The College of Wooster Libraries’ Blog

The Libraries have created a customized toolbar to help speed up your library research. The toolbar is an add-on for your Firefox or IE browser. It has some of the basic library functions built-in to it including quick searches books and journal articles, a link to ILLiad for ILL requests, links to Reserves, and, last but not least, a link to the Libraries’ Ask a Librarian page.  Oh, it also has a weather component so you can see just how cold it is today.  There is also a link to it on the Libraries home page.

College of Wooster faculty and students have trial access to Faculty of 1000 Biology (http://www.f1000biology.com) until February 7, 2008. This database is “a revolutionary online research service that comprehensively highlights and reviews the most interesting papers published in all the biological sciences, based on the recommendations of over 2400 selected leading researchers.” The system allows users to specify tailored e-mail alerting and personal customization to display papers within areas of interest.

For additional information or to comment on this research tool, contact Donna Jacobs at dkjacobs@wooster.edu.

The recently released National Intelligence Estimate Iran: Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities is now available on the web site of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The Libraries now are able to provide access to Urban Studies Abstracts as an online database.  We previously have had this resource available as a print index.

The OhioLINK Electronic Reference Books collection from ABC-CLIO Publishers has moved.  It is now part of the OhioLINK Electronic Book Center.  You can still access it as a collection by performing an advanced search and selecting the Reference subject area.

Two history databases have shifted from the OhioLINK Osearch interface the the EBSCOhost interface. America: History and Life and Historical Abstracts are now available as EBSCOhost databases.

“Recipes, Household Hints, and Revelations: An Evolution of Women’s Magazines” is currently on display in Special Collections, The College of Wooster Libraries. This exhibit highlights British and American women’s magazines from the mid-19th century to the present and demonstrates the way the popular press has encouraged middle-class white women to redefine themselves to meet the demands of an ever-changing world. Over the years, women have been advised on sure-fire methods for removing stains, obtaining husbands, getting pregnant, not getting pregnant, repairing broken china and broken marriages. To coincide with world events, such magazines have provided instructions for constructing the perfect body, the perfect home, the perfect marriage—the perfect life—despite war, economic strife, or emotional crises.

The exhibit is available for viewing October 22 – December 14, 2007. Special arrangements can be made to view any of our women’s periodical runs. For more information, contact Denise Monbarren (ext. 2527) or Elaine Smith Snyder (ext. 2155).

General Patraeus and Ambassador Crocker have updated Congress on the progress of the “Surge” strategy in Iraq.  You can find Gen. Patraeus’ prepared statement on the House web site.  Additionally you can find the charts that accompany his testimony on the Defene Dept. site.  You can also access The Report of the Independent Commission on the Security Forces of Iraq on the Senate web site.

The Libraries have moved ALL HOLDS to the Gault Reserves Desk in the main library. Now everyone can pick up their Andrews/Gault Library PRINT RESERVES, CONSORT HOLDS, OhioLINK HOLDS, and ILLiad Interlibrary Loan HOLDS (replaces WebZap) all at the same place.

Faculty dropping off their COURSE RESERVE items are asked to continue to drop them off at the Gault Reserves Desk as well, complete with a filled-out course reserves form to ensure the reserves are processed properly.

Reserves and ILLiad Interlibrary Loan questions can be directed to David Wiebe, Access Services Daytime Manager (Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm, ext. 2137, dwiebe@wooster.edu) and CONSORT/OhioLINK HOLDS questions can be directed to Alyssa Weldon, Access Services Evening Manager (Sunday-Thursday, 2pm-11 pm, ext. 2136, aweldon@wooster.edu). In their absense, questions can be directed to Julia Gustafson (ext. 2315, jgustafson@wooster.edu).

The College of Wooster Libraries is subscribing to a collection of ca. 30,000 academic titles through ebrary. The titles in this collection are available to multiple simultaneous users and do not require any kind of ‘checkout’ process. The titles are fully cataloged in CONSORT: to see a full list of titles available, search by keyword ‘ebrary.’

To access the titles, the ebrary reader software must first be installed on your computer (it is already installed on all library and lab computers on campus). If you would like assistance with this, please contact IT. Once the software is installed, one can access book content directly. One can also create an individual (or course) account and create a personal bookshelf; bookmark, highlight, and annotate passages; print passages and choose the citation style of the citation that automatically prints.

For more information, go to http://www.ebrary.com/corp/training.jsp.