Next Best Thing: Photojournalism Books @ Park Library

Know what the next best thing to real-world photo experience is?
…Looking at work by professional photographers!
Park Library is a great place to go for some really engaging photo books. We have hundreds of books specifically dedicated to the subject of photojournalism (not to mention our magazine and newspaper section, which also has examples of great photos). Studying these pages can help you get acquainted with the elements of a successful photograph.
These books not only contain incredible images but sound advice from photographers in the field. You can learn how a photograph was taken, the obstacles involved with taking it, and some of the do’s and don’t that every photographer should know.
You can learn some tips for breaking into the business and even verse yourself in a bit of media law. You’ll begin to understand that there is no such thing as being over-prepared in such an unpredictable field.
So get ahead of yourself. Start bracing for the challenges ahead. Believe me, you won’t regret it.

An easy place to start is by typing in "photojournalism" in the search box at the Park Library web site.


Some guides to the profession:

Photojournalism: the professional's approach by Kenneth Kobre
Call number: PHJ .K75 2004

Associated Press guide to photojournalism
Call number: PHJ .H823 2001

Some great collections of work:

Robert Capa: the definitive collection
Call number: PHJ-his .C236 2001

Facing the world: great moments in photojournalism
Call number: PHJ-his .F141 2001

This critical mirror: 40 years of World Press Photo
Call number: PHJ .C934 1996

Books on theory:

The burden of visual truth: the role of photojournalism in mediating reality
Call number: PHJ .N564 2001

Photojournalism and foreign policy: icons of outrage in international crises
Call number: PHJ .P426 1998


Those are just a few examples of the underexposed books in the shelves at the Park Library. Hunt around on the website and find what pertains to you. We're here to help you find what you need, so don't be afraid to let us know what you need to find.

A voice for the lonely books in the back

They make me feel guilty every time I walk into the back room. And it's not their fault - or mine - that they're lonely and unread. It's the fact that no one could check out books from Park Library until this past August.

Sure, now students come in all the time to check out class-related books, which is a good thing; the library is, of course, an academic resource. But this has played with the non class-related books' feelings. It gives them false hope every time one of us on staff goes to grab a book from the back, only to pull from the shelf the lucky book to the right or left that happens to be required reading.

Books like "What a Free Press Means to America," which compiles ardent one-page letters from editors and distinguished journalists on the topic of the title, are rarely touched. I'm glad part of my job is becoming familiar with the books here, because I can't put it down.

About 200 journalists from all types of newspapers contributed to it - those from the New York Times, Washington Post, Pittsburgh Post Gazette and a bunch of other community and big-city newspapers that were around in 1984. And the year adds character; journalists then were frustrated by the public's lack of interest in the first amendment and freedom of the press just as many are today. The editor of the The New Britain Herald (Connecticut) wrote:

"Editors write of it; journalists talk of it exhaustively when they get together; our newspapers live by it. But the subject of the importance of a Free Press in America seldom comes up anywhere else. Frankly, a free press is a bother to many Americans, especially when something they don't want to appear in print, does ... It is hard to keep explaining that by printing the bad news we protect the right to print the good news."

For those who are journalismed out, books abound that have nothing to do with the press. Famous First Facts is a book many would have on their coffee table to entertain guests if it didn't cost about $200 (yay for being able to get it from the library for free). It holds wacky tid-bits of information, such as where, when and why the first Santa Claus school was founded, or when the fork was first introduced to America. Turns out it was brought to the U.S. in a leather case with a bodkin and knife by Gov. John Winthrop of Massachusetts in 1630 - he wanted to follow a a new style of eating introduced by Queen Elizabeth.

There are rows of books in the back dedicated solely to the subject of writing. Old ones, such as Think Before You Write (1951), with its weathered cover, make it easy to pretend you're a 1950s newsman/woman - hunched over a desk in the midst of bustling reporters, cigarette in hand. (I love old books). On Writing Well is a nationally renowned book written more recently. It has funny witticisms interspersed with great advice (William Zinsser, the author, now has a quote on my facebook page).

And Jobs for Writers suggests alternatives to working for a newspaper or becoming a novelist for writers who find themselves in a pickle (this may especially apply considering our lovely economic situation).

There also are rows and rows of books dedicated to broadcast journalism, media ethics, feature writing, etc. We have about every book Bob Woodward (Watergate scandal journalist) has written. And we have the newly published Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street, sent to us and signed by the author, who apparently went here. No one can tell me that's not cool

So what I'm trying to say is, we have a lot of great books over here at the Park Library. Come in and give them some company.

First Amendment Day!

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or of the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
--First Amendment, U.S. Constitution

We're celebrating the First Amendment today in the Park Library. Journalists make a cottage industry out of loving the First Amendment, and we're no different. Come by any time today to check out any of our books from our one of our subsections devoted to the five protections offered by that most essential of Constitutional sections.

Stephanie Brown, the Park Library Director, and I went down to see the UNC Liberty Tree planted in front of Carroll Hall. Dean Jean Folkerts of the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communications and assorted faculty members were on hand to help shovel a little dirt onto the elm, which will grow at the corner (call it the cornerstone?) of the building.

(image via Twitter: @smalljones)

There will be lots of other events going on today to commemorate the First Amendment. Be sure to see Chancellor Holden Thorp and others reading from banned books. (Thorp is going to be reading from Catcher in the Rye, which I thought was fitting, because when I read that book for the first time this summer, he's who I pictured as Holden Caulfield.)

Or you can read about how UNC students demanded their rights to free speech during the 1960s and 1970s, at a time when it was deemed illegal for students to hear from speakers with unpopular views. Students took matters into their own hands and organized a conversation.

But you don't have to do any of that to appreciate those freedoms. Just pick up a copy of the newspaper and be grateful that no one can make the laws that keep it from being printed.

RefWorks Basics class on Friday

This Friday, October 2nd at 1pm in the Park Library, I will be teaching an introductory class on RefWorks. We'll set up accounts and cover basic usage in less than an hour, then move on to the advanced topics you find most interesting.

What is RefWorks?
RefWorks is an excellent tool for research, helping you organize and keep track of resources you find. Also, RefWorks makes bibliographies easy to produce by automatically formatting references in the style of your choice.

What We'll Cover on Friday

• Starting a RefWorks account
• Importing references from databases like Academic Search Premier
• Organizing your references into subject or project-based folders
• Manually adding references
• Easy automatic bibliographies in a range of styles (eg. APA, MLA)

Advanced Usage (if there's time & interest)

• Storing articles (eg. PDFs) in RefWorks
• Using the Write-N-Cite Microsoft Word plugin
• RefShare for collaboration and public reference lists
  
• RefMobile for devices such as iPhone
  

So come on out Friday to get started with RefWorks! And remember, the Park Library staff is available to assist you with RefWorks, whether you are a total beginner or you use it all the time. Please come see us with your questions!

RefWorks

Editor's Note: here's an example of two projects that you can do with RefWorks. To learn more about RefWorks, read Adam's post and/or come to the RefWorks session in the library on Oct. 2.

The other day I did this cool project in the library. Now before you think "Huh? Cool and library = fun" give me a chance to explain. You know how irritating finding articles can be? Yeah, I thought you would. Well, RefWorks is a database that collects sources, reformats them in APA or MLA among others, and allows the user to share the sources. Still with me? Ok, so I had to find faculty publications, a daunting task, I know. I had to use multiple databases to locate more than 500 publications faculty members have done since being employed here. Here's how the faculty publications look in RefWorks. Citations can be sorted by author, title and others. That way, your citations are easy to find. But that's not the real story, the point is that instead of finding so many citations and sources and printing them out, losing them, saving them in multiple files, why not keep them in one secure place? Research is tough but staying organized keeps the task from becoming a burden.

Now, to how you can use RefWorks beyond research papers. As journalism students, we're in that awful transition between budding media member and college reporter/videographer/designer/photographer etc. Keeping clips is uber-important but so is keeping them all in one place. RefWorks keeps all your clips or citations in a "storage" section, allowing you to access all of them, any time, any where, any place, well as long as you have the password. Sending out countless resumes and cover letters and clips is very tedious but necessary. Beyond sending clips, why not advertise your awesomeness on social media networks? Blogs, Twitter and yes, even Facebook, can reach more people than a couple of cover letters and pleas for employment. So try this: grab all your citations, clips, ringing endorsements and add them to Refworks and then link them to your Facebook page, Twitter account and blog.

I know, you'll thank me later. (that's Karen Kleimann (two n's)).

Don't know how to use RefWorks? Come to the RefWorks class in the Park Library, hosted by our very own Adam Rogers on Friday, Oct. 2 at 1 p.m.

There’s No Reason Not to Stay Up on Current Events

If you’re like any college student in the world, leaving home and coming to school has probably put you a little behind on your current events. Thankfully, the Park Library has the solution. We carry stacks of newspapers from all over the region, plus wide-circulation newspapers such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today.

Want to know what the weather is like in Nags Head? The Coastliner is the premier source of information for the Outer Banks. What to know how your old high school football team from Cary is doing? No problem, the News and Observer has all the scores. These, along with several other newspapers, are delivered to the Park Library every single day, so you’ll always have up-to-date information at your slightly-blackened-from-newspaper-ink fingertips. We usually hold newspapers for about a month before they are recycled (Park Library is also environmentally friendly!), so make sure you check ‘em out before it’s too late.

We also have subscriptions to a variety of magazines, from Popular Photography (Visual Communications, anyone?) to Time Magazine (I know there is someone in the J-School who wants to work there) to Entertainment Weekly (Yes, I do think the stars of Twilight are dating). Older volumes of magazines are kept with our stacks and are never thrown out. If you need Fortune Magazine from September 5, 2005, we have it available.

So whether you want to catch up on current events, need some information for a class, or just want to relax with something OTHER than a textbook, stop on by and browse through our newspaper and magazine racks. Comfy chairs (hopefully) coming soon.

Down with Google

Down with Google searches! …well, at least for your papers.

As the semester begins and teachers review their carefully-planned syllabi, an age-old feeling may set in as you skim the weekly list of assignments – panic. You wonder how you are going to write those excessively long papers in topics unfamiliar to you. Your professors have taken Wikipedia and Google from you. You feel unarmed, confused, and helpless.

Luckily for you, the staff at the Park Library can come to your rescue. We can help you search for scholarly articles using a variety of academic search engines. You can find a myriad of articles to help you on your way, and I can promise you that the results will be much more reliable than anything you find on Google. Scholarly articles have been peer-reviewed by experts in the field, so you know that whatever comes up is a legitimately-researched body of work.

Doesn’t that make you feel just a little bit better?

So stop in. Park Library is located on the second floor of Carroll Hall. We are open from 9am-5pm Monday through Friday. After Labor Day, we will be open from 9am-9pm Monday through Thursday, 9am-5pm on Friday, and 5:30pm-8:30pm on Sunday.

Oh, and food and drink are allowed so please don’t hesitate to utilize our resources.

Allow myself to introduce... myself

Hello everyone, I'm Adam, I'm new here but excited to be working at the Park Library. You'll see me at the front desk, ready to assist with your research, help you locate and check out books, and anything else you might need assistance with.

So you'll know what I look like, here's a portrait my artist friend Eliza painted of me:



You'll see the resemblance, I'm sure. Eliza also gave me a holiday on a calendar she produces annually called "Every Day is a Holiday." Because I'm a librarian and in school studying library science, she made my birthday "Library Day."

Now, my birthday won't come around again for quite a while, but if you need some help designing cakes, birthday cards, party invitations, etc. for Library Day, a good place to start is with the National Library Symbol, below:



This sign has been around about as long as I have, originating in the early 80s. For more information you can head over to the American Library Association.

I hope to see you soon in the Park Library!

Sign image is from the Manual of Traffic Signs, by Richard C. Moeur.

Apologies to Austin Powers for the title.

Check out the new Park Library

Students this fall semester will see a new face and new Park Library. Barbara Semonche, the Park Librarian since its opening, retired over the summer, handing the reins to Stephanie Willen Brown. Also, on staff is Brian, an undergraduate politics/Econ major; Adam, a graduate student in library science; Cristina, a graduate student in photojournalism; and Karen, an undergraduate News-Editorial journalism major. We're happy to welcome Amanda, a graduate student in public relations, and Danielle, a undergraduate journalism major. We're all here to answer questions, inquiries and assist with research.

The Park Library has broken out of the shadow of its former self, advertising the newest books and news on Twitter, Facebook and Blog posts. We revamped our Web site and have included an IM feature for quick questions (see the side of this blog, or IM JoMCParkLib) . In other words, we are no longer just a traditional library inside the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNC-Chapel Hill, we are a technologically-savvy network of E-journals, databases, web features as well a library full of books, newspapers, magazines and theses and dissertations.

Some new policies are also in place starting this fall. The Park library now allows drinks, food and cell phone usage -- keeping in mind that being respectful and reasonable with the above is an integral part of Library function.

So visit us Monday-Thursday 9 a.m.-9 p.m., Friday 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Welcome to the Park Library!

The Park Library is designed to help students, faculty, and other folks interested in journalism and/or mass communication find useful resources for their work ... blah blah blah ...

My experience with college students and the library suggests that when we librarians talk, students hear "blah blah blah," if they hear anything at all. Savvy librarians know this and have come up with clever ways to communicate our ability and willingness to help. Here at the Park Library, and at the UNC Libraries more generally, we are just such clever librarians, and

we have wonderful resources to make your library research easier and more efficient. srsly.

My experience with college students also indicates that students learn well from librarians, but they learn even better from their peers. (See a few of my peer-to-peer training articles.) Which is one reason I'm giving the six Park Library student staff so much training, such as

• How to find scholarly and newspaper articles quickly & efficiently - for free!
• How to manage and reformat articles (also for free)
• How to find out what kind of material students really need to get for their assignment

In short, they are mini-librarians, happy to help other students find good stuff, fast.

I've also asked them to blog about their experiences in the library. They're finding good resources for their own academic pursuits, and I've heard them say "this is great!" or "I wish I'd known that sooner!" They'll be blogging about their experiences in the Park Library (with a wee bit of editing from me), sharing some of their favorite resources, and doing librarianship over the interwebs.

I hope you'll find some of their resources helpful to your own work. Feel free to come to the Park Library (or call, or IM) and ask us questions - trained library staffers are standing by.

Welcome to the Park Library!