“Just how useful is that book?”

Have you ever wondered just how useful a book will be to your topic? Microsoft Live Search has recently started offering a new tool that will help you begin to answer that question.

Following close on the heels of Google’s book search, Microsoft has developed its own book digitization project and launched its own book search site (in beta). The search is very similar to that of Google’s, but Live Search offers a nifty visual clue to show users just how useful a book will be, taking into account the search terms used.

The ruler “Results in this book” image, dotted with green, pinpoints where in the book your search terms are located. The more often those terms appear, the more green that ruler is … and the more relevant that book may be.

It’s a nice tool to keep in mind while you’re looking for books to help you with those end of term papers. They’re due sooner than you think.

EBSCO Research Databases in Ten Minutes in Montgomery County and DC

We invite you to join us for the second in a series of brief evening drop-in demos and Q & A at the Regional Library Resource Centers in Montgomery County and Washington, DC. We’ll be covering EBSCO research databases (including Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier, PsycINFO & Teacher Reference Center) this round. Hope you can make it!

Monday, March 31 - Thursday, April 3 (Montgomery County)

Tuesday, April 1 - Thursday, April 3 (Washington, DC)

Ten minute sessions begin at both locations at the following times: 5:30, 5:45, 6:00, 6:15, & 6:30.

For more information, contact the Montgomery Library Resource Center [Gilchrist Hall] at (301) 294-7030 or the Washington Library Resource Center [1717 Massachusetts Avenue] at (202) 452-0714.

Baltimore: A Cartographer’s Delight

Map Display Provides Window to Baltimore’s Past

Baltimore’s straight-line boundaries, vertical orientation, and variety of water features are the perfect elements for great graphical presentation.

Baltimore: A Cartographer’s Delight features Baltimore city maps from the Sheridan Libraries’ extensive collection of more than 215,000 maps. Part of the Baltimore Festival of Maps, the exhibit opens March 26 on the M-Level of Homewood’s Milton S. Eisenhower Library. On display are maps dating from the mid-19^th to the 20^th century, highlighting the city’s growth and development and its rail and trolley systems. Also featured are early design plans for the university’s East Baltimore and Homewood campuses.

“We are delighted to provide insights into Baltimore’s rich history through our selection of city maps,” said James Gillispie, head of the Government Publications/Maps/Law Library at the Sheridan Libraries, and curator of the exhibition. “And we have just launched a website to provide a guide to all of our historic maps, with an emphasis on maps relating to Maryland,” he said. The historic collection includes road maps, souvenir and tourist maps, and topographical maps.

The Eisenhower Library display runs through August 18, and may be viewed Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to midnight, Friday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., and on Sunday from 10 a.m. to midnight.

The Baltimore Festival of Maps, a citywide celebration of mapping, runs from March 15 through June 8 with more than 45 exhibitions, tours, seminars, performances, lectures, hands-on activities, workshops and films. For a schedule of Baltimore Festival of Maps activities, visit http://www.BaltimoreFestivalofMaps.com

Publishing? Know your rights.

‘Tis the season for dissertations to come into our Commercial Binding Office at full speed. For those of you who are prepping your projects for publication, we bring you the below message on how to retain your rights when you turn your project over to a journal or publisher. Please contact your librarian if you’d like help in looking at your options.

Click To Play

Want to know more? Visit the SPARC Author’s Rights Initiative.

Attachments in RefWorks

You’ve been asking for it… the ability to attach documents, images, spreadsheets, and other types of files to references in your RefWorks account. Now you can! Here are the basics:

• an attachment can not be larger than 5MB
• an account can only store 100MB of attachments
• an attachment must be added to a reference that is already saved
• a reference can have more than one attachment

Go to a reference and click on Edit. You will see a new field with a browse button for the usual attachment procedure. You can see more information on the RefWorks web site.

And don’t forget the Introduction to RefWorks sessions being held at Eisenhower Library on March 25th and 26th. Sign up here!

For your amusement

A public service message from your local library …

RefWorks in Ten Minutes in Montgomery County and DC

We invite you to join us for brief evening drop-in demos, and Q & A, at the Regional Library Resource Centers. We’ll be covering RefWorks next week. Mark your calendars because EBSCO research databases will follow the next. Hope you can make it!

Monday, March 24 - Thursday, March 27 (Montgomery County)
Tuesday, March 25 - Thursday, March 27 (Washington, DC)

Ten minute sessions begin at both locations at the following times: 5:30, 5:45, 6:00, 6:15, & 6:30 pm.

For more information, contact the Montgomery Library Resource Center [Gilchrist Hall] at (301) 294-7030 or the Washington Library Resource Center [1717 Massachusetts Avenue] at (202) 452-0714.

Please note: To access RefWorks, you’ll need a JHED account.

Can’t make the sessions? Try the RefWorks tutorial.

Exhibit and Symposium: Harmony to the Eyes

Harmony to the Eyes: Charting Palladio’s Architecture from Rome to Baltimore
March 14-June 17, 2008
The George Peabody Library Exhibition Gallery
Hours: Monday-Saturday, 9am-5pm; Sunday, Noon-5pm

Opening Reception Wednesday, March 26
6:00pm - Opening Reception
7:00pm - Illustrated Lecture by the Exhibition Curators
RSVP for the reception to Stacie Spence, sspence@jhu.edu or 410-516-7943

Beautiful first editions of rare architectural treatises, hand-colored map and original prints from the 15th through the 19th centuries are displayed in this exhibition celebrating Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio’s birth in 1508.

More than 75 magnificent works from the Sheridan Libraries’ special collections trace Palladio’s lasting legacy on building design, particularly in Baltimore, and brilliantly illustrate his dictum: “Build in such a manner and with such proportions, so that all the parts together may convey a sweet harmony to the eye of the beholders.”

On Friday, April 11, a symposium will be presented as part of the Homewood Museum’s annual Baltimore’s Great Architects Lecture Series, which will include an international panel of distinguished Palladian scholars. The symposium is supported by funding from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.

For details on the symposium, which will be held at the Walters Art Museum, please visit http://www.museums.jhu.edu/homewood. For additional information, contact Judith Proffitt at 410-516-5589 or proffitt@jhu.edu.

JHU announces interest in SCOAP3

The Johns Hopkins University has indicated its interest in participating in SCOAP3 and becomes the first institute on the U.S. East Coast to do so, stretching the SCOAP3 U.S. membership from the Atlantic to the Midwest, from the Mountains to the Pacific. In 10 days, 16 U.S. institutes have signed an Expression of Interest in joining SCOAP3, pledging a total of more than 10% of the U.S. contribution to SCOAP3.

“SCOAP3 is an exciting approach to scientific publishing being led by CERN, the particle physics laboratory that developed the World Wide Web. I am delighted that the Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries are collaborating with CERN to support this global project,” said Jonathan Bagger, Professor of Physics and Astronomy in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and Vice Provost for Graduate Programs.

“With increasingly rapid changes in the forms of scholarly communication and access, it is critical for libraries at research intensive institutions like Johns Hopkins to be open to all sorts of publishing models that benefit authors and advance scientific knowledge,” said Winston Tabb, Sheridan Dean of University Libraries at Johns Hopkins.

More information about SCOAP3 can be found on the SCOAP3 Web site.

New Legal Classics in HeinOnline

The collections in our HeinOnline subscription just grew: the newly added HeinOnline Legal Classics Library offers more than 1,200 works from historical legal minds, including John Adams, Joseph Story, and Benjamin Cardozo. The collection includes classic texts as well as rare items focusing on constitutional law, political science, and a host of other topics.

Head to the HeinOnline blog for tips and tricks for searching and browsing this collection. Curious to see what the digitized collections look like? Check out Alvah L. Stinson’s 1914 Woman Under the Law, in honor of Women’s History Month.