This website complements intermediate and advanced biology courses by offering tools and guidance for utilizing essential resources of the discipline. Each course page provides a selective list of reference sources, annotated lists of journals and websites, access to selected periodical databases with explanatory help in their use, sections on evaluating resources and formatting citations, and a class assignment.
Students are encouraged, after reading the introduction and continuing on to the library resources section, to choose the course they are currently taking and complete the assignment using the materials and aids provided. The website enables students to work at their own pace, refresh their research skills whenever needed, and have 24-hour access to reliable, important materials for biological research, including many journals directly accessible in full-text. Nine biology courses are presently covered. Plans are to develop pages for several courses being offered this spring and also to update the site.
The site was developed by a project team of biology faculty (Harry Bernheim, Ross Feldberg, and Colin Orians) and a student design consultant (Ryo Watanabe), coordinated by Sara Lewis, Biology, and Regina Raboin, Tisch Library, with assistance from Laurie Sabol, Tisch Library. This team additionally sponsored, in May of 1998, a one-day, hands-on workshop on website design presented by Neal Hirsig of Drama and Dance. The team plans to hold a similar workshop in May of 1999.
The Biologist's Guide to Library Resources will be found at http://ase.tufts.edu/biology/bguide. (The Biology 14 Library Research site that served as an inspiration and foundation for BGLR may be viewed at http://ase.tufts.edu/biology/bio14v2.)
For information on proposal criteria and deadlines for future technology transfer awards, funded annually to teams of librarians and faculty by Fred Berger and his family, see the Berger website at http://www.library.tufts.edu/tisch/Berger/bergerhome.html.
The Friends group is still developing its overall program, but there are definitely plans for an annual luncheon and a newsletter for donors.
The focus of the Friends will be on building Tufts collections and continuing to acquire new technology. Over the last ten years, new or renovated facilities have been completed for the Health Sciences, Ginn, Veterinary School, and Tisch libraries. The only facility still in the planning stage is a new Music Library scheduled for phase 2 of the new Recital Hall and Music Building. With most library facilities completed, fundraising can now focus on library resources and technology.
Over 1800 friends have contributed to the libraries since 1996.
For a first-hand look at this new feature, try searching a topic in MEDLINE Plus. (From the Tisch homepage choose "Research Tools"; then look for Ovid or MEDLINE in the A-Z list.) If an article is available in its entirety, a simple click on the citation will make the full text available. What's more, you can link from the references that article cites to their abstracts in MEDLINE and to their texts in full if available. Although an entire article can require some minutes to load, its retrieval will include the tables, figures, and images it contains. (A helpful feature is the ability to search for these by caption.) We look forward to hearing your reactions to Ovid's new full-text databases.
1) Drop-in Sessions will be available to help anyone with research or library use questions in a pressure-free atmosphere. Undergraduates working on short papers, graduate students beginning dissertation research, and faculty participating in research projects with colleagues are all equally welcome. So many problems that patrons encounter in the library can be solved during a short consultation with a librarian. All drop in sessions will be on Fridays. Feel free to drop in!
2) Subject-oriented sessions will focus on discipline-specific electronic and print resources. Instructors who would like to bring an entire class should call ahead. These sessions will also take place midday on Fridays.
The complete calendar of workshops is available in the library, at http://www.library.tufts.edu/tisch/calendar.htm or by calling the reference desk at 627-3460. You can always make an appointment with a librarian by stopping by the reference desk or calling us at that number.
A favorite task of Richard Fleischer, Media Center Coordinator, is to review new release catalogs with an eye towards enhancing teaching areas and meeting the needs of Tufts faculty. He may pursue the works of major directors, such as Orson Welles, and look at regions of origin in alerting faculty to new videos. Working in a dynamic area where technology is ever changing, he is interested in keeping abreast of the newer technologies such as DVD, a high-quality digital format the size of a standard CD. Keenly aware of fad technology traps, he also recognizes that Tisch is intent on keeping current with industry improvements.
Faculty are encouraged to suggest subjects and new titles needed for instruction. A frustration occasionally encountered is that a requested film exists but its copyright \assignment has yet to be negotiated. Students may bring their own materials to view at the Center, borrowing headsets and utilizing individual carrels or reserving a small group viewing room. Further good news is that every day, more materials become available and their quality is continually improving as well.
Geographic Information Systems technology impressively allows for the visual, spatial representation of information. It can be used for location-related projects as simple as creating a map of a neighborhood, but is most useful when applied to solving problems where the location of data is relevant and a large amount of data is involved.
The effort at the Center is to achieve a balance between having GIS open for self-service and providing an adequate amount of support and training to get the novice user started. The Center's GIS tools, many recently purchased, range from the relatively simple ArcView program to more sophisticated digitizing software and hardware. Two departments, Geology and Biology, have taken advantage of the opportunity to hold the hands-on portion of their spring 1999 GIS courses in the Center. A series of intensive two-day workshops for the beginner and intermediate user is planned for the spring. The workshops are free and open to the entire university.
For more information, including arranging for assistance in use, contact Melanie Allamby, GIS Manager, by e-mail at mallam01@emerald.tufts.edu.
Three staff members have recently moved to new positions: Jackie Cooney from Reserves to Acquisitions, Edward Oberholtzer from responsibilities for reference desk coordination to become the Social Sciences Bibliographer, and Stephanie St. Laurence from the post of Circulation Supervisor to that of Reference Desk/Publicity Coordinator.
Best wishes also to personnel leaving Tisch Library for positions elsewhere: Margaret Ericson (Music Librarian) to the Colby College Library, James Verrill (from Systems) to Tufts Health Sciences Library, and Elizabeth Loutrel (from Cataloging) to the Harvard College Library.
Feedback & Questions