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A New Breed of Cat
 IUCAT, the online catalog, that is! Check out the beta version of the new IUCAT interface. Enhanced title searching, easier navigation, faceted searching, including limits to online and printed sources, book jackets, and Google links are just a few of the new features. It is still a beta product, so work continues to improve it. Select the IUCAT Beta button on the library's home page and use the feedback button in the catalog to send us your comments. Look for the completed transition to the new interface next summer. |
Borrow an iPad from the Library!
Through a generous donation from IPSGA, the library has received 10 iPads to lend to currently enrolled students. iPads can be checked out from the Learning Commons Information Desk, 2nd floor of the Library. iPads will be loaned with a power cord, accessory bag, and Apple's free, pre-installed software for a period of one week with no renewals. Borrowers may install additional software (via a personal ITunes account); however, all personal software will be removed when the iPad is returned.
The iPad loan program follows IPSGA's popular iPad rental program which began in fall semester 2012. Students can rent an iPad for the entire semester for $50.00; over 100 iPads are currently rented. Students interested in renting an iPad from IPSGA for the spring semester should bring a student ID and class schedule to Walb Union 225.
The library also has 15 laptops which may be checked out for 24 hours for use in or outside the library building.
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Library Services for Dead and Finals Week
Up all night at the library! 24/7 hours December 3-14
Once again, the library will be open 24/7 during dead and finals week. The library will open at 8:00 a.m. Monday, December 3 and will not close until 6:00 p.m. Friday, December 14. The library will also be open the morning of Saturday, December 15th, 8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. The library will be closed Sunday, December 16.
Our thanks to the IPSGA for funding this service!
Coffee Study Break: Monday, December 10-Wednesday, December 12 Finals week is fast approaching! Students will be in the library poring over their books, class notes, and online resources. Speaking of pouring: Helmke Library and Student Affairs will offer the Coffee/Study Break Table from 5:00-8:00 p.m. on Monday, December 10 through Wednesday, December 12. Along with the free coffee and snacks, students can also chat with the faculty and staff volunteers. Faculty or staff who are interested in working a shift at the coffee table should contact Tiff Adkins in the Library (481-6708 or adkinst@ipfw.edu). Come in and join the fun in supporting our students!
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Digital Initiatives News
 The College of Arts and Sciences Department of International Studies announced winners in its 7th International Photo Contest. Winners were selected for three categories: Mastodons Abroad, Favorite Cultural Attraction, and Most Picturesque or Unusual. Through a generous donation from Helmke Library, the winning photographs have been mounted and are displayed on the first floor of the library. In addition, the award winning photographs from the contest have been added to mDON's IPFW Travel Photography Exhibition digital collection. You can view the eight 2012 images from the "Browse by Year" section of the page. The mDON collection currently showcases 97 photographs taken by IPFW students, staff and faculty from 2006-2012. Thirty-six countries are represented, with Morocco and Romania new to the mix this year.
Congratulations to library winners Cheryl Truesdell, Chris Smith and Florence Mugambi for their award winning photos!
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Northeast Indiana Diversity Library (NIDL) Receives Larry Life's Papers
The NIDL Board of Directors is pleased to announce that the NIDL library and archive has been selected as the repository of the papers of the late Larry Life. Life taught in the IPFW Theatre Department for over thirty years and was Professor of Theatre and Chair and Artistic Director of the Department of Theatre at the time of his death in 2007.
Throughout his tenure at IPFW, LIfe maintained a national and local profile in the arts. He directed over 150 productions at IPFW, two of which were highly controversial: Bent, a play about the fate of homosexuals in Nazi Germany, and the supervision of a student-directed production of Corpus Christi, a play that featured a Christ-like character who was gay. These two plays garnered national attention and created a firestorm of controversy in the local area.
NIDL would like to thank the executors of Larry's estate for this great honor. The first shipment of Larry's papers has arrived at NIDL and the second shipment will be delivered soon.
The NIDL is located in the basement of Helmke Library, LB41.
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The Eagle:
Government Resources Discovery
November is Native American Heritage Month
Did you know that in the 2010 national census, there were over 49,000 people in the state of Indiana who identified as either Native American or Alaska native? For the city of Fort Wayne alone, there were nearly 2,700 persons (these and other statistics can be found on American FactFinder). Nationally, there are 326 federally recognized Indian land areas, ranging in size from a little over one acre to the 16 million-acre Navajo land encompassing parts of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is the federal agency responsible for interacting with all 556 tribes and holding 56.2 million acres of land in trust for those of Native American lineage.
The BIA, initially titled the Indian Affairs Office, is the oldest bureau of the Department of the Interior. For researchers interested in the history of the Bureau, the National Archives hold many of the records for the BIA the Bureau of Indian Affairs has its own Document Library, though it is more useful for finding current publications than historic ones. For researchers, the history of the relationship of Native Americans with the United States is a long and fascinating one.
For help locating government information, contact Brandon Bowen.
Happy searching!
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In the News
Victory for Digitization of Library Collections
 University libraries have won a huge victory for Fair Use and digitization efforts in the case of Author's Guild vs. HathiTrust. The HathiTrust Digital Library is a digital repository of over 10 million public domain and in-copyright volumes from the library collections of over 60 major research institutions, including IU, Purdue and University of Notre Dame. The collection is fully searchable, but the full-text of copyrighted works is only available to students who are visually impaired. The Author's Guild sued the HathiTrust for copyright infringement for alleged unauthorized reproduction and distribution of books owned by the universities. The judge in the case ruled that the HathiTrust use of digitized work is unquestionably fair use under the copyright law. He wrote:
I cannot imagine a definition of fair use that would not encompass the transformative uses made by Defendants (HathiTrust) and would require that I terminate this invaluable contribution to the progress of science and the cultivation of the arts that at the same time effectuates the ideals espoused by the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act).
Transformative use has become a test of fair use in recent court cases under factor one: the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for "nonprofit, educational purposes". The judge noted that the purpose of the digitized texts was primarily for research and "text mining", not for reading, the original purpose; and that there was no market harm since the full-text of copyrighted works is only available to students with certified print disabilities. Lastly, and most encouraging, the judge argued that the goal of copyright "to promote the progress of Science and useful Arts" is better served by allowing use, rather than preventing it. With this ruling the courts reaffirmed the role of libraries in promoting knowledge creation and providing equality of access.
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Journal Impact Factor Losing its Grip
 A November 2012 study highlights a twenty-year trend that shows that top-ranked journals, such as Cell, Nature, Science, and the Journal of the American Medical Association, are losing shares of top-cited articles. Since 1990, the proportion of highly cited papers coming from highly cited journals has been decreasing, and accordingly, the proportion of highly cited papers not coming from highly cited journals has been increasing. The team based its findings on an analysis of more than 820 million citations involving 25 million articles published from 1902 to 2009.
In the print age, the print journal, a compilation of articles usually on a very narrow, discrete subject, was used as the vehicle for disseminating reports of research and scholarship. With the advent of the electronic age and online databases, search engines, and open-access journals and repositories, researchers can search across a wide swath of literature to locate material relevant to their topic. They can also locate a host of reputable, peer-reviewed sources for the dissemination of their research and scholarship. The study verifies that "citations have become more widely spread among journals and high Impact Factor (IF) journals are losing their stronghold as the sole repositories of high quality papers." (Lozano, et al. pp. 12-13)
The study's authors conclude that if this trend continues "the IF will cease to be a meaningful measure of the quality of journals, papers, and researchers." They see this as a positive return to the "direct assessments of paper quality, by actually reading them" (i.e. peer-review), as opposed to "evaluating researchers by simply looking at the IFs of the journals in which they publish." (Lozano, et al. p. 13)
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