April 25th, 2013 by

We’ve got a position open in our reference department. See below for the details in brief, and then follow the link to the official listing for further information. And thanks for your interest!

Reference and Instruction Librarian

The University of Nevada, Reno seeks a creative, user-centered librarian for a temporary position as Reference and Instruction Librarian. Primary responsibilities are to assist members of the university community seeking help at the Library and Research Services desk, through online chat, in scheduled consultations, and via phone and email; perform liaison responsibilities, including course-related instruction and collection development for the university’s Health Science programs (including Community Health Science, Nursing, and Aging); teach general library instruction sessions and workshops, including library instruction for Core Writing; develop print and digital instructional materials; and participate in outreach events sponsored by the Libraries and Research Services.

This is a full-time, temporary faculty position with healthcare and retirement benefits. The appointment is for one year with the intent to renew the appointment for two additional years contingent upon continued funding and satisfactory performance. Salary: mid-$40s to low-$50s DOE.

Minimum qualifications include an MLS or equivalent from a program accredited by the American Library Association, experience in a library reference or instruction setting and experience with web-based information resources. Experience in an academic library and a health sciences background are desirable.

For additional information and to apply, please visit:

https://www.unrsearch.com/postings/12676

Application deadline is May 22, 2013.

February 8th, 2013 by

DeLaMare Library will host a 24-hour Hackathon on Saturday, March 2, from 12 p.m. until Sunday, March 3, 12 p.m. The event, which is presented by PC Doctor and EDAWN, and hosted by Microsoft, will bring together developers from our community for 24 hours to “hack” together apps for the new Windows 8 platform.

For more event info, visit the 2013 Reno Hackathon event page.

November 13th, 2012 by

The Libraries have received notice from Springer-Verlag Publishing that all of their online journals and books will be moving to a new platform. The Libraries will take care of changing the URLs in our system, so most users will see no change in their access to Springer titles.

My SpringerLink Users:

Unfortunately, if you have created an individual My SpringerLink account, your existing account and anything you have saved there will disappear and you will need to create a new account on the new platform. You can do so now at link.springer.com.

Another option is to set up your journal alerts, along with search alerts and citation alerts, in Web of Science. Using Web of Science alerts will allow you to centralize management of journal publication alerts from a wide variety of publishers.

For questions about the Springer platform change or to receive assistance setting up Web of Science alerts, please contact Amy Shannon.

 

July 20th, 2012 by

To say they 3D printers are the most popular kids on campus is an understatement; they have barely had a minute to breath since they arrived at DeLaMare!

While the campus buzzes all things 3D, beyond UNR there seems to be a great deal of interest as well. Take a look at some of the coverage so far (with more to come):

June 19th, 2012 by

Between July 1 and September 9, Special Collections will host an exhibition featuring the works of local artists active on the University art scene in the 1960s and early 1970s. A sequel to the acclaimed 2011 summer exhibit “Post-war Bohemians in Northern Nevada”, the exhibit will highlight the next generation of leading-edge visual artists, and will feature a wide selection of two- and three-dimensional works and related historical materials.

On July 8, 3:30-6:00 pm, we will hold a reception in the Whittemore Gallery on the lower level of the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center featuring live music by Sopwith Camel, guided tours, and an opportunity to meet the artists.

Free parking for the reception is available in the parking garage across from the Knowledge Center.

March 26th, 2012 by

For anybody who has ever been curious about the back-of-the-house magic that happens whenever you request an item from the Mathewson Automated Retrieval System (MARS)–our great big materials storage warehouse inside the Knowledge Center–we’re providing two opportunities for you to get a look inside and find out more.

When?: March 29-30 @ 12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Highlights:

  • Learn fun facts about MARS
  • See the system in full operation
  • All patrons welcome!

Inquire with the staff at the Library and Research Services desk for more information. Give us a call at (775) 682-5625.

More

  • MARS Cam – a video tour of the MARS workings produced around the time the Knowledge Center opened in 2008

March 13th, 2012 by

On Tuesday, March 20, the server hosting the library catalog will be down all day for a major upgrade. Below, I will try to explain what this means to you.

For answers to questions not addressed here, please contact Carolyn Adams, Head of Library Services.

Q: Will I be able to search the catalog for books, movies, etc.?
A: Both Encore and the Classic Catalog will be down as a result of this upgrade, so no–not through the traditional library catalog.

Q: What about through the UNR mobile library app?
A: No, all access to information about item availability will be down for the day.

Q: Can I request books through Link+?
A:
Unfortunately, no, as this would require user verification through our integrated library system.

Q: Is this affecting all of the University Libraries (i.e., Knowledge Center, DeLaMare, Savitt Medical, Basque)?
A: Yes, it’s a shared catalog, so all UNR libraries will be affected.

Q: Can I check out items?
A: Yes, if you find a book or other item while the system is down, library services desk staff will check it out to you using an old fashioned pen and paper stopgap solution. You must have your Wolfcard in order to check out materials.

Q: Can I request items from MARS?
A: No.

Q: Can I clear up fines or check my library account?
A: No.

Q: Can I access online databases and e-books?
A: If you are on campus, you can typically access our subscription products through IP authentication, but you will want to use non-proxied links to the databases. If you are off campus, then the answer to this question depends on the database and e-book. Because access to our online subscription content is usually proxied–meaning your data actually travels through the server on which our library system runs–access to these resources is going to be tricky, but you do have some options. The following databases can be accessed through an alternative form of authentication (that still uses your NetID).

February 21st, 2012 by

Visit Filmakers Library Online now.

We’re going to start a new feature here on the Knowledge Center news blog that will periodically throw a spotlight on databases that are either new or otherwise interesting, and perhaps worthy of your attention. We’re kicking off this series by having a look at Alexander Street Press’s Filmakers Library Online*. Here’s some information from the vendor:

Filmakers Library Online provides award-winning documentaries with relevance across the curriculum—race and gender studies, human rights, globalization and global studies, multiculturalism, international relations, criminal justice, the environment, bioethics, health, political science and current events, psychology, arts, literature, and more. It presents points of view and historical and current experiences from diverse cultures and traditions world-wide.

The collection includes documentaries that are already heavily used in humanities and social science classrooms—films such as Who Killed Vincent Chin?; Aging Out: Teens Leaving Foster Care; Critical Condition; Dax’s Case: Who Should Decide?; Sound and Fury: The Communication Wars of the Deaf; and Waging a Living. A trove of content that would have taken immeasurable time to find and view in its entirety now is accessible and powerfully searchable through Alexander Street’s deep semantic indexing.

Internationally known producers represented in Filmakers Library Online include the National Film Board of Canada, KCTS/Seattle, and many others. Among the hundreds of notable independent film makers world-wide whose works comprise Filmakers Library Online are Christine Choy, Roger Weisberg, Josh Aronson, David Bradbury, Judith Gleason, Jeremy Levine & Landon Van Soest, Aaron Matthews, Jeffrey O’Connor, Tana Ross, and Taggart Siegel.

A couple of the features not mentioned here but that I like are: first, the ability to create video clips from larger videos, either for personal reasons or in order to share them with others (e.g., your class); second, the playlist feature, which again, allows for sharing.

With regards to sharing, the platform provides three visibility options (in addition to the option to simply not share at all): specific groups, everybody at your institution, or everyone with access to Filmakers Library Online. The upshot of this is that you can browse a growing collection of user-created playlists on sundry themes, in addition to featured lists curated by the experts at Alexander Street Press.

Even if you’ve had a look at Filmakers Library Online in the past, it’s worth checking in periodically in order to investigate new content, which in my experience, Alexander Street Press adds on a fairly regular basis. For example, on February 9, they added 46 new videos.

If you have any comments or questions, feel free to share them below or contact the library and research services desk.

* I actually inquired about the misspelling of the word “filmmaker”, and discovered that it’s just the trademark of the company from which Alexander Street purchases its content. I wasn’t the first to mention it.

February 10th, 2012 by

Librarian Amy Shannon has just put the finishing touches on a helpful guide to the use of Endnote Web. Endnote Web is an online application built for the purpose of managing citations, and even at the most basic level of fluency with the application, it is a very handy tool for managing your research. Amongst other features, Endnote Web can output citations in over 5,000 bibliographic formats–that will really cut down the time you’ll spend writing out your research paper’s bibliography!

For the uninitiated, Amy is also offering instructional workshops throughout the semester. You can find a full listing of the dates and times of those workshops in the sidebar on the above-linked guide.

EndNote Web is, of course, the online sibling to the desktop software Endnote, and there are a number of differences. See the guide for information about these differences and more.

January 30th, 2012 by

Spring 2012 courses in WebCampus Learn+ are now populated with a link to discipline-specific research guides created by the UNR Libraries. These guides help students to find the best journal articles and books, to navigate the library system, and to obtain information about services and additional assistance. The Libraries can create research guides tailored for particular classes. Contact your library subject liaison for more information or to request a customized guide for your class.