KSL News Blog

Monthly Archive Index for KSL News Blog

Treat Yourself to a Free Class with KSL CaseLearns

Longing to learn...about RSS, HTML, Filtering Email, or Searching Medline more effectively? Perhaps you'd like to advance your Microsoft Office skills, try some Audio Recording, use RefWorks for your citation management, or take a Video Workshop (before and after you shoot)?

Whether it's learning how to search smarter with research tools, demystify copyright, or create a webpage, CaseLearns lets you do all of that & more. Register online and take a class for an hour, part of a day...or try something from the new Sunday Series!

From the KSL homepage, select the quicklink for CaseLearns. Login with your Case network ID & password (upper right corner) to begin searching the full list of courses or the categories. Or, browse through the Semester Calendar along the left sidebar & click on a class to register. Read more about important attendance policies, and the FAQ about CaseLearns. Everything is online, including times, room numbers at KSL & HCL, and brief class descriptions.

Read it online, or in the Spring Class Schedule, also always available as a .PDF file on the CaseLearns web page!

Remembering President Ford — KSL Exhibit

The KSL exhibit cases this month highlight the 38th U.S. President, Gerald R. Ford. Many books and Government Document (State Papers) are included, along with the volume of Public Papers of the President for Ford. You'll see photos and reproductions of Time magazine covers, documenting the meetings Ford held with many leaders from around the world.

There are a variety of volumes that refer to Ford's work in the House, such as the Hearings of the Committee on Veteran's Affairs, 95th Congress, and publications from the American Enterprise Institute, feturing his writings on economic and political & social processes. From books to photos, to documents, the exhibit provides new views of his presidency (1974-1977), and his many years in government.

Find the KSL exhibit cases on the main floor of the library near the staircase, when you enter the building. The exhibit was prepared by the Special Collections Department, with items from Government Documents and the general collections.

OhioLINK Librarian Wins New York Times Award

Congratulations to Paul Owen Jenkins, College of Mount St. Joseph, for his inclusion in the New York Times 2006 Librarian Awards. The sixth year for the national awards, 2006 is the first year to include academic librarians, and Paul was one of three who were honored in this new category.

Read the Mount's news item about Paul's award, and find out more about his email service "Books with POJ" and other things he has advocated for new uses of library space.

Read more about the NYT Librarian Awards, including the full press release.

Online Medical Images with images.MD

For personal use or educational research, use images, charts, diagrams from images.MD, the first continuously updated online encyclopedia of medical images. Supplement your research with images (over 50,000 images, including brief text & details) from 90 collections, and add a new element to your projects, presentations, or personal knowledge!

Use the resources to supplement your paper with a diagram emphasizing how interrelationships in critical care affect patients, or to find brief text & images on news items like diabetes or cardiac treatments. (Use the magnifying glass to reveal the image content from your search results.) Set up a profile & password and areas of interest, and you can receive alerts when those topics are updated.

Fair use is generous for for registered users, allowing you to save up to 100 images in your slide library (profile/password required), edit images, or send up to 20 images to any email address. You can convert images & text into PowerPoint slides, use them in lectures, presentations, for your own research or non-commercial use, and post them on a password protected website. The FAQ has other information, including options to have images.MD create CD-ROMs for you, and more. Find this new database on OhioLINK's database list.

Privileges are offered through Case's OhioLINK membership.
Remote access requires an active VPN connection, or OhioLINK authorization with Case Account Number & library PIN.

File Formats & You — Will Your PDF Have Longevity?

Digital imaging vendors & organizations are talking about the newest ISO standard for PDFs...now you can, too! Come to a free web seminar and learn how to create and preserve your work with the right formats for long-term use.

Electronic Records: Preservation Options of PDF, a free web seminar offered by University Archives and held at the Kelvin Smith Library, helps you with the challenge of finding a format specifically suited for content, appearance, long-term management, and use. This free web seminar, created by The Society of American Archivists, will teach you about:
- the new ISO PDF/A standard as a stable preservation format
- the limitations of unrestricted PDFs, natively created PDFs or post-digitized works
- how to eliminate steps & save time in the PDF process
- higher quality documents that are easier to preserve, access, and interpret.

If you create your own documents, or manage them in an organization, intend to contribute to Digital Case, or just want to avoid the dreaded "this file appears to use a new format...", you are invited to join us on Monday, February 5, 2006 from 2:00 p.m.-3:30 p.m. at the Kelvin Smith Library.

This web-based seminar will have Q&A opportunities directly with SAA, handouts, and practical guidelines & options to help you create the next generation of digital documents!

Seating is limited for this free seminar. Please RSVP via email or phone 216-368-3320.
Directions & parking for the Kelvin Smith Library at Case Western Reserve University
Mon., Feb. 5, 2006, Room 215, 2:00 p.m.-3:30 p.m.

Put An E-Book in Your Bookbag! New Resources...

From the Crusades to Genetic Engineering, from Automobiles in America's Industrial Revolution to Pop Culture in Germany, you can search and learn from nearly 500 e-books. Eleven new titles have been added this month to the OhioLINK Electronic Reference Books collection.

Search, browse, sort the number of times a term is displayed, and add items to your Bookbag. Later, search within the Bookbag items, and the topics you create by your items. Images, references, tables of contents, maps, and more are included in the e-books.

New titles are:
Aircraft Carriers: An Illustrated History of Their Impact
The Crusades: An Encyclopedia
The Encyclopedia of the American Revolutionary War...
The Encyclopedia of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars...
Genetic Engineering: A Reference Handbook, 2nd ed.
Industrial Revolution in America: Automobiles
The Judicial Branch of State Government: People, Process, Politics
Pop Culture Germany! Meida, Arts, Lifestyle
Turning Points in History: Colonial America from Settlement to the Revolution
Turning Points —Actual & Alternate Histories: Native America from Prehistory to First Contact
World Fascism: A Historical Encyclopedia

Electronic Reference Books can be searched remotely by Case individuals using an active VPN connection, or by logging on to OhioLINK by authorizing by Case, your Case Account Number, and your library PIN.

Find this e-book collection and others like Safari, netLibrary, & more, on the quick links for E-Books or Research Databases on the Case Catalog.

Climate Change, the News, Tools, Challenges — January Research Spotlight

Climate change, policy, health & environmental effects, science, a personal emissions calculator, and you...see how the EPA's Climate Change Site offers information on these issues. The news releases, features, summations, and images help us to understand how society is affected, at the individual, community, business, government, and international levels.

Sidebars offer:
- quick definitions (global warming, or climate change?)
- categories to explore more about recent news such as the polar ice shelf melt
- Example: "Polar Region" link for Arctic Climate Impact Assessment report (sea level rise, polar bears, remote sensing evidence, NASA & NOAA data and indicators, analysis, and references)
- NOVA PBS features, peer-reviewed reports and images that inform, raise your awareness, and help support decision making.

The Personal Emissions Calculator, along with the category "What You Can Do" (home, office, school, etc.) is a quick way to see how your car, home, recycling, or remodeling efforts stack up to national data and carbon emissions. By saying yes to things like 2 degrees cooler/warmer, new windows, new appliances, see how you can have a startling positive effect on your planet!

Check it out, on Climate Change, the KSL January Research Spotlight!

New OhioLINK EJC Interface

The new OhioLINK Electronic Journal Center (EJC) interface will go live on Monday, January 8, 2007.

Information about the new interface for end users is posted at http://olc7.ohiolink.edu/whatsnew/archives/000172.html.

Anyone who wishes to keep saved alerts or searches from an old ScienceServer account will need to migrate that information to the new interface by the end of January. Instructions for doing so are at http://olc7.ohiolink.edu/whatsnew/archives/000177.html.