Books

WorldCat Presentation on Feb. 3

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Rodgers Library will offer a short presentation on access to books for research, instruction, learning, and personal interest – primarily books found in libraries of other universities nationwide.

Where:  Scholars’ Station, Rodgers Library for Science and Engineering

When:  2:00- 2:30 P.M., Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Audience:  For all UA faculty and graduate students

The focus is on Worldcat.  During our presentation, we will share with you important information about the WorldCat database and how to use it in your work.  WorldCat is a master list of books found in most college and university libraries in the United States, plus books in many other libraries such as the Seattle Public Library.

Tip 12: Course Reserves

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Tip 12:  Course Reserves.    Many faculty use extra materials to enhance   instruction in the classroom.  In the library, we refer to these materials as course reserves.  Commonly faculty put books from the Rodgers Library collection or personal copies of books on reserve.  Other materials may be appropriate too.  If the content you want to use is in digital format it is probably more convenient to link digital content in your class syllabus or Blackboard Learn.  Learn more about how we handle course reserves.

Go to Course Reserves.

Tip 10 Libraries’ Catalog (also known as Classic Catalog)

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Tip 10  Libraries’ Catalog (also known as Classic Catalog). Before Scout came along, faculty consulted Classic Catalog to find books and journals in the UA Libraries.  Classic Catalog is still a useful tool.  In particular, Classic Catalog offers a convenient way to find out what journals are in the UA Libraries, both the archival print journals and the newer electronic journals. Note, Classic Catalog is not used to find specific articles.

Go to Classic Catalog.

Tip 7: Print Books & E-books

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Tip 7:  Print Books & E-books.  Rodgers Library has a substantial assortment of print books and e-books.  Since about 2010, we’ve acquired e-books only, unless a faculty member specifically requests a print edition of a particular title.   Our print books are on the 2nd floor of the library and for older and less used print titles in the Annex.   For 2015 we will get all Wiley and Springer e-books, as well as titles from other publishers, such as ACS.   Scout is an excellent tool for finding books. In Scout, execute a word search.  In step 2, under the heading “Refine Results,” in the left-hand column, choose Source Types and then limit search results to just “Books.”

Go to print and e-books search.

Tip 4: InterLibrary loan.

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Tip 4:  InterLibrary loan.    Over the years Rodgers Library has acquired thousands of books and journals.  But the literature is way too large for us to own or license everything that you may want. Fortunately the UA Libraries is a member of a national network of libraries and participates in RapidILL.  So we can get what you need.  If a book or a journal article not available from the UA Libraries, use ILLiad to make a request.  If a book, it will be sent to us by a lending library and be available for you to pick up at the Circulation Desk in Gorgas Library when it arrives.  If you request an article, the article will be scanned by the lending organization and sent to your ILLiad account. Some articles arrive in 24 hours.

Go to InterLibrary loan.

WorldCat and Books

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Books are an important resource in science, engineering, and nursing. Both students and faculty can benefit from content in books.  Books are a great source to learn about a topic or find information for a classroom activity. Books often have content suitable for research activities as well. Whatever the purpose, books are an essential tool for scholarship.

Annually, thousands of sci-tech and nursing books are published by professional associations and commercial publishers.  Many of these books are acquired as print or e-books by Rodgers Library for Science and Engineering. We do not, however, acquire every title that’s published even if there’s a match with UA’s curriculum and research agendas. Still it’s important to remember that nearly all books are acquired by one or more academic libraries in North America.

The good news: Academic libraries in North America share collections and all of us are beneficiaries of this resource sharing. In essence you have access to most of the books owned by other academic libraries. WorldCat is the primary database used to make this happen. WorldCat contains both current and archival books on every subject.  Go to WorldCat database.

Books Are Very Helpful Too

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With so many scholarly materials available, some students may overlook the book collection.  Rodgers Library holdings include many intermediate- and advanced-level books in all disciplines in the sciences, engineering and nursing.  Whether you are just starting to learn a new subject or need important background information, books are a great resource.  Books often provide a full treatment of a special subject as well.  Such is the case with the title Physiography of the United States, by Charles B. Hunt.   Print books are housed on the north side of the second floor and are organized by the Library of Congress Classification.   A general guide to the classification scheme is shown in a large poster near the stacks.  Both online and print books are listed in Scout our online discovery system.  Scout offers a quick way to find books on any subject.  After doing a search in Scout, use the facet for “books” in the left-hand column to limit to that format.  Go to Scout.

New Version of Scout Arrives on August 10

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A new version of Scout, the UA Libraries online catalog, will be available on August 10.  The all new Scout offers enhanced searching, more content, superior presentation, and lightning speed.   More significantly, the new edition of  Scout indexes many kinds of content, including books, journal articles, and technical reports.   

 When using Scout, patrons can: 

  • Search for and download electronic books and technical reports
  • Search for and download electronic scholarly articles
  • Easily create  links to specific content
  • Search for and locate hardcopy books in libraries’ collections
  • Locate bound journal titles in the libraries’ collections
  • Request journal articles and books housed in the UA Libraries Annex 

Scout is a robust, modern discovery system.  From a clean and simple interface, patrons can search for and acquire much of the content they need for study, instruction, and research.  Scout delivers!  Try it today.      

Scout

Physics Faculty and Students Love Books

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Book circulation is a common measure of success for libraries.  Recently we did a quick study on the use of physics books in Rodgers Library.  We wanted to know if the books we acquired are meeting needs of students and faculty for learning, instruction and research.  Are books being checked-out?  Well the answer if you believe in the MO test, yes.  An experiment was run in class QC (physics) in May 2011.  Test A:  at random pulled three books from the shelves and examined date due slips.  Results showed that all three books circulated since 2002.  Repeat the experiment.  Test B:  again at random pulled three QC books from the shelves and checked the date due slips.  In the 2nd test, results showed much the same as all three books circulated since 2005.  Even while the data is a bit thin, the study demonstrates the value of the physics collection.  Results from this study are not at all that surprising, since Rodgers Library seeks to closely match new book selections with instruction and research going on in UA’s Department of Physics and Astronomy.