Entries by Barbara Bolek

The University of Michigan Credit Union will be holding two workshops in the Mardigian Library in October. These sessions usually fill up fast and space is limited, so plan to register early. Pizza and beverages will be provided at the workshops being held at noon.

Register online at http://library.umd.umich.edu/workshops/

Budget! Are You Kidding?
-Where does the money go?
-The careful use of credit
-Ways to cut expenses to help you live within your means

Tuesday, October 21
10:00 - 11:30 a.m., Room 1212 ML
and
Tuesday, October 28
Noon - 1:30 p.m., Room 1212 ML


Tis the Season to Hang on to Reason - Holidays on a Budget
-Learn from the past: How and why we overspend
-Debt proof your holidays with a change in attitudes and expectations
-Things we can do to make this holiday more enjoyable

Tuesday, October 21
Noon - 1:30 p.m., Room 1212 ML
and
Tuesday, October 28
2:00 - 3:30 p.m., Room 1212 ML

Do you need authoritative medical information? The library is sponsoring a workshop presented by a librarian from the Health Sciences Libraries in conjunction with the National Network of the Libraries of Medicine.

Librarian Pat Martin will demonstrate how to search the Internet to find reliable information about diseases, medications and staying well. She will teach you how to find what treatments are available for a variety of diseases, how to discover whether studies are being held that one might join to help find a cure and how to locate organizations that sponsor support groups.

The workshop will be held Friday September 19 from 1:00 to 3:00 in the BorgWarner Auditorium of the Institute for Advanced Vehicular Systems. The workshop is free and open to the public.

Campus Media Services is conducting a pilot project in teleconferencing. Examples of potential uses for this technology include:

• distance education,
• online job interviews for campus positions,
• online office hours,
• admissions interviews and sessions,
• disability support,
• pandemic planning.

The product, e/pop, requires a downloadable browser plugin, but no proprietary hardware. It supports fully interactive, multi-party video and audio; real-time PowerPoint sharing; a whiteboard; group, subgroup, or individual chat; and desktop sharing.

Requests are being accepted for courses or events. Please email your request to CMSrequests@umd.umich.edu. If you wish to arrange a demonstration, contact Greg Taylor at 393-5150.

The Mardigian Library Research Education program provides course-related instruction that can help your students learn how to do academic research. Librarians can work with you to develop a session that can include:

Instruction on searching skills so students learn to use the research tools more effectively;

Techniques for evaluating information resources to help students learn to distinguish appropriate academic resources from the flood of web pages and other sources available;

* Demonstrations of Central Search, a tool that allows researchers to search multiple library databases simultaneously.

Sessions are held in the library or, if possible, we will come to your classroom.

To schedule a class session go to: http://library.umd.umich.edu/services/faculty/schedule.html

or contact Teague Orblych:
mtorblyc@umd.umich.edu
Phone: (313) 593-5562
Fax: (313) 593-5561

For more information go to: http://library.umd.umich.edu/services/faculty/resedu.html or http://library.umd.umich.edu/services/faculty/research_education.pdf to read more about our program.

Preliminary results from the Mardigian Library’s online survey of faculty members conducted last March show that among faculty respondents:

• 83% report that they learn about the library and its services from the library’s website.
• 9% report that they use library services daily, 32% several times a week, and 43% once a week or every couple of weeks.
• 88% find it “very easy,” “easy,” or “somewhat easy” to use the library’s online resources.
• 98% of faculty members would recommend the library and its services to their students and other faculty members.

Further organization and analysis of data are underway, and the library staff is in the process of making recommendations for actions to address the needs of faculty.

Over 700 UM-Dearborn students responded to a Mardigian Library survey last fall regarding their use of library services. Some key findings from the survey include:

• 21% of students reported that they use library services online or in the building several times a week, and another 52% reported using services between once a week and once a semester.
• 74% of students found it “somewhat easy,” “easy,” or “very easy” to use the library’s online resources.
• 91% of students preferred that the library communicate with them via email.
• The most common way students learned about the library and its services was through campus orientation (50%), followed by the library’s website (49%), and a friend or classmate (39%).
• Faculty members had the most influence on how effectively students used the library’s services for academic work (30%), followed by the library’s website (29%), and a friend or classmate (25%).

Library staff members met in early 2008 to look at the survey results and recommend actions necessary to address students’ needs. One action that has already been taken is to increase the hours the library is open to 24 hours per day during the week of final exams. Other changes the library is working on include increasing the number of electrical outlets for laptop users and creating more online multimedia tutorials to help students learn to use online resources.

Ever have students trying to distinguish scholarly articles from popular ones? What is Central Search all about? How do you track down a cited article?

The library has created multimedia tutorials to answer these questions.

The tutorials are short (most a little over three minutes) audio/video clips that explain each topic. Users can navigate to other sections of a tutorial by clicking on a section title on the left of the screen, or on the navigational bar below. Tutorials include distinguishing scholarly and popular articles, finding a specific article, how to use Central Search, and how Article linker works. The library plans to add additional tutorials.

Tutorials can be found on the library’s web page. Go to Reference — Guides and Resources, then Library Guides. The multimedia links are highlighted in beige.

The Juvenile Historic Collection received a significant donation when Barbara and Daniel Balbach recently gave more than 60 children’s books in memory of his parents, Clarice and William Balbach. The books were published from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s and include titles in a number of important children’s series such as Elsie Dinsmore, the Bobbsey Twins, Bunny Brown and his Sister Sue, Mildred (a friend of Elsie Dinsmore), Ruth Fielding, and Nancy Drew.

Elsie Dinsmore was a series of 28 titles written between 1867 and 1905 by Martha Finley. The books were immensely popular and some of the titles were recently re-issued. The library now owns a copy of all the Elsie titles except Elsie and Her Namesakes, the last in the series.

The Bobbsey Twins series is the longest running series for children, written by various authors under the pseudonym Laura Lee Hope and published by the Stratemeyer Syndicate in its original series from 1904 until 1979. Many titles in the series have been modernized and are still being published today. Following the exploits of a family with two sets of twins, aged twelve and six, the series is aimed at young readers. As the mystery series Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys (also Stratemeyer Syndicate series) became popular in the 1920s and 1930s, the Bobbsey Twins stories also began including gentle mystery themes. The Balbach donation included six titles in this series, the oldest being The Bobbsey Twins at Snow Lodge (1913).

Another famous series represented is the Nancy Drew series with the titles The Clue in the Jewel Box and The Mystery at the Ski Jump. Many young girls have avidly read this series that began in 1930 and is still being published today. Nancy Drew stories have been modernized and updated over the years. She gradually aged from sixteen to eighteen during her many exploits and although she does occasionally travel around the world solving crimes, her hometown of River Heights (a fictional town near Chicago) is obviously a hotbed of criminal activity and a place best avoided!

Through the Fire was written by George Lose in the late 1800s, telling the tale of a young woman working as a maid for a well-to-do Chicago family after the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. As we were cataloging titles, we discovered that no English editions of Through the Fire had been cataloged in OCLC, an international database of library holdings for 57,000 libraries worldwide containing information for over 87 million titles. We were both surprised and pleased to find a title that was truly unique! Our librarians cataloged and entered the title into the database so that it can be discovered by researchers and readers.

Other titles in the donation include Wreck and Sinking of the Titanic, a memorial written immediately after the Titanic’s sinking, containing many photos and drawings created especially for the book. Pollyanna was written by Eleanor H. Porter in 1913, and went on to spawn a series of titles, sometimes called "The Glad Books", still popular today. Six titles by Grace Livingston Hill, an author whose first book was published 130 years ago, in 1877, were also added. These are the first titles we have by this prolific author who is well known for her inspirational and wholesome romance novels for girls and whose works are still being published today.

The addition of the titles donated by Mr. & Mrs. Balbach greatly enhances our Juvenile Historic Collection that was established in 2001 when the Grand Rapids Public Library donated the May G. Quigley Collection of books to UM-Dearborn. The Juvenile Historic Collection is used extensively by students in the School of Education to research the history of children's literature and to study authors, themes, trends, etc. We heartily thank Mr. & Mrs. Balbach for this generous donation!

General Business File ASAP contains a wealth of company information that can be searched within four components of the database. Locate business articles through Business Index ASAP, search company profile reports through Company ProFile, access SIC codes with SIC description, and obtain industry reports through Investext.

•Use Business Index ASAP link to locate articles. Searches can be limited by year of publication, refereed publications, or search within a specific journal. If you have the name of a specific journal use the “Journal Search�? link. Use the “Browse�? journal feature if you don’t have a specific title or just want to search from a select group of titles.

Broaden your search with the extra links found in each article. You can link to additional and related articles, SIC codes found within articles, and in some cases, link to a profile of the company. Articles are full text or text with graphics.

•Company ProFile contains a basic profile of companies, including address, type of business, parent company, or subsidiaries. Find estimates of annual sales for private companies. Link to a company’s web site and contact email address. If you are looking for articles about the company, there is a link to additional articles; also links to SICs for the company.

•SIC Descriptions includes Parent Division, Parent major and Industry groups. If you are not sure of the correct name of the industry something would be in, use a subject search that closely describes what you are looking for.

For example, a subject search on keys includes an industry profile. Click on the industry profile link and you will find keys are classified in 3429 Hardware, Not Elsewhere Classified, with 3429 as the SIC code. A further click will give you a definition of that SIC code and category, including its Parent Division, Parent Major, and Industry groups. There are also additional links to company profiles, articles, and investment reports for that industry.

•Investext can be used to find industry reports and in-depth analysis of more than 10,000 publicly traded companies. Search selections include specific company, subject, or industry. Reports are available in its original published format (graphs, charts, photos, etc.).

Early American Imprints: Series I, 1639-1800

Researchers interested in the social history of the British North American colonies and the early United States will find a wealth of information in this database. Digitized materials include more than 37,000 items including textbooks, concert programs, children's books, philosophical literature, and more. Early American Imprints is based on the renowned American Biography by Charles Evans and is enhanced by Roger Bristol's Supplement to Evans' American Bibliography; the collection was first published by Readex in cooperation with the American Antiquarian Society (AAS).

There are also two sister databases: Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819 and America's Historical Newspapers, all of which make up the Archive of Americana. Users can search all three of these databases at once or limit their search to just one or two of the three. There are basic and advanced search functions available and material can be browsed by author or genre.

The Declassified Documents Reference System contains digital images of documents declassified from the United States Presidential Libraries. This database contains 75,000 documents and more than 465,000 pages of information from Congress, the White House, and its departments. Some of the most important events since World War II are covered by this database.

Nothing was written with the intent to be published, so these documents can be difficult to interpret as some contain additional notes and others may be part of other departmental communications. The database provides the ability for the user to zoom in on smaller parts of the document. There are keyword and advanced searching capabilities and some search tips are provided. Searches can also be limited by the classified level of the document as well as by whether the document has been censored. This is a fascinating resource that reveals previously unknown facts about the key events of the post-war era.

Find up-to-date market research and trend analysis information about e-business, emerging technologies, online marketing, media and Internet with eMarketer. eMarketer compiles information from more than 2,800 sources, including government agencies, research firms, and consultancies worldwide.

The database can be searched by keyword, subject category, full text, country, and source. Results are in the form of articles, charts, or reports. Searches can be narrowed by these categories as well. Other features and sections of the database include: Analyst Report Access (more than 80 specially prepared industry reports), daily research articles, and eMarketer’s key indicators. eMarketer is available to currently registered students, faculty, and staff, on and off-campus.

ERes, the library's electronic reserves system, will be decommissioned on May 31, 2008. ERes has served the campus for nearly a decade. No new account requests have been accepted since December 31, 2006. We encourage faculty members who are still using ERes to move their course materials to CTools, VLT, or Blackboard (School of Management).

These newer courseware programs are better equipped to handle the diverse needs of the classroom and are supported in the major academic units of the campus. They are undergoing continual development and provide support for electronic reserves and much more. Library staff has been, and will continue to be, working with each of the schools to make the transition as smooth as possible.

During the 2006-2007 academic year, our students, faculty, and staff received more than 3,500 items using the MeLCat service, a 53% increase over the previous academic year and triple that of the 2004-2005 academic year. The ease of use, the quick receipt of materials, and the growing number of participating libraries may help explain this dramatic increase in requests.

MeLCat, short for Michigan eLibrary Catalog, is a statewide resource sharing service that enables our users to request books online from participating libraries and receive their requests within 3 to 5 business days. The service is easy to use and items arrive much faster than from traditional ILL services.

The Mardigian Library has been a member of MeLCat since its pilot phase in 2002 when only 15 libraries participated. Today, more than 160 libraries participate in MeLCat, including 12 of the state’s 15 public universities and many community colleges and private colleges. Local participating libraries include Wayne State, Henry Ford Community College, Oakland University, and Washtenaw Community College as well as a number of public libraries. Visit http://elibrary.mel.org/screens/participating.html to see a complete list of participating libraries.

The library encourages users to select MeLCat before filling out the traditional ILL forms when trying to locate books or audiovisual materials that our library does not own. To use MeLCat, start by searching for the item in our catalog, http://wizard.umd.umich.edu/. If the title is not owned or is not available, click on the MeLCat button that appears on the right side of the screen. On the MeLCat website, click “Get this for me" and enter your name and 8 digit UMID number. If needed items are not available at our library or via MeLCat, users can fill out the traditional ILL forms.

Hello, my name is Tim Richards. It is my privilege to serve as director of the Mardigian Library. This is the inaugural issue of what I am calling The Director's Update. I hope to use my updates to share my perspective and thoughts three or four times a year on library issues that affect you and other members of this academic community . I also hope that you will communicate your thoughts, questions, ideas and suggestions to me in response to these updates.

One issue that library staff members and I hear about frequently from students is the lack of electrical outlets in the building. We recognize that this is a problem for students and we have actually tried to address it, obviously with little success. I thought it might be informative to provide a little bit of historical context.

This building was designed in the late 1970's, a time when the mainframe computer ruled the world. When this building opened in 1980, it had a card catalog, which was still here when I arrived in 1989. Back in that mainframe era, no one imagined that many (possibly most) University of Michigan-Dearborn students would be using laptop computers for their academic work, that there would be a campus network linking computers together, or that there would be wireless access to that network.

When we dismantled the card catalog and installed computer work stations on the main floor of the library in the early 1990's, we had to carve out channels in the concrete floor to run additional electrical lines to power the computer work stations that replaced the catalog, an early indicator that we had insufficient electrical outlets to run a modern library. That was when we discovered another significant electrical challenge: this building is "underpowered." Additional electrical equipment caused several power outages.

Where are most of the electrical outlets that you can find in the public areas of the library located? They are positioned at intervals along the base boards, near the floor. I'm pretty sure that the few electrical outlets that you can find in public areas of the building were designed to serve one purpose -- to enable cleaning crews to plug in vacuum cleaners. There are a few additional outlets on the fourth floor along the wall where pieces from the University's marvelous glass collection are on display. The point is that the few electrical outlets that you can find were not intended for library users but to serve building functions. That's how libraries were designed in the late 1970's.

We formed the "Library Power Committee" a few years ago to try to address our electrical power problems. The committee has had modest success (for example, a few power poles were erected to increase the number of outlets accessible to users), but overall, we have not yet found a way to solve the problem of too few electrical outlets to serve adequately library users' needs.

We have not given up. We continue to search for ways to increase both the availability of electrical outlets for your use and to increase the amount of electrical power that is available to us all. I welcome your thoughts, ideas, suggestions and questions about electrical power and about any other library-related issue that is of interest or concern to you. I look forward to hearing from you.

Tim Richards
Director, Mardigian Library