International Connections Luncheon Series: Michael Zirinsky

Join us this Thursday, April 19th, at the SUB's Lookout Room at 12:30 pm for Michael Zirinsky's "Iran and the US: A Vexed Relationship". This presentation will explore the deep history of US-Iranian relations, from their origin in the 1830s up to the current day.

More information is available at the Library's International Connections Luncheon Seminar series.

Coffee @thelibrary

The first floor of Albertsons Library looks a little different these days--construction is underway for the new Starbucks near the entrance of the Library. Construction will continue through the summer, with the Starbucks opening planned for the beginning of the Fall semester.

Besides providing a convenient place for library users to grab a drink or snack, additional comfortable seating for the Library will be included within Starbucks.

Books, research journals, computers, friendly people, and soon, coffee--all @thelibrary!

Marilyn K. Moody
Dean of University Libraries

New Reference Books @thelibrary

The Library buys lots of materials to support university programs, including new reference books. Much like the new books shelf (located on the first floor of the library, next to the reference desk), new reference books encompass the vast scholarship of human knowledge. Some titles include:

• Guide to Information Sources in the Forensic Sciences
• Latinas in the United States (3 volumes)
• The Grove Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts
• Encyclopedia of Chinese Philosophy
• Colonial America (5 volumes)

You can find these reference gems at the reference desk and, eventually, in the reference stacks. New reference books are always coming in so go ahead, ask for a peek at the newest batch.

JSOTR Enhancements Announced

JSTOR has announced the following new features that will enhance searching, viewing, and printing articles found in the JSTOR archive.

• A new PDF format for downloading and printing articles has replaced the previous High Quality PDF format. This new format enables JSTOR users to "search" or "find" words and phrases within the PDF version of JSTOR articles, as well as copy and paste portions of text from them.
• Search term highlighting is now available in JSTOR page images. When a user searches for a term and follows a link to an article from the results, the search terms will be highlighted in the article's page images.
  
• ARTstor, a non-profit initiative founded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, provides a repository of hundreds of thousands of digital images and related data. Similar to JSTOR, ARTstor's mission is to serve the scholarly community through its collections. To enhance the benefits of these two resources and to enable researchers to discover useful content across all formats, JSTOR has developed a way to search both JSTOR and ARTstor content simultaneously.

Specifically, users have the opportunity to search JSTOR article content, JSTOR image captions, and metadata for ARTstor images. Search results pages are separated into three tabs — Articles, Images from Articles, and ARTstor Images — so that users can easily view and choose among their results. Article image thumbnails accompany the caption results, and ARTstor results contain title, creator, and date information.

JSTOR and ARTstor are available on the library's home page under the Find Articles link, or through the alphabetical list of Article Indexes and Online Databases page.

Grants Available @thelibrary

Albertsons Library will be providing eight grants of $3,000.00 each to faculty for collection development in subject areas where the Library has serious gaps in currency and/or relevancy.

The intent of these grants is to enlist the help of Boise State University faculty in identifying areas of the collection needing special attention. An additional goal is to promote critical information use in the curriculum by bringing together faculty and librarians to enhance the quality of student use of information resources. Faculty or departments who are interested in applying for a grant should begin the process by contacting their library liaison.

Send completed applications to the Coordinator of Collection Development, Peggy Cooper by Monday, May 7, 2007. The grant recipients will be announced on Friday, May 18, 2007. Call Peggy at 426-2311 for additional information.

Canada Displays @thelibrary

Come to the Library to view the Canada displays on the first floor across from the elevators. Included are a display case of Canadian memorabilia, a wall display that includes Canada Week Events (April 2-6), and a display of books about Canada, along with a bibliography of recent Library acquisitions.

More computers @thelibrary!

So you know about the extended library hours, the top-notch reference help, and that the library is wireless enabled, right?

Now know this: we've added an additional eight much-needed computers to the computer commons on the first floor. Now you can work on your Word, PowerPoint, or Excel files without having to wait (too long) for a computer.

With the eight new computers, there are now a total of 84 fully connected computers in the Library. If you find yourself in need of a computer, come to the Library or head on over to one of the many computer labs around campus.