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

Take a look at this wonderful atlas produced by the Census Bureau! When is the last time you saw one of these? The Census Bureau last produced a complete population and housing atlas like this in the 1920’s. This oversized hardbound atlas is filled with colorful depictions of detailed current and historical demographics for the United States, and will be helpful to a wide range of researchers. It is also delightful to browse. This government document is shelved in our Documents Reference collection on the 3^rd floor of Henderson Library, at GOV DOCS REF C 3.205/8-3:29. If you prefer, there is also a PDF here. Read the news release here.

Brought to you by Lori Lester, your very own Government Documents Librarian!

When you search in Google Scholar, you’re able to identify scholarly journal articles much easier than in the main Google search. And have you noticed also that many of these are in “full text” (the entire article online), but that you would have to pay for others?

The secret trick you need to know is that, if you’re searching from on-campus, or if you’re off-campus and go to Google Scholar from GALILEO, you will see many more Google Scholar articles in full text than you would normally be able to access from off-campus. Articles from EBSCOHost and JSTOR are two good examples.

This is because our librarians have worked behind the scenes to directly link you from Google to the vast number of full e-journal articles which Henderson Library has already paid for in GALILEO. (Of course, Google Scholar only includes a small part of all that is in GALILEO.)

This is one example of how librarians work alongside Google in delivering the information you need, regardless of the time or location. For another one, check out the Open Worldcat project (with a nifty Facebook application), which lets you search for items in libraries worldwide, including ours, via Google.

Recent changes to GALILEO, along with the new interface, have included the Civil Rights Digital Library and GreenFILE.  Watch here for future developments.

Dear Patrons,

In order to provide you with the best mix of information sources and tools in accordance with a tight budget, our library faculty continually evaluate alternative means of delivering resources. For example, in 2001 we initiated table-of-contents alerts via e-mail.

After May 31, 2008, the Zach S. Henderson Library will no longer have access to Ingenta Gateway and Reveal, which has been one of our tools for providing alerts for journal articles. We will continue to provide access to several alerting services through many of our databases, such as those on EBSCOHost (instructions here), which provide e-mail and RSS options. This way you can receive free alerts (with direct links) through your e-mail or blog reader, for new articles which fit your own customized searches, or new tables of content from your favorite journals.

In addition, we provide indexes and tables of content for a wide range of resources, available via GALILEO. And of course all of our electronic journals are available via the “Electronic Journals A-Z” button on the library homepage.

For assistance with journal alerts or other questions, your Subject Specialist Librarians are eager to help.

Or IM, call, or drop by the Reference Desk.

“Protecting the Constitutional Right to Vote for All Americans”: Jonah H Goldman testifies before Senate Committee on the Judiciary

Jonah H Goldman, Director of the National Campaign for Fair Elections and Legal Leader of the Election Protection Coalition, testified before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on Tuesday May 20, 2008. At issue is disfranchisement due to voter ID requirements, military voting problems, technological malfunctions, inaccurate registration lists and poorly trained or poorly provisioned poll workers.

Read his testimony, along with the Election Protection 2008 Primary Report: Looking Ahead to November, here.

Brought to you by Lori Lester, your very own Government Documents Librarian!

Welcome to the inaugural “Hot Docs” post, by your very own Government Documents Librarian, Lori Lester.  She will contribute these items to our blog on a regular basis. Thanks, Lori!

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Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS) Releases Report on Security for Mass Gatherings
On May 13, 2008, the Majority Staff of the Committee on Homeland Security, Chaired by Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, released “Public Health, Safety, and Security for Mass Gatherings”, a comprehensive report addressing challenges and offering recommendations for ensuring public security in the event of a terrorist act. The report provides 30 recommendations for action by all levels of government and the private sector in situations such as biological terrorism, and also gives advice on planning for emergencies and guidelines for information and resource coordination..

Read the press release.

Read the report.

Check out the MindMashup contest.  Create a video and win a Sparky Award!  The main idea is below; the full details are here.

“Six library, student, and advocacy organizations today announced the Second Annual Sparky Awards, a contest that recognizes the best new short videos on the value of sharing and aims to broaden the discussion of access to scholarly research by inviting students to express their views creatively.

This year’s contest is being organized by SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) with additional co-sponsorship by the Association of College and Research Libraries, the Association of Research Libraries, Penn Libraries (at the University of Pennsylvania), Students for Free Culture, and The Student PIRGs. Details are online at www.sparkyawards.org.

The 2008 contest theme is “MindMashup: The Value of Information Sharing.” Well-suited for adoption as a college class assignment, the Sparky Awards invite contestants to submit videos of two minutes or less that imaginatively portray the benefits of the open, legal exchange of information.”  Full details are here.  Last year’s winning vids are here.  Impress your friends, and make us proud!