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The UMUC Information and Library Services Newsletter
Fall 2008 • Volume 8, Issue 3
Previous Issues
Contents:
- From Stephen Miller
- ILS Research Resources
- Electronic Resources News
- New ILS Subject Guides
- ILS National and Regional Conference Proposals Accepted
- ILS Presentation at Summer Faculty Leadership Institute
- Google Universe Workshop
- New Library Research Skills Tutorial is Now Live!
- For Your Information...
- Faculty Corner
- Hot Sites
From Stephen Miller
Associate Provost, Information and Library Services
On behalf of everyone at Information and Library Services, I welcome new and returning faculty, students, and staff to the fall semester at UMUC! As you work to attain all your educational and professional goals, please know that we at ILS are ready to assist you in obtaining and using the resources and services necessary to meet your information needs. This newsletter highlights recent developments in services and resources that have taken place at the library.
Our array of electronic resources includes several new products, as well as some changes and enhancements. Please read below for more details about these exciting new developments.
We have developed new interactive subject guides that will serve as excellent places for our users to begin their research. In addition to electronic resources such as databases and Web sites, many of the guides include podcasts, RSS feeds, and video. Please take a look and tell us what you think!
Information and Library Services continues to make its presence known both locally and further afield. Two conference proposals on both regional and national levels have been accepted by the Association of College and Research Libraries and the Maryland Information Literacy Exchange. Congratulations to all ILS librarians involved!
24/7 Services Coordinator Librarian Joseph Rawson and Reference and Instruction Librarian Cynthia Thomes presented on open educational resources at UMUC's Annual Summer Faculty Leadership Institute. Congratulations to Joseph and Cynthia on their accomplishment!
Google Universe: How to Make the Most of Your Students' Favorite Resource, the popular online workshop, will be presented again this fall by ILS in conjunction with the Center for Teaching and Learning. The workshop is designed to acquaint participants with the advantages and disadvantages of using Google for academic research.
Please take a look at the library's new research tutorial, Secrets of My Research Success. The interactive tutorial illustrates the research process using characters with a practical research problem and includes interactive quizzes designed to reinforce the learning process.
In preparation for our move to UMUC's new Academic Building, walk-in hours at ILS's Adelphi location in SFSC 2255 have been changed. We are committed to providing 24/7 availability of library resources to our users and all other services will continue as before.
Login procedures to access library resources have changed to afford increased security to patrons. Please contact ILS with any questions you may have.
In keeping with our ongoing efforts to provide the most convenient access to library resources, the library's Document Management Team has implemented a new, streamlined interface to DocumentExpress, the library's document delivery service.
ILS library liaisons can assist faculty with their teaching and research needs, and are also available for course-related library instruction. I encourage all faculty to take advantage of the library's liaison program.
UMUC faculty, students, and staff can avail themselves of the library's wide array of resources and services. Research assistance is available 24/7 via chat and email. In-person and telephone assistance are available during regularly-scheduled business hours at both our Adelphi and Dorsey Station locations. We also offer both walk-in and telephone research assistance on Saturday and Sunday at our office at McKeldin Library on the University of Maryland College Park campus.
We remain dedicated at Information and Library Services to meeting the information needs of all UMUC faculty, students, and staff. If you have any questions or suggestions regarding our resources or services, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Best of luck in the coming semester!
ILS Research Resources... Using Databases Imaginatively
Information and Library Services provides access to over 100 databases that UMUC students and faculty can use to conduct research. The databases range from multidisciplinary ones containing articles covering a wide spectrum of subjects and disciplines, such as Academic Search Premier and Academic OneFile, to subject-specific databases covering a single subject or discipline: ABI/INFORM Global for business, PsycINFO for psychology, America: History and Life for history, etc.
Librarians encourage students to use subject-specific databases, as these provide greater depth of coverage in a particular area. But students need not restrict themselves to databases that cover the specific subject they are researching. An imaginative use of additional subject-specific databases can oftentimes retrieve relevant results and enable students to create term paper and projects informed by a variety of subjects and disciplines. For example, a business student conducting research on the repercussions of layoffs on employees can also address this topic from a psychological perspective by using psychology-specific databases. A sociology student researching the effects of racial discrimination can explore this topic from a historical perspective by using history-specific databases.
So next time you are using the library databases, experiment and explore—the information you can find is limited only by your imagination!
Electronic Resources News
To continue to meet the research needs of our users, we have added several new databases to our collection of online resources:
- AnthroSource
This resource, developed by the American Anthropological Association, includes current issues for 15 of the AAA's peer-reviewed publications as well as an electronic archive of all AAA journals.
- GenderWatch
This database contains articles across a wide spectrum of subject areas, including women's studies, family studies, psychology, contemporary culture, and gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) studies.
- GeoREF
This resources contains Geoscience journal articles, books, maps, government reports, conference papers, and theses.
- Oxford Reference Online Premium
Produced by the Oxford University Press, this resource contains cross-searchable dictionaries, language reference, and subject reference works. Also included are Literature and Western Civilization collections, maps, illustrations, timelines, and more.
- Philosopher's Index
The Philosopher's Index Covers research published since 1940 within the fifteen fields of philosophy, including contributions to anthologies and book reviews.
- Points of View Reference Center
Points of View Reference Center includes a series of essays that present multiple sides of a current issue. There are a large number of topics to choose from, each with an overview (objective background/description), point (argument), and counterpoint (opposing argument).
- Sociological Abstracts
This database contains international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences, including journal articles, book reviews, book chapters, dissertations, and conference papers.
- Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
Included in this database are citations, abstracts, and indexing of the international journal literature in political science and its complementary fields.
New E-Books Resource: Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL)
We have a new e-book resource: Gale Virtual Reference Library! This resource includes the subject encyclopedia The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, as well as specialized e-book reference sources relevant to literature and poetry.
New Grove Art Online Interface
Our Grove Art Online database was recently enhanced and includes access to more e-book resources: the multi-volume The Dictionary of Art as well as The Oxford Companion to Western Art, the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, and The Concise Dictionary of Art Terms.
Share Your RefWorks Citations!
Our RefWorks subscription has been updated with access to RefShare, which allows you to share your RefWorks citations with other students or faculty. To share a folder of references or all of your RefWorks database, either click on the Share Folders option in the Folder menu or Share References option on the Tools menu. To learn more about using RefShare, see this tutorial.
EBSCO 2.0 is Now Live!
EBSCO 2.0 is up and running and has some interesting new features for you to try out. More information is also available on the EBSCO site.
More New, Free Electronic Resources From Our Vendors
-
ERIC
A different version of ERIC: Education journals, books, proceedings, reports, and Department of Education publications. - PILOTS Database
Includes citations on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental-health sequelae of traumatic events, covering the Published International Literature On Traumatic Stress and produced at the headquarters of the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. - Social Services Abstracts
Provides bibliographic coverage of current research focused on social work, human services, and related areas, including social welfare, social policy, and community development. - General OneFile
Contains general-interest periodicals and news sources.
New ILS Subject Guides Are Live!
ILS is excited to announce the new interactive version of our popular research subject guides available from the Search by Subject section of the library home page. These guides, encompassing a broad array of subjects, serve as an excellent place for our users to begin their research. Using the new LibGuides technology, each guide includes relevant databases, Web sites, e-books, and print books--as well as RSS feeds, podcasts, video, etc., when available. In addition, each guide includes a variety of useful information such as how to cite, solve technical issues, how to use various resources, and how to research. The guides also include embedded access to the library’s instant messaging service.
We welcome your feedback and ideas for additional resources to include. Please contact the library at library@umuc.edu.
ILS National and Regional Conference Proposals Accepted
ILS has been notified that our proposal, The Not So Distant Librarian: Online Library Instruction to Engage Students and Faculty, was one of three--out of numerous submissions--chosen as a preconference for the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) to be held at the American Library Association Annual Conference 2009 in Chicago. This preconference will provide an opportunity for librarians from all over the country and abroad to learn practical tips and tools for designing and implementing online library instruction that addresses a variety of learning styles, engages students through active learning exercises, and fosters faculty buy-in. Preconference participants will draft an active learning exercise that meets the learning outcomes of their instruction session as part of this session. ILS librarians Robert Miller, Barb Mann, Megan Davis, and Joseph Rawson drafted the proposal and Barb, Megan, and Joseph will serve as the presenters.
In addition, ILS librarians Cynthia Thomes and Ed O’Donnell, as well as Library Associate Sara Godbee, were notified that their proposal, entitled UMUC: Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum, was accepted for the MILEX (Maryland Information Literacy Exchange) Conference 2008: How in the World: Getting Students to Think Critically. This program will be presented in October in Timonium and all three will serve as the presenters.
ILS Presentation at Summer Faculty Leadership Institute
24/7 Services Coordinator Librarian Joseph Rawson and Reference and Instruction Librarian and GSMAT liaison Cynthia Thomes presented at UMUC's Annual Summer Faculty Leadership Institute at the Inn and Conference Center in Adelphi. The event was hosted by the Center for Teaching and Learning. The presentation, "The World of Open Educational Resources (OER)—How to Find, Evaluate, and Apply Resources for Your Own Class," demonstrated how faculty can add content to their classes by finding, adapting and using educational materials freely available on repositories found on the Internet. To learn more about OERs, please read their article in the September DE Oracle magazine.
Google Universe Workshop to Be Offered in Fall Semester
Information and Library Services, in conjunction with the Center for Teaching and Learning, will once again offer the popular workshop, Google Universe: How to Make the Most of Your Students' Favorite Resource. The workshop, facilitated by Reference and Instruction Librarians and SUS library liaisons Ryan Shepard and Ed O'Donnell with the assistance of Advanced Technologies Librarian Kee-Young Moon, aims to teach faculty members the advantages and disadvantages of using Google as a tool for academic research. Topics covered in the workshop include performing advanced searches in Google that afford more precise and useful results, accessing and generating maps in Google Maps and Earth and using them as instructional tools, and linking to full text of articles in Google Scholar search results using the library's custom “find it at UMUC” links. Google Universe, running from October 6 until October 13, will be an asynchronous workshop conducted through WebTycho. For enrollment information, please see the Center for Teaching and Learning Web site.
New Library Research Skills Tutorial is Now Live!
Secrets of My Research Success is our interactive, Web-based research process tutorial that models the research process via a story. The main character, Quentin, is a UMUC student who also works for a film studio that is undergoing a corporate takeover. Anxiety is high and he remembers that he can get help from a UMUC librarian to locate information on what a corporate takeover is all about. He then decides to also use this as a paper topic that demonstrates the transferability of research skills. Throughout the tutorial are opportunities to reinforce the learning via games included within each module. The tutorial concludes with a final assessment piece.
For Your Information...
New Library Hours for Fall 2008
Information and Library Services librarians and staff will be moving to UMUC’s new Academic Building in early 2009. We are currently in the process of determining what in-person services will continue at UMUC's various locations. In preparation for the move and upcoming changes, the library’s walk-in service hours starting in fall 2008 will be 11am – 7pm Monday through Thursday, and 11am – 5pm on Fridays. This matches the times that UMUC students most use the library, and will allow us to make the best use of our resources in serving the majority of UMUC’s students, faculty, and staff who access library services online and by phone. All other services will continue unchanged, including:
- 24/7 chat and e-mail
- Instant Messaging:
- Monday-Thursday 9am – 9pm
- Friday 9am – 5pm
- Saturday-Sunday 1pm – 5pm
- Phone:
- Monday-Thursday 8:30am – 10pm
- Friday 8:30am – 5pm
McKeldin Library Office Hours
Research continues to be available to UMUC students, faculty, and staff in the ILS office in McKeldin Library, Room 6259 during the following hours:
- Saturday: 10am-6pm
- Sunday: Noon-8pm
Need to find us? Please visit Locations and Hours for more information.
Appointments
An appointment may be made to meet with an ILS librarian in the ILS library at the Student Faculty Services Center, at McKeldin library, or at the Dorsey Station library at other times using our Request an Appointment form.
Beginning with the Fall 2008 semester, you must log in to library resources—including databases, Quick Searches, Journal Finder, Research Port, DocumentExpress, RefWorks, and Chat—using either your library barcode number or EMPLID. Additional resources for faculty include Ereserves and Turnitin.com. Further details will be posted on the library Web site.
New DocumentExpress Interface Features Streamlined Look for Easy Navigation!
ILS's Document Management Team rolled out a new interface for its DocumentExpress service. The new interface makes it easier for DocumentExpress users to make requests and track information about their requests. In addition to a streamlined look designed for easy navigation, the interface features an expanded list of Request Types including forms for requesting Industry Standards, Conference Papers, Reports and Theses. Other enhancements include viewable lists of email notifications and requests canceled by the DocumentExpress staff. These new features will allow DocumentExpress users to more closely track their requests for documents.
Library Staff News
Dennis Nangle has joined the ILS staff in the role of Library Technician. Mr. Nangle is a recent graduate of Cedarville University in Dayton, Ohio, where he worked at the University library as a student supervisor.
Faculty Corner
Information and Library Services provides library liaison services to UMUC faculty. We welcome the opportunity to work closely with faculty to provide tailored library services to individual classes, whether it be visiting your online or face-to-face class, assisting in adding information literacy components to specific course assignments or projects, or providing handouts or online resources customized to your discipline or current course topic. Keep the liaison librarians in mind when you have library related questions, need extra help with research, or need instruction on how to use our resources.
GSMT
-
Julie Arnold
GSMT: Information and Technology Systems, Teacher Education -
Cynthia Thomes
GSMT: Business and Executive Programs; Management, Accounting, and Finance
SUS
-
Robert Miller
SUS: Department of Social, Behavioral, Natural, and Mathematical Sciences (SCIP) -
Ed O'Donnell
SUS: Department of Business and Professional Programs (BUSN) -
Ryan Shepard
SUS: Department of Computer Information Systems and Technology (CITE); areas that were formerly Department of Professional Practice: Criminal Justice, Fire Science, Legal Studies (Note: These are now under BUSN, but Ryan Shepard still covers them.)
In addition, Elizabeth Mulherrin, SUS Academic Director, LIBS150, is liaison to Department of Communication, Arts, and Humanities (COMM)
As the Fall 2008 semester begins, Information and Library Services librarians look forward to working with you and your classes, either via WebTycho or on-site, in the provision of library resources instruction. The transferable skill building and concept understanding that librarians offer in these sessions provide both a deeper comprehension and comfort level for your students in locating, evaluating, and using information relevant to their studies. This preparation and reinforcement will hold your students in good stead as they deal with the vast amount of available information during their academic careers and as productive employees and citizens. Please complete the Faculty Request for Library Instruction form to schedule one or more sessions for your classes.
Questions? Comments? Need more information? Please contact Barb Mann, Assistant Director for Public Services, or Information and Library Services.
We look forward to working with you!
Hot Sites... Literature
From Charles Dickens to Emily Dickinson, and Edgar Allan Poe to Edgar Lee Masters, these Web sites contain biographies, articles, and essays about the greatest names in literature. You can also access and download a variety of works by numerous authors. These sites are a great place to begin research for your literature classes. Happy reading!
- Bibliomania
Bibliomania contains thousands of e-books, poems, articles, short stories, and plays--all of which can be accessed at no charge. You can read the world's greatest fiction by authors such as Dickens and Joyce; delve into some Sherlock Holmes mysteries or Shakespeare plays; or sample short stories by writers such as Mark Twain, Anton Chekov, and Edgar Allan Poe.
The site boasts study guides written by Oxford and Cambridge University graduates, and offers in-depth summaries, discussions, and commentaries on numerous works. Bibliomania also brings you an extensive library of reference books, biographies, classic non-fiction, and religious texts.
- BookRags
Book Rags is a premier research site for students, with over 8.3 million pages of literature summaries, biographies, literary criticism, essays, encyclopedias, and eBooks sourced from over 100 respected education databases. - Cliffnotes
- SparkNotes
Created by Harvard students expressly for students, SparkNotes study guides from Barnes and Noble are the perfect aid for studying and writing papers. The guides contain thorough summaries and insightful critical analyses of a wide range of subjects including English literature, history, math, and science--all of which can be accessed for free.