New databases

There are 2 New databases in our collection:

Gale Virtual Reference Library

H.W. Wilson Art Suite (trial ends in May 2010)

As far as we know, these work off-campus.

Extended Finals Hours

Reminder:
The library closes at 1:00 am every day this week except Friday.

Database difficulties

(EDIT: These seem to be OK now)

Due to technical difficulties, a handful of our databases do not work by their normal links. Here are some alternate links that do work on-campus but do not work off-campus.

AccessPharmacy Classical Music Library College Source (catalogs) *

Mergent Online SciFinder Scholar (ask Reference Dept.)

The alternate links have been placed on the "databases by name" page here too:
http://www.ulm.edu/library/dbname.html

Extended Pre-Finals Hours

This weekend you can study hard at the Library! Our hours have been extended!

Fri, Dec 4: 7:30 am — 6:00 pm
Sat, Dec 5: 10:00 am — 6:00 pm
Sun, Dec 6: 10:00 am — 1:00 am

Database Technical difficulties

The normal links to some of our databases are broken due to technical difficulties. However, there are some different URLs that will allow some of them to work. So, there is another list of alternative links to them, on the main database by name page:

http://www.ulm.edu/library/dbname.html

They do not work off-campus, though.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

EDIT:
The problem has since been resolved.

Lexis Nexis Interface change

LexisNexis' appearance is going to change again soon. You can try it out here:

http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/lnacademic/

The search options are different, but the information inside of it is the same.

Highway 80 in Print

November 3, 2009 through December 17, 2009, Highway 80 in Print, a public exhibit and program showcasing the works of documentary photographer Lee Estes, will be held in the Special Collections Department of the University of Louisiana at Monroe Library.

Visit the exhibit page for pictures.

The kickoff program was November 3rd, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. in the Passman Room of Special Collections and the exhibit will be on display through the fall semester. Mr. Estes documented on film, the people, buildings, landscape and culture of Highway 80 in North Louisiana.

This program and exhibit is being funded through an Outreach Grant by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities

Bell Tower Books Closed Again

There are not enough volunteers to keep the Bell Tower Books store open, so it will once again be closed.

However, you can help us open it again by volunteering. Contact Cyndy Robertson at crobertson@ulm.edu for details.

Special Collections Newsletter

Starting this semester, Special Collections now makes a seasonal newsletter. You can get the debut issue, Fall 2009, here:

http://www.ulm.edu/library/archives/newsletter/lsc-fall09.pdf

Archaeology Month Exhibit

During all the month of October, the ULM Library Special Collections Dept. on the 5th floor will be exhibiting artifacts from the 1970 excavation of the Fort Miro site, which is right here in Monroe.

Stop by and have a look!

Archaeology Month Exhibit

Dating Old Bottles: Fort Miro Site Artifacts

Presentation to be held October 1, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. ULM Library Special Collections Passman Room 502B.
Dr George Avery, Ph. D., RPA, Cultural Heritage Resource Coordinator, Center for Regional Heritage Research , Anthropology and Archaeology Laboratory, Stephen F. Austin State University will present a talk, Dating Old Bottles: Fort Miro Site Artifacts. The basics of dating old bottles will be presented using examples from the Fort Miro site. A handout providing simple illustrations for dating bottles will be given out. The handout will also contain a list of references and websites related to dating and identifying bottles. Visitors are encouraged to bring bottles that they wish to have dated. Archaeological interpretation of bottles will also be discussed.

Technical Difficulties :-/

EDIT: These issues have since been resolved.

If you're having trouble accessing our databases, you're not alone. Most of them are not working, including our catalog. We and the computer center are trying to solve this issue.

However, we have figured out that two of our databases can be reached through different links (but probably not off-campus):

Learning Express Library

JSTOR

And these still work:

AccessPharmacy

ACM

Annual Reviews

Bayou State Periodical Index

Classical Music Library

College Source (catalogs)

IEEE Digital Library

ISI Web of Knowledge

Mergent Online

NetLibrary

RIA Tax Services User Registration
RIA Tax Services Checkpoint (Search)

ULM Electronic Journals (Ebsco A to Z)

Off-campus working for Delta Students

I've heard that Off-campus access for Delta Students with their Campus IDs now works.

If anyone it having trouble, do contact us, however.

Off-campus access for Delta Students

Delta students no longer use Social Security numbers for remote access and will instead use their Delta Campus IDs. However, this ID does not yet work for accessing databases off-campus. We are working to resolve this issue.

Bell Tower Books Returns!

We're very happy to announce that Bell Tower Books is back!

It's a used bookshop located on the fourth floor of ULM’s library in the bell tower! Bell Tower Books has a wide variety of hardbacks, paperbacks, magazines, CDs, albums, cassettes, textbooks and stationary available at low prices. Stop by and shop!

The Bell Tower Book Room will be open Mondays and Wednesdays 10:00 – 3:00.

Welcome Back!

Fall semester starts soon. We look forward to seeing you!

Technical Difficulties :-/

If you're having trouble accessing our databases, you're not alone. We and the computer center are trying to solve this issue.

Upcoming Exhibits

Fall is just around the corner, believe it or not! Here are two exhibits planned this coming semester:

Archaeology Month Exhibit, coming October 2009

Presentation to be held October 1, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. ULM Library Special Collections Passman Room 502B.
Dr George Avery, Ph. D., RPA, Cultural Heritage Resource Coordinator, Center for Regional Heritage Research , Anthropology and Archaeology Laboratory, Stephen F. Austin State University will present a talk, Dating Old Bottles: Fort Miro Site Artifacts. The basics of dating old bottles will be presented using examples from the Fort Miro site. A handout providing simple illustrations for dating bottles will be given out. The handout will also contain a list of references and websites related to dating and identifying bottles. Visitors are encouraged to bring bottles that they wish to have dated. Archaeological interpretation of bottles will also be discussed.

Highway 80 in Print, coming November 2009

November 3, 2009 through December 17, 2009, Highway 80 in Print, a public exhibit and program showcasing the works of documentary photographer Lee Estes, will be held in the Special Collections Department of the University of Louisiana at Monroe Library. The kickoff program will be November 3, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. in the Passman Room of Special Collections and the exhibit will be on display through the fall semester. Mr. Estes documented on film, the people, buildings, landscape and culture of Highway 80 in North Louisiana. This program and exhibit is being funded through an Outreach Grant by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities

New Catalog Coming soon

The ULM Library's online catalog will soon change! But don't worry-- it is more or less the same as it is now, except that it looks different and should be easier to read and navigate. The changes will be applied on Memorial Day, May 25th.

For a working preview, click here.

Web attack that poisons Google results gets worse

The Gumblar attack has infected more than 3000 Web sites
By Robert McMillan , IDG News Service , 05/19/2009

A new attack that peppers Google search results with malicious links is spreading quickly, the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team warned on Monday.

The attack, which has intensified in recent days, can be found on several thousand legitimate Web sites, according to security experts. It targets known flaws in Adobe's software and uses them to install a malicious program on victims' machines, CERT said.

The program then steals FTP login credentials from victims and uses that information to spread further. It also hijacks the victim's browser, replacing Google search results with links chosen by the attackers.

Security experts started tracking the attack in March, when it had infected several hundred Web sites, but in recent weeks the number of infected sites has jumped dramatically. The attack has been called Gumblar because at one point it used the Gumblar.cn domain, though on Monday it had switched to a different one.

Security vendor ScanSafe has counted more than 3,000 infected Web sites, up from around 800 just over a week ago.

That kind of continued growth is unusual, according to Mary Landesman, a senior security researcher with ScanSafe. Attackers have launched many widespread Web attacks over the past few years, but after a few months the total number of infected sites usually drops as Webmasters clean up their servers.

With Gumblar, more and more sites are now being infected. Landesman believes it's because Gumblar's creators have been good at obfuscating their attack code and making it harder to spot on infected sites. And because they've been stealing FTP login credentials, they've been able to use a few new tricks to get their software onto the sites. "They're doing things like changing folder permissions … and leaving behind multiple ways that they can get back into the server," she said.

Still, Web attacks have become so widespread that Gumblar remains a relatively small-scale phenomenon, according to Symantec Security Response Product Manager John Harrison. Last year, Symantec counted 18 million online attacks against its customers. With Gumblar, it has counted 10,000. "It's really just another day with drive-by downloads," he said. "There really are so many of these."

Security experts say that if you're using a fully-patched system with up-to-date security software, you should be protected from these attacks. To date, they've worked by hitting the victim with malicious PDF or Flash files.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.