New Materials – St. Thomas Libraries Blog - Page 4

St. Thomas Libraries Blog

Browsing Category

New Materials

New Materials, News & Events

Places & Spaces: Mapping Science

Places & Spaces: Mapping Science is a cool set of physical exhibits featuring infographics and maps that are also browseable online.  From the website: “Places & Spaces: Mapping Science is meant to inspire cross-disciplinary discussion on how to best track and communicate human activity and scientific progress on a global scale. It has two components: the physical part supports the close inspection of high quality reproductions of maps for display at conferences and education centers; the online counterpart provides links to a selected series of maps and their makers along with detailed explanations of how these maps work. The exhibit is a 10-year effort. Each year, 10 new maps are added resulting in 100 maps total in 2014.”science_exhibit

See the exhibits/maps organized around their annual themes (listed below) or browse them all.

The exhibit is a 10-year effort. Each year, 10 new maps are added resulting in 100 maps total in 2014.
1st Iteration (2005): The Power of Maps
2nd Iteration (2006): The Power of Reference Systems
3rd Iteration (2007): The Power of Forecasts
4th Iteration (2008): Science Maps for Economic Decision Makers
5th Iteration (2009): Science Maps for Science Policy Makers
6th Iteration (2010): Science Maps for Scholars
7th Iteration (2011): Science Maps as Visual Interfaces to Digital Libraries
8th Iteration (2012): Science Maps for Kids
9th Iteration (2013): Science Maps for Daily Science Forecasts
10th Iteration (2014): Telling Lies with Science Maps

Listen to a podcast about the project or see a short YouTube video clip :

March 23, 2011 by
New Materials, News & Events, O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library

Try media:scape at the Library

One of the goals for the UST Libraries is to introduce students to the kinds of technology that they may encounter as they graduate to the workplace (and the world) of the 21st century – an information and technology rich environment that requires a high level of “literacy” in the use of information as employees, parents, citizens and consumers.  As we evolve into a largely digital library, we are also creating spaces in our buildings for group work and collaboration, hallmarks of both learning and working in the new century.

mediascapeOur latest effort in this area is to provide a new kind of workspace for the UST community.  We’ve undertaken a trial installation of the “media:scape” product from Steelcase.  media:scape is a combination of furniture and technology that allows easy sharing of information in a small group.  Room 110 in the O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library is now (and for the next month) equipped to accommodate at least four users with laptops that can be linked to a large flat screen monitor.  Users can easily plug in their computers and view what is on their monitor on the large screen.  It is very easy to go from computer to computer, making the sharing of ideas very convenient.

 

If UST users (we invite students, faculty and staff to use the room) find this an effective solution for collaborative teaching, learning and working, we will consider equipping more group study spaces in the library in this way.

walkstationIn addition, we’ve installed a “Walkstation” in the OSF Library.  The Walkstation allows users to walk as they work – on a slow moving (2 mph) treadmill that allows the use of a computer at the same time.  There is research (most notably from the Mayo Clinic) that suggests that movement improves brain function, ease of learning and reduces anxiety and depression in addition to providing the physical benefits associated with physical activity.  Since scholarly work can be highly sedentary, we are curious to know whether providing this option in the library would be welcome as well as beneficial, both intellectually and physically.  The Walkstation will be in the library for the next few weeks and we invite anyone to give it a try. 

In both cases, we’ll be asking users to provide us with feedback on these new products.  Thank you for helping us as we re-imagine the library of the 21st century! 
(take the feedback survey if you’ve tried the product)

–Dan Gjelten, Director, UST Libraries

October 20, 2010 by
Libraries, New Materials, News & Events

Research Guides Re-imagined

Not sure how you can find those “peer-reviewed” articles your prof wants you to use in that research paper?  Don’t know where to find the definition of “heteroscedasticity” for that econometrics assignment? Trying to trace the first usage of ‘Google’ as a verb? Wondering how the heck you’re supposed to find books on ‘Cosmopolitanism and the geopolitics of feminist rhetoric’?

Try the Libraries’ Research Guides!!

The Research Guides, accessible from the library home page or via this direct link are authored by our liaison librarians and will give you specific suggestions of appropriate sources (e.g. scholarly library subscription databases, book catalogs, vetted free web sites, etc.) by format, subtopic, etc. This summer, we completely rebuilt this portion of our website, using a new software product called Libguides.  The new system offers a number of advantages over the old web pages, including:

  • Tabbed layout for understandable organization and easy navigation (see screen shot below)
  • More engaging visual layout, easier integration of images, audio and video content
  • More dynamic content with automatically updated lists of new books, feeds of relevant news and article content, etc.
  • Easy access to your librarian’s contact info for follow-up, plus integrated chat reference service
  • Ability for users to comment on and rate the resources
  • Ability to be notified if changes are made to a guide

libguides_screenshot

 

Note to faculty members:

Many professors have linked to our old web pages on their Blackboard or other course web sites: if you have done so, please update them by finding the appropriate links from the subject listings.  You may also want to review our web page that demonstrates how to link a Research Guide to a Blackboard course.

Instructors wishing to have a new guide created to address research assignments in their specific courses, or who would like resources added to an existing guide should contact their Liaison Librarian for assistance.

September 13, 2010 by
Database Highlights & Trials, New Materials, News & Events

Streaming Videos available at the Libraries

A reminder that the Libraries have subscribed to a database of streaming videos as a pilot project.

Films on Demand is the name of the database that hosts these films.  Current subjects represented include psychology, history, literature, languages, engineering, business, art, sociology, sciences and more.

These videos are streamed over the internet in several formats, and are available for individual or classroom viewing via the computers’ browser.  You can locate these films from the link above, via the Libraries catalog, or on the Media Resources Collection home page. If you have questions or feedback about whether this service should be expanded, please contact our Media Resources Librarian, Cindy Badilla-Melendez, at cbadillame@stthomas.edu, or 651-962-5464.

October 27, 2009 by
Libraries, New Materials, News & Events

Streaming Video Titles Now Available

UST Libraries now has access to a database of online videos called Films on Demand. An initial group of 20 films are available via an on-demand video stream from the Media Resources Collection’s Web site, the CLICnet library catalog, the Libraries’ Databases and Indexes page, or directly.
Videos from this pilot project are available for classroom or individual viewing via a Web browser and are accessible from on or off campus (off-campus users will need to log in with UST username and password) using broadband high speed (i.e., cable modem or DSL) Internet connections.
This pilot project will test whether streaming videos can better meet curricular needs of faculty wishing to assign in-class or asynchronous viewing and determine whether this mode of video delivery is feasible without excessive consumption of computer network bandwidth resources.
See the Web site for usage tips, including minimum computer, browser and media-player software requirements. If you have questions on how to access the videos or comments, how well this streaming video content meets your needs, and whether you think this effort should expand beyond a pilot project, contact Cindy Badilla-Melendez, UST media resources librarian, (651) 962-5464.

May 11, 2009 by
Music, New Materials

New DVD’s @ the MRC

Visit this list to see what goodies are new to the library’s music collection. This month’s highlights includes a handful of Jazz performers, a dash of opera, sacred choral and orchestral masterworks, plus CD’s of world music from Peru, Ghana, India and Tibet.
If you’d like to suggest scores and recordings for the MRC collection, please send titles, label, and performers to mrc@stthomas.edu.

November 21, 2008 by
Libraries, New Materials

New Database Trials: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and Social Work Abstracts

Check these out and comment via our Database Trials page.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Browse the free content available in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography – 55,000 biographies of people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond, from the earliest times to the year 2003.
Social Work Abstracts
UST libraries also have a trial for Social Work Abstracts from Ebsco. The library would like to know if users prefer this new user interface for SWA or the version from its current vendor. E-mail your preferences, comments, etc., to Jan Orf, by Monday, Aug. 6.

July 23, 2007 by