8.25.2011

Blue Thunder Marching Band Spirit Rally in the Library


Go Orange! Go Big Blue! Cheer on the Keith Stein Blue Thunder Marching Band and the Harvey Neef Mane Line Dancers as they march across the Boise State campus and perform in the library this Friday, August 26th at 12:30pm.

See a complete list of BroncoWelcome 2011 events at http://broncowelcome.boisestate.edu/

8.22.2011

The Library Welcomes You!


Welcome to the Albertsons Library! We've been busy making the library your go-to place for your research and academic needs. Here are a few of the things you will find at the library:
  • Over 110 computers sporting Microsoft Office 2010, Mac and PC laptops for checkout, scanners, and multiple BroncoPrint stations, including wireless printing from your laptop.
  • Extensive subject guides in fields such as Public Administration, Radiologic Sciences, Kinesiology, Construction Management, Educational Technology and many more, via the library's LibGuides system.
  • Library pages geared toward your scholarly needs, for undergraduates, graduates, and faculty.
  • Digital screens in presentation rooms on the first and second floors. You can reserve group study rooms 110 and 201A at the Circulation Desk
  • A Starbucks coffee shop on the first floor.
  • A growing collection of streaming video databases on a wide range of subjects--watch online or on your portable device.
  • Research late into the night? Check out our extended library hours.
  • Access thousands of articles from journals and magazines from the A-Z list of databases. You will find that more and more of our databases are mobile-friendly, too.
  • Have your own laptop or mobile device? The whole building is Wi-Fi enabled.
  • The library catalog now sports a large eBook collection--you can read books online or download it to your portable device.  
  • Access the library from your phone via our mobile website.
Have questions about research, campus, or anything at all? We’re available to help you via our reference chat, on Facebook, and on Twitter. Or you can text us your questions at (208) 546-9982.

We hope you have a fantastic Fall semester at Boise State University!

8.19.2011

Library Game: Research Race!

Want to learn about the library? Do you want to have fun and enter to win prizes while doing so?

The Research Race is for you! Use your mobile device or laptop to learn more about the library.

Don't have a mobile device or laptop? You can check out iPads, netbooks, and laptops (library use only) at the Circulation Desk on the 1st floor of Albertsons Library.

Pick up a Research Race game sheet at the Reference Desk, or, you can print your own copy by downloading the game sheet at this link: Research Race Game Sheet


Complete the game by answering the questions and returning the game sheet to the Reference Desk! Completed entries will enter a drawing for fun prizes.

Have fun and welcome back to school!


8.12.2011

Library hours during Intersession, Aug.15-21.


The Albertsons Library will be open limited hours during Intersession week, August 15 - 21:
  • Monday thru Friday: 8-6
  • Saturday and Sunday: 10-6
Fall semester library hours begin when classes start on August 22. Library hours can be found at http://library.boisestate.edu/calendar/main.php

8.08.2011

University Documents in ScholarWorks Presentation August 9, 2011

University Documents in ScholarWorks: Methodology and Collection Features (Live Presentation)
August 9, 2011, 10:00 - 11:00 a.m.
Frank Church Room

The University Documents collection in ScholarWorks (http://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/uni_docs/) contains books, catalogs, magazines, reports, and other materials that document the history of Boise State University. Providing open access to these items in electronic format has greatly benefited their preservation needs and access. Join the staff from Special Collections to learn about the process involved in the selection and digitization of the collection's contents.

8.05.2011

Using digital technology to solve a century-old mystery in Special Collections




For more than a century, the old ledger book was a mystery. Inside were the names of some of the most prominent men in 19th century Idaho, as well as some obscure ones, with a record of the dues they paid to an organization during the years 1884-1887. Nowhere in the book, however, was the name of the organization recorded. And no one seemed to know.

Donated to Albertsons Library Special Collections in 1989, the ledger book stumped all the Idaho historians who examined it. It came from the historic Warm Springs Avenue home of C.W. Moore (1835-1916), prominent businessman and banker in Boise. His name is one of 75 in the book, so it was presumed to be connected to one of his many activities. But even Carol Lynn MacGregor, who donated the ledger to Boise State along with other historic records from C.W. Moore and his descendants, did not know its origin. Nor did any other living members of the family. The occupations of the well-known men in the book--bankers, merchants, hoteliers, a brewer, a clergyman--did not reveal a common thread. The best guess was that it belonged to some long-forgotten social organization.

The power of digital technology finally unlocked the mystery. Earlier this summer, twenty-two years after he first accessioned the book as an "unidentified ledger," Boise State University archivist Alan Virta turned to the Idaho Statesman Historical Archive, a new online database available from the Boise Public Library containing digitized copies of every issue of the city's oldest newspaper between 1864 and 1922. The beauty of the digital database is that every word is indexed via OCR (optical character recognition), and thus searchable. Virta hoped that by searching for the names of some of the people listed in the book he might find articles linking them to a common organization. And it was only a matter of minutes, on his fifth search, that he struck pay dirt. On entering the name G.W. Gess, he found an article from 1886 naming Gess as a newly-elected officer of the Central Idaho Stock Growers' Association. C.W. Moore, in whose home the ledger was kept for more than 100 years, was named as the organization's president. Every one of the other twelve officers listed in the article was also listed in the ledger. So a century's old mystery was solved. With the name in hand, it was easy to learn more about the association. Again, with only a few keystrokes at his computer, Virta was able to find an online electronic edition of the 1885 publication "Marks and Brands of the Central Idaho Stock Growers' Association." The electronic edition, made from an original copy in the Newberry Library in Chicago, was purchased by Boise State a year ago. A pictorial record of some of the earliest brands used in the state, it can be consulted via the Library's catalog at library.boisestate.edu. No paper copies of the original publication are known to be in Idaho; only the Newberry, the University of Arizona, and Texas A & M University list original copies in their catalogs.

The case of the unidentified ledger is a prime example of the value of digital collections. As for the Central Idaho Stock Growers' Association, it apparently was short-lived. Both the ledger and the association's brand register indicated that it was founded in 1884. The Idaho Statesman Historical Archive reveals no articles about it after December 1886, a few months before the ledger ends. With its ledger book finally identified, the only mystery remaining now is why the Central Idaho Stock Growers' Association, representing one of the most important industries in the state, was disbanded after only a few short years.

To see some of the historical resources Albertsons Library is digitizing and putting online, go to Boise State Digital Collections (http://digital.boisestate.edu/) and ScholarWorks (http://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/uni_docs/)