WVU Libraries

WVU New and information Services
New Release
February 3, 2006

Graduation no longer means bidding farewell to the West Virginia University Libraries.

A partnership between the WVU Alumni Association and the WVU Libraries now connects alumni with many of the valuable library resources students use daily. Alumni Association Chair Jim Gardill announced the initiative known as the WVU Alumni Library Gateway during the Capital Classic Luncheon at the Charleston Embassy Suites on Jan. 25.

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By Mekhala Sofsky
Daily Athenaeum Staff Writer

The West Virginia University Downtown Library Complex will soon be a place that students will be able to kick back and enjoy a cup of coffee while braving those familiar all-night study sessions.

Expected to be completed near the end of February, Eliza’s, named after WVU’s first professionally trained librarian, will be up and running, giving the fourth floor of the library a whole new edge.

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The Mountaineer Spirit January 26, 2006

By Monte Maxwell
WVU Libraries

Finding information in the WVU Libraries’ online databases just got E-Z.

E-ZSearch, the newest addition to the Libraries’ web site, allows users to simultaneously search several of the Libraries’ 150 electronic databases and the MountainLynx catalog for a selected topic. Previously, users would have to identify which databases related to their chosen subject and then search through each of the databases one at a time.

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By WILLIAM JARRETT
For the Wheeling Sunday News-Register

MORGANTOWN — As the years pass, the condition of memorable pictures in the West Virginia Regional History Collection has declined.

That’s why Regional History Collection Curator and Director John Cuthbert and his staff decided to make the historic pictures available online through a digital photograph database called West Virginia History OnView. The Regional History Collection is located in West Virginia University’s Wise Library.

Main Street in Wheeling, West Virginia is underwater because of the huge flood of 1936.
Photo provided by the West Virginia Regional History Collection

The database will consist of the collection of West Virginia and regional historic photographs dating from the mid 19th century to the early 20th century. The photographs vary from scenes of the Monongahela and Ohio Rivers to events such as the great Wheeling flood of 1936.

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From union miners lining up in Matewan and a World War I pilot showing off his plane to the State Capitol being constructed and Eleanor Roosevelt touring Arthurdale, a glimpse into the past of West Virginia is now only a few clicks of the keyboard away.

West Virginia History OnView, a new digital photograph database launched during Mountaineer Week, provides online access to more than 5,000 historical photographs housed in the West Virginia and Regional History Collection. The database is expected to eventually swell to more than 25,000 images.

“The West Virginia Collection has the finest collection of historical photographs relating to West Virginia in existence,” WVRHC Curator John Cuthbert said. “We are now making the best of them available for viewing by anyone with Internet access.”

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Construction on Eliza’s, a coffee shop planned for the fourth floor of the Downtown Campus Library, is scheduled to begin Monday, Oct. 31, at midnight. The project is expected to be completed by mid-February.

A construction crew will be working from midnight-9 a.m. Oct. 31 through Thanksgiving break. During this time, half-walls will be installed to separate the coffee area from the rest of the fourth floor.

Students will be able to study on the fourth floor. However, they may experience some noise from construction.

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The West Virginia and Regional History Collection is now open for research during four additional hours each week. The collection is now open Tuesday evenings from 5pm – 9pm.

They offer full service during this period, including reference and access to restricted materials such as manuscripts, recordings, microfilm, etc.

The new hours are:

Mon-Sat 10am – 5pm
Tues 5pm – 9pm

The West Virginia and Regional History Collection is located on the sixth floor of the Charles C. Wise, Jr. Library, accessible through the Downtown Campus Library. It contains the largest collection of West Virginia materials in existence.

Mountaineer Spirit October 20, 2005
BY JANEY CINK

Sip on this. WVU students and employees will soon be able to enjoy a latte at the library.

Plans are in place to construct a coffee shop, complete with Starbucks products and food items, in the bay window area on the fourth floor of the Downtown Campus Library.

Construction on Eliza’s is set to begin Nov. 1 and should be completed by mid-February, Student Body President D.J. Casto announced during the Oct. 12 student Board of Governors meeting.

The coffee shop is named after Eliza J. Skinner, the first professionally trained librarian at WVU. She served as library director from 1897 until 1902, when she accepted a position with the Library of Congress.

Casto said the area will be large enough to seat 45 people, feature café-style tables and chairs and blend into the library’s existing decor.

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Daily Athnaeum October 13, 2005
By Jessica Soccorsi
Staff Writer

For students who like to spend a few extra hours studying, the Den will no longer be the only source for up-all-night coffee. Soon they will be able to grab a latte at the Downtown Library Complex.

Recently, plans were finalized on the construction of a new coffee shop, which will be added into the fourth floor bay window area.

Due to open in mid-February, the coffee shop, which will be known as Eliza’s, will serve Starbucks products and an assortment of different food items.

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The Dominion Post Oct. 3, 2005
Eric Slagle, Reporter

WVU library opens monster-themed display in time for Halloween

WVU students considering creepy costumes for the quickly approaching Halloween season can visit the ground floor of the university’s downtown library for suggestions.

That’s where library staff has assembled four display cases of horror-related reading.

The theme of the exhibits actually is monsters, both in literature and film. Titles in the arrangement include classics such as “Jaws,” “Frankenstein,” and the “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde.”

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Are you a frequent ILLiad (Interlibrary Loan) user? Whether you’re new to the University and haven’t yet discovered this wonderful service, or your research has already introduced you to Interlibrary Loan, this message is for you!

If you have an ILLiad account, all your information needs to be current, including your mailing and email addresses, phone number, and your WVUID (aka, 700 number). Providing current information guarantees that you will receive your interlibrary loan requests in the quickest time possible. So logon now.

If you’ve never used ILLiad, now may be the time for you to logon and register as a First Time ILLiad User. Interlibrary Loan can provide you with books and articles from journals that are not owned by the WVU Libraries. The Interlibrary Loan staff is able to get items from anywhere in the region or around the world. In the past, materials have arrived from as far away as Australia and China.

Let Interlibrary Loan help you meet your research needs!

-Hilary Fredette

The WVU Libraries are in the process of upgrading all 180 desktop computers in the Downtown campus Library with new models boasting faster processors, larger monitors, but no disk drives – diskette or zip. Instead, users will save their work on CDs, DVDs, and thumb drives.

~ Mountaineer Spirit July 28, 2005

Why aren’t there disk drives in the new library computers?

Floppy disks are obsolete. Diskette drives don’t come standard on computers anymore. This change is for the better, since these computers are new, they reflect this market/technology change. The libraries would not want to waste the students’ technology money on purchasing obsolete equipment (floppy drives).

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Congress-watchers, political junkies, and researchers will find 4 new library resources to satisfy their need for current, unbiased information.

CQ Weekly, a non-partisan news magazine, provides comprehensive legislative news and analysis.

Two special collections, CQ Supreme Court Collection and CQ Public Affairs Collection, provide access to primary source documents, reports and analysis.

The CQ Researcher is an excellent starting point for undergraduate research papers or debate topics. It provides analysis and background information on current social and political issues.

All 4 CQ resources are available via the Web to WVU students, faculty and staff.
Access them on our web site at http://www.libraries.wvu.edu/databases/

-Penny Pugh

Students and faculty will start using new user names and passwords to sign on to computers at the WVU Libraries on Friday, July 1. This change comes as the University makes the switch to the new Mountaineer card.

For students, the user name is the first portion of their MIX account address. For example: If an address is jjones4@mix.wvu.edu, the user name is jjones4.

The password is a person’s birthday plus the last four digits of his WVU ID number. For example: If someone’s birthday is July 4 and WVU ID number is 700-12-3456, his password would be 043456.

Students needing help finding their WVU ID number can ask for assistance at the reference desk or access services desk in the library.

For faculty and staff, the user name is their WVU employee number. The number can be found at the Human Resources web site. As with students, they will use a combination of birthday and the last four digits of their WVU ID number for a password.

To prepare for the change, the Downtown Campus, Evansdale and Health Sciences libraries will open at 9 a.m. July 1.

Forget the old adage. Jack Walsdorf regularly judges books by their cover, and the practice often brings broad smiles to those listening to his judgments.

He’s quick to point out if The Old Man and the Sea is a little weathered and dog-eared or if Huck Finn is dirty and looks like he’s taken a few knocks. Such flaws could be costly, Walsdorf is sure to comment. But he is just as quick to declare when The Great Gatsby appears clean and well-kept. The result could mean a fortune.

Walsdorf will share his opinions on books this summer when he returns the WVU Libraries with his Book Lovers’ Road Show. The WVU Libraries will host the book appraiser and collector at 2 p.m. July 31 in the Robinson Reading Room of Wise Library.

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At the Downtown Campus Library, we are happy to offer the Term Paper Clinic this summer for students in undergraduate research-writing courses.

The objectives of this service are to help students:
— choose a focused research topic that fulfills the scope of the assignment
— formulate a research strategy, focusing on the selection, use, and evaluation of appropriate research materials and resources
— organize gathered information into a structured research paper
— document and cite sources properly.

The Term Paper Clinic will be held during Summer I (May 23rd – June 30th) and Summer II (July 5th – August 11th) Sessions. We will be open Monday through Thursday from 2:00 – 3:00 PM.

At this time, we are accepting students on a drop-in basis. Please note that we are not able to provide proofreading.

If you have any questions, please contact Kelly Diamond – kdiamond@wvu.edu .

-Kelly Diamond

“Women’s Studies Research in the Information Age” is being offered in Summer 1. The course addresses the interlocking topics of women and information. It is designed to help you be an active member of the information society.

You will learn theory and develop applications to solve your information needs. You will acquire knowledge about the scope of the information environment by and about women and its components including: proprietary databases, libraries and their contents, people resources, the Internet, the invisible web, and how to harness your own curiosity.

Upon completion of this course (which will include a mixture of active learning assignments, readings, lectures, oral presentations, class discussions, and guided hands on activities) you will find yourself equipped to make decisions about the selection and application of information now and in the future.

Registration Information:

Register: WMST SPTS 493G, CRN 50955; or MDS 493P 51005

Time: M,T,W,Th 3-4:15pm Summer 1, 2005

Instructor: Carroll Wetzel Wilkinson, Women’s Studies Bibliographer
and Access Services Librarian at the Downtown Campus Library

Where: Room 136, Downtown Campus Library (Instruction Classroom) near
Media Services, lower level

-Carroll Wilkinson

The WVU Libraries continually add new titles to the electronic journals delivered to your desk top. Just this year, we added 141 new titles to the existing collection of over 15,000 e-journals. Some examples of titles added include: American Journal of Sports, Behavior Modification, Comparative Political Studies, Economic Development Quarterly, Gender and Society, International Journal of Music Education, Journal of Composite Materials, Semiotica, and Written Communication.

The journals come from a variety of sources. For example, journals published by Sage Publications were purchased in electronic format for 2005, and all ACM and IEEE journals be added to the electronic journals list in 2004. The Health Sciences Library is making good progress on an ambitious plan to convert all of its journal titles to electronic format, either as collections or on a title by title basis.

Researchers can access all WVU Libraries electronic journals through the Full Text Electronic Journals List .

-Linda Blake

The WVU Libraries are participating again in a national research project that measures student and faculty perceptions of library service. LibQual is a survey tool developed by the Association of Research Libraries to measure how satisfied users are with library resources and services.

Almost 5,000 students and faculty selected at random from MIX and GroupWise e-mail accounts will receive an e-mail inviting their participation in the online survey.

“The goal of LibQual is to help us understand how our users see our services. The feedback we received from the 2003 LibQual survey was extremely useful,” Libraries Dean Frances O’Brien said.

O’Brien encourages everyone who receives the e-mail invitation to complete the survey. This year, two people who complete the survey will be chosen in a random drawing to receive an iPod.

The online survey consists of 45 questions, and includes a section for comments. Participants are asked about their desired, perceived, and minimum expectations of service from the WVU Libraries.

Two years ago nearly 4,700 students and faculty participated in the campus’s first LibQual survey. The feedback guided the WVU Libraries in enhancements to their electronic journal web pages and other services. More information about LibQual will be available this week in the Downtown, Evansdale, and Health Sciences Libraries. Promotional materials for WVU LibQual were designed by Eryck Webb, a graphic design student.

The survey closes April 29.

The April edition of National Geographic Traveler magazine includes a folded map of Appalachia displaying 356 locations of cultural and historic significance narrowed from a field of 1000 sites nominated by state and local partners.

An interactive map, entitled “Discovering Appalachia,” contains pop-up windows with descriptions and links to Web pages with more information: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/appalachia/. Printed maps are available by calling 1-800-CALLWVA.

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