As the academic year winds down, you might be looking forward to getting back to your recreational reading list; or maybe you’ve been looking for a few good books to take along on summer travels. If summer reading is on your agenda, you'll find plenty of fiction on the shelves at DePaul Libraries to keep you busy!

Like many university libraries, DePaul doesn't have a separate fiction section, and you're not likely to find pop fiction like the Harry Potter or Twilight series. But you will find new books by contemporary literary writers such as Louise Erdrich, T.C. Boyle, Salman Rushdie, Toni Morrison, Michael Chabon and Joyce Carol Oates. DePaul also has a great selection of contemporary international fiction; a few recent favorites include After Dark by Haruki Murakami, Confessions of Noa Weber by Gayil Har'even and Say You’re One of Them by Uwem Akpan. And, of course, summer is a great time to revisit literary classics like The Grapes of Wrath, Pride and Prejudice or Invisible Man.

All fiction is listed in the library catalog; here's a quick, although certainly not comprehensive, way to search: use the Advanced Search screen of the library catalog to search for "fiction" as a Subject Word (“short stories” also works). You'll get a lot of results, but they'll be sorted by date making it easier to browse for recent fiction. The Lincoln Park campus library's new books display on the first floor also features new fiction, poetry, and non-fiction.

And if DePaul doesn't have the books on your summer reading list, don't forget to check the I-share catalog to place a request for another library to send the book to DePaul for pickup. The Chicago Public Libraries, or your local public library, are also great places to find recreational reading.

Happy reading this summer!

There's still time to cast a vote for your favorite submission to this year's student video contest, This is DePaul. Students have already submitted an impressive selection of short videos depicting the DePaul student experience, and the entries can all be viewed and voted on from the YouTube movie gallery.

According to contest guidelines, all submissions had to feature at least one aspect of academics at DePaul, so it's no surprise that you'll see shots of the library in so many of these videos! Submissions also needed to feature elements of student life and Vincentian mission and at least one iconic Chicago landmark.

After online voting closes on May 25th, a panel of judges will choose three winners and award $4000 dollars in prize money. An additional award, the Audience Choice, will also go to the entry with the highest YouTube rating. So check out some of the fine work submitted to this contest and cast your vote soon!:

http://www.youtube.com/groups_videos?name=thisisdepaul

Naxos Music Library is a streaming audio database that lets you hear a wide variety of classical music along with some jazz, world, and other genres of music.

To find and listen to music, use the Keyword Search or browse by Composer or Genre; the Advanced Search feature also lets you search by musical instrument, time period, and country, as well as combine different search terms.

Once you've found a CD, select individual tracks or listen to the entire album using the control panel to play your selection. Naxos Music Library uses Windows Media Player for streaming (Mac compatible with a Flip4Mac or Silverlight download). As you listen, you can keep browsing for more music or read the "Album Information" and CD liner notes to learn more about the composer, performer, and genre.

Naxos Music Library currently offers 29,946 CDs and 426,581 tracks with new music added daily! Not sure where to start listening? Try one of these CDs or tracks...

• Chicago violinist Rachel Barton Pine's American Virtuosa
• Puccini opera arias
• Brazilian Samba
• The Chicago Symphony Orchestra performing Pictures at an Exhibition
• The soundtrack from Brideshead Revisited