Check out the new “Find It!” tool, which was launched in mid-January shortly after the MLK holiday. It is now the first item in the “Start Your Search Here” box off of the USF Tampa Library home page. If you wish to offer feedback about this new tool, click here. Also, we would love your students to give us feedback about this new product. Here are some talking points about “Find It.”
USF Tampa Library’s discovery tool is an EBSCO product that has a similar interface as all EBSCO databases (PsycINFO, Academic Search Premier, etc.)
“Find It” is paid for by student technology fees
Library usability studies with students indicate that they want one search box for both articles, books and other library materials
“Find It” incorporates articles in search results (from many library periodical databases).
It incorporates catalog contents in search results (i.e., ebooks, print books, dvds, etc.)
It provides greater access and visibility for articles to appear from low use or hard to reach databases
“Find It” does not replace the library’s catalog
“Find It” does not replace features or functions of subject databases
“Find It” does not include results from all databases to which the library subscribes (i.e., Criminal Justice Periodicals)
As new agreements are reached with vendors, databases currently not included in “Find It!” results will be added.
We expect to include new improvements to “Find it!” as we get feedback from faculty and students working with EBSCO to resolve issues.
For you CSA database lovers and Proquest database users, the interface will be changing and if you use ERIC and Proquest databases for your research, you may need time to adjust to the new front end of these databases. The new look is slick. It might help to go to “Databases by title” under “Research Tools.” The link to the new versions of these databases (identified as “Proquest New Platform”) will be listed there so you can test them out before the permanent switch over is final later on this year. Here is the link to the new version of ERIC (sign in from off campus first before clicking).
Low Bronwen, a scholar of sociolcultural literacy and multicultural education, offers a fresh perspective on curricular implications and possibilities for hip-hop pedagogy. The e-book Slam Schoolexamines the dynamics of teaching and learning in three high school classrooms that engaged hip-hop culture. This book makes the case for critical hip-hop pedagogies by exploring some of the ways hip-hop’s complicated politics can become the explicit stuff of curriculum, given that it most often represents most students’ out-of-school (and hallway) culture.
This new short video introduces users to the new Find It! tool. Feel free to link or embed it in your courses if you feel that it will be a useful resource for students.
Special Collections is pleased to announce they have just launched a blog, eCodex: News from USF’s Special & Digital Collections, to share news and updates about their collections, events, exhibits, and ongoing projects. You can follow along at http://lib.usf.edu/special-collection-news/ or subscribe to the blog’s RSS feed at http://lib.usf.edu/special-collection-news/feed/. The most recent post is authored by Andy Huse who features Jules Verne’s book, From the Earth to the Moon (the 1874 American edition) as well as highlights the special collections science fiction resources.
In preparation for campus-wide e-text adoption, Daytona State College completed a two-year comparative study of four textbook distribution models: print purchase, print rental, e-text rental, and e-text rental with e-reader device. This article describes the two-year pilot project, a study that compared the experiences of students and faculty using the four different textbook distribution models. It found that institutions seeking to implement campus-wide e-text adoption should be prepared to address specific concerns, including faculty choice, infrastructure needs, student technological skills, cost savings, and instructional adaptation.
In a recent interview on the PBS NewsHour, Harvard researcher Raj Chetty discusses a groundbreaking new study which has shown the dramatic and lasting impact of great teachers on their students, including a higher percentage of students going on to college and a significant increase in lifetime earnings in adulthood, and lower teen pregnancy rates. The study also shows that value added measures based on student test scores accurately identify effective teachers. Posted by StudentsFirst
Things you’ll miss when the entire world coverts to e-only books. This stop-motion book dance video was created by Sean Ohlenkamp and wife Lisa Blonder Ohlenkamp. Grayson Matthews provided the music and 25 volunteers helped with shelving and re-shelving the books each night.
The USF Tampa Library is offering Spring workshops to researchers on a variety of topics. Ones of interest to faculty and graduate students in the College of Education are:
Click here for a full list of advanced workshops for students with links to register for them. Click herefor a full list of basic workshops for new students who need to learn the library system from scratch.
