University Library Reference

HW Wilson is offering a new online database, Book Review Digest Retrospective, that covers the years 1905-1982. I would like to be able to purchase this (at the one time price). This online access is convenient for users and saves space in the reference collection. In order to finance the purchase, I plan to cancel the standing orders I had previously identified for the 3rd scenario in the budget cut reductions. These are things that are duplicated online, or unnecessary. I'm hoping that I can use the future year's savings for other things, such as a Testing & Education database that would have GMAT/LSAT/MCAT/prep etc.

CIS Index $4,255 - available in Lexis/Nexis
Facts on File $1,638 - available in Lexis/Nexis
Selected Rand Abstracts $1,895 - available online for free in pdf format
American Statistics Index $2735 - index only, not the fiche (index now online)
Deutsche Nationalbibliographie $3616 - new publications in German-speaking countries
OAG Flight Guide $615
Official Railway Guide $275
Russells Official National Motor Coach Guide $167

Please let me know if you have any objections by Friday, September 8. Thanks.

Jane

Posted by Jane Kessler at 12:07 PM | Permalink

On the Terrorism page

Trends in Terrorism
This July 2006 CRS (Congressional Research Service) Report for Congress surveys trends in terrorism, including more "micro-actors" (small autonomous groups and individuals), increased sophistication, and an overlap of terrorism with international crime. Includes statistics and policy discussions. Opens directly into a PDF file. Provided by the U.S. Department of State, Foreign Press Centers. Annotation: Copyright 2006 by Librarians' Internet Index

What if 9-11 Never Happened?
Collection of essays on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Features essays by novelist Tom Wolfe, the Reverend Al Sharpton, a U.S. Supreme Court correspondent, and others. Also includes a slideshow of items remaining from the ashes of the attacks, a feature about eight survivors, and links to related articles and photos from past 9/11 anniversaries. From New York Magazine. Annotation: Copyright 2006 by Librarians' Internet Index.

Posted by Jane Kessler at 11:04 AM | Permalink

Please see instructions for logging into Desk Tracker at the Reference Desk.

Posted by Cathy Dwyer at 04:26 PM | Permalink

Please be advised that effective with the Fall 2006 semester, rooms that were previously designated as LE now have a prefix of SL for Science Library.

In the past these rooms have been referred to as Library-Electronic, sometimes CETL rooms. As this can be somewhat confusing, the rooms have been renumbered as follows:

LE0G02 is now SL0002 (Digital Workshop 1)

LE0G03 (West Seminar Room) is now SL0003 (Digital Workshop 5) – will be available Spring 2007 as a computer lab

Please direct students to the Science Library located along side of the Campus Center.

Also, effective Spring 2007 the Digital Workshops will be controlled by the Registrar’s Office. Classes that were scheduled in these rooms for Spring 2006 will automatically be scheduled in those rooms for Spring 2007 by the Scheduling Office.

If you have any questions please feel free to call me.

Ellen M. Weatherby
Assistant Registrar and
R25 System Administrator
University at Albany
CC B25
Albany, NY 12222
518-442-5546
Fax: 518-442-5532

Posted by Jane Kessler at 02:41 PM | Permalink

There's a new link on the U.S. Facts page of the online reference collection to a page that links to states' blue books. We don't get these anymore in print, so I thought this might be useful. Thanks to Cathy for bringing this to my attention.

Posted by Jane Kessler at 12:24 PM | Permalink

There is a trial of Refworks available on libstaff. Refworks is much more expensive than the other 2 citation software products but does offer an import feature. The trial period ends 9/30/06. You can post your feedback directly to the blog entry if you like, as comments. Thanks.

Posted by Jane Kessler at 09:08 AM | Permalink

Many colleges and universities are offering citation software to help students cite properly and avoid plagiarism. I've arranged for trials to Noodletools and Citation Builder, which are available on the staff intranet. I have used Noodletools quite a bit, and find it to be very accurate as well as a good teaching tool. Citation Builder is a fairly new product. Both of these are Web-based and affordable. Noodletools does not have the ability to import records from databases, and I don't think Citation Builder does either. I have also requested a trial of RefWorks, which does have this capability, but which is a much more expensive product. I'll let you know when it is available.

I'm very interested to hear what others think of these products in particular, and whether you think we should provide this type of software in the libraries.

Posted by Jane Kessler at 11:09 AM | Permalink