Welcome!
posted August 15, 2008

To our new students and faculty members ... welcome!

And to our returning students and faculty members ... welcome back!

It has been a busy summer at Milner Library preparing for the fall term. Most of the philosophy and religion collection has been relocated to Floor 3 (north side). Floor 1 has been closed to the public and is now designated Storage Basement. Infrequently used books and pre-2000 journal issues are now located there. Storage Basement materials may be requested at the reference desk in the lobby and are retrieved on a set schedule throughout the day, essentially once an hour during our busiest times.

We have changed our subscription to Philosopher's Index, so the search screen is now different. We now subscribe through EBSCO, a service familiar to many students and faculty members. Hopefully this will make searching more pleasant and productive for you. I welcome your feedback on this change.

For the first time in many years, we have several new online services and databases for you. Thanks to additional funding provided by campus administration, we have not had to cut many other resources to bring you these new services. Of particular note to philosophy and religion researchers ...

JSTOR Arts and Sciences III and JSTOR Arts and Sciences Complement: With the addition of the 350 journals in these collections, Milner now provides access to 825 titles from JSTOR

Sage Deep Backfile: Coverage from volume 1 to 1998 for 300 journals. Milner now has complete coverage for nearly 160 Sage journals.

Web of Science: The name of this database is a bit misleading. While it includes deep coverage of the physical sciences, it also has impressive coverage of the social sciences and arts and humanities. Article searching is available from 1998 to the present. Cited reference searching is also available (Web of Science is the online version of the print citation indexes). Try out the Analyze tool as well.

The New York Times (1851-2005) offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue. The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue. Coverage: September 18,1851 - December 31, 2005. More recent issues of the New York Times are available on the newspaper website and also via the Academic Universe (Lexis-Nexis) database.

These new services are accessible via the Milner Library databases and article indexes page. For a complete list of new products, see New at Milner Summer 2008.

Feel free to contact me if you have questions, comments, or suggestions (including purchase requests) related to library resources and services. Have a pleasant and productive fall term!

Bruce Stoffel

Relocation of philosophy materials: an update
posted May 13, 2008

Work continues toward eventual relocation of philosophy and religion materials from Milner Floor 1 to Floor 3 and closure of Floor 1 to the general public. Our current target for completion of the relocation is August 2008. As we prepare for the move, we are identifying materials to be moved into an onsite storage facility once Floor 1 closes. Future storage materials are identified in the collection by orange flags. You may continue to borrow flagged materials from the library. We ask that you keep flags in the books when you present them at the circulation desk for check out.

Library changes for fall 2007
posted May 8, 2007

Milner Library has embarked on a multi-year reorganization plan known as New Directions. The first phase of the plan involves relocating materials currently located on Floor 1 and converting the floor to an onsite storage facility that will be closed to the public. This work is scheduled for completion by August 20 (start of the fall semester). With completion of this work, philosophy and religion materials in the B classification area will be located on Floor 3.

In addition, reference and information desks on Floors 1, 4, 5, and 6 will be permanently closed effective 5 p.m., Friday, May 18. Thereafter, reference and information services will be available only at the reference desk in the main lobby (Floor 2).

For the latest information on changes at Milner Library, watch the Milner Library homepage or sign up for the New Directions listserv (see http://www.library.ilstu.edu/page/1163).

Have a great summer! And to our philosophy graduates, congratulations!

Technical Problems with Philosopher's Index
posted April 19, 2007

Library patrons using Internet Explorer have reported technical problems with Philosopher's Index. FindIt buttons associated with Philosopher's Index citations may not work properly. This seems to be an intermittent problem experienced only when using Internet Explorer. The database vendor, OCLC FirstSearch, is aware of the problem but does not know when it will be fixed. Philosopher's Index users may want to use Mozilla Firefox as their Internet browser in the meantime. Download Mozilla Firefox free of charge here.

Episteme Now Available via Project Muse Article Database
posted January 31, 2007

Articles from the journal Episteme have been added to the Project Muse database available via the Milner Library website. Current coverage includes 2006 issues. Information about Episteme from the Project Muse website:

EPISTEME publishes articles on the social dimensions of knowledge from the
perspective of philosophical epistemology and related social sciences (e.g.,
economics, political theory, information science). It focuses on theoretical
work, but also welcomes policy-oriented discussions, i.e., applications to
contemporary society and its institutions. It does not publish
straightforward empirical studies or case studies. The principal style is
that of analytical philosophy, but rigorous approaches of other kinds are
appropriate so long as they remain accessible to an interdisciplinary
audience.

SCOPUS Trial Ends
posted January 2, 2007

Our trial subscription to the Scopus article database ended December 31, 2006. Consequently, Scopus will not be available to Illinois State University students, faculty, and staff during the upcoming Spring 2007 semester. Any feedback you might have regarding the database would be appreciated. You can send comments to me via email (brstoff@ilstu.edu) or IM (mlbbrstoff on AOL).

Bruce Stoffel
Philosophy Librarian
438-5313


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