Library News - New

Some 1,400 international students in orientation this week at Hibbs and Cabell

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 10:37:04 -0500

Virginia Commonwealth University and the VCU Global Education Office welcome approximately 320 new and 1,100 returning international students for the fall semester.

International student orientation for undergraduate and graduate students will take place Wednesday, Aug. 17 from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Hibbs Hall, 900 Park Ave. VCU Libraries offers multiple orientation sessions for international students August 17-19.

International students from more than 80 countries were admitted for the semester; the top four countries represented by rank are India, China, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea. Students' majors and/or programs range from arts to pharmacy at the undergraduate, transfer, graduate and doctoral levels.

"This year's international class directly contributes to VCU's strategic plan, 'Quest for Distinction,' by bringing a cohort of academically-qualified students to VCU from around the world to further enrich the campus community," says R. McKenna Brown, Ph.D., executive director of the VCU Global Education Office.

For the first year, VCU will host students from Christ University in India who will study at the VCU School of Business at the graduate level. Students from several of VCU's 15 partnership universities are also represented in this year's class. The partnership program provides VCU faculty and students the opportunity for multicultural collaborative research grants and projects, internationalized curriculum, student and faculty exchanges as well as joint conferences.

Librarians and others who want more information about VCU's international students may contact Lane Burgess, VCU Global Education Office, 804-828-3636, leburgess@vcu.edu

Faculty spouse/partner borrowing privileges

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 17:00:00 -0500

VCU faculty members can designate borrowing privileges for their spouses and partners at VCU Libraries. This new service will allow a spouse or partner to have an account separate from the faculty member's account. Those with a spouse/partner account will be able to borrow up to 10 books at a time, for 28 days, with two renewals. The Faculty Spouse/Partner Designation form (to be completed by the faculty member) and the VCU Employees, Students and Affiliate Borrowers form (to be completed by the spouse or partner) are available online.

This benefit is different from the Faculty Proxy Borrower service, which allows VCU faculty members to authorize other individuals (graduate assistants, departmental support staff, family members, etc.) to check out library materials on the faculty member's account. The faculty spouse/partner account is separate, which guarantees privacy and confidentiality regarding the materials borrowed.

For more information on borrowing privileges, contact Teresa Doherty, Head, Circulation and Information Services, (804-828-8658).

New England Journal of Medicine online

Mon, 16 May 2011 14:48:07 -0500

VCU Libraries has acquired the entire archive for the prestigious New England journal of medicine. Every article from the journal's last two centuries is now available to VCU users. There are more than 150,000 articles, 478,000 pages, and over 85,000 images in the archive spanning the dates 1812 to 1989. The current subscription for NEJM picks up access from 1990 to the present. The full-text of every issue can be searched, browsed, and downloaded.

RefWorks launches new interface

Mon, 02 May 2011 15:23:33 -0500

RefWorks has released a new streamlined interface, RefWorks 2.0. In addition to the new color scheme and clean design, RefWorks users will notice new buttons, navigation toolbars, action icons, light boxes, and collapsible menus with one-click features and support resources at their fingertips. All areas of RefWorks have been updated except Write-N-Cite, which will continue to open in Classic until the end of the summer.

You will find the link to RefWorks 2.0 in the upper right of the Login Center page, and near your username when you are logged into your account. You may toggle back and forth between RefWorks 2.0 and RefWorks Classic. VCU Libraries will make RefWorks 2.0 the default interface at the end of the semester. The link to RefWorks Classic will appear where the RefWorks 2.0 link is now.

Links to tutorials, FAQs, and other resources are posted on the web.