Monday, September 22, 2008

You are Invited!

You are invited to a ULM Library program, "Celebrating 60 Years of Documents," and a reception, Thursday, Sept. 25th:

Program 1:00-3:30, ULIB Conference Center, 7th Floor:

Ms. Charlene Cain, LSU Law Library,
“The Cornerstone of Democratic Values: The Librarian's Role in Access to Government Information”

Ms. Lori Smith, Southeastern Louisiana University,
“Government Sources 101: An Introduction to Online Government Publications and Web Sites”

Reception 4:00-5:30, ULIB Special Collections, 5th Floor:
• Cake and punch
• Constitution Day Essay Contest Awards

Please join us!

Monday, September 15, 2008

September 17th is Constitution Day

What is "Constitution Day"?

On September 17, 1787, the U.S. Constitution was signed by thirty-nine delegates to the Constitutional Convention. We commemorate the birthday of our country's most important document, and the courage of the founders, every year on the anniversary of the signing. As expressed by the National Constitution Center, "Now Constitution Day is a time for us to continue their legacy and develop habits of citizenship in a new generation of Americans." (http://constitutioncenter.org/ConstitutionDay/)

At ULM University Library we are marking Constitution Day 2008 with a special web page (http://www.ulm.edu/govdocs/constitution-day--2008.html), displays on the first floor of the University Library (including copies of the Constitution that you may check out), and an essay contest. (Contest winners will be recongnized at the reception in the University Library on September 25th.)

The theme of this first annual Constitution Day essay contest, open to all students at ULM, is "The Freedom to Express Yourself." For essay requirements, contact Dr. Joshua Stockley, stockley@ulm.edu, in the political science department. Essays are to be turned at the University Library reference desk no later than 9 p.m. on Monday, September 22nd.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Come Celebrate With Us!


On behalf of Dean Smith and the University Library, you are invited to attend an upcoming program, "Celebrating 60 Years of Documents."

The University Library is celebrating its 60th year as a proud member of the Louisiana State Documents Depository Program, and 45 years as a member of the Federal Depository Library Program. In commemoration of these two milestones, the Library is hosting an afternoon of activities on Thursday, September 25th. We would be honored to have you as our guest.

Events begin at 1:00 p.m. in the University Conference Center, on the 7th floor of the University Library building. The program will commence with two expert speakers: Ms. Charlene Cain, Head of Access Services, LSU Law Library, an expert on intellectual freedom, will share her expertise on “The Cornerstone of Democratic Values: the Librarian’s Role in Access to Government Information.” Next, Ms. Lori Smith, Government Documents Department Head, Sims Memorial Library, Southeastern Louisiana University, will showcase federal and Louisiana resources in “Government Sources 101: An Introduction to Online Government Publications and Web Sites.”

These excellent presenters will be followed by a reception at 4:00 p.m. — complete with dignitaries and, of course, a special cake — in Special Collections, on the 5th floor of the Library. There will be displays throughout the Library to be viewed at your leisure; Library tours will be available upon request.

For more information, please contact Dr. Karen Cook, Government Documents Librarian, at kcook@ulm.edu, or call the Government Documents Office, 318.342.1066.

We hope to see you at the Library!

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Back to School! Education Resources


Educational resources for students, teaching faculty, parents, and researchers are being featured in the University Library, 2nd floor. There are picture books for children, materials in and about Native American languages, a desk reference on the "No Child Left Behind" Act, a book about segregation in America's public schools, and more.

Please feel free to remove these books from the display area, to read in the library or to check out for use in your dorm, office, or classroom. There are more where these came from! (We will be delighted to re-stock the display.)

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Draft Comprehensive Plan for the City of Monroe

A copy of One City, One Future: Draft Comprehensive Plan for the City of Monroe is being made available for public review at the Circulation/Reserve Desk in the ULM University Library. Please just ask the Library staff or student worker to retrieve the Comprehensive Plan.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

LearningExpress Library-New Web Resource for ULM

ULM Library is happy to announce the addition of LearningExpress Library as a web based resource for our patrons. LearningExpress Library is a comprehensive, interactive online learning platform of practice tests and tutorial course series designed to help patrons-students and adult learners-succeed on the academic or licensing tests they must pass. You'll get immediate scoring, complete answer explanations, and an individualized analysis of your results.Some of the featured resources include: Business Writing Skills Success, E-Books, Graduate School Entrance Exams, Health Careers, Job & Career Test Preparation, Job Search and Success Skills, Math Skills Improvement, Reading Skills Improvement, Resume and Interviewing Success Skills, Sills Improvement Courses, Skills Improvement with Spanish Instructions, Teaching, Technical and Career College Skills, TOEFL Preparation, U. S. Citizenship, Writing Improvement Program eFolio: College.The link to LearningExpress is included with my posting and on the ULM Library Homepage under Library News & Announcements section.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

A Reminder - Change in Hours of Operation

So this week marks the end of the first summer semester. Tomorrow, in fact! Good luck on final exams! Summer II will start July 7th. So tomorrow and next week: we won't be open long hours. We'll be open 7am to 5:30pm Monday-Thursday, 7am to 1pm Friday, and closed on weekends. But once Summer II starts, we'll be open until 10pm Monday-Thursday, 7am to 1pm on Fridays, and 6-10pm on Sundays.

A little break in between semesters is a good thing. It's very easy for library faculty and staff to get burned out; unlike most regular faculty, we're 12-month, which means our big break comes at Christmas, when the library actually closes for Christmas and New Year's. Otherwise, we're always open, year-round. We close two days for Mardi Gras, Fall Break, and Easter. But we're open during Spring Break. And when you consider that we have staff that works evenings and nights, you really have to consider that we need a little easing up on our workload from time to time! Library staff/faculty are people, too. Just like other staff and teaching faculty (Freudian slip: I typed faulty, but that includes me, too). We're all human, we have good days and bad days; problems, challenges, triumphs, successes. It's easy to forget that, I think; we would all do well to bear that in mind.

Friday, May 30, 2008

New ULM Warhawk Statue

The new ULM Warhawk statue has been installed, and we have pictures of the event!
Click here to see them on Flickr

These are not ULM official press photos... these are from The ULM Library.

By the way, Flickr is also where the picture in our top banner comes from, if you ever wondered what the whole thing looked like:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39667315@N00/1106387352/

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Database login change

If you've ever logged in to use the Library databases from off-campus, you may recall that you had to use your Social Security Number as your login name, unlike many other ULM applications where you use your CWID. As of yesterday, May 13, 2008, that has changed: your username for the Library databases is now your CWID. This includes article databases like EBSCOHost, LexisNexis, and J STOR, as well as the Library catalog (iLink, where a username is required for things like placing holds and seeing what you have checked out).

Your PIN has not changed; it's still your 2-digit birth month and 2-digit birth year (for example, March 1988 = 0388). If you have any problems logging in, give us a call on the Reference desk at 342-1071.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Free Stuff! For You! From the Federal Government

There is a new distribution area for give-away Government Publications on the second floor of the University Library , North side, near the windows. There are a variety of freebies (pamphlets, consumer information sheets, guides to finding medical information, handbooks, bookmarks, and other items) in or around display racks on tables (near the Office of Assessment and Evaluation).

Please help yourself--but, please, don't take more than one of any single publication--other taxpayers may also be interested!

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

May Flowers ... and Crops, Weeds, and Pests

May in Louisiana means flowers... and growing crops ... and weeds and pests a'plenty. Helpful pamphlets and books for the growing season, like "Growing Strawberries in Louisiana" and "Poisonous Plants of the Southern United States" are on display on the 2nd floor of the University Library. All the items on display may be checked out -- really, we have plenty more with which to replenish the display.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Song Contest and Free trials are here!


http://gale.cengage.com/librareo/
This is a Youtube-related contest, and you could win $2500! Click the image for details!

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/libraryweek
Also as promised, Gale is giving us free trials for their databases from the 13-19th. Go here to check them out, and contact me or another ULM librarian to get access to the trial.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Lightning! Wind! Floods! -- Weather Docs

April showers may bring more than May flowers. Spring is a prime time for serious weather, and a good time to check out the University Library's government publications relating to weather. There are books and other materials about: what to do when severe weather threatens or actually occurs (floods, tsunamis, hurricanes); high-tech weather analysis; aviation forecasting; detailed reports on specific storms; how to avoid hypothermia; how to drive a school bus in bad weather; weather statistics; and much more.

For a sampling of available publications, stop by the display on the 2nd floor of the library. Remember: these and many other government publications can be checked out of the library!

Song Contest and Free trials ahoy!

In celebration of its new database, Books & Authors, Gale is holding a song contest, and you could win $2500!

To celebrate the launch of this momentous new product, we invite you and
your patrons to compose a song about your favorite book or author, record
a video of its performance and submit it for a chance to win $5,000 -
$2,500 for you and $2,500 for your favorite library. Post the contest on
your community board to encourage even more entries and have a better chance
at winning a share of the prize money! Visit www.gale.com for complete rules
beginning April 13, 2008.
So if you have any song ideas, start thinking about something! There will be more information on Gale's site later.

ALSO...

We also get a free trial to the database [contact reference for the log-in; we can't give it to the entire internet :-) ]
And Many more databases will also be available for free:

Academic OneFile
Biography Resource Center

British Library Newspapers
Gale Directory Library
Gale Virtual Reference Library
General OneFile
Health & Wellness Resource Center
History Resource Center: U.S.
History resource Center: World
Literature Criticism Online
LitFinder
Literature Resource Center
Nursing Resource Center
Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center: Critical Thinking
Popular Magazines
PowerSearch
Science Resource Center
Small Business Resource Center
Sources in U.S. History Online: The American Revolution
Sources in U.S. History Online: The Civil War
Sources in U.S. History Online: Slavery in America

So look out for that... when the 13th arrives, we'll remind you again.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Help us decorate the Library!

In celebration of National Library Week (April 13-19), we are going to order 10 celebrity READ posters to permanently hang throughout the University Library. You've probably seen these in your public library or elsewhere; each poster implores you to READ and pictures a celebrity with a book that influenced him or her. The current crop of celebrities includes movie and TV stars, athletes, recording artists, comedians, famous scientists, and some real-life heroes.

Since there are almost 50 posters available and we only have space for 10, we're asking YOU the campus community to tell us which ones you'd most like to see in the Library. Please click here to take our poll! You can vote for up to three posters and we will order the top 10. The poll will be live through Friday, March 28, so even if you're swamped with midterms now, you'll still have a chance to vote during Spring Break.

If you'd like to look at the posters before you decide, here are direct links to each of them in alphabetical order (of course!) by the celeb's first name:

Abigail Breslin/Meet Kit: An American Girl 1934
Aishwarya Rai/The Alchemist
Alan Rickman/The Catcher in the Rye
Anthony Hopkins/The Great Gatsby
Ben Roethlisberger/The Giving Tree
Bernie Mac/Armed and Dangerous
Bill Gates/The Old Man and the Sea
Cesar Millan/The Power of Intention
Colin Farrell/Dubliners
Common/The Audacity of Hope
Corbin Bleu/The Cat's Pajamas
Dakota Fanning/Charlotte's Web
Danica Patrick/Sam's Letters to Jennifer
Denzel Washington/Green Eggs and Ham
Dominic Moore and Kevin Weekes (NY Rangers hockey players)/Anansi Boys and Future of Ice
Enrique Iglesias/The Old Man and the Sea
Ethan Hawke/Go Tell It on the Mountain
Ewan McGregor/Beatrix Potter: The Complete Tales
George Lopez/Oh, the Places You'll Go!
Hilary Swank/The Freedom Writers Diary
Ice Cube/The Greatest: Muhammad Ali
Jamie Kennedy/Where the Wild Things Are
Jason Kidd/The Dream Keeper and Other Poems
Jeff Corwin/My Side of the Mountain
John Leguizamo/Conquest: Montezuma, Cortez, and the Fall of Old Mexico
Johnny Damon/A Trip to the Beach
Julia Stiles/Me Talk Pretty One Day
Keira Knightley/Pride and Prejudice
Kelly Ripa/The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Linda Cardell and Kobie (Search and rescue dog)/Emma and the Night Dogs
LL Cool J/The Children's Health Food Book
Margaret Cho/Almost Home: My Life Story
Mat Hoffman/Duck on a Bike
Matt Kenseth/The Testament
Missy Elliott/A Chair for My Mother
Orlando Bloom/Lord of the Rings
Renee Fleming/Anthology of Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales
Rick Bayless/Betty Crocker's Cookbook for Boys and Girls
Robert McGuire (FDNY firefighter)/Fire Fighters
Salma Hayek/Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo
Sasha Cohen/The Kite Runner
Sean Connery/The Spirit of Scotland
Sendhil Ramamurthy/The Tower Treasure
Serena Williams/A Raisin in the Sun
Shaquille O'Neal/Undying Glory
Stephen Hawking/Marilyn Monroe
Tim Gunn/The Magic Mountain
Tony Hawk/High Fidelity
Trace Adkins/Gods and Generals
William H. Macy/Curious George
Yo-Yo Ma/Goodnight Moon

Women's History in Documents Display

Celebrating Women's History Month, there is a new display of government publications relating to contributions made by, and changing status of, women in the United States. The display is located on the second floor of the University Library, near the stairs.

In addition to the featured materials on display--all of which circulate--there are also excellent reference materials relating to women's history in the federal collections, 2nd floor. One fine publication is "Women in Congress, 1917-2000," SUDOCS number Y: 1.1/2: Serial 14903. This 1,000 page resource contains short biographies and photographs of women who have served the nation as legislators.

Monday, March 10, 2008

On a bleary Monday morning: some advice

The night supervisor told me he had a rather rough night at work last night. Lots of people in the library forgetting they were in a library, mainly, but something happened that threw him for a loop. Bearing in mind that he's only worked here since this past summer, he hasn't encountered every possible problem and/or emergency, but last night something happened that most of us haven't dealt with, even someone like me who's been here almost five years: someone dropped a study room key down the gap between the floor and the elevator, which means there's a study room key at the bottom of the elevator shaft.

Well, folks, this presents a problem. It's like those people who, while walking across the bayou, manage to drop their keys down the gaps in the bridge, or over the railing. It's just about impossible to retrieve them.

So, folks, some advice: be careful with study room keys. Put them in your pocket, purse, or backpack, until you get to the Circulation Desk to turn them in. Likewise, when crossing the bayou, also keep your keys safe!

Monday, February 18, 2008

Happy Anniversary, University Library!

Actually, it is "Happy Anniversaries!" The year 2008 marks the University Library's 60th anniversary as a member of the Louisiana State Documents Depository Program, and its 45th anniversary as a member of the Federal Depository Library Program.

Since December 11, 1948, the University Library has received copies of all State of Louisiana publications. The University Library is a "selective" depository for federal documents, which means that the Library does not receive all federal publications, but only those deemed most suitable to the purposes of the University of Louisiana at Monroe. Currently, the library receives about 35 percent of all federal documents distributed by the U.S. Government Printing Office.

The University Library and Government Publications Department will be celebrating these anniversaries with special events and activities throughout 2008.

For more information on the state and federal collections available through your library, please visit the Government Publications Office, Room 210, or check out the website, http://www.ulm.edu/~govdocs.

Tax forms and FREE tax software online!

Tax season is upon us and we've had several people ask us for tax forms at the Reference desk. Although we do not have hard copies of tax forms in bulk, any federal form you may need can be printed from www.irs.gov. The most frequently requested forms, including 1040 and 1040EZ, are directly linked in the upper left column; if you need a form not listed there, click on "More Forms and Publications," then "Form and Instruction Number."

Louisiana income tax forms can be printed from the state Department of Revenue's website, while forms for all other states are accessible through the Federation of Tax Administrators.

In addition, most students probably qualify for the IRS Free File program, which allows you to use tax preparation software such as TurboTax or H&R Block TaxCut for FREE on your federal tax return! If you use Free File, you will not need any federal forms at all as your return will be e-filed. Free File does not cover your state taxes, so you would still need to file those forms separately.

Friday, February 8, 2008

Black History Month Display

There is a new display of books relating to black history month on the 2nd floor of the University Library, near the elevators.

Don't forget: there are many more physical items, but also electronic resources, and texts on microfilm, which may be located through the iLink online catalog.