Ramsey Library News

The library will be open to 1am (Sunday through Thursday) beginning 4/29!

See our Hours page for more detailed information.

Posted by Brandy at 10:42 AM | Permalink

Also in our collection:
The landscape of reform : civic pragmatism and environmental thought in America
Homeplace geography : essays for Appalachia
Speaking of Earth : environmental speeches that moved the world
Environmental movements in minority and majority worlds : a global perspective
Environmentalism in the Muslim world
Cultures of environmentalism : empirical studies in environmental sociology
The tangled roots of feminism, environmentalism, and Appalachian literature

On the web:
Environmental Literacy
Environment Resources (via USA.gov)
Envirofacts Data Warehouse (via EPA)

Posted by Site Administrator at 11:14 AM | Permalink

Dear campus community,

As you well know, college libraries have experienced radical change beginning early in the second half of the twentieth century. Many of you will recall Ramsey Library’s card catalog from the early 1980s, a periodical collection which topped out at about 1,800 titles, and when the only computer in the library was a word-processor in the administrative office. I can. In addition to being more than twice as big and considerably more attractive, today’s Ramsey Library offers services and collections exceeding what would have been found in a small research library of the 1980s: access to full text articles from over 35,000 journals, magazines, and newspapers worldwide; a building brimming with more than 110 computers including nearly 30 laptops available free for student use; full access to library electronic library resources and the Web from fixed workstations or wireless; electronic course reserve; easy and direct remote access to all electronic products; and a virtual on-line publishing house making rich primary sources and images available from Ramsey’s growing Special Collections. And we continue to evolve to better meet the information needs of the UNC Asheville learning community.

To that end, almost a year ago we began to examine critically our use of space and personnel in the context of the changing information, technology, and learning environments. A committee comprised of librarians, library staff, Mary Alm from the Writing Center, Mark Harvey (Environmental psychology) and some of their Undergraduate Research students coalesced to set and explore general directions. Professor Bob Yearout and his industrial ergonomics and work design students were brought in for consultation this semester, as were other members of the UNCA faculty. Several clear assumptions have so far emerged from their analysis:

1. Books will remain an important component of the information mix both in terms of the historical collection and new acquisitions;
2. The balance between traditional hard-copy sources and digital, often remotely accessed information will continue to lean ever more toward the digital;
3. The use of bound volumes of journals, already markedly down, will continue to decrease as more and more text is available in electronic format;
4. Most data and information content from the U.S. and N.C. governments will be available in electronic rather than paper format, and the U.S. Government Printing Office will continue to reduce print publications drastically;
5. Increasingly, college student learning is becoming group oriented rather than an isolated process; and
6. The library/learning environment of today and the future must combine information in traditional formats with digital information in an environment which weds technology with group work.

Early imaginings of the next five years or so include the vision of a wireless Collaborative Learning Commons replete with plasma screens to support group work, scanners, color plotters and printers, and both library and IT assistance to foster the integration of student learning and creativity with both traditional and digital information resources. Such a Collaborative Learning Commons will also link faculty working with students individually and in groups, offer access over extended hours, and possibly provide a library entrance to the New Hall-Carmichael quad.

More immediately this thinking about space, staff, and technology has led to increased collaboration between the library, media services, and ITS in supporting classroom teaching with technology announced earlier and coming this fall. We are also working on ways to enhance campus support by combining the resources of the library’s Reference Desk with those of the ITS Help Desk to provide a single support center for all information and technology needs on campus, with expanded services on evenings and weekends. And, by this fall you will find the library’s extensive media collection of DVDs, videos, and compact discs on the main floor in the room now housing microforms. This self-service collection will save staff costs while making the media collection available all the hours the library is open.

For the next step, we need your help. In order to make room for the Collaborative Learning Commons while continuing to provide ample space for existing and new paper collections still in demand, Ramsey Library needs to reduce the precious space occupied by resources that are increasingly underused. To that end, we need to withdraw bound copies of paper journals and microforms for holdings that we currently and will continue to subscribe to in a stable electronic format and for which there is a duplicate and readily available hard-copy at either ASU or WCU (in some instances, both).

We would very much appreciate your comments (Bryan Sinclair, sinclair@unca.edu) concerning the bound volumes and microf0rm copies of journals we are planning to withdraw at the end of May and which can be found by following the link below. Again, let me reiterate that ALL holdings on this list are duplicated in a stable and complete electronic archive that Ramsey Library is committed to: JSTOR (http://www.jstor.org/). In addition, paper or microfilm copies of ALL volumes proposed for withdrawal are held and available in the Western North Carolina Library Network (ASU & WCU) by one or more libraries identified as the “Designated Retaining Library” (DRL).

Many thanks in advance for your input and your support.

Jim Kuhlman
University Librarian

Related Links:
Proposed Journal Backfile Withdrawals (Microform and Bound)
Library Space Planning Project
Collaborative Learning Commons Proposal

Posted by Site Administrator at 05:48 PM | Permalink

also in our collection:
Encyclopedia of women & Islamic cultures
Islam and human rights : tradition and politics
Women shaping Islam : reading the Quran in Indonesia
Basic principles of the Islamic worldview
Islam in the world
Jihad in Islamic history : doctrines and practice
Islam and the abolition of slavery
Mecca and Main Street : Muslim life in America after 9/11
Islam obscured : the rhetoric of anthropological representation
The Cultural Roots of American Islamicism

on the web:
Muslims (PBS)
Religion & Ethics -- Islam (BBC News)
The Great Divide: How Westerners and Muslims View Each Other (Pew Global Attitudes Project)

Posted by Site Administrator at 06:30 PM | Permalink

DON'T MISS THIS EXHIBIT

It's worth a special trip. The next time you're near Ramsey Library stop by opposite the circulation desk and spend some time with Biology's Professor Micael Stuart exquisite wood carvings. He's only been carving for four years, but you'll be amazed by his artistic representations fo wildlife carved in local woods. And, don't miss his sense of humor, either!!

AUTOMATIC CONTENT ALERTS

Need help keeping up with the literature? Who doesn't? We can help. Visit Web Services Librarian Brandy Bourne's "Content Alerts" page on the library web site. Brandy tells you how to set up automatice alerts on new materials in the library's catalog, the ACM Digital Library, ERIC, Literature Online, Project Muse, Science Direct, and other valuable resources. Give it a try at:

http://bullpup.lib.unca.edu/library/features/alerts.html

You can also find the page under Research & Collection Guides>Electronic Resources.

DIVERSITY IN THE CLASSROOM

An interesting report in insidehighered.com reports on a just-released study which found that ". . . a “meaningful dialogue” involving participants of multiple races tends to change the attitudes of college students. But, strikingly, it also finds that diversity of opinion in such a dialogue does not trigger students to reevaluate their existing beliefs. While the authors suggest this may stem from the fact that many study participants holding minority viewpoints likely kept their thoughts to themselves during the dialogue — so diversity of opinion wasn’t salient — they point out that such a scenario is akin to that of a classroom discussion."

"When Discussions Change Minds"
insidehighered.com
http://insidehighered.com/news/2007/04/11/diversity

Posted by Brandy at 03:30 PM | Permalink

Tuesday, April 17
9:00am-2:00pm
Lipinsky Hall

Get there early before all the best titles are gone.

Hardbacks: $2; Paperbacks: $1; VHS & DVDs: $2; Mass market paperbacks $.50.

Posted by Brandy at 01:38 PM | Permalink

WOMEN’S HISTORY RESOURCES

Well, I’ve managed to miss Women’s History Month (March), but better late than never, I hope. You and your students will want to visit new slide show on Ramsey Library’s “Women's History Resources in D. Hiden Ramsey Library's Special Collections” page. Many thanks to Brandy Bourne, Web Services Librarian, Helen Wykle, Curator of Special Collections, and Jamie Patterson, Special Collections Assistant, for another job very well done in sharing the collections’ contents with us!

Women's History Resources in D. Hiden Ramsey Library's Special Collections

See also:

The National Women's History Project (NWHP)

IMPORTANT CAMPUS COPYRIGHT GUIDE

The Association of Research Libraries has made available an important new web guide to campus copyright issues that comes with the endorsement of Harold L. Martin, UNC Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs. We invite your attention to:

"Campus Copyright - Rights and Responsibilities - A Basic Guide to Policy Considerations"

CITIZENDIUM COMPETES WITH WIKIPEDIA

“Citizendium, the peer-reviewed "progressive fork" of Wikipedia (The Chronicle, October 18, 2006), has opened for business. The site unveiled its public face on (March 25) and as of (March 27) boasts more than 1,100 articles -- a far cry from the more than 1.6 million entries in Wikipedia's English version, but a decent start.”

The Chronicle Online, 3/27/07
“Citizendium Starts With a Little Knowledge”

Posted by Brandy at 05:42 PM | Permalink