Penn State Great Valley Library Blog

With many newspaper’s elimination of science sections, where can readers turn for reliable Science News? Futurity (http://Futurity.org) is one option. This site collects and posts science news releases from universities. Universities such as Penn State, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, University of Penn, etc. needed a way to easily post their scientific findings and Futurity fits the bill. “It’s ironic that we have fewer writers in our major media focusing on science, while we have ever more issues that have a science base — from climate change to the health care debate, stem cells, evolution and swine flu — many of which are very controversial,” said Cristine Russell, a former Washington Post science reporter. Although a reliable source, Futurity lacks the impartiality of an independent science reporter. For that, readers can still turn to Knight Science Journalism Tracker, an MIT website of published science articles (http://ksjtracker.mit.edu).

For more details about locating science news, click on the link to the article on the Baltimore Sun:
Universities establish own way to tell public about findings
http://www.baltimoresun.com/technology/bal-university-wire-0916,0,6633143.story.

Management students may be interested in the latest way to promote a company - virtually with cell phone applications. “Sell the Apps, then sell your company”, according to Jenna Wortham, technology writer for the New York Times. Wortham contends when a company offers a phone application in Apple’s iStore, it is tapping into a fan base of millions of users. This is a fast way for a company to break into the virtual market. This is so lucrative other mobile phone companies are expanding into Apps for their cell phones operating systems. To read more about cell phone applications and their marketing capabilities click on the link, Apps are Booming: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/08/technology/start-ups/08phone.html

The Reading Education Assistance Dogs (READ) program brings kids together with dogs to improve reading and communication skills. By taking therapy dogs to libraries and schools, READ provides gentle, loving animals to be listeners for kids. Launched in 1999, this comprehensive reading program is currently in place through out the country and is seeing student improvements in reading and communication levels. Bill Moyers described this program as something which “pierces the mundane to arrive at the marvelous.”
For more information click on the link to READ http://www.therapyanimals.org/read/

The website All About Explorers is a different kind of web-tool for teachers. This site appears to provide credible information for elementary school students about explorers through the ages. However, there are intentional fabrications to teach kids about the importance of verifying internet sources. For example, there is a reference to Columbus discovering America which also describes how excited the Indians were to see him since he brought them computers and cell phones. Through the use of All About Explorers, students learn the necessity of finding multiple sources of information to confirm accuracy. The website provides lesson ideas for teachers and can be found at http://allaboutexplorers.com/.

Scholars can now study Hemingway’s life in Cuba – the period not well known to biographers and yet the time & place he wrote his greatest works. The Cuban Hemingway Archive includes: 2,000 documents (manuscripts and letters), 3,500 photographs, and 9,000 books (2,000 with Hemingway’s notes in the margins). This collection is made possible through a joint effort of the Cuban National Cultural Heritage Council and the U.S. Social Science Research Council.

This collection will not be available to the general public, but instead to scholars who submit written request for access. While the materials are currently only available in Finca Vigia, Cuba, they will be assessable at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston by the end of January, 2009.

With more and more newspapers discontinuing print and going online only, it is important to know how easy it is to access some of your favorite newspaper through the library. The newspapers displayed above are examples from the PressDisplay database. The Penn State Library offers this and several other options for news reading:

• PressDisplay – Available each morning, this database offers newspapers from across the country such as the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, to name a few. (Note: Philadelphia Inquirer, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal are not included in this database.) This database provides a realistic view of the printed version of these newspapers and, if your preference is to read a printed version, it can be printed in readable format on legal sized paper.

To locate this database, select PressDisplay from the Penn State Library home page (http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul.html) under Databases A-Z
Select News from the top left tabsOnce on PressDisplay home page, look to the left column, under Titles by Country, select USA.

• NewsBank America’s Newspaper Database – Provides access to a wide selection of newspapers from 1990 to date. While this database does include the current edition of Philadelphia Inquirer, it is not presented in the newspaper’s print format. It is available in a category-driven menu format with links to the articles. (Also note, this database does not include the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times.)

To locate this database, select America’s Newspapers or NewsBank from the Penn State Library home page (http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul.html) under Databases A-Z

• LexisNexis Academic – Provides access to a extensive selection of newspapers from 1993 to date. LexisNexis does offer a current edition of the New York Times; however, the articles are listed by their titles. This is not a convenient format for simply reading through a newspaper; it is intended for topic searching. The Wall Street Journal is included in LexisNexis, but only provides abstracts.
o For those diligent and green online readers, LexisNexis Academic can be accessed for news reading by following the listed steps:

Select LexisNexis Academic from the Penn State Library home page (http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul.html) under Databases A-Z
Select News from the top left tabs
In the Source box de-select U.S. Newspapers & Wires, and scroll down to New York Times (for example) and check in that box
In the Specify Date box select Today
Click on the red Search button.

• ProQuest Newsstand – Provides access to a broad collection of newspapers, as with LexisNexis Academic, it is intended as a searchable database, not as a readable newsprint format. However, it does include the current edition of the Wall Street Journal, but the articles are listed by name.
o Again, for the green online reader, ProQuest Newsstand can be accessed for news reading by following the method:

Select LexisNexis Academic from the Penn State Library home page (http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul.html) under Databases A-Z
Publication Title enter Wall Street Journal, for example
Date Range select On This Date
Enter 01/09/2009, for example

• NewYork Times – If reading the NY Times online is the goal, simply register for free at the New York Times website http://www.nytimes.com/ The Register button is in the upper left corner.

• Wall Street Journal – The Wall Street Journal requires a subscription for online reading. Its current cost is $1.99/week. http://online.wsj.com/public/us

As indicated on the Europeana homepage (http://dev.europeana.eu/ ), 10 million hits per hour halted this site on the opening day of its prototype. Europeana is a digital collection of European culture and heritage produced by the efforts of many European Archives, Research Institutions, and National Representatives. Offering 6 million digital sounds, photos, paintings, maps, manuscripts, books, film material, newspapers and archival papers, Europeana began in July 2007 and is expected to provide full access by 2010. The demo displays screenshots from this site and provides a taste of what to expect. (The demo can be found on the home page address listed above.) While the demo is only offering in English, when completed the portal will be accessible in all the languages of Europe.

Some representatives from European Cultural institutions considered the portal’s capability handling 5 million hits an hour excessive, even doubting the public’s interest in a digital cultural collection. However, the traffic for this prototype has overwhelmingly demonstrated a need for this European digital cultural collection. The prototype is expected to attempt to launch again toward the end of December 2008.

RESOURCES FOR ENGINEERING PROGRAMS
Filed under: Uncategorized, Blogs, Reference Resources, Instructional Design

The Penn State Great Valley Library offers many resources for our Engineering Programs. The library’s collection consists of a great assortment of items in print as well as those available through electronic access such as electronic journals and online books.
oElectronic resources - accessed through Penn State’s Library main page (http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul.html) and select Databases by title (A-Z)
o ACM Digital Library
o IEEE Explore
o Inspec (Engineering Village)
o Compendex (Engineering Village)
o Knovel (Engineering and Science Handbooks)
o Safari Books Online

Other Sources relating to Science – accessed through Penn State’s Library main page
o Science Direct
o ProQuest (multiple databases)
o Elsevier Science Direct
o Scientific American Archive Online

If you have any questions or need help please stop in, call 610-648-3215, or e-mail Dolores Fidishun, Head Librarian dxf19@psu.edu.

The Penn State Great Valley Library offers many resources for our Management and Business Programs. The library’s collection consists of a great assortment of items in print, electronic access, and microfilm/microfiche.

• Print Resources – Frequently used print periodicals:
o Harvard Business Review - Print Only (article abstracts can be searched on ProQuest (Multiple Databases))
o Investor’s Business Daily - Also available electronically through LexisNexis Academic
o New York Times - Also available electronically through ProQuest (Newsstand)
o Wall Street Journal – Also available electronically through ProQuest (Newsstand)

• Electronic resources - accessed through Penn State’s Library main page (http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul.html) and select Databases by title (A-Z)
o ABI/Inform
o Hoover’s Online
o LexisNexis Academic
o Mergent (formerly Moody’s)
o ProQuest (Multiple Databases)
o ProQuest (Newsstand) for Wall Street Journal, NY Times, and other national newspapers
o PsycINFO
o Standard & Poor’s NetAdvantage
o TableBase
o Value Line

• Resources available from outside Penn State:
o Business Source Premier – this electronic source can be accessed using ACCESS PA through a public library website such as the Chester County Library (http://www.ccls.org)- please contact the library for more information or help using this source

If you have any questions or need help please stop in, call 610-648-3215, or e-mail Dolores Fidishun, Head Librarian dxf19@psu.edu.

This is Hispanic Heritage month!
This is a time to honor the culture and diversity of our Hispanic citizens. The library has created a bulletin board with a wealth of information and setup a display of our favorite Hispanic children’s books. If you have a few minutes, you might enjoy stopping by to check this out.

Also, not to be forgotten is Penn State’s electronic resource –
Ethnic NewsWatch database. Available through ProQuest, this database contains Ethnic newspapers, magazines, journals and newsletters, with nearly a quarter of million articles presented in Spanish. There are dozens of Latino publications including El Nuevo Herald, El Diario/La Prensa, and Mundo Hispanico.

This database can be found by accessing the Penn State Library’s home page (http://www.libraries.psu.edu), selecting Databases by Title (A-Z), then scrolling down to Ethnic NewsWatch and clicking on it.
If you have any questions we are here to help.

Now that the semester has gotten underway, it’s a good time to answer some commonly asked questions.

Where do I get a library card? If you are a student, staff or faculty, your Penn State ID card is your library card. If you are a Penn State Alumni you can register for an Alumni Card at the library’s circulation desk. If you are Pennsylvania resident or work in Pennsylvania, you can register for a Resident Card.

Will I be charged for printing or copying? No and yes… Printing is free; there’s a 10 cent/copy charge for copying.

How long can I borrow materials? Generally, if you are faculty, staff or student most material can be borrowed for the length of the semester, with an option to self-renew online twice. The exception being audio & video materials and certain materials identifed by professors for class use. All borrowed items are subject to Recall. (Recall will be discussed next.) Penn State Alumni and PA residents can borrow materials up to 30 days (also able to renew online).

What is Recall? If a borrowed item is needed by another library user, that user can place a hold and then the item will be recalled form the borrower. The borrower will receive an email giving him/her 10 days to return the material. Please pay attention to this email; unreturned recalled items are subject to fines. This is the fairest way to ensure every user has access to library materials.

How many item may I borrow at one time? Faculty, staff and graduate students may borrow up to 500 items at any one time. Undergraduate students can borrow up to 200, and Penn State Alumni & PA residents can borrow up to 100 items.

Is it possible to borrow dissertations and theses? Yes, they can be checked out with the same time limit as most printed materials: for the semester for faculty, staff, and students; for 30 days for alumni and residents. As will all library materials they are also subject to Recall.

If you have any other questions regarding library or resource usage, please call the library 610-648-3215.

The library is a great place to meet for your class group projects. Groups of 6 can comfortably sit at any table within the main area of the library, or a conference room can be reserved. As mentioned in a previous posting, two “collaborative workstations” are available, as well as digital, VHS or Hi-8 cameras, tri-pod, Fire wire, video recording equipment and video editing software. All equipment must be reserved ahead of time. For more information or to make a reservation, call The Library 610-648-3215

Also, food and drink are welcome within the library. So grab a pizza and plan on meeting in the library. Have access to all the scholarly information Penn State has to offer with a reference librarian nearby who can answer questions.
Library hours are: Monday – Thursday (9:30am-9:30pm), Friday (9:30am-6pm), and Saturday (8:30am-4:30pm).

A current, popular library book is Freakonomics: A rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. This New York Times Best Seller has won a few awards: 2006 Book Sense Book of the Year in the Adult Nonfiction category, 2005 Quill award for best business book of the year, and Finalist of the Financial Time/Goldman Sach’s Business Book of the Year. In this book, Levitt and Dubner take a look at society and statistics from a different perspective. For example, Levitt and Dubner evaluate what is more harmful to children: having a pool in their own backyard or having a gun in their house? By comparing fatality rates among children under each of these circumstances, they conclude that a pool is more dangerous since there are more children’s deaths by drowning then by guns. The conclusion is based on annual statistics alone; no moral issues are pulled into the equation. Thus, the book is ideal for raising discussions regarding this and the many other featured topics.

“A weblog, web log or simply a blog, is a web application which contains periodic posts on a common webpage.” From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For more information about blogs and blogging check out the following website by Virginia Montecino from George Mason University http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/blog.html

If you’d like to start your own blog try Google’s free blog service at http://www.blogger.com

More Library Blogs:

Life Sciences Library
http://psulifescienceslibrary.blogspot.com/

Vairo Library Blog
http://www.de2.psu.edu/vairo/

CAS Library Blog - Communication Arts & Sciences
http://cas-psu.blogspot.com/

FAQ - About Our Library Blogs - Library News - Georgia State University Library
http://www.library.gsu.edu/news/index.asp?view=details&ID=1735

Library Weblogs
http://www.libdex.com/weblogs.html

ResourceShelf
http://www.resourceshelf.com

Open Access News - News from the open access movement
http://www.earlham.edu/%7Epeters/fos/fosblog.html

Theoretical Librarian
http://theoretical-librarian.blogspot.com/

Penn Library Staff Blog
http://www.library.upenn.edu/blos/staffweb