October is Information Literacy Month

On October 1st President Barack Obama declared October as National Information Literacy Awareness Month.

Our ability to find information on any give topic these days is immeasurable. The ability to avoid exposure to information is non-existent. We live in a world of TMI, TMC and TLT (too much information, too many choices and too little time). The White House itself makes use of many web 2.0 methods for communication including Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo, iTunes, and the White House blog. And that’s just one aspect of one branch of one level of our government.
The only way to manage this avalanche cum tsunami of information is through understanding how and why information is produced, accessing it efficiently and habitually culling, evaluating, and using effectively the information we find. This is Information Literacy.

The American Library Association, the Association of College and Research Libraries and the American Association of School Librarians (as well as many other educational associations) have established definitions of an information literate person and best practices for educating students in IL from pre-kindergarten through graduate school. Since Information Literacy is one of our most important life-long skills in all facets of our lives, both public and private, these endeavors emphasize teaching students to think critically about the issues and to renew continuously their skills. The staff of Doherty Library, particularly the Information Literacy Librarian, the Public Services Librarian and the Electronic Resources Librarian, work very hard to develop in the UST student body the proficiencies they need.

October is also National Cyber Security Awareness Month. One definite aspect of Information Literacy is knowing how to navigate the web and use its tools safely.

Exciting New Resource at Doherty!

Doherty Library has acquired a new exciting resource beginning July 1, 2009 and available for the second summer session. This resource is Credo Reference.

Credo Reference is the dream of those who want to break the Wikipedia habit. Credo has all that Wikipedia has and more. It’s quick, it’s easy and it’s available 24/7 at any computer. Unlike Wikipedia, however, Credo Reference is made up of 401 different resources and all of them are authoritative. When you type a term into Credo, the database searches all 401 resources, so you find a variety of points of view on the same subject. These points of view are all by respected scholars in their fields. Moreover, Credo reference contains specialized encyclopedias, dictionaries, biographies, and quotation books. Many of these specialized resources can be cited as reliable information in your papers. Credo also has cool features like a measurement converter and a crossword puzzle solver. Credo can be found on the library website under Databases by Title and Databases by Subject. You can also click here and give it a try.

Loan Nguyen joins Doherty staff; Receives grant to help establish Vietnamese library in Houston

Loan Nguyen, originally from Vietnam, joined the Doherty Library staff in November 2008 as a Periodicals/Reference Librarian in which she is responsible for managing the periodical collection in paper, electronic and microform formats. Loan also provides reference services and library instructional to faculty, staffs and students at UST. Loan loves to volunteer her services to maximize her God-given abilities. Ever since she decided to become a librarian, she has always dreamed of creating a Vietnamese Library in the United States, which would promote the heritage and culture of Vietnam. Her dream came true when she was asked by the Vietnamese Civic Center Board members to start up a Vietnamese library in their newly developed facility at 11360 Bellaire Blvd., Houston, Texas 77072. In March 2009, Loan was awarded a grant from the National Library of Medicine to purchase computers for the recently opened Vietnamese library.

Loan said she feels so at home at Doherty library. Her passions are volunteering her services and meeting people. Please do not hesitate to say “Hi” or ask question to Loan whenever you see her at the reference’s desk.

Chat with a Librarian

Doherty reference librarians have long been available for questions by phone and by email. And of course we are always happy to help researchers in person. But this Fall, the Doherty Reference Department has instituted a new communication venue — Chat. So whether you are at home, at play or even somewhere in the library and don’t want to leave your stuff unattended, send us a question. To participate in Chat, you can find us (and add us to your buddy list) on AIM (DohReference), MSN LiveMessenger (doherty_reference), and Yahoo! Messenger (doherty_reference). You can also connect directly with us through our Meebo account from the Doherty Chat page even if you don’t have a chat account yourself.

Happy Birthday Library of Congress

April 22-24, 1800: The Library of Congress Established

On April 22, 1800, the Library of Congress began with an appropriation of $5,000. by Congress for the purchase of books and furnishings for a reading room. The bill became law on April 24, 1800 when John Adams signed the act designating the funds “for the purchase of such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress and for putting up a suitable apartment for containing them therein….” (2 Stat. 56). Booksellers Cadell & Davies of London sent the first order of 152 books to the U.S. in December of that year. Ironically, it was the British who later burned the entire collection of around 3,000 volumes in August, 1814 when they invaded Washington, DC during the War of 1812.

Former president Thomas Jefferson provided for the replacement of the Library by selling his own personal collection of over 6,000 books to the government for $23,950.00. Ten wagons were needed to transport all of his books to Washington for the new library building, which was not completed until 1817. Though the Library still serves Congress, its scope of responsibility has widened to make it the national library of the United States. Happy birthday Library of Congress.

Sources: 1. Famous First Facts, 6th ed., 2. The United States Government Manual, 2007-08., 3. Library of Congress History, http://www.loc.gov/about/history/

Rachel

Everybody wants Facebook fans…and we do too!

Doherty library has a new Facebook page. So go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/Houston-TX/Doherty-Library-University-of-St-Thomas/7287576594 and become a fan! You can also link to the library’s research guides and catalog through Facebook.Doherty. The library also hosts two book groups on Facebook. One is for discussion of Catholic Fiction and the other is a general-interest book club called Parnassus. Parnassus was the home of Apollo and the Muses and is traditionally thought of as a place where people gather for literature, music, art, and ideas. All UST Facebook members are welcome to visit and join in the discussions. One of the first discussions is what classic book do you loathe that you are “supposed” to think is GREAT LITERATURE? Join us at Parnassus and let your thoughts be known.

Mary

Research Consultations @ the Reference Desk

Professional Help, On Demand

You’ve seen us in library classes and you’ve seen us at the desk answering questions, but did you know Doherty librarians also offer custom, in-depth research consultations? Any UST student can request a one-on-one consult with a reference librarian. A professional librarian will spend 45 minutes to an hour with you — helping you fine-tune your research strategies, gather sources appropriate for your projects, advising you about access to outside resources, etc. If you need help getting started or have hit a dead end — or are anywhere in between — we can help. We might even come up with a few ideas you haven’t thought of! Students working on their capstone project, senior thesis or master’s thesis may especially want to take advantage of this service. Call the reference department at 713-525-2188 or email reference@stthom.edu to set up an appointment. Remember that we always caution students to begin their research early and this is no exception: When setting your appointment, please give us at least a few day’s lead time to gather sources and conduct preliminary research before our meeting.

Mary, Rachel and Lisa

Catholic Fiction Blog

Doherty Librarian Dr. Mary Kelleher Moderates Catholic Fiction Blog

Looking for some new leisure reading? Or an online meeting place to discuss old favorites? Check out the Catholic Fiction Blog. On the site, Mary makes suggestions to anyone looking for something good to read. “Because little is written about “Catholic fiction” in other venues, I have chosen this as my theme.” Read the blog to see how she defines “Catholic fiction.” Anyone is welcome to comment on the page and make recommendations of their own favorites.

Mary

Embargoes and Moving Walls

What’s an embargo? What’s a moving wall?

Thousands of journals are now accessible online through full-text databases provided by Doherty library.  Due to that fact, some of our regular users have experienced the embargo.  Still others have run into a moving wall.  Have you?  Many publishers will not license a journal to a full text database without an embargo.  An embargo is a delay in making the full text content electronically available for articles cited in the database.  The moving wall can be said to represent that time period or gap between the latest issue of a journal available in the online database and the most recently published issues of the journal.  Embargoes vary – some titles have very short embargoes, perhaps a week or a month, others can have full text embargos that last up to a year or longer.  Publishers say they manage “print erosion” and maintain revenue opportunities through embargoes or moving walls.  In other words, libraries still have to maintain many print subscriptions in order to provide their users with the latest content available in embargoed journals, thus ensuring that publishers will not be faced with multiple cancellations of titles they choose to make available through online databases.

Rachel