 Get 1 prize raffle entry for every 10 days you read. Receive 5 bonus entries for reading all 100 days!

 

* According to Bavishi et al. (2016), adult book readers lived, on average, almost two years longer than those who didn't read books. 

Bavishi, A., Slade, M. D., & Levy, B. R. (2016). A chapter a day: Association of book reading with longevity. Social Science & Medicine, 164, 44-48. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953616303689

 

Events
Library Tip of the Week: A plugin that connects you to paywalled articles
02/21/2025
Faculty Services
A scholarly article with a Download PDF button hovering over it

It happens all the time: you're browsing around online, and you come across a scholarly journal article that’s locked behind a paywall. Sure, you can copy and paste the citation information into Library Search to see if you can get it through the Library. But there’s another way…LibKey Nomad!

LibKey Nomad is a browser extension that uses an article's DOI to connect you to the SMC Library's journal subscriptions or open-access versions of the article. So the next time you're looking at a list of references on PubMed, Wikipedia, or a scholarly publisher's website, you'll see buttons that take you right to the full-text. It'll even warn you if an article you're about to look at has been retracted.

Get LibKey Nomad

 

 

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Library Tip of the Week: Fall in ♥️ with Zotero for saving and citing sources
02/13/2025
Faculty Services
Animation showing pinning a source from the web and adding the citation to a Google Doc

Roses are red, violets are blue,
Zotero saves sources just for you!

This Valentine’s Day, let Zotero be your perfect research partner—always remembering where you left that article, organizing your citations with care, and never ghosting you when it’s time to generate a bibliography. Whether you're crafting a syllabus, writing a paper, or guiding students through research, Zotero's browser plugin and desktop app make it easy to pin, organize, annotate, and cite any source your heart desires.

Swipe right on smarter citation management—download Zotero today! 💘📚

Get Zotero
 

Need help learning Zotero? Watch our 3-minute video or book an appointment with a librarian!

Valentine's puns courtesy of ChatGPT.

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Library Tip of the Week: New York Times now includes Games and the Athletic
01/23/2025
Faculty Services
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Our digital subscriptions to the New York Times website and apps now include Games and The Athletic! Exercise your brain with the daily Crossword, Spelling Bee, Letter Boxed, Tiled, and endless archives of your favorite free games like Wordle. Plus, follow all your favorite sports teams with The Athletic and its subscriber-only newsletters.

All current students, faculty, and staff can get an all-access pass to the New York Times courtesy of the Library.

Get your New York Times subscription

Already have a New York Times digital subscription through the Library? Just go to nytimes.com or open the New York Times app, NYT Games app, or The Athletic app and log in as usual. You should now see premium content from The Athletic and Games. 

 

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Library Tip of the Week: Using ChatGPT to find research articles? Read this first.
12/13/2024
Faculty Services
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Using ChatGPT to find research articles? Read this first.


 

We librarians have noticed a trend lately: SMC researchers are coming to us with a citation and need help finding the full text. The citation has a plausible title, real authors, and a reputable journal. However, when we dig deeper, the article doesn’t exist as described. It turns out, in these cases, that the citation originated from ChatGPT.

 

This makes sense, as ChatGPT has been trained to generate language, not look up citations. The latest model can search the web, but it isn’t a search engine.
 

The picture above is an example we experienced of ChatGPT recommending a book, but then admitting the book doesn't actually exist (though the authors do!).

 

However, there are apps that harness AI to help you find relevant publications and quickly get the key points so you can choose which ones to dig into further. 
 

Instead of ChatGPT, if you’re looking for research papers on a topic, try:

  • ResearchRabbit: free; maps papers with related citations

  • SciSpace and Elicit: free for limited features; they translate natural language into search terms and then identify and summarizes relevant papers, and generate a mini literature review

See them in action (YouTube video)

 

👋 And we humans are here to help too! Need help finding the key research articles for your literature review or syllabus? Librarians can help you identify the strategies to find the best stuff and get to it—fast. 

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Library Tip of the Week: 7 ways to contact your reference librarian, 7 days/week
11/14/2024
Faculty Services
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7 ways to contact your reference librarians,
 7 days/week*

 

Do you and your students know all the ways you can contact a librarian? 

 

  1. 👋 Drop by the reference desk (hours)
  2. 💬 Live chat
  3. 📲 Text 925-291-9699
  4. 📱 Call 925-631-4624
  5. 📆 Book an in-person appointment
  6. 💻 Book a Zoom appointment

  7. 📧 Email your subject librarian or askalib@stmarys-ca.edu
     

    *during the academic semesters

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Library Tip of the Week: Exciting News and Updates from the College Archives
11/14/2024
Faculty Services

Exciting News and Updates from the College Archives

 
 

Did you know that October is American Archives Month? In celebration, the Saint Mary's College Archives has been working hard to increase the online access to some of our most requested materials.

 
 

The Collegian Newspaper

Primarily supported by our wonderful student workers, The Collegian newspaper has been digitized and made available online! Current access is available from the mid-1990’s through current issues. More volumes are added weekly as they are digitized. The late 1960’s and early 1970’s are slated for the next batch to be uploaded.

 

SMCA Photograph Collection

The SMC Archives Photograph Collection has received a massive upgrade to aid in access and use. Our previous repository was seldom used, had a ton of duplicates and incorrect information, and required downloading to view the photo full-sized. Now hosted via ArchivesSpace, all of our digitized photographs have been reviewed and key information like dates, people, and locations have been verified. This project has been ongoing for the last two years and we are excited to share the first 500 photos are available now. There are about 3,000 photos in total and we hope to have the remaining collection available before the end of the year.

 
 
 

Fixed Points: The History of Saint Mary's College in the Bay Area

Are you a technophobe and prefer to all get all your information in real life 3-D? You’re in luck because the College Archives has a new exhibit outside the Visitor Center in Brother Jerome West! The exhibit explores the history of the College from its San Francisco roots, through Oakland, and the move to our beautiful Moraga campus.

An extra special highlight of the exhibit is the display of the Cotton Bowl Trophy, the first time the trophy has been on public display on campus in recent memory. In 1939 the Saint Mary's Gaels were invited to the third annual Cotton Bowl Classic played in Dallas, Texas. The Gaels were up against the undefeated Texas Tech Raiders. Considered one of the biggest upsets in college sports history, the Gaels won 20-11 and brought home the almost five foot Cotton Bowl Trophy!

The exhibit will be on display through the remainder of the academic year.

 

Do you have photographs, records, ephemera, or stories to share with the College Archives? Email us at archives@stmarys-ca.edu.

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Learn Zentangle: Special Crafternoon Workshop
10/28/2024
profile-icon Margot Hanson
Events
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zentangle.png
Zentangle is an easy-to-learn, relaxing and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. A Zentangle design can look intricate but with one stroke at a time the complicated becomes simple.
Mark your calendars! The Saint Mary's College Library will be hosting a special Crafternoon workshop on Monday, November 4 between 3-5 in the Library Learning Lab. We'll be learning how to Zentangle from Debbie Thompson, a Certified Zentangle Teacher (also, fun fact: Debbie is married to Roger Thompson, our SMC President).
 
Zentangle is an easy-to-learn, relaxing and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. A Zentangle design can look intricate but with one stroke at a time the complicated becomes simple.
 
All are welcome! Wheelchair accessible. Supplies are provided.
Questions? Contact Margot Hanson: mdh15@stmarys-ca.edu
 

 

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Library Tip of the Week: Publish Your Research in Open-Access Journals
10/25/2024
profile-icon Gina Kessler Lee
Faculty Services
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Library Tip of the Week Header.png
 

 

Happy International Open Access Week!

 

Open Access is the free, immediate, online availability of research articles combined with the rights to use these articles fully in the digital environment. –SPARC


 

Publishing your research open access...


 

Did you know? The Library has transformative agreements with certain publishers that allow you to publish your research open access in their journals without paying an article-processing charge (APC). (More info)


 

Even if your article is behind a paywall, we can host your manuscript open access in SMC Digital Commons. (More info)


 

Want to go open? 

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Library Tip of the Week: AI Tools for Scholarly Research
10/15/2024
Faculty Services
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Did you know there are AI apps designed specifically to help you find, skim, and connect scholarly articles on your area of interest? (And they won’t hallucinate sources out of thin air.)

 

These tools include:

 

Learn more about these tools on the Library's guide to AI Use in Academic Research.

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Library Tip of the Week: Get citation help at the Library
10/09/2024
profile-icon Gina Kessler Lee
Faculty Services
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A new edition of the Chicago Manual of Style was just published! 

 

See what’s new in the 18th edition and access the full new edition online through the Library’s link to the Chicago Manual of Style. And the Library's updated Chicago Style cheat sheets will be online soon!

 

What about APA or MLA style? See our Citation Style Guides for downloadable cheat sheets to MLA, APA, and Chicago–style citations, as well as links to resources for ACS, ASA, Bluebook, CSE, and NLM styles. Share them with students too!


Have a citation question? Send us a chat or drop by the reference desk.

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