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The LibVine

What's going on at Dalhousie Libraries

Category: Architecture, Engineering & Planning

Borrow Anywhere Return Anywhere

The Dalhousie Libraries are participating in a new project initiated by Libraries Nova Scotia called “Borrow Anywhere Return Anywhere” (BARA).

As of September 28, 2009, you can borrow from over a hundred libraries across the province, including public, community college and university libraries. Materials can be returned to any of the participating libraries. It’s free, easy and convenient. It’s your library, anywhere you are!

Register
Get a card for free at all public libraries, bookmobiles, university and community college libraries across the province. DalCard holders must acquire a public library card to take advantage of this service, if they do not already have one.

Borrow
Gain access to tons of books, DVDs, specialized collections and more!

Return
Simply return your materials to the most convenient participating location, even if it’s kilometers away from where you borrowed them.

Borrow Anywhere/Return Anywhere is subject to individual libraries’ procedures and policies. For more information visit the Libraries Nova Scotia BARA FAQ page.

Library in the Palm of Your Hand

Search the library’s online catalog in the palm of your hand!

The Dalhousie Libraries’ new online catalog, WorldCat Local, is now searchable on your mobile device. Just open the browser on your device, visit www.worldcat.org/m/ and type in what you’re searching for. The location of the nearest library with the item you want will be displayed in the search results.

If you’re an iPhone or iPod Touch user, you can also download an app from iTunes or the app store on your device. Just search “WorldCat” in the app store.

For more information, tutorials, and to check if your device is listed, visit www.worldcat.org/wcpa/content/mobile/

Law Library Tours

First Year tours this week will be offered at:

Monday, Sept. 21, 1:30-2:00 pm
Tuesday, Sept 22, 3:00-3:30 pm
Wednesday, Sept 23, 11:30-12:00 pm

This 30 minute walking tours will provide an introduction to the facilities of the Sir James Dunn Law Library.

First Encounters of the GIS Kind

The GIS Centre will be holding a repeat of our first installment in the ‘Lunch-less Learn’ series:

First Encounters of the GIS Kind: An Introduction to the Basics of GIS

Tuesday, September 22nd from 12:00 – 1:30pm
Room C318, C Building, Sexton Campus

What is a ‘Lunch-less Learn’ you may ask? It’s a hands-on tutorial held around lunchtime, open to all – without the food! This session is an introduction for people with little or no experience in GIS. We will be using ArcGIS software. The session will give users the basics that are assumed for any of the other tutorials in the series.

A GIS, or Geographic Information System, is “a computer system for capturing, storing, checking, integrating, manipulating, analyzing and displaying data relating to positions on earth’s surface” (www.geo.ed.ac.uk). In other words, it’s an easy and fun way to look at the world differently. Think Google Earth. Think OnStar.

Due to a high level of interest, we ask that you contact the GIS Centre to reserve a space. For more information visit our website.

PLEASE NOTE: This is a repeat of the first session given at the Killam Library. This session will be repeated at the Killam Sept 28 from 12 to 1:30.

Tim Ruggles Award Established

Tim Ruggles, Reference & Research Librarian at the Kellogg Health Sciences Library, was recently honoured by Dalhousie’s Emergency Medicine Department by having an award named after him. Tim himself presented the inaugural “Tim Ruggles Critically Appraised Topic Award” at the Dept. of Emergency Medicine’s 14th Research Day held at the Holiday Inn (now the Atlantica Hotel) in Halifax on May 20, 2009.

For the past six years Tim has helped co-ordinate the Emergency Medicine Evidence-Based Care course offered annually to emergency medicine residents at Dalhousie University. As part of the course requirements, each resident must complete a “Critically Appraised Topic” or CAT, for which they pose a clinical question, do a thorough literature search, critically appraise the appropriate studies, and finally present a clinical conclusion about whether a particular intervention is effective or not. Critical appraisal involves assessing studies for their methodological validity, calculating whether the results are clinically significant, and deciding whether or not these results have implications for patient care.

The eponymous award will be presented annually to the resident who writes the best CAT.

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month!

September 15 is the anniversary of independence for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, all of whom declared independence in 1821. Mexico declared independence on September 16, Chile on September 18, and Belize on September 21.

In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, September 15 through October 15, Alexander Street is offering free access to select full-text, online collections for libraries. Explore poetry, short stories, folk tales, novels, memoirs, non-fiction, and plays in both Spanish and English from Latino writers around the world. Please note that you must login using the following:

Username: eviews
Password: hispanicheritage

Access these collections now through October 15:

Latino Literature

Caribbean Literature

Latin American Women Writers

New Edition of APA Style Guide

The American Psychological Association has recently published the 6th edition of the APA Publication Manual, more commonly referred to as the APA Style Guide.  To assist you in getting acquainted with some of the changes in the new edition, the Dalhousie University Libraries has prepared a Quick Guide. We think you’ll find it very helpful!

RefWorks, Dalhousie’s citation manager programme, has updated to APA 6th edition. The style is in the list of Dalhousie Favourites at the bottom of the “Choose an output style” dropdown, when you create a bibliography.

You’ve never used RefWorks? Sign up for one of hands-on workshops.

Knovel University Challenge Starts Today!

Take the Knovel E-book Database Challenge and Win.

How It Works:

1. Students search Knovel to find answers to questions relevant to their studies, then use the contest widget to enter between September 14th and December 1st, 2009.

2. Once 3 questions are answered correctly, students will automatically be entered into a drawing for an Amazon Kindle, 2 Nintendo Wiis, 4 iPod Nanos, and 6 Gift Cards.

3. Bonus prizes are available via with the contest-within-a-contest program. It’s simple, if Dalhousie has 100 student entries or more, an iPod Nano prize is guaranteed for a student here at Dalhousie.

Go to the Challenge Widget now!

About the contest

Gail Fraser To Speak at Grand Opening

Gail Fraser, Head of Acquisitions Services, Kellogg Library, has been invited to give a presentation at Login Canada’s Grand Opening of their new offices and distribution centre in Mississauga, on 18 Sept 2009. Login Canada is a health sciences, sci-tech & music book and media distributor based in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Gail’s presentation will be on Doody’s Online Review Service and Doody’s Core Titles, two collection development tools for health sciences libraries.

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