Odum Library Blog

We have Walter Isaacson’s new biography of Steve Jobs (1955-2011), shelved in our POPULAR books section (on the 2nd floor next to Copier Room 2621) at POPULAR QA 76.2 .J63 I83 2011.

For your upcoming holiday reading pleasure, we also have the memoirs of comic actress and writer Tina Fey, actresses Barbara Eden and Betty White, actor Dick van Dyke, restaurateur Gabrielle Hamilton, football star Michael Oher, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, musician Sammy Hagar, and country singer Shania Twain.

As always, if you need help finding anything in the library, please ask! Chat Live during Reference hours, or text us at 229-234-1947

Twenty-one PC workstations have recently been positioned on 2nd floor in front of Circulation and the IT Helpdesk. The upgraded PC workstations have Windows 7 and the Microsoft Office 2010 suite of applications. This PC upgrade facilitates printing, enhances security, and returns the Library’s 2nd floor public bank to the desired number of twenty-one workstations.

Current library computer lab information is always available from the Library Computing link found underneath the “Main Menu” heading  in the left red navigation column on most Library website pages.

Please visit the Media Center, if you are in need of an iMac as was formerly available on 2nd floor in front of the IT Helpdesk. The Media Center currently has only four iMacs. Watch for a forthcoming announcement about more iMacs  to be added  to the Media Center soon in the near future.

Take the short GALILEO user experience survey and be registered to win an iPad!

http://galileo2011.questionpro.com/

The annual GALILEO user survey is your opportunity to share your experiences using GALILEO. This year it also an opportunity to enter a drawing for an iPad!  The survey will be available November 7-13. The random drawing will take place after the survey closes on November 13th.

GALILEO has informed us of a scheduled ProQuest maintenance session that will make certain databases unavailable from Saturday night to Sunday morning:

Dear GALILEO users,

ProQuest will be performing infrastructure maintenance this weekend. A 12-hour maintenance window will be required for this from Saturday, November 5, 2011, at 10:00 p.m. to Sunday, November 6, 2011, at 10:00 a.m.

Products on the new ProQuest platform (e.g., Research Library, ABI/INFORM Complete) and Chadwyck-Healey products (e.g., Archive Finder, LION) will be unavailable during these times.

Why not take one of the classes taught by your very own reference librarians? We’re offering two different courses this spring:

LIBS 1000: Introduction to Library Research (1 credit) is an all-online class that will teach you the research skills you need to find great information for all of your research papers. As the Undergraduate Catalog describes it, this course is “[d]esigned to promote an awareness of Valdosta State University Library Services and general information resources, including the role of information in society, research skills, the Internet, and critical thinking skills” (p. 381). The CRN is 22572. This course will be taught by Ginger Williams.

PERS 2750: Exploring the Information Society (2 credits) is “[a]n exploration of information, examining how it is generated, evaluated, organized, and used. Students investigate the impact of information in society from regional, national, and global perepective with a focus on the political, economic, and ethical aspects” (p. 415). The CRN for this course is 22573. This course will be taught by Jeffrey Gallant and Michael Holt.

Update: Ebooks at EBSCOhost should be running normally now – please let us know if you encounter any problems.

EBooks at EBSCOhost (also known as netLibrary e-books) are all currently down at the moment. GALILEO has seen this issue across all its institutions, and is currently working with EBSCO on the problem. We will update this post once access has been restored. Thank you, and sorry for the inconvenience.

Oct. 31st, 2011, marks the official recognition of a world population of 7 billion people. Is that a scary thought?

According to the United States Census Bureau, the projected U.S. population today, based on 2010 Census estimates, is 312,530,196.  It’s estimated that our population has a birth every 8 seconds and a death every 12 seconds, for a net gain of 1 person every 13 seconds.

This map shows the nighttime distribution of our population in the United States and Puerto Rico:

Nighttime Map of the U.S. Population, courtesy of the U.S. Census Bureau

The Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations provides much more information about world population growth.

As we welcome our seven billionth world citizen, should we be concerned about population growth?  Yes, says the United Nations Population Fund, which sponsors the program 7 Billion Actions, A Global Movement for All Humanity. Learn more about global population, read stories of people who are trying to make a difference in their communities–and maybe even share your own story with the world!

Happy Halloween!

As the semester winds down and the holidays approach, we totally hope you’ll find the time and have the inclination to read about vampires! We recommend:

30 Days of Night – PN 6791 .T4 N45 2003 – It’s a graphic novel in which vampires attack a small Alaska town!

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter – POPULAR PS 3607 .R348 A64 2010 – The title says it all

Bite Me: a Love Story – POPULAR PR 9199.3 .M618 B58 2010 – Funny vampires in present-day San Francisco!

Blackwood Farm – PS 3568 .I265 B53 2002x – A young vampire searches for the legendary Lestat!

Death’s Excellent Vacation – POPULAR PS 648 .O33 D43 2010 – A collection of short stories including a Sookie Stackhouse story!

Don’t forget the Art in Odum Library event this Friday, October 28th in Odum Library from 2-4 P.M. Come out and meet two of the artists from the collection and enjoy some free food and a lot of fun.

GALILEO has sent us a message that several users are experiencing difficulties connecting to GALILEO resources. We thought we would pass along the message in case any of you are having problems accessing materials through GALILEO.

“Dear GALILEO users,

Several libraries have reported receiving error messages and connection errors when trying to link out to resources and articles from GALILEO. The errors are associated with our EZproxy server, which is used to connect and authenticate users into full text articles from GALILEO Search, Journals A-Z, and several databases.

We are working on resolving this issue as quickly as possible. We apologize for this inconvenience. We will update this list with further information on this problem or information on a fix as soon as we have it.

You can also check the GALILEO Status page for updates: http://status.galileo.usg.edu”

We apologize for any inconveniences caused by this issue and we will keep this post updated with new information as we receive it.

UPDATE
GALILEO says:

“We have corrected the problem with the GALILEO EZproxy that was causing connection error messages. If you are still encountering problems, please submit a comment to GALILEO via our Contact Us form: http://www.galileo.usg.edu/contact ”