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

Your Task

Unlock the secrets of finding the information you need or want…for research papers or to impress your friends. At your level of gaming (University Freshman and above), Wikipedia is not allowed, unless you want a quick and unreliable glimpse of a topic. (Whatever you do, don’t rely upon it or cite it in a paper! Result: Game Over)

Maps

Your playing field is known as the Zach S. Henderson Library, a hybrid print-and-electronic space (library.georgiasouthern.edu). A brand-new extension will be released in Version 2.0 by the end of September 2008. Updates will be released throughout the fall semester. By Dec. 24, Version 3.0 will include the Learning Commons, with high-tech spaces and integrated support for research and IT questions. Watch for updates at Zach’s News (see #2 below), with RSS available.

Enemies

Beware your devious enemies, such as Plagiarism (touching Plagiarism results in an instant Game Over; walkthrough available at tinyurl.com/plagvid) and Procrastination. Find the sources you need ahead of time, so that you have every object you need when you’re ready to write your paper. (Some of the sources you need might have to be sent from other libraries, so plan ahead; see #9 below.)

Collectible Items

Collect different types of information, from articles to books to multimedia. Try to collect only the most powerful and authoritative sources, which are often known as Scholarly or Peer-Reviewed. Some of the GALILEO Databases will allow you to limit your searches to only these types of sources.

Some will appear as “Full Text,” with the entire source online. Others might have a purple “Find It” button, which will attempt to locate the Full Text in a different Database. If it’s not available online, check the Library Catalog (see #6 below).

Top 10 Tips for Achieving High Scores

10. WorldCat (www.worldcat.org): Locate anything in libraries worldwide. With Facebook app! (tinyurl.com/worldcatfb)

9. Interlibrary loan (ILL) & GIL Express (tinyurl.com/gsuill): Get anything delivered to you from libraries worldwide, free of charge! (GIL Express is a quick way to check out books from other University System of Georgia libraries; ILL is for everything else.)

8. Electronic Journals A-Z (tinyurl.com/ejournals): Find full-text journals with one search.

7. GALILEO (www.galileo.usg.edu) & Google Scholar (extra tip: Find it in GALILEO for more full text!): Find the sources you’re already paying for!

(Get the off-campus password for GALILEO at tinyurl.com/galileopass)

6. Library catalog (gil.georgiasouthern.edu) & reserves (tinyurl.com/gsureserves): Find anything we have in our library (electronic, print, & multimedia), including course reserves (things your whole class will be reading; some of these are online).

5. Ask a librarian (tinyurl.com/askzach): IM, e-mail, phone, walk-in, one-on-one appointments. Don’t be that student who tells the professor, “The library doesn’t have anything on my topic”! (See #1.)

4. Communicate with your professors. Ask for more time on an assignment if you need it…before the day it’s due.

3. Google Reader (www.google.com/reader): Save time & check your fave sites from one page.

2. Zach’s News (zachsnews.edublogs.org): Impress your friends with the inside scoop from Henderson Library!

1. Your Very Own Librarian (tinyurl.com/ownlibrarian): Find out about your human search engines: the Subject Specialist Librarians/Library Liaisons. The most important guides of all. (See #5.)

Bonus survival tips:

• Zach’s Brews: GSU’s first alternative café, 2^nd floor of the Library. Coffee, cappuccino, espresso, caffe latte, fresh-baked cinnamon rolls, cookies, bagels, blueberry muffins, and croissants. Monday-Thursday, 7:30 am to 10 pm; Friday, 7:30 am to 2 pm; and Sunday, 3 pm to 11 pm.
• Henderson Library is open all day & all night from noon Sundays to 10 pm Fridays, and 9 am to 10 pm Saturdays.
• Music wants to be free (and legal)! pandora.com, free.napster.com, ruckus.com, etc.

As we recently announced, year-end funding from President Bruce Grube has enabled the addition of significant new electronic collections in the near future.  This followed a database review by the library faculty in which we had to identify several databases to cancel, due to a budget shortfall.  The previous cancellation announcement is here.  As an update, we are pleased to let you know that, while a few GALILEO databases have been removed from the menu (Books @ Ovid for nursing has expired; and Medical and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology Abstracts has been absorbed into Biotechnology and Bioengineering Abstracts); the CSA Databases (Cambridge Scientific) will remain, with funding by GALILEO.

Following is a list of top-priority resources we have been able to add, followed by a list of other new resources provided by GALILEO.  Due to the budget reductions mandated by the State of Georgia, and to rapidly rising costs (inflation, increases in licensing costs based upon our growing student FTE), we do not anticipate being able to add any other new subscriptions in this school year.  New subscriptions might be possible if the requesting department assists us in identifying existing subscriptions that could be cut in lieu of the requested title, but the suggested cuts will have to be reviewed by other departments to ensure the titles are not essential to those departments.

We plan to make automatic book purchases under our approval plan in Fall 2008.  If funding allows, we will

a)      continue the approval plan as far into Spring 2009 as possible, and

b)     order faculty-selected, top-priority books in Spring 2009.

As explained below, our new resources include a significant number of electronic books.

Information on giving opportunities for Henderson Library are at http://library.georgiasouthern.edu/support/.  Please consider donating funds for new library resources, so that we can continue to meet the scholarly needs of Georgia Southern University.

NEW RESOURCES PROVIDED BY HENDERSON LIBRARY

ebrary History & Political Science Collection

Over 5900 electronic books, in addition to the ebrary Education Collection we already provide.

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; coming soon)

JSTOR Arts & Sciences II

124 electronic journals in such areas as economics, history, archaeology, classics, and Asian, African, Latin American, Middle Eastern, and Slavic studies; in addition to the JSTOR journal packages we already provide.  Title list available here.

Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center

A virtual library of resources designed to aid students in the study of today’s hottest social issues.  Based upon Greenhaven’s Opposing Viewpoints books and including additional resources organized by issue topic, this will be an essential resource for persuasive essays, especially in first-year composition classes.

American National Biography

Offers portraits of more than 17,400 men and women; updated semi-annually, with hundreds of new entries each year and revisions of previously published entries to enhance their accuracy and currency. Oxford’s ANB Online features thousands of illustrations, more than 80,000 hyperlinked cross-references, links to select web sites, and powerful search capabilities.

NEW RESOURCES PROVIDED BY GALILEO

GALILEO, Georgia’s virtual library, is providing the following new resources with support from Henderson Library.  With the exceptions of GeorgiaInfo and Oxford Art Online, the following are collections included within the National Science Digital Library (NSDL), which is supported by the National Science Foundation.

All About Birds (Cornell Lab of Ornithology)

Includes information about watching birds, learning their nesting behaviors, attracting birds, indentifying them, recording observations, and getting involved in bird conservation. The site includes guides, images, maps, sounds, videos, and much more. There is also a link to the Macaulay Library, an archive of animal sounds and videos.

American Museum of Natural History Resources for Learning

A collection of activities, curriculum materials, articles, scientific evidence, exhibitions, and reference lists developed by the American Museum of Natural History for students, educators, parents, and anyone interesting in exploring science. Topics include anthropology, astronomy, biology, earth science, and paleontology.

Biology: The eSkeletons Project

A website with digitized images and animations of human and primate skeletons for the study of comparative anatomy. Students can view regions of skeletons from any orientation as well as muscle and joint information. Browser plugins may be required for optimal viewing.

Career Resources Education Network (The Fun Works)

A website with career information for students. The information about each career includes “cool facts,” examples of people in that career, related internet resources, and activities and education to prepare students for that career. There is a Teachers and Instructors section of the site, with lesson plans, activities, and other career counseling resources, which requires a free registration.

Chemistry:  ChemEd Digital Library

Also known as the JCE Digital Library.  Includes Internet resources in the area of chemistry education at the high school and college levels.

A few of the resources available in the ChemEd Digital Library include:

• ChemInfo
• Data-Driven Exercises
• DigiDemos
• Featured Molecules
• WebWare

GeorgiaInfo

An extensive online resource about Georgia. Its development was motivated by the conviction that such information, which can now be readily accessed by Georgians in every county, could help citizens and public officials of the state become better informed, in order to identify new resources and make decisions to improve the quality of life in their communities.

Math Forum:  Student Center

A collection of activities, puzzles, games, weekly challenges, and other resources for mathematics students from preschool through graduate school. The Student Center also includes the the “Ask Dr. Math” question and answer service and The Math Library.

Math Forum:  Teacher’s Place

A collection of resources for teaching mathematics from preschool through graduate school. The Teacher’s Place also includes the Math Forum Community and the Teacher Exchange to discuss and share materials, as well as the “Ask Dr. Math” question and answer service and The Math Library.

NSDL Concept Map Tool (AAAS Benchmarks)

Provides a way for teachers and students to connect NSDL resources with science and math concepts. The science literacy maps demonstrate connections between concepts and how concepts build upon each other as students progress through grade levels.

Oxford Art Online (including Grove Art Online)

Provides access to Grove Art Online, a collection of art encyclopedias and image collections. Users can also choose to view biographies, subject entries, or images when searching or browsing. Content includes more than 23,000 subject entries, 21,000 biographies, 500,000 bibliographic citations, 40,000 image links and 5,000 images contained within Grove Art Online. Thematic timelines and learning resources also provide users with tools for navigating the content.

Additional content includes the following:

• The Oxford Companion to Western Art
• The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms
• The Encyclopedia of Aesthetics

Periodic Table Live! (ChemEd Digital Library)

Allows students to explore information about the elements, their reactions, their properties, their structures, and their histories. This resource is part of the ChemEd Digital Library.

PRISMS

Stands for “Phenomena and Representations for the Instruction of Science in Middle Schools,” and is a project of the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance (MMSA). Resources include pictures, video clips, graphs, simulations, and more for middle school teachers and students in the areas of biology, astronomy, ecology, and earth science.

Statistics:  CAUSEWeb

A website with educator resources from the Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education. Resources include lesson modules, student activities, assignments, datasets, and videos. The site also offers links to research and professional development opportunities.

Virtual Chemistry Lab

Also known as the Chemistry Collective, or ChemCollective.  Provides scenario-based learning activities for in-class or homework assignments for students. Educators can find activities for their courses, provide feedback on them, create and share activities with others, and discuss issues related to chemistry education.

WGBH Teachers’ Domain (NSDL Multimedia Pathway)

Provides multimedia resources that incorporate sound educational practices. Resources are classroom-ready and include images, video clips, and student activities. Resources are aligned to state standards. Free registration is required.

Zach S. Henderson Library is pleased to announce that year-end funding from President Bruce Grube will enable the addition of significant new electronic collections in the near future. As we recently announced, these will include JSTOR Arts & Sciences II (124 electronic journals in such areas as economics, history, archaeology, classics, and Asian, African, Latin American, Middle Eastern, and Slavic studies), available in July 2008; and ebrary History and Political Science (5700 electronic books), which we plan to add in time for the Fall 2008 semester. Details on more new resources will be announced soon.

Meanwhile, 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 our current offerings in light of their content, usage level, cost, and usability. As these factors change and alternatives appear, we find in some cases that a database is receiving little or no use, that rapidly rising costs (due to inflation, as well as increases in licensing costs based upon our FTE) make it impossible for us to maintain such subscriptions, or that there are better alternatives for our needs.

Following is a list of resources which will expire soon, along with the alternatives we provide for finding similar information. To access the resources in GALILEO from off-campus, please click here for the current password. Please ask a librarian (here for IM/phone or here for your own Subject Specialist Librarian) if you would like a personal introduction to a different interface, or assistance with a research strategy (including automatic journal or search alerts).

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• BNA Human Resources Library
  (Expires September 30, 2008)
  This has been available only on specific Henderson Library computers.
  Top Online Alternatives: Business Source Complete, Emerald Management Xtra, Public Administration Abstracts
• Constitutions of the United States: National and State
  (Expires December 31, 2008)
  The constitutions are now freely accessible online.
  Top Online Alternatives: Legal Information Institute (Cornell University Law School), Avalon Project (Yale Law School; state constitutions here)
• CSA Databases (Cambridge Scientific)
  (Expires June 30, 2008)
  While we plan to maintain a subscription to Sociological Abstracts, we now offer major alternatives to the other CSA databases.
  Top Online Alternatives: Medline with Full Text, Web of Knowledge, Biological Abstracts/BIOSIS Previews, IEEE Computer Society Digital Library, Environment Complete, ERIC (EBSCOHost)
• GROVE Music
  (Expires June 30, 2008)
  The contents are available in print format in the library, as The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, and The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. We can not afford to maintain the online subscription with our current funding.
  Top Online Alternatives: RILM Abstracts of Music Literature and Naxos Music Library.
• Index to Current Urban Documents
  (Expires December 31, 2008)
  This index of city government resources is rarely used.
  Top Online Alternatives: City of Savannah Government, City of Atlanta Online, georgia.gov, and Georgia State Government Documents at Henderson Library.
• Ingenta Gateway and Reveal
  (Expires May 31, 2008)
  We will continue to provide access to several alerting services through many of our databases, 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. We will also still be able to use IngentaConnect, the free component without alerts, which is not linked to our library holdings.
  Top Online Alternative: EBSCOHost (instructions for setting up your own customized e-mail or RSS notifications here)
• International Medieval Bibliography (IMB)
  (Expires December 31, 2008)
  This resource receives low usage due to other alternatives, and extensive coverage of the IMB is available in print in Henderson Library.
  Top Online Alternatives: MLA International Bibliography, Historical Abstracts
• Iter: Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance
  (Expires December 31, 2008)
  This resource receives low usage due to other alternatives.
  Top Online Alternatives: MLA International Bibliography, Historical Abstracts
• Kinesiology Publications
  (Expires May 31, 2008)
  This index of theses and dissertations is now included within SPORTDiscus.
  
• LexisNexis Statistical (with American Statistics Index)
  (Expires June 30, 2008)
  This resource receives low usage; current content is available in other sources.
  Top Online Alternatives: Statistical Abstract of the United States, GPO Monthly Catalog (US Government Publications), Federal Government Documents at Henderson Library
• MINABS Online (Mineralogical Abstracts)
  (Expires December 31, 2008)
  This resource receives extremely low usage.
  Top Online Alternatives: GEOBASE, Web of Knowledge
• Music Index
  (Expires June 30, 2008)
  We provide similar indexing elsewhere.
  Top Online Alternatives: RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, Naxos Music Library
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  (Expires June 30, 2008)
  This British-focused database will be replaced with the American version, the American National Biography Online. The latest edition of the printed DNB (2004) is available in Henderson Library.
• ProQuest Database Package (Research Library, ABI-INFORM, Literature Online Reference Edition—LION, ProQuest Newspapers including Wall Street Journal)
  (Expires June 30, 2008)
  This decision was made after careful consideration. Our librarians have been studying this question since 2006, and have done a great deal of analysis of faculty-identified needs, as well as overlap with other resources, usage level, and budgeting concerns. In the meantime we have developed and upgraded our extensive and powerful alternative resources.
  Top Online Alternatives: Academic Search Complete, Business Source Complete, MLA International Bibliography, Newspaper Source, Wall Street Journal (The Wall Street Journal is available in print and microfilm in Henderson Library; current print issues and online access are provided by COBA for their students, staff, and faculty; and free online access is available via Google News and WSJ.com).

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.

We are pleased to announce that on Monday, March 17, GALILEO (Georgia’s virtual library) will have a brand-new look. All of the 336 databases currently available will remain in GALILEO’s new interface, which is called GALILEO Scholar. You might have already seen this new look, which has been available for months as a “Preview the new, improved GALILEO!” link within the current GALILEO homepage.

Below are a few tips for using the new GALILEO site effectively.  The links will take you to the actual pages, using political science as a subject example.

Please ask a librarian whenever we can be of assistance. We’d love to help!

1. When browsing for databases by subject (yellow tab), after you choose a subject category, the Subject Search page (blue tab) appears, which only searches the databases available statewide. To see a comprehensive list (relevant to this subject category) including the many more databases funded by Henderson Library, just click on the Articles & Databases tab on the blue/gray bar (after you have clicked on a subject category).

2. The Search page (yellow tab) only searches the databases available statewide. (See #1.)
3. The Databases A-Z page (yellow tab) gives you a comprehensive list of all of our databases, including those available statewide as well as those funded by Henderson Library.
4. The Journals A-Z page (yellow tab) in GALILEO is a directory of electronic journals, but is not as comprehensive as the Electronic Journals A-Z page which is linked from Henderson Library’s website (blue tab at the bottom). Our own Electronic Journals A-Z is still the best place to locate full-text articles when you know the journal title you need.

Here’s a little background on our recent e-journals announcement.  In case you’re wondering how we were able to add 389 electronic journals to our collection in the midst of Henderson Library’s ongoing budget crisis, this might be of interest to you.  (Many thanks to Iris Durden, Serials Librarian, for providing both the work and the information on this achievement!)

Because faculty and students are increasingly expecting resources to be available online, Henderson Library has been constantly evaluating current periodical print subscriptions to determine the best format for delivery of information for the present learning environment as well as for future needs.  The Library provides access to periodicals online through various full-text databases and through individual subscriptions with online access (both free and for reasonable upcharge fees).   The continuing analysis of subscription options for journals and databases is necessitated by ongoing library budget shortfalls, as well as rapidly rising subscription costs and frequent shifts in publishing strategies.

The journal publishing market has changed drastically during the past few years.  Many journal publishers are restructuring their subscription options and charges in a variety of ways.  For example, many publishers no longer offer “free online” with a print subscription, instead charging an additional fee (5-10%) for online access with the print subscription, or offering reduced pricing (compared to print only subscription) for online only access.  If “free online” is offered with a print subscription, access might be for only one person at a time (username/ password required), rather than unlimited simultaneous use (“site license”/IP authentication).

A number of prominent journal publishers have begun pulling their current journal content from aggregated full-text databases and are now offering their periodical titles in their own full-text packages and/or portals.  Examples:  Duke University Press, Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, etc.

The economics of the publishing world continue to evolve at a rapid pace.  The recent Harvard decision to adopt an open-access policy for providing free online access to their faculty publications is being widely discussed in academia and beyond.

For further information, please see Journal Pricing from SPARC, the Open Access FAQ from the Public Library of Science, and news on scholarly communication and publishing from SPARC.

We are pleased to let you know that Henderson Library has now added 389 electronic journals to our collection. Included are 12 titles in Project Muse, 18 titles from Duke University Press (plus current subscriptions to 11 additional titles for which we already had online back issues), 177 titles from Cambridge University Press, and 182 titles from Oxford University Press. These, along with all of our e-journals, are now available via our Electronic Journals A-Z list, where you can search by journal title, publisher, or ISSN, or browse by subject.

You can access our e-journals and databases from anywhere with your GALILEO password (only needed when off-campus).  We’re in the process of putting this new information in the library catalog as well. We had previously subscribed to some of these journals in print. For those which have been changed from print to electronic format, we have placed a sign in each journal’s former location in the Current Periodicals shelving area on the 3rd floor of the Library.

There is a good possibility the renovation of the Zach S. Henderson
Library will be completed in time that the full building, housing all
our collections, furnishings, and personnel, will be available to the
public by the beginning of fall classes in August of 2008. Meanwhile,
in February of 2008 Georgia Southern University must raze the building
in which the Federal and Georgia documents collection is now temporarily housed. Therefore the documents collection will have to be temporarily housed in other quarters between February and August of 2008.

We have begun moving the most recently published, most often-used, and
reference government documents materials to the publicly accessible
portion of Henderson Library’s third floor. Government documents on
microform will be placed in a storage area on the Library’s bottom
floor and items will be paged for patrons upon demand. In addition, the law collection (which had been housed in the temporary government documents building) will be located on the third floor of the Library. Service for these collections will be offered from the Information Services Desk on the third floor. More information on the relocation is at http://library.georgiasouthern.edu/documents/govdocsmove.html, and more information on the government document collection and services is available at http://library.georgiasouthern.edu/documents/

In order to make room for the government documents and the law collection, the Bound Periodicals published earlier than 2000 have been relocated to the ARC (Automated Retrieval Collection) for the time being. We look forward to having more space on open shelves following the expansion. Thank you for your patience during the final exciting months of the expansion and renovation! As always, our many e-journals are available in our Electronic Journals A-Z list, as well as in the library catalog.