Monthly Archive Index for KSL News Blog

Elsevier Purchase Expands OhioLINK Journal Offerings by 3.4 Million Articles

December 22, 2010

COLUMBUS, OH – Ohio’s college students and researchers will now have access to more than 3.4 million additional articles from Elsevier, a highly regarded publisher in the fields of science and engineering with titles including “The Lancet” and “Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine.” Though OhioLINK member libraries have had access to nearly 2,400 Elsevier journals previously, this collection includes historic backfiles, allowing Ohio’s academic community to search for and cite past works and knowledge.

The acquisition of these backfiles has been a top priority for OhioLINK over the last threeyears, culminating in the state Controlling Board’s November 22, 2010, approval of purchase. The deal was officially finished today.

“This purchase speaks to the hard work and dedication of the OhioLINK community,” says Eric Fingerhut, Chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents. “When it became clear these materials would help accelerate science and engineering research throughout the state, the community came together to put the resources in the hands of the students and faculty who need them.”

OhioLINK is a consortium of 89 Ohio colleges and university libraries and the State Library of Ohio, working to bring books, articles, electronic resources and digitalinformation to more than 600,000 students, faculty, and staff across the Buckeye State. Users have access to more than 48 million library items, 12,000 electronic journals and 140 electronic research databases, available 24/7 through their university libraries or online at www.ohiolink.edu.

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Contact:

John Magill, Executive Director, OhioLINK, johnm@ohiolink.edu, 614.485.6726

Stacy Brannan, Library Support Services Coordinator, OhioLINK, stacy@ohiolink.edu, 614.485.6730

Case Western Reserve University looks to liven up its library

Karen Farkas, Cleveland Plain Dealer, shares information about the KSL planning and redesign.

Case Western Reserve University looks to liven up its library
Karen Farkas, The Plain Dealer
Published: Monday, December 27, 2010

"We need to create more of an engaging atmosphere," he [Arnold Hirshon, associate provost and university librarian] said. "It needs to be more inviting, intellectually viable and stimulating."

KSL Holiday Week Hours

KSL is always online, and like the rest of the campus, will adjust hours for the holidays. 24x7 takes a break too, now that classes & exams are over, but KSL staff is here to help you:

• Christmas week: open Monday-Wednesday 9 am - 5:30 pm
• New Year's week: open Monday-Thursday 9 am - 5:30 pm

After the holidays are over, KSL opens at 9 am on Tuesday, January 4th and extends evening hours Tuesday-Thursday to 8:30 pm. On Friday & Saturday Jan. 7 & 8 the library closes at 5:30 pm.

When KSL is open, use the reference experts at asksl@case.edu for help with your research, or leave an email & staff will reply to you on the next business day.

Kelvin Smith Library extends holiday greetings to all of our researchers, with wishes for a good new year in 2011.

Case Headlines As A Top 5 Winner in International Contest

Record entries (over 10,000) from over 500 schools in the recent international Knovel University Challenge show final results, and Case had 2 winners and was one of only 10 schools in the Contest-Within-A-Contest category that guaranteed another prize winner.

Case also made "headlines" as the lead story on the Knovel 2010 Winners webpage, when Knovel chose the KSL quotation from our iPod nano®winner Justin Pruttivarasin. Congratulations again, Justin!

Case's KSL Engineering Librarian Brian Gray is one of 10 members of Knovel's Academic Advisory Board. Also on the board is the engineering librarian at the grand prize winner University of Arkansas, and at the University of Alberta, also one of the 10 Contest-Within-A-Contest winners. Read Knovel's blog for the cpmplete list of winners.

Case Has 2 Winners in Global Contest

Case has 2 winners in the global Knovel University Challenge! Congratulations to these Case students who entered the online contest and answered 3 contest questions using Knovel Engineering & Scientific Online Reference database.

Justin Pruttivarasin (senior, Chemical Engineering) uses Knovel "extensively." Photographed with his new iPod nano®, his answer to the best & most useful feature: "the interactive equations and tables are very helpful. I'm able to find values for different properties of chemicals within a few clicks. Knovel is able to convert units to the ones I want, instantly."

Megan Witzke (sophomore, Chemical Engineering) poses with a KSL Knovel bear. She's a national winner of an Amazon® gift card & uses Knovel "to find reference values that were either not listed or out of range of the textbook." Megan uses "Perry's Chemical Engineers' Handbook most often because it's easy to navigate through the book right to the information and tables that I'm looking for."

Knovel has full text of over 2,000 leading reference handbooks, conference proceedings, databases and statistical data for researchers in the applied sciences. Analysis tools and other features & 40 international publishers and professional societies give you cross disciplinary research results from a single page. Enjoy added features like webinars (Engineers' Use of Social Networks), cases, news, tools, MyKnovel for saved searches, and more.

The Knovel database is licensed for Case researchers; off campus or wireless access requires an activated VPN session. Find Knovel on the Research Database list.

KSL In the Headlines, Read All About It

Get your copy of The Observer's last publication of the semester, for an inside view of the new KSL. Staff reporter Tyler Hoffman's lead article "Transformation on horizon for KSL" features an interview with Arnold Hirshon, Associate Provost and University Librarian.

From an architectural drawing of the new cafe, to the discussion about the Student Competition for the first floor redesign, the article shares more views on the concepts & drivers behind KSL's changing environment. Read, and picture yourself there...

The Observer, December 3, 2010

Winner of the "Getting Through Finals" Care Package

Twice during the fall semester, students who visited the KSL reference desk were asked to fill out a reference visit questionnaire. The sample included 2 weeks of anonymous answers & numbered tickets that were entered into a prize drawing for a "Getting Through Finals Care Package."

Congratulations to Yin Wang, first year graduate engineering student in EECS! Yin enjoys Case and the help he gets at KSL, and he'll enjoy the KSL tote bag with a wealth of things to get him through the end of the semester and a final project.

The "Getting Through Finals Care Package" has pens, flash drive, KSL water bottle, Starbucks gift certificate, java shot, trail mix, candy bars, nuts, energy snacks, flashlight, puzzles & books and more, to take a deserved break from studies.

Good luck to all students during the last days of fall semester!