Lexis.com

The Lexis.com subscription has ended. We had made the decision to cancel this last year and the subscription is finally up. Use Westlaw's KeyCite instead of Lexis Shepard's Citations.

MLA Handbook Web Site

The library's first copy* of the revised MLA Handbook has made its way back to the reference area after an extended vacation in an undisclosed location. I have created an account for online access at http://mlahandbook.org.

The site license allows librarians to display the site to students when working at the reference desk. The site includes the complete text of the print Handbook and additional examples not contained in the print version. Please do not distribute the login information or log in students at their own computers. Log in information is at the reference desk in the same location as other usernames and passwords.

For more information on the revised handbook, visit this library news post.

-Kristen

*addtl copies are on their way through processing in Coll Mgmt.

Trial to Access Engineering

There is a trial for a collection of 262 Engineering books on the trials page.

Access to Gale Virtual Reference Library Reference (GVRL) Books

We can create subcollections in GVRL that search one book or a number of books. For instance on the Movie Reviews page, patrons can simultaneously search all 10 volumes of the History of American Cinema without getting results from any other books in GVRL.

The Nursing guide includes a search of several GVRL titles related to medicine.

On the Anthropology guide I created a direct link to the Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America.

Several science subcollections are available on various science guides.

Take a look at the title list for GVRL and let me know if you want a direct link to a specific book or a collection of books added to your subject guide(s). These subscollections could also be a great resource for CourseLib pages.

GVRL has over 3,200 books available for purchase. Next time you are evaluating your section of the reference collection, you might find what you need electronically. MARC records are also available. I have asked for the MARC records for our current holdings to be added to Voyager.

Easier resource linking in D2L

Thanks to a collaboration between David Robinson and the RODP librarian Peter Nerzak, database links and appropriately prefixed article links placed in D2L will no longer require logins. A new ezproxy link provides for seamless authentication when used within the confines of a D2L course shell.

https://ezproxy.mtsu.edu:3443/login?url=

Lucas and Mary Ellen have replaced all of the database links in Libdata so that they now contain this prefix, so we can simply copy and paste the libdata url that shows up for the databases on the A-Z list or the Subject Guides. If used outside of D2L, it will prompt for login as usual.

--Amy

Legal Resources Guide

Notes from Amanda Moore's legal resources presentation are on the wiki at http://mtsulibref.pbworks.com/Legal-Research-Sources

--AY

Call Number Locations

There's a new page on the Library Web site that shows the hundred divisions of the Dewey Decimal system and floor locations in the library. It's at
http://library.mtsu.edu/help/guides/deweyfloor.php

The page is linked from the Common Questions, Research Gateway Find Books, and Research Guides pages.

A corresponding print handout is in the reference area.

-KW

LS Class Project

We still have a cart of reference books near the reference desk laden with books being used in the library science reference project.

The overflow books are now on a study table near the windows on the west wall, with a sign asking for the books to not be reshelved.

-KW

Sharing in EndNote Web

You can share citation folders in EndNote Web. So, if you're collaborating on a publication with someone else, both of you can use the same folder of citations.

I'm slowly getting back into using EndNote Web and am happy to try to answer questions. I'm not to the point of writing and formatting a paper--still just working with importing citations.

Visit the Database Details page for more information and a link to EndNote Web.

-KW

Oxford Scholarship Online Collections

I removed the two new Oxford Scholarship Online books collections, Economics and Finance and Social Work, from the Economics and Finance, Psychology, and Social Work subject guides because the search platform was returning dozens of results for books we don't own.
I have complained to the vendor about their inability to limit search results to subscribed resources.
However, the MARC records for these books are in Voyager, so results will be returned for any searches in Voyager. You can also search the collection by limiting to the 'Oxford Scholarship Online' location in Voyager. Below are a couple sample books. It really is a nice collection.


http://voyager.mtsu.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=818193

http://voyager.mtsu.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=818200

Cancelled Sage collections

All of the Sage collections now go to the Sage platform. You will also notice that we no longer have Sage Management & Organization studies, Materials Science, Political Science, and Urban Studies & Planning. These collections were cancelled, however we do have archval access for the years that we subscribed - 4/1/2006 – 3/31/2009.

The Big Book of Jobs

The Big Book of Jobs which recently appeared on the new book truck at the desk is basically a case where free government content (The Occupational Outlook Handbook) has been repackaged with a little additional content and sold as a separate title by a publisher (McGraw-Hill). The first 50 pages of the book covers resumes and cover letters and the rest is a reprint of the entire 2008-09 Occupational Outlook Handbook. Since we already have the 08-09 Handbook in Ready Reference and it is also available online the decision was made to send this book upstairs and make it available for checkout. Thanks.

Sharon

Value Line online trial

We have a trial to Value Line online until 7/30. http://library.mtsu.edu/userservices/eresources/trials.php

"Value Line is the largest independent provider of investment-related information in the world, with a reputation for high quality, cost effective data used by individual investors, portfolio managers, corporate finance professionals and academic institutions. In addition to the same information that our print subscriptions include, online access allows you to screen stocks, track portfolios and get access to online educational tools and up to the minute information on our listed companies!"

: A Sage Full Text Collection

Within the next couple of days I'm going to be transitioning all of the Sage full-text collections to the Sage platform from the CSA platform. Journal Locator already goes to the Sage platform for these journals.
For a preview, go to: http://ezproxy.mtsu.edu/login?url=http://online.sagepub.com/cgi/search.

TK20 Manual

There's a TK20 manual at the reference desk now. It's in a thin, red-spined report cover, with an orange cover, on the bottom shelf under the telephone.

-KW

Editions and Adaptations of Shakespeare

Editions and Adaptations of Shakespeare has been added to the English Language & Literature subject guide.

About the product:
Editions and Adaptations of Shakespeare contains eleven major editions from the First Folio of 1623 to the Cambridge edition of 1863–66, twenty-eight separate contemporary printings of individual plays and poems, selected apocrypha and related works. In addition it contains more than one hundred adaptations, sequels and burlesques from the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including the whole of Bell's Acting Edition of Shakespeare's Plays (1774).

MLA Handbook, Seventh Edition

The revised MLA HAndbook is here. Well, it was, and now it's missing. Nonetheless, I blogged about it on Walker Library News, and Sue made a request to order several more copies.

Each copy comes with an activation code for a personal account on the Handbook Web site, where you can browse complete contents of the print volume and read over 200 additional examples.

I suggest taking the codes from the Reference copies and establishing accounts with our library Gmail and other email accounts. We can keep login information with other Reference Desk instructions, and then use the Web site when working with students at the desk.

What do you think?

-KW

LexisNexis Enhancements

LexisNexis is working on cosmetic changes to LN Academic. User studies and focus groups revealed that most undergraduate users don't think the Easy Search form is easy to use!

Enhancements include a dramatically different landing page that includes search boxes for different types of searches and sources. Changes are also intended to help users better understand the type of content available in LexisNexis Academic.

Target date for these changes is August 15.

View proposed prototype pages and leave feedback at http://www.amdev.net/lna_proto/

-KW