BGSU University Libraries News

The Library Can Help!  
Beginning March 15 and continuing through April 9, Monday – Friday, University Libraries will once again offer Individual Research Appointments (IRAs) for undergraduate students.  
 
Individual Research Appointments provide students with one-on-one research assistance to help them identify and locate library and online sources and to help them formulate search strategies.
 
To schedule an appointment, please call 419.372.6943 or stop by the Research & Information Desk on the first floor of Jerome Library.  Please schedule your appointment by midnight of the day before you would like to meet with someone.  This allows librarians time to prepare.
 
Students should have a specific topic or assignment and will be asked to state it when calling to set up their appointment.  
 
A similar service is available for graduate students. Please call 372-6943 or stop by the Research & Information Desk for more information.

From now through April 12 the library has trial access to several comprehensive databases of music and sound recordings: Music Online from Alexander Street Press and three subsets of that database: American Song, Contemporary World Music, and Jazz Music Library.

Music Online contains thousands of audio recordings of classical, jazz, world, and American music, as well as streaming video, full-text reference works, images, and scores. You can search the entire collection or limit to one of three subcollections: American Song (recordings of American roots and pre-1960 American popular music), Contemporary World Music (recordings of traditional and contemporary world music), and Jazz Music Library (recordings of both jazz greats and contemporary jazz artists as well as live jazz recordings from great venues).

Each collection gives users a range of ways to search and browse content, and you can also log in to create and save personal playlists.

We encourage you to try these databases and let us know what you think! Contact Linda Brown (Coordinator of Collection Development) at lbrown@bgsu.edu or Susannah Cleveland (Head, Music Library) at clevels@bgsu.edu with your feedback.

RefWorks (the library’s online citation management tool) recently added a module RefShare to its software. RefShare allows RefWorks users to share citations and bibliographies online.

From your RefWorks account, you can share individual folders of citations or your entire RefWorks database, along with attachments. RefShare assigns the shared folder a url that can be viewed from any web-accessible computer. A RefWorks subscription and account is not required to view citations in RefShare!

This feature is ideal for classes and group projects, or researchers working together from remote locations. Users can subscribe to RSS feeds of particular RefShare folders or create bibliographies in a variety of citation styles from the citations in RefShare. BGSU students and faculty using RefShare can also use the “Find It!” button to connect to the full text of articles.

To share a folder on RefShare, log in to RefWorks, then go to “Folders” – “Share Folders.” Choose a folder to share, give it a title and description, and decide if you want users to be able to make comments, view attachments, contact you as the folder owner, etc. Then send the url of the folder to your group members or colleagues, or choose to post in the BGSU Shared Area.

For more information about RefShare, watch a tutorial or visit our RefWorks help guide.

The BGSU Libraries are seeking students to participate in a study to help us improve our website. Participants will be asked to give their opinions about some individual pages on the Libraries’ website and also use the site to answer some questions. The study should take about one hour, and volunteers will receive $20 for their participation. If you would like to be involved, please call (419.372.6943) or e mail (libhelp@bgsu.edu) the Jerome Library Research & Information Desk to make an appointment.

BGSU’s BG campus will close at 5 p.m. Tuesday, February 9th. Classes ending or beginning after 5 p.m. are canceled. (For example, a class starting at 4 p.m. and ending at 5:30 p.m. is canceled for today.)

The University Libraries will close today, Tuesday, February 9th at 5 p.m. Should the University close on Wednesday, February 10^th, the University Libraries will be closed as well. The University will communicate its decision whether or not to close tomorrow by 6:30 a.m., Wednesday, February 10^th. Online access to electronic resources and the library catalog will remain available for your research needs.

Beginning Monday, February 8, BGSU students and faculty will have access to SciFinder Scholar via the web.

In consultation with Chemistry faculty, the Libraries have decided to reallocate one of our two SciFinder Scholar seats from the client software to the web version. This will allow SciFinder users to be able to access the database from any computer on or off campus. The web version also includes expanded functionality, such as the ability to create a personal account and access saved content (alerts, comments and answer sets) from any web-accessible computer.

View a demo of the web version of SciFinder.

Students and faculty who wish to use the web version of SciFinder must register using their BGSU e mail account before they will able to log in. Students and faculty who do not wish to use the web version of SciFinder may continue to access SciFinder from campus computers as they have previously done. BGSU’s web seat will be available after 8:00am Monday, February 8, 2010.

SciFinder Scholar is a specialized chemistry database used to search and analyze chemical  substances and reactions as well as published scientific literature in chemistry.

Registering for SciFinder Web

1. Go the BGSU SciFinder registration page from on or off campus.

Note: you may get an error message indicating the connection is untrusted or that there is a problem with the website’s security certificate. This error message is caused by the library’s proxy software, which manages off-campus access. If you click through the message you will be redirected to the registration page.  Click here for more information.

2. Fill out the registration form. You must use your BGSU e mail address to register an account.

3. Next, you will receive an e mail from registration@cas.org with a url that you must click in order to activate your account.

4. After you have finished this activation process, you will be able to log in to SciFinder Web.

If you have any questions, please contact Amy Fry, the Libraries’ Electronic Resources Coordinator, at afry@bgsu.edu or 419.372.2690.

Each year, The Friends of the University Libraries recognizes members of the University community for their scholarly publications and artistic achievements. This year, honorees will be selected for accomplishments that occurred from Sept. 1, 2008, to Dec. 31, 2009. They will be recognized during National Library Week, April 11 – 17.

We are asking you to nominate individual(s) from within your department or area by completing the nomination form, which is available on the Friends Web Site at: www.bgsu.edu/colleges/library/about/page40915.html. Self-nominations are acceptable.

To ensure that all nominations receive full consideration, nominations must be received no later than 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 19.

Thank you for participating with The Friends in this important project.

In honor of the 100^th anniversary of Bowling Green State University, three staff members from the University Libraries have created eight unique wall-sized quilts using historical photos of the BGSU campus.  These quilts are one-of-a-kind creations perfect for any BGSU lover and are ideal to display at home or in the office.  For more information, click here.

Want to hear the outcome of the first Super Bowl? Watch coverage the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle?  Are you interested in reliving the days of Crystal Pepsi? You can do all this and more using the Libraries’ newest database, the Vanderbilt Television News Archive.

This database contains abstracts describing each segment of the major television networks’ daily news broadcasts  since 1968 (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and CNN), including commercials. It also contains streaming video for the NBC Evening News from 1968 to the present and CNN daily news programs from 1995 to the present. Video is available approximately 72 hours after the broadcast aired; it is in RealMedia format and can be viewed with RealPlayer, available for free download at real.com.

Searches can be limited by date, network, anchor/reporter, or particular program segment (introductions, commercials, etc.).

Access the Vanderbilt Television News Archive at http://maurice.bgsu.edu/record=e1000435~S0.

University Libraries is collaborating with the Office of Advising & Academic Success once again to offer several academic services to students at Jerome Library after regular business hours. The service is called “The Learning Commons.” The following services will be available every Sunday and Tuesday evening from 5:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. starting January 24 and continuing through May 4th.

• Academic Advising – 1st floor (Reserve Room)
• Research and Information Assistance – 1st floor
• Tutoring for Mathematics – 1st floor (room 122) SUNDAY NIGHTS ONLY
• Tutoring for Biology, Chemistry & Psychology – 7th floor
• Writing Consultations – 1st floor (Reserve Room)

These are drop in services. No appointments are necessary.