Talking in the Library

How much would researchers pay for scholarly database access?

In the July 26th Chronicle of Higher Education, the ProfHacker column asks independent researchers how much they would pay for access to scholarly databases (off-campus K-Staters, try this link). That made us wonder, too. What dollar value do researchers place on access to databases? Researchers associated with an institution like K-State have access to thousands of articles, ebooks, streaming audio and video, and other resources (including the campus-wide subscription to the online Chronicle).  And, because K-State is a public and land grant institution, anyone who walks into Hale Library can access the vast majority of those databases and resources. AND, through the State Library of Kansas and a statewide consortium, anyone in the state of Kansas can currently access this set of databases.

But what if you didn't have this access (or maybe you don't)? How much would you, or could you, pay to access a database in order to continue your current research? How many databases do you consult when you conduct your research? Would you pay the same for each of them?

Short Cuts: The Final Stop for Summer Research Students on the K-State Libraries Tour

Welcome back to Short Cuts summer research students! As your summer research programs come to a close, we still have two members of K-State Libraries from the Manhattan campus that are eager to make your acquaintance.

Paul Weigel Library of Architecture, Planning & Design may have a long name but its contributions to your research are straightforward. You can visit its place of residence in Seaton Hall, directly across from the Student Union. Weigel Library is located on the 3rd floor in 323, and has a grand view of a green roof out their windows.

Weigel Library (retrieved from the K-State Libraries Flickr account)

REU students in the sustainability research program will discover a plethora of useful information about sustainable practices. Visit Weigel for research and materials on green building design and sustainable landscaping, engineering architecture, and regional and community planning. From 1001 Buildings You Must See Before You Die to Green Building: Project Planning & Cost Estimating, and Purpose of Planning: Creating Sustainable Towns and Cities, Weigel can satisfy reading for personal enjoyment, practical research, and scholarly pursuits.

On the other side of campus is, last but not least, the Veterinary Medical Library. Located on the north end of campus in Trotter Hall, the Vet Med Library conveniently serves the College of Veterinary Medicine. Complete with a staff of librarians and library assistants, the Vet Med Library has a large collection of biomedical and consumer health information to support students, faculty, staff, veterinary and health care practitioners, and the community.

Vet Med Library (retrieved from the K-State Libraries Flickr account)

The collection contains a wide range of public health materials from which SURPH students will benefit. Students in the public health summer research program focusing on animal-to-human interaction and transmission of diseases may be especially intrigued by Vet Med's unique Animal in Society (AIS) Collection.

From the Vet Med Library in the north to Weigel Library in the south, K-State Libraries spans across the Manhattan campus. And even if you're hanging out in the dorms and don't want to endure the 100 degree weather, you can always ask us any library question during our service hours by phone, email, text, or IM using our Ask-A-Librarian service.

So whether you're here for the chemical engineering, biology, or public health research program this summer, there's a K-State Library just for you! Check out the library specialized for your program for in-depth library materials and research assistance. And if you can't remember how to find Trotter Hall or if the engineering complex feels like walking through a maze, just remember to pinpoint Hale Library in the heart of campus and ask us your questions!

K-State Libraries hope you have a great end to your summer research program and that you will come back to visit soon!

Short Cuts: The Summer Side of Hale

Pull something random off a shelf in one of the K-State Libraries and I bet you will come away with a book filled with footnotes, citations, polysyllabic words, and esoteric claims. The topic could be the structure of the psyche, the mating habits of aphids, the history of ironic hyperbole, methods for solving imaginary partial differential equations or something similarly titillating. And while you would relish the opportunity to proudly display this catch from the serious side of K-State Libraries when Stephen Hawking visits your apartment, you would writhe in agony if forced to read it while luxuriating on a beach in Cabo, with or without an eminent physicist.

Retrieved from Flickr Creative Commons by Oquendo

Does this mean that it's foolish to hit Hale Library before you hit the beach? No, not at all. What it means is that random exploration is an ineffective way to find the other side (the summer side) of Hale --- the side with the movie 300, the novel Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich, the audiobook Flirt by Laurell K. Hamilton, and thousands of other not-so-serious, guilty pleasures. Fortunately, there are ways that work. Here are a few:

1. Visit the capital of the other side of Hale --- the Leisure Reading Collection (LRC). These shelves on the 2nd floor near the restrooms and the main elevators hold hundreds of recent popular novels and dozens of audiobooks. Pull something random from the LRC and you should be set for hours of summer entertainment.

2. Head to the 4th floor of Hale and make your way to the 7 foot tall tan, metal cabinets directly in front of the main elevators. Then find the drawers containing videos and hone in on the ones that start with the call numbers PN1995 or PN1997. Those drawers contain hundreds of movies on DVD or VHS. A little browsing will turn up classics like Gone with the Wind, musicals like Fiddler on the Roof, and Bollywood movies like Bride and Prejudice. You will have to leave Hale to find popcorn, though.

3. Search our catalog using a few special tricks

*To see a list of our audiobooks, simply perform a keyword search for that term (audiobooks). You can narrow your search by adding additional terms such as words in a title, an author's name, or the name of genre (e.g., western, fantasy, mystery).

*To find movies, use the drop-down box below the search box to select video recordings. Then search by keyword for the phrase "feature films" --- type the phrase inside quotation marks. Again, you can narrow the search by adding addition terms. To see the latest movies in our collection, simply select Publish Date Descending from the Sort by drop-down menu.

*To search the Leisure Reading Collection:

• Click the "more search limits" button on the bottom-right of the search screen
• Scroll through the choice in the Locations box and click on Leisure Collection
• Click the "set limits" button
• Search by keyword for words in a title, an author's name, or the name of a genre. To see a list of everything in the collection, search for only the keyword L002006? (include the question mark).

*To search for fiction anywhere in the Libraries

• Click the Guided Keyword tab
• Type fiction in the top search box
• Change the far right drop-down to subject
• In the second row type a term such as a word in a title, an author's name, or the name of a genre (NOTE: This method will not show you all of the fiction we have, because many of our works of fiction are not identified as fiction in our catalog

With a few of these tips you should find enough from the other side of Hale to be ready to delve back into aphids and psyches when summer fades into Fall. Until then, happy reading!

Jason Coleman

Leisure Reading (and Listening) for the Crazy Days of Summer

The Leisure Reading Collection has an eclectic mix of new print and audio titles.  Located on the 2nd floor of Hale Library, it's easy to locate a good read or listen.  Check one out or use it in the building to avoid the heat.  Below are just a few of the new titles.  Enjoy!

Title: Fringe. Tales from the fringe / [written by Justin Doble ... [et al.] ; illustrated by Federico Dallocchio ... [et al.] ; colored by Randy Mayor, Carrie Strachan ; lettered by Wes Abbott].
Imprint: New York : DC Comics, c2011.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: PN6728.F699 F75 2011

Title: Sentry [sound recording] : a Joe Pike novel / Robert Crais.
Author: Crais, Robert.
Imprint: Grand Haven, Mich. : Brilliance Audio, 2011, p2010.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: COMPACT DISC PS3553.R264 S46 2011b

Title: Fatal error [sound recording] / J.A. Jance.
Author: Jance, Judith A.
Imprint: New York : Simon & Schuster Audio, p2011.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: COMPACT DISC PS3560.A44 F56 2011c

Title: Full dark, no stars [sound recording] / Stephen King.
Author: King, Stephen, 1947-
Imprint: New York : Simon & Schuster Audio, p2010.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: COMPACT DISC PS3561.I483 F85 2010b

Title: River marked / Patricia Briggs.
Author: Briggs, Patricia.
Edition: 1st ed.
Imprint: New York : Ace Books, c2011.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: PS3602.R53165 R58 2011

Title: Escuela de chefs : técnicas paso a paso para la práctica culinaria / Joanna Farrow.
Author: Farrow, Joanna.
Edition: 1a ed. en lengua española.
Imprint: Barcelona : Blume, c2010.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: TX651 .F35718 2009

Title: Judas Gate [sound recording] / Jack Higgins.
Author: Higgins, Jack, 1929-
Imprint: Grand Haven, Mich. : Brilliance Audio, p2010.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: COMPACT DISC PR6058.I343 J83 2010b

Title: Worth dying for [sound recording] / Lee Child.
Author: Child, Lee.
Imprint: New York : Random House Audio, p2010.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: COMPACT DISC PS3553.H4838 W67 2010b

Title: Secrets to the grave [sound recording] / Tami Hoag.
Author: Hoag, Tami.
Imprint: New York : Random House Audio, p2011.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: COMPACT DISC PS3558.O333 S43 2011c

 Title: Conflict of interest / Adam Mitzner.
Author: Mitzner, Adam.
Imprint: New York : Gallery Books, c2011.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: PS3613.I88 C66 2011

 Title: Dog who came in from the cold / Alexander McCall Smith.
Author: McCall Smith, Alexander, 1948-
Edition: 1st U.S. ed.
Imprint: New York : Pantheon Books, c2010.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: PR6063.C326 D64 2010

Title: Now you see her : a novel / by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge.
Author: Patterson, James, 1947-
Edition: 1st ed.
Imprint: New York : Little, Brown and Co., c2011.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: PS3566.A822 N68 2011

Title: Fallen : a novel / Karin Slaughter.
Author: Slaughter, Karin, 1971-
Edition: 1st ed.
Imprint: New York : Delacorte Press, c2011.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: PS3569.L275 F37 2011