Need another source for your paper? No need to leave your room. Check out some of the e-Books available through Oesterle Library. For general information or to get some ideas for developing your topic, try searching these collections of subject encyclopedias and reference books: Gale Virtual Reference Library, Credo Reference, and Sage eReference. In each collection, you can search across all the resources or access a particular work such as theEncyclopedia of Urban Legends or the Encyclopedia of Business Ethics and Society.

For access to over two thousand electronic books, try NetLibrary. These are regular academic library books that you can use online. My search for “McDonald’s” resulted in 301 books; some covering the business and marketing aspects of the company, some focusing on the company history, and some addressing the health issues with fast food. Connect to any of these resources and more, such as the Encyclopedia Britannica, from the library’s Find Books, Movies, and More page.

Not sure where to start with your library research? Try the new and improved Research by Subject pages on the Oesterle Library website.

The Research by Subject pages correspond to the major courses of study at NCC, such as Computer Science, Journalism or Leadership, Ethics & Values.  Each page provides links for finding articles, books, reference works, or statistics, as well as websites that will be useful for your subject area. Each subject page includes a profile of the library liaison for your subject and a link to the “Chat with a Librarian” feature.

In the future, check the Research by Subject index page for specialized guides about timely topics and guides created for specific courses. To access the list of subjects, click on Research by Subject on the library website.

Over the past few weeks, it has become common to hear students exclaim, “Flags!” when they enter Oesterle Library. The flags in question are a colorful new addition to the lobby area on the main floor of the library. They celebrate NCC’s international exchange programs and the home countries of our international students. Stop in and try to identify each flag. If you need help, check out Flags through the ages and across the world, located in the oversize section on the lower level of Oesterle Library. To find statistics and data from any country, look in the The Statesman’s Yearbook 2009 in the Reference collection or The World Factbook online. If you’d like more information on any one country, try a subject search in our online catalog. On the library’s web page, under the heading “Find Books, Movies and More,” type the name of the country and select “Subject” from the drop-down menu. For more information about study abroad programs or ways to get involved with international students at NCC, see the web page for the Office of International Programs.

With the Academy Awards coming up, movie-lovers may find themselves in heated debates about the merits of their favorite films. Brush up on your movie knowledge with resources from Oesterle Library. For basic facts and quick reviews of over 21,000 movies old and new, see Leonard Maltin’s movie guide in the Reference Collection. Need more details? For more thorough information about a film, including an essay-length review, box office totals, and a list of awards, try Magill’s cinema annual. Oesterle Library has volumes from 1982-2008 in the Reference Collection. For reviews online, MRQE – the Movie Review Query Engine, is a searchable website that links to “all published and available movie reviews.” Feel like watching a movie? Search CardinalCat to find videos and DVDs located in the Giere Audiovisual Center. Do a title search for your favorite film or use a “Quick Limit” to search for movies using keywords.

Relive the moment where now President Obama takes the oath of office at www.CNN.com/themoment. Pictures and video sent in by inauguration attendees will be fused together to create a 3-D experience using Microsoft Photosynth technology. Still want more? The C-SPAN website has posted videos featuring the events of the day, and more video of the inauguration can be found at hulu.com.  MSNBC.com’s inauguration site features video of this inauguration and past inauguration speeches with commentary. Wondering about the history of inauguration day? Icue.com, an educational website run by NBC News, provides an inaugural history mini-course via video presentations by historians and featuring footage of some of the ceremonies. The website of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies provides a thorough history of the traditions that make up inauguration day, with photos selected by the Senate Curator, as well as details from this inauguration such as the luncheon menu!  At Oesterle Library in the Reference Collection, you can pour over the Public papers of the Presidents of the United States and read inauguration speeches from past presidents. Check out our copy of Inaugural addresses of the Presidents of the United States from George Washington, 1789, to Lyndon Baines Johnson, 1965 and impress your friends with your inaugural knowledge.

Early on the morning of December 13th each year light overcomes darkness as the daughter of a Swedish household dons a white gown with a red sash and a crown of candles.  She wakes her family while singing, serving saffron Lucia buns, in honor of Santa Lucia Day, also known as Sankta Lucia or St. Lucy’s Day.

Santa Lucia Day is celebrated today in Scandinavia and areas of the United States with Scandinavian populations along with Italy.  It is one of the few saint’s days celebrated in Scandinavia; the observance also has pre-Christian roots due to its proximity to the winter solstice.

For more information on St. Lucy, see the Oxford Dictionary of Saints, available full-text in NetLibrary.  For more information on Sweden and other Scandinavian countries, visit Credo Reference, a collection of 100 reference books available via the library’s website.

New to Oesterle Library: The International Encyclopedia of Men and Masculinities, a reference book offering comprehensive coverage of contemporary scholarship on how manhood is perceived, experienced, and understood in cultures around the world.

The Encyclopedia includes 353 entries arranged alphabetically, on topics ranging from “Bachelors and Bachelorhood” to “Violence, Sport.” Most articles are very brief and highly informative, and each entry includes a list of books and articles for further reading.

You can check out International Encyclopedia of Men and Masculinities in the library’s Reference Room at the call number R 305.3103 In8f.

Want to get the lowdown on drug testing in schools, electronic surveillance at work, or freedom of speech? You can look up the facts about these controversial issues and many others in the Encyclopedia of American Civil Rights & Liberties, a three-volume set recently added to Oesterle Library’s reference collection.

The numerous expert-written articles in Encyclopedia of American Civil Rights and Liberties offer brief and informative introductions to civil liberties topics, as well as bibliographies of sources that you can turn to for further information. In addition, the third volume of the encyclopedia also features the full text of primary source documents on American civil rights and liberties, ranging from “A Plea for Religious Liberty” (1664) to the text of one of President Roosevelt’s famous “fireside chats” from 1937.

You can find Encyclopedia of American Civil Rights and Liberties in the library’s reference collection at the call number R. 342.73085 En1s.

Oesterle Library has just added a new resource for students of accounting, business, and finance: the Risk Management Association’s RMA eStatement Studies database.

The database includes financial ratio benchmarks drawn from the financial statements of companies in over 740 industries. Industry searches may be sorted by title, North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code, or sector.

The database can be accessed by selecting “RMA eStatement Studies” from the “Choose a Database” pull-down menu on the library homepage (under the Find Articles link), from the Find Articles page, and from the Research by Subject pages for Accounting and Business.

Direct link to the database.

The Oxford English Dictionary–available online via the Oesterle Library wesbite–is the definitive record of how words in English are written and spoken around the world. If you want to know what a word means–or its origin and history of use going back to the Middle Ages–the OED is the place to look.

Since the English language is always changing, the OED is always, changing, too: the dictionary’s editors are constantly working to add entries for new words and revise words to reflect contemporary usage.

In the latest update of the dictionary, new or revised entries include “thingamabob,” “eco-friendly,” “retrovirus,” and even the”F-word.” If you want to check out all of the new entries, try this list from the Oxford website.