Fox Library Blog

You don’t have to drag all of your books into the library to renew them.  Do it from the comfort of your dorm room or apartment.  Here are the directions for renewing your books online.

http://www.vangoghletters.org/vg/

The letters written by Vincent Van Gogh have appeared many times before, but this is the first time they have appeared as part of a complete digital edition. This fascinating collection was created by the Van Gogh Museum and the Huygens Institute, and the letters were edited by Leo Jansen, Hans Luijten and Nineke Bakker. On the site, visitors can view 902 letters from and to Van Gogh, complete with detailed annotations and illustrations from the master himself. First-time visitors should definitely click on the “Quick Guide” to get an overview of the site’s holdings, and then they should also take a look at the sections “Van Gogh as a letter-writer”, “Correspondents”, “Biographical & historical context”, and “Publication History”. The letters include those from many of his contemporaries, including Paul Gauguin, and of course, those lovely pieces of writing from his brother, Theo. Users can also use the search engine here to look around by keyword. Finally, visitors can also look through the “About this Edition” area to learn about the reading texts included here, the translations, and the annotations.

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2009. http://scout.wisc.edu/

I recently read an article in MercuryNews.com, Hayward libraries to borrow Netflix model.  Basically, the library is offering patrons the option of paying a low monthly fee of $2.99 for the option of being able to check out a limited number of items for as long as they want…no late fees.  If you are familiar with Netflix then you know that this is how they operate…keep the video as long as you want with no strings attached.

Libraries experiment with many service options in an effort to make resources readily available and easily accessible to their patrons.  I have heard of libraries eliminating late fees all together but I don’t know if that has been successful or just very costly to the libraries.  The model that the Hayward libraries are trying out may be a first for libraries.  It sounds like it could be a win/win situation.  Patrons can eliminate late fees and having their account blocked because of non-payment of those fees and libraries gain a stream of revenue for providing a special service.

If you had this option, would you choose to pay a monthly fee to the library or not?

Google Inc. has plans to launch an online bookstore in 2010.  This new venture is called Google Editions and it will offer a universal e-book format.

Just like the content of a book or a news broadcast, your original works are automatically protected by copyright.  However, in order to exercise that protection you need to secure your ownership or authorship which is why people and organizations take the extra step to register for copyright.  So what about all of the content being created every second in the world of social media?  As anyone will tell you, that is a whole new ballgame that is just getting started but I came across an interesting post regarding intellectual property and Facebook.  The nonprofit corporation, Creative Commons, has created a license for social networking content, the Official Unofficial Creative Commons Facebook Application.  Read more at Vitreous Humor, in Thou Shalt Not Steal. Hey, that’s catchy.   The Creative Commons Facebook application gives you the options of allowing or not allowing commercial uses of your work and it also allows you to choose whether or not others can modify your works.

So what do you think?  Would you put this application on your Facebook profile?  Why or why not?

PreCYdent is a search engine for law that currently contains U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. Court of Appeals cases.  It’s development team plans to add all U.S. federal and state cases and statutory materials with the goal of making effective legal research a free option for everyone.

Newest database on trial:

ENGnetBASE
Includes:

• CivilENGINEERINGnetBASE
• ElectricalENGINEERINGnetBASE
• MechanicalENGINEERINGnetBASE
• TELECOMMUNICATIONSnetBASE

The Reference and User Services Association of the American Library Association has published its list of Best Free Reference Websites of 2009.  There’s something for everyone.  A couple of my favorites are:

• LocalHarvest Web which offers a nationwide directory of farmers’ markets, small family farms, and organic food sources

• Traffic.com which provides real-time traffic and road condition information with drive time estimates

GFU libraries subscribe to Cambridge Histories to provide you with online access to the renowned texts of the Cambridge Histories series with the most up to date and authoritative scholarly content.

TIP:  Register with your email address and password in Cambridge Histories and you will have access to your own “My Histories” account.  Within My Histories, you may re-run recent and saved searches, bookmark chapters of particular interest and create your own individual set of notes on each bookmarked item. You may also create separate workspaces enabling you to share information (bookmarks, searches, notes, external links and announcements) with other users within the My Histories pages.

Reserve a study room at the Murdock Learning Resource Center with our online form. The link to all Reserve a study room resources and information is now available on the library homepage in the “How do I…” section (upper left).