Umbreit Library
CURRENTS
A Quarterly Publication of Muskegon Community College
Vol. 5, No. 3 - Mar 2000 - May 2000
Inside this issue:
Passwords for InfoTrac
For Off-Campus Access
InfoTrac has become one of our best research databases. It indexes journal, magazine, newspaper and reference book articles and makes many of them available in their full text.Students performing medical research and nursing and respiratory therapy students find the Health Reference Center section valuable since they may read the full text of articles from over 200 sources including:
- Chest
- JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical
- Association
- Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing
- Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing
- Journal of Community Health
- Journal of Family Practice
- Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics
- Journal of Perinatal & Neonatal Nursing
- Journal of Trauma Nursing
- Daedalus
- Journal of Accountancy
- Journal of Advertising
- Journal of Business Communication
- Journal of Human Resources
- Journal of International Business Studies
- Journal of Political Economy
- Journal of Post Keynesian Economics
- Nation
- National Review
- Natural History
- Newsweek
- Science
InfoTrac may be accessed from off-campus by entering a password. Contact the library reference desk (777-0326) for password information.
Hamba Kahle Comrade Mabunda
It was with great sadness that the library staff learned that our Dean would be retiring and returning to South Africa. David Mabunda is the Dean of Arts & Sciences and has been our Dean since 1994.During the past six years, David has been a constant source of encouragement and support. His vision of growth has been inspiring. He was a dominant figure in the successful acquisition process of our new library system. David has supported our efforts in our many endeavors including surveying students in classrooms, attending training sessions, and upgrading to new technologies. Also, it was with his encouragement that this newsletter was created.
Siyabonga mngani, hamba kahle.
CD-ROM Corner
Academic Abstracts Full Text is a CD-ROM product that has searchable abstracts of articles from over 900 magazines, periodicals and journals. Thousands of full text articles are included on the nine discs. Looking at statistics which have been collected since Fall 1996 we found that patrons have:- performed 3,495 searches,
- browsed through 12,751 articles,
- printed or saved 6,599 citations,
- printed or saved 5,189 full text articles.
New Shelving
Many may wonder In this electronic age, why would a library need additional shelving? The electronic resources have had a great impact on library services and we are grateful that their use is very space-efficient; however, we have always experienced limited book shelving. Therefore, in March we began our re-shelving project which should be completed by the start of the Fall Semester.For the first phase of this project we installed eight new, three-shelf bookcases near the upper level Public Services desk. These contain periodical indexes such as The Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature, The New York Times Index and General Science Index.
For the second phase of this project we will install additional bookcases near the upper level Public Services desk and along the stairwell to the lower level.
This new shelving serves two purposes:
- gain main floor space for additional computers and
- gain shelving space.
All Prints to Reference
Computer prints from all of the research/Internet computers are now being sent to the printer at the reference desk. For the past several years, prints from the CD-ROM and FirstSearch computers went to the upper level circulation desk. We continue to charge 10 cents per page payable at the upper level circulation desk.Library Web Site Changes
Our Web site has been reorganized. We now have all library Web information on the library server at : http://library.muskegon.cc.mi.us/. Users will find library publications, links to the best search engines and searchable databases. We also have set up a general email address for the library: library@muskegon.cc.mi.us. Use this email address for questions and comments regarding the Web site or general library services.Check These Out!
By Roger StoelWorld Book Encyclopedia. Millennium 2000 edition. 22 volumes. World Book Inc., 2000
The millennium edition of the World Book Encyclopedia has a special pictorial binding to celebrate the new century. The set was first published in 1917 as an eight-volume set and now encompasses 22 volumes. More than 3,700 scholars and experts are employed to verify the accuracy of the information. The set contains 28,000 illustrations with 24,000 in color. It also contains more than 2,200 maps. There are more than 1,600 articles. Numerous cross references and bibliographies are located at the end of most articles. The MCC library also has the CD-ROM version of the set that contains two CD's and has multi-media features. An excellent resource for the new millennium.
Located in our REFERENCE Collection: REF AE 5 .W55 2000 V.1-22
OCLC to Internet
Since 1981 Bob Vanderlaan has accessed OCLC in Ohio via a dedicated line to catalog our collections. Other OCLC services including Interlibrary Loan processing and FirstSearch database searching have been accessed via the same line. In March, we replaced the dedicated line with an Internet connection. The advantage of the change is that more computers in the library now have access to OCLC library services.Campus-Wide FirstSearch
Would you like to use Books in Print, Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature or Book Review Digest at your desk? Do you need full text articles from the business journals available from the Business & Industry database? With the support of the AccessMichigan project, 60 databases are now available via FirstSearch and all are available to Internet-accessible computers on the MCC network. Visit our Web site at http://library.muskegon.cc.mi.us/ and follow the Study Resources links.Citation Analysis Study
There is an information overload in our society. With this in mind, what types of sources are students using to write their research papers? With the wealth of information available to them, what are they choosing as pertinent, reliable, valid sources? Are they choosing reliable and valid sources?To answer this question, with the assistance of English Department Chairperson Mary Luther, we compiled and analyzed the "Works Cited" portions of English 101 term papers for the Winter, 2000 semester. From the 331 citations, we found that:
- 82% of the sources used were print,
- 14% of the sources used were electronic (digital),
- 4% were from other sources (interviews/videos/speeches).
From this study, we determined that most of the students are finding and using very good resources for their research both in print and electronic formats. We used Katz's Magazines for Libraries to determine the value and category of the periodicals (print and electronic) cited. Out of the 60 periodical titles used by the students, 92% were listed in Magazines for Libraries; 8% were from peer-reviewed publications.
The quality of Web sites ranged from poor to very high:
- The highest quality of Web sites were from .edu domains,
- The second highest quality of Web sites were from .gov and .org domains,
- The lowest quality of Web sites were from .net and .com domains.
Stat-USA
Stat-USA, provided by the U. S. Department of Commerce, contains information on current economic conditions and international trade. The State of the Nation section contains current GNP, government bond rates, daily treasury statements, and other financial information. The Globus and National Trade Data Bank section contains "current and historical trade-related releases, international market research, trade opportunities, and country analysis". Stat-USA also includes The International Trade Library which has over 40,000 full text documents related to international trade. All Internet-accessible computers within the MCC campus network have been granted access to this valuable database.Access Stat-USA at: http://www.stat-usa.gov/.
Library Hours
(January 5 - April 26)
Monday - Thursday
8:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Friday
8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Saturday
10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
(April 15 is the last Saturday to be open.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Spring Session
(May 1 - June 23)
Monday-Thursday
8:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Friday
8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
No Weekend Hours
Umbreit Library Currents is published quarterly by the staff of the Allen G. Umbreit Library at Muskegon Community College.
The mission of Umbreit Library Currents is to aid in our goal to keep all Umbreit Library users current about resources, policies, and staff activities.
Editor:
Carol Briggs-Erickson
Contributing Editorial Staff:
Roger Stoel
Robert Vanderlaan
Back to Currents Main Directory
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221 S. Quarterline Rd.
Muskegon, MI 49442
(231) 773-9131
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