WSU students will have a new study tool available to them for the first time – round-the-clock access to university libraries during the last two weeks of the semester.

“After discussion with student leaders and examination of gate count data from last year, we decided to keep the Holland and Terrell libraries open 24/7 during dead and finals weeks,” said Beth Blakesley, associate dean of libraries.

The libraries opened at noon Saturday, Dec. 1, and will remain open through 9:45 p.m. Friday, Dec. 13.

Update:

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry: limited

Agricola: down (EBSCO’s Agricola can still be searched.

Bureau of Economic Analysis: down

Bureau of Justice Statistics: available

Bureau of Labor Statistics: limited

Census (and FedStats): down

Data.gov: down

EDGAR: available

ERIC: down (EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) is making the government database ERIC available during the government shutdown. Because of the shutdown, access to the full text of articles and other materials will not be available but researchers will have access to the full set of A&I records on EBSCOhost. Users going tohttp://www.ebsco.com/freeERIC<http://www.ebsco.com/freeERIC>  will now see ERIC listed among the other free EBSCO databases such as GreenFILE™ and Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts™ (LISTA).

fdSys: limited

Federal Election Commission: limited

Library of Congress: limited (thomas.gov and beta.congress.gov available)

MedlinePlus: limited

National Archives and Records Administration: limited

NCJRS: available

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency: limited

Pubmed: limited

RegInfo: available

In light of the  uncertainties regarding government operations, we wanted to let you know that the DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information <http://www.osti.gov/home/>  (OSTI) will continue to make available OSTI databases, search tools and web pages, including SciTech Connect<http://www.osti.gov/scitech/>  and Science Accelerator<http://www.scienceaccelerator.gov/> .  Should the situation change, OSTI will put out another announcement prior to any of our products being unavailable for any period of time.

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The census web site is not functioning: http://www.census.gov/

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(http://era.nih.gov/) may not be up to date, transactions submitted via the web site may not be processed, and the agency may not be able to respond to inquiries until appropriations are enacted

If you are a grantee or grant applicant looking for guidance, see http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-13-126.html

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Congress has not passed an appropriation for FY 2014 or a Continuing Resolution to allow Government agencies to continue normal operations. Therefore, like all Federal agencies, GPO is preparing for a Government shutdown beginning at midnight on Tuesday, October 1, 2013. During a furlough due to a Government shutdown, GPO employees can only work on activities directly related to the legislative process, and on activities for an orderly shutdown and to protect property and assets.

Effective October 1, 2013, all staff of Library Services and Content Management (LSCM) will be furloughed due to the funding lapse. GPO will not be updating gpo.gov, FDLP.gov, the Catalog of Government Publications, Ben’s Guide, or be responding to askGPO questions until funding is restored. The Laurel warehouse will be closed so there will be no shipments to depository libraries.

Congressional materials will continue to be processed and posted to FDsys. Federal Register services on FDsys will be limited to documents that protect life and property. The remaining collections on FDsys will not be updated and will resume after funding is restored.

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USATrade Online will be shutdown starting today until further notice.

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During the shutdown, USA.gov  will not be updated, but the website will be available. You can also get answers to government questions by calling 1-800-FED-INFO (1-800-333-4636), 8 AM – 8 PM (Eastern Time), Monday through Friday.

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Due to the lapse in government funding, PubMed is being maintained with minimal staffing. Information will be updated to the extent possible, and the agency will attempt to respond to urgent operational inquiries.

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Learn the status of government services during the shutdown.

Classes are scheduled for EndNote and EndNote Web instruction.  EndNote enables researchers to manage, organize and integrate bibliographic research and ultimately format documents for publication.  The “Beginner’s Class” introduces the basics of using EndNote and EndNote Web.  The 2nd class, “Cite While You Write,” will show you how to format documents – both in-text and bibliographic citations into your documents and troubleshoot commonly encountered issues.

Pullman classes, conducted in Terrell 105 classroom:

Beginners Class – Tuesday, March 26th from 10 to 12.

Cite While You Write – Tuesday, April 9th from 10 to 12.

For enrollment information and more information on EndNote, access http://libguides.wsulibs.wsu.edu/endnote or contact Jane Scales scales@wsu.edu.

Individuals away from the Pullman campus can contact Jane Scales scales@wsu.edu for scheduling webinars.

Check out the amazing and comprehensive African American National Biography and get a better sense of the breadth and depth of the Aftican American experience! For more information about this reference work, or for past highlighted reference items, please have a look at our website http://libguides.wsulibs.wsu.edu/refitemofthemonth!

All Terrell Library study rooms can now be reserved online

The Terrell Library study rooms on all floors, can all now be reserved online.  Anyone with a WSU email account can reserve a group study room for up to four hours, per 24 hour period. All reservation requests must be confirmed within 30 minutes of requesting.  Reservations can be confirmed or cancelled by responding to the notification email sent by the system at the time of the initial reservation request.

To view availability and reserve study rooms point your browser to the front page of the Libraries’ new calendar.  You may browse the available times for each room offered for reservation by clicking on the ‘Group Study” link on the right side of the screen.  The calendar for the current month is listed on the left side of the screen and the available times for each room for the current day is displayed prominently in the middle of the page.  For each room you can view a greater description of the room, its floor location, and an interior photo of the room by “mousing over” each room’s information icon.  The Main Holland and Terrell Circulation Desk has maps with all the study rooms highlighted available.

For questions regarding the service stop by the Holland and Terrell Circulation Desk or call 509.335.9672 

Main Calendar

http://calendar.libraries.wsu.edu

Group Study Room Calendars

http://calendar.libraries.wsu.edu/booking/groupstudy

Happy 2013! January’s reference item of the month is Patrick Moore’s Data Book of Astronomy, a rich and compelling resource for anyone interested in exploring the mysteries of the universe! For more about this book an other reference items of the month, check out our website: http://libguides.wsulibs.wsu.edu/refitemofthemonth.

• Starting on Monday November 26th, Terrell 111/113 (The group study rooms closest to the Reference desk in the Holland and Terrell Library) will be available for booking through our LibCal Calendaring Service (check it out here http://wsulibs.wsu.libcal.com/rooms.php?i=102 ). We hope to expand the calendaring service to all of the HAT study rooms by next semester.

• Access Services will be checking out two SMART Board Adapters from the Satellite Circulation Desk (Formerly Front Desk CUB). These can be used in conjunction with most any laptop.

•Basic instructions on how to install and the use the software will be in the rooms with more in depth instructions on use to follow.

LibQUAL+ 2012 WSU Libraries Seek Student and Faculty Feedback on Service Quality On November 2, 2012, a randomly selected group of Washington State University undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty will receive an email message from the Dean of Libraries, inviting them to participate in a web-based survey designed to measure library service effectiveness from the perspective of the library user. The results of this survey will be used in establishing priorities for the WSU Libraries. The combination of local survey results with those of other participating research libraries will allow the WSU Libraries to identify “best practices” in providing service to the WSU community. Jay Starratt, Dean of Libraries, says to those invited to participate, “You are part of a random sample chosen to represent all WSU students and faculty. A strong response rate is very important to the accuracy of this survey.” Invitation notices will be sent to email addresses in the WSU campus online directory. Email addresses may be updated at the Information Technology Email Forwarding site at http://infotech.wsu.edu/help/HowTo/Misc/emailfwd.html. Incentive to participate will also be provided. A randomly selected participant from WSU respondents will receive an I-Pad 2. The survey, called LibQUAL+, is a large-scale, user-based library service effectiveness tool developed by Texas A&M University in conjunction with the Association of Research Libraries. The Washington State University Libraries participated in a LibQUAL+ pilot study conducted in 2001, and have continued to use this tool on a regular basis to measure library user opinions, with the goal of providing excellent service and support for the WSU community. For more information about LibQUAL+, visit http://www.libqual.org. CONTACT: Steve Borrelli, Assessment Team Leader, sborrelli@wsu.edu, (509) 335-8628

Halloween is getting closer!  Start celebrating now by looking through the spooky and strange resources available from the WSU Libraries.  Visit the Paranormal Libguide and browse books, videos, articles, and internet sources that are bound to spook and haunt you the rest of the year! The WSU Libraries’ Paranormal Libguide!