New E-book

Students and staff of St. Patrick's College now have access to the New Catholic Encyclopedia in e-book format through the Gale Virtual Reference Library.

The Encyclopedia is prized for its scholarly presentation of persons and subjects related to Catholicism and the humanities. This 15 volume, second edition features revised and new articles. Among the 12,000 entries in the encyclopedia are articles on theology, philosophy, history, literary figures, saints, musicians and much more.

It is accessed simply by clicking here.
Happy browsing!

Book of the Month

“The fact is, the whole of Australia despises my father more than any other man, just as they adore my uncle more than any other man. I might as well set the story straight about both of them...”

This month we are giving the Library thumbs-up to A Fraction of the Whole the hilarious debut novel of Australian writer Steve Toltz which was shortlisted for the 2008 Booker Prize. Though it missed out on the main prize, Toltz's quirky prose has seen him compared to writers such as John Irving and DBC Pierre.

It's a hefty work coming in at over 700 pages but don't let it's size put you off. As The Guardian put it "it is a fat book but very light on its feet… it is brilliant.'
We agree! Check it out and judge for yourself...

JSTOR: The Ireland Collection

JSTOR has launched The Ireland Collection, a stand-alone collection within the JSTOR database devoted entirely to Ireland, with materials spanning from the 1780s to the present in all areas of the humanities and social sciences.

This wonderful resource is available to staff and students of St. Patrick's College through the IReL initiative and is an exciting development in the digitisation of Irish materials.
At its expected completion in 2009, it will contain a minimum of 2,500 manuscripts, 200 monographs, and 75 ceased and currently publishing journals

You can click here to access the current collection or here to find out more about what else will be available in the coming months.

Have a look around and let us know what you think!

Every Child Matters - SLARI Conference 2008

SLARI, the School Library Association in the Republic of Ireland is holding its Annual Conference on 15th November from 9.30am to 3.00pm at Tallaght Library, County Hall, Tallaght, Dublin 24. This year’s theme is Every Child Matters: Inclusion in the School Library.
There is further information on presentations and speakers as well as booking detailsavailable at the Library Information Desk or you can e-mail SLARI Secretary Katherine Ryan at kryan@st-andrews.ie.

Booker Prize Winner announced - do you agree?

Aravind Adiga was the suprise winner of the 2008 Man Booker Prize for his debut novel The White Tiger. Adiga is the fourth first-time novelist to win the prize and was highly praised for the book's unromantic portrayal of contemporary Indian society.

The full 2008 shortlist, which included Dubliner Sebastian Barry is below and all six titles are now in stock in the Library. Check them out (literally) and make up your own mind!

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (Winner)
The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
The Clothes on Their Backs by Linda Grant
The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher
A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz

'Symmetry & Art' Exhibition

"[Man] has tried through the ages to comprehend and create order, beauty and perfection"

Hermann Weyl (1885-1955)

As part of the College's participation in National Maths Week (Oct 11-18) the Library is exhibiting a selection of books and images detailing the relationship between symmetry and art through the ages. Authors/artists covered include M.C. Escher (above is a detail from his work Metamorphosis III), Joseph Gallian and Hans Kuiper.

The exhibition is situated just inside the entrance to the Library. Our thanks to Sinéad Breen in the Mathematics Dept. for organising the material.

For other Maths Week events going on throughout the College click here.

October & November opening hours

The Library will be closed on the following days in October and November:

Monday Oct 27 (Bank Holiday)
Saturday Nov 1 (All Saints Day)
Friday & Saturday Nov 7 & 8 (Conferring)

On all other days we will be open for normal term-time hours.

Congratulations!

Library staff member Ronan Kelly has been shortlisted for the Glen Dimplex New Writers Awards 2008, for his book Bard of Erin: The Life of Thomas Moore.

Close to 350 books were submitted by book publishers from both Ireland and the UK for inclusion in the competition, which has a total prize fund of €45,000. Ronan is nominated in the biography/non-fiction category and is also in the running for the overall award.

Congratulations to Ronan on his fine achievement. We'll be keeping our fingers crossed on the 10 November 2008 when the winners are announced!