Students Asked – AXE Responded!

Last Wednesday evening, 9/20/2009, the reference desk was inundated with request for the ‘Methods of Research Manual’. This manual was developed for a particular class and very few copies remained available.

Recognizing the student interested, the staff at AXE quickly moved to put the manual in its entirety online. The manual is available from the following path:

AXE Library Homepage > KTC Library Link > Under ‘Links’ find ‘Research Methods Media Tutorial > ‘Tips on How to Use the AXE Library for Research Fall 2009 OR use the following address to go directly to the page

http://library.pittstate.edu/ktc/media/AxeResearchTips_fall2009.pdf

Note that the chapters have been bookmarked for easy access. The AXE Library hopes that this tutorial will benefit many students. Please pass the word along!

IM comes to the Reference Desk at Axe Library

This semester the Axe librarians are experimenting with a new way to talk to their users: instant messaging via an embedded chat widget on the Library's homepage and help pages.

People with questions about how to find a book, an article, or any information, can contact librarians in real time from right where they are at their computers.

The person does not need to have an IM account or any special knowledge about instant messaging. The widget has a space to type the query. The return key will send the question to the Reference Desk to be answered by whoever is on duty at the time. Queries will be answered directly. Articles or other documentation are typically emailed to the person.

The chat window will indicate the service as "online" or "offline." A link to the Reference Email is provided above the chat window so a question can be emailed when the service is offline. Hours that the chat service is available are 7:45-11 pm Monday-Thursday, 7:45-7 pm Friday, 9-4 Saturday and 3-11 on Sunday.

It's convenient and it's fun. Try it. We would like to chat with you. Find the Library chat window on the homepage at http://library.pittstate.edu/

Academic OneFile added to Database Pages

The Library has just added Academic OneFile to it's ever growing list of online databases. Academic OneFile contains 8,000 journals, some reference books (in medicine, science, and biography for example), the New York Times, etc., for a total of 10,000 sources in all disciplines.

You may limit search results to peer reviewed journals or to full text items. Citations may be generated in MLA and APA styles.

Chemical Information: SIS

Chemical Information : SIS (Specialized Information Services) is a division of the National Library of Medicine and contains links to many free resources on chemistry, including ChemIDplus, TOXLINE, HSDB, DART, GENETOX, IRIS, ITER, LactMed, TOXMAP, and many others.

ChemIDplus alone contains more than 379,000 chemical records with 257,000 having the chemical structures displayed in the record. ChemIDplus is searchable by name, synonym, Chemical Abstracts Registry Service Number (CASRN), molecular formula, NLM and Superlist classification codes, NLM and government identifier locator code, and structure. ChemIDplus is easily searchable with any special plug-ins for simplified searching and increased access. Search results return results pointing to databases on toxicology, cancer research, genetics, hazardous materials handling, links to journal article citations, Internet resources with biomedical data, and pointers to federal and state regulatory agency lists that contains information about the search compound.

Other databases in Chemical Information : SIS include HSDB, or Household Substances Data Bank, which contain comprehensive, peer-reviewed toxicology data for about 5,000 chemicals, and TOXLINE, which contains References from toxicology literature.

Another database within in Chemical Information: SIS is LactMed, a peer-reviewed and fully referenced database of drugs to which breastfeeding mothers may be exposed. Among the data included are maternal and infant levels of drugs, possible effects on breastfed infants and on lactation, and alternate drugs to consider.

Further information about the Chemical Information: SIS website is available at http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/chemical.html. For Axe Library sources and more websites in chemistry, please visit Axe Library’s Research Guide in Chemistry. Please do not hesitate to contact the Reference Desk at Axe Library (ext. 4894) if you have any questions about this or other resources.

-BP

Gale Virtual Reference Library

The Gale Virtual Reference Library is one of the new services provided by the Axe Library. This virtual reference set covers a wide variety of subjects: Poets, novelists, drama, small business, medicine, economics, popular culture, biology. It includes encyclopedias on cancer, genetic disorders, medicine, and alternative medicine.

More sources will be added over time. The following titles are currently reflected:

Beacham's Guide to the Endangered Species of North America , 6v, 2000
Biology , 4v, 2002
Contemporary Novelists , 7th Ed., 2001
Contemporary Poets , 7th Ed., 2001
Drama for Students , Vol. 17, 2003
Drama for Students , Vol. 18, 2003
Drama for Students , Vol. 19, 2004
Drama for Students , Vol. 20, 2005
Encyclopedia of Small Business , 2nd Ed., 2v, 2002
Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine , 2nd Ed., 4v, 2005
Gale Encyclopedia of Cancer , 2v, 2002
Gale Encyclopedia of Genetic Disorders , 2v, 2002
Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine , 2nd Ed., 5v, 2002
Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America , 2nd Ed., 3v, 2000
Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History , 2v, 1999
Nonfiction Classics for Students , 5v, 2001
St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture , 5v, 2000
World of Earth Science , 2v, 2003

You may search the entire set, or an individual title. Browse through the table of contents, index, or actual contents of an individual source. Various citation formats are available.

A New Universe to Explore

The Library has recently added a new reference service called ReferenceUniverse. This new tool allows you to search back-of-the-book indexes of 10,000 reference works going back to 1985. About 85 percent of the titles are printed reference works, not available for federated (collective) searching any other way. Many of the titles are located in the Axe Library collection.

ReferenceUniverse bases it's selection of titles from sources such as the American Reference Book Annual (ARBA) and Choice Magazine. The titles span all disciplines and an extensive list is available (PDF, ~150 pp), showing titles, publishers, and amount of content available from online sources.

WorldCat Identities Beta

WorldCat Identities Beta is one of the many projects being rattled around in OCLC Research Works, basically an "OCLC Labs" type project.

WorldCat Identities is a way to find out which books by or about an author, artist, composer, etc., are the most popularly held in libraries. The opening page lists the top 100 'names' in libraries. Each link goes to a page on Shakespeare, Beethoven, Mozart, L'Amour, Azimov (composers dominate) and the like. You may also search for an individual using a simple search form.

Take the link to Steinbeck, for instance. The main section of the page lists the full name and dates (is this linked to the OCLC Name Authority file?). Other sections are:

Overview: The "Works" subsection states: "2,520 works in 6,077 publications in 61 languages and 320,869 library holdings".

Publication Timeline: This section shows the years 1910-2010. Under "1934-1935", there are 21 publications by the author. "1936-1937" shows 68 publications by John Steinbeck, but now there are 10 items about the author.

Works About: A list of the top 20 titles in libraries about the author.

Works By: The most widely held books written by John Steinbeck. The first entry of course is "The Grapes of Wrath". Then the line: "397 editions published between 1939 and 2006 in 27 languages and held by 17,463 libraries worldwide". Finally a synopsis of the book itself, and a bit of historical background of the book. Twenty titles are also listed in this category.

Audience Level: on a scale from 0 to 1 the author's 'appeal' is listed. 0 for kids, .5 for general audience, and 1 for special interest. Steinbeck garnishes "Audience level: 0.46 (from 0.39 for The red po... to 0.54 for Steinbeck ...)".

Related Names: What other names are associated with the "Person of Interest"? Well, Ernest Hemingway, John Ford, Eli Kazan, and Henry Fonda are four of ten listed.

And finally, Useful Links: Entries to the LC Authority File entry and Wikipedia entry are given.The sidebar lists thirteen alternate name variations (several in other languages). Popular titles are grouped by language, with the number of entries given for each. Finally, book covers are shown for the most popular works.

Clicking on page links takes you to the Open WorldCat entries for the titles in that category.


We certainly hope OCLC will develop this site further and keep this information available. This is an excellent source of concise... reliable Internet information on individuals. Anyone doing collection development, reference, or setting web links on their sites should utilize this service!

Further information is available from the OCLC ResearchWorks page (see also: OCLC ProductWorks and OCLC Research Projects pages for other ideas under production). And in a pinch, you could do a Google search on +"worldcat identities" to get pages of leads. Of note is Thom Hicky's blog entry on his blog "Outgoing".

Display Cases, April and May

Partly to commemorate the European discovery of Brazil by Pedro Alvares Cabral on April 22, 2007 and partly because Brazil was a key (and problematic) stop on George W. Bush’s March visit to our restive neighbors in South America, our first floor lobby display is entitled Brazil, Economic Powerhouse. Brazil, one of the more prosperous countries in South America, enjoys a trade surplus due to the demand for its commodities, a strong currency and also hopes to profit from the production of ethanol from its sugar cane. (Cheaper than the U.S. corn based ethanol.) To give a profile of the economic outlook in Brazil, we have placed articles from some of our online newspapers on the wall around the display case and have also placed many books and government documents on Brazil’s history, economy, relations with the United States and with its neighbors, internal politics, lingering poverty and efforts at social reform.

At the end of April (April 23rd to 27th) the Early Childhood Organization of PSU has asked us to put up a display on the Week of the Young Child. Here, we will put books, documents and periodical articles on such subjects as Education of young children, emotional and behavioral problems, reading, learning, play, guidance, gifted education and many other pertinent subjects..

Finally, on or about May 1st in honor of Cinco de Mayo, a Mexican holiday which commemorates the battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. (French forces fighting for Napoleon III, under General Charles de Lorencez were unexpectedly beaten by Mexican forces fighting for Benito Juarez under General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguin near the Mexican town of Puebla.) we will place books and articles in the display case pertinent to the history, culture, archaeology and politics of Mexico.

In the second floor display case we are commemorating the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad. (In 2007 it falls on March 31st for Sunnis and on April 5th for Shi’a) Several books are on display which are very informative about Islam, describing its global spread, its cross cultural appeal and the many different forms of worship in the many countries where it is practiced.

On May 1st, these materials will be replaced by biographies of the persons who most affected events in Mexico during the battle of Puebla. (Benito Juarez, the Emperor Maximilian, his wife Carlota and Napoleon III). So, come and see them and if you would like to ask us to check out a book from the cases, just ask. We’ll be glad to get it for you.


Benito Juarez, Mexico’s most brilliant and revered leader. He served as President from 1858 to 1872, successfully resisted the French occupation of Mexico and is lovingly remembered as being a progressive reformer dedicated to democracy, equal rights for the nation's indigenous Indian population, lessening the great power that the Roman Catholic Church then held over Mexican politics, and defense of national sovereignty. He died of a heart attack in 1872 while working at his desk in the National Palace in Mexico City. [Wikipedia]

And...For those Folks Planning a Trip this Summer

The Reference Department has been busy this Spring (with the diligent assistance of the Government Documents Department, whose assistants have eagerly helped us every step of the way) writing to tourist boards, chambers of commerce and other organizations who assist travelers. We have asked them to send us maps, brochures, guidebooks or other publications. They have obliged us by providing abundant material which is bursting out of the filing cabinets of our Description and Travel collection (Located to the left of our first floor photocopy machine). We have brochures and maps from the individual states, such as Ohio, Maine, North and South Carolina and from individual cities, such as New York City, Tucson, Phoenix, Dallas and many others. We also received material from every province in Canada (want to go to Nunavut this summer?) and many other countries, large (China) and small (Malaysia) as well as from island nations in the Caribbean and the South Pacific. And the materials haven’t stopped coming in.

If you are traveling this summer and need some material, just drop by the Library or give reference a call at 235-4894. All of the maps, brochures and guidebooks can be checked out and taken on your trip. Also, since we have a lot of duplicates, ask us to let you look at them before you leave. We’ll give them to you free of charge.

You Don't Have to Come to the Library to Crack Your Favorite Dictionary or Encyclopedia Anymore

On February 4, 2007, in blog in the New York Times, former talk show host-turned-newspaper-columnist, Dick Cavett, castigated our President for his "goofy inability" to pronounce the word "nuclear", scolding our Leader with the words: "What is so hard? A school kid botching it Bush's way - "nuke-you-lur" - would have to stand in the corner. Fortunately, an oval office has no corners."

Very funny, Dick, but lighten up! Mr. Bush's problem is that he doesn't have access to the American Heritage Dictionary Online as we do here at Pitt State. Our online version is not only available to us here but at home, if you sign in with your "user name" (student ID) and "Pass word" (GUS Pin). And it has something that the paper version does not. If your computer has a speaker, just turn it up and click on the tiny speaker next to the definition (In our example, "Of or relating to atomic nuclei") and you will hear a smooth, well educated voice pronounce the word the way it should be pronounced (Nuke-Lee-Ar). If one of our students becomes the first Kansas President to inhabit the White House since Eisenhower ("American general and the 34th President of the United States (1953-1961)." American Heritage defines famous people, too.) that person will never make the same mistake.

But that's only my favorite dictionary. How about your favorite encyclopedia? Let's say you are putting together a report on a President (Ford) or another world leader (Saddam Hussein). And let's say that you think these two public figures have just died, but can't remember the date. And "googling" it is out because the teacher has asked you to use a reliable [translation: Non Web] source. Well, there is good news, here. Two of the best encyclopedias published in the United States, the Encyclopedia Britannica Online and the WorldBook Online, are available to our students. Both of these encyclopedias have unique features, such as a clickable atlas, and both are updated everyday. (Gerald Ford's death date is December 26th, 2006; Saddam Hussein's, December 30th). Oh, and at two in the morning, you remember that your teacher said "don't forget to put your citations in MLA (Modern Language Association) or APA (American Psychological Association) format." No problem. Both encyclopedias give MLA format. Britannica, not to be outdone by an arch rival, gives both. Just go down to the end of the article.

And we now have a whole library of reference books in the form of Oxford Reference Online, brought to us by Oxford University Press. Oxford has assembled about 230 of its premier reference books and made it possible for a student to search them all at once. One realy nice feature they provide is called the "Search Oxford Reference Button", a bit of javascript code that can be added to your browser's toolbar. You may search the suite of Oxford Reference works by highlighting a section of text on any web site and clicking on the Oxford Reference Button. Languages translated, words defined, biographies found... life is good.

In honor of President's Day, let's run a search on John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Twenty six entries come up, in such varied sources as A Dictionary of Space Exploration (because of his pledge to put a man on the moon in a decade), A Dictionary of World History, The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military, The Oxford Guide to the United States Government and the Oxford Companion to United States History, to name a few. Several of the other famous Kennedy relatives, such as his parents, Joseph and Rose, his wife, Jacqueline and his brothers, Robert and Edward also show up in the same search. And, yes, at the end of the article you are given the citation in MLA format.

One more perk. If you are using the reference works in the Library, you can send the articles to yourself via e-mail. So, maybe those "all nighters" can end at 11PM instead of 2 AM. And you won't need any "Red Bull".

-JV

Library Display Cases: A Way to Keep Abreast of College and National Events

Do you take an interest in national and international events? Would reading books, newspapers and magazines about them give you an idea for a report or speech.? Is it between terms and you find yourself with time on your hands to read? Then have a look at our library display cases. (First Floor Lobby and 2nd Floor Stacks.) If an event of interest comes up in the news or on campus, we gather our best books, magazines, government documents, films or web sites and put them on display for people to look at and, if they wish, take out. Everything in the cases, except for restricted items such as periodicals, is available to check out. We have covered the war in Iraq several times, and 9/11 at least three times. We cover elections, famous (or notorious) people, commemorative events, holidays and on campus events such as Alcohol Awareness Week. We occasionally cover Library events such as the Annual Gene DeGruson Memorial Lecture or the Annual Faculty Author Reception.


2nd Floor to be Dedicated to International Affairs and Culture

Dr. Ananda Jayawardhana, Associate Professor of Mathematics, recently approached the Library and asked us to set aside a display area dedicated to international themes. We promised him we would dedicate the second floor display area to this purpose. We just recently put a display up on African Art and Culture, which has many beautiful picture books on display about masks, sculpture and painting as well as pictures from web sites and online encyclopedias. However, when Dr. Jayawardhana informed us that the Chinese Student Association was celebrating the Chinese New Year on February 17, 2007 (Year of the Pig) at the First Church of the Nazarene, we made of a display on the first floor to honor Chinese Culture and History. We have pictures of Chinese New Year celebrations from New York City, two towns in California, London, Liverpool, Vancouver and Augusta, Georgia and books with Chinese fashions throughout the centuries, art, religion and food as well as material on China's new economic miracle.

In the future, we will announce all displays in our library newsletter. For more information, please contact Jane Victor.

- JV