LibrarianInBlack: Top search engines have little overlap in results

Interesting post on LibrarianInBlack yesterday on a study of search engine results by Dogpile. Essentially they found that only 3% of first page search results were shared by Google, Yahoo, and Ask Jeezes. Definitely worth a read through.

LCSH Changes: Drug Abuse Related Headings

I am sure that you are all as riveted to the LCSH Weekly Lists as I am, but just in case you missed #13 (March 30, 2005), I thought you might like a summary of a few of the more significant subject heading changes and additions that will be coming our way.

[Old Heading ==>New Heading]

Children of narcotic addicts ==>Children of drug addicts
Cocaine habit ==>Cocaine abuse
[No old heading] ==>Drug abusers
Heroin habit ==>Heroin abuse
Narcotic addicts ==>Drug addicts
Narcotic clinics ==>Substance abuse treatment facilities
Narcotic enforcement agents ==>Drug enforcement agents
Narcotic habit ==>Drug addiction
Narcotic habit--Hospitals ==>Substance abuse treatment facilities
Narcotics, Control of ==>Drug control
Narcotics and crime ==>Drug abuse and crime
Narcotics and youth ==>Drugs and youth
Narcotics dealers ==>Drug dealers
Narcotics in literature ==>Drugs in literature
Narcotics in literature ==>Drug abuse in literature
Opioid habit ==>Opioid abuse
Opium habit ==>Opium abuse
Opium habit in literature ==>Opium abuse in literature
Social work with narcotic addicts ==>Social work with drug addicts
Women narcotics dealers ==>Women drug dealers

This is just a small selection of the changes, but, in most cases, the term "narcotics" has been broadened to "drugs" and the term "habit" has been replaced by "abuse" and/or "addiction". I expect the new records to arrive from MARCIVE at the end of this month and I will process them as soon as I can. Until that time the older headings will remain in the catalog. Please feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions.

Info Lit Standards for Science and Technology

Was just flipping through the May College and Research Libraries News and ran across a draft of ACRL's Information Literacy Standards for Science and Technology and thought it might be of interest.

SAMM Information, Part 2

A few interesting links I picked up at SAMM:

Southern Spaces:
"Southern Spaces is an internet journal and scholarly forum, sponsored by Emory University and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which provides open access to peer-reviewed essays, gateways, events and conferences, interviews and performances, and annotated weblinks on the American South." (description from the site)

The New Georgia Encyclopedia:
"The New Georgia Encyclopedia provides an authoritative source of information about people, places, events, institutions, and many other topics relating to the state." (description from the site)

The Gutenberg CD and DVD Project:
We've all heard of Project Gutenberg, but did you know you can download the Gutenberg DVD of 9300 ebooks or the CD of 600 ebooks? (For free.)

WebCT For The Library Room Change

Due to the installation of the new computers (woohoo!) in the JCLRC Instruction Room the WebCT staff development session on Monday will be held in room E-1100 on the Clarkston campus. Lunch will follow in Technical Services due to food restrictions in E Building. Sorry for the late notice!

New Focus For Blog

Greetings. As we discussed at the last Reference Committee meeting, the focus of this weblog is now expanded to include any and all internal information and communications about GPC library services. The web address for the blog won't change, but feel free to post non-reference specific content. Of course don't post any confidential information such as passwords or patron info or things like "David Free is a real jerk" (because you know what that will make me do), but anything else is fair game.

Please spread the word to all of your colleagues about the blog. No registration is required to read it but if anyone wants to post or comment (which I hope you will) email me at dfree(at)gpc.edu and I'll send you a blog invitation.

U.S. Government Library of RSS Feeds

Saw this post today on Library Stuff about the U.S. Government RSS Feed Library. Very nice directory of government feeds by subject area. Also has an explanation of RSS and how to use feeds.

Virtual Reference Stuff

As promised, here's the information I was going to present at the last Reference Committee meeting in the ever popular PowerPoint format. Take a look and see what you think. We'll discuss in more detail and demo at the next meeting.

Instant Message Reference Overview (PPT)

Reference Committee Minutes

A draft of the minutes from yesterday's Reference Committee meeting is now available on the committee website. Or follow this handy link:

Reference Committee Mintues 5/10/05

WebCT For The Library

Just a reminder about the "WebCT For The Library" staff development program next Monday, May 16th, from 11am-1pm in the Clarkston JCLRC Instruction Room. Tracy Adkins from OIT training will cover basic features of WebCT Vista, troubleshooting issues and how to get additional help.

All GPC library employees are welcome, so come learn about Vista and see the new computers (knock wood).

SAMM Information

Last week I attended the SOLINET Annual Membership Meeting (SAMM). Here are a few items you might find interesting.

James Madison University Libraries has created (with their institutional assessment department) the Information-Seeking Skills Test (ISST), a formal information literacy assessment that all students must pass *before they can register for sophomore classes!* About the ISST.

JMU students are encouraged to use Go for the Gold, an 8-module tutorial, to prepare for the ISST.

If you’re interested in institutional repositories, Georgia State has a fantastic Electronic Theses and Dissertations Database. Anyone can search or browse, and many of the full-text ETDs are viewable from off GSU’s campus. Georgia Tech’s SMARTech contains electronic theses and dissertations, as well as conference proceedings, newsletters, learning objects, and many more items.

Some of the SAMM conference materials are available online.

More later.

Summer Reading Lists

Listen Up!, the semi-world "famous" Decatur Campus Library podcast, is looking for submissions for the next couple of editions. What I'm looking for are lists of recommended Summer readings, preferably of books that are available from at least one GPC library. I don't have a definition of "Summer reading" other than what you would suggest for people to read. Like a readers advisory type thing. Could be anything from romances to physics textbooks, that's up to you. Maybe 3-5 items per list with a brief description (like a sentence or 2) of each item or why it would be good to read over the Summer.

If you could send me submissions by May 27th, that would be excellent. I can either record you or read your list on the show, giving you credit of course. If you would like to be recorded, try to let me know before the 27th so I can set up a time. It's pretty painless.

Of course participation is completely voluntary and won't get you anything except my undying gratitude and possibly someone out there thinking you're cool!

And I'm always looking for 2 minute or so long book reviews too! Of anything available at a GPC library.

Feel free to send this on to anyone not on the blog who might be interested as well.

May Meeting Agenda

Hello! The agenda for the May 10th committee meeting is now available on the committee website. Or here's a link to it:

May Reference Committee Agenda (Word Document)

The meeting will be held from 10am - 12pm in the JCLRC library instruction room.

5/4/05 Update: The agenda link now goes to the actual May agenda. My fingers are being punished as you read this.

Category: Meetings

Improving Instruction: What Librarians Can Learn from the Study of College Teaching

The Information Literacy Weblog has a post about an interesting sounding session I missed at ACRL: "Improving Instruction: What Librarians Can Learn from the Study of College Teaching" by Scott Walter of the University of Kansas. Great discussion of teaching and librarianship. And the presentation materials are hosted on KU ScholarWorks, an institutional repository. How cool is that??