Fourteen scholars and nine librarians participated in this year's "What's New in the Library" seminar for the Circle of Scholars. The seminar went far beyond an introduction to the library's resources and services. Topics included Google Earth; YouTube's "Face the Candidates"; consumer health sites; social book marking or how people with similar interests, such as quilting or birding, can share their favorite Internet sites; an introduction to RSS feeds, Wikis and 'second life'; a history of the book-from papyrus to the new Espresso Book Machine; and the concept of the learning commons in academic libraries. As members of the Circle of Scholars, they become part of the Salve Regina Learning community and are entitled to use McKillop Library. With this in mind, collections that would appeal to this group in particular were highlighted. Since many of the members have grandchildren, they were introduced to the Curriculum Library. The library's film collection, which is developed to include films of importance rather than popularity, give members access to many films that are not available in local video stores. This year's presentation on the University Archives included information on the recently acquired Goelet papers. As a result of the seminar one participant who is involved in research on Newport's gardens of the period returned the following week to work with the archivist. The library has conducted seminars for the Circle of Scholars for over a decade, and the seminars have evolved along with the changing nature of libraries and information access.

The McKillop Library has recently subscribed to twelve new or enhanced databases. All can be accessed from the New Databases link on the McKillop Library home page.

From EBSCOhost :
      CINAHL with Full Text,
      Film and Television Index,
      International Security and Counter Terrorism Reference Center, and
      Social Work Abstracts.

From Alexander Street Press:
      Theatre in Video with BBC Shakespeare.

From NewsBank:
      America's Historical Newspapers, Series One, 1690-1876, also known as Early American Newspapers, is highlighted below.

Other new databases:
      Plunkett Research Online with Archives,
      Bio One Two,
      Reference Universe,
      Europa World Plus and Regional Surveys of the World, and
      Sage Journals Online.

The McKillop Library recently added America's Historical Newspapers, Series 1, 1690-1876, to its roster of electronic resources. An outgrowth of the Early American Newspapers collection, the database offers 350,000 fully searchable issues from over 700 historical American newspapers. It is particularly important to Salve because it includes coverage of the Newport Mercury from 1758 to 1842. Eight other Rhode Island papers of the period are also included along with newspapers from 23 states and the District of Columbia. Focusing largely on the 18th and early 19th centuries, this online collection is based on Clarence S. Brigham's "History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820" and other authoritative bibliographies.

Early American newspapers, often printed by small-town printers, documented the daily life of hundreds of diverse American communities, supported different political parties and recorded both majority and minority views. In Early American Newspapers, users can limit searches to items that fall into such categories as news and opinion, election returns, letters, poetry, legislative information, prices, advertisements, matrimony notices and death notices. In addition, users can easily view, magnify, print and save items.

The core of the collection consists of American Antiquarian Society (AAS) founder Isaiah Thomas' own collection of colonial and early national period newspapers and is supplemented by issues added by Thomas' successors at the AAS. Numerous other institutions and historical societies have contributed to the collection, including the Boston Athenaeum, the Connecticut Historical Society, the Connecticut State Library, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Library of Congress, the libraries of universities such as Brown and Harvard and private collections. This joint effort has led to the creation of a historical newspaper collection of unparalleled breadth and depth.

The Library has recently obtained several new databases that increase access to articles on nursing topics. A new and expanded version of CINAHL, called CINAHL with Full Text, provides full text articles from more than 520 nursing and allied health journals, with coverage dating back to 1981. Other new databases that include numerous nursing journals are Sage Journals Online and the Blackwell Synergy Full Journal Collection. Sage includes over 460 journals on a variety of topics, and includes nursing journals such as Nursing Science Quarterly, Journal of Research in Nursing, Journal of Family Nursing, Journal of Holistic Nursing, and Journal of Transcultural Nursing. Blackwell Synergy provides the full-text of over 850 journals, includes nursing journals such as Journal of Clinical Nursing, Nursing Forum, Nursing for Women's Health, Public Health Nursing, and Journal of Nursing Management.

All databases are available from the Library website at Databases A-Z. You will need your library ID if you are off campus. For more information or to arrange instruction on using these databases, please contact Ingrid Levin, the liaison to the Nursing department, at ingrid.levin@salve.edu or 341-2293.

Social Work Abstracts provides researchers in social work and related fields with a large variety of articles on the theory and practice of social work, as well as social issues such as addictions, child welfare, and mental health. Recently the Library obtained a new, improved version of Social Work Abstracts which provides a much more user-friendly research experience. Social Work Abstracts is now searchable using the Ebscohost search interface, which allows searching by keyword, author, or title, and allows searches to be limited by publication date, document type, or full-text availability. Users familiar with the previous version of Social Work Abstracts will likely be pleasantly surprised by the ease of use of the new version, which will hopefully improve the research process for all users of this database.

Ann Kowalski retired on September 13 after twenty years of service to the Salve Regina community. Ann joined the library staff in the summer of 1986 soon after receiving her Master of Library Science degree from the University of Rhode Island. She was responsible for many of the early changes that launched Salve on its road to a modern library. Ann considered the reclassification of the library collection from Dewey Decimal to the Library of Congress her greatest accomplishment. Her reclassification work was the foundation for the development of our on-line library system that she was also instrumental in selecting. Ann was deeply involved in all aspects of planning for the "new" McKillop Library.

In addition to her service to the Salve community Ann was involved in the Technical Services and Cataloging committees of the HELIN consortium. Retirement plans include more involvement with the University of Rhode Island Master Gardeners and lots of quality time with grandchildren.

Access Services

• Susan Hester, formerly Serials Specialist, is now Interlibrary Loan Specialist and is working much of her time at the circulation desk.
• Bea Grimmit and Kristin Butler, who goes by the name of Kiki, are filling in for Evening Supervisor Dawn Emsellem who is on maternity leave until January 2008. They are covering the evening and Sunday hours that were being covered by Dawn. Both are responsible for putting items on Electronic Reserves and can be reached by e-mailing slcirc@salve.edu

Reference

• Pilar Brenner is working part-time as Information Desk Assistant. She comes to us with experience in teaching and in managing her own business. She is also currently enrolled in the Master of Library and Information Studies program at the University of Rhode Island.

Technical Services

• Julie Swierczek comes to us from Pennsylvania as a Technical Services Specialist. She graduated from Rosemont College with a B.A. in History and Philosophy and earned a M.A. in Philosophy from Miami University. Julie will be responsible for most of the cataloging of new materials for the library.
• Lisa Underhill is the second newly-hired Technical Services Specialist. She has a B.A. in English from the University of Rhode Island and a Certificate for Interior Design from RISD. Lisa will be mainly responsible for acquiring new materials for the library.