Library: July 2011 Archives

Photographer Robert Dawson has been crisscrossing America for 17 years, photographing public libraries and helping to raise awareness about the important role they play in American culture, education, and civic life.

Follow Dawson's journey on his blog Library Road Trip.

As the International Committee of the Red Cross reports, famine and a difficult political situation have caused a devastating humanitarian crisis in Somalia.

The Washington Post has published a list of agencies that are doing relief work in Somalia. If you want to donate money, the list is helpful: it gives contact info for each agency as well as a brief summary of what each agency is doing in Somalia to combat the crisis.

Happy birthday to the South African President, Nobel Laureate, heroic political prisoner, and inspiration to millions worldwide, Nelson Mandela, born on this date in 1918.

You can read up on Nelson Mandela in books from catalogUSMAI, such as his 2010 collection of writings Conversations with Myself. For information on borrowing books through UMUC, see our book borrowing guide.

The photo at right comes from the Nobel Prize Web site. Mandela won the 1993 Peace Prize jointly with F. W. de Klerk. In his Nobel Lecture, Mandela said:

"Let the strivings of us all, prove Martin Luther King Jr. to have been correct, when he said that humanity can no longer be tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war.

Let the efforts of us all, prove that he was not a mere dreamer when he spoke of the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace being more precious than diamonds or silver or gold. Let a new age dawn!"

As a partner in the educational process at UMUC, the Library undertakes an annual evaluation of our electronic resources to ensure that the current resources best meet the curricular needs of the School of Undergraduate Studies and the Graduate School of Management and Technology. In preparation for FY12, the Library once again performed a careful review of UMUC's library electronic resources, balancing curricular needs with current budget constraints. In addition, as part of this process, input was systematically solicited from faculty throughout the university.

The following are resource additions and discontinuations that took effect July 1, 2011, or will take effect on January 1, 2012, as a result of this comprehensive process:

Additions:

• JSTOR - Business III E-Journal Collection, as of 7/1/11 (added to the current JSTOR resource)
• Oxford Scholarship Online - History and Psychology E-Book Collections, as of 7/1/11

Discontinuations:

• Access Science, as of 7/1/11
• Emergence (INFORMS), as of 1/1/12
• General Science Abstracts, as of 7/1/11
• Information Systems Research E-Journal (INFORMS), as of 1/1/12
• Interfaces E-Journal (INFORMS), as of 1/1/12
• Management Science E-Journal  (INFORMS), as of 1/1/12
• MLA International Bibliography, as of 7/1/11
• OR/MS E-Journal (INFORMS), as of 1/1/12
• Organization Science E-Journal (INFORMS), as of 1/1/12
• Research Starters, Business, as of 7/1/11
• Transactions on Education E-Journal (INFORMS), as of 1/1/12

As always, suggestions of resources that support curricular needs are always welcome and are considered during each annual evaluation.  Please contact us if you have resources to suggest.

President Obama awarded the nation's highest military honor today to Army Sergeant First Class Leroy A. Petry, for his selfless, heroic actions that saved the lives of fellow soldiers in Afghanistan, in 2008.

Read about Sergeant First Class Petry and the Medal of Honor at the Army Web site. That site includes a detailed "battlescape" account of the act that won Petry the Medal of Honor.

The UMUC Library salutes Sergeant First Class Petry and all of our military personnel for their service and heroism.