Library staff changes: 

• Hard on the heels of  Virginia McQuistion's retirement in December 2000, we will be losing another librarian in mid- March this year (2001): Cindy Fuller has accepted a position as Library Systems Coordinator at ILCSO where she will have the opportunity to use her considerable expertise and experience in a statewide setting. Currently Head of Technical Services at Staley Library, Ms. Fuller has been providing reference and instruction to Millikin University students, faculty & staff since 1992 in addition to her more recent backstage responsibilities. Although I fervently wish I could convince her to stay with us at Millikin, I understand and support her ambitions and know that she will do us proud in the larger arena. (More on how we will fill those two vacancies when we make these decisions.)
• Meanwhile, we have been fortunate to engage two adjunct librarians to assist with reference desk coverage during our evening hours for the duration of the Spring 2001 semester. They are:
• Jacqueline A. Meyer, Johns Hill Magnet School librarian and adjunct professor in Millikin University's Education Department. Ms. Meyer is a graduate of the UIUC School of Library and Information Science and has held positions in several academic and public libraries as well as in school libraries.
• Amanda Standerfer, Rolling Prairie Library System Consultant. Ms. Standerfer is a recent graduate of the UIUC School of Library and Information Science and has an additional master's degree, in History, from Eastern Illinois University. For more about Ms. Standerfer, see http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/~standrfr/home.html

Circulation policies: Responding to concerns voiced by faculty and students, we will no longer be checking out individual issues of periodicals, thus greatly increasing their availability to all library users. The long-standing check-out policy was meant to offer an alternative to the library's then ten-cents-a-copy photocopying charges; but a year ago those charges were cut in half, thus obviating the need for the policy. As with other non-circulating library materials, exceptions can be made at the discretion of library staff for unusual situations.

Copyright reminder: Whenever you make copies of existing works, whether in print, in video or sound, or in electronic form, you must keep in mind any and all applicable copyright regulations. Note that the Fair Use provision of copyright law does not allow for unrestricted copying, even for academic/research purposes! The library's copyright page provides some guidance to this complex subject. 

Library Web site: We continue to enhance our extensive Web site, in order to provide the most useful guide possible to our many resources. For instance,  Susan Avery recently expanded the alphabetic list of databases, adding more resources and also brief annotations.

Full-text links: As an alternative to reserves, on your web page or in CourseInfo you can provide links to full-text articles through the EbscoHost databases in IDAL (Academic Search Elite, Business Source Elite, Health Source Plus, and Newspaper Source). To do this, when you are viewing the full text of an IDAL article, click on the Print/E-mail/Save button at the top or bottom of the screen.  On the screen that this brings up, click on the Links to marked items button.  Lastly, click on the option to have this e-mailed to you.  If you have any questions about using this function contact Susan Avery.

Trial databases: As you know, we have a section on our Web site devoted to database trials. The purpose of these trials is to find out how the databases work, what they contain, if they might be of use in supporting the Millikin University curriculum, and if we can afford them relative to the use they might get. And, even if it turns out that we ultimately do not obtain these tested resources, we should enjoy them while we have them!! (The link to the test databases is at the bottom of the Quicklinks list, on the left of every library page.)

We have a free trial to Ulrich's until the end of May 2001, because we are already a print customer.  Ulrich's is the most authoritative source for information about journals, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, electronic serials, ‘zines, and many other types of periodicals. The site is attractive, functional, and full of features. You can link to reviews of a title (if available), determine if it is refereed and/or available in electronic form, and link to the publication's web site. Please ask the library staff for the username and password.

Library building:  The burned out light bulbs in the library's high ceilings are being replaced this month by Physical Plant staff using a special crane. The process is slow, but at least not as disruptive as in some libraries! 

Leisure reading: For those times when you want to curl up with something other than an academic tome, the library maintains a small collection of Leisure Reading books (novels, mysteries, romance, other types of mostly fiction). We have recently weeded that collection, and would appreciate any donations to build it up again. We have also catalogued these books into ILLINET Online, which will make checking them out more convenient.

Finally, we continue to be fascinated with the construction of the new science building behind Staley Library. It now fills our entire northern view!
 

Earlier newsletters

This page was created on Feb 2, 2000  Page last modified: Jan. 19, 2001 Comments or questions? Send us a message!
URL:http://www.millikin.edu/staley/whatsnew_next.html Copyright 2000+ Millikin University Board of Trustees.