We are very pleased to welcome librarian Barb Bolser to the library staff as of Aug.1, 2004. Barb's responsibilities will include serving the unique library support needs of the PACE students, and she will also teach some of our freshman CWRR classes and act as subject liaison to several academic departments.
Barb's MLS degree is from the University of Illinois Urbana/Champaign (UIUC) Graduate School of Library Science, and she also has a Master of Fine Arts from Illinois State University in Normal. Barb has previous library work experience in the interlibrary loans office at the main library of of UIUC as well as at the Health Science Library at St. John's Hospital and the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine Library, both in Springfield. In addition, Barb has taught art at various Illinois academic institutions including the University of Illinois/Springfield.
	Unfortunately, come early October we will lose long-time librarian Susan Avery to UIUC where she will be Undergraduate Instructional Services Coordinator and Assistant Professor of Library Administration.
It is hard to compete against a job that is as if custom-written for Susan's experience and expertise as well as better paid - though we did try. Now, as Susan prepares us for doing without her and as we divide up her tasks, we are realizing even more just how many responsibilities Susan has been shouldering. We surely will miss her, though we wish her the very best and hope she will keep in touch!

We continue to refine our electronic offerings to keep pace with the changing curriculum as well as with usage statistics of our existing databases. For the academic year 2004/05, we are providing three new services. Try them out!

CQ Researcher  is an excellent resource for finding and investigating current event topics. "Published in print and online 44 times a year, the single-themed CQ Researcher report offers in-depth, non-biased coverage of political and social issues, with regular reports on topics in health, international affairs, education, the environment, technology and the U.S. economy." This full-text database is available through the on-campus network only. 

Naxos Music Library. This audio database of actual music selections has already been enthusiastically received and used by music faculty and students. "Naxos Music Library is the most comprehensive collection of classical music available online. It includes ... over 85,000 tracks, including Classical music, Jazz, World, Folk and Chinese music. Whilst listening, users can read notes on the works being played as well as biographical information on composers or artists." This database takes the place of the more limited and less used electronic reserves service we offered last year.

Basic Biosis. "BasicBIOSIS .. is a comprehensive [index] that focuses on general life science research from around the world. BasicBIOSIS includes coverage of nearly 300 of the most popular life science publications typically found in college and university libraries." We used to have this index as a pay-per-search database, but we now make it available through EBSCO.

In addition, from time to time, we have the opportunity to try new databases for a limited time period, usually without cost to the library. The latest: through October 31, 2004, we have free online access to all Sage journals. Sample titles include: American Behavioral Scientist, Crime & Delinquency, European Journal of Women's Studies, The Family Journal, Journal of Consumer Culture. 

Debbie Myers and Brad Leach, Summer 2004 student staff.

As in other summers, over the summer 2004 the library staff shifted some library shelving and furniture around, and also upgraded some of our equipment, all in order to make even better use of existing library resources. 

The most immediately obvious may be the flat panel computer screens at the Circulation Desk and the more visible display of new books. We also created additional study spaces on the main and the second floors by relocating some stacks. A side benefit of this shift was the creation of more space for shelving curriculum materials, juvenile books, and high-use reference books, as well as the more obvious display of our atlas collection.

here for all the furniture details.

Online tutorials are being incorporated into the Critical Writing, Reading, and Research instruction sessions taught by the Research and Instruction Librarians this fall.  MILT (Millikin Information Literacy Tutorials) is based on TILT (Texas Information Literacy Tutorials) and has been customized (mostly by Susan Avery) to meet the instructional needs at Millikin University.

Students will complete MILT tutorials and accompanying quizzes in Blackboard prior to class sessions with the librarians.  This structure will permit the librarians more time to discuss the theoretical and intellectual concepts and practices inherent in the research process, rather than focus only on the mechanical and technical aspects of using the various resources.  Understanding the underlying concepts involved in the search process will permit students to more readily transfer these skills from resource to resource. 

: As most of you already know, every month we create a list of titles added to the library the previous month. The previous month's list is usually available by the second week of the new month. The list is arranged in Library of Congress order, which is to say, roughly by academic discipline. Featured: Dan Guillory's latest book, Forgotten Decatur. Take a look! (Click on heading above.)

October 5 is the deadline in Illinois for registering to vote in the November presidential election. Seven library staff members have been deputized as Registrars, so you can register in the library during most hours that the library is open.

We have also created an extensive page with election-related links. Most of the work on this page was done by part-time librarian Sue Hemp last spring. The link to this page is featured on the library's home page.

Earlier newsletters

Have a great semester! Karin Borei University Librarian and Director of International Programs kborei@mail.millikin.edu