Category Archives: General

Earth Day 2016, Research, and Salmon Library

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Earth_day (Image courtesy of: Wiki Commons)

The icon above is a globally recognized symbol for Earth Day, celebrated on April 22nd. Reminiscent of the Greek letter theta (often used as a symbol of death or a warning) this icon is meant to evoke a sense of awareness of humanity’s impact on the environment. Global warming, pollution, water resource limitations; these are but a few examples of issues each of us are impacted by and influence as well.

A lot of time, effort, and money have gone toward research in fields of study related to the environmental sciences. Earth Day is a great time to brush up on your eco-knowledge. Fortunately, UAH has you covered! Check out OneSearch here and do a basic search for earth day. You’ll get a great Research Starter at the top of your list to get an overview of the holiday itself, as well as suggested readings and tips on some major environmental issues. Also, UAH subscribes to a great database literally devoted to the environmental sciences: Greenfile. This offers a collection of scholarly and popular literature, as well as some government data, on topics such as pollution, sustainable agriculture, green construction, and renewable energy. You’ll find this resource listed alphabetically in our primary database guide here, as well as in a few of the Science subject guides here.

Salmon Library has many more databases, books, and articles that can help you beef up your Earth Day knowledge. Visit one of your reference librarians or contact us via chat, phone, LibAnswers to learn more!

UAH Library Catalog down for maintenance this evening, March 7th 2016

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The UAH Library catalog will be down for maintenance this evening, beginning at 4:30 pm. While there is not an exact timetable for the work to be completed, we hope to have access restored in a few short hours. As a partial work-around to this issue, you can also search for books and other materials via the OneSearch tool on the library homepage at uah.edu/library. OneSearch actually allows you to retrieve books in addition to periodical materials, so if you find yourself needing to locate a book (in print or electronic form), OneSearch has you covered. Thank you for your patience!

Let the Library Help Your Students With Access to Course Software

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Do you teach a course using special software your students need for assignments? If you have licenses for the software your students need, or if it is open source, the library can install the software on 20 computers in the public computing lab on the first floor (the Information Arcade). These computers are available until midnight on weekdays, 6:00pm on Saturdays, and 10:00pm on Sundays giving your students extra time to work on assignments for your class.

The deadline for requesting software on library computers for Summer semester is April 15. Check the link to see a list of software currently installed in the public computing lab: http://libguides.uah.edu/pclabs.

For more information or to request software, please contact Jack Drost at Jack.Drost@uah.edu or by phone at (256)824-7407.

Possible eBook download issues today, February 4th 2016

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If you attempt to view or download/checkout any eBooks today from the EBSCO platform, you may get an error and will be unable to do so. This is due to some maintenance taking place for some of their products. The issues should not persist beyond today, however.

As always, contact Michael Manasco, your Electronic Resource Librarian with any concerns: (256) 824-6965 or email at michael.manasco@uah.edu.

 

Thanksgiving 2015 hours

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For the rest of November (including the Thanksgiving holiday), please note the following schedule for the UAH Salmon Library:

  • Mon., Nov-23:  7:30am-12 midnight (normal hours)
  • Tue., Nov-24:  7:30am-12 midnight (normal hours)
  • Wed., Nov-25:  7:30am-6pm (reduced hours / no classes)
  • Thu., Nov-26:  CLOSED (holiday)
  • Fri., Nov-27:  CLOSED (holiday)
  • Sat., Nov-28: CLOSED (holiday)
  • Sun., Nov-29:  1pm-2am (extended hours / end-of-semester)
  • Mon., Nov-30:  7:30am-2am (extended hours / end-of-semester)

A reference librarian will be available during normal hours when the library is open.

For anyone visiting Charger Brew for their coffee & snack needs, Charger Brew will close early on Nov-24 (at 5pm), will remain closed on Nov-25, and will reopen for normal hours on Nov-29.

Salmon Library is now offering Onshelf Holds

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The Salmon Library User Services Desk has now started offering onshelf holds. What this means for you is that you can browse our catalog after signing into your account, find the book you want, and then place it on hold. You can mark up to five titles as such, and they will be held for up to five days. You will receive an email when the hold is available at the desk.

There are a number of factors that can impact how long that takes, including if the book is currently checked out (in which case, it will be held when it gets brought back). If the held book is on the shelf when the hold is placed, it will be brought down to User Services the next day. If you need a book more immediately, you are of course welcome to skip the hold and to grab the book off the shelf and check it out right away. Onshelf holds are meant more to reserve a book you plan to pick up in a day or two.

For information, see Placing Holds and Recalls, which includes a .docx file showing the steps. You can also call User Services at (256)824-6530.

Putting a book on hold.

What to look for if you are placing a hold.

N1 closed for renovations, and C2 quiet study impacted: Updated Study Zone Information

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As a note, the north section of the first floor (the large section furthest from the front door, which we referred to as the Charger Commons, or as N1) is being shut down this summer for renovations. Currently, books and furniture are being moved out of it. The journals will be relocated to the second floor. The furniture will be spread throughout, but largely into the study sections of the first floor.

Due to the move of the journals to the second floor, the quiet study in the central second floor section (C2) will be unfortunately noisy. Even after the move, the renovations will likely impact the sound levels of it and the second floor north-section quiet study (N2). With this in mind, the best spot for quiet study will be the north-section of the third floor (N3). This may vary by state of project or time of day. Or you can check out a Study Room for you and a group (talk to User Services). The archives, down in the old ground floor, is also often a quiet area, but is technically deemed “semi-quiet” (meaning that people can have cell phones and talk at respectful levels). Again this depends on time of day. The central section of the first floor will remain “social study” (as the north section was) and the south section of the first floor will remain “semi-quiet”.

If you need any help finding one of the journals in transition, or finding a place to study in the library, then feel free to stop by the Reference Desk [(256)824-6529] or User Services [(256)824-6530] or to email us at erefq@uah.edu.

Interim Hours at UAH’s Salmon Library

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Just a few notes to cover the weeks from May 5 (today) through May 26. UAH is now in “interim” hours, which will impact the library in the following ways:

  • Hours will be from 7:30am to 6pm, Monday through Friday.
  • We will be closed on weekends.
  • Chat reference will be offline.
  • The coffeeshop (Charger Brew) will be closed [for the remainder of the summer].

All of the services are still available – User Services, Reference Desk, OIT Help Desk, Archives, Interlibrary Loan, etc – at their normal hours (excepting Sundays for Reference) and you can still contact Reference through a number of other ways. For those needing snacks, there are vending machines on the first floor and, across Holmes, the bookstore is still open and they have drinks and chips and few other options.

On May 26, UAH will be observing Memorial Day, which means the campus will be closed. The library will be back for summer hours starting May 27, which is also when chat reference will return.

Alumni Guest Access Now Free at the Salmon Library

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We are delighted to announce that guest access for UAH Alumni is now free at the Salmon Library. What does this access get you?

  • You can check out up to 5 books at a time for up to 28 days.
  • You can access our Info Arcade PCs and, through them, have access to online digital resources with millions of top tier, authoritative research sources.

Simply bring your Alumni Association Membership Card and a photo ID to the User Services desk any time the library is open. Haven’t got your free Alumni Association Card? Then contact the Alumni Association and they can help you.

You can see our most up-to-date information on library guess access (as well as other levels of access) on User Services guide. Or you can call them at (256)824-6530.

A quickish FAQ:

  • Does Guest Access include remote access to digital materials?
    Unfortunately, our licensing agreements prevent us from offering online access to people not actively associated with UAH. The good news is that the Alabama Virtual Library provides many high quality digital resources you can use from home [if you live in Alabama].
  • Does Guest Access include wi-fi?
    Access to our wireless internet is provided by OIT on the campus at large and so is not the library’s to grant. However, if you are making a special trip in, the Alumni Association can help with temporary access.
  • What about parking?
    Contact the Campus Police’s parking division with your guest card and they can get you a permit for parking during its interim. You can then park in the lot off of Ben Graves Drive.
  • Would this include access to the Reference Desk or the Archives?
    Most definitely. Technically, you don’t need guest access to visit those services, so if you want to stop by and talk to us feel free to do so.

Want to see the presentations given at ALLA’s 2014 Conference by UAH Librarians? Here you go!

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The below presentations were given last week at the ALLA 2014 Conferece – The Crossroads of Information and Literacy – held here in Huntsville.

The first one, “Instruction in a Flash: The Flipped Classroom Incident”, was presented by Michael Manasco and Doug Bolden on Thursday morning. It deals with flipped classrooms, really rapid instructional design, and the ups and downs of the experience.

The second, “A Quickish Glance at Open Source Graphics Design: GIMP, Scribus, and Miscellany”, was a mini-session presented by Doug Bolden on Friday.

Both have been released via Creative Commons 4 “by attribution” license. Feel free to use, share, download, and remix the presentations, just please give us attribution (Michael and myself for the first one, just me for the second).

Now, these are the slides. There were a handful of notes and elements not directly visible here. If you have any questions, you can contact Michael at michael.manasco@uah.edu and myself at doug.bolden@uah.edu.