Library Information

The University Library has an information table by the pond-side entrance to the library that is stacked with useful information about the Library for new and returning students and faculty. The table includes campus maps, library hours and TRACcard handouts. Circulation and Reference staff the table from 10:00am - 1:00pm to answer any questions students may have.

Paul Hendrix answering student questions

USA Librarians Get In on the Jag Bike Fun!

Several University Library Librarians took advantage of the wonderful weather today to try out the new Jag Bikes on campus.

For information on the new Jag Smart Initiative, check out this site.

How to go green using Jag Bikes.

Click here for a map of Jag Bike stations and routes.

Have fun, be safe, and go green!

Check out some more pics of librarians having fun!

JagFest 2011

Beth Rugan and Ellen Wilson manned the University Library's table at JagFest on Saturday, August 20. They had swag to give away and were completely cleaned out by the end of the campus fair. Ellen and Beth gave away five or six bags of candy, 500 pencils, 100 brochures with library information for students, a stack of bookmarks, and a large stack of  blue library information sheets for students.

ebrary ebook collections

The University Library has recently subscribed to ebrary's Academic Complete collection, giving us access to over 70,000 ebook titles in 15 different subject areas including Anthropology, Psychology, Fine Arts, History, Social Sciences and Education.

Currently you can access these titles by going to the Library's homepage, choosing Electronic Books, and then choosing ebrary. We are working on adding these titles to SOUTHcat so they will appear when you do a search in our catalog as well.

Pages from ebrary titles can be printed by using the InfoTools button and choosing Print. You can choose to print the current page, a range of pages (with the maximum number of pages being 60) or an entire chapter.

You can save books to a bookshelf within ebrary by creating a free account. Then when you login and do a search, you can  add titles to your bookshelf (this will also save any annotations you may make in the book) by simply clicking on the Add to My Bookshelf button. Even though you've saved this book to your bookshelf, it is still available for others to read.

Since ebrary books cannot be saved to your computer, they cannot currently be used on an ereader. This is something the company is working on and hopes to make available soon.

Closed Monday, July 4th

The University Library will be closed Monday, July 4th in observance of Independence Day! We will resume regular summer hours Tuesday, July 5th. Have a wonderful and safe holiday!

Academic Search Complete

The University Library has upgraded its subscription to the major EBSCO general interest database, Academic Search Premier, from the Premier version to Academic Search Complete. In so doing, we have been able to provide faculty, staff and students with access to almost twice the number of journals that were available in Academic Search Premier (over 4500), as Academic Search Complete indexes over 8500 journals.

Just like Academic Search Premier, Academic Search Complete can be used on your mobile device. Use the following URL:

http://libproxy2.usouthal.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.asp?profile=mobsmart

University Librarians Attend and Present at the Alabama Library Association Conference

Six librarians from the University of South Alabama Libraries, both the University Library and Biomedical Library, attended this year's Alabama Library Association annual conference in Orange Beach, Alabama, April 19-22.

Many of these librarians also presented at the conference. University librarians Elizabeth Rugan and Ellen Wilson presented research posters at the conference's poster presentation sessions. Wilson's poster explained the citation habits of students in an undergraduate political science class, while Rugan's poster explored ways in which academic libraries can implement QR code technology to serve their patrons.

Biomedical librarian Andrea Wright, University librarian Paula Webb, and USA Baldwin County Campus librarian Angela Rand served on this year's Technoforum and discussed social media in the library. The forum was sponsored by the Technical Services and Systems Round Table of the Alabama Library Association.

University Librarians Vera Finley and Muriel Nero hosted a presentation for NAAL entitled “Outsourcing End Processing to Baker and Taylor at USA: Benefits and Cost Effectiveness.” This presentation described what was outsourced at the University Library, as well as the results of the process. Baker and Taylor provide the following physical processing of some University Library books: spine labels, label protectors, date due slips, and laminated book covers. The University Library started outsourcing these services in April of 2006 and it has proven to be very cost effective.


Ellen Wilson, Instructional Services Librarian, University Library









Elizabeth Rugan, Reference and Instruction Librarian, University Library

National Library Week, April 10-16

Celebrate National Library Week and Create your own story @ University Library, April 10-16

This National Library Week, join our nation’s libraries and librarians and Create your own story @ your library.

The University Library is celebrating National Library Week by hosting library quotation prize drawings; staffing a Disaster Preparedness table at Community Day, April 13 10am-3pm; and conducting an online e-book survey.

First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country each April.

For more information, contact Elizabeth Rugan 251.460.7025 or Paula Webb 251.460.7024.

We Want To Know...

...how you use e-books. As part of National Library Week, April 10-16, the University Library is surveying users regarding their use of our e-book collections.

Take this short electronic survey and Enter to Win! It's a double whammy; we get valuable information, and you get a chance to win!

The more you tell us, the better we can make your library.

-The Librarians

E-Book Survey

University Librarians Participate in USA Faculty Research Forum 2011

Two members of the University Library Reference department, Elizabeth Rugan and Kathy Wheeler, are participating in this year's USA Faculty Research Forum. The poster created by Rugan and Wheeler describes the many ways in which USA librarians are preparing college freshman for the rigors of college-level, academic research.

Stop by the Student Center Lobby sometime this week and check out the poster. Rugan and Wheeler will be present for questions Thursday, March 31 from 2-4 pm in the Student Center Lobby.

We hope to see you there!

Paula Webb -- Library Journal Movers and Shakers

Paula Webb, Reference & Electronic Resources/Government Documents Librarian, has been named as a Community Builder among Library Journal's 2011 Movers and Shakers for her work on the Government Document's Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill web page and for her work on the committee that was able to bring a branch of the Mobile Public Library to Semmes, AL.

For the complete story, see http://www.libraryjournal.com/csp/cms/sites/LJ/LJInPrint/MoversAndShakers/profiles2011/moversandshakersWebb.csp

Congratulations, Paula!

Tax Information

Need help with finding information on tax preparation? The USA University Library provides access to paper copies of the most-used, current tax forms and instructions during the tax season (Jan.-April). The materials are free and available near the Documents/Serials Department Help Desk on 2nd Floor South. If the library does not have a form you need, we can assist you in locating a copy on the web for print-out.

For more information, check out the Government Documents Libguide at http://libguides.southalabama.edu/docstaxes

Vicki Tate
Head, Government Documents/Serials

USA Librarians Conduct High School Librarian Workshop

Members of the University Library's Reference Department, Kathy Wheeler and Elizabeth Rugan, conducted a workshop for Baldwin County high school librarians at Fairhope High School Library on the topics of preparing high school students for college-level research and what students should know about research when they enter college. Topics included information literacy, plagiarism, citing sources, the need to understand the importance of databases such as those at the Alabama Virtual Library, understanding the limitations of Google for serious research, the problems with using Wikipedia, web page evaluation, and teaching students to be responsible users of information.

The Alabama Virtual Library has received trials for three career resources. These databases will remain active through June 30, 2011. They are:

1. Career Library
2. Ferguson's Career Guidance Center
3. Small Business Reference Center

These databases can be accessed from on or off-campus with a USA ID card or an AVL card. Check them out for your career information needs.

The University Library also has trials of two ebook packages through the AVL:

1. Gale Ebooks: trial through March 15
2. APA Books: psychology books

New Librarian

Elizabeth Rugan has recently joined the staff of the University Library as its Instruction and Reference Librarian, Assistant Librarian. Beth has her Masters in Library and Information Science from Louisiana State University. She also holds an M.A. in English from LSU and was a teacher before she came to USA. In addition to her reference duties, Beth will co-design and implement the information literacy program at the University Library.

Welcome Beth!

Holiday and Interim Hours

Holiday and Interim Hours

• December 15, Wednesday - December 22, Wednesday: 8:00am - 5:00pm. (ARC Computer Lab: 8:00am-4:00pm) CLOSED WEEKENDS
• December 23, Thursday - January 2, Sunday: CLOSED
• January 3, Monday - January 16, Sunday: Monday - Friday: 8:00am-5:00pm. (ARC Computer Lab: 8:00am-4:00pm) CLOSED WEEKENDS
• January 17, Monday: CLOSED -- MLK Day

Regular hours being of the first day of classes: Tuesday, January 18th.

Final Exam Hours

FINAL Exam Hours

The University Library's Final Exam hours begin December 6:

1. December 6, Monday -December 9, Thursday : 7:45am - Midnight
2. December 10, Friday : 7:45am - 8:00pm
3. December 11, Saturday : 9:30am - 8:00pm
4. December 12, Sunday: 1:00pm - 11:00pm
5. December 13, Monday: 7:45am - 11:00pm
6. December 14, Tuesday: 7:45am - 6:00pm (Last day of Exams)

For the complete list see http://library.southalabama.edu/studyhoursFALL2010.pdf

Points of View Reference Center

The Alabama Virtual Library has added EBSCO's Points of View Reference Center to its subscription databases, so USA students have access to it by going through either the University Library's web site or the AVL web site.

Points of View Reference Center is much like Gale's Opposing Viewpoints in that it is designed to provide users with information on current controversial topics from multiple sides. Because of this emphasis on representing various points of view on a topic, the Points of View Reference Center is especially useful for students writing persuasive or argumentative papers. Types of materials represented in the POV Reference Center are the Points of View essays, periodicals, newspapers and images. The Points of View essays, as well as taking a side on an issue, provide readers with a bibliography for further reading.

Although it is an EBSCO database, the interface for the Points of View Reference Center is different from the EBSCO databases you may be used to using, and it is not listed in our EBSCO list of databases. You will find it at the University Library's homepage (http://library.southalabama.edu/) under Articles, Indexes and Databases or Electronic Reference Sources.

New Digital Archive Collections guide

Our Reference Intern, Alisha Linam, has prepared a great new guide to Digital Archive Collections. The link is on our homepage right under the link to SOUTHcat: USA Libraries' Catalog.

New Electronic Book Collections

The University Library recently purchased the following electronic book collections from ebrary: Business and Economics, Computers and IT, Education, Engineering and Technology, Environment, Psychology and Social Work, Special Needs Education, and Sports and Recreation.

These collections add approximately 280 ebooks to the current ebook collection owned by the USA Libraries. To access them, go to the University Library's Electronic Book page at http://library.southalabama.edu/ebooks.html.

JSTOR - New Arts & Sciences Collection

The University Library has recently acquired access to the JSTOR Arts & Sciences V Collection. This multidisciplinary collection of 120 journal backfiles includes art and museum publications, state historical society journals, and literature journals which publish original literary works as well as reviews and criticism. Key titles in history and in classical studies include least 15 journals published in German, French, Spanish, or Italian. Other disciplines covered include African Studies, Archaeology, Asian Studies, and Middle East Studies.

To search the Arts & Sciences V Collection, as well as all JSTOR content, go to the University Library's "Articles, Indexes, and Databases" page at http://www.usouthal.edu/univlib/other.html and choose "JSTOR".

USA's Government Documents Department

The University Library's Government Documents Department is the Federal Depository Library Program's Spotlight Library. The article focuses on the department's reaction to providing information on the Gulf Oil Spill, but also discusses the ways in which the department provides access to other kinds of information to patrons.

For the complete FDLP article, see http://www.fdlp.gov/outreach/spotlight/748-univofsouthalabama. Congrats, Gov Docs.

Alabama Red-bellied Turtle

Barbara Jackson, in Government Documents, found a rare Alabama Red-bellied turtle on the balcony outside the University Library last week. Dr. David Nelson, of USA's Biology department, came and retrieved the turtle. According to Dr. Nelson, "After being measured (extensively), weighed, and photographed to extreme, the lovely female turtle was released yesterday. Doubtless, she is happily feeding on swamp salad of submergent macrophytes."

"The Alabama red-bellied turtle is a large herbivorous turtle that has the smallest distribution of any North American turtle species. It only occurs in streams and embayments in the lower part of the Mobile Bay Drainage System in Mobile and Baldwin Counties in Alabama. This species was listed as ENDANGERED by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1987 and was designated as the Official State Reptile of Alabama in 1990." (http://www.savetheredbelly.org/)

Dr. Nelson attached the following two photos of the University Library's Red-bellied turtle:

Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Information

This satellite image is from NOAA/NASA. The Mississippi and Alabama coasts are in green at the top and the platform is the little tiny red dot the bottom yellow arrow on the left is pointing to.

The University Library Government Documents web site is a good source for the latest government information on the oil spill. For basic information, see http://www.southalabama.edu/univlib/govdocs/gd/. The Gov Docs Department has also prepared a more in-depth bibliography of sources regarding the oil spill. It includes links to maps of the spill and information about Alabama and Mobile, specifically. For this bibliography, see http://www.southalabama.edu/univlib/govdocs/gd/oilspill2010.html.

The Gulf of Mexico Sea Grant Programs web site also contains up-to-date information on the oil spill: http://gulfseagrant.tamu.edu/oilspill/index.htm. Here you will find phone numbers to call to report oiled wildlife or shorelines as well as numbers to call to discuss spill-related damage.

Excellence in Librarianship Award

The 2010 recipient of the Excellence in Librarianship Award is Ellen K. Wilson, Instructional Technology/Reference librarian. Ellen was cited as having displayed excellence in all areas of her job, including instructional technology, library instruction, professional development and service. The Excellence in Librarianship Award committee noted Ellen's development of online tutorials, her work with Freshman Seminar instructors, and her scheduling and teaching of classes.

The committee also commented on Ellen's superior work outside her job, contributing to the profession. She has presented at the Southern Political Science Association, the Mississippi Library Association, and the Alabama Library Association. Ellen presented a poster entitled Citation Analysis of Undergraduate Honors Theses at the USA Research Forum. Along with Rob Gray, Paula Webb and Andrea Wright, she conducted an in-service training session on Web 2.0 for the Mobile County Library Media Specialists. Ellen is the current secretary of the Alabama Association of College and Research Libraries.

Ellen's service activities have included serving as the chair of the University Library Public Relations Committee. She is the chair of the University Libraries' Forum, and she has represented the University Library at the HR Benefits Fair and at JagFest. Ellen was appointed to the University Writing Committee and serves on the University Library Homepage Committee and the University Library Intranet Committee.

Congratulations, Ellen!

EBSCO Academic Search Premier and AVL

From the Alabama Virtual Library help desk:

"Academic Search Premier (upgrade to Academic Search Elite) is now available on the AVL website until 9/30/10. Be sure to check it out!" at http://www.avl.lib.al.us/.

The AVL downgrade to Academic Search Elite never really affected USA's access since the University Library librarians felt that access to Academic Search Premier was important enough for our students that we needed to figure out a way to pay for it. We, in the library, hope that usage of Academic Search Premier between now and September 30 is high enough that the AVL realizes this in one database they need to make sure they keep.

Staff Appreciation Awards and Lunch

For the beginning of National Library Week, the University Library held a Staff Appreciation Lunch where awards were presented to Heather Hoven and Scotty Kirkland.

Heather Hoven began working at the library in the Circulation department in 2005 and was promoted to Library Technical Assistant in 2007. She was profiled in the USA Vanguard's section A Day in the Life Of : http://www.usavanguard.com/a-day-in-the-life-1.1305229

Scotty Kirkland began working for the University Library in Government Documents in January 2006. He moved to the Archives in September of that year and has worked there since. Scotty earned his M.A. in American History in December 2009. His thesis was on politics and the civil rights movement in Mobile from WWII to 1985.

National Library Week

Neil Gaiman, winner of the 2009 Newbery Award for The Graveyard Book, is the honorary Chairman for National Library Week. Through his blog at http://journal.neilgaiman.com/, he links to author Laurie King's fun contest for NLW -- the Fantasy Library Contest. Tell her what your dream library would look like -- you can even send her pictures and blueprints! Your favorite library could win a copy of every Laurie R. King book ever written, plus you could win Laurie King literary art for your fantasy library's walls.

National Library week begins April 11, so celebrate by designing the library you've always wanted.

Addendum: Stream the National Library Week event, An Evening with Neil Gaiman, on Monday, April 12th from 6:00 – 8:00 pm EDT, here: http://gaimanatjcpl.org/

AVL Databases

From the Alabama Virtual Library Help Desk comes some very good news:

At the AVL Executive Council meeting on Feb. 18th, the council voted to license the following databases for a limited time thru Sept. 30, 2010. Usage of the resources will be monitored, and although these databases have been restored for the remainder of the State of Alabama's fiscal year, we cannot guarantee they will be available next year.  To help secure their continued availability, please contact your State of Alabama elected officials (http://www.legislature.state.al.us/misc/zipsearch.html),
and tell them how the AVL helps you!

Has the AVL helped you finish an important school project, find a job, or start a business?  The more real-life stories we have to share with our elected officials, the greater the likelihood we can maintain and, possibly, add resources.  Please share with us your success stories (Email:  avlhelpdesk@asc.edu).

Databases licensed until Sept. 30, 2010:

    Britannica's Annals of American History
    Britannica's World Data Analyst
    Britannica's Spanish-Language Resources
        Enciclopedia Juvenil
        Enciclopedia Universal en Español
    Wilson's Biography Reference Bank

The University Library will be adding these database back to our web pages.

Mardi Gras

The University Library will be closed on Tuesday, February 16, for Mardi Gras. Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez! Here's some information from the Library of Congress about the development of the Mardi Gras tradition in Mobile which notes that Mobile is indeed the home of the first Mardi Gras celebration.

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/legacies/AL/200002665.html

Scopus Day at the University of South Alabama Libraries

The University Libraries are sponsoring SCOPUS Day on Friday, January 29. This day will consist of three separate events:

Librarian Session: 9:00am: All librarians and library staff are encouraged to attend the morning session. This update will highlight new features in SCOPUS following the January 2010 release - particularly the inclusion of new journal and article ranking metrics to aid in research evaluation.

Lunch and Learn Author Workshop: 12:00 noon[Lunch will be provided.]: This free session, in the College of Medicine Conference Room will focus on SCOPUS as a unique solution for authors. It will emphasize the features in SCOPUS that will help authors manage their online publications, find collaborators, and use metrics to make their grant applications more competitive.

A free box lunch will be provided for the first fifty who RSVP. Door prizes and a chance to win an ipod will also be offered.

SCOPUS General Information session: 2:30 to 3:30 PM [Snacks and door prizes will be provided.] at the same location. This session will provide a thorough overview of the unique features that make SCOPUS different from other available tools, including the Author and Affiliation Identifiers and the Journal Analyzer. It will also include an overview of the new features included in the January 2010 release.

RSVP to medlib@bbl.usouthal.edu or (251) 460-7044 specifying the session you wish to attend by Monday, January 25, 2010.

Fellowship opportunity: UNC Chapel Hill

The School of Information and Library Science (SILS) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is seeking applicants for fellowships for a new program called "Educating Stewards of Public Information in the Twenty-First Century" or ESOPI-21. These Fellowships are funded through a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services.

The fellowships will be for students enrolled in the Master of Public Administration (MPA) and Master of Science in Information/Library Science (MSIS/MSLS) dual degree program between the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Information and Library Science and the School of Government.

The two-year fellowships offer:

* A 15 hour per week position as a Fellow in Public Information Stewardship at the National Records and Archives Administration, the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, Archives & Records Section, and/or the UNC at Chapel Hill University Archives.

* An annual stipend of $16,000.

* In-state tuition and health coverage

* One time enrichment fund of $2,500 which can be used for travel or other resources such as a computer.

* Opportunities to meet experts in public information curation via symposia, conferences and workshops.

As a component piece of the project, two cohorts of four ESOPI-21 Fellows (eight Fellows in total over the grant period) will each combine coursework with internship assignments in one or more governmental digital records environments, leading to a dual master's degree in Information Science or Library Science and a master's degree in Public Administration. The program's goal is to prepare the next generation of public information stewards. It offers Fellowship recipients the opportunity to engage in government records archiving and curatorial duties and to receive supervision and mentorship from senior public records experts in various types of government records management and other information management settings.

About ESOPI-21

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)-funded project, "Educating Stewards of Public Information in the Twenty-First Century" or ESOPI-21, is a collaboration of SILS, UNC at Chapel Hill's School of Government (SOG), the University Archives (UA) at UNC at Chapel Hill, the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, Archives and Records Section (NCDCR-ARS), and the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). ESOPI-21 seeks to prepare the next generation of public information stewards by building on the Digital Curation Curriculum IMLS-funded projects at SILS and by developing fellowships, curricula, courses, and experiential components designed specifically for the needs of public sector information professionals.

Applying for the Fellowship: The ESOPI-21 Fellowship is provided to masters level students who are pursuing the dual degree program offered by SILS and the SOG. Acceptance into both programs is a requirement for the award.

Steps for application are:

1. Apply to SILS via the regular admissions process found on the MSIS Admission page at http://sils.unc.edu/programs/msis/admissions.html or the MSLS Admissions page at http://sils.unc.edu/programs/msls/admissions.html

Students are encouraged to apply by January 1, 2010 as this ensures consideration of the greatest amount of university funding, but we are accepting applications for this program up to February 15.

2. Apply to the SOG via the regular admissions process found on the MPA Admissions page at http://www.sog.unc.edu/uncmpa/applicants/admission.html. Students must apply by February 1.

3. In addition to the required written statement of your intended research focus, we ask that you write a separate essay elaborating on these goals and how they are related to the goals of ESOPI-21. Please see the ESOPI-21 Web page for more details (http://ils.unc.edu/esopi21/index.html). Please send this essay in an e-mail message to Dr. Helen Tibbo (tibbo (at) email (dot) unc (dot) edu) or Dr. Cal Lee (callee (at) ils (dot) unc (dot) edu) no later than February 15, 2010. Earlier applications are encouraged. Please note that we are only able to accept applications from
United States Citizens at this time.

*******************************************
Wanda Monroe
Director of Communications
School of Information and Library Science
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
100 Manning Hall
Campus Box 3360
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3360
Phone: 919.843.8337
Web site: sils.unc.edu
___________________________________________

Scholarship opportunity: University of Southern Mississippi receives IMLS grant

The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) recently received a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Studies (IMLS) to recruit ten minority students for its fully accredited, online, master of library science program. Students who are chosen for the grant will receive full tuition waiver, $400.00 per semester for the purchase of books, a laptop computer, and $9,000.00 per year as a stipend. They also will attend special programming and training from the Mississippi Library Commission (MLC), and will attend the American Library Association annual meeting in 2011. The students must take nine hours of classes each semester and work five hours per week at either USM’s Cook Library in Hattiesburg or the MLC in Jackson.

For more information, please visit: http://www.misslib.org/index.php/2009/11/30/university-of-southern-mississippi-receives-imls-grant/

Scholarship opportunity: E-government Librarianship Scholarship Program

The Center for Library and Information Innovation at the iSchool at the University of Maryland College Park in partnership with the Government Information Online Initiative and the University of Illinois at Chicago, is accepting applications for 20 Master of Library Science (MLS) scholarships. The scholarships are for a new online MLS program focused on e-government services and digital government information. Applications are due by 1 February 2010, and the program is scheduled to begin in Fall 2010.

For more information, please visit: http://liicenter.org/libegov

Multiple Database Searching

The USA Biomedical Library has purchased WebFeat, a cross-database search engine, in order to facilitate searching of their electronic books. Because access includes the University Library, we have set it up so that many of our databases, such as Oxford Journals Online, Sage Journals Online, ACLS Humanities E-books, JSTOR and Wiley Interscience, can all be searched using one interface.

You can search by keyword, title, author, abstract, or subject and choose your own databases, or you can enter a search term and choose a general topic, such as Art & Humanities or Business, where the databases have already been chosen for you. WebFeat includes the ability to limit your search to Full-text articles only and/or Peer-reviewed articles.

Check out the University Library's implementation of WebFeat here: http://wfxsearch.webfeat.org/wfsearch/menu?cid=13098&cat=72060

EBSCO Databases Go Mobile

Ever wished you could access the University Libraries' databases from your phone? Well, now you can; at least the EBSCOhost databases, which include Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier, CINAHL, Medline with Fulltext, PsycARTICLES, SocINDEX with Fulltext, Education Research Complete, and a variety of other databases.

This access is only in its infancy and I've only tested it on two phones -- the iPhone and the Blackberry Curve (mine is an 8320) -- but to try mobile access to our EBSCO databases go to:

http://libproxy2.usouthal.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.asp?profile=mobsmart

You will need to login with your usual remote credentials.

Javascript needs to be enabled to use the libraries' databases. To do this for the Blackberry:

1. Check your Blackberry's OS version first by clicking on the Options icon (mine is a wrench) and then About. Your OS will need to be version 4.0 or higher; older versions do not support JavaScript.
2. Open your Blackberry Internet Browser by clicking on your Internet icon.
3. Click on the button and choose Options.
4. Choose Browser Configuration and scroll down to Support JavaScript. Check that box and save your changes.

The iPhone and iTouch seem to run these databases beautifully; the Blackberry's implementation is much uglier and I haven't been able to open a pdf file as a native pdf -- instead I get an ugly rendering of the text.

Try mobile access on your phone and let me know how it goes (kwheeler@jaguar1.usouthal.edu); be sure to tell me the type of phone you've used and any issues you've had accessing pdf files.

Favorite Banned Book

Thanks everybody for participating in the University Library's vote for your favorite banned book. Here are the results:

The Winner: The Giver by Lois Lowry

Runners Up:

Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

Honorable Mentions:

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’ Engle
Scary Stories by Alvin Schwartz
Bible
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Peterson
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
The Witches by Roald Dahl
And Tango Makes Three by Richardson and Parnell
Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
A Clockwork Orange by Antony Burgess
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
The Great Santini by Pat Conroy
His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Kama Sutra
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Native Son by Richard Wright
Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs
Where’s Waldo by Martin Hanford

Banned Books Week

Banned Books Week, September 26 - October 3

Banned Books Week is an annual recognition, held in the last week of September, of the importance of the First Amendment to readers and writers. It celebrates the freedom to read what we want to read and emphasizes the significance of open access to information. The American Library Association lists the most Frequently Challenged Books in libraries at http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/index.cfm

Check out the posters of Frequently Challenged and Banned Books at the University Library -- you can't miss them when you come in the doors. Also, don't forget to vote for your favorite banned book at the Circulation Desk.

AVL Databases

The Alabama Virtual Library has been a boon to our state as far as research is concerned. It has provided databases for all ranges and ages of researchers -- from kindergarten to graduate student to general public. Having access to the AVL has allowed the University of South Alabama Libraries to subscribe to very subject-specific databases such as ArtStor and IEEE Xplore, knowing that the general use databases had already been taken care of by the AVL.

Like the rest of the state, the AVL has been affected by the economic situation and finds its funding to be less this year than previous years. Keeping its mission in mind -- to provide information for all levels of researchers -- the AVL recently decided to cut the following databases from its list. Access will not be available after September 31:

OCLC FirstSearch databases

1. CAMIO - Catalog of Art Museum Images Online
2. ArchiveGrid
3. ArticleFirst
4. ClasePeriodica
5. Electronic Collections Online
6. GPO Monthly Catalog
7. MEDLINE
8. OAIster
9. PapersFirst
10. ProceedingsFirst
11. World Almanac
12. WorldCat
13. WorldCat Dissertations

H.W. Wilson's Biography Reference Bank
SIRS Knowledge Source databases

1. SIRS Issues Researcher
2. SIRS Government Reporter
3. SIRS Renaissance

Britannica's add-on databases

1. World Data Analyst
2. Annals of American History
3. Enciclopedia Juvenil
4. Enciclopedia Universal en Español

In addition to the above resources not being renewed, EBSCO's Academic Search Premier will be downgraded to Academic Search Elite.

Fair Use

Determining whether your use of an item falls within Fair Use guidelines can be more problematic than you might think. Luckily, there's a tool that can help with that -- Fair Use Evaluator, from the American Library Association's Office for Information Technology Policy. By providing information about an article and your intended use of that item, the Fair Use Evaluator can provide you with an idea of where on the spectrum from "Fair" to "Infringing" that your use may fall.

The makers of the Fair Use Evaluator are careful to note that this tool is not intended to provide you with legal advice and point out that only "a court of law can definitively rule whether a use is fair or unfair." However, the Fair Use Evaluator does provide you with information that can help, such as a time-stamped pdf document showing your use of the evaluator and the criteria you used to reach your decision about whether your use of a document falls within Fair Use guidelines. Check it out. Try it with the Exceptions for Instructor eTool if you are a faculty member.

Formatting Bibliographies

Sue Medina, the director of the Network of Alabama Academic Libraries, recently sent an email about an article discussing the top five online citation applications. I loved the one called BibMe -- it allows you to save citations for books, articles, web sites and other formats in the citation style you need whether MLA, APA, Chicago or Turabian. You can download these and or save them to a free account.

Check out Bibme at http://www.bibme.org/