As a member of the Orbis Cascade Alliance, a consortium of academic libraries in the Pacific Northwest, the Library gains access to the collections of 35 member libraries. This translates into access to over 8 million titles through Summit.

Now, the University of Washington Libraries will start lending some of its bound and unbound periodicals through Summit. This pilot will be held during the Spring quarter, then will assessed to determine if the pilot should continue. The periodicals will circulate through Summit with a shorter loan rule of 3 days with one renewal. UW's notice about this change states: "We have benefited from the generosity of those Alliance libraries which already lend such materials and are pleased to expand the range of materials we lend as well. Summit borrowing is a wonderful example of regional collaboration and its value to users is very clear."

Thank you to UW Libraries for providing this expanded access to resources for us during the Spring quarter!

During the Winter 2008 term, Portland State University surveyed first-year undergraduate students who entered the University with a high-school GPA greater than 3.0 and who earned at least a 3.0 GPA in their first term at PSU. These high-achieving students provided valuable data, including their perceptions of the Portland State Library. When asked, "What services have you found useful as a first-year student?," the number one reply was "library service."

We're pleased to receive this feedback from our students and we're proud that high-achieving students rank the Library as the top service provider in their first year. Let us know how we can continue to deliver exceptional service to meet your needs!

Event: Spring Faculty Symposium 2008 - Copy Rights Matter

Date and Location: Friday, April 25 in Smith Memorial Ballroom

Time: 8:30 am - 2:30 pm

Have you ever had to ask for permission to use your own work? Or have you wondered if there is a way to create coursepacks that are more affordable for your students? Do you know if it is okay to show "The Great Gatsby" in class or post video clips from "Saving Private Ryan" to Blackboard?

The Portland State Copyright Working Group has organized an informative and provocative symposium on copyright and its effects on higher education. The speakers and breakout sessions will cover the topics that faculty at Portland State have asked about:

• Author’s rights and Open Access publishing alternatives
• Fair use (and the public domain)
• Library resources (e-reserves, subscriptions, licenses, etc), photocopying, and coursepacks
• Visual media and copyright
• Using digital materials in Blackboard
• Mechanisms to manage & share innovations, technology, educational materials created at PSU

Information about the symposium and links to the agenda and speaker biographies can be found at http://www.pdx.edu/oaa/springsymposium.html.

The exhibit, ZoomUganda, shares the journey of 12 girls given 12 cameras and 24 hours in which to tell their own stories through their own lenses, empowering its participants to stand in the centers of the world and show you the view from there. Come see this important exhibit at the Portland State Library this April! Julie Resnick, the ZoomUganda project director, is delighted to share her vision to raise awareness about this program, which contributes to the St. Andrew Secondary School in Matale,
Uganda:

I handed out the cameras with their names written on duct tape to
each girl. I drew a camera on the blackboard and explained each
part: 'This is the lens. This is the shutter. This is the zoom.' The
girls immediately repeated 'zoom!zoom!zoom!' in many voices. They
had named their project!

-Julie Resnick, ZoomUganda Project Director

ZoomUganda is sponsored by the Harambee Centre, a nonprofit organization based in Portland, Oregon, which connects people and groups in the United States with the peoples and cultures of the African continent.

Learn more about ZoomUganda at http://www.zoomuganda.org. Visit the exhibit on the first floor of the Branford P. Millar Library, April 1 through April 30.

PSU Library’s coverage of dissertations has taken two big steps forward. We have upgraded from the Dissertation Abstracts International (DAI) database to the Dissertations and Masters Theses database. The Library can now provide the full text of dissertations completed in most North American (and some European) institutions from 1997-present. (For dissertations done at some institutions, the full text coverage dates back further than 1997.) View complete description of the Dissertation and Theses database.

Additionally, as previously reported in this blog, the Library’s full text offering of PSU dissertations now includes all dissertations from 1980 to the present. Review the list of these dissertations here.

With a unique culture born of a strange and tragic past, New Orleans remains one of the most elusive of American cities. This mysterious swamp town, so recently devastated, has a complex cultural inheritance, which this new, definitive history meticulously explores. Ned Sublette offers a detailed account of the myriad threads that weave the complex history of one of the most remarkable cities on the globe. Focused on New Orleans' first century, it outlines the political and cultural development of Louisiana in the context of the clash of three empires, the exploration of the American frontier, the spread of slavery and the revolutions in France, the United States and Haiti.

The World That Made New Orleans (Lawrence Hill Books, an imprint of the Chicago Review Press, 2008), also explores the profound impact on New Orleans culture of the tens of thousands of slaves from a multitude of African ethnicities--both then and now. Jazz funerals date from the Kongo tradition of dancing at funerals, and the Sunday gatherings in Congo Square are of unparalleled importance in the history of African American music.

Event Details:
7 pm at Portland State Library
1875 SW Park Avenue
Wednesday, April 9, 2008

For more information, please write to artistsandwriters@pdx.edu or call 503.725.4552.

Getting ready for an in-class presentation? Starting on Monday, March 3, you can use the new Practice Presentation Room in the Library to gain confidence with campus-standard classroom equipment! Check out the key for the room at the Library's Circulation Desk, first come, first served (i.e. no reservations taken). The room is available for use by current Portland State students for two-hour sessions.

The ASPSU has partnered with the Office of Information Technology (OIT) and with the Library to equip and furnish a new Student Practice Presentation Room (Library #304) to enhance student access to Library services. This room will help students gain experience and confidence for their in-class presentations by providing them with the same computing and presentation equipment they encounter in “technology smart” classrooms on campus. Additionally, this technology-rich room can be used by students for small-group seminars, discussions, and digital video-viewing sessions.

Equipment in the room includes a Klasstech media-center podium; Dell Desktop PC; VHS & CD/DVD Player with Dolby Digital Sound; ceiling-mounted projector; and a wall-mounted projection screen. The room is furnished with a modular conference table that can be moved into different configurations, a large whiteboard, and eight comfortable chairs.

The Branford P. Millar Library is one of the most popular physical spaces on campus, providing collaborative learning and engagement opportunities. Between January 2006 and January 2007, the Millar Library welcomed 896,921 students, faculty, staff, and community members into its facilities. From January 1, 2007 to November 13, 2007, students used the Library’s 31 student group study rooms a total of 11,935 times. Many of the Library’s student group study rooms provide both wired and wireless network access.

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