Locke Morrisey

Locke Morrisey at Library of Congress

[Information about Locke's memorial fund has been added at the bottom of this post.]

Locke was Head of Collections, Reference & Research here at Gleeson Library, and his impact has been widely felt, both professionally and personally.  The character and service of the Library’s Reference Department as it exists today is largely due to Locke’s thoughtful guidance, and the tireless example he set as a teacher, researcher, and mentor.

Outside of the Library, the USF community who surely most felt Locke’s presence—and consequently will most feel his absence—are the Nursing faculty and thousands of nursing students, past and present, to whom Locke was a devoted teacher.

Locke’s activities were prodigious. He mentored a generation of SJSU library school students with internships at Gleeson; was deeply committed to the library profession, holding positions at the local and national levels; published articles like “Ethical Issues in Collection Development”; responded to email reference questions at all hours of the night. The list goes on.

“Tireless” is a term frequently used to describe Locke, but I think it was instead his devotion that was tireless. Towards the end he was certainly feeling tired and weak; nonetheless, seeing a last teaching opportunity, he held a home session at his bedside for a group of medical students and their teacher to discuss doctor-patient relationships and bedside manner.That is a characteristic example of Locke’s tireless devotion to others.

We invite you to share your thoughts about and experiences with Locke in the comments section below.

Memorial Fund

At Locke’s request, a fund has been established at the University of San Francisco to support Library collections. Checks can be made payable to The University of San Francisco Library, indicating on the memo line, “In Memory of Locke Morrisey.”

Mail to:
Tyrone Cannon
University Library Dean
Gleeson Library | Geschke Center
University of San Francisco
2130 Fulton Street
San Francisco, CA 94117

Introducing USFmobile

ITS and Gleeson Library | Geschke Center are pleased to announce the introduction of USFmobile.  USFmobile is a new mobile web site specifically designed for your smart phone or PDA.  Please take a moment and browse to m.usfca.edu from your phone’s browser. You’ll find a number of new phone friendly information resources, including:

-  Library Services – Search the library catalog by keyword, title, author, subject, or call number.  Find stacks locations and more.  Library hours are also available.
-  USFcalendar – Find out what’s going on across campus by browsing USF’s Events Calendar
- Campus Map – Navigate USF’s campus via this convenient map.  Be sure to click on the various buildings for more information.
- ITS Services – ITS Service Desk hours are available, with more services on the way
- Transportation – Find out when the next bus is due to arrive , search the Muni/BART schedule, and much more.

Be sure to bookmark USFmobile on your phone’s browser, as more services will be arriving soon.  If you have questions or require assistance, please contact the ITS Help Desk at itshelp@usfca.edu or 422-6668.

Is Ignacio different?

If you’ve noticed that a book search in our library catalog Ignacio looks different than you remember, it is because we’re using a new keyword search engine that we first introduced as “Encore” about six months ago (it had a separate search box at that time, underneath Ignacio on the home page).

The “traditional” Ignacio interface hasn’t gone away, however; you can use it by clicking on the Author, Title, Subject, or Advanced Search links right under the search box.

The new keyword search lets you easily sort results by location, material type, and quickly locate relevant subject terms. You can even “tag” books yourself with helpful keywords.

The new interface is still missing a few features, such as marking and saving lists of items, so if you need to do that, just continue using the “traditional” Ignacio searches.

Redesigning the USF Web Site

The USF web site, including the Library web site, will be getting a makeover this summer. The local company creating the new design, White Whale, has started a public blog on the USF redesign, and is looking for community input. Now is your chance to wield your influence!

Astronomy at the Library

2009 marks the 400th anniversary of the first use of an astronomical telescope by Galileo Galilei, as well as the beginning of The International Year of Astronomy: a global celebration of astronomy and its contributions to society and culture.

The library joins in the celebration with a display in the lobby of astronomy-related books and magazines. Check them out (literally)!

Featured database: Environment Complete

© Greenpeace / Beltrá, Daniel

Interested in current research on issues such as global warming, the environment, or renewable energy? Try Environment Complete—it’s a new database that covers all these subjects, plus related ones such as agriculture, environmental law, and urban planning. It provides access to the full text of articles from more than 600 journals such as Environment, Ecologist, and Conservation Biology; it also includes the full text of 120 books such as the Encyclopedia of World Environmental History.

One helpful feature of Environment Complete is that you can expand, modify or narrow your keyword search by browsing its thesaurus of subject terms. If you are interested in research on the effect of global warming on ice in the arctic, the thesaurus will give you a choice of terms including the word “ice,” such as Sea Ice and Ice Floes. Scope notes tell you precisely what a given term refers to, and you can select broader, narrower or related terms to refine your search. You can also limit your search to peer-reviewed journals. You can save, print, e-mail or export your results.

For more research relating to environmental issues, you might also want to try databases such as AGRICOLA, GreenFile, Biological Sciences or TOXLINE.

Glowing Jellyfish and Broken Symmetry

The 2008 Nobel Prizes in Chemistry and Physics have been announced, the former for the discovery and development of Green Fluorescent Protein from the mellifluously named jellyfish Aequorea victoria, later used as a tag to watch the interactions of various proteins; the latter for discoveries in broken symmetries in subatomic physics.

Gleeson Library | Geschke Center has several of the Nobelprize site’s recommended readings available in our collections and online:

The Chemistry Prize

Articles:

“A Short Story of Aequorin” by Osamu Shimomura
“The Discovery of Aequorin and Green Fluorescent Protein” by Osamu Shimomura

Books:

Aglow in the Dark: The Revolutionary Science of Biofluorescence by Vincent Pieribone and David F. Gruber

Glowing Genes: A Revolution in Biotechnology by Marc Zimmer

The Physics Prize

General Articles:

“In Search of Antimatter” by Sarah Graham
“The Asymmetry between Matter and Antimatter” by Helen R. Quinn and Michael S.Witherell
“Profile: Yoichiro Nambu” by Madhusree Mukerjee

Technical Articles:

“CP-Violation in the Renormalizable Theory of Weak Interaction” by Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa
“Dynamical Model of Elementary Particles Based on an Analogy with Superconductivity. I” and
“Dynamical Model of Elementary Particles Based on an Analogy with Superconductivity. II” by Yasusada Nambu and Giovanni Jona-Lasinio

Books:

Broken Symmetry: Selected Papers of Y. Nambu

Lower Level Books Moved

Books in the Lower Level stacks from call numbers “A” through “BF 38.5″ will be temporarily moved while Facilities Management works in the area (approximately August 18 – September 19). If you need a book that has been moved, please request it at the Circulation Desk for retrieval.

New Computers

We’ve gotten rid of our 4-year-old computers in the Reference and Periodicals Rooms, replacing 17 Dells and 12 Apples all with new iMacs like the ones pictured above. These computers have been specially configured to run Windows XP in addition to Mac OS X. At startup, you can choose which operating system you would like to use. 

We still have 10 traditional Windows PCs available, but suspect that even the die-hard Windows users will be drawn to the gorgeous 20-inch displays on the new computers. (And don’t worry, those funny one-button Apple mice really do have a “right-click.”)

We expect these new systems will offer the best of both worlds, with only minor compromises. Please try them out, ask us if you have any questions, and let us know what you think.

Oxford African American Studies Center

Now available is the Oxford African American Studies Center from Oxford University Press. Edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the OAASC is a collection of reference works providing more than 8000 articles on the people and events which have shaped African American and African history and culture. Check it out!

Environment Complete: Yes, please!

We have a new database available from EBSCOhost called Environment Complete. This replaces the LexisNexis Environmental database (which contained the venerable Environment Abstracts). We believe the journal coverage of Environment Complete is broader and deeper (back to the 1940s in some cases), and unlike the LexisNexis product, offers more than 600 journal titles in full-text. What’s not to like?

Picture This: ARTstor Now Available

ARTstor is a digital library of approximately 700,000 images in the areas of art, architecture, the humanities, and social sciences with a set of tools to view, present, and manage images for research and pedagogical purposes. Now available from the Library to all USF students, faculty, and staff!

IT Conference Deadline Extended

The deadline to register for the AJCU 2008 Joint Conference on Information Technology Management, Libraries and Educational Technology has been extended to March 14.

USF Hosts Conference on IT, Library & Educational Techology

Register for the AJCU 2008 Joint Conference on Information Technology Management, Libraries and Educational Technology, a joint conference including librarians and leaders in technology management and educational technologies, hosted by USF.

Elizabeth Reynolds

Gleeson Library is sad to note the passing of Elizabeth Reynolds, a librarian and former director of the Gleeson Library Associates. Rare Book Room librarian John Hawk said “she was a wonderful person who had a very kind spirit. I always remember how warmly she welcomed me when I arrived at USF.”