Alkek Library News

Faculty: ResearcherID Will Make Your Work More Visible

Researcher ID allows faculty to create an easy access point to their published works. ResearcherID also lets researchers build a searchable database of their body of work. It can assist in clearing up misidentification problems of authors who have published under different variations of their name because the researcher builds the website themselves.

To create a Researcher ID account, go to researcherid.com and click the "how to register" link for an invitation to join.

The database can also be searched by author, institution, or keyword. The search results are shown in two tabs. The first tab shows the list of citations from the author with a link to the full-text of the work.

 

(Click the image for a larger view)

 

The second tab shows the citation metrics which includes the total number of articles in the publication list, number of articles cited, sum of the times sited, the average of citations per article and the h-index.

This tool can be a good way for faculty to make their publications and research more accessible to the scholarly community. You must choose to make the information public when setting up your account.

If you're in any of the Web of Science databases, you can also find the link to My Researcher ID from within the database.

Ever feel lost in the library?

Take the  Alkek Library Walking Audio Tour for MP3 player or iPod and start at the entrance to get a full tour of the library.

An Interesting Web 2.0 Blog....

Web 2.0 is a term used to describe user-generated or web-based services or applications. It fosters a sense of collaboration among users.  While preparing for a workshop about Web 2.0, I came across a well laid out information blog called iLibrarian.  Although the blogs audience is primarily librarians or information professionals, it is a very informative and helpful place to learn about Web 2.0 and the tools, websites, and add-ons to make anyone's life easier.

One thing of interest is the post about creating better presentations.  "4 Ways to Spice Up Your Presentations." It offers links to good examples of engaging presentations, advice Websites, and even tools to add charts or "on the fly" generated images.

I also liked her 3 part entry "40 Useful Firefox Add-Ons for Librarians." Anyone who uses Firefox knows there is a lot of extensions you can use to customize the browser to fit your needs.  I especially like the  screengrab extension. This add-on allows you to take a screenshot of a webpage (or region of a page) and save it as an image. It is similar to SnagIt. For those who use Twitter, Meebo or Facebook, there is an add-on that integrates these applications with Firefox. So you can Tweet, have a sidebar view of your buddies, and have Facebook running all from within the same browser.

There is more to this blog worth checking out. Note the "Most Popular Posts" and  the "Categories" to find out more.

National Oral History Project Interviews Dr. Bill Mears

Capturing the stories of retired librarians has been one of the 2007/2008 presidential initiatives for American Library Association President, Dr. Loriene Roy and one of the first librarians to participate is retired Alkek Library director, Dr. Bill Mears. Dr. Mears tells his story to  Stephanie Langenkamp who also worked at Alkek at one time, and is currently the director of the San Marcos Public Library.

Life histories will be collected by volunteers at the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim June 26-July 2, 2008. The purpose of the project is to capture librarians at the end of their careers. Their experiences are being made accessible to library school students, new librarians, and colleagues via the project website. It may also be of interest to anyone who has an interest in librarianship, oral history projects, or digital libraries.

The platform used by the project allows the user to watch the interview, download the transcript, or both using Glifos. Here is a link to the PDF documentation about the digital library platform.  The UT iSchool and Harry Ransom Center has also collected and digitized the Mike Wallace Interviews using this same MediaWiki-based system.

To watch Dr. Mears' interesting interview about how he became a librarian, the experience he went through during the construction of the new library building, and other challenges he has faced since retiring from Texas State University,  click here.

You can also check the Project website after the ALA annual conference for more interviews.

New eBook Collections from Blackwell Reference and NetLibrary

We now have access to more electronic books from Blackwell Reference Online and NetLibrary. The books are all full-text and accessible off campus. 

The new Blackwell sets include 28 titles in Language & Linguistics and 39 titles covering Sociology & Psychology.

NetLibrary sets total over 300 books. Subject areas covered are:

Psychology (27 titles)

Vocational Education (20 titles)

Environment (25 titles)

Contemporary Issues (40 titles) (some may be "in-process")

Netlibrary Business: Career Guides (52 titles)

Netlibrary Business: Leadership and Management (58 titles)

Teacher's resources core (27 titles)

Teacher's resources basics (27 titles)

Teacher's resources premium (46 titles)

 

All of the eBooks can be access via the library catalog and the eBooks page or by going to the Databases by Type: eBooks.