Archive for September, 2010

New Paging Services!

Monday, September 27th, 2010

Have you ever found a print book in Penrose Library’s catalog and wished someone would get it for you so that you could pick up at the Circulation Desk?  Or have you found an article or a chapter in a book only available in print and wished it were available electronically?  Penrose is proud of both our print and electronic collections and as a result, we are excited to offer a new service for the DU community.  In an effort to make using the library even easier and more convenient Penrose now offers paging!

When you find a print resource in our online catalog while conducting research, simply click on the “Request It” button to initiate a request.  We will pull any available circulating print item from our collection for you.  You can expect that all items requested before 4 p.m. Sunday through Thursday will be available at the Circulation Desk at 8 a.m. the following day.  We hope this will save you time in the stacks!

But that’s not all.  If an item is currently checked out, we will look to other libraries to borrow a copy for you.  Since most items are available within Colorado, delivery of borrowed material usually takes 3-5 business days. 

What’s more, if the article or chapter you want is only available in print at Penrose Library, please feel free to request through the Interlibrary Loan link and we will deliver requests within fair use electronically to your desktop.   Full information is on the Paging Services website.  Read more at DU Today: http://blogs.du.edu/today/news/penrose-library-offers-new-paging-service.

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Google and the Library

Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010

Hey, I’m a librarian, and honest, even I go to Google to find information.

Google is great for the fast fact, as long as you act like an information professional and discern truth from opinion and fiction from lies.  Google is really good for finding the altitude of Bolivia, the president of Toyota, or the address for that company you want to work for when you graduate.

Many of us here in the library are big fans of Google.  Reference librarians regularly teach workshops on how to use Google Scholar.  I have my own stuff in iGoogle, and I own a Droid.  I suppose that makes me an official fan, eh?

But there actually are things Google isn’t so good at.  If you want a list of journal articles on a combination of topics, say, feminist opinion on biracial adolescents, and you want to actually link to the digital articles, Google will want you to PAY for the articles.  Set your Scholar Preferences in Google  Scholar so that you are recognized as part of the DU community and you will get all the articles for free.  We also have lots of other article databases through Penrose’s website which will give you the full text of articles for free.  At Penrose, the library has paid, so you don’t have to!

If you want to study Italian for that upcoming trip to Bologna, Google isn’t all that great, but Penrose Library’s website will lead you to your very own copy of Rosetta Stone.

So, give some thought to what Google isn’t good at, and think about Penrose instead.  There is a lot that we are really good at!  And we actually have people here to help you with your information and research questions.  Google doesn’t.

–Nancy Allen, Dean and Director of Penrose Library

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Sign-up for Free Research Workshop!

Monday, September 13th, 2010

Each quarter the reference librarians at Penrose offer a number of free general workshops on a variety of resources. The workshops are open to current DU students, faculty, and staff. This Fall quarter we are offering workshops on finding books and articles, Google tools, RefWorks, research funding, citation searching, managing your online reputation in Facbook and Twitter, business and company research, and 18th century British digital collections. Workshops take place in the Research Instruction Room on the main floor of Penrose Library. Due to limited seating, please RSVP for any workshop(s) you would like to attend. To see the complete schedule and sign-up for a workshop, please go to our Library Research Workshops page.

If you have any questions, please contact Carrie Forbes, Instruction Coordinator and Reference Librarian, at (303) 871-3407 or email carrie.forbes@du.edu.

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In Memory of September 11, 2001

Friday, September 10th, 2010

Graduate students at the Penrose Library Research Center created a display of dozens of books discussing and remembering the September 11th tragedies. This display is between the Research Center Desk and the Book Drop Café.

In addition to the numerous books written on the event, there are a number of online resources that provide an overview.

Please let us know if you have any questions about the display. Joe

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Database Changes over the Summer

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

We subscribe to hundreds of databases, and some of the major database vendors changed their interfaces over the Summer.  In other words, they have a different look and feel.  Below are some of the changes.

Prospector has a new search screen.  Keyword searching should be faster and bring back more relevant results to the top.

EBSCO changed the way results are retrieved.  All of their databases, such as Academic Search Complete, Business Source Complete and others will return results in relevance order.  Thus, older articles may appear above more recent articles.

Lexis-Nexis has a different search screen.

JSTOR has a new interface.

In addition to these, many journal publishers also changed the design of their websites.  Some of them are Springer, Elsevier ScienceDirect and John Wiley.

Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns about the changes publishers made over the summer.

Joe

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