"I was invited to lecture at the library of Beijing University ("Beida"), which is considered China's most prestigious university. During his 1998 China tour, President Clinton made a highly publicized visit to Beida where he gave a speech, answered students' questions, and donated 500 books about America to Beida's library. Needless to say, my visit garnered much less attention. I lectured the librarians on library digitization projects in the U.S., which I classify into three categories: Born Again, Born Digital, and Born Free. I also met with friends at Beida with whom I have been working on various library research, and writing projects since 1994.
While in Beijing, I also visited the National Library of China to discuss ongoing cooperation there, and I was shown the NLC's enormous digital library project that was initiated this past summer at the direction of the central government. The project includes a dynasty-by-dynasty digitization of the NLC's fabulous rare book collection. I also met with administrators and librarians at Beijing Polytechnic University, and toured the construction site of the new library that will be completed next year and on which I consulted a few years ago. Later I visited the library of Tsinghua University, another prestigious institution, and saw some of their digital library resources jointly created by the librarians and the architecture faculty. Lastly, I met with Professor Song Junling of the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, who translated Lewis Mumford's The City in History into Chinese several years ago. Prof. Song wants to translate more of Mumford's work, and has asked for some technical assistance related to the Guggenheim's Mumford Collection.
Of
course, there were plenty of banquets, and I returned in desperate need
of losing about ten pounds. It's always the same whenever I visit China.
I can measure the success of my stay not in days or week, but in pounds
gained."
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Author
! Author!
Terry
D. Webb, Dean of the Library, is the author of Re-Membering
Libraries: Essays on the Profession (McFarland, 2000). The book is
a collection of essays and unpublished papers organized into sections
on management, libraries and the library profession. In the Preface,
Dr. Webb says that he wrote the book out of a need to assess his
growth and learning and out of his conviction that "libraries, too, need
to be 're-membered' -- that is, taken apart, examined, and reassembled
in order to reach the new levels of service that will be required
in the future ..."
Rachel Gardner and Joann (D'Esposito) Donatiello are the authors of "University Students' Perceptions of the Internet: an Exploratory Study" (Journal of Academic Librarianship, November 1999). In addition to student perceptions of the Internet, the study explores student criteria for evaluating Internet information and their views on the role of the library, librarians and traditional library resources in relation to those available using the Internet.
Maria
Larson is the editor of the Games chapter in Magazines for
College Libraries (Bowker, 2000), edited by Bill Katz and Linda Sternberg
Katz.
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New GOALS
State-of-the-Art Computer Catalog
By now,
students, faculty and staff will have noticed a new look to GOALS,
the Library's online catalog, which is now located on the Web. Library
staff have been working very hard for over a year now to provide enhanced
access to the catalog with migration from our former GEAC text-based interface
to a new state-of-the-art, Web-based interface from Innovative Interfaces,
Inc. The new catalog, is intuitive, easy to use, and has an object-oriented
design. It is accessible using the Internet -- anywhere, anytime!
The Library's print journal holdings are now available in the Catalog. Information on the latest issues received is also currently displaying under each periodical title. Advanced searching will soon be available, and the new catalog will include enhanced functionality with Altavista style searching.
Bibliographic
records in full or brief display can be saved in a file, e-mailed, or exported
into bibliography-formatting software like Procite, where it automatically
assumes the format needed for citations.
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WebWatch
Ad*Access
is a database of more than 7000 images of ads (with records) from
US and Canadian newspapers and magazines published between 1911 and 1955.
The images are divided into 5 major subject areas (Radio, Television, Transportation,
Beauty and Hygiene and World War II), which are, in turn, subdivided by
time period. The user may either browse or search by keyword and
limit the search by company, product, publication, target audience, famous
people, etc. There is also an Illustration/Special Features section, which
include comics, cartoons drawings, Africans/African American, Native Americans,
Asian, and Children. Images may be enlarged to 72 dpi and 150 dpi
sizes.
This is a truly unique database
and will be of value to researchers in marketing and advertisements, sociology,
ethnic studies, women's studies and history. For others, it is a sheer
delight to browse. Please take a look! (Best viewed
using Internet Explorer)
International
Theatre Design Archive (ITDA)
Sponsored by the United States
Institute for Theatre Technology, ITDA provides access to information and
images for three categories of design: scene designs, costume designs and
lighting designs. Each category is subdivided by links to play title, playwright,
designer and producer. The site needs updating, but the content, especially
the images, make this a very valuable site for students, faculty and theater
professionals.
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Scientific
Journals - Full Text
The Guggenheim Library now
subscribes to two electronic resources which put scientific journals within
the reach of the Monmouth community wherever there is Internet access.
(Remote
access from off campus requires setting up browser preferences for
the Monmouth University proxy server.) Access from Library
Home Page / Electronic Resources by Title.
Both ScienceDirect
from Elsevier Science and Ideal from
Academic Press are online full text platforms for scientific, technical,
medical and business information. They both offer two modes of access to
hundreds of journals: they can be searched as databases or, if preferred,
the user can choose a journal and look at each issue online. All full text
articles are available in PDF format, an exact image of the paper journal
pages. (Page numbers are identical to those in the paper publication, and
tables and diagrams are included.)
ScienceDirect
(Elsevier) contains nearly 1,200 full text journals from Elsevier Science
and the leading scientific, technical, and medical publishers. It covers
chemistry, materials science, engineering & technology, environmental
science, economics, business & management science, neurosciences, pharmacology
& toxicology, physics, mathematics & computer science, earth sciences,
social sciences, biochemistry, microbiology & immunology, biological
sciences and clinical medicine.
Ideal
provides
229 journals from Academic Press and other publishers. It covers economics,
business, life sciences, computer science, mathematics, physics, psychology,
and social sciences.
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Subject
Encyclopedias
The
Guggenheim Library has a wide range of subject encyclopedias in the reference
area. These encyclopedias offer in-depth articles within a specific area.
Titles such as the Encyclopedia of Gerontology, the wonderful Handbook
of North American Indians, from the Smithsonian, and the Encyclopedia
of Philosophy, are valuable resources for members of the Monmouth community.
Two recent additions are: Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African
and African American Experience, and The Sixties in America. (Research
Guide to select subject encyclopedias).
Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience (edited by Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.) is a one-volume encyclopedia with a truly global scope. The editors "have sought to provide a broad range of information which represents the full range of Africa and her diaspora". Approximately equal space is given to Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and North America, and there are interesting excursions into topics such as London, Blacks in: an Interpretation. The entries are substantial and are written by experts in each field. Much of the material dealt with here is not easily available elsewhere. In other cases, such as the entries on North American topics, the encyclopedia gives a good introduction. Its unique contribution is an integrated vision of the African experience over time and space. (Ref. DT14 .A37435 1999)
The
Sixties in America (editor,
Carl Singleton ; project editor, Rowena Wildin) is a three-volume
encyclopedia devoted to "a turbulent decade that had a profound and lasting
effect on the life and culture of the United States." It provides in-depth
coverage of the Civil Rights movement, the social revolution and the Vietnam
War, as well as entries on the arts, science and technology, business and
the economy, government and politics, and gender issues. The articles are
aimed at the general reader, but the information is reliable, and there
are suggestions for further reading at the end of each entry. The Subsequent
Events feature at the end of many articles helps to put the 60s in
context. The liberal use of photographs is completely justified in portraying
this very visual decade. Specially recommended for undergraduates. (Ref
E841 .S55 1999)
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Gov Docs Online
Where could you find the Centers
for Disease Control reports on West Nile Virus and Mad Cow Disease or gray
literature about a given topic you heard about at a conference or quoted
by a professor?
The answer is, in the Government Documents Collection of the Guggenheim Library! As active members of the Government Depository Program since 1963, the library selects 17% of materials printed by the government. Many of these publications are cataloged in the online catalog, GOALS. The government documents collection continually evolves in content to keep up with the information and research needs of Monmouth's students and faculty.
But the borders of today's government documents collection extend beyond the stone walls of the Guggenheim and into the online world. For example, the presidential papers are sent to the library in paper format, but by typing in the website address, the user may also view those same papers online. Many of the cataloging records in GOALS include hyperlinks to the online version, if one is available. So, if you are searching at home at 2 a.m. and come across an enticing document, you may download it even before the library is open!
New Jersey government information is also available at the Guggenheim Library and cataloged in the online catalog. For example, a user may access a timely report entitled "Interim report of the state police review regarding allegations of racial profiling" (1999) either in paper or online format. In addition, county level information may be accessed, much of it online.
So you are thinking that all
of this sounds difficult to find? Just get started by clicking on
the "Government
Documents" link on the Guggenheim
Library page and choose the level of government you are interested
in and start exploring! The government documents librarian, Susan
Kadezabek, is also available for appointments and library instruction.
Her office phone is 263-5591.
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Visit the Monmouth University Archives and Special Collections
New Face
Jane Calvo, formerly with
the Department of Communication, has recently assumed the position of Assistant
to the Dean. Jane has worked at Monmouth in various capacities since October
1997. We are all very happy to have her and extend a warm welcome.
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Library
Instruction
Classes
in library research are available for courses meeting during the Spring
Semester. Thanks to a special laptop grant, faculty may also request
that a librarian come to your (laptop friendly!) classroom to deliver instruction
on electronic information resources.
Please
call Rachel Gardner, Coordinator of Instructional Services, (x 7560) to
discuss the library assignment and to schedule a session. The best time
to schedule a class is when the students must begin their research. We
would appreciate at least 2 weeks advance notice; instructors must attend
with their classes. For more information on the Library's instructional
program, please see the Instructional
Services Web Page.
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Special
Hours
December 22 - 9 a.m.
- Noon.
December 23 - January 1, 2001:
CLOSED
January 2, 2001 - January
15, 2001
Monday
- Friday: 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Saturday
& Sunday: CLOSED
January 15: CLOSED
Spring Semester begins January
16, 2000.
Contributors to this issue: Librarians Mike Banick, Rachel Gardner, Aurora Ioanid, Susan Kadezabek, Maria Larson; Dean Terry Webb.
Please contact Rachel
Gardner, Instructional Services Coordinator, for questions or comments.
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