June 2010 Archives

For the past two academic years I've been creating webpages to provide course-specific suggestions of library tools and resources. Those pages looked something like this:

Recently the libraries have developed a new model of course-level support which we're calling the Library Course Page.







Some new features include:

• Tabbed structure that brings together course resources and reserved readings in one spot


• A chat box to ask a reference librarian a question


• Easy navigation to other course pages

Take a look at the new pages...you can view them on the libraries homepage.







If you're interested in customizing a page for an upcoming class or want to learn how you can put items on reserve (books, articles, homework solutions) just send me an email!

(Image from davesag via Flickr.  CC.)

From Engineering Librarian, Jan Fransen:

Suppose you'd like to review some article citations and you're off campus. If you're feeling lucky, you can just search Google Scholar and find PDFs of the articles you want. But what if full text isn't freely available online?

If University Libraries has purchased access to the journal you want, you can go to the Libraries website and either find the journal in the E-Journals list or fill in citation information with the Citation Linker. In either case, you'll be prompted for your X.500 credentials and recognized as an affiliate once you get to the publisher's website.

But if you prefer to go straight to IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, Elsevier ScienceDirect, or another publisher site, just drag the bookmarklet below to your browser toolbar. When you're on a publisher's webpage, click the UMN Access button. The code will update links on the page to use the University Libraries's proxy and you'll be able to download full text just as if you were on campus,

On May 19 and 20 we held a library seminar for faculty and instructors in IT. Fourteen faculty and staff members attended a day and a half event that covered a wide variety of library tools and resources that could be incorporated into teaching, learning and research.

If you weren't able to attend but thought the information might be useful, we've created a website to go along with the event that will allow you to see many of the skills and tools we discussed. The website links to PowerPoint presentations, lecture recordings, online learning objects and handouts--including a link to the slides presented by IT Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs, Paul Strykowski.

If you're interested in learning more please visit the site at http://sciweb.lib.umn.edu/facultyseminar2010/.

If any of the topics covered strike a chord or if you'd like to have a discussion of ways to incorporate information seeking skills into your assignments, please feel free to get in touch with me.