I take pride in the fact that so many on the library staff take part in

university activities outside the Library. Recent examples of this in-

clude our participation in the Jamaican themed Welcome Back Day,

and in the annual creation of a homecoming display. Students had a

great time joining Cynthia Marchbanks, Daisy Guidroz, Benita Hebert,

Tony Fonseca, Van Viator, and myself for the “Library Limbo” contest,

where they had to go under the limbo stick while holding a (fake) li-

brary book in each hand (see photos at right and on pages 2 and 4).

Those who felt less adventurous enjoyed trying their luck at the Fla-

mingo Ring Toss or testing their knowledge in the Jamaica Trivia com-

petition. Quick, can you name the official language of Jamaica? The

famous Knick and the former Bush cabinet member who are both from

Jamaica?

In addition, the Library created a colorful display featuring maps, flags,

traditional drinks, and informational posters about Jamaica, while pro-

viding ongoing limbo music on one of our boom boxes. Currently, our

homecoming display—The Colonel on Safari—is located in the library

lobby stairwell.

Of course, as much fun as we have had and hope to continue to have

participating in such events, our main purpose is to support the aca-

demic programs at Nicholls. The Fall semester is well underway, and

we are excited about some of the new services we began offering over

the summer. Our meta-database, WebFeat (a federated search engine),

promises to make your search for information easier by making possible

a simultaneous search of all the Library’s holdings. New furniture in

Reference/Circulation makes the Library a more comfortable place to

visit. And we have added some friendly new faces to the library staff.

We look forward to an exciting academic year.

Carol Mathias, Library Director

volume 3 issue 1

Library Staffers Enjoy Interacting with Students

Fall 2006

Library Hours Monday 7:30 am – 12:00 am* Tuesday – Thursday 7:30 am – 11:00 pm Friday 7:30 am – 4:30 pm Saturday 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm Sunday 4:00 pm – 12:00 am *Reference/Circulation sections only. Others close at 11:00 pm. Note: For changes to schedule due to holidays or emergency closures, please see the library website. All patrons are asked to leave the library 15 minutes prior to closing. The phone number for library hours is 985-448-4660.

Ce qui se passe...

Ellender Memorial Library

Drop-In Classes

We now offer Drop-In

Classes in Research Meth-

ods, Career Research, Com-

puters and Technology Re-

sources, Literature, Musi-

cology, and Culinary Arts

Resources, among others!

Also, you can contact Tony

Fonseca at 448-4675 if you

have a group of three or

more students who would

like a session.

This semester we are offer-

ing a new class in Becom-

ing a Power User. We en-

courage both students and

faculty to take advantage of

this and learn all about the

latest technology the library

has to offer.

www.nicholls.edu/library

Library Tip #1

The new Drop In Classes schedule is online at the following url: http://www.nicholls.edu/library/dro

pinclasses.htm

The newsletter of

Nicholls State University

Below: Limbo winners Jes-Below: Limbo winners Jes-Below: Limbo winners Jes-Below: Limbo winners Jes-sica Williams, Yen Nguyen, sica Williams, Yen Nguyen, sica Williams, Yen Nguyen, sica Williams, Yen Nguyen, and Dwayne Fisher play and Dwayne Fisher play and Dwayne Fisher play and Dwayne Fisher play while being cheered on by while being cheered on by while being cheered on by while being cheered on by Cynthia Marchbanks, Daisy Cynthia Marchbanks, Daisy Cynthia Marchbanks, Daisy Cynthia Marchbanks, Daisy

Guidroz, and Carol Mathias.Guidroz, and Carol Mathias.Guidroz, and Carol Mathias.Guidroz, and Carol Mathias.

Left: Jamaican Library Staff Left: Jamaican Library Staff Left: Jamaican Library Staff Left: Jamaican Library Staff (Left to Right): Mathias, (Left to Right): Mathias, (Left to Right): Mathias, (Left to Right): Mathias, Viator, Guidroz, Fonseca, Viator, Guidroz, Fonseca, Viator, Guidroz, Fonseca, Viator, Guidroz, Fonseca,

Marchbanks. Marchbanks. Marchbanks. Marchbanks.

Below: Jamaica Trivia winner Below: Jamaica Trivia winner Below: Jamaica Trivia winner Below: Jamaica Trivia winner

Katrina Carter.Katrina Carter.Katrina Carter.Katrina Carter.

The Library shows its safari spirit with its The Library shows its safari spirit with its The Library shows its safari spirit with its The Library shows its safari spirit with its

homecoming display, on the first floorhomecoming display, on the first floorhomecoming display, on the first floorhomecoming display, on the first floor

She’s baaaack!

Perhaps catalogers do have nine lives

after all.

Sherrill Faucheaux, our former night

librarian, is once again a member of the

library staff, replacing long-time cata-

loger Alice Saltzman.

Faucheaux is a native of Thibodaux,

graduating from Thibodaux High and

going on to get an undergraduate degree

in Elementary Education, with a minor

in Library Science from right here at

Nicholls State University. In 1971 she

received her MLS from LSU.

With degrees in hand, Faucheaux left

the security of home and family to ac-

cept a position as Reference Librarian at

the University Center Library in Jack-

son, Mississippi. The Center enabled

students to take English classes, with

the credits being accepted at various

universities throughout the state. She

went on to become the director of the

center, which went through several

name changes before becoming affiliated

with Jackson State University.

She retired as director in 1995 and

returned to Thibodaux and Ellender

Library. After substituting in several

departments when people were on

extended sick leave, she settled in as

Adjunct Librarian in Reference. She

had a reputation for being one of the

favorite librarians of NSU students.

But what she really wanted was a per-

manent position as a Reference Librar-

ian. When this did not look possible,

she took her knowledge to the La-

fourche Parish Public Library system

in 1998. After serving in various ca-

pacities in the system and throughout

the parish, she decided it was time to

move on. How fortunate for us that her

moving on brought her back as Cata-

loging Librarian.

Former Night Shift Librarian Gets Permanent Position

VOLUME 3 ISSUE 1 www.nicholls.edu/library PAGE 2

Although she still keeps in touch with

friends from Jackson on a regular basis,

Faucheaux keeps busy at home with her

hobbies of needlework, crocheting, knit-

ting, and reading. She has aspirations of

sewing, but since she has to start from

scratch, her fall collection of Faucheaux

Couture has not come to fruition as of

press time. She is also an animal lover.

She shares her home with two cats,

Peaches and Boo. She hears no complain-

ing unless the food bowls are empty, so

she likes this arrangement. After all, she

has all the free entertainment she wants.

When you come into Ellender Library, be

warned that you may see her smiling face

anywhere—perhaps on the Reference

Desk, or maybe in Cataloging. When you

do, give her a hearty welcome back. Li-

brary staffers are more than happy to

know that in the case of this recent hir-

ing, everything old is indeed new again.

—Sandi Chauvin, Serials

Retired Teachers Join Library Staff

Sometimes word of mouth is the best

advertisement, even for an institution

like Ellender Library. If you ask Lady

Pierson, the new Library Specialist 2 in

Circulation, why she took a job here,

she’ll answer that it is because her

friend Debbie Adams (Multimedia)

found happiness here, so she figured she

would as well.

Ellender, however, is not the first li-

brary with which Pierson has been in-

volved. As a child, she helped her father

set up small church libraries in impover-

ished areas, and later, as a middle

school and elementary teacher, she often

volunteered in school libraries. During

her tenure as teacher, Pierson taught

4th graders, as well as 7th and 8th

grade math and science. She spent the

bulk of her time however—17 of her 25

years in the field—teaching 3rd graders.

In some ways her teaching prepared

her for a stint in an academic library.

“When you’re dealing with little people,

needs are smaller,” she explains. “But

you treat all people the same way. You

try to treat any person, in any situa-

tion, the way you’d want to be treated

in that situation.” Perhaps it is her

positive attitude, but Pierson has found

job fulfillment at NSU. She uses the

term “coattail happiness” to describe

the sense she gets from being around

students who are interested in learning

and reading. She points out that in the

six weeks she has been here, she has

not had one unpleasant experience.

New in our Government Documents

Department is Lynette Tamplain,

Library Specialist 2. As a long-time

resident of Lafourche Parish, she is

well suited for her area of concentra-

tion—the Louisiana Collection. Since

beginning her job here in the Library,

Lynette has collaborated to revise the

Louisiana documents selections list and

has helped inventory a collection of Wet-

lands materials (donated by the Grand

Terre Laboratory).

Tamplain first came to Nicholls as a

freshman in 1972. In 1977, she earned

her B.A. in Education degree. She also

attended graduate school at Nicholls,

concentrating her studies on educational

curriculum and instruction. After gradua-

tion, she took a job with the Lafourche

Parish School Board and began building

a life and a home in the area, teaching for

22 years in the public schools.

This teacher, wife, mother, and grand-

mother has spent much of her life dealing

with the public. Now she is learning the

inner workings of a library. In her spare

time, Lynette enjoys gardening, saltwater

fishing, traveling, reading and having

stimulating conversations over dinner or

coffee. She hopes to go to Rome someday.

Liaison for: Liaison for: Liaison for: Liaison for: Psychology, Psychology, Psychology, Psychology, Counselor Educa-Counselor Educa-Counselor Educa-Counselor Educa-

tion, Sociologytion, Sociologytion, Sociologytion, Sociology

Currently read-Currently read-Currently read-Currently read-ing: Billie Sue ing: Billie Sue ing: Billie Sue ing: Billie Sue Mosiman, various Mosiman, various Mosiman, various Mosiman, various cataloging manu-cataloging manu-cataloging manu-cataloging manu-

alsalsalsals

If you’ve done any research at the univer-

sity level, chances are you have run into

a database called Lexis-Nexis Academic.

It is one of the first databases recom-

mended to researchers, usually men-

tioned in the same breath as the most

popular database, Academic Search Pre-

mier. But despite this, most use only a

small fraction of its potential.

To begin with, researchers often do not

realize that Lexis-Nexis is in actuality

five databases in one. You’ve probably

used it to find news articles, as it is the

best source of current publications in all

the major newspapers. However, if you

closely examine the left side of the Lexis-

Nexis screen, you’ll note that it easily

switches over to being a business, medi-

cal, legal, and reference database. In fact,

students taking pre-law and government

classes here at Nicholls use the legal re-

search portion of Lexis-Nexis daily. It

The Relentless Pursuit of Information

VOLUME 3 ISSUE 1 PAGE 3 www.nicholls.edu/library

posium on Electronic Theses and

Dissertations.

Those of us who have been fortunate

to become her friends realize that

she has a punky, fun-loving side. She

has done a “Shatneresque” presenta-

tion where she compared musician/

poet Rod McKuen to Edith Piaf, has

a knowledge of and interest in under-

ground newspapers and underground

books (such as those produced by

Loompanics International), and is

fond of leaving off-the-wall website

images for her colleagues on Refer-

ence to brighten their days. She can

often be found in her office in Ellen-

der, working while listening to a pop

CD.

—Tony Fonseca, Serials

Most of us in academe would like to think

that the more letters you can earn behind

your name, the better. Newly hired Ref-

erence Librarian Melissa Ursula Gold-

smith is certainly proof of that axiom.

Goldsmith has a CLIS, MLIS, and PhD in

musicology from Louisiana State Univer-

sity and an MA in music and BA in music

and biochemistry from Smith College.

She is also known for being friendly,

helpful, and down to earth, personality

traits which make her well suited for

academic librarianship. She has very

quickly become one of our most approach-

able librarians overall, and with her

teaching experience in the LSU music

department, she almost instantly accli-

mated to the role of Librarian Instructor

for NSU’s University Studies classes.

Her offerings for the Library’s Drop-In

schedule attest to the wide variety of her

talents and interests. She created two

quirky sessions that should draw high

interest among both faculty and students.

For faculty, she will be offering a session

called Ego Searching for Experts, in

which she will explain both how to find

references to yourself on the web, and

how to make sure that people hit your

name more often. For students, she is

offering songwriting, guitar tabs, music

group, and recording resources advice

with the session So You Wanna Be a

Rock and Roll Star. Possessing a strong

work ethic and always willing to stay

after hours, Goldsmith decided to offer

these sessions at night, when faculty and

students might have more free time.

In her free time, Goldsmith attends to

her professional pursuits, such as article

writing. Her publications focus on film

and film music, modern and postmodern

aesthetics, and popular music. They in-

clude “Montage, Music, and Memory:

Remembering Deutschland im Herbst

(Germany in Autumn, 1978)” in Kinoeye,

“Lounge Caravan: A Selective Discogra-

phy” in Notes (the journal of the Music

Library Association), “Context, Theme,

and Tone in Adorno’s Writings about

Mahler and His Music” in Naturlaut (the

journal of the Gustav Mahler Society of

Chicago), and “Film Music: Interdiscipli-

nary Scholarship, Analysis, Criticism,

and Theory” in Choice. Her book reviews

appear in Choice, The Journal of Film

Music, and Screening the Past.

In addition, she has chaired panel ses-

sions at Annual National Meetings of the

American Musicological Society and has

presented papers at the Annual National

Meetings of the AMS, the Music Library

Association, and the International Sym-

allows for the searching of secondary lit-

erature, case law, codes and regulations,

and patent research.

Although much less used by students

(mainly because the Library databases

also include Business Source Premier

and The Million Dollar Database), Lexis-

Nexis’ business information section in-

cludes business articles from newspapers,

magazines, journals, wires, and tran-

scripts; industry and market news from

over 25 industries; and accounting litera-

ture from professional journals; as well

as detailed financial reports, profiles, and

SEC filings.

Its medical section supplies researchers

with healthcare news, articles from vari-

ous medical journals, and abstracts from

The National Library of Medicine’s Med-

line Database.

Your Reference Questions Are Music to Her Ears

Finally, the reference portion of

Lexis-Nexis gives biographical infor-

mation on politicians, business ex-

ecutives, and anyone else you can

think of. It also supplies country pro-

files (concise facts and statistics),

information from polls and surveys

from the Roper Center for Public

Opinion Research, bibliographic data

on famous quotations, state profiles

(more concise facts and statistics),

and quick almanac facts on any sub-

ject.

What began in 1973 as the first com-

mercial, full-text legal information

service, has expanded. The company

goal may be to enrich research with

recent and archival news. Research-

ers may find their lives being en-

riched as well.

—Tony Fonseca, Serials

Liaison for: Liaison for: Liaison for: Liaison for: Music, Chemis-Music, Chemis-Music, Chemis-Music, Chemis-try, Physics, try, Physics, try, Physics, try, Physics,

LiteratureLiteratureLiteratureLiterature

Currently listen-Currently listen-Currently listen-Currently listen-ing to: Dance ing to: Dance ing to: Dance ing to: Dance mixes of Law-mixes of Law-mixes of Law-mixes of Law-rence Welk, rence Welk, rence Welk, rence Welk, They Might Be They Might Be They Might Be They Might Be

GiantsGiantsGiantsGiants

Newsletter staff: Tony Fonseca, Managing Editor; Sandi Chauvin, Editor; Danny Gorr, Editor, Jeremy Landry, Consultant. Please e-mail comments and/or suggestions to Tony Fonseca (tony.fonseca@nicholls.edu). The statements and opinions included in these pages are those of the newsletter staff only. Any statements and opinions are not those of Nicholls State University or the University of Louisiana System.

VOUME 3 ISSUE 1 PAGE 4 www.nicholls.edu/library

Library News

Cheryl Adams, Danny Gorr, Angela Gra-

ham, Lady Pierson, and Lynette Tamplain

attended the Louisiana Library Association—

Louisiana Support Staff Association of Librar-

ies (LaSSAL) workshop on Sept. 22 in Baton

Rouge.

Tony Fonseca will have two lengthy entries

(“Psychics” and “Doppelgangers”) in publica-

tion this Fall, in Icons of the Supernatural. He

also had reviews of three horror novels and

one horror poetry audio CD in Necropsy

(www.lsu.edu/necrofile).

Melissa Goldsmith had two recent articles

published, one on Mahler in Naturlaut

(http://www.chicago-mahlerites.org/) and the

other on Film Music Scholarship in Choice.

Daisy Guidroz and Jeremy Landry at-

tended the LOUIS System’s Administrators

Meeting at LSU, August 3-4.

Jeremy Landry, along with Carla Clark of

LSU-Shreveport, will be presenting a session

called “MARCEDIT Before You Regret It” at

the LOUIS Users Conference in October.

Clifton Theriot recently presented a paper

on the Lafourche Parish Historic Records Pro-

ject at the 30th Annual History and Genealogy

Seminar, sponsored by the Lafourche Heritage

Society.

Clifton Theriot, Ellender Library’s ar-

chivist and head of special collections, is

now recognized as a certified archivist by

the Academy of Certified Archivists

(ACA). Besides acting as an examination/

certification agency, the Academy is an

organization which defines standards for

the archival profession and promotes

education and leadership.

This year’s examination was given in

Washington, D.C. in conjunction with the

annual meeting of the ACA. Theriot now

joins library director Carol Mathias, as

well as approximately one thousand

other archivists throughout the nation, in

being certified by the Academy.

These archivists find themselves pursu-

ing an interesting profession, for one can

find archivists working in The Rock and

Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, at the

National Baseball Hall of Fame in Coo-

perstown, the Smithsonian, the Na-

tional Archives, and universities and

archives all over the world. Their job is

to assess, collect, process and make ac-

cessible historic materials in all formats.

At Nicholls Theriot not only works to

preserve the history of the bayou region,

but has also been appointed by Presi-

dent Hulbert to supervise the retention

of Nicholls State University records.

Library Tip # 2

While WebFeat, the most recent innovation

added to the Library’s arsenal of databases,

is a tremendous step forward in database

research in that it allows for simultaneous

searching of each and every Library data-

base, it needs to go through an extensive

testing period like any new software product.

To keep abreast of the status of this new

software, just look for the informational link

in the Announcements section, located on the

Library’s page [www.nicholls.edu/library].

The Louisiana Library Consortium, or

LOUIS (a sub-entity of the Louisiana

Library Network Commission, under

The Board of Regents), will be hosting

its annual users Conference (LUC) on

October 5 - 6, at the LSU School of Vet-

erinary Medicine. Many members of

Ellender Library’s staff plan to attend.

With an upgrade coming soon to SIRSI

and Unicorn Workflows, the library’s

patron access and back-end software,

staffers will be particularly keyed in on

various sessions that discuss the new

Java client for the Acquisitions and Se-

rials modules. However, other sessions

will include How College Students Per-

ceive Libraries and Information Re-

sources, the Uses of Google Scholar, Is-

sues with Copyright in Digital Libraries,

Creating and Displaying RSS Feeds,

Starting a Friends Group, and Adminis-

tering and Customizing WebFeat.

We’re in LUC

Library News

Our Books, Our Shelves

Melissa recommends some of her faves….

Henry David Thoreau, Walden and Resis-

tence to Civil Government 814 T391w7 1992

T.J. Anderson, Notes to Make the Sound

Come Right: Four Innovators of Jazz Poetry

811.09357 An24n

Christopher Gordon, Form and Content in

Commercial Music 781.07 G653f

Rod McKuen, Listen to the Warm 811 M219L

Tony says you can’t go wrong with….

Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye 813 M834bXp

Kristina Börjesson, Into the Buzzsaw: Lead-

ing Journalists Expose the Myth of a Free

Press 323.4450973 In8b 2004

Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children 823

R895m

Glen Hirshberg, The Two Sams: Ghost Sto-

ries 813.081 H617t 2003

Jean-Mark suggests you look at…..

Ariel Dorfman, In Case of Fire in a Foreign

Land: New and Collected Poems 861 D732L

2002

Robert A. F. Thurman, Anger 179.8 T425a

Gerald M. Edelman, Wider than the Sky: The

Phenomenal Gift of Consciousness 612.82

Ed27w

David Middleton, The Habitual Peacefulness

of Gruchy: Poems after Pictures by Jean-

François Millet 811 M584h

One for the Records

Congratulations goes out to Clifton Congratulations goes out to Clifton Congratulations goes out to Clifton Congratulations goes out to Clifton

Theriot, now a Certified Archivist.Theriot, now a Certified Archivist.Theriot, now a Certified Archivist.Theriot, now a Certified Archivist.