August 19, 2002

Archives

Progress has been very steady and construction work has remained essentially on schedule since site preparation began in early January. By August, the "shell" of the four-story addition to the University Library was clearly visible because the structural steel, concrete floors, roof, and exterior concrete slab work was completed. Once the exterior glass is installed in August and early September, the structure will be "in the dry" or "under roof." But the electrical, plumbing, painting, sprinkler, and other trades have been working daily inside the building since July. Most of the interior trades are expected to finish by the end of Fall 2002 semester. The interior work taking place in August and September includes the installation of door frames, dry-wall, sprinkler system devices, elevators, HVAC system ducts, and the like over 53,000 sq. ft. on all four floors. As one trade finishes in an area, another trade follows behind. Meanwhile, new service desks and other cabinetry is being build by USA carpenters and furniture bids are being prepared. You can keep up with progress by seeing the pictures linked at the bottom of the University Library’s website:http://library.southalabama.edu/

Amy Prendergast
Sci/Tech Bibliographer

A new version of EBSCOhost offers changes and new features to assist users of the EBSCO databases. Upon choosing EBSCO from the SOUTHcat Plus "Fulltext Journals & Indexes" page, users will find that in addition to the ability to choose one or more databases to search, title lists and more information are available from links under each database title.

Tabs offer the ability to choose to view search options, search history, or available results. Search options still allow the choice to limit articles to peer-reviewed, full-text, or USA Libraries owned only, and to search by magazine title, by date, or within full-text.

A spell checker has been added which offers suggested corrections if a search returns no hits.

While viewing results, it is now possible to save items to a folder and keep them across searches and while changing databases. Items will remain in the folder until the session is ended or until folder items are printed, e-mailed, or saved to a disk. To add items to a folder, click on the Add link and folder icon to the right of each citation. Look at the top of the page on the right at the link "Folder has # items" to see how many items are in the folder and click the link to see the contents of the folder and to print, e-mail or save the items. We hope patrons will take advantage of the new features in EBSCO to make their research easier. Please call 460-7025 or e-mail the Reference Department at webref@jaguar1.usouthal.edu

Changes to FirstSearch
(General and Subject Databases)

Kathy Wheeler
Electronic Services

The University Library subscribes to FirstSearch through the Alabama Virtual Library. Several changes have recently been made to the system, mainly to the number of databases available. In addition to ArticleFirst and WorldCat, a large number of databases covering a variety of subject areas have been added (or moved) to this list. These include most of the Wilson Indexes. Arts and Humanities Citation Index, Art Index, BasicBIOSIS, BookReview, Contemporary Women's Issues, EconLit, EducationIndex, HumanitiesIndex and ReaderGuideAbs are among the almost 50 databases now available through the FirstSearch system.

To access FirstSearch and these new databases, go to the University Library homepage at http://library.southalabama.edu/ choose "FullText Journals & Indexes", choose FirstSearch from Frequently Used Index Collections, and then select "General and Subject Specific Databases". Choose the database you are interested in and perform your search.

One advantage to the FirstSearch system is that if you find an article you need, but the library does not own either in print or electronically, you can click on the ILL icon and order the article. Your request gets sent to the University Library's Interlibrary Loan department and is processed there.

Try out the new FirstSearch and see the variety of databases now available to you both on-campus and from home

The construction of the library addition and required renovations to the old building kept us busy this summer. We survived leaky ceilings, asbestos abatement, office relocations, furniture moves, bookstack moves, broken air conditioners, jack hammers, no water, no bathrooms, erratic elevators, cross-campus parking, and more. Of course, it’s not over yet, but it will all be worth it.

The main entrance and the Circulation/Reserve Desk are now on the ground floor level, south side of the building, right under the bridge. Since we are still unpacking and re-arranging, it may take a little more time than usual for us all to find what you need. We appreciate your patience and understanding.

TOP TEN THINGS MOVED FROM THE LOBBY LEVEL

10. Reference Librarians – offices moved to Room 5, ground level
9.  Library Instruction – We have no classroom at this time.  Call Jan Sauer (460-6045) for alternative locations.
8.  Public Workstations – moved over to the Reference area (1st floor).
7.  Photocopiers – one on ground floor and one near Reference Desk. The photocopier for department accounts is now on the 2nd floor.
6.  Public Printers – now located next to the Reference Desk (1st floor)
5.  Alabama & Gulf Coast Collection – ask at Circ/Reserve (ground level)
4.  Interlibrary Loan – pickup and return materials at the Reference Desk (1st floor). ILL staff are now located in Room 5
3.   Course Reserve Materials – checkout desk at new entrance
2.   Circulation Desk – checkout desk on ground level, outside Room 5

AND THE NUMBER ONE MOST IMPORTANT MOVE

1.   MAIN ENTRANCE – now on ground level, south side, right under the bridge

Click here for tour schedule

News from Collection Management

Gene Sullivan
Coordinator for Collection Management

Whew! What a year! Enveloped by sounds of grinding, clanging, motors roaring and the shouts of the construction crew, Collection Management has had one of thee most active years of its existence. To begin with we placed orders for over $500,000 worth of books. Although a lot of work, it was very good for the collection. But alas this just a beginning since each of those books had to be cataloged and processed for the shelves. The work was backed up so far for a time we had to create an effective operation team to modify workflow to move things faster. So in spite of asbestos removal, heat and other endemic stresses the work is proceeding

We have two new staff for the time being, Libby Jones and Paul Hendrixson. They are a welcome addition especially in view of the situations described above.      

In the area of gifts the Library received a wonderful collections in the field of anthropology. This collection has added some very important out of print materials to the Library’s core collection in this field. We are most grateful to Dr. Carr in Sociology/Anthropology for sending this collection to the Library.

Collection Management also went to a SOLINET workshop on a new web version of OCLC called CatME on July 31.