Find it!

Our link resolver is working well. You’ll find yellow “find it” buttons in most of our online databases that will take you to full text in other databases or to the library catalog. (In many cases, you’ll go to the full text article directly, but not in databases such as LexisNexis that don’t have persistent links.) Last year, surveys showed students had a hard time knowing how to connect a database reference to a book or article in hand. This fall, the first year students who have been using it seem to be having far less difficulty.

We’re still working on the Journal Locator list – currently it only lists online journals, not those that we get in print. (Print journals can be found in the MnPALS catalog or through the Subject Guides.) Thanks to Amy Fry and all the others who have put so many hours in on this project.

Libraries are the subject of a special supplement to The Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required; it’s in the library in print and online through our LexisNexis subscription). Of particular note: a piece by Scott Carlson on the current interest in the library as place. Carlson wrote an article in 2001 that went down in the annals of How to Push Librarians’ Buttons – “The Deserted Library.” I suspect we all owe him a debt since the outrage he managed to stir up made librarians think hard about what role libraries play in today’s wired world and helped them articulate why these places are still important.

Save the date: November 17th at 7 p.m. in the Interpretive Center, come hear Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law, Jane Kirtley, talk about the climate for media and the exchange of information since 9/11 – part of our September Project activities. She’s a fascinating speaker.

Barbara