Robbins Library Notes

Good morning, readers, and happy Friday!

Since Monday is a holiday — Martin Luther King, Jr. Day — I won’t be blogging then.  I’ll return to posting on Tuesday.

To tide you over until then, here is the full video of the “I have a dream” speech:

Pause for a moment, and think about how far the US has come since Dr. King’s time, and far we still have to go.

Good morning, readers, and happy Monday to you!

Given the recent budgetary issues at Harvard, we’ve been asked to cut costs here in Robbins Library.  So, for the foreseeable future, there will be a moratorium on book buying and collection development here in Robbins for the time being.

This moratorium actually comes at a good time, as it will allow us to absorb the purchases of the last several years and complete our culling of older volumes from the shelves.

Please feel free to send me suggestions for items to add to the collection.  I will note them down in my database, and keep track of them.  Hopefully, we’ll be able to begin purchasing again in the near future.

Please let me know if you have any questions about this.

Good morning, readers, and happy Friday to you!

Looking ahead to Spring Term 2009, which begins in a few weeks, I want to remind my readers that I do far more than making scans and photocopies. For instance:

• Interested in learning more about the various resources available to you at Harvard, and how to maximize their use?  Contact me for a bibliographic instruction session.  One-on-one, small groups, large groups — I’m willing to tailor a session to your needs.  Want to include a session as part of your course?  Contact me and we can discuss.
• Need some help with research?  I’m happy to assist if you want a fresh pair of eyes on a search, or just some help so as to take pressure off your schedule.
• Would like someone to proofread your philosophy paper, or to offer some guidance on what to write?  I’d be glad to do so.
• Web site help — would you like to set up a personal Web page?  I can help you get this process started, and to consult with you on how to build and to design your site.

How else can I assist you with your information and research needs?  Please let me know!

Good morning, readers!

With the fall term winding down, I am writing to my Harvard faculty and grad student readers to once again offer my help in assembling course reserves for the Spring 2009 term courses.

Please feel free to send me your syllabi, and I will get the readings that you need ready for the reserves shelves.  As always, getting me the syllabi sooner rather than later is greatly appreciated.

Also, if you would like me to scan materials for course reserves, I am happy to assist as well.  As before, because of the sheer volume of materials that I am asked to scan every term, I request that items to be scanned come to me already photocopied. “Already photocopied” means:

• Single-sided copies
• As little shadow in the middle as possible, if you are copying two pages on one sheet
• Preferably not article offprints, as these need to be copied to speed up the scanning process.
• Prioritized in order of urgency, especially if you have a large number of items to be scanned.  This will help me to prioritize my workflow.
• Only 1 chapter or 1/10 pages per work may be scanned and posted at a time, to keep in compliance with copyright. Entire books cannot be copied and posted, unfortunately.

I will be happy to post these items to your course Web site — all you need do is add me as a course administrator to your course Web site.  If you need help with this, please let me know.  I’m happy to show you how to do this.

Furthermore, if you’d like some help with setting up your course Web site, I’d be glad to assist.

I will send out a reminder next week as well.

Happy Festivus to all!

I will be away from 21 December 2008 – 4 January 2009, and won’t be posting during this time.  A happy holiday season to all, and I’ll see you when I return on 5 January 2009.

Good morning, readers!

As term draws to a close, I’m sending out a request that all books, journals, and items “borrowed” from Robbins over the course of the fall term be returned as soon as possible.  And please pass the word along. Thank you for your cooperation with this!

And now, for your viewing pleasure, a clip from Conan the Librarian*…

*from the movie, UHF.

Good morning, readers!

We will be having four visiting professors in the Department of Philosophy during Spring term 2009.  I am listing them below, with links to the courses which they will be teaching.

• Talbot M. Brewer (University of Virginia)
  • PHIL 175. Ethical Theory
  • PHIL 278x. Virtue Ethics
• Herman De Dijn (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)
  • PHIL 124. Spinoza
• Matti Eklund (Cornell University)
  • PHIL 148. Philosophy of Mathematics
  • PHIL 263. Metaontology
• Mi-Kyoung Lee (University of Colorado, Boulder)
  • PHIL 7. Intro to Ancient Philosophy

A tentative syllabus has been posted for Professor De Dijn’s Spinoza course.  I’ve also listed primary texts for Professor Lee’s course, and for Professor Eklund’s Philosophy of Mathematics course.  I will post syllabi, primary texts, and other readings as they become available.

I’m posting this information now, so that Harvard students reading this blog will know about the courses in advance.

Readers: I’ve just received word that the Department’s own Susanna Siegel will be delivering a Neuphi talk this coming Thursday, 11 December 2008.  Here’s the information:

Susanna Siegel, Harvard University

“What Do We See?”

4-6 pm 5-7 pm: PLEASE NOTE TIME CHANGE

Room 525

745 Commonwealth Avenue

Boston, MA 02215

Click here to see map of 745 Commonwealth Avenue

Enjoy!

(From top left:) Montaigne, Descartes, Newton, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Rousseau, Hume, and Kant.

Good morning, readers!

The New England Conference in Early Modern Philosophy will be held here at Harvard on 29-31 May 2009.  Details about the conference are available, as well as a registration form.  Also, there is a Call for Abstracts, if you are interested in submitting a paper for consideration for presentation at this conference.

I’ll post another announcement closer to the conference date.

Good morning, all!  Welcome back after the Thanksgiving holiday!

Today’s post is an announcement for an upcoming conference here at Harvard:

The Role of Consciousness in Thought
6 December 2008
Harvard University
CGIS, Room N-354

The speakers for this workshop are:

• Imogen Dickie (NYU/Toronto)
• Declan Smithies (The Ohio State University)
• Matthew Soteriou (University of Warwick)
• Cheryl Chen (Harvard University).

From the flyer:

How do our conscious states figure in our knowledge of our own minds, on the one hand, or in the knowledge of the world that we gain by perception, on the other? In the case of perception, we can learn that the traffic light is red by consciously seeing it, or that there is garbage nearby from consciously smelling it, or that a friend is approaching from consciously hearing her voice and her footsteps. But could we end up with exactly the same knowledge – or with any knowledge at all – if the perceptions were unconscious? In the case of self-knowledge, when we consciously calculate a sum or deliberate about what to do next, we can quite easily know that we are calculating or deliberating. Does the status of our calculation or deliberation as conscious have any role to play in securing this knowledge? This workshop will the explore the epistemic roles played by conscious experience in grounding knowledge.

Complete information and a schedule can be found via the link above.