Fall Break is almost here!

This Friday there are no classes on main campus for Fall Break. The library will still be open, but the hours are slightly different. There are no reference desk hours on Friday and Saturday. The hours for the weekend are:

Fri, Oct 23 -- 9am-5pm. Computer lab open until 9pm.

Sat, Oct 24 -- 1pm-5pm. Computer lab open until 9pm.

Sun, Oct 25 -- 5pm-11pm. Computer lab open 1pm-2am.

Have a great Fall Break. It is a good weekend to take a break from studying if you have been working hard. If you have not been working hard, it is a great time to try to get caught up.

Another Abstract Database

The library has added a new database titled, "ComAbstracts." ComAbstracts is a database of article abstracts, books, bibliographic records, and other sources of relevance to researchers, scholars, and students interested in fields related to human communication studies. A title list of all the publications in the ComAbstracts database can be viewed on their website.

You might be asking yourself, "What is an abstract?" According to the Duke University Writing Studio, "An abstract is a brief digest that summarizes the essential information of an article. Abstracts often help readers decide whether to read the article." An abstract does not provide access to the full article (full-text).

Your next question might be why would I take the time to look for an article I can't view immediately? The short answer is because you can perform a more comprehensive search of communication literature than.

Let's say you found an article in ComAbstracts and would like to be able to gain access to the entire article. How would one go about doing this? First, go the SAU Journal list on the library homepage. The SAU Journal List allows you to search the title of a Journal and will tell you if we have "full-text" access to that journal along with where you can access it. If we do not have access to that journal, send an email with the article information to sauill@arbor.edu or saulibrary@gmail.com and we will try to get the article for you from another library.

More Social Work

In addition to the recently purchased “Social Work Abstracts”, the library has also recently purchased online access to the “Encyclopedia of Social Work.” Both can also be accessed via the “article databases” page from the Library website.

While we own the print version of the to the Encyclopedia of Social Work in the reference section of the library, having access to the online edition will give greater access to this information for off-campus students.

New Database - Social Work Abstracts

The library just gained access to this new database, Social Work Abstracts. You'll note the word "abstract" in the title. This is not a database that has full-text access to the articles you will find, but it reviews over 500 U.S. and international journals and publishes approximately 900 abstracts each quarter. You can search Social Work Abstracts going back all the way to 1960.

If you find an article in Social Work Abstracts that you would like to view in its entirety, you can search for the title of the journal in the SAU journal list to see if we have full-text access to the journal in another database or a print copy. If you find that we do not have access to that journal, send an email with the article information to sauill@arbor.edu or saulibrary@gmail.com and we will try to get the article for you from another library.

On Sabbatical

If you have been to the library this fall and have noticed things are a bit different; there is something just "not right" about the library it is because we are missing our Reference and Public Services Librarian, Karen Parsons.

Karen is on sabbatical this semester and is in Burundi volunteering with Hope Africa University where she will be helping with the library and training librarians. She will there until December and return to SAU january 2010. If you want to keep up with Karen while she in Burundi, you can follow her blog.

Helping us at the library this Fall in Karen's abscence in Reference Librarian, Mary Kelly. Mary comes to us from the Salem-South Lyon District Library where she is the Adult & Teen Librarian. In addition to her duties at Salem-South Lyon District Library and at SAU, Mary maintains two blogs, The Practical Librarian and an Awful Library Books. She was recently interview by Michigan Public Radio about the Awful Library Books blog. When you see Mary at the reference desk, please welcome her to Spring Arbor.

Today is Arbor Games Day on campus. If you are at your class and are wondering why no one else is, check out the Arbor Games schedule below. Arbor Games festivities start at the oak tree at 2:30. Games begin at DeCan field at 3pm.

Arbor Games Day Schedule

Wednesday, September 23

Current blocks	Arbor Games schedule
7:50 – 8:50	7:50 – 8:40
9:00 – 10:00	8:50 – 9:40
10:10 – 11:00 (Chapel)
11:10 – 12:10	9:50 – 10:40
12:20 – 1:20	10:50 – 11:40
1:30 – 2:30	11:50 – 12:40
2:40 – 3:40	12:50 – 1:40
3:50 – 4:50	1:50 – 2:40

Welcome back!

Welcome back to school to our on-campus students. Athletes are already on campus, as are stduent leaders. New students will be moving in on Monday, Sept 7th and classes begin on Sept. 10th.

And, a welcome back to the library blog! I have not posted since the Spring semester. A short explanation for the long lay-off. We decided to re-design the library website and I thought I'd hold off until the new site was up and running. Well, what I thought would happened in a few months is going to stretch to at least 3-4 more. We have an tentative launch date of January 2010. We'll see how things go.

-- robbie bolton