Finding a Journal Article

The proliferation of academic resources online is, in general, a good thing. It can, however, lead many scholars into confusion when looking for a simple answer to a simple question: Where can I find this article to read?

Thoughts of agoraphobic people during scary tasks. Williams, S. Lloyd; Kinney, Philip J.; Harap, Stephen Todd; Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Vol 106(4), Nov 1997. pp. 511-520.

The scholar would quickly translate the question to Does the library have access to volume 106 of The Journal of Abnormal Psychology?

There are a number of approaches to answer this question, which could be addressed in order:

• Check the library’s online catalog to find out if it holds a print subscription.
• It is likely indexed in PsycInfo; let me search in this database.
• It may also be included in PsycArticles; let me search there.
• Maybe it is included in EBSCOhost’s Academic Search Premiere
• Or maybe it’s in Science Direct

The problem with this multi-pronged approach is that it requires a lot of searching to answer a very straight forward question. Even at the end of this string of queries, one cannot be sure that The Journal of Abnormal Psychology is not tucked away as a full-text entry in another, more obscure database.

What is needed is a tool that will provide one-stop shopping, in which you can type the journal title and find a listing of all available routes to access. Fortunately, the library provides such a tool and every student and faculty member should know about it. It is available from a link on the library’s main page, middle column, labeled FIND IF THE LIBRARY HAS A JOURNAL AVAILABLE IN PRINT OR ONLINE.

Simply follow the link, type in the title of the journal (not the title of the article) and send the search. This will conduct an instantaneous search of the library’s 700 print subscriptions and approximately 30,000 titles available through 50 database subscriptions. You may find that the title is not available, or more happily, you will be presented with a list of resources which include the full-text of this article.

Pay attention to the date. Some services begin including full-text after a certain date, while others provide online access to the complete run of a title. A link that says College of Saint Rose Subscriptions will lead you back to the record in the online catalog for that journal. This will let you know which volumes are available in the stacks; also sometimes the library’s print subscription includes online access and you will find a link to the content from the catalog entry.

Once you have discovered this tool, the process of running down journal articles becomes much, much easier.

Library Guides

Two library guides, one for students and one for faculty, have recently been updated and are available on the library’s web site.

Student Guide to the Library

This guide provides information that will answer many of the basic questions students might have about the library:

• what hours are the library open?
• how long can books be kept out?
• what electronic databases are available?
• where’s the bathrooms? (floor plans are included)
• what’s this about laptops?
• how does interlibrary loan work?

Faculty Manual for Information Literacy

This guide gives Saint Rose faculty information on these issues and more:

• how to schedule a library instruction session
• how to recommend materials for the library collection
• who to contact in the library
• what is information literacy and how can the library help address it

Links
Student Guide to the Library
Faculty Manual for Information Literacy

The College Archives

The majority of students and faculty never visit The College Archives, located on the third floor of the Neil Hellman Library. And that’s too bad, because there are so many interesting things there.

The main goal of the Archives is to preserve the history of The College by collecting records and other materials by and about persons affiliated with Saint Rose. On top of the many departmental records, program brochures, and correspondences you will find loads of historical photographs, nursing outfits, banners, and even a few ground-breaking shovels. In addition you will find a complete run of student yearbooks and all of the variations of the student newspaper.

One associated collection target of the Archives is historical textbooks. These textbooks and instructional manuals, dating back as far as the eighteenth century, would be of interest not only to Education Majors, but to students of all disciplines who are interested in what was known and what was taught in specific disciplines.

The Archives web site has recently been revised. In addition to information about the collection, hours, and services offered, you will find online exhibits, produced from archival materials.

Contact Information
Maria Kessler McShane, College Archivist, 454-5190

(Note: The photograph is of the 1924 Debate Team at The College of Saint Rose. Click on the picture for more information.)

Resources for College Libraries

For more than a decade, academic librarians have waited for an update to Books for College Libraries (BCL).  BCL was a major collection development tool, providing lists of core titles in support of undergraduate programs.

Finally, the Association of College & Research Libraries and Bowker have published an update titled Resources for College Libraries (RCL).  RCL has the same goal as its predecessor, but it has been developed for a web environment.  Not only does RCL have a familiar print edition, it also has a web version.  Even better, Bowker — for a price — provides access to an analysis tool that compares RCL’s core lists to your library’s collection.  In addition RCL, unlike BCL, will include web-based resources that it considers core subject resources.

The Neil Hellman Library has subscribed to the web version of RCL, along with access to the analysis tool.  We anticipate that this will allow us to develop a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of our collection and develop title lists that can address major gaps.  While the process of strengthening the collection based on this analysis will stretch over a number of years, we anticipate that we will be able to make significant progress in filling gaps during the 2007-08 academic year.

I plan on sharing the information we collection from our analyses with faculty.  More information will follow, both here on the blog and through other channels.