Welcome to your library, Spring 2009

Albertsons Library welcomes you to another exciting Spring semester! We work hard to make the library a comfortable place to study and a resource to power up your research endeavors.

Here are some of the things we have in store for you for this semester:

• New research databases! Access articles from thousands of journals and magazines in our growing collection of online resources, such as the new suite of databases from ProQuest (ProQuest Central, ProQuest Research Library, ProQuest Social Science Journals, and dozens more--the majority which offer full text). Check out the A-Z list for a list of all the databases available at your disposal.
  


• Find research resources using our extensive interactive subject guides in fields such as Public Administration, Economics, Kinesiology, Philosophy and many more via Alberstons Library's LibGuides system.
  


• We're up to some 110 desktop computers in our student lab, with machines on the first and second floors. Included are two multimedia stations with additional hardware and software so that students can use to create and edit multimedia projects.

• Get in touch with your personal librarian to help guide your research.
  

• Want to use a laptop? Check one out from the library's Circulation desk and use them in the library. We have 10 ready to go. Coming soon (thanks to a small grant): Mac laptops!
  


• Digital screens in presentation rooms on the first and second floors, so you can plug in your laptop and view your presentation on the big screen.
  


• A friendlier and revamped Frequenty Asked Questions (FAQ) page.


• We're creating more helpful video tutorials on how to use library resources.
  
  
• Helpful pages just for Faculty and Graduates.


• A revamped UNIV 106 course, a.k.a. Library Research, is now available as a distance course as well as several in-person courses.
  


• Implementation of the button across a variety of core databases to search and locate full text articles across multiple databases.

We hope you find these features help you succeed here at Boise State University. Let us know if you have questions or suggestions on how to improve your scholarly persuits.

It's as Easy as FDLP

Have you ever heard of the FDLP? It's the Federal Depository Library Program and the Albertsons Library is a selective depository for federal government publications. Watch a new video below about the program:




For higher resolution, see the FDLP website.

Library winter break hours

Friday, December 19 - Friday, January 16

• Monday – Thursday 8:00 am – 6:00 pm
• Friday 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
• Saturday - Sunday CLOSED

Break Week

• Mon 12/22 through Fri 12/26 CLOSED

New Year's

• Wed 12/31 8:00am - 5:00pm
• Thu Jan 1 CLOSED

MLK Day Weekend

• Sat 1/17 10:00am - 6:00pm
• Sun 1/18 10:00am - 6:00pm
• Mon 1/19 CLOSED

Please refer to the Hours page for additional information.

Award-winning fiction for holiday enjoyment or gift-giving

During the past two months a number of major, national book award programs have announced their 2008 winners. Check out these stellar titles for yourself or as potential gifts for others.

The Man Booker Prize: The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
Video: watch an interview with Adiga

"The White Tiger is decribed as a compelling, angry and darkly humorous' novel about a man's journey from Indian village life to entrepreneurial success. It was described by one reviewer as an ‘unadorned portrait' of India seen ‘from the bottom of the heap'" (from the award announcement).

The National Book Award for Fiction: Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen
Video: watch Matthiessen's acceptance speech

"Inspired by a near-mythic event of the wild Florida frontier at the turn of the twentieth century, Shadow Country reimagines the legend of the inspired Everglades sugar planter and notorious outlaw E. J. Watson, who drives himself relentlessly toward his own violent end at the hands of neighbors who mostly admired him, in a killing that obsessed his favorite son" (from the publisher).

The Nobel Prize in Literature: Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, author of Onitsha
Video: Watch Le Clezio reading a passage from the book

Le Clezio is an "author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization" (from the awards site).

The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

"Diaz immerses us in the tumultuous life of Oscar and the history of the family at large, rendering with genuine warmth and dazzling energy, humor, and insight the Dominican-American experience, and, ultimately, the endless human capacity to persevere in the face of heartbreak and loss" (from the publisher).

New additions to ARTstor

The ARTstor digital library continues to expand. You can now access these image collections:

1,600 images of British architecture from the Brian Davis archive. The collection documents architectural and garden sites in Europe, primarily architecture in Britain from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century.

1,100 images of the cave temples at Ellora. This initial release focuses on Buddhist caves, the earliest structures at Ellora, dating from 500 to 700 C.E.

Try out the Enhanced Biosciences Database

BIOSIS Previews is now available via ISI Web of Knowledge!  This will replace Biological Abstracts in the New Year (January 2009).  Why care, you say? In addition to the information about journal articles that Biological Abstracts includes, BIOSIS Previews contains information about meeting papers, reviews, reports, book chapters, etc.  

All the content of Biological  Abstracts will be available in BIOSIS Previews, PLUS MORE. Not only that, but the content will extend back to 1955. But if searchers want to see only articles in the results, or just meetings, they will be able to limit their search to those document types.  In addition to the enlarged database, the content will now be available on the Web of Science interface.      

So give BIOSIS Previews a try today.  

Beth 

Reference Librarian

Library open 24 hrs during finals

The first floor of the Albertsons Library will be open 24 hours a day from 10:00 AM Sunday, December 14, through 7:00 PM Thursday, December 18. Staff will be on hand to answer questions and check out first floor reserve materials.

Security will be provided by the Boise Police Department; an officer will be on duty in the library all night and can provide escort service.

Free coffee and treats provided each night (while supplies last!) by the Associated Students of Boise State University (ASBSU).

For a complete list of holiday hours, please refer to http://library.boisestate.edu/hours/ .