WKU Libraries blog

For the seventh year, the Education Unit of the Kentucky Museum set up a booth promoting its programs and activities and did a free activity for children and adults. This year’s photographic community map was a huge success with festival participants. Christy and Lynne were assisted by WKU students.

Photo Album

On September 30, 2008, alt-rock folk band Aby Laby Land shared their unique music with the lunch crowd on the patio of Java City outside the Helm Library.

Photo Album

University Libraries celebrated the retirement of Interlibrary Loan Specialist Debra Day Friday, September 26, 2008. Debra began working at Western in 1984 and joined University Libraries in 1996. Department head Brian Coutts spoke, and Debra and her colleagues shared cake and other refreshments. We wish her well in this new chapter of her life.

Photo Album

This is the WKU Libraries exhibit in honor of Banned Books Week, September 27th -October 4th in the main circulation area. Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read is observed during the last week of September each year. Observed since 1982, this annual ALA event reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted. This year, 2008, marks BBW’s 27th anniversary (September 27 through October 4). BBW celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met.

More Photos

Modern Country singer-songwriter Don Thomason from Dunbar, KY brought his unique sound to the patio of Java City for a very appreciative lunch crowd. This is Don’s third appearance at Java City and he always receives rave reviews from those who attend.

More Photos

Leamj, WKU student, Louisville native and successful rap artist, performed his unique musical style for the lunch crowd at the Java City patio on September 23, 2008.

Photo album of the event.

Aristófanes Cedeño, Associate Professor of Spanish, Director of the Panamanian Studies Program and Academic Dean of the Kentucky Governor’s Scholars Program at the University of Louisville, talked about Panama in the Faraway Places Series on Thursday, September 18th at Barnes & Noble.

Born and raised in Panama, Dr. Cedeño earned a law degree at the University of Panama before moving to the U.S. and obtaining his Ph.D. in Spanish Literature from Michigan State University. Recently he was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Kentucky Humanities Council, and was named one of the twenty-five most influential Hispanics in Louisville because of his contributions to education in Kentucky and to the Latino Legal Clinics organized by the Louisville Bar Association.

Photo album || Podcast of the event

The Libraries celebrate the U. S. Constitution on Constitution Day, September 17. Follow the links on the web site to the National Archives and the Library of Congress for Documents from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, the Federalist Papers, dates of ratification by the states, an interactive Constitution and a time line, among others.

TopSCHOLARâ„¢ surpassed the 1,000th mark today, reaching 1004 papers in The Research and Creative Activity Database of Western Kentucky University. What else? Over 12,000 downloads to date, graduate theses being routinely uploaded and the SelectedWorks personal researcher sites being created to increase the accessiblity of faculty works.

Do you want your productivity published in TopSCHOLAR? Do you need to publish and cannot find the right outlet? Tired of bad links and want permanent URLs? Check out digitalcommons.wku.edu and contact Connie Foster soon.

Posted Sept. 12, 2008
Connie Foster, Head
Library Technical Services

Locate the TDNet (Find e-journals and more) link on the left-column of the WKU Libraries Home Page (www.wku.edu/Library):

Does the library have the electronic version of Journal X? The database I used referred me to Journal ABC. Does WKU have it? My class has a group project this semester on stem cell research and public ethics. Can we get weekly email updates on the latest developments? And the answer is …YES.

TDNet, a powerful electronic journal management system has four features: the A-Z list of journal titles to which we have access and links to the databases where they are found; links to publisher web sites; a link to TOPCAT for additional information; and My TDNet, an alerting service for use by individuals or classes to track subject or journal specific contents weekly.

Create your own user profile by journals or subjects for which you want table of contents alerts with links to the articles as they are published.

• Delivered into your email account
• Allows a professor to create a profile or profiles for classes so that groups can receive alerts if they are studying certain topics throughout the semester
• Have as many profiles as you like; track different research interests with different profiles.

What is this button? TOUR, an Open URL resolver, links a citation found in an indexing or abstracting database directly to the full-text access if available. The TOUR button signals a click to check for full-text access.

As if that is not enough, Google Scholar displays WKU Link! Researchers can now “FindFullText@WKU” for Google Scholar hits when WKU has the cited work, thanks to TDNet and Google Scholar linking software.

Questions? Contact Connie Foster, Head, Library Technical Services (connie.foster@wku.edu)