ScienceDirect journal downtime on Saturday

Weekend researchers, be forewarned that five Armacost Library journals will be unavailable on Saturday, March 17 while the journal provider, Elsevier, undergoes an update to their ScienceDirect platform:

Ecological Modeling

Evolution and Human Behavior

Historia Mathematica

Personality and Individual Differences

Journal of Communication Disorders

The downtime will be between 5:30 AM and 6:30 PM PST only. For more information read this press release on the Elsevier website.

A Glimpse of the Future

Toward the end of April, we'll be launching a library catalog ripe with change. We're so excited, we thought you'd like a sneak peak. Take a look and tell us what you think. New features include book cover displays, the ability to create reading lists, rate items, find similar items, and more.

Stay tuned for more!

Patron record and ILLIAD login problems resolved

Dear Armacost Library users,

I'm happy to report that the problems involving patron record logins and ILLIAD authentication appear to be resolved. This morning, I uncovered a systems setting error in ILLIAD and corrected it. Thanks to OCLC technical support, University of Redlands ITS and our own library staff for collaborating to fix these problems! If you have been experiencing problems logging in to your patron record, electronic course reserves, the proxy server or ILLIAD, please try again and let me know about any further problems you encounter.

Best regards,

Sanjeet Mann

Electronic Resources Librarian

(909) 748-8051

sanjeet_mann@redlands.edu

Login problems affecting databases and interlibrary loan

We are currently tracking two problems affecting logins to databases from off campus and to ILLIAD, our interlibrary loan system, and I'm writing to provide an update on our efforts to fix them.

Late Saturday afternoon, we started to receive reports that students were not able to log in to databases through the proxy server. On Monday morning, we traced the problem to errors in login names in the library database of patron records, and globally replaced the erroneous information. I believe this has solved the problem, but please contact the library at reference@redlands.edu or (909) 748-8022 if you are still unable to log in to databases.

A separate problem arose Monday morning after an upgrade to our ILLIAD interlibrary loan software had unexpected consequences for the login page. The page is displaying a "username not found in database" error whenever anyone tries to log in, even though they have valid patron records in our interlibrary loan system. I am consulting with technical staff at OCLC, the vendor that supports this system, in order to get the login page updated. I anticipate the problem should be resolved by Tuesday afternoon. If you need to place an urgent request before then, we will accept requests through email at interlibrary_loan@redlands.edu until the problem is resolved.

I will post an update as soon as these problems have been resolved. In the meantime, I apologize for the inconvenience these outages have caused and hope to have them fixed soon!

Best regards,

Sanjeet Mann

Electronic Resources Librarian

University of Redlands

Registration open for 2012 ICPSR summer program

As you may know, Armacost Library subscribes to ICPSR, a repository of primary source data and resources on conducting, preserving and teaching research using social sciences methods.

One of our membership benefits is that you can apply for the annual Summer Program in Quantitative Methods of Social Research. Two four-week sessions will be held in July and August in Ann Arbor, MI, and three-to-five day workshops will be held in a variety of locations across the country, including Berkeley, CA. Scholarships are available through ICPSR with an April 30 application deadline.

See the full text of ICPSR's announcement below and view the ICPSR website for more details:

Registration for the 2012 ICPSR Summer Program in Quantitative Methods of Social Research is now open! This year’s Program includes 78 courses, 41 in the two four-week sessions, and 37 short workshops. Further detailed information about the 2012 ICPSR Summer Program, including course descriptions, schedule, faculty, registration instructions, and fee structure, is available on our website:

http://icpsr.umich.edu/sumprog/

Registration for courses in the 2012 Summer Program is very easy. Just go to the online portal (located on the “Registration & Fees” page of the Summer Program website), log in to your ICPSR MyData account (if you do not have an existing MyData account, you will be prompted to create one), enter your personal information, select your courses, and make arrangements for payment. That’s all there is to it!

Please feel free to contact us with any further questions you might have about any aspect of the 2012 ICPSR Summer Program (e-mail: sumprog@icpsr.umich.edu; phone: 734-763-7400). We look forward to seeing you in Ann Arbor, or at one of our other course locations this summer!

Bill Jacoby

Director, ICPSR Summer Program and Professor, Political Science, Michigan State University

Dieter Burrell

Assistant Director, ICPSR Summer Program

Update - Possible fix for Hoovers outage?

I have received an updated access URL to Hoovers Online from their new vendor (Mergent) and we have posted it on the library website under Databases by Subject and Databases by Title. If you've been having trouble accessing Hoovers recently, please try refreshing your browser's cache and try entering Hoovers again. If you are still unable to access Hoovers, please contact the reference desk at (909) 748-8878 or email the reference desk to let us know.

Thanks,
Sanjeet Mann
Electronic Resources Librarian

World Book Night 2012 Giver Applic Deadline Extended to Monday, Feb. 6th!

There is still time to turn in an application to be a WBN book giver! Consider applying before the Feb. 6th midnight deadline.

For those who have already submitted an application, news of your status should arrive at the email address you provided shortly, if it hasn't arrived already. Be sure to check your spam folder. If you've recently submitted an application, hang tight. The WBN reviewers should get to your application really soon.

Around mid-February, you should receive another email asking you to select a pick-up bookstore or library. Armacost Library should be on that list!

For further assistance, please contact Melissa Cardenas-Dow at Armacost Library: 909.748.8089 or melissa_cardenasdow@redlands.edu.

Hoovers outage

We are experiencing problems with the Hoovers Online database of business information. Instead of allowing seamless access from on campus (or off campus through the campus MyRedlands logon), the database is asking for a username and password.

We are currently investigating the issue with Hoovers technical support and will post an update here as soon as the problem is resolved. In the meantime, our librarians will gladly help you find alternative sources of information such as company profiles, market share or industry comparisons that are normally found in Hoovers. Visit the library reference desk, call us at (909) 748-8878 or email or instant message reference@redlands.edu for assistance.

Best regards,
Sanjeet Mann
Electronic Resources Librarian
Armacost Library

Upcoming Database Changes

On Wednesday, February 1, the following databases will experience a makeover.

• Art Full-Text
• Book Review Digest Plus
• Education Index Retrospective
• ERIC
• OmniFile Full Text Mega

Resulting from a business merger, these databases will adopt characteristics of the acquiring company. While the database content will largely remain the same, item descriptions, features, and search options may differ. For example, the subject headings assigned to items appear to have been preserved for most, but not all items. Another difference can be seen in the way default searches are handled. As of 1/27/2012, entering the search term "minorities" in ERIC and immediately initiating the search will yield 12,771 results under the retired system and 41,365 results under the new system. Highlighted below are a few more changes.

• Art Full-Text will provide more visual content
• Book Review Digest Plus offers additional search options to find similar books and books written by the same author
• iPhone and Android apps are available, and
• Icons are used to help researchers distinguish between the different types of publications

For more information, please contact a librarian.

Armacost Library Registered to be a Pick-Up Location for World Book Night-USA 2012

This year, World Book Night comes to the United States for the first time. Armacost Library is supporting this international effort to promote the love of reading. We signed up to be a pick-up location for community members of the University of Redlands and the City of Redlands. We hope faculty, students, staff and administrators of University of Redlands will sign-up to participate.

What is World Book Night?
WBN-USA is an international event that promotes literacy and the joys of reading among teens and adults. It is predicated on the idea of individual volunteers going out into their own communities and sharing copies of a text they had previously read and loved. Intended recipients of WBN editions are, ideally, new or light readers or individuals with limited access to books. WBN-USA book giver volunteers will receive 20 copies of a title they have selected. They will then pick up these books at a pick-up location they select and go out into their communities to distribute them on (or around) April 23rd. It will occur in the US, the UK, and Ireland on this same day.

Interested in volunteering to be a WBN giver?
Great! There is a sign-up process and some terms and conditions. Application sign-ups need to be submitted to WBN by February 1st. Notifications will go out in mid-February. April 23rd, the actual date volunteers go out to distribute books, falls during May term break for CAS students at University of Redlands. Because of this, here are a few helpful tips to keep in mind.

• Think about where you will be on April 23rd and plan to give out books in that city. You will be asked to provide a mailing and an email address in the online application. The mailing address will help WBN organizers optimize selecting possible pick-up locations for you to consider. The email address is needed to notify you if your application has been approved or not, which book title you will receive, and how to select your pick-up location. Of course, you can still select Armacost Library as your pick-up location and give out books in the city of Redlands before you travel.

• Think about where you will go to hand out books and why. You will also be asked questions about the location/s at which you intend to distribute books, to whom, and why. WBN will use the answers to these questions to select applicants. While community centers are great places to consider, WBN also suggests distributing books at coffee shops, bus stops, commuter trains, malls, churches, and  hospitals. Do select locations other than libraries.

• Select books that you have personally read already. WBN has a list of 30 titles from which would-be volunteers can choose 3 books. Should WBN choose you as a book giver, they will select one of the titles you indicated in your application and mail 20 copies of that title to your designated pick-up location. The point of the program is to enable givers to say to a giftee, “I read this book and I really loved it. I think you may enjoy it, too.”

• Attend the WBN party hosted by Campus Diversity & Inclusion and Armacost Library on April 16, 2012! This will be a good time for Redlands WBN givers to meet other givers, ask questions about WBN’s process, and pick up the books you have signed up to distribute on April 23rd. Exact location and time is yet to be determined. Light refreshments will be provided. Stay tuned!

Have questions? For more information, please visit the WBN-USA website or contact Melissa Cardenas-Dow at 909.748.8089.

A New Look for the New Year!

To develop a consistent look & feel for the library website, we've made a few changes. To see what we've been up to, use the following and tell us what you think. Stay tuned for more!

• Index List of Electronic Journals: to find journals

• Citation Finder: to find full-text for a citation

• Library Course and Subject Guides: research guides

Art @ Armacost Library: Introduction to Sculpture

Armacost Library is very happy to have student art work showcased in our lobby's display areas! Thanks go out to Professor Renee Azenaro's fall 2011 course, Introduction to Sculpture, for loaning us their wonderful pieces. The image shown on this blog does not do the work justice.

The sculpture pieces may be viewed during the hours Armacost Library is open. The pieces will be up for viewing from now till the end of November.

The students and Professor Azenaro will also be holding an art show reception on Tuesday, November 8, 2011, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Light refreshments will be provided.

Banned Books Week 2011: Winner of our raffle!

Thanks and congratulations go out to Jennifer Rowlett, University of Redlands class of 2014! Jennifer is the lucky winner of Armacost Library's first BBW raffle. She suggested the book Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, which will be added to our collection in her honor.


Jennifer is a creative writing major and heard about our Banned Books Week celebration and raffle through Professor Joy Manesiotis's poetry class.

Some more words about banned books and controversial literature from Jennifer:

"Banned books are a vital part of our literary world. How would the people of our society build ideas and opinions if their ideas and opinions were already built for them? Individualism and freedom would be stifled if banned books were to stay banned. I am very happy to see that our library is preventing this by promoting banned books. I am proud to say I read banned books. Do you?"

Thank you, Jennifer!

Is Information Literacy Worth the Effort?

(Note: For the rest of October 2011, National Information Literacy Awareness Month, Armacost Library blog will showcase guest and regular writers. They were all asked to respond to the question "What does information literacy mean to me?")

Like my colleagues who have written already, I think of information literacy as a set of attitudes and skills. The premise of information literacy is that information influences our choices in every area of our lives. If we understand our priorities and recognize the information need within a given situation, then we can make good decisions and feel confident in our ability to get things done.

But why do we have to stop to consider our information needs? Is too much information really a problem? What’s the danger in deciding based on the “wrong” information? Certainly it makes a difference in some situations, such as a job seeker trying to negotiate her salary, or a society trying to decide whether to go to war. But surely there's much less at stake with a student paper. What's the harm in letting Google do the work and picking the first source that seems good enough?

Lately I've been thinking about cooking as a metaphor for developing information literacy. Faster and easier alternatives to home-cooked meals exist, but many people consider the extra time and effort worthwhile when compared against the health risks and environmental costs of mass-produced fast food. Subcultures such as the slow food movement have arisen to celebrate the creation of wholesome meals from local, trustworthy ingredients, savored deliberately in the company of friends. Cooking is a communal hobby, involving recipe-sharing and informal mentoring from those with more experience. I'd argue all these factors are also implicit in information literacy.

Ultimately, I would say that information literacy is worthwhile because the subjects we are studying, like the other choices we make in everyday life, are important enough to merit our full attention and our best thinking, informed by the most relevant sources we can bring to bear on the problem at hand. An idealistic notion, perhaps, but then ideals such a love of learning or a desire for personal empowerment are part of what drew many of us to higher education, and something our society needs to remain vital.

Sanjeet Mann
Electronic Resources Librarian

Information Literacy Empowers

(Note: For the rest of October 2011, National Information Literacy Awareness Month, Armacost Library blog will showcase guest and regular writers. They were all asked to respond to the question "What does information literacy mean to me?")

Several months ago, my doctor informed me that I’d need surgery. Since I was in good health and circumstances weren’t dire, I was shocked to hear that it’d take six weeks for my body to heal and that I’d not be allowed to work during this time.

I was given a brochure explaining the procedure, but it left me with many unanswered questions ranging from the vain--How will the scar look?—to the dire—What are the risks?—to the practical—How will I lift myself out of bed? I soon learned to fire off a list of questions whenever my doctor would pause long enough to talk. In between these regularly-scheduled visits, I learned what I could in order to make the most of these rapid-fire exchanges.

I chose to use tools like Medline Plus which takes information from the largest medical library in the world, the National Library of Medicine, and explains medical terms and conditions in ways average people can understand. I also evaluated posts from online discussion forums and blogs for relevance and credibility so that I might learn from people’s personal experiences. When I wanted the latest medical research, I searched in PubMed since it has over 21 million citations taken from scholarly biomedical literature. And when full-text wasn’t freely available on the Web, I didn’t let that stop me. Knowing my options as a member of this University, I used Citation Finder to search the University’s collections, and have used interlibrary loan when I needed full-text from other libraries.

As an information literate, I empower myself by learning what I need to ask, where to find information, and how to leverage resources to get answers to my questions.

--Paige Mann, Visiting Assistant Librarian

Information Literacy = A Human Right, A Civic Duty, Something Like That

(Note: For the rest of October 2011, National Information Literacy Awareness Month, Armacost Library blog will showcase guest and regular writers. They were all asked to respond to the question "What does information literacy mean to me?")

The concept of being information literate is at the center of my work as a librarian/educator in higher education, but it is also central to my life as a citizen, parent, consumer, scholar, patient, advocate, and fellow human being. The shorthand definition on which most information literacy instruction efforts in academic institutions are based is represented by the “information literate student” who knows how to find, evaluate, and use information and who understands the ways in which information is created, disseminated, and organized in our society.

I find that my own perspective in relation to definitions of “information literacy” is aligned with UNESCO’s conception of Media & Information Literacy (MIL)as empowering to the individual and the collective. MIL “lies at the core of freedom of expression and information - since it empowers citizens to understand the functions of media and other information providers, to critically evaluate their content, and to make informed decisions as users and producer of information and media content.” This definition resonates with those articulated by my colleagues. It means one knows how to discriminate, that one has choices, and that one has the knowledge and the tools to learn how to learn.

To be information literate in our information-saturated culture is to question how that information operates in our lives and others, to be critically aware of multiple and variant perspectives, to know where to search for and how to sift through all that richness of data/information/knowledge, and communicate, contribute, and produce your own understandings.

--Shana Higgins, Armacost Library Instructional Services/Reference Librarian

So much to learn, so little time

(Note: For the rest of October 2011, National Information Literacy Awareness Month, Armacost Library blog will showcase guest and regular writers. They were all asked to respond to the question "What does information literacy mean to me?")

Information literacy is really not about libraries. It is not information management, library use, research – NO -- none of these.  It is about learning, it is about teaching yourself what you need to know. Information literacy means developing the ability to learn how to learn, and how to keep on learning.

It is about learning your options so that you know how to solve a problem or make a decision based on information. How to know what information is valid and which is best for the purposes you have in mind and how to present your thoughts based on this reliable information and the knowledge gained from it.

In a world that changes constantly and where so much information is everywhere, being information literate means you can find, judge, and analyze, critique, use information to know what you need to know, to feel secure that you have exhausted the possibilities and will make an informed decision, that you have the information to move towards a solution to a problem: buying a car, choosing a college, identifying a symptom, diagnosing an illness, investing money, starting a business, writing a report, planning a trip... Wherever your path takes you -- have what it takes to know!

Become information literate and continue to learn so that you will know!

-- Gabriela Sonntag, Armacost Library Director

Choose Your Own...

(Note: For the rest of October 2011, National Information Literacy Awareness Month, Armacost Library blog will showcase guest and regular writers. They were all asked to respond to the question "What does information literacy mean to me?")

Agency. In a word, that's what information literacy means to me. Before information retrieval skills, before the ability to critically evaluate information sources, before the competence to use information accurately and ethically, an information seeker must be aware of herself as an actor, someone who has the ability to choose and the freedom to act.

The knowledge that one has the ability to choose and the free will to exercise that choice is a very basic, fundamental concept. It is so beyond obvious that many feel it's not worth examining or even mentioning. But without this hyper level of self-awareness, we can't take the step to examine our own positions and the reasons for our actions, much else the positions of others who make efforts to convince us to agree (or go along) with their points of view.

From this sense of self-awareness springs the knowledge and ability to choose. In a big way, the agency I write about here is more a disposition or habit of mind than a skill, strategy, or tool. I'm talking about the mental framework that enables a person to choose and understand her choices.

This hyper-awareness is, I believe, part of what makes information literacy so exhausting. Underneath the hounding down of facts using different tools and resources and developing the skills to discern which sources will work for which information problem, an information seeker needs to know that there's a need for information in the first place and that she can do something about it.

Research and information seeking, when done well, takes time, persistence, and care. In a way, information seeking is very much like embarking on a big adventure. And like most journeys worth the effort, preparation can mean the difference between success and failure, life and death. Exercising one's self-reflective capacities, one's inclination towards and discernment of varying courses of action, is very much like the equipment check before the trip.

Be sure to choose wisely.

-- Melissa Cardenas-Dow, Armacost Library Outreach/Reference Librarian

Discovering Reality

(Note: For the rest of October 2011, National Information Literacy Awareness Month, Armacost Library blog will showcase guest writers. They were asked to respond to the writing prompt, "What does information literacy mean to me?")

Information literacy is exhausting for someone who cares about reality.

But reality is worth it! I believe everything in the universe is knowable—and all knowledge is worth having. Everything we humans know, we know by gathering data, finding patterns, making predictions, and testing those predictions.

I love learning about what’s been discovered, proven, calculated, disproven, and what’s still unknown. And since human understanding and knowledge is always changing, it can all be difficult to keep track of. That’s where information literacy comes in.

“Information literacy” refers to the skills needed to discriminate between good information, bad information, and everything in between. Since I care about reality, I care about facts. If you’re like me, you know tracking down facts can be hard. It can also be expensive.

Opinions are easier to come by than facts. Opinions informed by facts are more useful, but you have to sort through a pile of opinions to find one. Then you have to go through those to find the opinions formed by a careful evaluation of a variety of facts. Luckily, once you find a trustworthy source such as a journalist, scientist, or publisher, you can safely rely on them—but even then you have to be careful of overreliance on authority.

You could evaluate the facts yourself. Again, finding a reliable source can be difficult and costly. If the source is free, can you figure out why it’s free and adjust your evaluation accordingly? If the source isn’t free, can you afford to access it? Perhaps more importantly: have you looked at your local library’s resources to see what’s already been paid for? News articles are always being published about the latest corporately-funded research; have you checked scientific and scholarly resources to compare findings?

Reality isn’t always easy to come by, but it is a joy. Luckily, libraries have the discovery tools ready for you.

-- Emily Croft, Armacost Library Acquisitions Assistant

Banned Books Week: hype or not?

With Banned Books Week 2011 over, that's it for censorship and book challenges, right? No. If anything, it's the time for us to think more deeply about the act of challenging information and excluding materials.

This is why Armacost Library decided to extend the conversation wall question till this Friday, October 15. And to ask the question we did--is Banned Books Week hype or not? 

Early in September 2011, columnist Jonah Goldberg wrote an opinion piece that stated that various reasons why he thinks Banned Books Week is hype. What's more, he politicizes the concern over book challenges, censorship and intellectual freedom as something championed by "the American left" and is therefore "propaganda." Goldberg does bring up some significant points, such as the differences between challenging books for age appropriateness and outright banning books from schools and libraries.

A response from Elaine Magliaro, school teacher and librarian, came not too long after. Then, Jonah Goldberg's rebuttal after that.

As we march on to October, and celebrate Information Literacy Awareness month, Armacost Library invites the University of Redlands community to continue to think, write and speak about the issues raised by Banned Books Week--limitations placed on access to information and our collective intellectual and academic freedoms.