What’s New at the GSU Zach S. Henderson Library

Did you know that some of our librarians have created blogs for specific subject areas in which they specialize?  Check them out in the list on the right.

Henderson Library is making the switch from paper to electronic notifications for our approval plan, which is a long-standing arrangement with Blackwell’s Book Services which allows us to automatically purchase books according to criteria we’ve established (subjects, etc.).

Blackwell’s also provides us with notifications of other new books being published which we might need to order (also based upon criteria we’ve selected in collaboration with departmental faculty).  From each academic department on campus, a Library Representative works closely with us to maintain the approval plan profile, and to choose other new books based upon the notifications we receive.

We are excited about our recent decision to take advantage of Blackwell’s electronic notifications, known as eNotes.  Our Subject Specialist Librarians are now working with the Library Representatives to set up eNotes in the format (e.g., Word attachment) and frequency of their choice.  We have heard expressions of relief from many faculty members who are glad to be taking advantage of this more efficient and earth-friendly service!

Can I post my articles on my course Web sites or in institutional repositories?

Can I share my work freely after assigning exclusive copyright to a publisher?

Is it okay for me to post my work in NIH’s PubMed Central?

If any of these questions are of interest to you, please check out the Author Rights Initiative from SPARC (The Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition).  This page includes an Author Addendum for your use in negotiating agreements with publishers.

Did you know you have your very own librarian? Check it out.

Henderson Library has launched a newly redefined Library Liaison program. The new approach involves Subject Specialist Librarians working with groups of academic departments, and providing reference/research assistance, information literacy instruction, and collection development in those subject areas. Librarians have also selected various GSU entities beyond the academic departmental structure, such as student organizations and campus offices. They are acting as Library Liaisons with them as well, providing links for ongoing, two-way communication between them and the Library.

We’re excited about trying out our new approach, which has had only a few minor changes since this outline was posted. The full description of the new Library Liaison roles, with photos of your friendly Subject Specialists, is at http://library.georgiasouthern.edu/libref/ISLibrarians.pdf

Please share your comments and ideas about what we can do for you!

Ms. Debra Skinner, Catalog Librarian, serves on the editorial board of Zach’s News. She has been building a digital gallery of images from Henderson Library. Check out the “before” picture of the building, photos of the construction project, behind-the-scenes shots of building the ARC collection, and more to come. Also remember our live webcams of the construction are here. Our growing image gallery is here; feel free to add your own tags and comments! We’ll be featuring various images here in Zach’s News from time to time. Thanks, Debra!

Looking for a way to organize and manage your research source citations?  The possibilities can be overwhelming.  There are various programs available to help you do this, and some are free.  A couple that might interest you are Zotero (review here) and CiteULike (tutorial here).  Looking ahead, there’s also a new and unique one, Twine, that’s currently in invitation-only beta testing, and was profiled in the New York Times yesterday.

Got a favorite, or comments on any of these or alternatives?  Please share a comment here.