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

2 recent government documents of interest:

CACI International Inc (CACI) and the National Defense University (NDU) have released a report entitled “Dealing With Today’s Asymmetric Threat to U.S. and Global Security: The Need for an Integrated National
Asymmetric Threat Strategy.” The report is an executive summary of a May 2008 symposium. It is hoped
the report will stimulate conversation about the need to develop a new national defense and homeland security strategy which will address the threats related to everything from Islamic extremism to natural
disaster.

It is interesting to note the disclaimeron this one: “This document is intended only as a summary of the personal remarks made by participants at the May 2008 symposium, ‘Dealing with Today’s Asymmetric Threat to U.S. and Global Security’, co-sponsored by CACI International Inc (CACI) and the National Defense University (NDU). It does not necessarily reflect the views of CACI, NDU, or their officers and employees.” Doesn’t it make you want to read it and see why the compilers included it?

The report can be found at http://www.caci.com/announcement/CACI_Asymmetric_Threat_paper.pdf

The latest Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Quarterly Report to the United States Congress (October 30, 2008) has been released and is available at
http://www.sigir.mil/reports/quarterlyreports/Oct08/pdf/Report_-_October_2008.pdf

Their website blurb says “This penultimate quarter of the Year of Transfer witnessed the emergence of nascent normalcy in Iraq. As U.S. reconstruction assistance continued to target civil and military capacity building, Iraq achieved progress on the security, political, and economic fronts. Violent incidents dropped to their lowest levels since 2004; the long-awaited Provincial Election Law finally passed; and commercial activity, spurred by Iraq’s oil-revenue windfall, continued to increase. But, as General Ray Odierno, the new Commanding General, Multi-National Force-Iraq (MNF-I), recently noted, Iraq “was a failed state [in 2006]. In 2008, it’s a fragile state. We’ve got to move it to a stable state.” To sustain progress in this direction, Iraq must improve its provision of security and essential services, such as electricity, potable water, sewage systems, and health care services.”

Previous reports can be found at http://www.sigir.mil/reports/quarterlyreports/default.aspx

These electronic government documents were brought to our attention by:
Greta E. Marlatt, Information Services Manager &
Homeland Security Digital Library Content Manager
Dudley Knox Library, Naval Postgraduate School
Monterey, CA  93943

and will be available from our library catalog soon.

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Brought to you by Lori Lester, your very own Government Documents Librarian, and winner of the 2008 McJenkin-Rheay Award, which is given each year to a young librarian who has made outstanding contributions to the Georgia Library Association.  Congratulations, Lori!

Yesterday an agreement was reached between Google and a group of publishers, regarding Google Book Search.

There are far-reaching implications for authors, libraries, readers, and publishers.  The information landscape has now changed dramatically.

There will be plenty of analysis coming in various sources, after people have time to digest the 141-page settlement agreement.  For an introductory explanation, check out Still Searching.

**Update:  Marcus Banks has more analysis here.

GALILEO requests your input in an e-Collection Development Survey.  Tell them the sorts of databases you’d like to add to GALILEO, as well as which ones they should try to keep in this time of tight budgets.

Take the survey here!

Today a group of our librarians talked with the graduate program directors, who then asked us to share our handouts with a wider audience.  A great idea!  So here you are…

Interlibrary Loan & GIL Express

Your Very Own Librarian:  Library Liaisons

Library Services for Graduate Students

Circulation of Library Materials: The loan period for graduate students for books and most other materials is the entire semester, but the books can be recalled after 21 days if not renewed. Books must be physically brought in to be renewed at the end of each semester. DVDs, and videorecordings circulate for three days.

Dissertations and Theses: A common request from grad students is to see theses and dissertations written by previous Georgia Southern graduate students. These are cataloged and shelved by subject just as the books are, so there is no one place in the Library to look for them. However, you may search by keyword and add the words “thesis”, “dissertation”, or “etd” and identify them that way. For additional assistance go to http://library.georgiasouthern.edu/libref/dissertationabs.pdf.

Document Delivery for Distance Learners: students who take all of their classes online or off campus and who live 30 miles from Statesboro may request books and articles be sent to them. Contact: Cynthia Frost, (912) 478-5405 or e-mail cjfrost@georgiasouthern.edu or the ILL Office at ill@georgiasouthern.edu

Eagle Source: This provides lists of helpful research resources by discipline with descriptions. It can be found on the left side of the Henderson Library Home Page or go to http://library.georgiasouthern.edu/eaglesource/.

Faculty Authorizations: By filling out our Faculty Authorization forms, faculty may give their graduate assistants permission to check out materials in their names. Contact: Debbie DeVage, (912) 478-5647 or e-mail ddevage@georgiasouthern.edu or Marjorie Gay, (478-5647) mgay@georgiasouthern.edu

GIL Express: GIL Express is a service of the University System of Georgia (USG) libraries – 35 in all. After searching the USG Universal Catalog, faculty, staff, and students may request books from any USG library. The books usually arrive at our Library in two days and are loaned for 28 days with two renewals allowed. There are no overdue fines, but a few libraries do charge recall fines and faculty as well as students are blocked at all USG libraries (including their own) if they allow materials to become overdue. Books borrowed through GIL Express can be returned to any USG library. Unlike Interlibrary Loan, books may be borrowed through GIL Express whether they are for research or not.

Contact: Debbie DeVage or the Circulation/Reserve Desk, 478-5647 or e-mail ddevage@georgiasouthern.edu, Fred Smith email fsmith@georgiasouthern.edu 478-5405 or Cynthia Frost 478-5405 or e-mail cjfrost@georgiasouthern.edu or the ILL Office at ill@georgiasouthern.edu

Group Study Rooms: Three group study rooms located on the first floor are reserved for use by graduate students only. Go to the Circulation/Reserve Desk on the second floor to check out a key to unlock them.

Information Literacy Instruction

The Information Services Librarians offer many classes on both information searching and software applications.  They specialize in course-based, assignment-focused instruction, customized according to the needs of the students.  They also offer drop-in workshops, including SPSS, Thesis/Dissertation Formatting, Graduate Assistant Research Forums, and more!  Check out the full list of drop-in workshops at http://library.georgiasouthern.edu/workshops.html

Interlibrary Loan: Almost any book or article may be borrowed. Average turnaround is about a week, and there is no charge. The Henderson Library uses ILLiad for its interlibrary loan and document delivery services. The link to ILLiad is on the left side of the Library’s home page. There is a one-time registration. After registering, faculty, staff, and students can make requests, see the status of current requests, access electronically received documents, request renewals, and see a history of all their requests. In most cases, copies of articles will be delivered electronically. We ask that ILL requests be for materials to support Georgia Southern teaching or research. The FAQ includes instructions for faculty to make additional “shared” accounts when they ask student assistants to make their ILL requests. Please call the ILL Office at (912) 478-5405 or email ill@georgiasouthern.edu with any questions.

Learning Commons: The Learning Commons is a dynamic and active feature of the Library’s efforts to meet the needs of the university community. In order to facilitate the creation of a learning commons, the following principles have guided the planning for the reconfiguration of the existing Zach S. Henderson Library building and the addition:

· A Place for Active Learning · A Place Designed to Put Users First · An Adaptable Place · A Functional Place

· A Borderless, Integrated, Efficient Place · A Place Where Noise is Managed · A Safe and Secure Place

Reference Help: When you begin work on a major paper, thesis, or dissertation, it’s always a good idea to confer with a Reference Librarian for the best approach to sources and search terms. In addition, the reference librarians have subject specialties. If you would like, you can make an appointment with the reference librarian for your discipline to discuss your research. They can also help grad students with difficult citation problems. The subject specialists for your area can be found by consulting Eagle Source. Additional information is also available at http://library.georgiasouthern.edu/libref/ISLibrarians.pdf

or http://library.georgiasouthern.edu/libref/imref.html.

Zach’s News: Keep an eye on http://zachsnews.edublogs.org/ for updates on the newly expanded and renovated library building, as well as new resources and services.  You could simply bookmark this page, but we encourage you to make use of the e-mail subscription option and/or the RSS feed option which are both located near the bottom, right side of this page.

If you haven’t yet discovered the new Gale Virtual Reference Library, which we announced in August, take a look at what’s already there.  We plan to grow this collection of electronic reference books as funds allow.  You can access them with the links below; or by searching for the individual titles in the GIL library catalog; or by selecting Gale Virtual Reference Library from the “Databases A-Z” tab in GALILEO.  Please let us know what you think, and which other kinds of reference books (dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc.) you’d like to see in GVRL!

Gale Virtual Reference Library

Online access to the following electronic reference books:

African American Almanac, 10^th ed.

Psychologists and Their Theories for Students

Encyclopedia of Social Theory

Encyclopedia of Public Health (Springer; coming soon)

Encyclopedia of Religion, 2^nd ed.

Encyclopedia of Education, 2^nd ed.

Encyclopedia of Drugs, Alcohol, and Addictive Behavior (coming soon)

Encyclopedia of Global Warming and Climate Change

Encyclopedia of Education Law (coming soon)

International Directory of Company Histories (ongoing)

Following is an announcement from ICPSR, the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research:

ICPSR is pleased to announce the official launch of the Online Learning Center (OLC).  The site is located at: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/OLC/ and can be found under the Courses & Learning Tools tab on the ICPSR front page.

ICPSR’s Online Learning Center (OLC) supports quantitative literacy in the social sciences by providing an effective and reliable means of bringing data into the classroom. OLC tools were designed, built, and tested by teaching faculty.

Currently numbering 30 (with more added continually), our Data-Driven Learning Guides are designed for in-class presentation or as supplemental activities for students demonstrating a variety of types of data analysis and substantive concepts.  Available on-demand 24/7, DDLGs:

• Demonstrate core concepts using prepared data with missing data and weights accommodated.
• Avoid the hassles of software licensing, setup, and instruction.
• Are easily customized to your teaching approach and syllabus.
• Are appropriate as supplemental exercises or for in-class demonstrations.

Please share this with your teaching community.  We look forward to your feedback and suggestions via email, the OLC Blog, or the OLC listserv all available through the OLC website.

Following is an update to our earlier note about citation management software.  (Thanks, Sonya!)

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Most databases allow you to keep track of article citations for inclusion in a research paper or project. You may have heard of citation tool managers such as EndNote or Procite. The library has chosen to use a product called Zotero. This tool is available as a free download from the web and can be installed on any computer that uses one of the following: Firefox, Netscape, Flock, Mac, or Linux. Just look for the Zotero icon in the bottom right side of your browser once installed in order to use it. Zotero has been installed on the computers on the 2nd floor in the Learning Commons. If you need assistance using it go to http://www.zotero.org/download/promote/quick_start_guide.pdf.

The 2008-2009 edition of the United States Government Manual is now available on GPO Access at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/gmanual/index.html or from our library catalog. As the official handbook of the Federal Government, the United States Government Manual provides comprehensive information on the agencies of the legislative, judicial, and executive branches. It also includes information on quasi-official agencies; international organizations in which the United States participates; and boards, commissions, and committees. The Manual begins with reprints of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. The Manual is published as a special edition of the Federal Register (see 1 CFR 9.1).

A typical agency description includes:

* A list of officials heading major operating units.
* A summary statement of the agency’s purpose and role in the Federal
Government.
* A brief history of the agency, including its legislative or executive
authority.
* A description of its programs and activities.
* Information, addresses, and phone numbers to help users locate
detailed information on consumer activities, contracts and grants,
employment, publications, and other matters of public interest.

GPO Access contains the U.S. Government Manual from 1995-96 to the present. The new edition of the Manual is available to the public each year in the late summer. Files are available as ASCII text and
Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF).

Class: AE 2.108/2:2008-2009

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

A word from the Vice Chancellor:

We have received many concerns from faculty and administrators around
the System with respect to the negative impact a suspension of the GIL
Express service will have on core activities such as instruction and
research.  We want to be responsive to these concerns and so we are
continuing GIL Express through the end of Fall Semester with the
expressed intent of finding a way to support this service going
forward.  I believe that working in good faith with all areas of the
System Office and our campuses, we can find a way to address the
required budget cuts while maintaining this critical service. Please
share this information with your faculty.

Thanks to all who have voiced concerns about the loss of GIL Express.
We want to make the best decisions we can in these difficult times to
protect the viability of the very reasons we exist; teaching, learning,
and scholarship.
–
Dr. Tom Maier
Vice Chancellor/CIO
Board of Regents
University System of Georgia
270 Washington St.
Atlanta, GA 30334
V 404 657-1588
F 404 651-9497