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

Congratulations to the winners of the 2009 First-Year Experience Awards!  Henderson Library would also like to recognize one of the nominees for the Faculty Outstanding First-Year Advocate Award, and point you to some online tutorials for first-year students, which are useful in locating, evaluating, and citing research sources while avoiding plagiarism.

Kudos to Ms. Lisa Smith, Information Services Librarian, for being nominated for this award by another faculty member involved with the First-Year Experience. The two worked together on the FYE task force, and Lisa’s hard work and dedication were justifiably commended.  In addition to presentations that Lisa has done on the FYE work, she has been an excellent campus representative for the library in her work in this area, and has dedicated considerable time and effort to collaborating with colleagues across campus in creating several information literacy modules, which are used by almost all FYE professors at Georgia Southern.

Here are links to the tutorials, which now reside on the Henderson Library’s “Information Literacy page” at http://library.georgiasouthern.edu/libref/literacy.html
(Click on #4 Henderson Library Information Literacy Tutorials):

Evaluating Information Overview

(5 minutes, 23 seconds)

Currency

(2:01)

Relevancy

(3:16)

Authority

(5:34)

Accuracy

(3:10)

Purpose

(4:09)

Avoiding Plagiarism

(4:04)

Citing Sources

(5:59)

Great job, Lisa!  (And thanks to Lori Lester for supplying the story!)

Find your very own Subject Specialist Librarian here!

Google Book Search announced today that they are adding magazines and journals (a.k.a. serials or periodicals).  Here’s the scoop.  Here’s the search.  Remember also that you’ll be able to access more full-text online articles via GALILEO, and Henderson Library’s collection (online, print, etc.) contains a wealth of resources that you won’t be able to access via Google Book Search.  These should all be parts of your research repertoire, along with our Subject Specialist Librarians who are at your service, ready to assist you anytime in person, or via IM/chat, e-mail, or phone.

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.

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) (tinyurl.com/gsuill): Get anything delivered to you from libraries worldwide, free of charge!

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.

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!

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!