Georgia Tech Library News

October 20, 2003

In spring 2003, the Library & Information Center at Georgia Institute of Technology participated in the LibQUAL+ Survey. The Library appreciates the invaluable input provided by students and faculty.

During the last several months, the Library evaluated the survey data and comments; a web site was developed with complete survey results and Library responses.

Georgia Tech graduate students now have the ability to submit theses and dissertations electronically. This fall, students can choose to create an electronic version of their work and deposit it in the ETD (Electronic Thesis and Dissertation) Collection found at http://etd.gatech.edu. More information can be found on the Library’s Theses and Dissertations page.Submitting electronic theses and dissertations will benefit students by:

• Allowing students the freedom to include multimedia objects, hyperlinks, audio, video, and other objects that enhance their work
• Becoming available much sooner after graduation than the paper version
• Affording students valuable experience in electronic scholarly publishing
• Increasing the likelihood of having their work cited
• Eliminating the need to print multiple paper copies on costly rag paper
• Garnering worldwide attention for research efforts

This service is a project of the Office of Research and Graduate Studies with support from the Library and Information Center. For more information, contact the ETD Team or Catherine Jannik, 404-385-4514.

The Library provides study areas to accommodate both group and quiet study. The 1st and 2nd floors in both East and West buildings are available for group study and conversation. The 3rd and 4th floors West, and 3rd through 6th floors East, are reserved for quiet study. Please be courteous to those around you.

Please set your cell phones to vibrate when entering the building. Please limit your cell phone use to the rotunda or the vending machine area, so as not to disturb those working around you.

The Information Services Desk and the Circulation & Reserves Desk are open from Sunday at Noon until Friday at 6pm. All Library floors (including the East Building) are now open during these hours as well. Saturday hours remain 9 am – 6 pm.

August 26, 2003

A product called SFX (”special effects”) is now used to produce our e-journals lists dynamically. Unlike before, the e-journals pages now list GT library subscriptions, as well as journals available through GALILEO. When you click on the title of the journal or the SFX button, a menu will appear with options of where the full text is available. Using SFX’s Citation Linker is another way to access the e-journals. SFX will also be used in our databases to link you more directly to full text and other options. To view how this will work, take a look at Compendex or MathSciNet for a preview

The Library is pleased to announce that we have been able to expand our access back to 1970. Purchase of back years of ISI Web of Science is among the most frequent faculty requests. We plan to continue to purchase additional backfiles as funding permits.

The Library has a new cell phone policy that will go into effect on August 18. Please set your cell phone to vibrate when entering the building. Please limit your cell phone use to the rotunda or the vending machine area so as not to disturb those working around you.

Serials Review HomepageThe Serials Review Committee has used the available data below to evaluate the serials collection. If you would like to provide comments on retaining subscriptions to certain titles, please use the feedback form on the serials review homepage. All the comments/feedback are being sent to the Serials Review Committee. All comments must be received by August 8, 2003.

• Faculty input
• LJUR (Local Journal Utilization Report) data from ISI
  (number of articles published in a given journal by GA Tech faculty from 1982 – 2002, and the number of citations to a given journal by Georgia Tech faculty from 1982 – 2002)
• ISI Impact Factor rankings by discipline
• publisher
• cost

If you have concerns or questions about the project, please contact a member of the Serials Review Committee:

Richard Meyer – Dean and Director of Libraries
(404)-894-8914

Tyler Walters – Associate Director for Digital & Technical Services
(404)-385-4489

Nancy Simons – Head, Collection Development & Chemical Sciences Information Consultant
(404)-894-1387

Lori Critz – Information Services Librarian & Physical Sciences Information Consultant
(404)-385-4392

Donna Braquet – Information Services Librarian & Life Sciences Information Consultant
(404)-385-2694

Due to State of Georgia budgetary cuts, a number of the databases that GALILEO has provided to Georgia libraries, including Georgia Tech, for so many years (in many cases since 1995) have had to be eliminated.GALILEO has made a few additions to offset some of the loss, adding the following resources: the full-text of Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times (available from the ProQuest Collections menu), and Literature Online Reference Edition (a Chadwyck-Healey database of literary criticism, reference, and biography).

PLEASE NOTE: The Georgia Tech Library will do everything it can in its difficult budgetary situation to replace the GALILEO databases that have been cut but that are critical to Georgia Tech, with as little interruption to service as possible. We will not be able to replace all of them however, in that the Library’s budget is tight and the replacement costs are in the range of several hundred thousand dollars. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause you in your teaching, research, and learning endeavors.

The following GALILEO databases are available through mid-August 2003 only:
Alternative Press Index
Applied Science and Technology Index
Art Index
Basic Biosis
EconLit
Essay and General Literature Index
General Science Index
Library Literature
PAIS International

The following GALILEO databases are no longer available as of July 1, 2003:
Biography Index
Biological and Agricultural Index
Book Review Digest
Business and Industry
Business Organizations Directory
Consumers Index
DataTimes
Disclosure Corporate Snapshots
FactSearch
Geobase
Humanities Index
Index to Legal Periodicals and Books
Internet and Personal Computer Abstracts
MDX Health Digest
Media Review Digest
Reader’s Guide Abstracts
Social Science Index
Wilson Business Abstracts
Worldscope Global

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact your Information Consultant (Subject Librarian.