WCSU Libraries Blog

The Libraries will have modified hours during spring break:

Enjoy the break!

The Library has arranged for trial access to Classical Scores Library, part of Music Online from Alexander Street Press.

From the About page:

“Classical Scores Library will contain 400,000 pages of classical scores from both in-copyright and public domain editions. The major composers output is represented, as well as many lesser known composers and works.

Content in the database includes in-copyright material from Boosey and Hawkes and selected material from the University Music Editions microfilm series.

The collection includes works spanning time periods from the Renaissance to the 21st century. Coverage of score types is comprehensive, with full scores, study scores, piano and vocal scores, and piano reductions.

The database has been indexed to enable users to search on musically relevant fields, such as composer, work/opus number, key, genre, instrument, time period; as well as score-specific fields, such as score type, duration, editor, arranger, publisher. We hope that this will enable users to search, analyze, and research scores in a simple but powerful manner.

Further releases will include the entire catalog of UME, as well as manuscript material from the Barry S. Brook Center for Music Research, and many new editions from other in-copyright publishers.”

Try it now!

Celebrate with WCSU… Win $100 gift certificate to the WCSU bookstore!

In honor of Women’s History Month, WCSU is sponsoring an online quiz.  The prize will be $100 gift certificate to the WCSU bookstore.  ENTER NOW!

Also check out the schedule of events and the resources for learning more about women’s history.

To all those who have ordered materials via ILLiad (interlibrary loan): due to an interruption in service with the external (national) system, we are experiencing delays in request fulfillment. Please be assured your requests are being processed locally, and we will continue to monitor the situation. Your requests will be fulfilled as soon as possible.

Thank you for your patience.

You may have heard about the President’s Stimulus Package, but have you had the opportunity to learn about this very controversial program?  Are you aware that it is composed of many different pieces of legislation?

Take a look at the following information available on www.thomas.gov.  Thomas.gov was launched in 1995 (at the inception of the 104th Congress), to make federal legislative information available to the general public.  To access summaries of each bill, click on the appropriate link, and then select the “CRS Summary” or “Summary” link in the grid in the center of the page.  If you have the time and/or inclination, you may read the entire text of each bill!

H.R.1 Making supplemental appropriations for job preservation and creation, infrastructure investment, energy efficiency and science, assistance to the unemployed, and State and local fiscal stabilization, for fiscal year ending September 30, 2009, and for other purposes.

H.Res.88 Providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 1) making supplemental appropriations for job preservation and creation, infrastructure investment, energy efficiency and science, assistance to the unemployed, and State and local fiscal stabilization, for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2009, and for other purposes.

H.Res.92 Providing for further consideration of the bill (H.R. 1) making supplemental appropriations for job preservation and creation, infrastructure investment, energy efficiency and science, assistance to the unemployed, and State and local fiscal stabilization, for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2009, and for other purposes.

H.R.290 To provide for special transfers of funds to States to promote certain improvements in State unemployment compensation laws.

H.R.291 To provide for certain temporary additional unemployment benefits.

H.R.598 To provide for a portion of the economic recovery package relating to revenue measures, unemployment, and health.

H.R.629 To provide energy and commerce provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

H.R.679 Making supplemental appropriations for job preservation and creation, infrastructure investment, energy efficiency and science, assistance to the unemployed, and State and local fiscal stabilization, for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2009, and for other purposes.

S.336 An original bill making supplemental appropriations for job preservation and creation, infrastructure investment, energy efficiency and science, assistance to the unemployed, and State and local fiscal stabilization, for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2009, and for other purposes.

S.350 An original bill to provide for a portion of the economic recovery package relating to revenue measures, unemployment, and health.

For additional information on the legislative process, take a look at “How our laws are made,” written by Charles W. Johnson, Parliamentarian, House of Representatives, available at: http://www.thomas.gov/home/lawsmade.toc.html.

Brian Kennison of the Haas Library systems department, through an initiative specified by the CSU and State Archivists, has built a prototype search application (see: http://library.wcsu.edu/cao) that has the potential to significantly facilitate archival research of Connecticut collections.

FaCTs is based on similar for-profit and non-profit initiatives in place at large institutions and consortiums around the U.S. and abroad.  Currently, the application is called faCTs (federated archives of CT search) and it will now search over 100 archival collections primarily from the WCSU Archives and the Connecticut State Library.

In the short term, faCTs provides a simple interface to search WCSU’s archival holdings.  Long term - the goal is to include more content from the other CSUs and State Library and to widen the scope of the search to include institutions from all over Connecticut.  It is our hope that in the next couple years, the faCTs will provide a researcher with a free, fast, easy and reasonably comprehensive listing of Connecticut’s wide range of archival holdings.

Please contact the WCSU Archivist, Brian Stevens, with any questions [stevensb@wcsu.edu].

NOTE: As of February 2009, the faCTs’ name was changed to CAO (CT Archives Online).

The Libraries now have an online subscription to the Chronicle of Higher Education. 

“The [online] Chronicle is published every weekday and is the top destination for news, advice, and jobs for people in academe. The Chronicle’s Web site features the complete contents of the latest issue; daily news and advice columns; thousands of current job listings; articles published since September 1989; vibrant discussion forums; and career-building tools such as online CV management, salary databases, and more.”

This resource is now available to you both on and off campus.  Links to the Chronicle can be found on the WCSU Libraries database page and in the CONSULS catalog.

After many months of processing by the WCSU Archives' assistant archivist Mary Rieke and student archives assistant Jamie Cantoni '09, the WCSU Photographs and Ephemera collection's finding aid has been published. [Click here to look at the finding aid]

This is a collection of photographs and realia spanning the history of Western Connecticut State University. Many of the items in the inventory link out to digital images stored in WestCollections. The collection includes images and objects that document the growth, evolution and public profile of this 105-year-old institution.

Education Research Complete is now the definitive online resource for education research. This massive file offers the world’s largest and most complete collection of full text education journals. It is a bibliographic and full text database covering scholarly research and information relating to all areas of education. Topics covered include all levels of education from early childhood to higher education, and all educational specialties, such as multilingual education, health education, and testing. Education Research Complete also covers areas of curriculum instruction as well as administration, policy, funding, and related social issues. The database provides indexing and abstracts for more than 1,870 journals, as well as full text for more than 1,060 journals. This database also includes full text for 133 books and monographs, and full text for numerous education-related conference papers. Try it now!

These items were recently added to the collection.

Carvey, Harlan A (2007),
Windows forensic analysis : DVD toolkit
Burlington, MA : Syngress Pub. (*With CD)

Wang, Wally (2006),
Steal this computer book 4.0 : what they won’t tell you about the Internet
San Francisco : No Starch Press (*With CD)

Broughton, Philip Delves (2008),
Ahead of the curve : two years at Harvard Business School
New York : Penguin Press

Lehu, Jean-Marc (2007),
Branded entertainment : product placement & brand strategy in the entertainment business
London ; Philadelphia : Kogan Page

Sinchak, Steve (2007),
Hacking Windows Vista
Indianapolis, IN : Wiley Pub.

Street, Nancy Lynch (2008),
American businesses in China : balancing culture and communication
Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Co.