Subscribe to Search Alerts (the EBSCO edition)

Depending on the database, you can have the latest table of contents from a particular journal or the latest article citations on a particular topic sent directly to you. Not a bad thing to set up before winter break sets in and you take a few days off of your dissertation …

Click the image to the right to view a three-minute demonstration on how to set up this feature in databases we’ve subscribed to on the EBSCOhost platform (Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier, ERIC, Health Source, Inspec, MLA International Bibliography, PsycINFO, and many more).

We’ll be following up with the how-to’s for other databases, as well in the weeks before the end of the year. Can’t wait? Click to read about setting up search alerts on other platforms. As this is a constantly evolving feature of many of our databases, keep an eye out in your favorites: you just might be able to set up email or RSS feed alerts to new publications of interest to you.

Friends of the Libraries present: The Archimedes Codex

Dr. William Noel, Curator of Manuscripts and Rare Books at the Walters Art Museum, will sign copies of his new book, The Archimedes Codex, at the Judge Robert I. H. Hammerman Memorial Lecture at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 28 at the Evergreen Museum and Library.

5 p.m. Reception and Book Signing
6 p.m. Lecture

Dr. Noel will provide a fascinating look at the 13th-century prayerbook known to conceal the texts of two treaties by Archimedes. Loaned to the museum by a private collector, the hidden texts are slowly being retrieved by conservators and deciphered by scientists and textual scholars.

The Judge Robert I. H. Hammerman Memorial Lecture was established in 2006 as a tribute to Judge Hammerman’s devotion to scholarship and education for the greater Baltimore and Hopkins communities.

To reserve a seat, please call 410-516-7943 or email sspence@jhu.edu.

Very Smart but Very Forgetful: A Grad Student Refresher to the Library

As grad students, we are bombarded with information about the library and other campus services when we first arrive in Baltimore. But the semester quickly gets under way, and we are swamped with papers, long hours in the lab, comps, negotiating advisors. The next thing you know, you’re in your third year and have forgotten all the helpful information you learned about the library in your first week here. Moreover, because we are grad students we can’t exactly ask can we? It’s the library; this is our second home. We, of all people, are supposed to know its functions intimately. So, for the benefit of all my fellow grad students out there, here are a few quick reminders about library resources that you may have forgotten, or are too embarrassed to ask about again:

1. Interlibrary Loan - the library doesn’t own the book/article/dissertation you are looking for? Chances are the gurus in the Interlibrary Services Department can find it for you. Just set up an account and fill out the form online off the library homepage. It really couldn’t be simpler.

2. Eisenhower Express - need a bunch of articles but don’t have the time/energy/moral stamina to photocopy them? One of the great perks of being a Hopkins grad student is that the library will scan an article or a book chapter for you and send it to you as a PDF. How cool is that?! Use the same account you would for Interlibrary Loan—just fill out the “Eisenhower Express Request” form.

3. The Reference Librarian - have a research project or paper but don’t know where to get started? Ask a librarian. I resisted going for a long time thinking I’d be reprimanded for not finding this stuff on my own since “I’m a grad student and should know better.” However, when I finally went, it wasn’t anything like that at all. They are exceedingly helpful, very knowledgeable, and unlike your advisor, aren’t here to judge you.

Thanksgiving Hours

Our hardworking staff and student workers need time to spend with family and friends so please take note of our hours for November 21 - November 24:

Wednesday, November 21, 7:30 am to 8 pm
Thursday, November 22, CLOSED
Friday, November 23, 8 am to 8 pm
Saturday, November 24, 8 am to 10 pm
Sunday, November 25, 10 am to 3 am (regular hours)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Audiobooks for the Road

If you’re at all like millions of other people in the United States, you may be gearing up for a weekend of travel. When I’m facing a long drive or hours navigating airports and long-term parking, I sometimes stop shuffling music or scanning radio stations and settle in for an audiobook. Here are a couple of options if you’re similarly inclined and looking for Thanksgiving weekend material:

Librivox, claiming the acoustical liberation of books in the public domain, provides free audiobooks. They have over one thousand completed titles, including works of classic literature, short stories, and poetry. You can listen online, subscribe to a podcast, or sign up to hear a chapter a day. Have some free time in the upcoming Thanksgiving break? Volunteer to read and record public domain books for Librivox.

If you’d rather mine the JHU Libraries, turn to the JHU Libraries Catalog. Choose “Nonmusical sound recordings” under Material Type on the advanced keyword search screen, as shown to the right. Or, browse a list of fiction sound recordings available, or see a more complete list including nonfiction. You’ll notice that for many in our collection, you’ll need a cassette player, so think about cultivating that old school charm in your upcoming road trip. Or, check out our smaller list of nonmusical compact discs. You can use the request feature in the catalog to request items from the Libraries Service Center, or read more about getting materials from our off-campus shelving facility.

Aren’t You Productive!

Last week, the Chronicle of Higher Education published the Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index. Like U.S. News and World Reports, the Productivity Index ranks (largely Ph.D. granting) institutions of higher education but unlike U.S. News, it ranks schools according to faculty output, such as:

• Publications (the number of books and peer-reviewed journal articles published);
• Citations of journal publications (how often other scholars refer to those books and articles in subsequent work);
• Federal research funding; and
• Awards and honors.

You’ll be happy to hear that JHU faculty are busy as bees. Here are the areas in which they placed in the top ten:

Continue reading Aren’t You Productive!…

Browsing for Movies

The question I’m asked most often is, “How do I browse for movies owned by MSEL?”It’s a good question. MSEL’s DVDs and videos are shelved in a secure area in the AV Center on A-Level of Eisenhower. Alas, you can’t physically browse the movie cases we have, but you can browse the collection by using the online catalog. Each video and DVD is given a unique call number, so if you browse by call number, you’ll be able to see the list of movies we have in the collection. Here’s how: Continue reading Browsing for Movies…

Our Online Services will be out briefly

This weekend (Nov 17-18) we’ll be moving all of our computer servers to another building. Trust me, this is a good thing. The computers will be very happy in their new home,

For humans the down side is that some of the libraries online services won’t be available Saturday night and early Sunday morning. For example:

• The web site will be up — but the blog will be down

• The catalog will be down — but ILL will be available

• The e-journals and databases will be available on campus — but off campus you’ll have to use the VPN because the proxy service will be unavailable

• E-Reserves will be down

So print off your reserve articles early. Better yet, take Saturday night off on us. You know you work too hard.

Here’s the formal announcement with the details Continue reading Our Online Services will be out briefly…

Digital Critical Edition of Mark Twain

The Mark Twain Papers and Project of the Bancroft Library, the California Digital Library, and University of California Press have launched a beta version of Mark Twain Project Online, a digital critical edition of the writings of Mark Twain. Coming in 2008 are Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Roughing It, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. In 2010, look for Mark Twain’s Autobiography. Now online are more than twenty-three hundred letters written between 1853 and 1880.

“What does possess strangers to write so many letters? I never could find that out. However, I suppose I did it myself when I was a stranger.” —Mark Twain, 1881

Can’t wait for the books to be added and annotated online? You can also view Roughing It in “California as I Saw It:” First-Person Narratives of California’s Early Years, 1849-1900, from American Memory at the Library of Congress. Or, check out one of the many Mark Twain items in the JHU Libraries.

Alexander Street Press Database Maintenance

All Alexander Street Press (ASP) databases will be down for routine maintenance and upgrades on Saturday, November 10, from approximately 7pm-11pm. So if you’re itching to do some late night research Saturday on American Film Scripts, British and Irish Women’s Letters and Diaries, or Early Encounters in North America, you may want to wait until after 11pm. For more information, you can check out the Alexander Street Press blog. Sorry for any inconvenience!