Great Lakes Compact, NewsBank database

The Great Lakes Compact, signed by the president on Oct 3, 2008, goes into effect today.

The Compact itself has not gotten gotten much coverage in the scientific literature, but there has been a fair amount of coverage in the U.S. newspapers.

The library has a database called NewsBank that allows users to search for hundreds of local and national newspapers at once, and a search for the term "great lakes compact" resulted in over forty relevant news articles.

To use the NewsBank database...

1. Go to the library main page
2. Click the "Databases A-Z tab (located in the middle of the screen)
3. Click the "N" in the range of letters highlighted in black
4. Scroll down to "NewsBank NewsFile" and click the link
5. Type in whatever term you'd like to look up, and click the "search" button

This is a great way to search many newspapers at once. One downside is that it usually takes a couple of days for articles to be indexed, so your search results probably won't include articles published on the day of your search.

List of journals by subject and discipline

Did you know that you can view of list of journals that the library subscribes to, arranged by subject or discipline? You can, and here's how...

1. Go to the main page of the library's web site
2. Click the "Journals" tab -- the third tab atop the outlined box about in the middle of the page
3. In this outlined box, click the "Journals organized by research discipline" link -- this opens a web page titled "A - Z List of Journals, Magazines and Newspapers at WMU."
4. In the "Category" menu on this web page, select one of seventeen subject areas, and then a subcategories within that area.
5. Click the big red button marked "Go."
6. A list of the journal titles appears below the menu of subject areas!

On top of that, each of the journal titles is hotlinked to a list of (a) the volumes the library has in print and (b) a link to access the journal electronically (if available).

And as always, you can always contact me or contact the library for help with this.

Testing new library catalog

The WMU Libraries are testing a new library catalog that, we hope, will be easier to use. But to determine how well the new catalog works our library web master, Michael Whang, and one of our librarians, Sheila Bair, need faculty volunteers for a study they are conducting.

All volunteers would need to do is to search in the old and new library catalog for answers to six questions. It shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes.

You can view a brief library web page about the study.

If you are interested, contact Michael at michael.whang@wmich.edu or Sheila at sheila.bair@wmich.edu.

Scientific Style and Format, 7th edition

Waldo Library has just acquired the most current edition of the science writing style manual Scientific Style and Format: The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers. Shelved in Science Reference area, this style manual is a valuable resource for anyone writing a scientific paper or book for publication.

CSA Illustrata: Natural Sciences Abstracts

WMU Library users will have access to a trial subscription of CSA Illustrata: Natural Science Abstracts until Nov 30, 2008. Users can search this database for tables, figures, charts, and other illustrations within scholarly articles. Subject coverage: 2000+ journals in Agriculture, Biology, Education, Geography, Medicine and more.

Students and faculty, let me know if you think this database would be useful for your research.