January 2008 Archives
Beginning Friday, February 1, service hours for the Cabell Library Reference Desk will be:
Monday - Thursday, 9 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Friday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Saturday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Sunday, 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.
For the most current information about library hours on the Monroe Park Campus, please visit the VCU Libraries Web site. If you have questions, please contact Research and Instructional Services at 804-828-1101 or 866-828-6665.
Tax season is upon us, and IRS forms are available at the VCU Libraries. VCU Libraries provides copies of select Federal tax forms, instructions, and publications. The forms are located on the first floors of both the James Branch Cabell Library and Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences.
Can't find the publication you need? Visit the VCU Libraries Tax Forms and Publications research guide for links to the IRS, Virginia Department of Taxation, and other useful tax-related information.
For more information, or to check the availability of a specific form or publication, please call the reference desk at Cabell Library, (804) 828-1101, or Tompkins-McCaw Library (804) 828-0636. While the VCU Libraries can't provide tax advice, we can connect you with the resources you need.
From their web site at http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/brii/ the University of California has announced a pilot project co-sponsored by UC Berkeley's Vice Chancellor for Research and the University Librarian. The brief announcement reads as follows...
"The Berkeley Research Impact Initiative (BRII) supports faculty members who want to make their journal articles free to all readers immediately upon publication.
An 18-month pilot program, BRII will subsidize, in various degrees, fees charged to authors who select open access or paid access publication. The pilot will also yield data that can be used to gauge faculty interest in, as well as the budgetary impacts of, these new modes of scholarly communication on the Berkeley campus."
Additionally offered is a new program announcement, a program description, frequently asked questions and instructions for application and reimbursement.
The Chronicle of Higher Education's Wired Campus e-newsletter reports that the University of California's eScholarship Repository has recently exceeded five million full-text downloads, according to the university.
The eScholarship Repository, a service of the California Digital Library, allows scholars in the University of California system to submit their work to a central location where any users may easily access it free of charge. Catherine Mitchell, acting director of the CDL publishing group, says the number shows that both content seekers and creators have embraced the service, allaying concerns that researchers wouldn't contribute to the repository.
VCU Libraries will be closed on Monday, January 21, 2008 in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Birthday. Regular operational hours will resume on Tuesday, January 22, 2008.
Please refer to the VCU Libraries' Web site for a complete listing of hours.
Become familiar with Cabell Library early and save on hassles later in the semester. Orientation Tours meet inside the first floor main entrance and last for 30 minutes. Participants will learn more about the facility, how to use computing and print resources, as well as how library services and staff can assist visitors complete their work.
For more information about these tours and other VCU Libraries events, visit the events page.
Orientation Tour Schedule:
Wednesday, January 16
1:30 p.m.
3:00 p.m.
4:30 p.m.
Thursday, January 17
10:00 a.m.
2:00 p.m.
Friday, January 18
1:30 p.m.
Tuesday, January 22
11:30 a.m.
2:00 p.m.
Wednesday, January 23
9:30 a.m.
12:00 p.m.
Thursday, January 24
12:00 p.m.
2:00 p.m.
Sunday through Thursday nights, all patrons entering James Branch Cabell Library after 10 p.m. are required to show VCUCards to gain admittance. A complete listing of operational hours for Cabell Library and Tompkins-McCaw Library is available online.
InfoTrac OneFile, the broad general-purpose database that includes newspaper, magazine, and scholarly articles, is now called General OneFile. The InfoTrac name is now being used to describe the platform running the various Gale databases such as General OneFile, Academic OneFile, Computer Database, and Health Reference Center Academic.
VCU Libraries recommends using Academic OneFile, a subset of General OneFile, when you are unsure of which subject-specific database to use to look for articles from scholarly publications. Academic OneFile is an excellent sampler database containing references to more than 24 million items published in scholarly journals. It covers most academic disciplines, specializing in none.
RefWorks Workshops - Cabell Library
Tuesday, January 15, 3-3:30 p.m.
Wednesday, January 16, 4-4:30 p.m.
Thursday, January 17, 6-6:30 p.m.
Tuesday, January 22, 12-12:30 p.m.
Wednesday, January 23, 12-12:30 p.m.
Wednesday, January 23, 6-6:30 p.m.
Cabell Library, Library Instruction Classroom, third floor
Cabell Library will present six demonstrations of RefWorks, a Web-based citation management tool, during the first two weeks of classes. The workshops will be in the Library Instruction Classroom on the third floor and will cover managing citations and creating bibliographies.
For more information and a full list of library instruction classes on both campuses, visit the VCU Libraries Events page.
Dr. Francis Foster Sr., former assistant professor of general-practice dentistry at Virginia Commonwealth University and local Richmond historian passed away on January 7, 2008. Listen to Dr. Foster's oral history on VCU Libraries' Web site.
Databases by Subject will be unavailable today, January 3rd, from approximately 1pm - 3pm. This is due to emergency work at the Virginia Community Colleges Server Facility where these services are located.
For searching databases, use the Databases AtoZ list. We apologize for the inconvenience.
With the signing of the omnibus appropriations bill, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is directed to make mandatory its policy for funded investigators to submit final versions of their manuscripts to PubMed Central, the National Library of Medicine's digital archive. Previously, researchers were encouraged to make submissions to the publicly accessible database but the new provision will require all NIH grantees to deposit their research papers within 12 months after publication. The legislation comes after many years of lobbying by advocacy groups for such open access language and just as many years of opposition by publishers.
The NIH maintains a website with information and tutorials on the Manuscript Submission System and the Public Access Policy at http://www.nihms.nih.gov/
For additional information, see the news release from the Alliance for Taxpayer Access, Dec. 26, 2007
