Journal Finder

You may notice something new on the library's webpage today. We have upgraded our old Periodical Locator tool, and have replaced it with the Journal Finder. This new tool still has the same function of helping you find the full text of journal articles, it's just that now the set up is a little easier to use.  Journal Finder allows you to search by journal title, along with the journal's ISSN number and to browse by subject. You can also view all the journals that are full text in a specific database. Once you find the journal you're looking for, Journal Finder gives you the option to see which online databases contain the title, whether we have the journal in print form, or which neighboring libraries subscribe the the library. Plus, there is a link to the ILL form in case you need to fill out a request.

If you have any questions about using the new tool, don't be afraid to ask!

Extra, Extra

Sometimes you might have trouble finding resources dealing with current events topics. It might be too close to the event to find books, or even journal articles. If you are struggling, you might want to try one of our online databases that deal exclusively with newspaper articles.

Newsbank's American Newspapers covers regional and national newspapers. It's a good source if your topic is of local interest, or if you're studying a specific populations reaction to a topic. You can do a general search by topic, or narrow your search by specific region/state.

Newspaper Source Plus widens its scope to national and international news sources.

Newspapers can also be a good source for information on historical events, esepcially if you are concerned with how a topic or event was viewed during its original time period. The above sources only go back twenty years or so. But, we do have two newspaper databases that are more historical: New York Times (1851-2003) and HarpWeek (1857-1912). You may also want to try out our microform collection of local and national newspapers, some dating back to the Civil War.

Never used microform? Don't worry, your friendly neighborhood librarian will be happy to give you a demonstration.

Plagues, pandemics, and everything else that's catching

H1N1, SARS, and others are only the newest diseases to cause global health concerns. Even before modern travel, scourges like smallpox and the black death were following trade roots and accompany western explorers. These, and other diseases, not only have/had a health impact but also important historical and cultural repercussions. The library has put together a display full of resources concerned with the science, history, and social angles of disease. How is science combating these threats? How is modern globalization making us more susceptible? What can the 1918 influenza event tell us about our modern threat of H1N1? Reference books, circulating books, and DVDs all cover these issues and our available at AML.

Full Text in PubMed

PubMed is an excellent source for scholarly articles related to health, psychology, and the life sciences. Last month I wrote about its new (and hopefully easier to use) interface. This month, the library has created a tutorial on how to find full text of the articles. A lot of students get to the point where they find the citation and abstract of the journal article, but they are not sure where to go next. The video gives you tip on how to access the full text inside PubMed, or by using a couple of the library's own resources.

You can access the tutorial here. Don't forget that the library as a number of other video and text tutorials on it's Library Guide's Wiki page.

Recall on APA 6th edition (first printing)

The Chronicle of Higher Education reported today that the APA has recalled the first printing of the new 6th ediiton of it's style manual. The association has been under fire recently due to the number of errors users have found both in the text and sample papers related to the citation examples. Anyone who has bought the first printing can return their copy to APA in exachange for a copy from the the second printing which has fixed all of the errors. To receive a new copy, you'll need to contact the APA Service Center from November 2th to December 15th.

Librarians, scholars, and students have been extremely critical of APA and it's publication of a faulty manual. For more information about the controversy, check out Inside Higher Ed or to see the errors in the first printing, the APA website.

Project Muse Video Tutorial

Last week, I posted about teaching the database Project Muse in an instruction session. I specifically focused in the databases use of subject headings. If you were a little confused about my discussion, or just want to see them in action, check out the library's new video tutorial. Subject headings may seem a little counter intuitive, but once you get the hang of using them, you'll wonder how you ever survived without them! For more "how-tos" or video tutorials check out the library's wiki page. We are always adding more information. If you have a topic you'd like the library to create a tutorial for, just put it in the comments.

Open Access explained

Open Access 101, from SPARC from Karen Rustad on Vimeo.

Though the video is clearly pro-Open Access, I think it does bring up a lot of good points, especially the cost of subscriptions to the scholarly journals. See this previous post for more about Open Access. Any opinions one way or the other? Let us know in the comments.

*I originally found this video on the blog A Blog Around the Clock*