October 2008 Archives

Cabell library is currently closed due to a power outage. Please check back for further updates. Research questions should be directed to the Tompkins-McCaw Library service desk at 804-828-0636.

Learn more about national elections, local elections and candidates with the Election Resource Guide. It provides information on the 2008 Presidential Election, the background and history of elections, and Virginia resources. The Guide also has links for additional articles, databases and books. A link is provided to the State Board of Elections.

Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences
509 North 12th Street
Richmond, VA 23298-0582
804-828-0636
November 1, 2008 - January 28, 2009

Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences will sponsor the traveling exhibit "Opening Doors: Contemporary African-American Academic Surgeons" from November 1, 2008 to January 28, 2009.

The exhibit, developed and produced by the National Library of Medicine and the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture, celebrates the achievements of African American pioneers in academic surgery and those that continue the tradition today.

Print the Flyer!

Monday - Tuesday, Oct 27-28, 2008
James Branch Cabell Library, 2nd Floor
901 Park Avenue, Richmond, VA 23284
804-828-1105

The Friends of the Library Half Price Book Sale has been extended! Shop for great bargains on Monday and Tuesday, Oct 27 - 28, 2008.

Hardcover books are $1 and paperbacks only $.50!

All proceeds help fund VCU Libraries' programs, collections, and lectures.

Cash, check or major credit cards accepted. More information about the Book Sale and other Friends of the Library events is available on the Special Events page.

Survival Tips and Stories: Expanding the Library's Services in Times of Disaster
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
2:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Distance Education Classroom, Room 2-010, Tompkins-McCaw Library

Tompkins-McCaw Library is hosting the Medical Library Association (MLA) webcast, "Survival Tips and Stories: Expanding the Library's Services in Times of Disaster" on Wednesday, November 12, 2008 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. in the Distance Education Classroom, Room 2-010. The goal of this program is to provide a basic understanding of disaster planning and service continuity, assess the effect of disasters on health sciences library services, and provide a basic template for disaster planning.

Continuing education credit available. Advanced registration is required to receive CE credit. This event is free and open to the public. Registration is available online. For more information, please contact Shannon Jones, (804) 828-0626.

For a full list of library instruction classes on both campuses, visit VCU Libraries Events .

Wednesday, October 29, 2008
5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m
James Cabell Branch Library

VCU Libraries is hosting an Authors' Reception celebrating Alex Lorch and Beth Marschak, authors of Lesbian and Gay Richmond.

The celebration will be Wednesday, October 29, 2008 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., in Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, 4th floor.

Mr. Lorch will present a brief historical overview of the Richmond lesbian and gay community at 5:30 pm. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing.

This event is free and open to the public. To R.S.V.P. or request special accommodations, please call Sarah Amick at (804) 828-4640 prior to Monday, October 27, 2008. Parking is available for a fee in the West Main Street and West Cary Street parking decks.

The reception is generously sponsored by the VCU Friends of the Library. More information about Friends of the Library events is available at Special Events .

James Branch Cabell Library
901 Park Avenue, Richmond, VA 23284
804-828-1105

James Branch Cabell Library
Library Instruction Classroom, third floor

Wednesday, October 22nd, 12 - 1 p.m.
The purpose of this workshop is to provide participants with hands-on experience in using the more advanced features of PsycINFO. It will cover how to personalize the database to save successful searches, create search alerts (the saved search is always running and notifications are sent via email or through RSS when any new items are found), and how to create folders for organization by project or class. It will also cover how to properly export citations from PsycINFO into RefWorks.

For more information on this workshop and a full list of library instruction classes and events on both campuses, visit the VCU Libraries Events page.

From a SPARC press release:

PLOS AND SPARC RELEASE NEW “VOICES OF OPEN ACCESS” VIDEO SERIES
Clips describe a rich new world where access to research is open

San Francisco, CA and Washington, DC – October 14, 2008 – A new video series presents six unique perspectives on the importance of Open Access to research across the higher education community and beyond. SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) and the Public Library of Science (PLoS), the organizers of the first Open Access Day with Students for FreeCulture, today released the series of one-minute videos capturing why teachers, patient advocates, librarians, students, research funders, and physician scientists are committed to Open Access.

The “Voices of Open Access” series defines Open Access as a fundamental component of a new system for exchanging scholarly research results, where: health is transformed; research outputs are maximized to their fullest extent; efficiencies in the research process enable faster discoveries; the best science is made possible; young people are inspired; access transcends the wealth of the institution; cost savings are realized across the research process; and medical research conducted for the public good is made available to everyone who needs it.

The videos are available for the public to view, download, and repurpose under a CC-BY license at http://www.vimeo.com/oaday08. They are also available as a single file for viewing at events.

A press release from the Scholarly Publishing Office of the University of Michigan Library:

New Open Access Monograph: Economics and Usage of Digital Libraries: Byting the Bullet

The Scholarly Publishing Office of the University of Michigan Library is pleased to announce the availability of a new open access monograph, Economics and Usage of Digital Libraries: Byting the Bullet , edited by Wendy Pradt Lougee (University Librarian, University of Minnesota) and Jeffrey K. MacKie-Mason (Arthur W. Burks Collegiate Professor of Information and Computer Science, School of Information, University of Michigan). In the late 1990's, researchers and digital library production staff at the University of Michigan collaborated on deploying the Pricing Economic Access to Knowledge project (PEAK), a full-scale production-quality digital access system to enable usage of content from all of Elsevier's (then about 1200) scholarly journals, and at the same time to conduct a field experiment to answer various questions about the interplay between pricing models and usage. The experiment culminated in a lively conference that engaged scholars, library practioners and publishers. This volume captures some of the most interesting and provocative discussions to come out of that conference. PEAK was a ground-breaking effort in its day, and references to the project have continued over time. It raised important questions about the potential for highly functional journal content and new economic models of publishing. In today’s context of socially-enabled systems and open-access publishing, the motivating questions of PEAK remain relevant.

This monograph is part of the SPO Scholarly Monograph Series , an interdisciplinary collection of original, open-access scholarly monographs and essays. The University of Michigan Library, through its Scholarly Publishing Office , provides academic publishing services that are responsive to the needs of both producers and users, that foster a sustainable economic model for academic publishing, and that support institutional control of intellectual assets.

James Branch Cabell Library
Library Instruction Classroom, third floor

Wednesday, October 15, 2 p.m.
Monday, October 20, 1 p.m.
VCU Libraries offers Research Survival Workshops for new and returning students, faculty or staff. These quick sessions offers an introduction or refresher on searching the library's Web resources for books and articles to support a research topic. Librarians will demonstrate the Catalog and journal databases including Academic Search Complete. This workshop runs 50 minutes, including time for questions.

All are welcome. No registration required.

For more information on this workshop and a full list of library instruction classes and events on both campuses, visit the VCU Libraries Events page.

Additional resources or learning library research skills can be found online including the Undergraduate Research Toolkit, Distance Learner's Toolkit, and Resource Guides devoted to topic areas such as Biological Sciences, Sociology and Anthropology, History, Art Education, and many others.

It's that time of year - the VCU Friends of the Library Annual Book Sale! The sale takes place October 20-24, 2008, on the 2nd floor of James Branch Cabell Library.

Books of many genres are available including history, art, medicine, fiction, comic arts, music and more. All proceeds from the Friends of the Library Book Sale help to fund VCU Libraries' programs, collections, and lectures.

2008 Book Sale Hours
Monday, October 20: Noon -- 8 p.m.
Tuesday, October 21: 9 a.m. -- 8 p.m.
Wednesday, October 22: 9 a.m. -- 8 p.m.
Thursday, October 23: 9 a.m. -- 8 p.m.
Friday, October 24: 9 a.m. -- 5 p.m. (Half-price sale day)

Preview Sale for Friends of the Library Donors
Monday, October 20: 9 a.m.-Noon
(Present your Friends card for admission to the preview sale.)

James Branch Cabell Library
901 Park Avenue, Richmond, VA 23284
804-828-1105

Paperbacks $1
Hardcover $2

The library web server (www.library.vcu.edu) and e-reserves will be unavailable on Monday October 13th from 5:00 am to 7:00 am.

During the switchover many of our services will still be available directly at these addresses:

Databases AtoZ and by Subject: http://metalib.vccs.edu/V/?func=find-db-1&mode=title

VCU Libraries Catalog: http://catalog.library.vcu.edu

E-Journals: http://sfx.library.vcu.edu/vcu/a-z/default?perform=textSearch

ILLiad Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery: https://illiad.library.vcu.edu/illiad/

Digital Collections: http://dig.library.vcu.edu/

Electronic Theses and Dissertations: https://digarchive.library.vcu.edu/

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.

Scientific American's news blog reports that open access publisher BioMed Central has been sold to Springer. For other reports on the acquisition see LJ Newswire and Open Access News.

From the SPARC press release .....

"SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), the Public Library of Science (PLoS), and Students for FreeCulture have jointly announced the first international Open Access Day. Building on the worldwide momentum toward Open Access to publicly funded research, Open Access Day will create a key opportunity for the higher education community and the general public to understand more clearly the opportunities of wider access and use of content."

For details visit the Open Access Day web page.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) released its Analysis of Comments and Implementation of the NIH Public Access Policy on September 30, 2008. The report summarizes findings from the open meetings held earlier this year. It also addresses the actions NIH has taken on the concerns including updates to the website and the release of new tools to assist with deposits.