Archive for May, 2009

More Database Trials and Evaluations

We invite you to explore two databases from IGI, as part of our ongoing development of our library wish list, pending availability of funding.

IGI InfoSci-Books and IGI InfoSci-Journals are both listed in GALILEO, and this free trial and evaluation will run through June 25.  Please tell us what you think, by contacting one of our Subject Specialist Librarians, or Jonathan Harwell, Collection Development & Assessment Librarian, at jharwell@georgiasouthern.edu

Database Trial and Evaluation

As the Zach S. Henderson Library continues with our library budget review,  with assistance from faculty campuswide, we need to know about resources that we should add to our wish list, pending availability of funding.  We invite you to try out the online resources offered by CQ Press, to which we have access through June 20.  This trial is also listed in GALILEO under “CQ Researcher & CQ Weekly” during the trial.  Please tell us what you think, by contacting one of our Subject Specialist Librarians, or Jonathan Harwell, Collection Development & Assessment Librarian, at jharwell@georgiasouthern.edu

The Georgia State Fair, Macon, 1886-1960

Please see below for a description of GALILEO’s newest database.

————- ANNOUNCEMENT ————-
The Middle Georgia Archives and Digital Library of Georgia are pleased to announce the availability of a new online resource: The Georgia State Fair, Macon, 1886-1960.

http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/gastatefair

The Georgia State Fair, Macon, 1886-1960 online collection consists of 151 black-and-white photographs, and four advertising fliers, from the
Georgia State Fair records held by the Middle Georgia Archives at the Macon-Bibb County Public Libraries. These photographs document the
evolution of the state fair in Macon from 1886 until 1960. A group portrait of the executive committee of the Georgia State Agricultural
Society is the earliest piece in the collection. The majority of the photographs depict county agricultural exhibits whose function was to
promote a variety of farm produce and homemade items. These displays include cotton, seeds, vegetables, preserved food, clothes, quilts,
furniture, and more. Exhibits from the early 1940s are of interest due to the appearance of slogans supporting the World War II home front
effort. One notable picture during this era shows a demonstration of a community canning project. Displays for agricultural associations and
state government agencies, such as the Highway Department and the Fish and Game Commission, can also be seen in this collection. Other
photographs capture fair culture beyond the exhibitions: 4-H clubs, farm machinery, livestock judging, amusement rides, the midway, side shows,
food booths, and parades. Macon mayor B. F. Merritt appears in several photographs along with other notable Macon citizens. Former Georgia
governor Marvin Griffin is also pictured.

The Georgia State Fair, Macon, 1886-1960 is a project of the Digital Library of Georgia in association with the Middle Georgia Archives as
part of Georgia HomePLACE. The project is supported with federal LSTA funds administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services
through the Georgia Public Library Service, a unit of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.

——– END ———

Cuts, Freezes Widespread in Academic Libraries

Here’s an update from American Libraries about the impact of the economic climate upon academic libraries, including Emory and Georgia Tech.  Thanks to all the faculty who are helping us identify our essential subscriptions in the library budget review!

H1N1 (Swine Flu) Information

Some of our database suppliers are providing the public with free access to information on the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu.

Check out the “Swine Flu (H1N1) Facts” icon in the middle of this page from Gale, to find free full-text articles from the Gale Virtual Reference Library (including e-reference books that we’ve purchased, which are available via GALILEO here; just click “Show All” to see the books in our GVRL collection).  Use the drop-down menu for “I want to know…” to access the Swine Flu Portal.

EBSCO and Dynamed are also offering clinical information about the virus for health care professionals here.

**Update:  Here’s the H1N1 Flu (Swine Flu) page from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  (Thanks, JoEllen!)

ERIC adds more than 192,000 full-text documents from its microfiche archive

The Microfiche Digitization Project has been adding ERIC Documents from the microfiche collection to the open-access (free) ERIC database.  (If you’re not familiar with ERIC, an education database, here’s a description of what you’ll find there.)  They’ve now completed 55% of the project, with almost 192,000 documents now available.  More details are here.  A tip on how you might be able to help with the remaining 45% is here, and you can contribute your own research here.

ERIC is available free to the public at this site.  We also have two additional interfaces to choose from, available to the GSU community and campus visitors via GALILEO:  EBSCOhost and FirstSearch.

Hot Doc: Treaties in Force 2009

Treaties in Force is prepared by the Department of State for the purpose of providing information on treaties and other international agreements to which the United States has become a party and which are carried on the records of the Department of State as being in force as of its stated publication date, January 1, 2009.

A paper edition of this government document is forthcoming and will be available for checkout at call number S 9.14:

In the meantime, you may access the electronic edition of Treaties in Force, presented in Adobe Acrobat PDF format, which allows text searches and printing of individual pages or the entire document. It is available here: http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/122713.pdf

Brought to you by Government Documents Librarian, Lori Lester.

THOMAS Launches First RSS Feed

Want to be an informed citizen? Ready for an easier way to keep up? Now you can read about everything that is going on in Congress more easily than ever before. Don’t settle for what the media reports. See the Congressional Record Daily Digest for yourself using THOMAS’s new RSS feed.

The Daily Digest is now available as the first RSS feed from THOMAS
(http://thomas.loc.gov/home/rss/dd.xml).

Recommended to you by Government Documents Librarian, Lori Lester.

(Wondering what RSS is and how to use it?  Click here.)

MLA Update 2009

The 3rd edition of the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing was published in 2008.  We have 3 copies available in Henderson Library.  Soon we will also have the new MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (7th edition).

For the scoop on what’s new in MLA style, click here.

**Update:  Lisa Smith, Information Services Librarian, adds this tip:

Easybib.com offers free formatting for MLA style. For $8.99/year, the service will format APA and Chicago.

Easybib also offers free, pdf quick guides for APA, MLA, and Chicago at http://www.easybib.com/librarians

(Thanks, Lisa!)

EagleSpace Launched

As we had announced, yesterday we held the launch party for EagleSpace and the Waddie Welcome Archive.  A roomful of people, many of them students, were here to learn more about Mr. Welcome and the collection of murals and other hand-painted signs representing Savannah community artwork.  The exhibit on the first floor of Henderson Library includes some actual signs, as well as photographs of others and accompanying explanations.

So what is EagleSpace, you ask?  Some of you are already familiar with the idea of institutional repositories, which are free online archives (see some frequently asked questions about IR’s here).  EagleSpace, which uses the DSpace software, is Georgia Southern’s new repository.  Now, in our soft launch, you can access EagleSpace at http://eaglespace.georgiasouthern.edu (the main URL will stay the same, although the links to the individual collections & items might change soon with a new server).  Try searching for “waddie welcome” and then browsing the collection by title to see the images.  (There are more images being added, so keep an eye on it!)  EagleSpace is Georgia Southern’s component of a statewide project, the GALILEO Knowledge Repository, or GKR, which is in its early stages.  (Sneak a peek here!)  The repository can be used to archive, and make freely accessible, our electronic theses and dissertations, faculty publications, multimedia files, etc., in order to provide seamless access to the digital intellectual product of the University System of Georgia.

Stay tuned for future developments, including discussion forums here on the Georgia Southern campus.


Zach’s News

Welcome to Zach's News! This blog serves as the newsletter for the Zach S. Henderson Library of Georgia Southern University. Please visit our library website at http://library.georgiasouthern.edu The earlier version of our newsletter, Current Issues Only, is available at http://library.georgiasouthern.edu/cio/cio.html