Following the University's recent organizational restructuring, the library now reports to the Dean of the Faculty, Steve Fiol. However, this change at the top will not mean any change in the services we provide! Our mission continues to be to support the University's students and academic programs through a broad range of intellectual resources and research-oriented initiatives such as our close involvement with CWRR and University Seminar instruction.

This is Native American Heritage Month

... and the library has udated its web page of related links. From the library's home page, the link can be found under "Information by subject" and then, scrolling down, under "web links collections".

New books and other library materials

Each month we continue to provide online lists of the books and other traditional format library materials most recently cataloged for the library collection. Sometime in the near future, this list will be automatically generated in the online catalog; but for now, Marsha Leach, the library's Office Manager & Acquisitions Associate, still generates those lists from information provided by Linda Chitwood, our Cataloging Associate.

Library-related writings

When libraries find themselves written about in non-library publications, we have more than the "shhh" stereotype to counter. For instance, a recent report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project gives the following as being among their study results,

Nearly three-quarters (73%) of college students say they use the Internet more than the library, while only 9% said they use the library more than the Internet for information searching. ("The Internet Goes to College: How Students are Living in the Future with Today's Technology." Online report dated September 15, 2002.)

However, how are we to interpret such a "finding" without knowing either how the question was asked or how the responding students understand the concept of "the library"? We often find that when students come to us with a class assignment of finding resources "not from the Internet", they are reluctant to search the library's periodicals databases because these are accessed from the library's web site and are thus, in the students' minds, "on the Internet"!  One can guess that when students access the library's web site from a location other than the library building, they would be even more likely to think of that as "using the Internet."

Database update

This month on our "Trial Databases" page, we provide a link to Try-It! Illinois 2002, the Third Annual Statewide Electronic Resource Trial for Illinois library users. The range of subjects covered by these many databases is almost unlimited, and the databases themselves number in the hundreds. If you forget the log-on information, call the library's Research Desk (x5065), or ask us via email. 

As with all of our database trials, Try-It! Illinois 2002 provides access for a short time to resources that we cannot normally afford to offer. Don't miss this opportunity!

The lighter side (a.k.a. library humor) 

We know that you as members of the academic community are always interested in the intellectual and functional underpinnings of some of the more common electronic tools. I therefore direct you to this description of how Google finds "the right results for every query as quickly as it does."  (In fact, of course, minus the avian perspective this IS how Google works.)

Finally, the Warrior Librarian Weekly Website, like librarians everywhere, "supports free speech, the right of all people to have an opinion, and the necessity for laughter."  The September 27 issue featured a collection of "error messages for the library [online catalog]", a too-relevant example of which is at the end of this newsletter... 

 
(October 31)

University Librarian
kborei@mail.millikin.edu

Earlier issues of this newsletter can be found here.