Why is my article printing as a blank page?

You’ve found just the article you’ve been looking for. Excitedly, you click the print icon and bolt to the front desk. As the workstudy pulls the still-warm sheet out of the print tray you see…

…one page of nothing!

So what went wrong?

Most scholarly articles are in the portable document format (or pdf) and don’t work like normal web pages. A special plugin lets you view them in your web browser; this plugin has its own printing button which you must use:

If you try to use the browser’s print button, you will not get the article, you will waste paper. There are other ways of printing from within the plugin as well, but this is the easiest.

Happy printing!

Mystery books at Nash Library

Have you noticed the new fixture with paperback books on it? Look to your left when you come through the entrance gates and you’ll see a rack full of paperbacks. These mystery books were donated by Dr. Richard Lowitt, USAO Regents Professor of History in memory of his wife, Suzanne Carson Lowitt. Mrs. Lowitt was an avid reader of mysteries.

The neat thing about these books, known collectively as the Suzanne Carson Lowitt Honor System Collection, is that you don’t have to check them out. Just select a book, take it home, read it, and return it when your finished. How easy is that?!?

If you have books to donate to the collection, we’ve provided a box near the book rack. Just drop your donation in the box and we’ll take it from there.

Education Research Complete and Bibliography on Native North Americans — Two New EBSCO Databases

EBSCO on ERC

“Education Research Complete is the definitive online resource for education research. This massive file offers the world’s largest and most complete collection of full text education journals. It is a bibliographic and full text database covering scholarly research and information relating to all areas of education. Topics covered include all levels of education from early childhood to higher education, and all educational specialties, such as multilingual education, health education, and testing. Education Research Complete also covers areas of curriculum instruction as well as administration, policy, funding, and related social issues. The database provides indexing and abstracts for more than 1,500 journals, as well as full text for more than 750 journals. This database also includes full text for more than 100 books and monographs, and full text for numerous education-related conference papers.”

Click here to see which journals are covered.
Click here to access ERC
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EBSCO on BNNA

“Bibliography of Native North Americans™ (BNNA) is a bibliographic database covering all aspects of native North American culture, history, and life. This resource covers a wide range of topics including archaeology, multicultural relations, gaming, governance, legend, and literacy. BNNA contains more than 98,000 citations for books, essays, journal articles, and government documents of the United States and Canada. Dates of coverage for included content range from the sixteenth century to the present. The database is an essential research tool for anthropologists, educators, historians, political scientists, sociologists, psychologists, legal and medical researchers, linguists, theologians, ethnobotanists, and policy makers. BNNA will appeal to anyone interested in exploring the contributions, struggles, and issues surrounding North America’s indigenous peoples.”

Click here to see which journals are covered
Click here to access BNNA
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To view EBSCO’s description of any database it offers, follow the link below:

http://www.epnet.com/thisMarket.php?marketID=1

Thanksgiving Break hours

Turkey time is upon us and we hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. The Nash Library staff will take a well-deserved break for the holiday. The library will close at 5pm on Tuesday, November 21 and will reopen on Sunday, November 26 at 4pm. Remember that we’re always open at http://www.usao.edu/library.

FAITS — A Resource for Studies in IT

Faulkner Advisory for Information Technology Studies (FAITS)

Here at Nash Library, the subscription-based pickings for Computer Science majors have been pretty slim. We’re trying to change that.

We are pleased to bring FAITS to USAO. FAITS is a fully search-able and continually updated library of technology reports covering a variety of topics.
Reports may be searched by keyword or explored by Topic or Report Type.

Reports may be explored by the following Topics:

IT Infrastructure Wireless Communications Security Telecom Data Networking Enterprise Systems Technology Vendors Convergence The Internet & Web Linux/Open Source Information Management Streaming Media Healthcare IT Topics Featured Reports

Reports may be explored by the following Report Types:

Tutorial	Standards	Marketplace
Directory	Implementation	Selection Guide
Product	Glossary	Company Profile

Because much that happens in IT does so outside of the academic realm, FAITS also includes handy links to technology news sites. These can help keep you up to date on things that have not been discussed in Academia.

Click here to check it out.

Banned Books Week

 

Commit a random act of free thinking and read a “banned” book!! Come see the library display about banned books and try to figure out why “To Kill A Mockingbird”, “Of Mice and Men”, and many more books have been challenged. What’s the difference between “banned” and “challenged”, you ask? Read what the coolest folks in the world (the American Library Association) say about it:

 

Each year, the American Library Association (ALA) is asked why the week is called “Banned Books Week” instead of “Challenged Books Week,” since the majority of the books featured during the week are not banned, but “merely” challenged. There are two reasons. One, ALA does not “own” the name Banned Books Week, but is just one of several cosponsors of BBW; therefore, ALA cannot change the name without all the cosponsors agreeing to a change. Two, none want to do so, primarily because a challenge is an attempt to ban or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A successful challenge would result in materials being banned or restricted.

So come on in to Nash Library, read the list of the ten most frequently challenged books, and pick up your free “Banned Books Week” bookmark. And, if you’re feeling really fired up and radical, READ A BANNED BOOK!!!

Nash Library Toolbar!

Search Resources Library Blog

Nash Library is proud to present its very own web browser toolbar for Firefox and IE.

(Apologies to those using other browsers like Opera, Netscape, or Safari)

Click here to go to the download page.

Why would you want to install this?

Because it puts some very handy resources at your fingertips; think of it as an academic version of the google toolbar.

Instant access to the library:

Click this at any time to go to the library’s homepage

Useful Searches:

Search

(click the down arrow to see all available searches)

We have tailored the search capabilities of this toolbar to give you the flexibility to search the web and the capability to search trustworthy, peer reviewed resources. There are many great resources that are not search-able through this feature; if there is an academic resource that you think should be included, email Jason Sherman; he’ll see what he can do.

*Note* Some bits are extrapolated or even pulled directly from the
corresponding web sites.

Google Search: Pretty handy, but there is no control over the quality of the results

Nash Library Catalog: Allows you to do a keyword search of our catalog

Bridgeman Art Images: Images from over 8,000 collections and 29,000 artists

Gale Virtual Reference: Encyclopedias, almanacs, and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research

Grove Art Online: Contains The Dictionary of Art, The Oxford Companion to Western Art, and more

Literature Resource Center: Contains biographical information, overviews, full-text literary criticism and reviews on writers from all time periods.

News (CIAO): A comprehensive source for theory and research in international affairs

Oxford English Dictionary: The OED covers words from across the English-speaking world. It also offers the best in etymological analysis and in listing of variant spellings, and it shows pronunciation using the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Quick Access to all E-resources:

Resources

Allows you to browse our resources by type without having to go to our homepage

Nash Library RSS:

Library Blog

Keep up to date with services offered, new resources, frequently asked questions, library events, and more.

Other features:

Pop-up blocker, weather, email notifier, and more…

To add add or remove these features, click the down arrow next to the Nash Library icon

and select Toolbar Options.

Download the Nash Library Toolbar

Hello, Hola, Bonjour, Salama

Hello USAO Class of 2010! The Nash Library staff sends you greetings in four languages. That’s a few shy of the number of languages included on the Golden Record carried on board the Voyager spaceship which left Earth’s orbit in 1977. That record included greetings in 55 different languages as well as Earth sounds created by wind, thunder, birds, and whales, to name but a few.

Sometimes the language of libraries may seem unfamiliar to you. Don’t worry…just ask and we’ll translate it for you! We’re good earthlings and we’re here to help you with this journey called college.

Nifty New Search Feature

Did you find just what you were looking for, only to discover that someone else found it first? Check this out:

As you can see, this item has been checked out; when viewing an item in the catalog, you can now click “Check nearby libraries” to see a list of libraries that may have the item.

What makes this cool? They are listed in order of closeness to USAO! You even get to see how far you have to drive!

Think that you have to have an account with a particular library to check a book out from them? Not necessarily so. You can get an OK Share Card. All you have to do is come to the circulation desk and ask for an application. Be prepared to show your ID.

Not all libraries honor OK Share cards, so you should check the list of participating libraries before you make any plans.

Click the item underneath the name of the library that you may want to borrow from. The items are named by their media type, which is a book in this case. UCO is an OK Share participant and has the next closest library that carries this item, so we’ll look in their catalog.

Clicking the link takes us right to the item in UCO’s catalog. It looks like they have a copy of the item that has not been checked out. It would be a good idea to call before setting off to make sure that they actually have it.

Your ID card: when you need it the most

Rumor has it that a few of you complain every time you have to flash your ID to check out a book or pick up your printout. If your ID picture is like mine, then I don’t blame you for not wanting to show your ID. But (there’s always a but, isn’t there?) we have to make sure you are who you say you are for two very important reasons.

First, we have to make sure that we are checking out items to the right person. The library staff does not know everyone on campus so you could give us any name when you check out books and we wouldn’t know that you weren’t who you said you were. That’s why you have to show your ID.

Second, YOU, you lucky USAO student (unlike students at some other universities in Oklahoma who will remain nameless), don’t have to pay for you printouts if you show us your ID. So, ID = free printing, no ID = no free printing. Surely a freebie like that is worth showing us your ID, no matter how bad you look in the photo.