Copyright and Online Course Material

In this digital age of posting course material on Blackboard, could you be breaking copyright right law and not know it?  In a recent Tech Therapy podcast from the Chronicle of Higher Education, Scott Carlson interviews Bill Shell, Director of Academic Technology and Computing Services at Eastern Michigan University and Warren Arbogast, a technology consultant, about how to make sure professors know their copyrights.  To listen to this podcast, click here. 

If you are not familiar with any issues related to copyright law and fair use, contact the Reference Desk.  Our librarians are more than happy to explain these issues and answer any questions you may have.  You can also check out our online Copyright Issues guide.

Richmond, Virginia Decks the Halls

Still work on your holiday plan?  You don’t have to travel far to get the holiday spirit.  Check out Southern Living’s feature story about Richmond at http://www.cnn.com/2007/TRAVEL/getaways/12/13/richmond.virginia/index.html.  Find out what our very own Richmond can offer you during this holiday season!

First snow of the season

You had to look fast, but the Richmond area did enjoy a dusting of snow on Wednesday, December 5. Starting a little after nine, it was all over by 1:00 p.m.  Here, greenery sports whitery on the Parham Campus.

Winter Celebrations from around the World

Check out our Winter Holidays guide to learn more about the various holidays and festivals celebrated around the world. 

Technology to Blame for a Decline in Reading?

In a recent Wired Campus article from the Chronicle of Higher Education, Jeffrey R. Young comments on Doris Lessing’s Nobel Lecture speech.  Doris Lessing won this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature.  In her speech, Lessing blames the decline in reading on technology such as the Internet and television. 

Another recent library blog post, A Decline in Reading?, presents key findings of a literacy study conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Please post your comments to let us know what you think.

A Dual: Yahoo!Answers vs Wikipedia

Online journal Slate Magazine recently posted an article discussing these two top open forum “reference” sites. Yahoo!Answers is described as “every middle-school teacher’s worst nightmare on the Web” but still remains “the juggernaut in its field.” Why? How does Wikipedia stack up in comparison?

Read this article from Slate Magazine. What do you think?

Recommended Readings & New Titles for December

Check out the library’s Recommended Readings for December as well as our current list of New Titles in the Library.  If you would like to suggest a purchase for the library, please click here to make your suggestions.

So Many Databases!

At a recent local consortium gathering, a librarian lamented that students would wait for 20 minutes for a cup of Starbucks, but wouldn’t want to spend that much time searching library databases.  Another librarian commented it might be because searching was not as rewarding or gratifying as getting a cup of coffee.  You waited for 20 minutes and you got your coffee.  You searched for 20 minutes, you got frustration!  There are so many databases to search and so many tricks to learn!

Yes, “so many databases” is a mixed blessing.  There is an instinctive demand for metasearch tools, which search multiple databases simultaneously through one interface.  The term, metasearch is also sometimes referred to as cross search, federated search or broadcast search etc.  Popular commercial metasearch engines include Ex Libris’s MetaLib, Serials Solution’s 360 Search, WebFeat, etc.  Google Scholar is probably the most convenient free metasearch engine that searches both the open and deep web (such as licensed databases).  To learn how to search JSRCC library collections through Google Scholar, please check  http://teach.jsr.vccs.edu/library/googlelib.doc.

Our users can also conduct metasearches through MetaLib which groups databases by disciplines.  To access MetaLib, go to the Library Catalog (VCCSLinc) at http://vccslinc.vccs.edu/F/?func=find-b-0&local_base=jsrcc.    Click on Databases once you get in.  You will be required to provide your MyJSRCC login. 

However, metasearching is not the almighty solution to the stress caused by ‘so many databases.”  First of all, it’s not hard to understand that a metasearch is not going to be as powerful and sophisticated as a native search on each individual database.  An even more serious problem is that it’s not exhaustive – you will yield much more results with native searches.   This is particularly true of Google Scholar.  Therefore, a metasearch will not replace a native search for its thoroughness.  However, a metasearch is definitely a convenient first stop.

Where Google and Libraries Meet: Searching Library Collections through Google Scholar

Faculty and librarians alike have been observing the ever expanding roles of Google in the research and intellectual field with mixed feelings.  It has become an undisputable fact that Google has become a convenient first stop for many information seekers and researchers.  Libraries are facing the challenge of staying relevant in the open web world.  To meet the challenge, libraries have taken the strategy of collaborating with Google.   You can now search and view some of our library collections through Google Scholar.  To learn how, please check out our handout at http://teach.jsr.vccs.edu/library/googlelib.doc . 

To learn more about the collaboration and integration between Google and libraries, please listen to the analysis from Jenny Walker, Corporate vice-president of Ex Libris:  Where Google and Libraries Meet at http://www.researchchannel.org/prog/displayevent.aspx?rID=10905&fID=345

Easy Access to Spanish Language Articles

Students in Spanish classes as well as native Spanish and Portuguese speakers now have additional access to articles focused on Latin America. Here is the announcement from OCLC:

WorldCat now provides access to articles in
Latin American RedALyC eJournal collection

Article-level records for more than 350 scholarly eJournals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal are now accessible through the WorldCat database. The eJournals representing more than 40,000 new records are provided by RedALyC, a research group from the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México.

RedALyC provides open access to a collection of scholarly journals with a thematic focus on Latin America, including full text of all articles. The project was initiated in 2002 with the goal to contribute to the dissemination of scientific information edited in Latin America.

When researchers identify articles in the RedALyC eJournal collection through a WorldCat search, they can link from the article-level records to full text of articles on the RedALyC Web site.

Content in the RedALyC collection, which will be updated quarterly in WorldCat, is composed of eJournals in all social and scientific areas that provide access to thousands of peer-reviewed articles in Spanish, Portuguese and English.

Researchers will find RedALyC records in WorldCat search results on WorldCat.org, Connexion and the OCLC FirstSearch service.