The library has loaded six special use software programs onto several of our computers. The software and computers are:
Scott and Shakespeare computers have:
Index Islamicus
Social Work Reference Library
English Short Title Catalog
MediaMark
Choices 3
In addition the following six computers have SciFinder Scholar 2007 loaded on them:
Sinclair, Smith, Sophocles, Stevenson, Stoker, and Tan
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
New Computers in the Library
Last week, 226 student access computers in the library were replaced with new Dell GX-745 computers. These computers were funded through the Technology Access Fees every student pays. These new computers are equipped with 17″ LCD monitors and 2Gb of memory. Since the computer sits in a cradle behind the monitor, access to the headphone jack and to the 4 USB ports is greatly simplified. There are two USB ports on the front of the computer, and two more on the left side of the monitor. These computers feature standard Microsoft Office applications, along with both MS Internet Explorer, and Mozilla Firefox web browsers.
Login is achieved using your Campus Pipeline userID and password.
One thing to be aware of is that there are no floppy drives on these computers. We have been recommending against using floppy disks for some time now because they simply are not reliable, and in today’s graphics intensive environment, floppy disks just don’t have the capacity to hold enough data to be worthwhile. USB-based memory sticks, or “thumb” drives are much more reliable and hold hundreds of times the data.
Login is achieved using your Campus Pipeline userID and password.
One thing to be aware of is that there are no floppy drives on these computers. We have been recommending against using floppy disks for some time now because they simply are not reliable, and in today’s graphics intensive environment, floppy disks just don’t have the capacity to hold enough data to be worthwhile. USB-based memory sticks, or “thumb” drives are much more reliable and hold hundreds of times the data.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Is printing really FREE?
New students are often pleasantly surprised that they can print materials in the library for “free.” But that’s not exactly true. Here is what our systems librarian, David Robinson, has to say on the subject:
“Contrary to popular belief … printing in University labs is not ‘free’. Printing is subsidized by a portion of a $100 Technology Access Fee (TAF) that each student pays each semester. The TAF helps to fund the lab, but does not cover everything. About 35% of the cost of printing comes out of the Library’s budget. That means, that your decision to print that Powerpoint presentation, rather than viewing it online, may be the factor that prevents the Library from buying a book that can be used over and over again. Last year, over 6,500,000 pages were printed in the Library. Something to think about.”
Please print wisely. It’s an economic and environmental issue.
“Contrary to popular belief … printing in University labs is not ‘free’. Printing is subsidized by a portion of a $100 Technology Access Fee (TAF) that each student pays each semester. The TAF helps to fund the lab, but does not cover everything. About 35% of the cost of printing comes out of the Library’s budget. That means, that your decision to print that Powerpoint presentation, rather than viewing it online, may be the factor that prevents the Library from buying a book that can be used over and over again. Last year, over 6,500,000 pages were printed in the Library. Something to think about.”
Please print wisely. It’s an economic and environmental issue.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
D2L courses affected by network upgrades
Any courses using D2L will be inaccessible until 5:00 pm due to statewide network upgrades.
LexisNexis Academic Redesign
LexisNexis Academic just completeda major redesign, and WalkerLibrary will be switching to the new interface the week of August 20. LexisNexis Academic provides full-text documents from over 6,000 news, business, and legal publications. It includes broadcast transcripts from major television and radio networks, company and country profiles, and the Tennessee Code Annotated. The new default “Easy Search” screen is set to search major U.S. and world publications for the past 2 years.
Please phone the reference desk at 615-898-2817 (option 3) or use our e-mail a Librarian form if you have questions about the new interface or have trouble finding something you are used to finding in LexisNexis.
- Kristen
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Article Linker
Starting today, we are trying out a more direct way to connect to full text articles. The Article Linker link in the databases will connect directly to the full-text article whenever there is an article level link available in Article Linker. There is a white bar above the full-text article that will connect to the Article Linker page for that article. The white bar says, “Missing article? Need more sources? Get additional resources related to this.”
When there is only a journal level link or full text is not available, the Article Linker link will take you to the Article Linker page for that article, as before.
Try it out by going to this article in Academic Search Premeir: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=25935119&site=ehost-live. Click on the ‘Find Fulltext’ link, and you will be connectd directly to the full text. Please let us know if you have any comments or suggestions regarding this change.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Printer and Internet Problems 8/13
Due to systems upgrades, the library print networks and internet connections may be down at various times during the day. We regret the inconvenience.
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