"Love your library" book sale @ Oak Ridge campus library: February 14-15

Do you love your library? Your library loves you!

Be sure to visit the 11th annual Love Your Library used book sale at the Oak Ridge campus library. The sale runs 9am to 6pm on Tuesday (2/14) and Wednesday (2/15).

Prices:

• Paperbacks -- $1
• Trade paperbacks -- $1.50
• Hardback -- $3
• Textbooks -- $4

Happy Valentine's Day!

WilsonWeb databases are moving to EBSCOhost

On Wednesday, February 1, 2012, Roane State's WilsonWeb databases will be owned and operated by EBSCO rather than H.W. Wilson. EBSCO purchased H.W.Wilson, which no longer exists as its own company.

This change affects the following Roane State library databases:

• Wilson OmniFile
• Business Full Text
• Humanities Full Text
• Social Science Full Text
• General Science Full Text
• Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature.

All of these have been popular databases at Roane State. We will continue to have access to these products on the EBSCO, rather than WilsonWeb, platform.

What this means for Roane State:

• New database URLs: The database links on the Roane State library webpage have already been updated to direct you to the new EBSCO interface. The full-text content hasn't decreased. In some cases, we may actually receive more full-text on the new platform.
• Existing WilsonWeb database links should automatically redirect to the new EBSCO interface.
• We are told that existing WilsonWeb links will continue to automatically redirect to the new EBSCO platform indefinately. We hope this is true. To be safe, we encourage faculty to consider updating WilsonWeb links in their Momentum and RODP courses to point to the new URL. Molly Stover can help you with this.
• Personal WilsonWeb accounts and search folders will be lost on Wednesday, February 1. EBSCO also offers personal accounts and search folders, but you cannot migrate information from one platform to the other.

If you have questions or concerns about this change, let us know. We believe this transition will have little negative impact on your access and use of these quality resources. We will help whenever that turns out not to be true.

Remembering the Great Wikipedia Blackout of 2012

Last Wednesday, a number of big name websites went dark to protest pending legislation in Congress related to how intellectual property is protected on the Internet. The legislation was called SOPA and PIPA. This blog post isn't about them, but you can read more about them here.

This blog post is about what happens when college students loose access to Wikipedia.

Wikipedia was one of the major sites that went dark on Wednesday, January 18. This was, of course, for many college students, right in the middle of the first real week of classes with assignments due.

When they turned to Wikipedia, they saw this:

People freaked. It was a full-scale research panic.Wikipedia was gone. Well, not really, but for a few hours it sure seemed like it. The Twitter-sphere hummed with posts like this one.

Rest assured, librarians were on the scene to save the day. Here's one fun account from Inside Higher Ed.

How much do you trust Wikipedia? If you are like me, you use The Almighty Wiki quite a bit when you need a quick information snack.

When you need more than a snack, Ask Us! Helping panicked students is what we do.

You don’t have to be a genius to be successful

I’ve been a Roane State librarian for 12 years, and here’s something I’ve learned: The most successful students are not always super-smart geniuses. Successful students work hard, manage their time and ask for help.

College is hard work. If it isn’t, you are being cheated. Don’t cheat yourself. You get out what you put in.

Your teachers want you to succeed, but you’ve got to put the hours in. You have to prepare before class. You have to attend class. You have to study after class. Learning takes time. Lots of it.

Successful students manage their time. They create realistic schedules that meet their needs. They plan study sessions. They begin thinking about assignments as soon as they are given. They don’t wait until the last minute.

Successful students ask for help.

Sometime this semester, you are going to need the library. You might need to save yourself $100 by checking out a TI-84 or TI-86 calculator. You might need help planning research for a paper. You might need help understanding how to cite your sources properly. You might just want to read a good book.

We’ve got you covered. When you need us, ask us!

Visit the library website: http://www.roanestate.edu/library/
Ask the library for help:  http://www.roanestate.edu/library/ask.htm
Get a library card: http://www.roanestate.edu/library/library_card_app.htm
Explore your library with research guides: http://libguides.roanestate.edu/
Discover new books at your libraries: http://libguides.roanestate.edu/newbooks

Make your library better. Take the Fall 2011 library satisfaction survey.

Your ideas and opinions help us better understand what Roane State students and faculty need and expect from their libraries.

It takes about 6 minutes to complete the library survey.

Students: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9HNKQFT

Faculty/Adjunct: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9H5VCFZ

Survey closes at noon on Thursday, December 15.

Are Libraries Still Important?

In a world of constant connection and immediate information, a person might be forgiven for wondering if libraries are really still relevant. I mean who needs a library when you can Google anything you need to know, can get any book or eBook you want from Amazon, and can watch movies immediately from Netflix?

And yet, libraries across the country are reporting record numbers of people getting library cards, record numbers of books being checked out and record numbers of people needing a librarian's help.

Even with increased use, libraries (especially public libraries) are taking budget cuts, shortening hours, laying off staff and cutting services.

What's going on here? Find out. Read the Huffington Post's "Libraries in Crisis" blog section, an ongoing collection of articles about the challenges facing public libraries all over the country.

What do you think? Are libraries still important? Why? What can we do about it?

Wondering about Fuel Costs??

Thinking about a new car?? You can get to the lastest Fuel Economy Guide that provides the miles and estimated cost for miles per gallon. This information is essential as our gas prices continue to rise.

From Resource Shelf.