Dianne’s on Display

Our Library display case made the campus web site here.

Our thanks to Jessica Martin for the nice article!

New Home Page Design for Library

The Boreham Library has a new home page design!

The Library staff is always looking for ways to improve services, and our web site is important to that effort. The new design is intended to get the most important information — or links to it — out in front.

Some new features: the left sidebar that appears on many other UA Fort Smith pages is still there — just click on the arrow tab on the left side of the window if you want to see it, or click again to slide it back off the screen.

This blog and the Computer Helpers blog are now listed up front, along with other services you may not have remembered before. These are all up in one window — no need to scroll down to see them.

Many linked pages have been redesigned as well.

We’d really appreciate feedback — is the new design more useful? Can you find what you want by using it? Use the suggestion box to let us know, or enter a comment on this blog post, and thanks for your interest.

“Connecting to Collections” now available

You can catch the official word on the “Connecting to Collections” materials at http://www.uafortsmith.edu/News/Index?skin=&storyid=2073 .

This came from a special grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and is available in the Pebley Center in Library 106 (along with some DVDs available at the Circulation Desk).

These materials cover the preservation of historical materials and art.  Got some old photos?  Old letters?  Other historical material, or artwork?  Information is right here on preserving all of these for the future.

Everyone: New Computer Helpers blog!

The Computer Helpers pages (formerly part of the catalog) are now at computerhelpers.wordpress.com in blog form.  There’s even more useful information now, and it’s growing all the time.

These cover a multitude of subjects, with advice, links to useful pages and software, lots of freeware and shareware links, and tutorials for certain topics.

The blog is set up with standing pages (see the tabs for those pages along the top) and also has additional blog entries being added often in various categories (see the left column).  The best way to find information is to use the Welcome page and run down the list of main entries for a link to what you want.  If it’s not there, try the  categories in the left column, or enter your key word(s) in the Search box at the top of the right column.

Computer Helpers is also available using RSS feeds, to get the latest posts.  If you’re not familiar with those, check the entry for RSS Feeds.

Everyone: New ebooks to start Spring 2008!

We’ve added a number of electronic books, available to all currently registered students and faculty online.  A few of these were available in print already (some in older editions), but now they are more widely available.  Just look them up in the catalog and click on the links:

From the Gale Virtual Reference Library:

American decades primary sources
Ancient Europe 8000 B.C.–A.D. 1000 :
Arts & humanities through the eras
Business plans handbook.
Complete Human Diseases and Conditions
Crime and punishment
Encyclopedia of aging
Encyclopedia of bioethics
Encyclopedia of children and childhood
Encyclopedia of genocide and crimes against humanity
Encyclopedia of major marketing campaigns.
Encyclopedia of race and racism
Encyclopedia of science and religion
Encyclopedia of science, technology, and ethics
Encyclopedia of sex and gender
Encyclopedia of small business
Encyclopedia of world cultures /
Europe 1450 to 1789 :
Europe 1789 to 1914 :
Europe since 1914 :
Everyday finance
Family in society
The Gale encyclopedia of cancer
History behind the headlines
International encyclopedia of marriage and family
Literary themes for students.
New dictionary of the history of ideas
Nonfiction classics for students
Psychologists and their theories for students
Science in dispute
World encyclopedia of police forces and correctional systems
World of forensic science

From the Oxford Digital Reference Shelf:

The Grove encyclopedia of classical art and architecture /
Grove encyclopedia of decorative arts
The Oxford encyclopedia of American literature
The Oxford encyclopedia of children’s literature
The Oxford encyclopedia of economic history
The Oxford encyclopedia of Latinos & Latinas in the United States
The Oxford encyclopedia of maritime history

Everyone: Changes for 2008 catalog

The catalog has made a few changes, based on feedback from the fall 2007 semester.

The format has gone to the wide screen.

The information for each record has changed from the tabbed format to just a straight record.

We hope this is an improvement for you!

Students: How NOT to lose your work

We have the Word from the campus Help Desk:

“The best thing to do to prevent lost documents is to tell students to
NEVER open documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc) directly from their
email. Students should always save the document to their R: drive
BEFORE opening it to edit the document.”

Lots of things can go wrong in going through a browser to email.  It’s safer to save a document to your R: drive space, and then use Office to open the saved document (so the browser is left out of the transaction of opening the document).

Everyone: Not Just for Books Anymore….

A lot of research lately turns up the fact that a great many people still think of libraries as “just books.”  While libraries have been updating their collections with DVDs and electronic books online and Internet access, the people who are using them (or who should be using them) still tend to think of libraries as being about “just books.”  Are you limiting your opportunities in that manner?

Take a look, for example, at some of the lists of things which the Boreham Library provides.   The Featured Lists in the catalog, for example, covers tape cassettes, computer CDs, audio compact discs, DVDs, electronic books and PDF files, music scores, and web sites.  The Journal Locator finds magazines and newspapers in paper, microfilm or microfiche, as well as online versions.

The Library also has materials both in the Reserve Room and in the online reserves, which you can search by your instructor’s name.  Some of this is available online, 24/7, if copyright permits, and can include your instructor’s notes, exams, and other materials.  It can also include links to other online materials, such as web sites or online videos.

The Boreham Library selects a number of databases of journal, newspaper and other articles and pays a lot of money annually to provide them for you online.  These are organized by name and also by the subjects covered.  That gives you a huge  amount of material which is considered much more suitable for your research papers than just surfing for any old web site you can find, and it’s usually much more complete information, too.

Of course, the Library subscribes to regular paper magazines and newspapers, too.  Some of these are not available online, or are much more limited online.  The Library staff is even busy working on creating more materials online, by scanning in materials which have never been on the World Wide Web before, or indexing local history materials.

Thinking of a library as “just books” is like somebody thinking of you as “just a head.”  There’s a lot more to you than that, and there’s a lot more to the Boreham Library.  Don’t let such  old-fashioned ideas limit your thinking!

Students: Citations and Bibliographies Help

When the nice officer leans in the window of your vehicle, you hope you won’t get a citation.  But when your instructor requires you to give a citation, it’s another thing altogether.

When you see the little TM or C in a circle, that’s a way of acknowledging that term or name has been trademarked or copyrighted, and by doing that, you show that you recognize that legal right of the owner(s).  In the same way, you are expected to show a proper citation in footnotes and bibliographies when you write, to acknowledge the use of someone else’s work when directly quoting it, with or without quote marks.

While you might not always need to do this in other circumstances, you can save yourself a lot of legal grief in the future by being sure you handle quotes and citations correctly in your course assignments now.  Without a proper acknowledgment for the use of somebody else’s work, you can leave yourself and your employer open to both criminal charges and civil lawsuits, if it even appears that you are trying to claim their work for your own original writing.  That’s plagiarism, even if it was only avoiding the extra chore of a citation, and it’s something you should be sure to avoid in coursework and in your job.

The Library has style manuals available in the catalog for the specific style that your instructor requires.  Some instructors want you to use APA (American Psychological Association) style in citations, while others might prefer MLA (Modern Language Association) style, or something else.  Whatever the style, you can find style books by searching the catalog by Subject for “style manuals”.  This will give you a number of manuals for various styles.   The one your instructor assigned should be there.  Some of these are also available in Reference (2nd floor) or in the Reserve Room (1st floor) so they’re always likely to be in the building.

If you’re not on campus, however, you still have a handy alternative online.  The Library has a web page called Citation Style for Research Papers which has links to online resources to help you find the right style.

With these resources, you can find out how to create a proper citation for whatever your article, book, web site, etc., may be, in the style your instructor prefers.   These are available to any one, any time.

Currently registered students may also use RefWorks, but that’s a subject for another post.

Donors, Honorees, and Books

Yes, the Boreham Library accepts donations. We often accept donations in honor of or in memory of people. When a donation is made in honor of a special occasion in someone’s life (birthday, graduation, etc.), or in memory of a special person, we look for a long-lasting book (one that won’t be replaced by a new edition quickly) and use the funds to purchase and prepare that book. A custom label is placed in the book, and the information can be searched by the name of the person being honored, or by the name of the donor in our catalog.

For example, search for the name Feild. A number of books have been given in honor of Dr. T. A. Feild, emphasizing material on Thomas Jefferson and that period in American history, since that is one of Dr. Feild’s interests. This is a wonderful way to share something with the community, and build the Library’s collection. Since this is a legitimate interest of an academic library, it’s a good topic.

Topics may vary over a wide range of interests, from writing to history to art, and many other topics.   It doesn’t have to be a specific interest. Most donations come with only a person to honor or remember, and the Library chooses an interesting book which was being considered for purchase.

For example, many individuals and families have donated funds in honor or memory of a number of people, and books have been chosen that can be found through the catalog. All such books will give years of interesting use to readers. Many other generous donors have provided funds for such donations, and those books continue to serve the Library and its patrons today.

Donations of funds to the Library may be made through the UA Fort Smith Foundation specifying that the donation is for the library, with a note or form on who the donor is, who is to be honored (with the occasion) or who this is in memory of, and anyone who should be notified (such as the family of the deceased).

Actual books and other media donated to the Library will be checked for any possible additions to the collection, and the rest will be considered for the biannual book sale, if appropriate. Funds from the Book Sales go back into purchases for the Library.

While materials donations are tax deductible, the Library is not allowed to place a value on them, as this is considered a conflict of interest.  The donor must set the monetary value.  The Library can provide a count of items accepted if requested at the time of donation.

It has also been a long tradition of the Chancellor (previously the President), the Faculty and the Staff to honor deceased faculty and staff, and their immediate family members.  Many of these honorees can also be found by searching the catalog.

“Books are the true levellers.  They give to all, who will faithfully use them, the society, the  spiritual presence, of the best and greatest of our race.”  — William Ellery Channing,  ‘On Self-Culture’