Got a Smart Phone, iPad, Kindle or Nook?

Drexel leases over 32,000 scholarly books from the vendor eBrary that includes titles from a wide variety of disciplines. To read these books previously required an active internet connection. But all that has changed. Drexel patrons may now download these e-books to use offline by creating a PDF of a single chapter, or installing the free Adobe Digital Editions to download an entire book.  That means you can take them on the plane, overseas, anywhere!  You can find eBrary books in our catalog using a keyword search (example), or browse the full-text of their entire collection by logging onto the eBrary platform itself.  Those curious about technical details can see the faq. Try it out and let us know how you like it!   best, Tim     siftar@drexel.edu

Do you have a favorite information technology book that the Library doesn’t currently own? How about a hot tech topic that the Library collection should develop?

After recently weeding some older editions we now have several dozen open slots in our rotating Safari E-book Collection. We welcome your help to fully utilize our allotted number of titles. Books from the following publishers constitute the bulk of what we have available to us.
•    Addison-Wesley Professional
•    Adobe Press
•    Cisco Press
•    IBM Redbooks
•    Microsoft Press
•    New Riders
•    OReilly
•    Peachpit Press
•    Prentice Hall PTR
•    Que
•    Sams
•    And more

Also – as always, please feel free to make suggestions in areas you feel are relevant to the information technology field. We will make every effort to accommodate your request!

Tim Siftar

iSchool, Education and Goodwin College Librarian
siftar@drexel.edu

So you love citation management services – RefWorks, EndNote, Zotero, Papers (for the mac) etc. You love the ease of adding the citations of articles you find to your very own account. You love generating bibliography lists with a few quick clicks. You love how it keeps your citations findable forever.  But if you have compared the available services, what makes one of them really stand out from the others? There’s a ginormous comparison on Wikipedia if you want that perspective.

But I got a chance to reflect on my own criteria for excellence while previewing the beta-test version of RefWorks 2.0 over the summer months. They say it’s been available since last April, but I only discovered in June. After initially wondering to myself  – with RefWorks 1.0 working so well, why mess with success? But after just minimal exposure, I’m happy to say the upgrade seems like a good thing in my opinion.

Check it out yourself at http://www.refworks-cos.com – and see the link on the lower right to sign up for your own account. Please note, these are temporary beta accounts. You should not save any important data to these. Keep your important citations in the RefWorks 1.0 version currently held by the Library.

Criteria:

Easy to learn.
Easy to look at.
Reliable.
Web-based (a personal bias)
Supports in-text parenthetical citations.
Offers hassle-free links back to Drexel’s full-text.
Reliable (did I say that twice? that’s because it’s *really important*!!!)

Okay – that’s my list. What about yours? I would enjoy hearing your thoughts.

Best,
Tim Siftar
siftar@drexel.edu
Call the Reference Desk for you personal orientation to RefWorks or other citation management software.

We live in a time that supports constant stimulation through internet and media connectivity.   Whether our drive to avoid boredom has a biological basis or not, it begs a practical question about the consequences of so many people choosing the hyper-stimulated path. A recent Newsweek article cites the concern expressed by clinical psychologist Adam J. Cox published in The New Atlantis about the consequences for teenage boys in particular.

“Cox worries about the deficits in the communication abilities of young males for whom a ‘womb of all-encompassing stimulation’ induces ‘a pleasant trance from which they do not care to be awakened.’”

Cox wonders about the effect on the social development of such individuals who he hypothesizes may find face to face interactions less accessible after a steady diet of full-on electronic media. I think it’s a question worth bringing up with parents as they consider how they negotiate with their children over the infinite options for digital entertainment.

Here’s a link to the full article on Newsweek. What do you think?

One resource you might find helpful in considering a how to answer this for yourself is the Center on Media and Child Health. They seem to have a measured view on both the positive and negative potential of new media.

This has been a public service announcement. We now return to our regularly scheduled broadcast…

Tim Siftar

ps – Lots of other related articles in the press currently such as this and this from the NYTimes, along with the provocatively titled “Is Google Making us Stupid?”

[This is part of an occasional series where I post my responses to typical questions I receive in the hopes that it may be useful to others.]

QUESTION:

Tim,
Hello!
I am trying to find if Drexel subscribes to Human Development journal.

Specifically, I am looking for a 1991 issue, volume 34, issue 1.  I was not able to find it but perhaps I missed something.

Can you please help me or at least confirm that Drexel does not have it?

Thanks,

RESPONSE:

Good to hear from you. Yes we have that journal, as a search in the catalog by Journal Title turns up. But here’s the thing. You’re asking for an older article that we don’t have electronically. BUT – not to worry. We *do* have it in hard copy. And in case you can’t get to campus immediately to copy it yourself, you have some options. If you can wait 24 hours, our Document Delivery Staff will fulfill your request if you submit all the details through our ILLiad inter-library loan system. You will receive an email when the electronic PDF copy has been loaded to your personal ILLiad account. Just login and pick it up!

Best,

Tim

Cool extra detail – In fact, if you found the citation in on of our Drexel databases, there is a way of using the SFX button’s “Additional Services” option so that you don’t even have to fill in the ILL form. From the SFX button for your citation just click Additional Services/Inter-library Loan and then login to your ILLiad account and all the information for your citation will auto-populate into the ILL request form. Cool, huh?

[This is part of an occasional series where I post my responses to typical questions I receive in the hopes that it may be useful to others.]

QUESTION

Hi Mr. Siftar,
Thank you for following up with me. I’m wondering if the library subscribes to Education Week, The Chronicle of Higher Education and Teacher’s College Record and Educational Administration Quarterly journals – in print and online?
I ask only because I did not see them listed independently under ‘Databases’ but they may be folded into EBSCO or ERIC, for example.
I look forward to meeting you.
Best, Jen
=====

RESPONSE

=====

Hi Jennifer –

Good to hear from you. Yes we have all of the publications you mention in electronic format. And yes, they are usually folded into one of the literature databases we carry, and not listed individually on the databases page.  For some titles we also have print copy for the older issues. You can check the holdings for each of them using the library catalog – the main search box on the front page of the library website.

We treat each journal as an individual title in the same way we treat a book in the catalog. Going through the catalog, sometimes you’ll see separate records for electronic and print versions of the journal. After you select the record for the electronic version of your journal title you will be dropped into one of our many literature databases (such as Proquest or Education Research Complete on the EBSCO platform).

Notice that coming into the database by this path you will be lead to just the contents of the one journal you selected in the catalog – it won’t be the full contents of that database as you might be accustomed to seeing. Then you’ll be able to browse the contents of just that one journal, either by the date or volume.

There is also typically a search box that says “search within this journal” that is restricted to just  the holdings for that journal. That single-journal search option can be a handy way to narrow the universe of articles in which you are searching your topic.

Enjoy!

Best,
Tim

Here are a few links to library tutorials to help you with the questions from this assignment:

Evaluating Websites:
http://www.library.drexel.edu/resources/tutorials/webeval/intro.html

Research Articles on a topic:
The best place to start is with the Research Guides by Subject, which will give you the best library resources for researching a variety of topics:
http://www.library.drexel.edu/resources/guides/subjectguides.html

There’s also the “Freshman Writers Toolbox” at that main tutorials address that is good:
http://www.library.drexel.edu/resources/tutorials/tutorials.html

Citing references
http://www.library.drexel.edu/resources/tutorials/citations.html

Please call or email if you have further questions!

Best,

Tim

Do you ever need a brain vacation between study sessions? If so, try the Library’s “ecoffee table” for direct
access into a dozen popular magazines. Fun, right? While you’re at it, try out the links to our streamed music resources as well!

“Drexel University libraries have recently added material to its collection that may be of interest to you based on your preferred search settings. You may view and request the material via the link(s) below.”
That’s the default text of the weekly email YOU TOO can receive. Turn on this feature under the link for “Check My Library Record” in the purple section of the Library website’s front page.

Steps for creating a “Preferred search” alert of new books at Drexel University Libraries

1.) Click the link for “Check My Library Record” featured in the purple section of the Library website’s front page. (continued)

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Every Drexel student is aware of our university’s long tradition when it comes to encouraging its students to become early adopters of new technology. For example, Drexel was the first university to require freshman to have their own personal computers in 1983. We were on the forefront of offering students email, wiring the campus with internet. Then we were the first to make wireless internet available campus-wide in 2000. During these great leaps forward, Drexel Libraries has kept pace. We dumped the card catalog for an online version, were among the first to move from a print to electronic journal collection and have supplied loaner laptop and email reference services for years. (Email us at qmlib@drexel.edu)

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