The Library has added a web page listing our new acquisitions from the previous month. The list includes regular books, children's literature, teaching materials, reference books, bestsellers, and multimedia items. There will be a new list each month at the same location on the website. It's a very nice way to get a sense of what we are buying to support the University's needs.
The new issue of the UMD Library Connection newsletter is out. It includes items on the upcoming Northeast Minnesota Book Awards (NEMBA), the kids from the Children's Place who come in and use the library on Tuesdays, the new statewide 24-hour online reference service AskMN, profiles of three of our student employees, and other interesting news.
The new issue of the UMD Library's Newsletter, the Library Connection, is out. It's out in print and online as well. This issue has items about this semester's Student Video Contest, the transfer of the Media Hub to the library, the call for nominations for next year's Northeast Minnesota Book Awards, an article on the David Berman exhibit and event, and other news.
The library website has an updated section about the various collections in the library. There is a page for each collection, and the majority of these collections can be searched separately from those pages.
The collections you'll find there include:
Archives
Audiobooks
Bestsellers
Books
Center for Economic Development
Children's Literature
DVD/Video
E-Books
Government Documents
Microform
Music Recordings
NRRI
Northeast Minnesota Historical Center
Plays
Ramseyer-Northern Bible Society Museum
Reference Collection
Special Collections
Teaching Materials
Tweed Museum Library
Voyageur Collection
The reference department has set up a "chat widget," which allows anyone to chat with a librarian at the reference desk by going to the "Ask Us" page. This chat doesn't require the user to have any kind of account with any instant messaging service. I think this is pretty nifty.
Additionally, I offer chat service from my office to students and faculty in my subject areas. My IM accounts:
I hope some folks find these services useful.
Here is an Excel file listing all of the books we acquired for the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures last year.
We have access to some electronic bilingual dictionaries from Oxford University Press, that are hidden within our databases. For Spanish Studies, you will find a general bilingual dictionary and a bilingual dictionary of Business terms.
The Spring issue of The Library Connection, the UMD Library's newsletter, has been sent out in print form and uploaded to the web. Enjoy the news from the library....
UMD Library Newsletter Fall 2006: The Library Connection: A Newsletter for Friends of the UMD Library.
I want to just mention a little-known service of the library website: the Citation Linker. This allows you to put in a citation to an article, and the system will attempt to link you directly to that article in one of our databases. Take it for a spin...
In the last year and a half we have acquired a number of Spanish films on DVD. Here is a list:
Almodovar, Pedro: Bad Education (Original Uncut NC-17 Edition)
Almodovar, Pedro: What Have I Done to Deserve This? (1984)
Almodovar, Pedro: Talk to Her (Hable con Ella) (2002)
Amenábar, Alejandro: Thesis (Tesis) (1996)
Amenábar, Alejandro: The Sea Inside (2004)
Belen, Ana: Mucho Mas Que Dos
Bollaín, Icíar: Flores De Otro Mundo: Flowers From Another World (1998)
Bunuel, Luis: Viridiana - Criterion Collection (1962)
Bunuel, Luis: The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie - Criterion Collection (1972)
Coixet, Isabel: My Life Without Me (2003)
López Sánchez, Eva Francisca
Medem, Julio: Tierra (1995)
Medem, Julio: Sex and Lucia (Unrated Edition)
Trueba, Fernando: The Girl of Your Dreams (1998)
Uribe, Imanol: Running Out of Time (1994)
Zambrano, Benito: Solas (1998)
These are all DVDs and can be checked out by faculty or students. They can be checked out for one week, and can be renewed. To look them up by title or browse for more, visit the DVD and Video catalog.
We now have Google Scholar working with our Find-It system, which is very very nice!
Google Scholar is Google's effort to provide access to scholarly resources of the kind needed in college. It's searchable like regular Google, but what it comes up with is (mainly) all scholarly and reliable.
Among the results in Google Scholar are a lot of things that we only have access to through our subscription databases. But in order to get from Google Scholar to the full text of these articles via our databases, you have to set up some settings in Google Scholar to connect it with us. This page explains the steps, but I will repeat them here:
1. Go to http://scholar.google.com/
2. Click on Scholar Preferencesto the right of the search box.
3. In the Library Links field type in UMD.
4. Click on Find Library.
5. Put a check next to the University of Minnesota Duluth.
6. Click on Save Preferences.
Once you have done that, when you search Google Scholar you will often see a Find-It link next to a citation. If the link is in large type, it will lead you directly to the full text of that article in one of our databases. If it's in small type, it will lead you to the other steps you can take for getting the article (e-journal locator, library catalog, ILL form).
In mid-April we announced an instant-messaging IM service, where you can chat with the librarian who is working at the reference desk during the times that the desk is staffed.
I have decided to offer research help by instant messaging from my office as well. So if you are working on a project for a Spanish class that requires some kind of research, or if you want to recommend a book or a database or ask a question that I might know the answer to, you can IM me in my office as long as I'm here.
My IM screennames at work are:
AIM: umdlibraryrory
MSN: umdlibraryrory
YM: umdlibraryrory
GTalk: rlitwin@gmail.com
Pop me a message just to let me know you are reading this.... I don't know if anybody is reading this blog at this point....
Here is an Excel spreadsheet listing books and DVDs of interest to the Foreign Languages and Literatures Department acquired by the library in the 2005-06 fiscal year:
Acquisitions for Foreign Languages and Literatures, 2005-06
This includes all the books and DVDs requested by Spanish, German and French faculty as well as some other books selected by the librarian for the language programs (Rory Litwin) and purchased using a mix of funds, including library funds devoted to developing the collection to support the Spanish, German and French curricula, funds for other subjects where titles cross over into those areas, funds for general reference books, and funds for replacing missing books.
The Spring 2006 issue of the UMD Library Connection is hot off the presses. It's available in an html and a pdf version.
This issue has articles on
Handsomely-printed paper copies are available by contacting Charlene Brown in the library, at 218-726-8539.