Message from the Editors

Welcome to the third edition of CUA Libraries Online. We are excited to share with you the latest news about our libraries and their many services. Please direct any comments or questions about the newsletter via our contact form.

 Farewell, Adele Chwalek

With this issue we would like to say a special word of thanks to Adele R. Chwalek, Director of Libraries, who will retire on January 7, 2005. Thank you, Adele, for leading the University Libraries through eighteen years of challenge and change with humor, an extraordinary sense of caring, and the highest of expectations. We will miss you and we wish you well.

 A Growing Service: Instruction at CUA Libraries

In an information environment that becomes more complex and confusing every day, librarians can offer valuable guidance and advice for successful navigation of this perplexing terrain. Reference staff members are always available for impromptu questions, but for more structured assistance, consider the library's Instruction Program.

Library instruction at Catholic has grown considerably in recent years. During the 2003-2004 academic year, about 2,000 students participated in library sessions designed to support both the freshman English program as well as specific undergraduate and graduate courses.

We welcome this increased interest in library instruction and encourage faculty and students to continue to request instructional sessions. Faculty may contact the appropriate subject librarian to design and implement course-related library sessions. Individuals or groups of students with common research concerns may also request library instruction. Contact Emilie Krut, the Instructional Services Librarian, for more information.

Sessions can be taught in the electronically equipped MERIC classroom in Mullen but are not limited to this location. The library instruction staff often travels to other campus locations-classrooms, the Pryzbyla Center-to deliver library-related instruction. Our staff will work with you to design relevant, convenient instruction sessions that clarify any points of confusion in the research process.

 Electronic Resources Roundup

New databases. Expanded electronic journal offerings. More CD-ROMs. Read on to learn how to get the most out of CUA Libraries' electronic resources.

Academic Search Premier Premieres

One of CUA's newest subscription databases is Academic Search Premier. According to its own Web site, Academic Search Premier is "by far the world's most valuable and most numerous collection of active full text peer-reviewed journals. Academic Search Premier contains unmatched full text coverage in biology, chemistry, education, engineering, ethnic studies, humanities, physics, psychology, religion & theology, sociology, etc."

These are some big claims, but if you've had a chance to use this straightforward, multi-disciplinary database you know for the most part the claims are true. If you haven't yet searched in Academic Search Premier, read on to find out why you might want to make this database your first stop in searching the journal literature.

Academic Search Premier contains:

• 8,175 abstracted and indexed journals
• 6,794 peer-reviewed, abstracted and indexed journals
• 4,702 full-text journals
• 3,611 peer-reviewed, full-text journals

Other features of Academic Search Premier include:

• Basic and advanced searching (including Boolean, proximity and cited reference)
• Limited or expanded searches (by date, publication, publication type, field, full-text, peer-reviewed, images, etc.)
• The option to browse indexes (author, keyword, language, publications, subject, etc.)
• The ability to print/e-mail/save full-text articles and citations
• Search history/alerts
• Storage of multiple searches, citations, and full-text articles for later use
• Image collection (115,000+ images organized by category)
• SFX compatibility (see "Search Databases and Electronic Journal Collections" below)
• Database-specific help screens

One of the finest features of Academic Search Premier, though not unique to it, is My EBSCOhost. My EBSCOhost is a personal folder that allows you to save searches, articles, persistent links, search alerts and journal alerts. This is extremely useful when in the middle of a complex search you remember you're supposed to be somewhere else; just make sure you're logged into My EBSCOhost and you can save the search and return at another time.

EBSCO Information Services, the company that owns Academic Search Premier, continues to add titles and content to the mega-database. Other EBSCO research databases that the University Libraries subscribe to include American Humanities Index, ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, Catholic Periodical and Literature Index, Communication & Mass Media Complete, and MLA International Bibliography. These databases share the same search platform and have nearly identical appearances in the basic and advanced search modes. Plus, the databases may be searched simultaneously.

Finally, be aware that some periodicals abstracted, indexed and available in full text in Academic Search Premier are not purely academic in scope (e.g., Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Time, etc.). Also, embargoes (delays of full text availability on current issues, ranging from months to years) exist for many periodicals.

Academic Search Premier is available via the Library's ALADIN web page on campus or off campus twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Try it... you'll like it!

Finding Electronic Journals

Journals are increasingly available in electronic format. The Electronic Journal Title Finder (EJTF) is the best way to locate full text online journals at The Catholic University of America as it includes journals found in our many electronic databases as well as the journals found in our online catalog. If you need assistance locating an electronic journal, consult a librarian. Directions for using the Electronic Journal Title Finder, as well as other methods for locating electronic journals, follow:

Directory of Open Access Journals

The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is a Web service that aims to be comprehensive in organizing and providing access to high-quality, freely available online scientific and scholarly journals. DOAJ periodicals are research journals covering a wide range of subjects including the sciences, arts, humanities and social sciences. These journals exercise quality control through an editor, editorial board, or peer-review process and can be read, downloaded, copied, distributed, printed, searched and linked to freely.

The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is now activated in SFX and can be searched using the Electronic Journal Title Finder. Library patrons seeking online journals now have a seamless connection between library subscriptions and the growing number of quality open access journals. An E-Journal Title Finder Search for any DOAJ title will yield: "CU: DOAJ Directory of Open Access Journals:Full Text Availability: from (year)" and will link directly to the journal. See the Directory of Open Access Journals at http://www.doaj.org for more information and to view the new titles.

DOAJ is a part of the open access movement, which seeks to use the power of the Internet to provide more efficient, sustainable and affordable scholarly communication in the research community. Open access journals do not have the spiraling costs, long publication delays and restrictive licensing associated with traditional subscription-based serials, but can still be high-quality, peer- reviewed publications. Traditional publishers are concerned that competition from the open access movement will damage the longstanding subscription-based model of scholarly communication. Professional associations that publish their own journals are particularly worried about whether they will be able to continue to do so in a market where information is freely available. Under market pressure, many traditional publishers are beginning to change their policies with respect to online journal access. Some now allow authors to post their own preprints or published articles on their personal websites, and some allow free access to older issues of the journal. For both open access and traditional publishers, the Internet is having a significant impact on scholarly communication and the expectations of customers. For more information about open access and the issues surrounding it, take a look at http://www.plos.org/about/openaccess.html, http://www.arl.org/sparc/, and http://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/nb040607-2.shtml.

New Nature Titles

CUA's online Biology resources have grown with newly acquired access to several Nature series titles.

Advance online publication access, a feature by which papers are published online before they appear in print, is an added value of our new Nature titles.

The following Nature titles are now available online to CUA patrons:

• Nature Genetics
• Nature Cell Biology
• Nature Immunology
• Nature Structural & Molecular Biology
• Nature Medicine

To access, search the full title name by "Journal Title" in the catalog; limit results to CUA, and then scroll to our record noting "[electronic resource]."

Click on the record for the desired Nature title, scroll to the "URL" field, and click the Nature URL for access.

These Nature titles are also found in the Electronic Journal Title Finder, through both Nature and EBSCO databases. EBSCO applies a one year embargo on content, so for most recent issues, choose access through the Nature link.

Recall that remote access to these titles is gained through our library's catalog, rather than the journal's site.

Recent Database Acquisitions for the Religious Studies and Philosophy Library

The Religious Studies and Philosophy Library has acquired a few electronic resources. Some titles are new purchases while others are electronic versions of print titles. The CD-ROMs are located in 314 Mullen.

 Book Notes

• The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. By the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States. New York: Norton, 2004. [HV6432.7 .N39 2004b Mullen Stacks]

  The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, known as the 9/11 Commission, is an independent, bipartisan commission created by congressional legislation signed by President George W. Bush in late 2002. The 9/11 Commission, chaired by former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean and co-chaired by Lee Hamilton, former U.S. House of Representatives member from Indiana, has produced a detailed account of the circumstances that led up to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, including preparation for and the immediate response to the attacks. The other members of the commission are Richard Ben-Veniste, Fred F. Fielding, Jamie S. Gorelick, Slade Gorton, Bob Kerrey, John F. Lehman, Timothy J. Roemer, and James R. Thompson.

  The 9/11 Commission Report outlines, in detail, mishaps including those relating to intelligence agencies, law enforcement agencies, diplomacy, immigration, non-immigrant visas and border control. Also explored is the role of congressional oversight and resource allocation and other areas deemed relevant by the commission. In addition, it provides recommendations on how to guard against future attacks.

  The 567-page report was a surprise bestseller that sold more than one million copies. It was nominated by the National Book Foundation for the prestigious National Book Award in the non-fiction category.

  A detailed web page that includes biographies of the committee members, frequently asked questions (FAQ), and a transcript of the hearings, both in text and audio, can be found at http://www.9-11commission.gov/about/index.htm. It is a good reference source but does not provide the detailed insights of the final report.

• Egalitarian Capitalism: Jobs, Incomes, and Growth in Affluent Countries. By Lane Kenworthy. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2004. [HC79.I5 K415 2004 Mullen Stacks]
  Beyond College for All: Career Paths for the Forgotten Half. By James E. Rosenbaum. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2001. [LC1045 .R77 2001 Mullen Stacks]

  The American Sociological Association sponsors a series called the Rose Series in Sociology, "intended to be accessible to policy makers and journalists as well as to sociologists." The books are currently published by the Russell Sage Foundation, established in 1907 to conduct research in the social sciences. (The foundation has an extensive publishing program; CUA receives all of its output automatically via our approval plan.)

  Two books just received are typical of the Rose Series. Egalitarian Capitalism is a study of the differences in income distribution, economic development, and employment in the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan and twelve European countries from the mid-1970s through the 1990s. The author's question is simple, yet complex: "must we give up on the vision of a dynamic and productive yet relatively egalitarian form of capitalism?" The author defines an egalitarian capitalist society as one that prioritizes not only limited income inequality, but also high living standards and a high employment rate. The author found inequality grew in almost all of the countries studied. He concludes that, because of a prospective demographic crunch in most affluent countries, which will increase public pensions, and because of increasing capital mobility, leading to pressure on governments to reduce tax rates to avoid capital outflow, high employment is increasingly critical to the goal of limiting inequality because the most reasonable way to increase revenues without raising tax rates is to increase the share of the population that is employed. The final section of the book consists of recommendations for doing this.

  Not all workers need to go to college to get a good job, nor should they. Beyond College for All suggests that the way to reverse the downward spiral of the youth labor market is an organizational model that offers social incentives to all students, not just those with ambitious educational goals and prior achievement. It focuses on work-entry practices in high schools, which are the last institutions that serve almost all youth. It compares American practices with Japanese and German models and makes practical suggestions.

• House of Bush, House of Saud: The Secret Relationship Between the World's Two Most Powerful Dynasties. By Craig Unger. New York: Scribner, 2004. [E902 .U54 2004 Mullen Stacks]

  Why was Prince Bandar, the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, granted permission to fly 140 members of the bin Laden and Saud families from disparate places in the United States to Lexington, Kentucky when U.S. air space was closed to all other private aviation following the tragedy of September 11, 2001? And why was the FBI not able to interview these Saudis before their departure from the United States?

  Craig Unger uses personal interviews and secondary sources to suggest that Prince Bandar was permitted to do so because of the Saudis' close, long-standing business relationships with present and former high-ranking U.S. government officials.

  The author goes on to describe an odd, oil-for-security relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia, which had its beginnings after World War II. It's odd, Unger claims, because it's a relationship between the world's premier defender of democracy and a brutal, fundamentalist theocracy. Both countries need the other (the U.S. needs Saudi Arabia's oil, the Saudis need weapons) but the relationship has been seriously threatened since 9/11.

  This is a fascinating, well-documented read. It contains 37 pages of notes, and several appendices: a cast of characters, a chronology, and a compilation of financial transactions between the House of Saud (members of the Saudi royal family and the Saudi merchant elite such as the bin Laden and bin Mahfouz families) and individuals and entities tied to the House of Bush (George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, James A. Baker III, Dick Cheney, the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library, Carlyle Group and Halliburton).

 Stump the Librarian

The question, on its face, was pretty routine: Two patrons, a husband and wife, wanted to know if Mullen had a copy of a book they sought, and they were unsure of the authors' names. But complicating this reference query was the fact that the patrons spoke only Spanish. Fortunately, the library assistant was able to answer "sí" when the gentleman asked if she spoke Spanish.

The couple wanted to locate a work called Armagedon, which they said was written in Spanish. An initial search of the OPAC using the word's Spanish spelling was unsuccessful. A search using the word's English spelling did pull up some entries, but the couple said the results were not what they were trying to find. Did the patrons happen to know the names of the authors? They were not entirely sure, but they knew there were two authors, and they believed their names were Hayas and Hopkins. Oh, and Hopkins, if that indeed was the name of one of the authors, was spelled with a "j," they were certain. A search for "Hayas" as author yielded no hits, nor did one for "Jopkins." The library assistant asked the couple to spell the authors' names again. They did, and the searches again failed. A subsequent attempt searching both title and author using the "Guided Keyword" function failed as well.

It was at this point that the library assistant turned to Amazon.com, hoping to get a better idea of the authors' names and whether the title was in fact correct. It turns out there are hundreds of book titles using the word "Armageddon," so a search of title only was out of the question. An advanced search combining the title with the authors' names, as recalled by the patrons, was not successful.

Did the patrons know if this was a spiritual or religious book, and, if so, would it be accurate to describe it as Christian? Yes, they agreed, that would be right. Could it be a translation into Spanish? It was a translation, they believed.

By using the genre feature on Amazon, the library assistant located Armageddon, part of the Left Behind series, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. And, just as the patrons expected, there was a Spanish translation of the work. Mullen did not have a copy, nor did any of the other libraries in the consortium, but the couple saw on Amazon a copy of the item at a price they liked and, armed with this information, left the Information Desk to order the book online.

 Update on the Mullen Laptop Program

For both personal and instructional use, Mullen Library's laptops have proven to be a hit with library patrons. Mullen Library has eight Dell Inspiron 2500 Laptops, thirteen Dell Latitude D-500 wireless ready laptops, and five Apple iBooks available for current CUA students, faculty, and staff to use in the library. The laptops can be borrowed for two hours and they can be renewed a maximum of two times. In addition, students use the laptops in instructional sessions taught by library staff.

The laptops have been installed with Microsoft Office (which includes Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) and they have access to the Internet via the wireless network system at Mullen Library. Users can save their working documents temporarily on the laptops; these documents are deleted once the computers are shut down. However, users can e-mail documents to themselves or save them in MyFiles, their personal file space available through http://home.cua.edu. Printing is also available via the wireless network. Laptop users may print to one of the printers on the first and second floors of Mullen Library.

Laptop users can access the library catalog and the electronic databases available on ALADIN (http://www.aladin.wrlc.org). There are databases for different subjects, ranging from Art and Architecture to Social Work and Statistics. Also, laptop users can extend their use of the laptop by renewing it on myALADIN without having to approach the Circulation Desk.

 The Reorganized Religious Studies and Philosophy Library

The Religious Studies and Philosophy Library was reorganized over the summer. The collection is the 'mission critical' part of the CUA library collection. Consequently, the reference material on the third floor of Mullen Library is dedicated to these subject areas that reflect this critical importance: Art, Greek and Latin, Medieval and Byzantine Studies, Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies, and Canon Law. You may now think of the entire third floor as the Religious Studies/Philosophy Library.

The reference collections are in Rooms 314 and 316 and can be navigated easily using the following schema:

Room 314
Monographs with call numbers A to B.
Current periodicals in the above subject areas.
Canon Law Seminar Room.

Room 316 (formerly the Humanities Library)
Monographs with call numbers C to Z.
Religious Studies/Philosophy Folios A to Z.
Greek and Latin Seminar Room.

The Humanities reference collection for the following subjects has been moved to the Reference Room on the first floor of Mullen Library: Comparative Literature, Drama and Theater, English, Media Studies, and Modern Languages. Current periodicals in these areas can be found in the Main Reading Room on the second floor of Mullen Library.

 Study Spaces in Mullen: A Snapshot

The recently renovated Mullen provides a multitude of study spaces throughout the building. Students can be found pounding the keyboards of laptops in carrels in the Reference Room, lounging on chairs in the area outside the May Gallery or consulting over a table in one of the group study areas on the second floor.

 Welcome New Staff

Since August, seven new full-time staff members have joined CUA Libraries.
Pictured from left, they are: Stephanie Fell, Circulation Services Assistant: Circulation Desk Supervisor; Emilie Krut, Reference Librarian for Instructional Services; Matthew Tan, Access Services Librarian; Ashley McCall, Graduate Library Pre-professional (GLP)/Reference; Jonathan Smith, Electronic Resources (MERIC) Assistant; Jane Stoeffler, Administrative Assistant II/Archives. Not pictured: Martha Sellers, Technical Services Technician.

 Contributors to the Fall 2004 edition of CUA Libraries Online

Angela Bellardini, Nursing/Biology Librarian; Kevin Gunn, Coordinator for Religious Studies and Humanities Services; Anne Marie Hules, Library and Information Science Librarian; Jeffrey Hutson, Religious Studies Librarian; Emilie Krut, Reference Librarian for Instructional Services; Anne Lesher, Reference Librarian for Reference Services;Tina O'Grady, Library Assistant/Graduate Library Pre-professional; Raj Savari, Library Management Systems Librarian; Matthew Tan, Access Services Librarian; Mary Agnes Thompson, Reference Librarian for Collection Services; Lynn Weinstein, Digital Acquisitions Librarian; Shanyun Zhang, Electronic Resources (MERIC) Librarian.

Content editor: Ashley McCall, Library Assistant/Graduate Library Pre-professional

Web editor: Jonathan Smith, Electronic Resources (MERIC) Assistant

All contents copyright © 2004, The Catholic University Of America. All rights reserved.

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