Admin functions

All library personnel who can create posts on this blog now have admin privileges.

You'll Be Missed, Glenn!

Today we had a party for Dr. Glenn Jordan, professor of history and Head of Special Collections & Archives here at the University Library. It was a surprise retirement party - it had to be a surprise, otherwise he'd run away (or so he said). Enjoy this PowerPoint slideshow of Glenn's Party!

Glenn, we'll miss you! Enjoy retirement, but don't be a stranger!

Early Christmas Gift: Extended Hours!

Hello, Library Patrons! Just wanted to let you guys know that we have extended our hours - including adding a day! - in consideration of all the cramming - er, I mean, preparing and studying you guys will be doing for finals! You can see the updated schedule on the Library's website, but we also wanted to post it here:

Friday, November 30: 7:30am - 6pm

Saturday, December 1: 10am - 6pm

Sunday, December 2: 10am - 1am

There will be reference librarians here all day Friday and Saturday, and from 10am to 9pm Sunday to help you! Starting Monday, December 3, and continuing on until Thursday, December 6, the Library will be open until 1am instead of midnight. Come on by, get your study on!

Note:  Off Campus access of online journals and catalogs, (ULM Music Catalog) are now working.  When off campus, go to the ULM Library Web-site: http://www.ulm.edu/library, click on the journal or catalog needed, sign in using your SSN or Student Number as USER and birth month birth year, mm/yy as PASSWORD.

Update: Library Resources Back Up!

Okidoki, Library Patrons, our resources are back up and running. We thank you for your patience! If you should encounter any problems, don't hesitate to contact us!

Oops - Sorry, Library Patrons!

If you're currently trying to access our catalog or our databases, you may have some trouble if you're on campus. If you're off-campus, things seem to be working fine. We're not sure what the problem is, but we've contacted the proper people, and hopefully they'll get it up and running soon. Until then - sorry, Library Patrons!

Update! Apparently, some maintenance was done on the "backbone" of Internet access in the state, and this maintenance has caused the outage of our resources. The Computing Center has reported the problem to LaNet, and they are addressing the problem. Hopefully this will all be resolved very soon!

Safari: What the heck?

I've just discovered now that this blog looks completely different in Safari:

I'm a little baffled by this. Shouldn't blogger look the same in every browser? Even IE does it the right way. I'll try to fix it, if I can.

Reference page demos

I've sort of finished some candidates for the long-promised reference page (sorry it took so long). I've consolidated all the reference pages, removed some pedantic language, and added new elements. If these designs turn out to be any good, I'll use them for other pages I plan to make (the department page, ILL page, etc.) It is mostly html, but has some CSS use.

I've made 3 versions (All of them work in IE now):
#3 151 kb total
#2 188 kb total
#1 198 kb totall
I like the first and last ones the most. Let me know which you think is the least ugly. Or if they all are. There's a poll to the right. Anyone may provide input!

My reasoning here is:

- it's distinctly different from other ULM web pages
- it looks fairly modern
- websites are marketing tools. Someone who has never been here or doesn't know what Reference is will get first impressions here.
- I wanted it to appear friendly
- The images in the margins break up the extra space at high resolutions, but the middle column is 700px across, so it can be viewed at low resolutions (some blogs like this one do this, and better too)

My dream was to make something that looked like this Biola University page. But I think it's beyond my skill level right now.

(this is cross-posted on the Library Web Page Committee blog )

New Library Map

We now have an interactive map of the library, which has both room numbers and names!

There is also a new links section on this blog page.

What PC Hardware and Software are installed in the Library Open PC Lab, 3rd Floor?

The staff of the ULM Library gets this question asked from time to time.

Welcome to the ULM Library. Students with a current Student ID have access to the Open Computer Lab, located 3rd floor, Room 302. The lab operates 60 Dell Dimension 2400 PC's connected with high speed internet access. The lab also operates 2 Dell 5100 black and white Laser Printers. The GoPrint application is used to manage your printing. You printing limit in the open PC lab is 150 sheets per week. Please note: Delta students do not have access to the printers in the open lab.

We strongly suggest that all students bring a USB memory stick with them to the lab and save your work to it.

Software installed for your use includes: Microsoft Windows XP Pro, Service Pack 2 Microsoft Word 2003 Microsoft Excel Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 Microsoft Access 2003 Microsoft Publisher 2003 Microsoft Info Path 2003 SciFinder Scholar 2007 End Note X.0.2 Lock Down Browser Adobe Reader Mozilla Firefox.

School of Business: Response

Much thanks to all who read/responded. I hope these answers are adequate.

I would like to have future library references include industry ratios such as the Robert Morris Associates Industrial Ratios. Even microfiche would be useful.

Mergent Online can produce reports and compare industries (under "create reports" after you've searched for a company):

LexisNexis does some similar things too. The U.S. Census has Industry Ratios also: http://www.census.gov/econ/census07/ratios.htm . If all this isn't what you're talking about, please let me know.

It would be helpful to have a research librarian on duty on weekends since many students do research during this time.

The library is closed on Sat., as is the rest of the University. We do have a librarian here on Sunday, though. All of this is meant to save money and energy. You can read more about it here.

I find it disconcerting for students to have limited or no access to the Wall Street Journal

We have that, actually. However, I can understand how you missed it, as the title is a bit misleading. In EBSCO it's called "Wall Street Journal - Eastern Edition." This gives the impression that it is about Asian markets, but it's not. It's the regular WSJ.

...and other business journals that are read by the majority of business professionals.

We have webfeat and jstor, but a substantial number of the Journals in business are still not available in electronic format. What is the policy for funding expanded access?

The School of Business has thus far been happy with the literarture in Business Source Complete and other databases. Which subject to you work in? Some of them do not rely on periodicals as much as others. What publications would you wish to have that we do not?

Printing, Open PC Lab Library

The lab PC's are available for both ULM and Delta students who are currently attending the Fall 2007 semester but, only ULM Students will have the ability to print in the Lab.

School of Business: What do you think?

With homecoming and other events in the way, it seems that only one person could make it to the focus group meeting. If you have any comments, please comment to this post. (You don't even have to tell us who you are if you don't want to)

First post

This is the very first post.