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Welcome back, instructors! I hope you had pleasant holidays.
A quick word to remind you that I am available to meet your class to provide library instruction. I can explain the library system and services to your students – for example the library system structure, the catalog and databases; circulation issues, source citations and Refworks; etc. I can also show them how to search the catalog and the article databases. The session content will depend on your needs and the amount of time available.
If interested, you can contact me at 667-7737 or clw@lakeland.usf.edu to schedule a session.
Finally, more developed webpages for the Lakeland library services! Please visit http://www.lklnd.usf.edu/libraries.html and let me know what you think of the new webpages. You can even use our new dynamic PDF comment form to do so (fancy that!).
Other new forms include those for Reference Questions, Research Appointments and Purchase
Recommendations.
The PCC/USF Library will close today, Friday the 16th at 4:00 PM. The Library is then officially closed until Wednesday, January 4th when it will reopen at 8:00 AM.
Staff will nevertheless be available to help with PCC registration on December 16th, 19th, 20th and 21st as well as January 2nd and 3rd on reduced hours. Call the Library at 297-1042 to verify opening hours.
The Open Use Lab will not be offering support during the period. In addition, the machines will be going through maintenance and may not be accessible.
Tomorrow is the Libraries Annual Meeting in Tampa. It’s the one event where staff and librarians from all the libraries get together and celebrate. Presentations about the libraries’ various accomplishments will be made – I will present for Lakeland – and poster sessions displayed (idem for Lakeland as well).
Wether for a paper, a dissertation or an article, this webpage prepared by Academic Word, an editing service, could prove useful with its tools for authors.
Academic Computing in Tampa has announced that Blackboard services will be down starting Wednesday, December 21, at 12:01 AM for an upgrade. That date was chosen because the campus chilled water supply will be interrupted for 24 hours starting on December 22 at 4:45PM. Access will be restored as soon as possible after the chilled water will be brought on.
If you need to access the USF Libraries services during Blackboard downtime from off-campus, you can still log in using the proxy server. Use the second number on your USF ID card.
In a related manner, it is possible that the USF blog system will be brought down if Academic Computing fears over-heating.
If you search the PsychINFO database through the Ovid interface, you migth be interested to know about a new filter to refine your queries. Clinical Queries filter in only clinically sound search results by allowing end-users to set limits in as many as 9 categories—therapy, diagnosis, prognosis, reviews, clinical prediction guides, qualitative studies, etiology, costs, and economics—based on research studies by the Health Information Research Unit (HIRU) of McMaster University.
How Does It Work?
After performing an initial search, select the “More Limits” icon on the Main Search page. From the Clinical Queries list, choose a filter category from as many of the nine that are available for the specific database. Results are further refined by selecting one of three additional limiting options: “sensitivity”, which retrieves the greatest percentage of relevant citations within the database; “specificity”, which retrieves the greatest percentage of relevant articles within the search results; and “optimization”, which combines both options.
This is from ABC-CLIO, our vendor for the Historical Abstracts and America: History and Life database.
Dear Historical Abstracts and America: History and Life subscribers,
Celebrating 50 years of reference publishing in 2005, ABC-CLIO embarked on a multi-year program to upgrade and enhance Historical Abstracts and America: History and Life. With a redesigned interface and over 1.2 million entries and 330,000 full-text links, these landmark resources are more than ever the first place to begin any search in the area of history.
A beta version of both databases will be available to you as of Thursday, December 1, whereby you can choose to access either the existing database or the beta site version, for the entire month of December. We think you, and your patrons, will be pleased with the new look, navigational ease, and enhanced research capabilities available within the beta site version. The option of using either the existing or the beta databases will last throughout December, before the newly enhanced version becomes the sole access option for both Historical Abstracts and America: History and Life, on Monday, January 2, 2006.
The following enhancements will be accessible to you via the beta site version on Thursday, December 1:
* New interface will allow users to get to the information they need quickly and easily, with fewer page downloads and fewer mouse clicks
* A combined simple and advanced search screen allows the user to control the display of search fields and search results
* New pop-up help tips assist the user in constructing successful searches
* New retrospective coverage from JSTOR journals dating from 1838-2005, resulting in an increase of nearly 78% in full-text links by project’s end
* New search history functionality records search criteria, allowing users to rerun previous searches
* New expand and collapse record functionality streamlines the process of viewing results by displaying and hiding abstracts at the click of a mouse
Other useful enhancements –
* A new Export to Citation Manager feature will allow the user to save results directly to EndNote, ProCite, or Reference Manager
* New setup functionality for non-OpenURL resolvers, permitting linking to non-OpenURL catalogs
* A User’s Forum will provide technical and database content support and a place for discussions related to the databases
* Full-text links to over 330,000 sources, including ProQuest’s Dissertations and Theses Database
Available to be checked out at the PCC\USF Library:
- The new rulers of the world [videorecording] : a special report / by John Pilger
Videocassette – HD5710.75.I5 N49 2001
- A dog’s life : the autobiography of a stray / by Ann M. Martin
Childrens Books — PZ10.3.M3549 Dog 2005
- Inkspell / Cornelia Funke
Childrens Books — PZ7.F96624 Ins 2005
IEEE Xplore will be down for maintenance on Monday, November 28th from approximately 2 to 3 PM EST. During maintenance, users will be able to access the site, search, and view abstracts, but they will be unable to view full-text PDFs.
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