BiblioTech Connections

Newsletter of the Tisch Library
Tufts University
Winter, 1997, No. 18

Contents:

  1. Acquisitions Filling New Library Spaces
  2. Library Instruction Features Latest in Technology
  3. More about the Encyclopedia Britannica Online
  4. Tips for Finding Periodicals
  5. Micro/Macro Educator
  6. Changes in Staff
  7. Useful URL's

Acquisitions Filling New Library Spaces

The expression "nature abhors a vacuum" is certainly being verified at the Tisch Library. Librarians are busy filling the new space with a varied assortment of materials -- both print and electronic. Working with the faculty, the library has recently added over a hundred new journal subscriptions, covering all disciplines, to its collection. Also, its Web resources have more than quadrupled in the past year and have grown to include full-text journals and books.

One of the most recent Web acquisitions is the Encyclopedia Britannica Online. The encyclopedia includes not only the material in the printed edition, but also links to relevant Internet sites. For example, a search of the abolitionist John Brown retrieves a full-text article that includes a link to the John Brown Archives at the University of Virginia!

Another WEB resource recently added to TULIPS is Project Muse, an electronically searchable, full-text collection of over forty humanities, social science, and mathematics journals published by the Johns Hopkins University Press, which previously offered these journals only in print.

The online encyclopedia and the Project Muse titles are available to all members of the Tufts community, including those accessing TULIPS from dormitories, offices, or home. All that is required is Internet access through the campus network. Patrons can download and print selected material or entire articles. Both the Encyclopedia Britannica and Project Muse can be found on the TULIPS menu under "Web Subject Resources."

Web resources have grown significantly. To see a list of all those now included in the Tufts Library Catalog, simply search there by subject for "Computer Network Resources." You will quickly get a list of the eighty-one titles the library has cataloged. If you are in the Tisch Web catalog, you can even click on the title and immediately be linked to it.

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Library Instruction Features Latest in Technology

Dramatic changes have occurred over the last year in the library's instruction and outreach program.

Interactive Projection System

Most instructional sessions are now offered in the Electronic Resource Center (ERC), a state-of-the-art facility in our spacious and attractive new building. What sets the ERC apart from many other hands-on teaching facilities is the projection system installed there. Instead of darkening the room and using an overhead projector, library instructors can rely on a simple yet smart technology known as Comweb. With the press of a button, students sitting at any of the fourteen TULIPS PC's see on their monitors what the instructor is demonstrating. Students' keyboards and mice, inactive during the demonstration, can be released for hands-on practice instantly. At the press of another button, the monitors will show to the entire class or a selected group what any one person is working on, as a way for various students to collaborate and offer suggestions to one another on database search strategies. Another press of a button on the Comweb control panel turns the monitors off, returning attention to the instructor.

Internet Resources

The teaching methods in use have changed also. Librarians are incorporating more Internet strategies and resources into their teaching sessions than formerly. Also, instructional sessions are more consistently being tailored to the specific needs of classes and can be scheduled when classes are ready to undertake research projects.

During the first fifteen days the ERC opened for business in September, over three hundred people attended the more than forty sessions that were offered. A primary goal of the instruction program is to reach more members of the Tufts community through a variety of initiatives and shared undertakings.

Web Teaching Units

The librarians offering instruction welcome opportunities to hear from and work with faculty and students on innovative approaches to fuller use of library resources. As one example, the library instruction component put together for a large biology class last year has evolved into a teaching program available to students on the World Wide Web. Several benefits are achieved through this arrangement. The excitement students feel about using the Web can transfer over into the learning experience, increased interactivity between receiving instruction (learning) and initiating searches (research) is gained, and students can work through the webpages at their own pace.

The possibilities of the instruction program are endless! Instruction librarians can meet with faculty in their offices or in the library to explore these options; they can meet as often as appropriate with small groups, large groups, or individuals, and they can train searchers to make knowledgeable use of the library's most current Internet resources, its growing collection of CD-ROM databases, or any of over a hundred traditional paper-based indexes and abstracts. All that's necessary is a phone call! To gain more information about Comweb or the overall instruction program or to schedule sessions for classes, contact Laurie Sabol, Instruction Coordinator (phone: x 51676, e-mail: lsabol@library. tufts.edu).

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More about the Encyclopedia Britannica Online

According to its publisher, the newly released Britannica Online 97 offers these notable features:

A major attraction is currency, with released updates two or three times a year and additional editorial updates of world events. Current events selections are also changed at the start of each week to provide background on world happenings in the news. Exemplifying this advantage of currency is one of the specially featured sites: "The American Presidential Election," with results of the latest election and links to the White House.

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Tips for Finding Periodicals

The starting point for locating a periodical in the Tisch Library is the Tufts Library Catalog. Along with providing the call number for the bound volumes, the catalog identifies the years held and gives the location of particular issues. If it seems difficult to distinguish a periodical from the book titles retrieved, limiting the title search to serial publications will correct the problem.

Title Search, Limited

In the Web version of the catalog, simply change "All Materials" to "Serials Only" before beginning the search. In the Gateway version, first search by title, then press [Enter] to call up the Limit command within the Find drop-down menu. By typing the highlighted letters and using the "down arrow" key, you will be able to Limit by Type to Serials.

Subject Searches

Although there is no sure-fire way of searching by subject to determine every journal the library has in a particular discipline, it is possible to obtain a starting list. For example, a subject search for biology - periodicals retrieves many titles, although interdisciplinary titles and journals assigned more specific subject designations like "zoology" or "microbiology" will probably not be there. It is definitely worthwhile to note the subject terms assigned journals of interest and use them to identify similar publications, perhaps utilizing the "Related titles" choice within the "Find" drop-down menu as a helpful shortcut.

Although printed lists of the periodicals held at Tisch and the various reading rooms on campus are available for consultation, these lists will lack the current accuracy of the online catalog listing. When Tufts seems not to own a periodical of interest, the Boston Library Consortium Union List of Serials will usually be helpful in identifying area locations for the publication. This list is available from the "Other Library Catalogs" menu choice on the Tisch Library homepage or via its URL: telnet://library.bu.edu.

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Micro/Macro Educator

Starting at the drawer labeled Micro F13 and taking up more than fifteen microform cabinets in Tisch Library is the Resources in Education (RIE) microtext collection. One first-hand look at the size of this collection will serve as a reminder of the extensive way our microtext sources supplement our paper and electronic collections. An equivalent number of pages in books (as versus fiche) would require substantial space for shelving!

Produced by ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center), a network of educational clearinghouses supported by the U.S. Department of Education, Resources in Education is a full-text file of educational documents, books, pamphlets, and reports covering all areas of education from 1975 to the present.

The RIE documents are arranged by ED (ERIC document) number, with indexes at the end. There is also a print Resources in Education (RIE) index ([SOC] Z5813 .R42). Computerized indexes to both the microtext sources and journal articles in the field have proved more popular, however. The ERIC index is available in more than one version on TULIPS, and the Internet source known as AskERIC is also accessible among the cataloged Web resources and by its URL: http://ericir.syr.edu/.

For All Educators and Learners

While students and faculty in Education and Child Study are of course the prime users of this microtext set, it is likely that anyone with an academic affiliation can find something of interest here. For example, in the Gateway version of the ERIC database, try "and"-ing together, in a keyword search, a descriptor such as "cultural pluralism" or "global approach" or "instructional innovation" with "higher education" and then scanning some of the abstracts in the full records of the citations retrieved. (The ED numbers for the references that are not journal articles will follow the abstracts.) Or try linking up "college students" with "cognitive style." You may find your initial sample search suggesting others that will yield insightful results.

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Changes in Staff

The Tisch Library has been pleased to welcome a number of new staff to its ranks in recent months. Richard Heckbert has joined the Systems Office as Library Systems Administrator. Rick comes to us from the Tufts College of Engineering, where for eleven years he provided desktop computing support to staff, ran the Engineering computer lab, and provided numerous other technical support functions. New part-time staff are Jesse Diamond, who combines her position in Document Delivery with teaching at the Northeast Broadcast College and the University of Massachusetts in Boston; Laura Mobley, who staffs the Media Center various weekend and evening hours; Jennifer Hendrickson, Circulation Library Assistant, whose background is in music and whose former employment includes work in the Walt Disney Archives in California; Gary Holian, Current Periodicals /Microforms Assistant, who worked in the MIT libraries while a student at that university; and Faith MacDonald, a Shelver in Access Services, whose previous employment was with Human Nutrition Research Center on the Boston campus.

After years of working in Archives and Special Collections to assist users in locating all kinds of Tufts-related information, Barbara Tringali has moved to the Acquisitions Department. Her responsibility there is for government publications.

We welcome staff new to their positions at Tisch, with appreciation for the varied experience and expertise they bring, and extend as well a special note of thanks to Barbara for her service to users of Archives and Special Collections in years past.

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Useful URL's

Library news and service requests have been made easily accessible from the Tisch Library Homepage. They can also be accessed by URL, as can library hours.
Library Service Requests: http://www.library.tufts.edu/tisch/serforms.html
Library News: http://www.library.tufts.edu/tisch/res/new.html
Library Hours: http://www.library.tufts.edu/tisch/hourstis.html
BiblioTech Connections is published three times a year: in the fall, winter, and spring. It is also available at bibliotech.htm
Contributors to this issue:
Laura Walters
Laurie Sabol
Regina Raboin
Editor: Margaret Gooch

*Feedback & Questions
Tisch Library, Faculty of Arts, Sciences, & Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155 
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