We wanted to alert the campus community that ILLiad, our Interlibrary Loan software will not be available from Monday, January 18^th from 3pm to 5pm till Tuesday, January 19, noon, due to a server upgrade.  Please refrain from submitting any requests during the upgrade. We should be fully operational in the afternoon of January 19.

We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause.    

Spring 2016 hours begin on Tuesday, Jan. 19. These hours are Monday-Thursday, 8am-10:45pm; Friday, 8am-4:45pm; Saturday, 9am-3:45pm; and Sunday, 2pm-9:45pm.

Please note the library is CLOSED Monday, Jan. 18, in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr., Day.

Join us for the first Friends of the Library trip abroad! Together with the CCSU University Singers, participants will travel to Krakow and Wroclaw, Poland and to Leipzig, Germany. Friends will be in the audience when the choir performs all concerts; all will participate in guided tours and visit sites related to culture, history and music in the cities we will visit. Additional tours will be arranged for Friends while the Singers rehearse.

Cost of the trip is $2,995.

This price includes round-trip transportation from CCSU to JFK, round-trip international airfare, double-occupancy hotel accommodations, some meals, ground transportation and entrance fees to all planned activities.  

Registration deadline: 4:30 p.m. on Monday, February 15, 2016. 

Please read carefully the enclosed registration form: Friends of Library – Singers Companion Tour Registration FormSu16

Glimpse of the itinerary:

Krakow, Poland

Krakow represents a great repository of Polish history, art, and architecture. The group will enjoy a guided tour of Krakow, beginning with the Royal Castle and Cathedral on the Wawel Hill, which was remodeled according to the new Renaissance taste in the beginning of the 16th century. It is the place where Polish kings were crowned and buried. Then we will visit the Old Town with the Main Market Square and its magnificent houses and palaces. In the middle of the square is the Cloth Hall-Sukienice. We will also visit the Church of St. Mary, with the famous Gothic Altar by Wit Stwosz, best sculptor of the Middle Ages. We will visit the Jagiellonian University and gain insight into their special collections and manuscript division, including many musical scores. Founded in 1364, it is one of the oldest universities in the world. We will visit the 13^th century “Wieliczka” Salt Mine, registered on the Unesco list, and a spectacular Benedictine Abbey in Tyniec, founded in 1044. Both places are on the outskirts of Krakow, where our tourist experience will be enriched by the musical performance and presentation of Benedictine archives and tasting of their special food.

The group will take a side trip to Auschwitz, the largest Nazi German concentration camp, where four million people perished.

Wrocław, Poland

Our next stop will be Wroclaw, the capital of Lower Silesia and Poland’s fourth largest city. It is a city with a fascinating and complex history, dating back to the 10th century, when the Ostrow Tumski islet on the Odra became a fortified Slav settlement.  There are now some 100 bridges spanning the city’s 90-kilometer network of slow-moving canals and tributaries, giving Wroclaw its particular charm. Singers will perform in the baroque style Collegium Marianum located in the Wroclaw University, founded in 1702.  The group will visit the famous Ossolineum library and have a special tour of the Racławice Panorama, a monumental cycloramic painting depicting the Battle of Racławice, during the Kościuszko Uprising. We will visit the Old Town, with its medieval market square, founded in the 13^th century, and Piasek Island, with its Church of St. Mary on Piasek, the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, and the Church of the Holy Cross.

Leipzig, Germany

The last stop will be in Leipzig, which is associated with the best known classical composers. We will visit or get a glimpse of Schumann House, Wagner Memorial, Leipzig Opera House, St. Nicholas School, St. Nicholas Church, Old City Hall, St. Thomas Church, etc. Singers will perform in St. Thomas church, where Bach was once the organist and choirmaster, and is currently the home of the St. Thomas Boys Choir, one of the most famous in the world.  We will also visit the Bach Museum. It was once the home of the Bach family and now contains the largest Bach archives in Germany, as well as many mementos of the composer.

Please contact Renata Vickrey any additional questions you might have at vickreyr@ccsu.edu or by calling 860 832 2085.

Our Winter Session (2015-2016) hours start on Monday, December 21^st. These hours are Monday through Friday, 8am-4:45pm. We are CLOSED Saturdays and Sundays.

We are also CLOSED on Christmas, Friday, December 25^th; New Year’s, Friday, January 1^st; and Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, Monday, January 18^th.

You can view all our hours online at library.ccsu.edu. Have a wonderful and joyous holiday season!

2016 Elihu Library Research Awards

The Elihu Library Research Awards recognize excellence in undergraduate and graduate research papers/projects as well as skill and creativity in the application of library services, resources and collections.

Two prizes of $350 will be awarded, one to an undergraduate student and the other to a graduate student during the 2016 spring semester at the University Research and Creative Achievement Day (URCAD). Please note that for graduate students, this applies to class assignments and not the final program thesis/project. Also, this award is separate from others presented at URCAD.

To be eligible, applicants must:

• Be enrolled during the spring 2016 semester as a Central Connecticut State University undergraduate or graduate student at any level or discipline/major.
• Have completed their research paper or project for a credit course during the spring, summer, or fall semesters in 2015.
• Agree that the paper or project and application materials will become property of Elihu Burritt Library and may be publicly displayed in the library and/or library website.
•  

  *The application forms and additional information can be found at: http://library.ccsu.edu/services/award/application.php

Application packets will be due March 14, 2016. For more information please, contact Susan Slaga-Metivier at slagas@ccsu.edu.

The 19th volume of the Elihu Burritt Library’s Newsletter, covering Fall 2015, is now available at http://library.ccsu.edu/newsletter/fall15_newsletter.pdf

This issue highlights:

• The library’s partnership with CCSU’s Institute for Technology and Business Development (at the New Britain downtown campus location) and its federally grant-funded TRiO Talent search program, supporting over 500 New Britain area high school students
• Events held at the library this fall, including:
  • Trick-or-Treat Halloween-themed E-resources fair
  • “Making Historians at CCSU” Friends of the Library fundraiser featuring CCSU alumni, faculty members, and writers
  • Connecticut’s State Archaeology Fair
• Selling, reusing, and recycling book donations through Better World Books
• The newly-added Scopus abstract and index database of more than 22,000 peer-reviewed titles, covering sciences, technology, medicine, social sciences, arts & the humanities
• Library website redesign
• iPad Lending program for students
• The Robot in the Library
• Better know a member of the library’s support staff – Alberto Cifuentes, Jr.
• Donations made to the Friends of the Burritt Library
• Thank you to the Connecticut Italian Caucus

Hi all,

As part of Tension Prevention Week the library is offering Art Therapy and Guided Meditation this evening.

Art Therapy will be ongoing throughout the evening beginning at 5 p.m. on the first floor of the library.  There will be coloring books, crayons, markers, pencils set up.  So take a minute and head back to the good ole days when all that mattered was staying in the lines!

And then head up to the fourth floor, conference room, for our Guided Meditation with Dr. James Malley @ 6 p.m.  Meditation has proven very effective in relieving exam stress and calming the mind.  Meet us in the classroom and take advantage of all of the positive effects.

Lastly, we offer free Coffee and Cookies at 6 p.m. on the first floor of the library.  It’s first come, first served!

SCENE @ CCSU: Learn to be an innovator

Published in New Britain Herald, Sunday December 6, 2015.

By Rick Mullins, Director Institute for Technology & Business Development, CCSU

Inspiring the next generation in STEM innovation, product development, and entrepreneurialism is the goal of CCSU’s “Be an Innovator” program. The first group of participants, involving 25 New Britain high school students and CCSU students, is about to complete the 60-hour, intensive course held at the university’s new Education & Innovation Center located at the downtown campus.

“Be an Innovator” is the result of a collaboration between CCSU’s Elihu Burritt Library, TRiO Educational Talent Search (a federally-funded initiative based at CCSU offering support and guidance for under-represented students to complete high school and pursue higher education), and CCSU’s Institute of Technology & Business Development.

Throughout the course, students become familiar with the process of 3D printing and design, open source software, computer coding, information literacy, database patent and intellectual property research, and the creation a webserver with a Raspberry PI.

The TRiO students, coming from New Britain High School, EC Goodwin Tech, and magnet high schools, are led by TRiO Program Director Thomas Menditto and are tutored by CCSU undergraduates representing multiple disciplines at the University. The building of relationships between the CCSU and high school students helps the younger students gain confidence in building departmental and peer relationships when choosing a college major.

Carl Antonucci, library director, and his staff were key in the preparation, design, and delivery of the program. Sharon Clapp, Susan Slaga-Metiver, Briana McGuckin, Martha Kruy, and Steven Bernstein each delivered a unique component to the education and innovation segment of the class.

The Burritt Library wants all students to think of the library as an innovative business, research, and science resource for product design, research, validation, and model production. In doing so, the library becomes a resource to enhance classroom learning. In addition, current students on campus will gain a broader knowledge of resources on both campuses for their educational development.

The success that has been realized in the implementation of this program is leading CCSU ITBD to offer this program to the public in an open-enrollment, non-credit format in the spring of 2016.