Wikipedia’s Women Problem

James Gleick reports on “Wikipedia’s Women Problem” in the New York Review of Books:

There is consternation at Wikipedia over the discovery that hundreds of novelists who happen to be female were being systematically removed from the category “American novelists” and assigned to the category “American women novelists.” … The word that came to mind … was sexism. And who could disagree? Joyce Carol Oates expressed her view on Twitter: “Wikipedia bias an accurate reflection of universal bias. All (male) writers are writers; a (woman) writer is a woman writer.” Elaine Showalter tweeted in response that this was not what she’d had in mind in titling a book A Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers: “Wikipedia is cutting down on American writers category by taking women out of it! A new step backwards.”

Read the full article from the New York Review of Books.  Gleeson Library provides free online access to all New York Review of Books articles from its beginnings in 1963 to the present to current USF students, staff, and faculty.

About the New York Review of Books: With a worldwide circulation of over 135,000, The New York Review of Books has established itself, in Esquire‘s words, as “the premier literary-intellectual magazine in the English language.” The New York Review began during the New York publishing strike of 1963, when its founding editors, Robert Silvers and Barbara Epstein, and their friends, decided to create a new kind of magazine—one in which the most interesting and qualified minds of our time would discuss current books and issues in depth. Just as importantly, it was determined that the Review should be an independent publication; it began life as an independent editorial voice and it remains independent today. Read more about the NYRB.

Justin Bieber’s Fake Fans Revealed

Justin Bieber currently has more than 37 million followers on twitter.

Unfortunately, according to Socialbakers, almost 16.7 million of those followers are fake or empty accounts and another 2.6 million accounts are inactive. Bieber’s 17.8 million “good” followers still make him the second-most popular Twitter user behind Lady Gaga who has 19 million real followers.

USF students, faculty and staff have access to this statistical chart, as well as a gazillion others covering thousands of topics. Visit Statista to find more.

Accessing ERIC Documents

The ERIC database has temporarily disabled PDF downloads on ERIC documents for security reasons. They are hoping to enable the downloads again soon, but no specific timeline has been given. Access to journal articles is unaffected.

In the meantime, the Library does have copies of all ERIC “ED” documents on microfiche. To locate an “ED” article on microfiche all you need is the 6 digit ED number, such as ED365743. Fiche are filed in cabinets up on the second floor of the library and Periodicals staff are available for assistance. We have several ways in which to view and make copies of pages from the fiche including digital. Please note, however, that the process is somewhat cumbersome and time intensive, so if the ED document is long—some of them are hundreds of pages—it will take some time to make a copy.

Geschkes Recognized for Philanthropy, Leadership and Service

Chuck and Nancy Geschke will receive the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Award from the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) for their ongoing leadership and philanthropic contributions to Catholic education.  The award will be presented during the 22nd annual Seton Awards ceremony Oct. 1 at the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center in Washington, D.C.

The Seton Award is NCEA’s highest honor, given in recognition of significant contributions to Catholic education. The award is named in honor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821), the first native-born American saint.

Charles and Nancy Geschke 

The accomplishments of the Charles M. and Nancy A. Geschke Foundation underscore the importance of the well-being of our nation’s youth and of keeping Catholic schools vital and available for the next generation. The Geschkes have provided leadership to the University of San Francisco, Xavier University of Cincinnati, Marygrove College in Detroit, the Catholic Foundation of Santa Clara County and Magnificat and St. Ignatius high schools in Cleveland, among other important endeavors.

Through their support of the Endowed Faculty Fund, the construction of the Geschke Learning Resource Center and Charles Geschke’s role as the inaugural holder of the Rossi Entrepreneurial Chair at the University of San Francisco, the Geschkes have been instrumental in advancing education.

Nancy Geschke, a Marygrove College alumna, was instrumental in creating Marygrove’s Nancy A. McDonough Geschke Writing Center. She recently was named to the board of trustees at the Detroit college. Nancy Geschke also has spearheaded a capital campaign to revitalize both the building and operations of the Nantucket Athenaeum in Nantucket, Mass.

Charles Geschke, a graduate of Xavier University, began a teaching career at John Carroll University. In 1982 he co-founded Adobe Systems with John Warnock and built Adobe into one of the world’s largest software companies. Now co-chairman of Adobe’s board of directors, Geschke also serves on the boards of several educational institutions and arts and non-profit organizations.

This year’s other Seton Award recipients are:

Robert A. Conway, Cincinnati, philanthropist and co-founder of The Bistro Group, for his expansive support of Catholic educational institutions in Greater Cincinnati.

Leigh-Anne Kazma, Chicago, who has dedicated her career to the patronage of Catholic education through the generous efforts of the Kazma Family Foundation.

Tom Moran, New York City, chairman and CEO, Mutual of America, for his benevolent corporate sponsorship within the Archdiocese of New York.

Cardinal Sean O’Malley, archbishop of Boston, who has renewed and revitalized Catholic education in the Archdiocese of Boston.

Lorraine Ozar, associate professor of education at Loyola University Chicago, will receive the NCEA President’s Award for her vision and leadership in the development of effective Catholic school curricula and instruction.

For reservations or additional information about the Seton Awards, contact Xaverian Brother Stephen Comeau at (571) 257-2891.

NCEA, founded in 1904, is a professional membership organization that provides leadership, direction and service to fulfill the evangelizing, catechizing and teaching mission of the church. NCEA’s members include elementary schools, high schools, parish religious education programs and seminaries.

Scanners

For the next two months we will be trialing scanners in the library (located in the copy room next to the Reference desk).

The systems include a “bookedge” flatbed scanner designed for scanning book pages without the need to push down on the book spine; and a document-feed scanner for fast multiple-sheet scans. The latter machine can scan both sides of a page at once, and can handle 50 sheets at a time.

A simple touch-screen menu guides you through the scan process, and lets you output in pdf, word, tiff, etc., and even produces searchable pdfs and editable word docs.

Scans can be downloaded to a flash drive or sent to an email address. No printing: so with no paper or toner costs, we plan to provide scanning for free.

Please come try them out and let us know what you think!

The Library in a Book

We’ve always had books in the Library, but now the Library is in a book. A small piece of the Library …

The San Francisco Chronicle reviews Bookshelf by Alex Johnson, and includes a photo of the Library’s “I Left My Cart In San Francisco” cable-car themed book cart.

eBooks for eReaders

ebrary, the library’s biggest ebook resource, now gives you the option to read their ebooks on a number of e-readers and mobile devices.

1. Sign up for a personal ebrary account on the ebrary web site.
2. Either download the app for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch; or follow the instructions for downloading chapters in pdf format to almost any device, or for downloading complete ebooks in Adobe Digital Editions format for most devices (not supported by Kindle, unfortunately).

Enjoy your ebooks!

USFconnect Login

Effective immediately, log-in to Library resources (off-campus access to databases; view your library record, etc.) is now using USFconnect username and password for those with a USFconnect account. This replaces the Name / USF ID# log-in that the library has used for several years.

There is an alternate log-in screen for those without a USFconnect account (Fromm Students, Special Access patrons, etc.).

We hope the inconvenience will be minimal and will be outweighed by the benefits.
Benefits include having one less set of credentials to remember, and increased security: it is much easier to change the USFconnect password than it is to change the USF ID.

New Library Login: Postponed

Update:
Due to issues that were discovered when the new login was turned on, we are postponing implementation of the new login. Library logins will return to using Name/USF ID # until further notice.

Oritinal Post:
Beginning on Tuesday, October 11, logins to Library resources (off-campus access to databases; view your library record, etc.) will begin using USFconnect usernames and passwords for those with a USFconnect account. This replaces the Name/USF ID# login that the library has used for several years.

There will be an alternate login screen for those without a USFconnect account (Fromm Students, Special Access patrons, etc.)

Assuming there are no major problems with the new login system, it will become permanent.

ScienceDirect Maintenance Sept 10

ScienceDirect is expected to be offline and unavailable for approximately 11 hours on Saturday, September 10.

Down time is expected to be 4:30 AM – 3:30 PM

In relation to the planned work, SciVerse ScienceDirect alerts will be suspended for two weeks, September 9-23. Subscribers will receive their outstanding alerts when we resume processing.

The Chronicle of Higher Education

Gleeson Library | Geschke Center, with support from the College of Arts and Sciences, is pleased to provide campus-wide online access to The Chronicle of Higher Education, “the No. 1 source of news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty members and administrators.”

On-campus access is available now, and is automatic and password-free.

For off-campus access, use the link below (or start from the Library web site), and you will be prompted to enter your name and USF ID number.

http://0-chronicle.com.ignacio.usfca.edu/

Also included in the Chronicle web site is a searchable archive of previously published content; all the commentary and essays from their weekly magazine, The Chronicle Review; all the data from the annual Almanac and other Chronicle reports in easy-to-search databases; special single-topic reports on admissions, diversity, information technology, and more.

Fusion

Fusion is a new tool that will allow you search, in one place, the majority of the library’s books and articles. It will include all the materials in our library catalog Ignacio, as well as the content of the majority of our many, many journal article databases.

Figuring out where to start looking for articles and books can be very confusing when the library offers more than 200 database options. Fusion will be the clear place to start.

Questions and Answers:

• Will Fusion include everything the library has?
  No, but it will include so much of what the library has that it will almost always be the best place to start your search.
• When would Fusion not make sense as the first place to search?
  Some examples: If you’re interested in finding only books, then our library catalog Ignacio would be a more appropriate place to begin. If you’re looking specifically for statistical data or encyclopedia/dictionary entries or images, it would be better to use a database devoted to those specific types of information.
• I’m very proficient using the databases in my subject area. Is there any reason I should use Fusion?
  Because Fusion will have such broad coverage, it may locate relevant materials published in other fields that you wouldn’t otherwise find in a subject-specific database.
• So then why would I want to choose a subject-specific database anymore—can I just use Fusion instead?
  Fusion will not be replacing any of our subject-specific databases. These databases offer valuable advanced searching capabilities tailored to their subject areas.
• When will Fusion be available?
  We’re building it right now. We hope to make it available some time in September.

The Technical Jargon

Fusion is an example of a trend in libraries of web-scale discovery services. Our service will be provided by Ebsco Discovery Service.

Construction: Events Plaza in Front of the Library

New Plaza Relocation

As the Harney plaza will be off line for the next two years the University will be recreating event space on the lawn in front of Gleeson Library. This work will begin on Monday with the installation of the chain link fence. The fire lane that runs from the northwest edge of Kalmanovitz to the Fromm building will be closed off. This work will be completed during the summer, but there will be alternate pedestrian paths during this work. This work involves the removal of part of the lawn and the installation of pavers, additional lighting and other site improvements.

From the Project Management construction blog.

Student Curated Exhibit: Illustrated Books in the Rare Book Room

Bookends: Illustrated Works Spanning 500 Years From The Donohue Rare Book Room

Reception: Thursday, May 12, 3:00-4:30, Gleeson Library, Donohue Rare Book Room

Exhibition Dates: April 29th-June 17th, Gleeson Library, Donohue Rare Book Room

Curated by the University of San Francisco’s Spring 2011 Museum Studies I class and drawn from the Donohue Rare Book Room’s permanent collection, this exhibit celebrates the art and historical importance of the illustrated book in the western tradition.

The exhibition features more than 50 objects from the 15th century to the present. Notable works include a leaf of the Gutenberg Bible (1450-1455), Thomas More’s first edition Utopia (1516, frontispiece illustrated on front), Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass (1872), Frank L. Baum’s The Wizard of Oz (1900), and Charles Hobson’s Writing on the Body: Words of Degas (1999).

Online Service Interruptions March 4-6

In preparation for the Lo Schiavo CSI Building construction in May, ITS will be conducting infrastructure work that will result in service disruptions.

For the Library, this means interruptions to network  and Internet access. When these interruptions occur, this will also affect off-campus access to all online library services such as:

• Article Databases
• Ignacio, the Library Catalog
• Illiad, the interlibrary loan system

Interruptions are scheduled for:

• Friday March 4 from 10 pm through 8 am on Saturday March 5 (and could go longer on Saturday)
• Saturday March 5 from 10 pm through 8 am on Sunday March 6.