TEXT ONLY VERSION Emmanuel d’Alzon LibraryLink http://www.assumption.edu/dept/Library The Newsletter of the Emmanuel d’Alzon Library Assumption College, Worcester, Massachusetts USA Vol. 10 No. 1 Fall 2006 Table of Contents: (Articles appear in the following order) Library Summit Faculty Publications Event Renew Books Online From the Director’s Desk Turnitin Now on IM Playaways Mind Your Business Staff News BPL Card Computer Upgrades Summer Inventory Cooperating Libraries Book Sale Surplus From the Back Cover Survey Results Editor: Callie Curran Morrell Contributors: Dawn Thistle, Liz Maisey, Janice Wilbur, Mary Brunelle, Carole Myles, Nina Tsantinis Semester Hours Monday-Thursday, 8:00 AM -1:00 AM Friday, 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Saturday, 10:00 AM - 8:00 PM Sunday, 1:00 PM - 1:00 AM Library Summit: Reaching the Top! By Janice Wilbur On October 4, a group of Assumption students, faculty, and administrators gathered in the Salon of the La Maison for a great dinner and to contribute their thoughts on making the Library on campus even better. Vice President of Academic Affairs, David Marker, welcomed the group, followed by Library Director, Dawn Thistle, who provided an introduction and overview of the results from last semester’s LibQUAL+ Survey. Dawn showed in graphs how the survey reflected the opinions of the College community and how each survey question area broke down. Participants separated into four groups and, after enjoying a delicious meal, got down to work. Elaine Martin, Director of the Soutter Library of UMass Medical School, acted as facilitator for the evening and guided the group through the discussion of questions in areas of Public Access Services, Collections, Facilities, and Technology. Each table was asked what they liked and what frustrated them about the library, and to suggest ideas for improvement in that particular area. At the end of the evening, everyone voted for the ideas for improvement that they would like most, were they given money and power to make changes. Of interest…The suggestion that received the highest number of votes was to create a library Café. The second largest number of votes was to build an addition to the library to create new spaces for lectures and programs, storage, instruction, archives and—of course—the collections. Other suggestions receiving significant numbers of votes included providing more information to faculty about how they can order books (see From the Director’s Desk, p. 2), offering laptops for in-library lending, and improving our instructional handouts. We are evaluating the suggestions and looking at what is feasible and possible to do. Thank you all for your input. For more on LibQUAL+, see p. 8, Survey Results in a Nutshell. Faculty Publications Event The Library’s 3rd Annual Faculty Publications Reception will take place on Tuesday, November 7, at 4:00 p.m. in the Library.  The reception is held to honor professors who have published books, articles, book chapters, papers in published conference proceedings, or artistic output in the last year.  Join us to hear what’s going on in Assumption faculty’s writing and research. Renew Books Online Not ready to bring back your checked-out items? Did you know that you can renew many library materials right from your computer? To do this, go to the Library’s homepage and click on Catalog under Research Tools. At the top of the screen, you’ll see a list of headings. Click on My Account, then enter your Assumption ID barcode and last name. A screen will appear with your contact information and any items you currently have checked out. To renew an item, check the box to the left of the title and click on the Renew Items button. A message will appear next to the item(s) saying whether it was renewed. Faculty and students are granted one renewal on most items. However, students cannot renew videos. Inter-library loan renewals are dependent upon the lending library. From the Director’s Desk By Dawn Thistle Recently I received some questions regarding professors’ book orders, and I thought I would respond here. 1. How do I order books for the Library collection? You can use our online request form. See Forms ; Book Request/Suggestion on the Library’s web site. These requests are then sent via e-mail to your departmental liaison and the Acquisitions Coordinator, Nina Tsantinis. Departmental liaisons are also listed on the Forms Web page. In addition to—or instead of—using the online form, professors may send publishers’ catalogs, brochures, Amazon printouts, etc., on which they have indicated their selections to their liaison or to Nina. With either ordering method, please follow your own departmental procedures. Periodical subscription requests are considered on a title-by-title basis. 2. Can students order books? Students may use the online request form to suggest books. The request will be forwarded to the appropriate staff subject specialist to determine whether or not the book falls within our collection parameters. If it does, we’ll order it. 3. How can I find out when the book I ordered is available at the Library? Although we no longer automatically send paper notification slips to faculty about the receipt of their book requests, we can notify them via e-mail if requested specifically to do so for each item ordered. Our online request form has a box labeled “Additional information.”  Faculty may use that box to indicate “Please notify.” Professors may also indicate on catalogs, etc., that they wish to be notified. All library patrons can check our NEW TITLES list. Go to the Catalog link (NOT the search box in the Quick Searches area of the homepage) and you will see the New Titles tab. Select that tab, and you can see a listing of all titles received in the last month. You can sort the list by call number, author or title. Call number usually works well if you want to look at books arranged by discipline. We notify the Assumption community of the new titles in a monthly e-mail; however, that list is available at any time, and it’s updated daily.  You can also search the catalog itself for specific titles. Books that are still ON ORDER are indicated as such (titles all in upper case), and books that have been received and cataloged have full bibliographic records and call numbers.  4. If I don’t hear about a book that I ordered, does that mean that it is not available? There is almost never a “failed” search these days.  With all the used books available online today, even out-of-print books can usually be obtained in good condition, in a timely fashion. If we simply cannot locate a book, we do notify the requestor. On average, due to our “free shipping” option (which is slower than other options), books can take about a month to arrive. Therefore, our monthly NEW TITLES e-mail announcement should serve as a good notification for most recent orders. Alternatively, if a book is needed on a RUSH basis, we can get it much more quickly, and notification is built into that process. Finally, if professors or students have questions about the status of an order, please feel free to call. We’ll be glad to provide an update. We truly appreciate your help in building the d’Alzon Library collection. Turnitin By Carole Myles The Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Studies and the Library have agreed to subscribe to Turnitin, the plagiarism detection software. According to the creator of Turnitin, iParadigm, this product is in use in over eighty countries and lets professors check their students’ papers quickly and effectively, taking full advantage of the wealth of information on the Internet. Most institutions that use Turnitin claim a significant reduction in plagiarism. Turnitin is Web-based, so it requires no additional software on your computer. How does Turnitin work? Academic departments and participating professors are set up by the Turnitin administrator. Professors are then invited by the administrator to enroll in Turnitin by setting up a profile. Upon completing the profile professors can set up their classes and assignments (even multiple assignments), and invite students to take part in Turnitin. Professors have the option to allow students to check their papers prior to final submission. Submissions are checked against a database of Internet sites, previously submitted student papers, and selected commercial databases. An originality report details potential problem areas matched against the source material. A pilot launch will take place this fall with a small group of professors, and a full rollout will take place in the spring. Training sessions will take place early in the New Year. For more information about this tool, contact Carole Myles at x7020 or at cmyles@assumption.edu. Now on IM! Got a quick question for a librarian? Not near a phone? Send us an IM! Library staff members recently created AOL IM screen names for themselves and for the Reference Desk, so drop us a line anytime. Reference Desk: refdesk3 Dawn Thistle: Thistlefarmer Mary Brunelle: MaryRef Callie Curran Morrell: CallieRef Carole Myles: Carolla33 Larry Spongberg: larrypunster Laurie Welling: LaurieTechie Janice Wilbur: JanCirc “Playaways” Hit the Shelves Have you heard about our new Playaway collection? A Playaway is a digital audio book that has been pre-loaded onto a lightweight, compact player about the size of an ipod. The devices fit easily into your pocket. Each Playaway contains the audio of one book and is packaged with the same cover art as the print book. You just plug in your own set of headphones (or speakers), press play, and listen away. You can even “bookmark” where you left off. Currently, the library owns sixteen titles on Playaway, including The Da Vinci Code, Wuthering Heights, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and several language education courses. They are on located on a rack near the front of the reference area. Grab one for on-the-go listening! Mind Your Business! By Carole Myles Last spring an adjunct professor in the Business Studies department assigned a research topic thinking that the d’Alzon Library subscribed to a popular database that was available at another college where he also taught. Assumption students were dismayed to hear we didn’t have the resource when it came time to begin their research. Then, last spring over 150 business students and faculty responded to the Library’s LibQUAL+ survey. Though the majority of comments were positive, some did note that our business collection could be improved. You spoke and we listened! The Library now subscribes to one of the most popular business databases available, EBSCO’s Business Source Premier. According to EBSCO, this database provides full text for more than 8,800 serials, including full text for more than 1,100 peer-reviewed business publications. Full-text coverage includes the following disciplines: marketing, management, MIS, POM, accounting, finance and economics. The database contains PDF full text for more than 350 of the top scholarly journals, dating as far back as 1922. The database also includes other sources of full-text information such as market research reports, industry reports, country reports, company profiles, and SWOT analyses. Libraries that subscribe to Business Source Premier also have access to Regional Business News. This database is updated daily and provides comprehensive full text for more than 50 regional business publications, including titles from Crain Communications. These databases can be found by going to the Library’s home page, choosing Databases/Indexes under Research Tools, and selecting the subject, Business & Economics. Staff News A hearty congratulations goes out to our Library Director, Dawn Thistle, for being awarded the prestigious President’s Medal. Assumption College President Dr. Thomas Plough honored Dawn, along with Prof. Charles Brusard and Brother Armand Lemaire, during his annual State of the College Address on October 13. The President’s Medal is awarded in recognition of extraordinary contributions to campus life. Dawn was given the medal for her role in making the Library “both a learning and gathering space for intellectual and social growth.” A New Card at the BPL The Boston Public Library boasts a huge array of electronic resources, spanning a range of topics from art to business to genealogy to sports. Now, for a limited time, any Massachusetts resident can get access to all of these electronic offerings by signing up online for a temporary eCard. For those who can’t get to a BPL branch to get a standard library card, the virtual eCard provides a convenient alternative. In addition to its magazine databases, the eCard is also valid for downloadable audio, video, and music that the Library owns. The eCard is only valid for six months. To check out print materials, a patron must upgrade to a standard library card. The eCard is only for electronic resources. Anyone who lives, works, attends school, or owns property in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and is at least 13 years of age may register. For more information, visit www.bpl.org/general/circulation/ecards.htm. Library Upgrades Old Computers—and Even Acquires Some New Ones! By Mary Brunelle In our ongoing efforts to improve our services, we recently upgraded our computers and computer equipment with the help of the IT department. Over the summer, we replaced 12 of the word processors so that you, our users, can have the most reliable and up-to-date technology. Each of these new computers is loaded with Microsoft Office programs, Internet Explorer, and AOL, Yahoo, and MSN instant messaging software, as well as shortcuts to Blackboard and Houndmail. As before, two of the word processors are available for viewing DVDs. Additionally, we replaced the computers reserved for assistive technology and consolidated the three computers down to two (the third became a word processor). These newer, faster computers are better equipped to handle the sophisticated software programs available for students with special needs. We also added two word processors on the second floor of the Library, where students can find a quieter, more comfortable area for typing papers and doing research. In the coming months, we will add two more on the second floor, bringing the total number of public access computers to 25. All computers print to the large printer on the first floor of the Library and are part of the GoPrint Print Management System. But that’s not all. We have plans to purchase three laptops that will circulate in the Library. Come this spring, any user will be able to stop by the front desk and borrow a laptop for use in the Library over the wireless network. We hope users will enjoy the freedom of checking out a laptop and settling down to do research or type papers in an area that’s comfortable for them, wherever that may be in the Library. Many of these technological changes are the result from the feedback we received from our LibQUAL+ survey last spring. So many of our users requested additional computers—and computers be placed in quieter areas of the Library—that, in response, we used our technology budget to add several computers to the second floor. So if you have any more suggestions, let us know! We’re willing to accommodate, and of course, we’re here to help! Summer Inventory By Liz Maisey This summer the Library inventoried half of its collection. A library inventory gives us a chance to discover many things and solve problems. For example, we: Find books that are in the wrong place on the shelf and put them in their right place Find books that were thought to be missing Find and resolve problems in the Library’s online catalog Find multiple copies of books (and then offer the duplicates in the book sale) Find damaged books on the shelf to repair or replace. This past summer the Library inventoried the books that are most often circulated by its patrons: books with a call number beginning with B (including theology, philosophy and psychology) and those beginning with P (literature). We also inventoried the oversize collection, which is mostly art books that are shelved separately from the main collection since they are larger and require bigger shelving. In total we inventoried approximately 66,100 books. We hope to do the other half of our collection next summer, and continue doing one half of the collection each year thereafter. Cooperating Academic/Research Libraries Get More Resource-ful “May I help you?” is a question librarians often pose to customers. Ask librarians in central Massachusetts college and research libraries if they can help each other and the answer is a resounding “YES!” Indeed, a long tradition of collaboration and cooperation among individual libraries has helped them all provide enhanced services and resources. Consider the following example: A student at Nichols College in Dudley needs to find a couple of books to complete an assignment. Using a computer in the college library or in his dorm room, he connects to his library’s Web site and accesses WorldCat, a worldwide library catalog of books and materials held in over 60,000 academic and other libraries (including libraries in the Worcester area). In that database he locates two books owned by his own library. He also discovers a book at Assumption College, one at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and a third from an out-of-state library. With a few keystrokes he is able to determine that each book is available for use. A few more keystrokes allows him to request a loan of the book from out of state. Because he would like the books from Assumption and WPI that night, he makes a quick trip to each library after dinner and, using a special borrowing card, he is able to walk in and borrow the books. This student’s ability to find and obtain material quickly and easily from another institution’s library is the result of close collaboration between the member libraries of the Academic and Research Collaborative (ARC). ARC is a coalition of more than 20 academic, public and special libraries with research collections in the central Massachusetts region that work together to facilitate the sharing of resources and services for the benefit of their students and faculty. ARC includes a fairly wide range of libraries in terms of type and size. Current members are the libraries of the American Antiquarian Society, Anna Maria College, Assumption College, Atlantic Union College, Becker College, Clark University, College of the Holy Cross, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, Fitchburg State College, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences, Massachusetts Military Archives, Mt. Wachusett Community College, Nichols College, Quinsigamond Community College, UMass Medical School, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester County Horticultural Society, Worcester Historical Museum, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester Public Library, and Worcester State College. Collaborating and cooperating allows each library to offer its patrons services and resources it might not be able to otherwise provide. For many ARC members, the group purchase means cost savings which can be devoted to other resources and services. By providing reciprocal access and borrowing privileges for participating member libraries, students and faculty who have an ARC borrowing card and the means for getting around are able to obtain material themselves rather than waiting for the items to be delivered through the normal interlibrary loan process. All in all, collaboration has been very good for the academic and research libraries of central Massachusetts and ARC because it helps them fulfill a fundamental mission: helping people find and obtain the information they need. -Article courtesy of the ARC Communications Committee. Book Sale Surplus By Nina Tsantinis Unlike online databases, books are real materials that can be handed down to future generations or handed over to friends. The d’Alzon Library has many friends who have always responded with generosity to the Library’s call for donations. Retiring faculty and administrators often designate the library as the repository of the collection of books they have accumulated after a lifetime of teaching, and others in the Assumption Community are always willing to drop off good used books. The library sells a large number of these books at the book sale, which has the dual objective of raising funds for the library and hosting a community event. Nevertheless, there are always books leftover. Where should they go? Fortunately very few items end up in the dumpster. With some ingenuity and time, we can always find a destination for a book. “We realize that people become attached to their books and they want to know that others will enjoy them too, so we do our best to find homes for them,” says Director Dawn Thistle. This year we were happy to donate a 32-volume set of Encyclopaedia Britannica to the Mushota community in Zambia, Africa. We were notified by Professor Linda Ammons that Shannon Halpin (Class of 2004) is organizing a library in Mushota as part of her service in the Peace Corps. According to Shannon, “People are so hungry for reading material, just one book is so precious in the hands of a villager. It will be read and read, carried wherever they go, kept even after it is tattered and browned by overuse.” In response, Dawn immediately assigned a portion of the proceeds of the sale to pay for postage to Africa, and it is the hope of all the staff that our friends in Zambia will use and enjoy this donation to their new library. In addition, we have donated hundreds of books to Hands Across the Water, which is a “book collection charity to promote literacy and education for all.” A major tenet of its campaign is “to promote responsible reuse […] and to provide books to needy schools, libraries and other community-based nonprofit organizations overseas.” We also sent small donations of children’s books to Nazareth Home for Boys and the Worcester Public Library. In so doing we hope to be honoring the mission of the College. Thanks to all for your support of our efforts From the Back Cover By Liz Maisey Here are some highlights of the new books we’ve recently added to the collection. Check out other recent additions on our New Book Display at the front of the Reference Room. Shattered Consensus: the True State of Global Warming Edited by Patrick J. Michaels “Shattered Consensus consists of expert essays on global warming, covering the earth’s temperature history and disparities between what has been predicted about climate change and what has been observed. The reader will discover substantial incongruities and information not generally discussed in mainstream reports about the climate.” — Book cover Anxiety Disorders in Adults: an Evidence-Based Approach to Psychological Treatment By Peter D. McLean and Sheila R. Woody. “In this book, the second volume in the Guidebooks in Clinical Psychology series, the authors review recent literature in the psychosocial treatment of six of the most common anxiety disorders and provide detailed treatment guidelines based on treatment outcome studies.” — Book jacket Jesus & the Rise of Early Christianity: a History of New Testament Times By Paul Barnett “This New Testament History is a comprehensive, critical, readable and perceptive presentation of the life and ministry of Christ and the following apostolic age. Rooted in the primary sources, it bids well to become the standard account of the beginnings of Christianity for the coming student generation.” — E. Earle Ellis, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Making the Irish American: History and Heritage of the Irish in the United States Edited by J.J. Lee and Marion R. Casey “J.J. Lee and Marion R. Casey offer a feast of twenty-nine perspectives on the turbulent, vital, endlessly fascinating story of the Irish in America. Combining original research with reprints of classic works, these essays and articles extend far beyond a survey to offer a truly rich understanding of the Irish immigrant impact on America, and America’s impact on the Irish immigrant.” — Book jacket LibQUAL+ Survey Results in a Nutshell 1100+ surveys were started. 695 were completed by: 573 undergraduate students 11 graduate students 65 faculty members 46 staff members The most satisfied respondent group was the faculty; the least satisfied group was graduate students. 297 surveys included comments. The most frequent comments were: -Appreciation of library staff -Need more computers -First floor too noisy -Need extended hours -Need to improve the library collection, especially for sciences and business studies