More
Resources Added
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BioOne and
New Science Information Sources
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The University
Library has acquired new or increased access to several science-related
full-text databases recently. Earlier this year, our access to
ScienceDirect was upgraded to include all journals, 1995 through
current. In January, we will have access to Alt-Health Watch,
a new EBSCO database that focuses on alternative and complementary
healthcare and wellness and, starting in December, we have access
to BioOne.
BioOne
provides full-text access to 72 high-impact bioscience research
journals, 33 of which we previously did not have subscriptions
to. Most of these journals are published by scientific societies
or small publishers and are not included in the "big deals."
Subject areas covered include: environment, botany, zoology, cell
science, entomology, marine biology, and paleontology, among others.
Coverage for most journals extends back to 2000. BioOne also provides
access to the electronic book The Arabidopsis Book. Access
to the BioOne Abstracts and Indexes Database (BAID), a Cambridge
Scientific Abstracts database, is included. Most of the journals
in BioOne are also indexed in Biological Abstracts, which includes
links to the full-text in its records.
We are
pleased to be able to offer increased access to science-related
topics through ScienceDirect, EBSCO, and BioOne.
HeinOnline, which began
as a preservation project to ensure the availability of historic
legal periodicals, has become an essential legal research database.
Presently, HeinOnline has four major library collections: the
Law Journal Library, the Federal Register Library, the Treaties
and Agreements Library, and the U.S. Supreme Court Library. All
of these "libraries" are image-based, meaning that they
provide exact page images and enable the research to view all
pages as they originally appeared in hardcopy—including all
charts, graphs, and photographs.
Unlike other online
legal periodical databases that only supply coverage from the
late 20th century, HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library is comprehensive,
beginning with the first issue of hundreds of periodical titles.
Indexing enables the user to search the entire collection by journal
title, article author, and/or article title. Plus, all pages in
the Law Journal Library have been processed through Optical Character
Recognition (OCR) software, helping the researcher to conduct
full-text searching throughout the text of all pages in the collection.
In the Federal Register
Library, HeinOnline provides coverage from its 1936 inception
in an image-based, searchable format, whereas other online services
provide post-1980 coverage of the Federal Register. Also recently
added to this Library is the Weekly Compilation of Presidential
Documents, from 1977 to the present.
HeinOnline’s Treaties
and Agreements Library includes all treaties, currently in-force
treaties, expired treaties, and yet-to-be published treaties.
This Library also contains explanatory documents issued by the
Dept. of State, which help spell out the ramifications of a treaty
after it is officially published.
The link to HeinOnline
can be found through the "Fulltext Journals and Indexes"
web page, or for individual journals through the "USA-Subscribed
Electronic Journals" listing. There are also web links for
individual titles from our SOUTHcat Plus catalog.
by
Jerry Wright
Humanities
and Education Bibliographer
ARTFL
( American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language)
is a cooperative enterprise of the University of Chicago and the
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. Its genesis may
be traced to a machine-readable French dictionary in 1957 and
progressed to the point of providing a variety of primary texts
in many subjects. The aim is to make this versatile collection
easily accessible to researchers. Nearly 2000 texts are now included,
with emphasis on the 18th through the 20th centuries. A lesser
number of texts are available from the 17th century and lately
the poetry of Provence has been added. Find links to it through
"e-Reference" and "Full Text Journals & Indexes"
on the University Library home page.
Juvenile
Collection
by
Jerry Wright
Education and Humanities Bibliographer
A new location, within
the Instructional Media Department of the Library, has been created
to house classic and award-winning children's and young
adult literature. The small but growing collection also includes
sample elementary and middle and secondary school texts as well
as aids to teachers. This is an ongoing project of the University
Library in cooperation with the College of Education. Books in
this collection circulate to University of South Alabama library
users.
New
Additions to EBSCO
by
Kathy Wheeler
Electronic Services Librarian and Math/Stats Bibliographer
Thanks to the Alabama
Virtual Library and to the Alabama Legislature for appropriating
the money, the University Library has been able to add four EBSCO
databases .
- Alt-Health
Watch: holistic approaches to health care
- History Reference
Center: full-text encyclopedias, reference books and
primary sources
- Book Source:
Nonfiction: full-text books on a variety of topics from social
studies to science. Includes career information.
- Auto Repair
Reference Center: uses data from the former publishers
of the Chilton manuals.
Social Work
Thanks
to ongoing funding requested with the proposal for an undergraduate
program in Social Work, the University Library will subscribe
to Social Works Abstracts Plus, an online indexing
and abstracting source. This index will be found on the University
Library homepage under Fulltext Journals/Indexes.
In another
addition for social work, The University of Michigan, Digital
Library Text Collections, has given the University Library permission
to link to their digital collection on the National Conference
on Social Welfare Proceedings (1874-1982). The link to the collection
is also under Fulltext Journals/Indexes.
The Library
will also be adding several core social work journals to our print
collection. A reminder to all departments considering new programs:
request ongoing library funding as part of your proposal to support
the purchase of journals and databases for the University Library.
Hot
News from the Alabama Virtual Library
by
Jan Sauer
Instructional Services
We just got word on
Jan. 4th from the AVL that they will pay for access to several
more items which are now available.
- The
most exciting is the online version of the Oxford English
Dictionary, the complete 20 volume reference book, which
"provides authoritative definitions of over 500,000 words;
traces the usage of words from their first recorded occurrence
. . . ; offers the best in etymological analysis and detailed
listings of variant spellings."
- We also got access
to a database
called the Oxford Reference Online Premium which
contains about 100 full text books--from the The Oxford Companion
to American Law to the Dictionary of Zoology. Click
here
for the whole list.
- If you like CQ
Researcher for the concise way it provides background
on controversia topics, you will also like Opposing Viewpoints
Resource Center.
- Biography
Reference Bank is a collection of the Wilson bio. sources
like Current Biography containing 70,000 profiles from
"high-quality publishers."
- Annals of
American History Online has text, pictures, multimedia
and primary documents from 1493 to the present.
These are major additions
to our online Reference Collection thanks to the Alabama Legislators
who have learned that consortium purchase is the most efficient
way to provide quality information to every citizen of this state.
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The
Dynamic Library
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Upgraded to "Premier"
by
Kathy Wheeler
Electronic Services Librarian and Math/Stats Bibliographer
Also because of increases
to the Alabama Virtual Library budget by the Alabama Legislature
two major EBSCO databases have been upgraded: Academic Search
Elite becomes Academic Search Premier (providing access
to approximately 4,700 full-text publications, 3624 of which
are peer-reviewed journals) and Business Source Elite becomes
Business Source Premier (providing access to approximately
7600 business publications, 1,131 of which are peer-reviewed
journals). Besides the increased content, both Academic Search
Premier and Business Source Premier have a Cited Reference feature
allowing the user to search for references that cite a particular
author, title or source.
PsycINFO Changes Platforms
The University Library
has switched PsycINFO from the SilverPlatter interface to the
EBSCO platform. Some of the benefits of this change include
better linking to full-text sources, limit fields on the same
screen as the search box, and the cited references feature which
allows the user to click on the Cited References line and link
to the full-text of the articles cited by an author, if those
articles are in databases or journals subscribed to by the University
Library. PsycINFO in EBSCO is a little different from other
EBSCO databases in that to limit a search to peer-reviewed journals,
you scroll down to Publication Type and then choose Peer Reviewed
Journals from the list of available publication types.
MLA to EBSCO
The MLA International
Bibliography has also been moved to the EBSCO platform
from the OCLC FirstSearch group of databases. This move will
allow direct links from retrieved records to the full-text of
articles to which we subscribe in some electronic method. js
Some Losses
American Humanities
Index, a database which EBSCO provided free of charge
for the past year, is no longer available. We were able to continue
Communication and Mass Media Complete through a NAAL
(Network of Alabama Academic Libraries) consortium agreement
for one more year. js
America: History
and Life and Historical Abstracts are
no longer available, but History Reference Center (under
EBSCO) and JSTOR have full-text documents and articles
that will be more immediately useful.js
New Library Printers
In the first few
weeks of this semester we will all be adjusting to new printers.
These Imagistics machines will only accept a TRACCARD
(purchased at the circulation desk) for payment (10¢ a
copy). They should be much faster, more reliable and economical
than the laser printers currently being used. 
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The
Teaching / Learning Library
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Month-at-a-Glance
Mary
Engebretson
Public Services Co-ordinator
The
University Library’s public service faculty and staff
continue to work to increase the availability of resources
– print and electronic – for the USA community.
As
these statistics for the month of October indicate, the library
is busier than ever. Faculty and students are still coming
to the library to study, to learn how to find information,
to check out resources, and to make copies of journal articles.
Also, more USA researchers -- on campus and at home –
are finding and using the library-subscribed electronic books
and fulltext journal articles.
The
Month of October, 2004
Entrance
door count --
38,335
Checkouts & renewals:
Circulation Desk –
4,717 items
Reserve Desk – 536 items (not E-Reserve)
IMC Media Desk – 1,799 items
Public
photocopies – 16,782
pages
Public printing –
21,424 pages
Library instruction classes:
36 sessions with 962 students attending
Interlibrary loan:
Borrowed: 144 books and 94 articles
Loaned: 178 books and 284 articles
Reference questions –
3,342
Library homepage visits –
52,194
Database/Index searches –
97,325
Full-text articles printed
– 54,153
PETAL
/ IMC
PETAL actively
participated in the New Faculty Orientation events and offered
monthly seminars on a wide range of topics this past Fall.
To our great satisfaction, faculty participation exceeded
expectations. We received quite a few positive remarks and
constructive suggestions for future seminars.
The technology
workshops continue to attract new and vintage professors.
They share with us their enthusiasm for incorporating PowerPoint,
Excel and Photoshop into their classes and professional presentations.
Drs. Glenn Sebastian, Susan McCready and Patricia Mark, to
name a few, took advantage of the PETAL lab to set up grade
books in Excel and use Power Point and Photoshop to prepare
for presentations.
The University
has acquired the anti-plagiarism software, "Turnitin,"
and PETAL conducted several presentations and workshops to
familiarize faculty with this new application.
Our Roundtables
were a smashing success this semester. Dr. Zohair Husain engaged
the audience in a discussion on student oral reports and Dr.
Linda Haynes puzzled her colleagues with the novel teaching
technique of concept mapping.
PETAL will continue
to present a forum for faculty to discuss teaching enhancement
techniques as well as opportunities for faculty to learn new
technical skills in the Spring semester. See the Spring schedules
below:
Click
here for an integrated calendar of faculty development opportunities
on campus for the Spring.
Library instruction
for Fall '04 totaled 93 class sessions for 2093 students,
and 24 tours with 101 students. The classes ranged from
a very basic introduction to the concepts needed to navigate
a modern academic library (with a strong emphasis on the
nature of the "public" Internet and its use and
abuse) to a review of the resources available for graduate
level research including the effective use of discipline
specific databases and dissertation abstracts, interlibrary
loan, and specific reference works and Internet sites of
value. We will often create webpages
as memory aids for the students in our classes.
Anyone may attend
these EH 102 sessions if there is space available. EH
102 Intro to Library Research Session Schedule
New students,
whether freshmen or transfers, should be encouraged to take
a library tour. Spring
Tour Schedule
Another instruction
outreach method is the Library
Blog which we use to note newly available resources
and services, useful websites, information literacy concepts,
and an occasional rant about information, Internet or library
abuse.
Call me at 460-6045
or email
me if you want to talk about what we can do for you or your
students.
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Teaching
and Learning Over the Bay -or- Waiting for Hollywood
to Call
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By
Ann Taylor Blauer
When
you need to be in three places at one time, what do you do?
Make a video, of course!! Granted this is a challenge, when
you have no budget, and the University does not have a television
studio, but why let little things bother you.
During
the first week of classes each semester at the Baldwin County
campus of USA, I visit as many classes as possible to promote
the Information Services for the branch. I use many different
modes of promotion, but the more personal the better. When
students can ‘picture a face’ with the service,
especially one with an open, welcoming demeanor, then they
will pursue getting the help they need. Given the limited
time in which I have to speak to the classes, I decided to
investigate the possibilities of having a video made. My search
led me to Dr. Steven Rockwell in the Department of Communication.
He was open to the suggestion of having one of his students
in a “directed studies” class create an informative
video for his/her grade. Timing was excellent, since he had
a student, Wagner Navac, who was completing his degree and
had many years of video development experience, not to mention
much of his own advanced editing equipment. Wagner is from
Brazil and had already won awards there for his productions.*
I
wrote the script, planned the locations around Fairhope, and
gathered production aids such as ‘domain-free’
film shorts. Wagner lined up a male narrator to give audio
variety and planned the technical logistics for the project.
After several planning meetings on main campus, the date was
set to film. The video gods were smiling, because the day
turned out to be beautiful for beach, park, and downtown shots.
After a long filming day and evening, we felt we had a variety
of shots and locations with plenty of tape to edit. Now the
real work was up to Wagner. Taking loads of raw footage, he
added many neat special effects, and edited it all down to
a fast-paced, interesting presentation about research services.
It was quite a challenge. Wagner took it in stride and created
an excellent overview of our information services.**
I
use the video regularly for classes which have minor information
projects, while I personally visit classes with involved research
assignments. It has helped tremendously in letting the students
know about our information services. I also have received
numerous compliments from professors on the video which I
attribute to Wagner’s talent, but of course, I am still
waiting for that call from Hollywood!
*Since
graduating, Wagner Navac has opened his own video production
company in Mobile named WN Video Productions. Visit his
web site to see more of his talent. (WN
Video Productions)
**View
the USA Baldwin County Information Services video at: USA
Baldwin County Campus Facilities & Services then
click the link for the video in “Windows Media Player
Format--low resolution”
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The
Public Space
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The University
Library Art Gallery
by
Richard Wood
Dean of the Libraries
Mayor Mike Dow
of Mobile, at the annual December meeting of Mobile United,
emphasized how Mobile’s recent efforts to improve the
arts in Mobile was so very important to efforts in attracting
new business and visitors, as well as a means of promoting
community awareness of the arts among our city residents.
I would quickly add that it is critical for a university
to raise awareness of the arts among all USA students, staff
and faculty so that we may all appreciate a broad range
of arts. We are very happy to have contributed to this effort
by establishing two art galleries and a large display case
area at the University Library in 2003.
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The University
Library’s main art gallery on the third floor has become
one of Mobile’s largest and most attractive according
to the artists who have showed their works here. Artists
have said that our main gallery is located in a two story
high, atrium like area which is very spacious and well lit.
Artists particularly like the library hours, as most art
galleries have limited daytime and weekend hours. Too, the
track system for hanging framed art is very flexible and
allows small to very large pieces to be hung. The library’s
galleries offer artists far more exposure, which is highly
desirable to most fine artists. Unlike most galleries, however,
the library does not sell any art or photographs. Instead,
the library provides contact and biographical information
about the artists. This means artists have no cost to exhibit
their works in the library. Twelve glass display cases can
accommodate small, unframed art, photographs, jewelry, and
a variety of objects. Linda Keator from Scrap N’Shoppe,
for example, displayed many beautiful examples to illustrate
why this hobby is so popular today. The gallery also accommodated
a special, traveling display of the Mobile County Probate
Court; it consisted of many large panels exhibiting copies
of historical records held in its archives.
The library’s
other gallery is on the first floor in the hallways of the
original building and is easily accessible. Both galleries
and the display cases allow the library to have multiple
shows at the same time. The first show (during the re-dedication
of the Library in March 2003) was by a former library member,
Joaquin Holloway, who exhibited his award-winning photography.
The works of many current or past USA students or employees,
as well as local artists and photographers, have also been
exhibited. Shows have included the works of Judy Hempstead,
Susan Hales, Theresa Lepre, Lynda Touart, David Trimmier,
Mary Rodning, James E. Conlon, and Barbara Cline. Members
of Camera South exhibited photographic prints and displayed
old cameras and club historical records as well. Two statewide,
traveling exhibits were also exhibited: the Percipio (Art
in Science) and, the Helen Keller Art Show of Alabama.
For 2005, there
will be Herbert (Mannie) Pair, a former USA student and
president of the Student Art Association, as well as shows
by USA art faculty, Linda Hall, and another Percipio exhibit.
Please come by the library periodically, particularly when
I send e-mail notifications to all USA staff and faculty
to announce new shows.
Google
Scholar and the Google Library
Jan
Sauer
Instructional Services
Google made
two important announcements recently, the first in November
uncovering Google Scholar which claims to
be the first academicly respectable search engine--though
it has yet to divulge the scope of its coverage of academic
journal literature.
In the middle
of December they made an even bigger announcement -- Google
plans to digitize 10-15 million books from several major
libraries within the next six years. Though it is not
clear how this will work, it probably means that Google
searchers will be able to read "images" of pages
from books in the public domain without the possibility
of printing. Books still under copyright will have a page
or two open with a link to a library or bookstore.
Google is a
business. It's mission is to make money. It makes money
by attracting searchers who are then exposed to advertising.
It is not in the business of giving away or sharing anything
without a price. It is not a library, nor will it ever
supplant a library.
Digital access
of any kind strengthens our mission as unbiased information
specialists and teachers. And in spite of a huge number
of online resources, our library building is busier than
ever as a repository of information, a teaching library
and a public space. Librarians are making decisions about
where best to spend our budget. We are creating logical
access points to online information. We are teaching classes.
We are building webpages. And perhaps most important,
we are offering students a welcoming and helpful public
commons in which to engage in conversations across disciplines
and across the ages.
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