Off The Shelf

Capella Library has a great resource for finding dissertations: ProQuest’s Dissertations and Theses Full Text database.  You can search for dissertations from universities all over the world (Ask a Librarian if you’d like some help doing just that).

If you are working toward your PhD, one day your dissertation will be joining the 600,000 dissertations already there.  But, as you know, the Dissertations database requires a subscription.  That means that your dissertation will be tucked away, basically hidden from anyone who lacks access through a library database subscription.  But ProQuest is beginning to change that.

ProQuest has launched an open access project for dissertations, making entire dissertations available to anyone with an internet connection.  It’s a small list right now, but it’s growing.  In fact, there’s a Capella dissertation already there!  You can take a look at the list here. 

Open access dissertations are an exciting development in the efforts to make information available to more people.  You may have used some open access journals for your research already; they are listed in Journal Locator to help you find them.  If you’re interested in learning more about open access, you can take a look at this description from the Public Library of Science, a major player in the drive for more open access. 

-Erin

You are not alone if you have experienced problems with viewing search results in our EBSCOhost databases. The databases affected are Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier, ERIC, Mental Measurements Yearbook, PsycARTICLES, PsycBOOKS, PsycINFO and SocINDEX. While we investigate the problem, you may use the Text Only Version. Click this link and find a list of our EBSCOhost databases to start your search.

-KateP

We are busy this month in the Library. A number of us attended the Colloquium in Lansdowne in early October and new a couple other librarians are packing their bags for Orlando next week.

At each Colloquia we teach sessions about the Library and scholarly research including the informal brown bag session called Librarian’s Cool Tools. In the session, we demonstrate a cool tool we have been using such as RSS feeds, WorldCat (www.worldcat.org), podcasts, and social bookmarks (like del.icio.us).

The other major thing we do is to meet one-on-one with students about their topics. It is great to talk with students that we usually just talk to over the phone or via email. If you are a PhD student on your way to Colloquia stop by the Library and say “hello”.

-KateP

Not sure what a term means, or just want a bit more background on a particular topic?  Need a little inspiration for your next paper?  Not having luck finding what you need from the Credo Reference database?  You do have another option: the Capella ebook databases.

Both ebrary and NetLibrary have dozens of dictionaries and encyclopedias on a wide range of topics.  Here are a few examples:

The Mafia Encyclopedia (Okay, they’re not all this much fun!)
The Blackwell Encyclopedic Dictionary of Organizational Behavior
Dictionary of Information Security
Dictionary of Legal Terms: A Simplified Guide to the Language
Historical Dictionary of American Education
The Blackwell Dictionary of Sociology
The Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology and Behavioral Science
Dictionary of Marketing Terms
Encyclopedia of American Prisons
Encyclopedia of Multicultural Education
Encyclopedia of Adult Development
     And many, many more . . . .

If you find a reference book (or any book) in ebrary or NetLibrary that you want to use in the future, you can create a personal account and save the book to your bookshelf or favorites.   Now you can build your own reference shelf.

- Erin

You may have heard the term Web 2.0 — it’s a popular buzzword these days.  But what exactly is it? 

Web 2.0 is a collection of web-based technologies that are used to create a more socially connected and dynamic web.  You’ve probably already seen Web 2.0 in action, and just didn’t realize it has a name.  Instead of a static web page with links to other static web pages (soooo Web 1.0), the advancements of Web 2.0 will let you create a page (or, library blog, let’s say) that lets you see user comments in real time, as users decide to make them.  Then you can incorporate a video or two, post your del.icio.us tag cloud, add an IM widget . . .

There are a lot of popular technologies that make up Web 2.0 (with new ones every day).   Here are a few:

• blogs
• wikis
• podcasting
• vodcasting
• RSS feeds
• social bookmarking
• Just about anything you can image!  Check out Go2Web20 to see a huge list of Web 2.0 applications.

Feel a little lost?  You can learn about Web 2.0 in manageable chunks – in fact there’s a great tutorial by the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County called 23 Things.  It breaks down the best of Web 2.0 into short learning projects spaced over 9 weeks.  It’s a lot of fun, and you may just find some tools you want to use.

For more Web 2.0 tools, you’ll want to watch for postings in the Capella Library bog.  We’ve tagged them Web2.0 (you can already see some interesting video tools Erika has posted), so they’ll be easy to find.  The librarians also talk about Web 2.0 tools at the Residential Colloquia; look for the lunchtime Cool Tools presentation.   

-Erin

I’m a big fan of fun programs that help people post media pieces in quick and innovative ways. Here is a new video+information mashup tool that I’m testing out to see how it could work for our library media purposes.

Quick! Catch the duck with your mouse!!!!

Asterpix.com lets you find videos online and add comments, URLs and tags as appropriate. This is a YouTube video that was posted by a Capella librarian. I searched for the video using Asterpix, and then added little notes to the duck as he swims across the screen. Fun, huh?

– Erika

I created this little quasi-instructional video using Sketchcast.com. This website lets you sketch and narrate simple tutorials that you can easily embed on other websites. In my head: this will allow us to create informal instructional videos sort of like CommonCraft does, only ours will explain library skillz instead of Web2.0 technology. (Ok, so speed and background noise could be some initial detractors, but I still think it has promise. )

Update: I found out that the way to do amazing Sketchcasts like this is to buy a tablet PC .  Until then, mine will continue to look like those 3rd grade drawings that end up showcased on Mom’s kitchen appliances.

– Erika