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Charles J. Keffer Library

Archbishop Ireland Library, Charles J. Keffer Library, Libraries, New Materials, O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library, Uncategorized

UST Libraries Embarks on New Ebook Initiative

Demand Driven Acquisition/Patron Driven Acquisition pilot project has started at the University of St. Thomas.

What does that mean? Liaisons in Business, Education and Psychology have hand-crafted profiles with Coutts/Ingram for the purposes of identifying and adding ebook records to CLICnet in those 3 disciplines. We won’t own these – AND they are available for use. We will own them once the third user goes into the book itself or the index (not the cover page or table of contents). The books should all be able to be used by more than one person at a time, but we could not limit our profile to only downloadable – until more publishers are on board. The sample size would have been too small.

These should all work and act like all other MyiLibrary books.

Questions?

Ask Linda Hulbert (lahulbert@stthomas.edu) or 651-962-5016 if she doesn’t know the answer, she’ll make a good one up! On the spot!

January 22, 2013 by

Archbishop Ireland Library, Charles J. Keffer Library, Libraries, O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library, Uncategorized

UST Research Online Usage Data

UST Research Online is the the University of St. Thomas’ institutional repository. Initiated by the library staff, the goal is to include the creative and scholarly works of the faculty, students and staff of the university: including, but not limited to, theses and dissertations. During the last two years that the resource has been active, staff have uploaded 631 papers and they have been downloaded over 60,000 times. The content is obviously highly discoverable in Google (62% of the searches), Google Scholar (21% of the searches) and 17% from other external searches. The content is now in our own Summon search.

I want to share some data. Our first and most robust faculty collection is that of Opus College of Business. Over 31% of the downloads and hits are content from OCB with Ethics and Business Law leading the way with over 4,000. The most downloaded paper from OCB is Jeffrey Oxman’s “Price Inflation and Stock Returns” exceeding 1,300 downloads! The dissertation from CELC with the most downloads is Emily R Murphrey’s Effective Treatment of Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Early
Attachment at over 800 downloads. At 1,123 the UST Law Journal’s most downloaded article is “Incapacitation through Maiming: Chemical Castration, the Eighth Amendment, and the Denial of Human Dignity” by John Stinneford. John Heintz’s article “Developing a Library School Course in Government Statistics,” from the Library staff collections was downloaded 264 times and leads the pack.

The Law School added the University of St. Thomas Law Journal including all of the back content. And its use is 56% of the repository – nearly 30,000 downloads. We are interested in adding the other journals published here at the university.

The theses and dissertations of the College of Education, Leadership and Counseling including Education – Leadership and Education – Organization Development and Psychology are growing collections and have seen downloads in excess of 5,500. We have recently uploaded the theses of the School of Social Work. We look forward to watching their use.

Library staff article downloads and hits exceed 1,000.

If you are interested in adding your content to the repository, please contact Linda Hulbert – lahulbert@stthomas.edu.

January 16, 2013 by

Charles J. Keffer Library, Libraries, News & Events

Keffer 2.0 Update: Where are the books?!

As Spring semester starts and progress is affecting other parts of campus, we’ve been getting many more questions about what’s going on with the construction project here at Keffer.

If you missed them, feel free to view my earlier posts about the start of the project and a mid-way update. Here are answers to the questions we’ve been getting frequently:

Q: Where are all the books?

A: The Charles J. Keffer Library collections (books, journals, children’s books and curriculum materials) have been moved temporarily to the lower level of the Schoenecker Law Library.

Materials can be checked out at the circulation desk of the Law Library or requested from Keffer staff. A paging system will be provided so that retrieval of needed materials is as convenient as possible; requested books should be delivered to the Keffer Library on the same day.

Q: What about my InterLibrary Loans and Course Reserves?

A: Items put on hold and course reserves will remain at the current Keffer Library circulation desk. A paging system will be provided so that retrieval of needed materials is as convenient for users as possible; requested books will be delivered to the Keffer Library on the same day. This move will not affect interlibrary loan requests.

Q: Are librarians still available?

A: Yes! We are all available and happily helping students and faculty alike gear up for this new semester. We are all available as usual for consultations, classroom instruction sessions, and more! Do you have a research or reference question? Check out the many ways available to contact a librarian here at UST Libraries.

Q: When will you be in the new space?

A: Soon! Carpet was laid this week, and the “big move” should be taking place in the next week or so. Library staff will be stationed at the new desk on the skyway level by Monday morning, February 6th, and we’re hoping to have at least some of the public computer stations moved and available by that date, as well.

Q: What about the computer classrooms?

A: Computer classrooms are no longer housed in the Keffer library. They have been moved to academic classrooms TMH253 and TMH254 and can be reserved via the standard UST event scheduler. If you are having trouble making a reservation or accessing a room, please contact campus security.

February 3, 2012 by

Charles J. Keffer Library, Libraries, News & Events

Keffer Construction Update – Moving Quickly!

The last week has brought a lot of change to the Keffer Library! As the sounds of drills and the displaced furniture can attest, construction has been moving swiftly. The new upstairs space is taking shape before our eyes – and ahead of schedule!

Highlights this week:

A newly designed one-point service desk has been installed by combining parts of the former circulation and reference desks. In the future, both circulation and reference services will be available here.
Walls and door frames have been put into place for the future librarian offices.
The walls for the lower level collection space have been finished.

In the next few weeks, look for many more changes (and updates!) as the upstairs areas are finished and we start moving out of the current space and into our new home.

Thank you, as always, for continuing to bear with us throughout all of this project. We’re happy to see so many of your faces and hope you’re having a wonderful J-term.

January 20, 2012 by

Charles J. Keffer Library, Libraries, News & Events

Keffer 2.0 – Under Construction!

For those of you who haven’t heard, in the next few months Keffer library will be undergoing some renovations. Later this spring, we will be reopening as “Keffer 2.0.”

Keffer staff have been working hard to prepare for this change. Throughout it all, our main goal is to keep library services and staff available as usual. This has meant moving books, the circulation desk, reference desk, reference collection, and more to temporary locations within the library.

But most importantly, we’re still open! Library access is still available through elevators moving between the first and second levels. Once you reach the lower level, we are ready and waiting as usual to help you with whatever research or other help you may need. We’re extremely grateful for your flexibility as all the construction goes on around us!

To satisfy your curiosity about what’s going on as you work around us, this week has been the start of the more major moving and demolition. Carpets have been lifted up, walls knocked down, and in general, the space is being prepped for Keffer 2.0.

You may also have noticed how the reference desk has been relocated to room 130. It and many other materials have moved into nooks and crannies around the library; feel free to ask any library staff if you are having troubles finding anything.

When construction is finished, we will reopen with the majority of library services located on the second, skyway level. Plans are underway for the lower level to contain the book and periodical stacks as well as a quiet reading area.

Again, we’re extremely grateful for your flexibility and patience as we stay open for business throughout construction! Despite all of the change, our focus continues to be providing quality services and research help to the UST community, and we at Keffer are happy to help you with whatever you need.

In the meantime, please feel free to stay tuned for future construction updates; we’ll try to post updated photos to our Facebook page as they’re available.

We look forward to reopen as the “new” Keffer library later this spring!

January 11, 2012 by

Archbishop Ireland Library, Charles J. Keffer Library, Libraries, News & Events, O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library

Banned Books Week!

As you can tell by some of the decorations going up around the library and on the website, we’re gearing up for a fun week of celebrations. The reason? Next week is Banned Books Week!

Not sure what Banned Books Week is? Contrary to what you might think, it is not a celebration of banning books as much as it is a celebration of intellectual freedom. The American Library Association defines intellectual freedom as

“the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular…..BBW stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints for all who wish to read and access them.”

Each year during the last week of September, we celebrate books that have been challenged or banned. How do books make the list? According to the ALA website, “A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others.”

So Happy Banned Books Week, 2011! Get involved throughout the week by browsing the displays at the UST Libraries and checking out the information on our Libguide. You can also:

Vote for your favorite Banned Books (let’s get a list of UST favorites going!)

Play the BBW Daily Tri via Contest! A new question will be posted every day – so check in often!

Check out – or participate – in the 2011 Virtual Read-Out!

Look for updates of Trivia winners and Poll results throughout the week, and feel free to ask any library staff if you have questions (we all get pretty pumped up about this). More importantly, thanks in advance for helping us celebrate!

September 23, 2011 by

Business & Economics, Charles J. Keffer Library, Database Highlights & Trials

Finding SWOT Analyses

swot-analysis-image Business students often ask how to find SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analyses of companies.

SWOTs are very useful tools. According to the The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Management:

An acronym of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, SWOT analysis provides a simple but powerful tool for evaluating the strategic position of the firm. It is especially useful for senior executives undertaking a fundamental reappraisal of a business, in that it permits a free thinking environment, unencumbered by the constraints often imposed by a finance driven budgetary planning system

Did you know UST Libraries currently have two sources for ready-made SWOT analyses?

(you can also find both of these databases in our libraries’ A-Z list of Databases)

Datamonitor company reports, available via Business Source Premier

The SWOT analyses are always part of a company report. Find them by searching for a company by name and clicking the “company report” radio button within Business Source Premier.

OneSource Global Business Browser’s International Company Profiles

Find them by searching for your company within the “Companies” field. Remember, most companies in Global OneSource are large, publicly traded corporations. Once you’ve identified your company among the search results (yours will usually be the one headquartered in the US, with a US stock listing), click on its name to open up a company profile. There will be a menu on the left-hand side with a link to the Strengths/Weaknesses analysis

refusa intl SWOT itself

Can’t find a SWOT? Don’t panic.

A SWOT analysis is not difficult to make. First grab a SWOT from Reference USA International (using the process outlined above), to use as a template. Use Proquest Newsstand Complete, Mergent, and Business Source Premier to retrieve press releases and media articles on a company and its executives for the past twelve months. (Focus on CEO, Chairman, and CFO interviews, new product releases, earnings releases, and stock analyst opinions on the industry or company.) Within Business Source Premier, also look for a Datamonitor company profile. If the company is public, go to their website or to Mergent Online–usually the “investors” or “company information” sections–to find the company’s SEC 10-K, 10-Q, and 14-A filings.

Using the information you’ve found, it should be fairly easy to make your own SWOT analysis of any company, public or private.

(Look familiar? This is a repost of a blog post we made in June of 2011. The interfaces have changed a bit, so we decided it was time for an update. If you already knew this, please pat yourself on the back for being a database guru!)

September 21, 2011 by

Charles J. Keffer Library, News & Events, Uncategorized

New computers at the Keffer Library!

New computers Exciting news: this afternoon, a crew came by to install new public computers in the Keffer library!

The new machines run on the Windows 7 operating system and have a much faster processing speed. They come with a software package that includes the most recent versions of the Microsoft Office suite, and IRT has also added Firefox so users have an option of internet browser. These new machines, along with upgrades to Blackboard and Outlook, mean that things should be running faster and smoother for students in the library this fall. Please feel free to ask a librarian or technology student if you have any trouble navigating around the new system.

For more news about what’s going on with the technology on campus, check out the IRT updates blog.

August 23, 2011 by

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