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CONTENTS:
Materials
Funds Report |
New Construction Update
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Cataloging
Government Documents
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Readers' Guide Retrospective
| New Databases through InfoTrac and
Ebsco | Site Search and
Index |
|Finding an Article in a
Haystack or Where's Waldo, the Journal? | Faculty
Friday
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Supplemental Library Material Funds ReportRichard Wood, Dean of the Libraries Earlier this academic year, Academic Affairs announced that additional funds would be provided to the University Library to fill gaps in the collection and to respond to deficiencies noted in Departmental Surveys. As a result of that announcement, I am very pleased to say that bibliographers in the University Library received requests totaling $310,000 for library materials from the faculty this academic year. All faculty requests have been processed. These one-time funds have allowed the University Library to acquire thousands of titles, including books, new journal subscriptions, and audio-visual or other materials to supplement the regular library allocations to the academic departments. Once received and cataloged, these acquisitions will help the University Libraries meet their collection development goals, particularly for resources needed to support graduate level programs and faculty research. Responsive collection development programs require the on-going, joint efforts of the faculty as well as library bibliographers. I am indeed grateful to the faculty who requested books, journals, and other library materials needed to support the curricular and research needs of students and faculty. The hard work of the library bibliographers who evaluated each request and placed the orders is especially commendable. Library use, in particular the circulation of books from the University Libraries, is directly correlated to assignments by the faculty and the quality of the libraries' collections. I am confident that the improved library funding noted here, as well as access to our rich electronic resources, will improve use of all library resources and services at the University of South Alabama. Searching the University Library's Web Site |
EBSCO DatabasesAcademic
Search Elite |
InfoTrac DatabasesProfessional
Collection |
The
site for the addition to the existing University Library was cleared
during the first week of January 2002. Since then, most of the construction
activity through March 2002 has involved site preparation, the laying
of footers or retaining walls, waterproofing, and the rough-in for plumbing
and electricity. 
The building of a four-story west stair tower has been the most exciting activity to watch thus far. This structure will be completed in April when interior stairs will be poured in the tower. Work on a duplicate stair tower at the northeast corner will also begin in April. The crane will back-out to its new location so that the area around the west tower can be back-filled and graded. As the plumbing and electrical rough-ins are completed, the areas will continue to be back-filled with the dirt removed from the site and stored near the Life Sciences building.
Toward the end of April, steel, now being fabricated off-site, will arrive and be erected. The steel beams will be tied to the existing library then proceed to the center of the addition while work continues on the stairwell towers. Progress will be very noticeable as the four-story addition takes shape quickly. Also, if you look about twenty feet from the center of the existing library, you will notice a circular foundation wall surrounding two concrete pads. This area will house the two new elevators and the center stairway, as well the ramp down to the ground level of the addition.
Pictures of the tower work, as well as foundation and other activities, may be viewed by going the University Library website (http://library.southalabama.edu/) and clicking on "construction photos" at the bottom of the page. Snapshots covering every week of construction since January are posted. Be sure to view the pictures of the crane hoisting huge 16 ft. high steel forms in place as the tower and scaffolding rise higher and higher.
In any case, view our progress. In the University Library, the best place is the Reference room with windows overlooking the construction site.
Are you finding more and more government documents as you search the SOUTHcat Catalog? Starting last March 2001, USA Library began receiving monthly tape loads of catalog records that are added to the SOUTHcat catalog for materials received through the Federal Depository Library Program. These records come from MARCIVE, a company that provides enhanced Government Printing Office database services, and are the same records that are in the MarciveWeb DOCS database, an online catalog of U.S. government publications published from July 1976 to the present.
Prior
to this project, catalog records for newly acquired federal
government materials had been added to our catalog on a selective
basis only. In the first nine months of this program, the University
Library has received and processed almost 6500 records for materials
in the collection. These records include new materials as well
as records that have been updated for older materials. One of
the most common reason for updating an older record is the adding
of a PURL, or Permanent Uniform Record Locator, for materials
that are also available on the web. In the mid-1990’s,
the U. S. Congress mandated that the primary method for making
publications available to depositories was to be in electronic
format. Since that time, more and more titles are available
only online. The University Library has added thousands of records
with hotlinks for these web-based publications. By including
specific titles in our catalog, we allow subject access to the
government information, whether the materials are available
in the library or only on the web.
Some titles will continue being distributed to depository libraries in paper format. These are considered "Essential Titles for Public Use" and for now they include: The Code of Federal Regulations (Docs Ref, AE 2.106/3: ), Digest of Education Statistics (Docs Desk, ED 1.326: ), Public Papers of the President (Documents AE 2.114: ), Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics (Docs Desk, J 29.9/6: ), and the United States Reports (Law, JU 6.8: ). All of these titles are also available on the Internet, with access to them through hotlinks in our catalog.
For more information about accessing government publications, either through the web or in the library, please contact the Government Documents department, either by phone at 460-7024 or through email at docref@jaguar1.usouthal.edu.
There is a great tool that makes librarians look like magicians when conjuring up a particular article in a particular journal. The scenario: despondent student arrives at the reference desk looking for this article her professor wants her to read by tomorrow. The professor had said, " It's easy to find, just go get it on the web." After an hour of Googling, Yahooing and Infotracing and still empty-handed, she decides to swallow whatever pride she has left and ask the Reference librarian to help, though she's convinced that she has explored every cranny of the WWW. [Good thing this hypothetical student is female and able to ask for directions, don't you think!]
With a flurry of flying fingers, multiple clicks later, the librarian says, "Here it is. No problem!" Such power, such magic. NOT! The librarian just happens to know about the list of full-text online journals to which the library subscribes. He finds the journal in the list and clicks to enter one of the databases which contains that journal. With a few search refinements, the article appears.
This magic list is easily available to anyone at the University and is the darling of the Interlibrary Loan staff and all the reference librarians. Even though having power is rare for us and definitely fun, we do try to spread the word about this list. Unfortunately information is complicated. Trying to explain serials publication formats, aggregate periodical databases, full-text linked sources, embargoes, text, pdf, xml print formats and subscription license restrictions sometimes makes us crazy. Bear with us.
Try this magic list called "Full-Text Journals Listed by Title & Publisher (USA Subscribed, Full-Text, Electronic Journals)" under "Articles and Indexes" on the Library Homepage. Maybe the name should be less descriptive, a name like "Magic List."
Use it first whenever you have a citation to an article and want to see if there might be easy desktop access to that article via one or more (full-text articles sometimes show up in more than one) of our subscription databases. If it doesn't show up in the list, the next step is to do a "journal title" search on the SOUTHcat catalog. No luck there? Send a completed online ILL form to Debbie and Tamilla. One way or another, the library magicians will get you the articles you need for your research
The
electronic newsletter of the University Library, University of South Alabama,
published irregularly as a service to the University Community.
SOUTHcat
Plus
University Homepage
call (334) 460-6045 or e-mail Jan
Sauer.
Last updated: 04/05/02. js
This page: http://www.usouthal.edu/univlib/news/news21/index.html
