Last week Provost Mark Greenberg announced that Dr. Danuta Nitecki has been named Drexel’s new Dean of Libraries. We couldn’t be more excited for her January arrival.

Click here to read the full text of Greenberg’s announcement, and to learn more about our new dean.

Welcome, Dr. Nitecki!

After a six month search Drexel’s Provost Mark L. Greenberg announced the appointment of Dr. Danuta Nitecki as Dean of Libraries. We eagerly anticipate her arrival in January 2010.

Please join us in welcoming Danuta Nitecki to Drexel.

The Libraries are pleased to announce the first issue of the online publication, The Journal of Culture and Retail Image. This journal is a joint effort of the Design & Merchandising program and Drexel University Libraries, with help from the University’s Writing Center.

The journal strives to expand students’ research and writing skills by introducing them first hand to the peer review and publication process. Focusing on the fashion retail environment, each issue is dedicated to a particular topic and includes student papers from the sophomore course of DSMR 465.

The first issue of the journal is dedicated to menswear and can be accessed at http://www.library.drexel.edu/publications/dsmr/.

April 7, 2008 is an important date in the implementation of the NIH Public Access Policy; as of this date, all articles arising from NIH funds must be submitted to PubMed Central upon acceptance for publication.

The NIH Public Access Policy implements Division G, Title II, Section 218 of PL 110-161 (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008) which states:

SEC. 218. The Director of the National Institutes of Health shall require that all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Central an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication: Provided, That the NIH shall implement the public access policy in a manner consistent with copyright law.

According to the terms of the Public Access Policy, all peer-reviewed articles must be submitted to PubMed Central if they are based on work that is:

1. Directly funded by an NIH grant or cooperative agreement active in Fiscal Year 2008 (October 1, 2007- September 30, 2008) or beyond;
2. Directly funded by a contract signed on or after April 7, 2008;
3. Directly funded by the NIH Intramural Program.
4. If NIH pays your salary.

The publishers of some journals will submit articles directly to PubMed Central on behalf of their authors. Authors of articles published in other journals must submit them to PMC themselves; Principal Investigators and their Institutions are responsible for ensuring all terms and conditions of awards are met. This includes the submission of articles that arise directly from their awards, even if they are not an author or co-author of the publication.

Full information about the NIH Public Access Policy, including and FAQ and links to the NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) system are available at http://publicaccess.nih.gov/index.htm.

Whether to use Wikipedia or not use Wikipedia depends on what you need and how you are going to use the information you find.

If you need an authoritative scholarly resource for your research paper, Wikipedia is not your best choice. Wikipedia has limitations; its articles are written by anonymous authors, they can be edited by anyone, and the information is largely unreviewed, unregulated and, sometimes, inaccurate.

The University Libraries license authoritative general and specialized online encyclopedias for use by the Drexel community, including Britannica Online (academic edition), AccessScience (McGraw-Hill’s Encyclopedia of Science & Technology Online), Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Astrophysics, POLYMERSnetBASE, Ullmann’s Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology and Behavioral Science, Grove Dictionary of Art and the Wiley Encyclopedia of Electrical and Electronics Engineering. These sources do provide scholarly, authoritative and reliable information. They are all free to Drexel students, faculty, and staff and are not available freely on the Internet.

Likewise, scholarly research articles can be found using electronic databases available from the library’s web site. Several databases such as Expanded Academic, Proquest Research Library, and Ei Compendex/INSPEC offer access to peer reviewed journal articles. Major subject based electronic databases are available from: http://www.library.drexel.edu/resources/databasesbysubject.html.

Use the library’s guide, ‘Is this a Scholarly publication?,’ at http://www.library.drexel.edu/resources/tutorials/scholpubs.html to determine whether the article you found fits the definition of a scholarly publication or not.

On the other hand, Wikipedia can often provide a good starting point. In addition to general background information and context, it can quickly provide appropriate keywords that you can use while searching for scholarly information through databases available from the library’s web site.

The library staff is happy to answer questions about finding the best possible source. Please contact the library staff or email or IM your questions by going to:
http://www.library.drexel.edu/about/askaquestion.html

Jane Bryan, Director of Libraries
Jay Bhatt, Engineering Librarian