What’s going on in the Blume Library?

You may have noticed some empty shelves as you walk into the Louis J. Blume Library. We will be starting construction on a new Learning Commons in May 2012 and we are making some preparations for that space.

The library is discarding both journals and reference books that are available to our faculty and students as on-line digital resources. We are NOT discarding non-reference books from the circulating collection on the third floor. This is something we would have done in a leisurely fashion anyway and no one would have noticed. Libraries do it every day, all over the world. If not, we would be buried under tons of useless information and misinformation and the university would have to build a new wing for the library every ten years or even more often. We have had to move quickly this semester because we are starting construction on the new Learning Commons in May and have to move substantial quantities of books and journals between the floors to make the space available.

NOTE: While we ARE recycling material that is useless to our students and faculty, we are not lightly throwing away material that might be useful to other libraries. We are working with Better World Books, a company that redistributes books to libraries serving developing countries and other nonprofits, and sells used books to individuals. We have shipped more than 9 tons of books to them for redistribution or discounted sales to Haiti, various African countries, and other places. We could do no more than that. You can read more about Better World Books in Wikipedia at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_World_Books

See the environmental metrics document to learn more about this activity, which has brought $8,744.82 back to the library and is being used to purchase ebooks.

based on information provided by Dr. H. Palmer Hall, Director, Louis J. Blume Library, St. Mary’s University

Native American Heritage Month 2011 in the Blume Library

The Blume Library, in partnership with the Native American Student Association at St. Mary’s University, has created a display to celebrate Native American Heritage Month this November. The display is installed in the entryway of the Blume Library and will run from Nov. 1st-30th.

The artifacts on display are clothing and other items presented to Geronimo, leader of the Chiricahua Apaches during the late 19th century. Geronimo was imprisoned by the U.S. Government for raiding and for defying the resettlement of his people to an arid reservation in Arizona.


The display also includes books on Native American Studies, historical studies of Geronimo, and fiction by Native American authors. Books on display are available for checkout.

You can find out more information about Native American and about display though the Native American Heritage Month LibGuide on the Library website.

I encourage you to take time to celebrate Native American Heritage Month by visiting the display, learning more from the LibGuide, and taking advantage of the events sponsored by the Native American Student Association. Check out the University calendar for more details about upcoming events.

100,000 E-books From Open Library's "In Library" Lending Program

The Blume Library's membership in Open Library's new e-book lending program brings instant access to over 100,000 online titles to the St. Mary's community. Participating libraries in the "In Library" lending program pledge to make a part of their collection available in e-book format and, in return, their users are eligible to borrow e-books made available by over 1,000 other member libraries.

To borrow an e-book, you must be either connected to the campus network or authenticated through our proxy server as a member of the University community, in exactly the same way as other library databases work.

Once authenticated, you create your own account at Open Library using the "Sign Up" link at the upper right corner of the "Borrow eBooks" page. Search or browse for an e-book and begin reading!

E-books may also be downloaded and read offline using Adobe Digital Editions and can be transferred to portable reading devices compatible with that software.

Open Library is a project of the Internet Archive, and in addition to the lending library of current titles, it makes freely available nearly 1,000,000 other e-books in all languages, though the vast majority are older, out of copyright, works.

If you want to read more about the "In Library" lending program, it has been publicized in the Wall Street Journal, Publisher's Weekly magazine, and its own "Borrow eBooks" webpage.

On June 2, 2011, the National Academies Press (NAP) announced that nearly all of their publications would become freely available on their web site. Over 4000 titles from NAP have been digitized and are available as HTML full-text or PDF full-text. (You must register with the site to download the PDF files, but registration is free and painless.)

The National Academies Press publishes reports issued by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council. More than 200 books are published by NAP each year on a wide variety of topics ranging from Space and Aeronautics to Math, Chemistry & Physics to Education to Computers and Information Technology to Conflict and Security Issues and many, many topics in-between!

A group of approximately 25 librarians from Kazakhstan, Canada, and the United States have joined together (virtually) to catalog the entire NAP digital collection. So far, just over a thousand titles have been cataloged. These cataloging records will be loaded into our catalog here at St. Mary's as they become available, so check the catalog frequently and if you can't find something, try searching the NAP web site. Of course, you're always welcome to contact a librarian for further assistance!

Some of the reports that have just been added to the catalog are Marine Protected Areas: Tools for Sustaining Ocean Ecosystems, Improving Mathematics Education: Resources for Decision Making, Immunization Safety Review: Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines and Neurodevelopmental Disorders, and A Modified Baseline Incineration Process for Mustard Projectiles at Pueblo Chemical Depot.

eBooks migrate to EBSCOhost platform

Many of our subscription electronic books or eBooks have now migrated from the netLibrary platform to the EBSCOhost platform. What does this mean for you as a researcher or faculty member? It means a platform that has many familiar features, that is easier to search, and that makes it easier to download, email, or print portions of our books.

Many of our popular databases, such as Academic Search Complete and Business Source Complete, use the EBSCOhost platform, so many of the icons and user features should look familiar. If you have set up a MyEBSCOhost account in one of these other databases, you can also use in with the eBook Collection. Just follow this MyEBSCOhost account link if you would like to learn how to set up an account.

Additional features include:

• Navigate to eBook chapters or sections directly from Result List and Detail Record


• Search within an eBook for specific terms, yielding a list of hyperlinked pages


• Create notes that are associated to eBook pages


• Optional download capabilities and user-selected checkout duration

Our eBooks will continue to be searchable in our library online catalog. Enjoy searching and using the eBook Collection via the EBSCOhost platform!

Find items in libraries near you

WorldCat is the world's largest network of library content and services. WorldCat libraries are dedicated to providing access to their resources on the Web, where most people start their search for information. You can quickly determine whether the Blume Library or another local library has a particular book, DVD, or other item that you are seeking.

• Search many libraries at once for an item and then locate it in a library nearby
• Find books, music, and videos to check out
• Post your review of an item, or contribute factual information about it

Also, if you have a mobile device (smartphone or tablet) and the Red Laser app, using the WorldCat Search API, you can scan a bar code of a book and quickly find out if your local library has that book in their collection. Watch the video on the WorldCat site to learn more about this nifty feature!

Reduce anxiety with the Encyclopedia of Measurement and Statistics

Don't let terms and phrases like measures of central tendency, MANOVA, or kurtosis send you into panic mode! Reduce your anxiety about statistical analysis with the Encyclopedida of Measurement and Statistics, edited by Niel J. Salkind (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Reference, 2007). This 3-volume, 1136-page publication presents state-of-the-art information and ready-to-use facts and explanations in a non-intimidating and accessible style. The encyclopedia is specifically written to appeal to beginning and intermediate-level students, practitioners, researchers, and consumers of information.

As with other Gale Virtual Reference Library titles, this resource includes downloadable mp3 audio files for each entry, allows users to easily email items to oneself and others, and includes a citation tool that will generate an MLA or APA format citation for each entry.

Whether conducting research, writing proposals, and analyzing data, or understanding what the median is in a news story, this subject encyclopedia can help alleviate confusion.