Thursday, October 28, 2010

Rian.ie: pathways to Irish research

Rian is a new online research database offering a single search point for research documents from the seven Irish universities: DCU, NUIG, NUIM, TCD, UCC, UCD & UL. Documents include theses, journal articles, book chapters, reports, conference articles and a variety of other Irish research documents.

It is intended to add content from other Irish research institutes as the project moves forward.
Rian offers the world a single "shop-window" to the creativity of the entire Irish university system. It is an important sectoral contribution to enhancing Ireland's national brand as The Innovation Island ... Dr Michael Murphy, President, UCC
Students, researchers, staff, administrators can all benefit from this valuable new resource: http://www.rian.ie

Nobel Prize for Literature 2010


The 2010 Nobel Prize for Literature has been awarded to Mario Varga Llosa "for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat".


People have been mysteriously disappearing in the remote mining communities of the Andes, where the inhabitants are more likely to speak the Incan language Quechua than Spanish. Some blame the heavily armed bands of teenage Sendero Luminoso guerrillas that periodically descend on the villages to conduct mock trials and execute "imperialist lackeys." Others blame the equally bloodthirsty government troops. Danish anthropologist Paul Stirmsson suspects that some of the recent victims may have been killed in ritual sacrifices to appease pre-Columbian gods and demons. A witch named Dona Adriana and her husband, Dionisio, whose drunken antics recall the Dionysian revels of Greek antiquity, are the prime suspects. The author makes no attempt to assess the Senderistas in political terms. Instead, he offers a sort of Diane Arbus portrait gallery of rural Peru, set in an entertaining detective novel format. (from Amazon.com)


Mario Vargas Llosa's masterful, multilayered novel is set in the Lima, Peru, of the author's youth, where a young student named Marito is toiling away in the news department of a local radio station. His young life is disrupted by two arrivals.
The first is his aunt Julia, recently divorced and thirteen years older, with whom he begins a secret affair. The second is a manic radio scriptwriter named Pedro Camacho, whose racy, vituperative soap operas are holding the city's listeners in thrall. Pedro chooses young Marito to be his confidant as he slowly goes insane.
Interweaving the story of Marito's life with the ever-more-fevered tales of Pedro Camacho, Vargas Llosa's novel is hilarious, mischievous, and masterful, a classic named one of the best books of the year by the New York Times Book Review. (from Amazon.com)

Thursday, October 21, 2010

When witches go riding, and black cats are seen, the moon laughs and whispers, ‘tis near Halloween


Did you know that, after the Bible, Bram Stoker's Dracula is the best selling book of all time? Dubliner, Bram Stoker, was born in Clontarf and is said to have been inspired by visiting the crypts at St Michan's Church.


For a spooky spellbinder, a dastardly dissertation or a titillating tome check out some of the library's wierd and wonderful writers

Calling all readers!

The long weekend is coming and we have the perfect excuse for you to curl up with a good book!

This year MS Ireland are inviting adults to participate in the MSReadathon for the very first time. So you get to read some great books and raise money for an excellent cause at the same time. Reading for a wordy cause.

You can sign up here… And find a great book here... Do it now - don't let the kids have all the fun!

ITB Fiction ..... Hobbies and Leisure ..... Travel books

Books in French ..... Books in Spanish ..... Books in German

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Easier than Tesco

Self-service in the library

Avoid the queues and use our new self-issue machine. Follow the on-screen instructions by zapping your student card and each book you wish to borrow. Then press Finished to print a receipt with the day the books are due to be returned.

Easy as pie!