The Great Citation Chase

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Norah

So you’re doing research for a project, reading a book or an article, just minding your own business, when out of nowhere appears a footnote. Right after a really interesting fact or argument, one that you’d like to know more about and include in your own paper. So you follow that note to the bottom of the page, or the end of the chapter or book or article (wherever those notes are gathered), because you need the source that information actually came from.

Suddenly, you’ve come down with a case of citation. Don’t worry: We can cure that. (This course of treatment will also work if one of your professors has listed a book or an article for required reading in your class syllabus.)

Most of the time, an item in a bibliography will be a citation for a book or an article from an academic journal, newspaper, or magazine. Yes, more and more citations are leading to websites today, but let’s assume that we all know how to type a URL into a web browser and call it a day.

First of all, you need to know whether you’re looking at a citation for a book or an article. The quick and dirty way to tell the two apart is that books have the name of the publishing company and its geographic location right in the citation. (The examples below are in MLA format, but the same principle holds true for other citation styles, including the always popular APA.)

examples of book and article citations

I like polar bears, okay?

library homepage search toolsOnce that first puzzle is solved, you’ll need the right tool on the library homepage to locate this cited resource. This is really important because the Kraemer Library Catalog will find books, not journal articles. And by name alone it should be obvious that the Journal Search will not locate a book. By the way, the “Select a Database” tool will not help you with either type of resource. Databases are great when you’re doing research and need to find a lot of articles about a topic, but they are not great for tracking down a known article that you have a citation for.

Finding a book from a citation is very straight forward: You already know the title, so set that top blue catalog box on the library homepage to title search and type it in. If you get no results, first check your spelling (the catalog is super picky about this) and if that isn’t the problem, click on the Prospector box to see if another library in Colorado owns the book. We don’t own every book that has ever been published (shocking, right?!), but if someone else has it you can make a request and pick up the book here in a few days.

Locating articles is a multi-step process which begins with the Journal Search box. It doesn’t matter if the article is actually from a newspaper or a magazine; Journal Search works for them, too. However, this is a Journal Search box, not an Article Search box! If you simply enter the article title, you won’t get a result. What you need to do is search for the journal, and if we own it, then move on to accessing the article. In most citation styles (APA, MLA, etc), the individual article title appears before the journal title. There are some citation styles like ACS (American Chemical Society), where the article title doesn’t even appear in the citation, but the journal title will always be there – that’s why we have a tool that searches by journal.

process of searching for a journal

Some journals can be accessed through multiple sources - make sure the dates are right for your article.

Enter the journal title, and if you find it in the search results first check the dates for which we have access to this journal. In the example citation above, the article was published in the journal Arctic in 2006, so you need to make sure that year is included in the date range you see on the search results screen. In this particular case, every different source where you can access the journal includes issues from 2006, so you could choose to track the article down through any of those options.

Once you follow a link to the journal, you just need to open the right issue. If you don’t see a list of past issues by year right on the page, look for a link to the journal archive or past issues.

finding the archives of a journal

Most journal homepages have an obvious link that you can use to access past issues.

As with books, our library do not have access to every article ever written in the entire history of the world (not even all the articles written in English). If you get no results from your journal search, or if your article was published outside of our date range for that journal, you’ll be able to request a PDF copy of the article through our Interlibrary Loan system, ILLiad. Just like using Prospector to request books, an ILLiad request will take a few days, but it’s free for you and you don’t even have to come to the library to get your article – you just log back into ILLiad, which is available on the library’s homepage.

Another tool you can use to find a journal article starting with a citation is the Citation Linker, which can be found by clicking the “Journals by Subject” link in the Journal Search box. The Citation Linker allows you to fill in all the information you have available from the citation in the various fields, then search to see if we have access to the article. You don’t need to fill out every field in the Citation Linker, but you should enter everything you know from the citation.

using the citation linker

With great power comes great responsibility...

Right now you’re probably thinking I wasted your time with all that Journal Search nonsense. So why didn’t I just tell you about the Citation Linker first? Because lots of people get lazy and/or impatient and don’t enter all the information they have, which makes the Linker less effective in finding articles. If you don’t enter enough information, you won’t get an article link and then you either have to reenter your citation or use the journal search anyway. So if you want to use this feature to find specific articles, be ready to commit, or you’ll just be doing extra work.

Happy citation hunting! And remember, if you ever need help tracking down resources, that’s why we have a reference desk – it’s not just there for decorative purposes.

 

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Kraemer Family Library Food for Fines Starts Monday!

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Carla

It’s Time Again for  Food for Fines!

Did you return a book late? Forgot what time your course reserve item was due? Your chance to pay off those library fines and help a good cause is here! Starting April 16 and running through April 30 the Kraemer Family Library will be sponsoring a Food for Fines campaign benefiting our local Care and Share.

Here’s how it works…

You’ll receive a $1.00 credit towards your library fines for each non-perishable food item you bring in. There is no limit on the number of items you may bring in, however this offer cannot be used to pay for replacement fees for lost items.

 In an effort to provide nutritionally balanced items to the food bank, Ramen noodles can be used to pay off only 20% of your fine total.

Please bring your donations to the main Circulation Desk in order to receive a credit for your fines. If you have any questions please contact the Circulation Department at 719-255-3296.

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Opportunities to Share, Opportunities to Learn

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Beth

Mountain Lion Research Day and CSURF are quickly approaching!

Mountain Lion Research Day is April 13th (http://epiic.uccs.edu/mlrd) and is right here on campus in the Gallogly Events Center all morning long. You can learn about research happening at UCCS from students, faculty, and staff presenters. If you’ve never seen a poster session, now is a great time to see one.

CSURF is April 28th (http://www.uccs.edu/~csurf/) and is a full day event showcasing the work of undergraduates from UCCS, Colorado College, and the Air Force Academy. This year it will be held at Colorado College. I recommend checking out either event to see your classmates’ work in departments across campus.

 A typical poster session. Photo for Flickr Creative Commons user euthman

Presentation skills are great to acquire while you are at a university. Becoming an effective presenter will help you in your career, regardless of whether your goals lead you into the workforce or further on in your education. Successfully presenting your research is just as important as having quality data, because without displaying your work clearly, you may not be understood. If you are interested in making your own poster, for class or for a professional presentation, we can help.

I’ve helped many students create posters and I’ve created a number of posters myself, for classes as well as for regional and national conferences. This guide: http://libguides.uccs.edu/poster should help you to get started and display your findings. After all, you’ve done the hard work of research and writing, now you can share your knowledge.

Librarians Tabatha Farney and Beth Kumar present at a professional poster session.
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Remembering the Titanic

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Carla

The story of the Titanic has been popularized though numerous books and films, but all too often they only focus on the actual sinking of the ship. As we draw close to the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic I’ve begun to wonder about the events leading up to the sinking, the coverage of the story, and what happened after.  I’m a Librarian which means I love to do research,  so I took a gander at our library’s catalog and databases to see what I could find.

If you are reading this from off-campus you’ll need to use the VPN in order to follow my links

In the News

In addition to loving research I also love, love, love primary resources, so I took a look in our Gale News Vault to see find some news articles from the time.

The Titanic was a big deal even before her first voyage; here are a few stories about the construction and launch of the ship:

“The Olympic And Titanic.” Times (London, England) 6 Jan. 1911

“The Largest Vessel Afloat” Times (London, England) 11 April 1912

We all know that late in the evening on April 14, 1912 the Titanic struck an iceberg. She sank  about 2½  hours later, around 2:20 am on April 15th. At first, the details of the incident were very sketchy, with some newspapers reporting that the ship had not sunk, rather was damaged and being towed into port. A Canadian newspaper reported that she was slowly taking on water and would likely be beached. The truth of the disaster began to emerge only after the Carpathia had picked-up the survivors, and they began to tell relate the details through the wireless; their story transfixed much of the world.

 This is the beginning of an article about the sinking printed in the London Times on April 16, 1912.

This is a map that was published on April 16 that estimated the location of the sinking

 

Almost immediately, the public began to call for an investigation into the sinking. On April 17, Michigan Senator William A. Smith called for the Committee on Commerce to investigate the disaster. He was especially disturbed by reports that Titanic passenger Bruce Ismay, Managing Director of the White Star line, was hoping to go directly back to England without talking to anyone in America about the accident. Subpoena were issued for him and the entire crew, and the American inquiry schedule to begin on April 18th, the day after the Carpathia arrived in port.

The inquiry lasted 18 days 86 witnesses testified. Bruce Ismay was the first called to testify; you can read a full transcript of his testimony and the entire hearing at the Titanic Inquiry Project webpage. The crew and passengers of the Titanic were questioned as well as Arthur Rosen, Captain of the Carpathia.

Another inquiry was sponsored by the British government; Charles Bigham (Lord Mersey) was appointed to lead the committee. This inquiry lasted almost 2 months (May 2-July 3), and most of the same witnesses from the American Inquiry were called to testify.

Both inquiries reached similar conclusions:

  • the regulations on the number of lifeboats that ships had to carry were out of date and inadequate
  • Captain Smith had failed to take proper heed of ice warnings
  •  the lifeboats had not been properly filled or crewed
  •  the collision was the direct result of steaming into a danger area at too high a speed.

As a result of the accident and inquiries several major changes were implemented to improve maritime safety. This treaty was known as the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) ACT, and was adopted internationally in 1914 in direct response to the titanic sinking. New provisions included:

  • enough lifeboats must be provided for every person on the ship (crew and passengers)
  • lifeboat drills are carried out on every voyage
  • wireless equipment on passenger ships was manned around the clock

An International Ice Patrol was also established to monitor the presence of icebergs in the North Atlantic.

Interested in Learning More?

Here are some other resources available through the Kraemer Family Library…………

Books

The Band that Played On: the Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians who went Down with the Titanic, by Steve Turner

The gallantry of the Titanic band is well-known:

“They kept it up to the very end. Only the engulfing ocean had power to drown them into silence. The band was playing ‘Nearer, My God, to Thee.’ I could hear it distinctly. The end was very close.”   -Charlotte Collyer, Titanic Survivor

Read what brought the band members together and how their music served as the haunting soundtrack for one of modern history’s most tragic maritime disasters.

The Discovery of the Titanic, by Robert D. Ballard

In September 1985 Ballard and a Franco-American expedition discovered the wreck of the Titanic. Ballard used a specially designed remote imaging system to locate and photograph the wreck and then returned the following year to further survey and photograph the site in a three-person submarine. This pictorial record of his expedition is filled with good quality color and black-and-white pictures. Wherever possible he compares the modern-day pictures to original ones of the Titanic . After briefly discussing other attempts to find the Titanic , he gives a solid account of the sinking, then details the events that led to the ship’s discovery.

Down with the Old Canoe: a cultural history of the Titanic Disaster, by Steve Biel

The largest movable object ever constructed by man when it was launched, the supposedly unsinkable Titanic has inspired novels, songs, poetry, and movies. Steven Biel explores the social and cultural myths that the disaster gave rise to.

Have you heard of The Wreck of the Titan? It’s an 1898 novella written by Morgan Robertson about an ocean liner called the Titan, and it has some eerie similarities to the sinking of the Titanic.Similarities include:

  • Both were the largest ships of their time and both were considered “unsinkable”
  • Both had a shortage of life boats
  • Both were moving too fast and struck an icebergs, causing them to sink

It’s a pretty good read. You can request a copy through Prospector.

Film

Titanic’s Achilles Heel, by Kirk Wolfinger.

This online film from The History Channel explores fatal design flaws of the famous ship.

And, of course, we own the very popular film Titanic, staring Kate Winslet and Leo DiCaprio, and directed by James Cameron.

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Art in the Library

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Norah

Untitled by Ian Brands If you walked past the reference desk in the library during the past month, you probably noticed an untitled sculpture of metal and plaster made by UCCS student Ian Brands. Pay special attention to the radial symmetry of the arms and the functioning wrist joints for the hands, because these were two features that Ian gave a great deal of consideration. You can see more pictures of the sculpture on the Kraemer Family Library Flickr page.

Untitled by Ian Brands

This isn’t the first student art project to stake out a spot near the main entrance, and we’d love to play host to more works of art in the future. If you are a UCCS student and are interested in displaying a piece of artwork in the library, contact Teri Switzer (tswitzer[at]uccs.edu).

Conversation by Patrick Bohnen Blockbuster by Courtney Matthews It's "Hammer Time!"

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New Office Delivery Service for Faculty & Staff

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Carla

We librarians like to be as helpful as possible so we’re trying-out a new service which will help UCCS faculty and staff access library items a bit easier; Office Delivery!

Through this service faculty and staff can have library materials be delivered to their office Monday through Friday, between the hours of 9am-5pm. Any borrowed items can be delivered, including items in our library catalog with a status of “AVAILABLE” and those borrowed through Prospector or InterLibrary Loan (ILL).

Here’s how it works….

  1. You must be a UCCS faculty or staff member with and an office on campus which is accessible to library staff (sorry students, but we aren’t to the point of delivering to dorm rooms yet!).
  2. You must be registered with the library. If you are not trot on over here with your UCCS ID card and visit one of our Circulation Desks to get registered; we’ll have you in the system in less than 5 minutes!
  3. Request some items through the KFL catalog, Prospector, or ILL
  4. We’ll send you an email when your requested items are ready for pick-up. When you get this email call the Circulation Desk at 255-3296 and ask to speak with a staff member about Office Delivery. They’ll help you arrange a delivery time and will be able to answer any questions you might have!

At the specified delivery time we will:

  • Give you a phone call to ensure you are in your office and ready for delivery
  • Check-out the items to your library account
  • Walk them over to your office

When we arrive with your books you must present your picture ID (UCCS ID card or drivers license) to the person delivering your items. Please note that in order to protect your privacy we can only deliver your items to you (we can’t give them to an administrative assistant or grad assistant, even if you give them your ID card).

When you are ready to return items please bring them back to the library. We currently offer is no retrieval service, and students who deliver items are unable to accept returns.

Every now and then we may run into some problems where we might not be able to deliver items, including inclement weather or insufficient staff and students on duty. If this happens we’ll give you a phone call right away to let you know we won’t be able to deliver your items and reschedule another delivery time at your convenience.

We’re super excited about this new service and hope that you will be too! We’ve created a FAQ page where you can learn more, or call the Circulation Desk at 255-3296 and speak with a staff member.

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The Best Books of 2011

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Norah

It’s a very common misconception, but we librarians do not actually read books all day. Case in point: I am currently writing this blog post. But even though we don’t read 24/7/366 (leap year!), we can definitely point you towards the best books of the last year, which are on display in the main floor apse. (Apse is just slang for the technical term, “That semicircular area with all the windows and tables near the main entrance.”)

All of the books on display made the short list for Best Books of 2011 from such sources as The New York Times, Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus Review, Library Journal, Amazon, Salon.com, and more. The display isn’t pure novels either. Whether you prefer poetry, graphics, or non-fiction from a variety of disciplines, it’s all there waiting for you to find your perfect recreational read.

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Our New Entrepreneurial DVD Series

Posted on February 2, 2012 by Carla

Attention, Entrepreneurs! Thinking about opening your own business? You may want to check-out a new DVD series that the library has acquired called the Startup Experience. These films feature entrepreneurship expert (and UCCS Professor) Dr. Tom Duening interviewing local business owners to learn how they got started. These interviews uncover real-world experience in what works and does not work, valuable business lessons, and secrets and tips that are essential to start-up success.

Thinking about opening a bookstore? This DVD features an interview with Richard Skorman, owner of Poor Richard’s Bookstore in downtown Colorado Springs.

Maybe you’d like to open a catering business? Borrow this DVD to learn how to get started by from Picnic Basket, Cravings, and Buffalo Girls owner Michelle Talarico.

Want to learn how to bring products to market? Watch this interview where Jim Holley, Inventor, Entrepreneur, Founder and former CEO of Umix, discuss how to evaluate inventions for potential commercial success, develop and protect ideas, self-market products, find business partners, and negotiate the best deals.

You can also learn about:

We hope that you find these films interesting and useful, and good luck getting started!

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Getting Scopus to Work in Internet Explorer

Posted on January 19, 2012 by Tabby

If you use either version 8.0 or 9.0 of the Internet Explorer web browser (IE8 or IE9), Scopus’ search page is displayed as a long list of links over a white background which makes it difficult to search.  To fix this, here are a few solutions:

  • Use a different web browser. Whether you use a Windows, Macintosh, or Unix-based operating system, you can use alternative web browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, or Safari. If you don’t have any of these already installed on your computer, you will need to first go to their website and download the web browser on to your computer.
  • If you prefer using Internet Explorer, you can work around this issue by clicking on the “compatibility view” icon located in web address bar (see image below). If you don’t see that “compatibility view” icon, view this How to Use Compatibility View in Internet Explorer 9 video.

Click on the compability view icon in the web address bar to get Scopus to display properly.

Click on the compability view icon in the web address bar to get Scopus to display properly.
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Can I Check Out My Textbooks from the Library?

Posted on January 13, 2012 by Norah

For the first blog entry of the new year, let’s tackle the most common question we receive at the beginning of every semester… and I’m not talking about “Do you have a bathroom?” because, yes, yes we do – on both floors. No the magic questions is:

“Does the library have the textbooks for [fill in name of class here]?”

The answer is maybe.

Unfortunately, we can’t purchase every textbook in use at UCCS for the semester. Picture the cost of the textbooks for just your own classes. Now picture buying the textbooks for every other class being offered. Now picture buying multiple copies so that you’ll have enough to cover more than one student per class. Now picture doing that every single semester for as long as this university is in existence. Not a pretty picture, is it?

But we do own some textbooks, and if we do they will either be on reserve for a class or upstairs in the main collection.

First, let’s talk reserves. Sometimes professors place textbooks and other class readings (or listenings or viewings, for those who use music and movies) on reserve in the library. The idea behind course reserves is that it gives a class the chance to “share” a copy of a book, CD or DVD. The materials can only be checked out for a limited time (ranging from 2 hours to a week, depending on what the professor requested). In this way, one student can’t keep the library’s copy of the book all to themself for the semester without incurring very hefty fines.

Want to see if any of your classes have textbooks on reserve? Click the “Course Reserves” link in the center of the library homepage, then search by either your class number (start with the department abbreviation, ie Chem 3310 or Hist 1030) or your professor’s last name. If there is an item on reserve for your class, it will be behind the main circulation desk, so ask for it there.

the process of looking up course reserves

How do we decide which books are kept on reserve? Well, the library doesn’t. Individual professors ask us to place books on reserve, so if you feel like this would be useful for your class, talk to your teacher.

No reserves for your class? We have many books upstairs in the main, circulating collection, some of which happen to be textbooks. If you know the name of the book you can look it up in the library catalog using a title search. (When a book has a really generic title, like “Calculus” or “Organic Chemistry”, you’ll probably want to do an advanced search where you can combine title and author.) If you get a result, check it carefully: We all know that new versions of textbooks are published regularly, so there can be many different editions of one book. Look closely at the item record to make sure the publication date or the edition number matches the version you need. Sometimes professors will allow you to use earlier editions for classes. Also pay attention to the book’s Status: Available means it’s here, a due date means it’s checked out. If the Location says “Reserves”, the book is here but is actually on reserve (see above). If the library doesn’t own the book, or our copy is checked out, you can search the Prospector catalog to see if another school can send it to you, which will take several days. how to see if a textbook is availableRemember that if you find the book in the library, you can only check it out for the standard loan period: 3 weeks for undergrads and 6 weeks for grad students. You can renew the book if no one else has placed a hold on it. And by the way, if you decide to just keep the book all semester despite the fact that someone else requested it, you A) are not being a good library citizen and B) no longer have a free textbook for the semester because you’re going to be paying for it in overdue fines. If you bring in a book from another library, it also has to be returned on their timetable.

Ultimately, we can’t guarantee that we can help find every textbook you’ll need through the library, but come see us at the Reference Desk if you need any help looking. Have a successful spring semester!

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