If you plan to use the Thanksgiving Break to work on research papers and projects, remember that the WSU Libraries will offer help whether you’re on campus or miles away from Pullman!

Assistance is available at the Holland / Terrell reference desk November 25-27 (Monday-Wednesday) from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm.  Come in, or give us a call at (509) 335-9671.

And as always, 24/7 help is available from the “Ask a Question” page through the Ask-WA consortium.  Chat with a librarian who can help you explore resources and answer questions specific to our databases and other resources.

Patrons of Washington State University Libraries soon will use a single search box to find journals, books and digitized collections. Users will see other improvements, too, including access to some 9 million titles and 26 million resources from 36 other higher education institutions.

“The new system promises to be a more cohesive experience for our patrons,” said Beth Blakesley, associate dean of WSU Libraries. “It will be a true one-stop shop for all our users’ research needs.”

At the end of December, WSU Libraries will move to a new system shared by a consortium of Pacific Northwest universities, colleges and community colleges called the Orbis Cascade Alliance. With its user interface, called Search It, patrons will be able to search a broad array of content from all 37 library collections as well as other open-access digital repositories and WorldCat, the holdings database from libraries around the world.

For more about what users can expect from the change, visit the WSU Libraries Web page at http://libguides.wsulibs.wsu.edu/search_it.

“This is a revolutionary step for us, a fundamental shift,” said WSU Libraries Dean Jay Starratt. “We had an outdated structure of separate systems. We’re moving to a shared, integrated library system that will serve the functional needs of 37 libraries and help our university community achieve the best outcomes possible.

“WSU has held a leadership role in this process,” he said. “With no slowdown to other services, our library staff has been actively leading this regional move. We’ll continue to play this role as we complete the migration.”

Six universities were the first to make the switch to the system over the summer: Linfield College (McMinnville, Ore.), Marylhurst University (Marylhurst, Ore.), Pacific University (Forest Grove, Ore.), University of Washington (Seattle), Western Washington University (Bellingham) and Willamette University (Salem, Ore.).

WSU will join the second group of alliance libraries to migrate before the end of the year. All 37 libraries are expected to switch by December 2014.

For more about the Orbis Cascade Alliance, visit the organization website at http://orbiscascade.org/index/index.

A new digital collection at Washington State University Libraries shows how propaganda posters – or “weapons on the wall” – helped governments influence citizens’ public and private behavior and decisions during World Wars I and II.

The Propaganda Poster Digital Collection, roughly 520 images of posters made 1914-1945, is available at http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/propaganda.

For more about the collection, see the WSU News story and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer article.

Visit the WSU Libraries’ Paranormal Page for some spooky Halloween fun!

Did you know that the Owen Science and Engineering librarians are available to help you find science resources? 

Architecture and the children’s literature collections are also now hosted in Owen. Stop by during reference hours for assistance with any of these collections!

Librarians are available Monday through Thursday from 10:000 AM to 12:00 PM and from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM.

Get online answers 24/7 through new library service

Starting Aug. 19, asking a Washington State University librarian for help with a research topic, citation styles or other resources will be just as convenient as searching the Web anytime day or night.

WSU Libraries has joined Ask-WA, a service coordinated by the Washington State Library in participation with libraries statewide. WSU faculty, students and staff can get a quality answer within minutes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, through the website at http://libraries.wsu.edu/ask.

Ask 24/7

WSU Libraries’ staff members answer chat questions weekdays 10 a.m.-4 p.m. All other hours—4 p.m.-10 a.m. Monday-Friday and all day Saturday and Sunday—chat questions are answered by librarians from other academic institutions who have access to WSU’s policies, catalog and library guides. They use their professional expertise to answer questions or refer them to other experts.

In 2012, college students and faculty statewide asked 16,430 questions using Ask-WA.

“Now that WSU Libraries are part of the statewide cooperative service, our library users can get help all of the hours they are searching for information, not just when the library is open,” said Marilyn Von Seggern, WSU Libraries’ government information librarian. “Other academic libraries in the state have shown how useful and convenient Ask-WA is for their library users.”

For more information, contact Jane Scales (scales@wsu.edu), WSU Libraries’ electronic projects librarian.

Vicki Croft (third from the left), head of the Animal Health Library, recently received the Founders Award from the International Conference of Animal Health Specialists. The award was given to Croft during this year’s Medical Library Association’s Awards Ceremony in Boston. Croft’s award was covered by WSU News Service in a recent article. Also shown in the photograph are (left to right) Esther Carrigan (Texas A&M University), 2012-2013 VMLS/MLA chair; Trenton Boyd (Missouri), awardee; and Jane Blumenthal (University of Michigan), 2012-2013 MLA president.

PULLMAN, Wash. – Karen Weathermon, director of Washington State University’s Learning Communities/First-Year Focus (formerly Freshman Focus), has received the 2013 WSU Libraries’ Excellence Award. The award recognizes a non-library WSU faculty or staff member who has shown consistent support for the libraries.

Weathermon has been a strong supporter of information literacy and librarian teaching in the programs she directs, said social sciences librarian and nominator Lorena O’English. She has encouraged faculty to partner with librarians as they develop lesson plans and teach classes.

“A university is not just a structure for teaching, learning and research; it is also a framework for the development of personal relationships and connections across disciplines and job titles,” O’English said. “Karen is a connecter – she seems to know everyone and is always collaborating.”

O’English cited comments and stories from other librarians, such as Corey Johnson, head of the Library Instruction unit, who described how Weathermon asked a group of librarians to present during the First-Year Focus program’s spring workshop series several years ago.

“Each December, librarians write a summary memo of their work with the First-Year Focus program,” Johnson said. “Karen always takes the time to provide written feedback to our summaries.  She is an outstanding colleague and supporter of librarian work.”

As co-director of WSU’s Common Reading Program, Weathermon has invited librarians to be part of the Tuesday evening lecture series and has actively encouraged library involvement at every stage of the common reading process, O’English said. Libraries’ faculty and staff have taken part in book selection, event brainstorming and scheduling, image collections from Manuscripts, Archives and Special Collections, companion displays in the Terrell Library atrium, reading guides and more.

For Weathermon, the libraries have been part of her life since she first came to WSU as a master’s student in 1987. She recalled how WSU Libraries’ emerita professor Alice Spitzer showed her how to begin navigating the libraries and their extensive resources. She also credited Laila Miletic-Vejzovic, former head of MASC, for keeping the archives open during holiday hours so she and other graduate students could continue their work without disruption.

“This is a library that has completely shaped my professional life,” Weathermon said. “This award is meaningful for me because many of those who have earned the award were mentors to me. The community I’m part of keeps me learning all the time.”

The WSU Libraries’ Excellence Award program began in 1980, honoring C. Gardner Shaw of WSU’s Department of Plant Pathology as the first recipient. Nearly 30 faculty and staff have received the award.

– Nella Letizia

Current and past WSU Pullman students have probably walked by the Nature Boy wall statue on the side of Holland Library thousands of times during their WSU careers. Have you ever wondered about the history behind this massive wall statue? Anna Wheately, WSU Libraries’ Interim Director of Development, recently worked with Manuscripts Archives and Special Collections to create an exhibit on the history of this campus landmark. The exhibit was covered by the WSU News Center in a recent article.

April is National Poetry Month! Did you know that the WSU Libraries have a wide selection of poetry – poems to help celebrate spring, poems that wail and cry, poems that make you laugh, poems that make you think! We hope you’ll check out some poetry during the month of April. And, if you’re looking for some inspiration or ideas of what poetry and poems to read, our April Reference Items of the Month may help you out.