UNLV Libraries Articles from Inside UNLV for 2002


University Libraries’ Reserve Services going digital! February, 2002
The University Libraries’ Reserve Services is going digital! Over the next several semesters, we’ll be phasing in the use of a product called eRes. This web-based software helps manage and present scanned reserve readings and allows us to make reserve items available to students any time, any place. Students will use the software to look up reserve items by course name, department or instructor. They will log in to the system using their barcode, after which they can view reserves online and print them out. The reserve readings themselves will be in PDF format, we will do all the scanning using a high-speed scanner. The quality of documents will not be much better than the original photocopy-they will be black and white, and we are scanning at the lowest resolution possible for smaller files. What people can expect is an electronic copy of a photocopy. The reserve process for instructors will be the same as it is now- we will scan and process any photocopies submitted for reserve. Paper reserves cannot entirely be eliminated-there are some things we can't scan because they are too long, too large, or they don't translate well into PDF. We will make the move to eRes slowly to ensure a smooth transition but we hope to have at least half of our documents on electronic reserve by fall.
Find Articles and More

April, 2002
The fulltext of 340 Wiley Interscience Journals covering topics in science, medicine, technology and social science are now available to all UNLV students, faculty, and staff. Though UNLV subscribes to 49 of the titles, through a consortial agreement with Arizona University Libraries and UNR we had online access to the pool of subscribed titles or 183 journals. Recently by working with the Greater Western Library Alliance, a consortium of 29 academic libraries from Arkansas to Washington state, access has been expanded to all 340 titles.

Digital Dissertations contains citations to doctoral dissertations and master's theses from over 1,000 graduate schools and universities. UNLV users are now able to download .pdf files of the complete text of titles published since 1997. Fulltext of theses and dissertations published by UNLV students are available from 1996 to present. Twenty-four page previews of the digitized works can be viewed online. About 47,000 new dissertations and 12,000 new theses are added to the database each year.

Go to the libraries’ “Find Articles and More” page at http://www.library.unlv.edu/search/eralpha.html to search Wiley Interscience journals, Digital Dissertations, and a multitude of other resources.

Utah Academic Library Consortium (UALC)

 

May, 2002
The University Libraries has signed an agreement with the Utah Academic Library Consortium (UALC) that allows on-site borrowing privileges at all consortium libraries effective January 2002. As a result of the agreement it is now possible for UNLV student, staff, emeriti and faculty who present valid campus identification or legal photo identification and proof of current registration to check out library materials at other UALC member libraries. All borrowing is subject to the loan rules established by the lending library, and these rules may vary among UALC libraries. The borrowed material may be returned directly to the lending library or to any UNLV Library. It will then be returned to the lending library.

This reciprocal borrowing agreement supports the consortial mission of fostering research and is intended to maximize library resources on behalf of the faculty, staff and students of the member libraries. Like the expanded access to electronic resources such as netLibrary (through UALC) and Wiley Interscience (through the Greater Western Library Alliance) which were highlighted in earlier columns, it serves as an excellent example of the benefits accrued from our continuing efforts to collaborate with other libraries to get the most “bang for our buck”.

BYU, Utah State, Southern Utah University, Dixie College, Utah State Library, and Weber State University are among the participating Utah Libraries. The complete list of UALC member libraries and the full text of the agreement may be found through links on the Library Circulation Dept. web page at http://www.library.unlv.edu/circ/index.html.


McPhee Award
and
Innovative Solutions Award

June, 2002
The University Libraries are proud to recognize Wendy Starkweather, director of Public Services and the recipient of the 2002 McPhee Librarian of the Year Award and Jennifer Church, Information Commons Librarian and the first to receive the Libraries’ new Innovative Solutions Award.

The McPhee Award is given annually to a tenured member of the library faculty who has made a major contribution to the library, the university, the community or the profession. In a letter nominating Wendy, a colleague praised her as an involved supervisor of six large departments, outlined her work with our state library organization and concluded by saying, “Wendy Starkweather is a person who does a “big job” very well. In her seventeen years here, she has made a substantial contribution to the UNLV Libraries; however her contribution is in more than years. She constantly strives for improvement for the Libraries, is a cheerleader for her state, and provides support for her colleagues.”

The Innovative Solutions Award recognizes a library faculty member for demonstrated innovation and creative thinking to solve a problem or challenge, or to improve upon an existing practice in the provision of library services and resources. Jennifer helped the Libraries’ Administration office find a technical solution to manage large numbers of employment documents. Her solution made it possible for Library Administration staff to reduce turn-around time for hiring student workers from two working days to five minutes and caught the attention of the University Human Resources staff.

Congratulations to both our award winners!


Studies of journal holdings

July/August, 2002
During the last four years the libraries have been working to increase the availability of online journals to the UNLV community. Recent studies of journal holdings in chemistry and health sciences demonstrate that the move toward online journals has permitted the libraries to increase the number of titles available to researchers while minimizing cost increases. The growth in the number of health science titles available to UNLV researchers is especially significant. In 1998 the library subscribed to 329 print-only journals in health sciences, mostly nursing. In 2002 the libraries provided access to 664 journals in health and medicine, more than doubling the number of titles while spending only an additional 3.2%. In 1998 the libraries subscribed to 64 print-only journals in chemistry (call number area QD), but in 2002 were able to provide access to 91 chemistry journals while actually decreasing expenditures by 14%. Almost all of the new titles in health sciences and chemistry were part of online packages from scientific publishers such as Wiley and Blackwell Science.

Online journals have also been added to the libraries’ collections in the humanities and other sciences, but a study of journal holdings in those areas remains to be done.

Additions to Core Collections

September, 2002
The University Libraries have recently made some large purchases of much-needed resources using “student savings” money—funds that have been saved through the hiring of student workers with federal work-study grants.

From this money, the Curriculum Materials Library, located in the Carlson Education Building, received $30,000 for the first installment of its core juvenile literature collection. The collection, which was started in the 1960s, was very outdated, and the money was used to purchase approximately 2000 picture books and current informational books in the sciences and technology, supporting the curriculum of teacher education students.

The Music Library, located in the new Beam Music Center, also had its collections targeted for $30,000 of this money. These funds were spent to support new Doctor of Musical Arts programs in the Music Department with an emphasis in voice, woodwinds, or percussion. After assessment of the music collection, approximately 1000 music scores and 200 compact discs were purchased in these specific areas.

The Libraries used the remainder of this money to purchase all United States Geological Survey Digital Orthophoto Quads (DOQs) currently available for the state of Nevada. A DOQ is similar to an aerial photograph, but it has been rectified so that ground features are displayed in their true ground position. The 5,388 Nevada quads are contained on roughly 500 CDs, which will eventually be housed in a cabinet on the second floor of Lied Library. Though originally requested by the Geoscience Department, DOQs will be useful to anyone working with the Nevada landscape.

Faculty Seminar Series

October, 2002
The University Libraries Instruction Department is once again offering a Faculty Seminar Series with sessions designed to help faculty with both teaching and research. October offerings include “Please, Not Another Paper on the Death Penalty”, a session on helping students to develop topic selection strategies and skills to think critically about disciplinary literature, on Tuesday, October 1 between noon and 1:00pm. Also in October, the Libraries will host “Copyright 101” , “Electronic Journals in the Sciences”, and “Beyond Term Papers- Alternatives for Large Classes” over the lunch hour on the 10th, 15th, and 23rd respectively. For a complete and detailed schedule and information on signing up, please visit www.library.unlv.edu/inst/seminars.html or call the office at x2123.

The Instruction department would also like to remind faculty that we offer sessions to help students develop the research and information literacy skills they need to do quality work for your classes. To bring your class over for a tailored session, call Diane VanderPol at x2123. We need at least one week’s notice and the earlier you call the more likely you are to get your first choice time and date.


CQ Researcher

November, 2002
The UNLV Libraries are pleased to be included in a statewide program to provide access to information resources for the people of Nevada. CQ Press has been awarded a two-year contract from Nevada State Libraries and Archive for The CQ Researcher on-line. The contract includes statewide access to The CQ Researcher for all 565 schools, public, academic and special libraries in Nevada. A recent press release describes the product:
The CQ Researcher, recent winner of the Silver Gavel award from the American Bar Association, offers in-depth, non-biased coverage of today's most important issues. Each report is on a single topic--more than 12,000 words in text and extensive bibliographies. The CQ Researcher covers a wide range of social, economic, political and environmental issues and contains four expanded issues per year on topics such as War and Terrorism and Distance Learning. The CQ Researcher on-line has an archive dating back to 1991 and has been voted one of Library Journal's "Best Reference Databases" for 2000 and 2001.
To access the CQ Researcher via the UNLV Libraries, start from our homepage (www.library.unlv.edu), click on Collections, then on Journals/magazines/periodicals (alphabetical). CQ Researcher is available in the alphabetic list of resources.

New Library Faculty

December, 2002
The UNLV Libraries is continuously striving to meet the needs of the scholarly community in Las Vegas. Therefore, we are pleased to announce that since June, 3 new faculty members have joined our staff. Susie Skarl, MLS, serves as our Federal Depository Librarian. In this position, Susie assists campus and community members with their governmental research needs. In the coming months look for training on using government print and on-line resources, an updated government web page and improved access to government materials. Priscilla Finley, MLS / MA in English, serves as our Public Services Librarian for the Humanities. In her role, Priscilla evaluates and selects print and electronic resources in the areas of literature, theater, film, communications and philosophy. Please contact Priscilla if you have specific research needs in any of these areas. Reeta Sinha, MSLS / MPH is our new Head, Collection Development. Reeta oversees the development of the University Libraries collections and coordinates the work of our many subject librarians. Reeta brings with her experience from the health sciences libraries of Emory University in Atlanta, Texas Medical Center in Houston and the Hoover Institution Library at Stanford University.
In addition to these faculty members, the Libraries is lucky to be able to work with Dani Porter, the UNLV Foundation’s new Director of Development for the UNLV Libraries. Dani oversees major gift support for the Architecture, Curriculum Materials, Music, and Lied Libraries. Dani holds a BA in Public Relations Journalism from CSU, Long Beach, and a MLIS from LSU in Baton Rouge.


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