NOTES FROM RAMSEY LIBRARY : 2011-12

FEATURED RESOURCE

This issue’s featured resource is the first iteration of a major revision to Ramsey Library’s main web page. After discussing student comments and the library’s 2009-2011 assessment results, Ramsey librarians concluded that feedback indicating concerns about sufficient information resources might have more to do with sorting through library search results than with any objective insufficiency in available content. You’ll recall that on last spring’s library web site you landed on a home page that then required that you navigate either to conduct a search for books, etc. in the “catalog” or to select specific journal databases to locate individual articles. In both cases, increasingly and due to the disparate sizes of Ramsey Library and the libraries at Western Carolina and Appalachian State (the combined holdings of which comprise the online catalog), UNC Asheville searchers were finding more and more electronic books or journal articles not available to our campus. Inevitably, this resulted in frustration AND the perception that Ramsey Library did not offer sufficient resources. In some cases, for example e-books devoted to computer software, the searcher had to navigate several screens of titles available at ASU but not UNC Asheville before finding anything.

Brandy Bourne, ace Web Services Librarian, has redesigned the the library’s main pageso that:
You’re ready to search on the first page.
The default is for individual articles with a quick search box similar to a Google search (note that the Quick Search covers only a limited number of the most popular databases) with results limited to articles available at UNC Asheville.
Tabs for searching journal titles, videos, course reserves, and books.
Note that searching under “Books & more” in the quick search box produces results which are fully accessible to folks at UNC Asheville.
So, what if you don’t find what you need or for whatever reason you want your search to cover the holdings of all three libraries, or you want to use the Aquabrowser feature. All you have to do is click on t he “Books & more tab” on the left above the “Quick Search” box, and then click on “WNCLN.” That’ll take you back to the original search screen.

We plan to conduct focus groups with students this fall to see if these changes are an improvement. If we can figure out how to do it without being to intrusive, we’ll also ask for user reactions via a voluntary online survey. In the meantime, if you have any comments or suggestions, please send them along to Brandy Bourne.
TLTR: RECENT NEWS OF NOTE

In the Public Domain

This is the first entry in a recurring if irregular series designed to help the campus community locate copyright-free materials for use in the classroom, on websites, or for basically anything you want. Suggestions here will come largely form NOTES FROM RAMSEY’s reading of Stephan Fishman’s The Public Domain: How to Find & Use Copyright-Free Writings, Music, Art & More (5th ed., Nolo Press, 2010)(available from Amazon and other book sources). Today, we’ll share Fishman’s definition (more than likely the last quote): “. . . the words ‘public domain’ mean creative works that for one reason or another are not protected by copyright law and are ordinarily free for all use.” (p. 4)

Other TLTR News

Check out Teaching & Learning with Technology Resources’ (TLTR) web page “In-House Productions.” Here you’ll find a listing of local campus programs representing the fine work of Kent Thompson, many of your students, and the campus community. One of the newer features with a link to the actual program is “Multimedia Arts & Sciences Annual Juried Student Exhibition.” This is great stuff!!

Creating a Meaningful College Experience in an Era of Streamlining, By William G. Tierney
With class sizes in the hundreds of students, distance learning can begin in the fifth row. (NOTES finds this an interesting perspective!)
OTHER NEWS OF NOTE

Digging Into Data in the Humanities, Day 1
Digital humanists have converged on the headquarters of the National Endowment for the Humanities to talk about cutting-edge work with big data in history, linguistics, literature, and other fields.

Digging Into Data, Day 2: Making Tools and Using Them
Projects explored at the meeting included a database in which scholars can mine a year’s worth of spoken English, and another with digitized records of 200,000 trials at London’s Old Bailey.

National Academies Press Puts All 4,000 Books Online at No Charge
Recent cost-cutting measures have allowed the leading publisher of scholarly books to offer its catalog gratis, as PDF downloads.

Publishers Grapple With Thorny Issues of Protecting Property and Going Digital, By Jennifer Howard
Value copyright laws, attendees at the Association of American University Presses’ annual meeting were advised.
SUMMER READS

Geeks at the Beach: 10 Summer Reads About Technology and Your Life
Recent books (and a video) highlight how tech is turning culture and parts of higher education upside down.

Novel Academic Novels, By Ms. Mentor
Ms. Mentor offers her annual summer reading list for faculty members. (With a respectful nod to our friend and colleague, Professor Merritt Mosley)