Library Lavatory News

Some of the eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that the library's restrooms have recently been graced with a new publication known as the Library Lavatory News. This monthly newsletter is the brainchild of Ms. Amy Castillo, Manager of Electronic Resources & Scholarly Communication.

1.      How did you get the idea for Library Lavatory News?

I’ve had the idea in my head for a few years after hearing another library do something similar during a conference presentation. It just seemed like something worth trying to see if we could get some exposure on our library’s electronic resources.

2.      What kinds of stories are featured in the News?

Amy Castillo, Manager of Electronic
Resources & Scholarly Communication. 

While wanting to promote our e-resources was the source of the motivation to get the newsletter together I think it’s important to keep it fairly distributed to showcase several aspects of the library. I like to make sure the newsletter features a service, any upcoming events, and promotion of at least one e-resource. It’s even better if I can tie one of those areas to another. For example, in the September 2019 LLN the e-resource featured (LearningExpress Library) tied in with an event between the library and Career Services where the resource was going to be discussed. 

    3.   How long does it take to put an issue together?

It depends on what’s going on that month and whether I need to get some assistance. I have an amazing student worker, Landry Little, who will help interview library staff to feature a service they oversee. The October 2019 newsletter took about 3 hours to pull together. 

4.      Who creates the content, and how do you get ideas?

In regards to creating content: If it’s a service feature – it’s either written by Landry, myself, or we’ve gathered information from the library’s website; events come from the library events calendar; and e-resources, it’s usually a mix between myself and the information I get from the platform provider. I like to include a logo, if possible, to have a visual tie to the e-resource. Ideas usually come from the time of semester it seems good to promote something. October is American Archives Month so we featured the Archives & Special Collections Department.

5.      Have you gotten any feedback and, if so, what was said?

So far I’ve only received good feedback. I’ve heard from staff that said they’ve gotten questions at the reference desk about an event or an e-resource in that month’s newsletter. Earlier this year a student stopped by my office after seeing the newsletter that mentioned Mango Languages so I was able to show them a bit more about the mobile app. I’ve gotten some recommendations on things to feature in future issues which helps. If anyone has additional suggestions, please let me know!    

The October 2019 issue of the Library Lavatory News.

The Library Lavatory News is a great way to find out about library events and resources.
Do you have an idea for the newsletter? Contact Amy at (254 ) 968-9868.

Texas Traveling

Are you planning a trip somewhere in Texas this summer? If so, then make a stop by the library before you do. We have a wealth of travel information available in our collection.

The Alamo, San Antonio, TX 2009.
By Daniel Schwen [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons.

Periodicals 

• Texas Highways - magazine published monthly by the Texas Department of Transportation. Contains many articles with Texas road trip ideas.
• Texas Monthly - this magazine covers all things Texas (politics, culture, and much more). It also frequently publishes useful information for Texas travel such as this recent article on traveling in the hill country. 
• Texas Parks and Wildlife - monthly magazine published by the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife. Contains useful information on the recreational activities available at Texas state parks.

Books & eBooks

• 25 Bicycle Tours in the Texas Hill Country & West Texas by Norman D. Ford 
• Along the Texas Forts Trail by B.W. Aston
• Backroads of the Texas Hill Country: Your Guide to the Most Scenic Adventures by Gary Clark 
• The Courthouses of Texas by Mavis Parrott Kelsey
• Enjoying Big Bend National Park: A Friendly Guide to Adventures for Everyone by Gary Clark
• Exploring the Edges of Texas by Walt Davis 
• Finding Birds on the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail by Ted Eubanks 
• Fly-fishing the Texas Hill Country by B.L. Priddy  
• Fort Worth & Tarrant County: An Historical Guide by Carol E. Roark 
• A Gangster Tour of Texas by T. Lindsay Baker
• Ghost Towns of Texas by T. Lindsay Baker 
• Historic Hotels of Texas: A Traveler's Guide by Liz Carmack 
• Official Guide to Texas State Parks & Historic Sites by Laurence Parent and Joanna Ruley-Garza
• Paddling the Wild Neches by Richard M. Donovan 
• Photographing Wild Texas by Erwin A. Bauer and Peggy Bauer 
• Restaurantes, Rumba, y Mas: A Gringo's Guide to Latino Fort Worth by Peter A. Szok
• Roadside History of Texas by Leon Claire Metz 
• Texas Coast by Laurence Parent 
• Texas Forts: Lone Star Guide by Wayne Lease 
• Texas Hill Country by John Graves
• Texas Mountains by Laurence Parent
• Texas Road Trip: Stories from Across the Great State and a Few Personal Reflections by Bryan Woolley
• Texas Wineries by Melinda Esco
• A Walk Across Texas by Jon McConal
• Why Stop?: A Guide to Texas Historical Roadside Markers by Betty Dooley-Awbrey 

1933 Texas Highway Map.
Probably don't want to use this for current travel purposes.
[Public Domain], from Wikimedia Commons. 

Websites

• TravelTexas www.traveltexas.com - Official travel guides of Texas. 
• DriveTexas https://drivetexas.org - Map of current Texas road conditions. 

If you need help finding travel information for Texas or any other destination, then contact the library at reference@tarleton.edu or 254-968-9149. 

Women's Studies Journals

In honor of Women's History Month, here's a list of women's studies journals the Dick Smith Library provides online access to:

Cover of vol. 37 issue 3 of Frontiers. 

Australian Feminist Studies - a peer-reviewed journal that publishes interdisciplinary articles relevant to feminist and women's studies.

Black Women, Gender + Families - a peer-reviewed journal that published articles on the study of black women within the fields of history, social sciences, and the humanities. It ceased publication in 2012.

The European Journal of Women's Studies - a peer reviewed journal that publishes research in the field of gender studies in the European context.

Feminist Formations - a peer-reviewed journal that publishes interdisciplinary articles in the areas of feminist, gender, and sexuality studies. Before 2010, this publication was titled NWSA Journal.  

Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies -  a peer-reviewed and interdisciplinary journal that publishes articles on women's history, cultural theory, literature, art, etc.

Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion - a peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles of feminist scholarship on religion.

Journal of Middle East Women's Studies - a peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles in the fields of social science and humanities relevant to Middle East gender, sexuality and women's studies.

Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies & Gender Issues - a peer-reviewed journal that publishes research in Jewish women's and gender studies. 

NORA: Nordic Journal of Women's Studies - a peer-reviewed journal that publishes feminist and gender research located in or relevant to Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden).

Signs - a peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles relevant to feminist scholarship.

Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature - a peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles on women's literature and feminist criticism across time periods, places, and genres.

Cover of vol. 41 issue 1 of Signs.

Women in German Yearbook - a peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles on feminist approaches to German literature, language, and culture.

Women's History Review - a peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles in the field of women's history.

Women's Studies - a peer-reviewed journal that publishes scholarship about women in the fields of literature, history, art, sociology, law, political science, economics, anthropology, and the sciences.

Women's Studies in Communication - a peer-reviewed journal that publishes research on gender and communication.

Women's Studies International Forum - a peer-reviewed journal that publishes interdisciplinary feminist research. Before 1982, this publication was titled Women's Studies International Quarterly.

Women's Studies Quarterly - a peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles on contemporary developments in feminist theory and scholarship.

To find more resources in this area check out our Women's Studies Subject Guide.

Periodicals & Reference in a new location!

If you haven't had a chance to stop by the Dick Smith Library in the past week you might be in for a little bit of a shock. We've been clearing out the main floor in preparation for the upcoming Learning Commons renovation but never fear! Our collections and computers that were in the area have been moved to different parts of the library. If you're looking for journals, newspapers, magazines, and reference books you'll now find them just past Suave Café at the end of the hallway (the former student lounge). You'll also find a sitting area and copy machine in the corner.

Our Periodicals Service desk and Periodicals Specialist Sandy are located just outside the room to assist with questions, provide directions, and help with the microform machines which are now in Room 106.

We're very excited about the new Learning Commons and are eager to see the renovation get started. If you have any questions at all about where things are or have moved to temporarily please ask! You can contact us by phone, email, in person, or through our social media links.

Phone: 254-968-9249
Email: reference@tarleton.edu
Tarleton Libraries on Facebook
Tarleton Libraries on Twitter

Top 10 Journals/Magazines/Newspapers Used

The Periodicals Department is located at the back of the Main Level of the library. It is responsible for ordering, cataloging, processing, and preserving journals, magazines, and newspapers. They come in 3 different formats: print, electronic, or microform. According to the current usage stats, the top ten journals/magazines/newspapers  requested and used since June 1, 2010 are as follows:

1. Teaching Children Mathematics
2. Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School
3. Consumer Reports
4. Stephenville Empire Tribune
5. Teaching Exceptional Children
6. Rolling Stone
7. Fort Worth Star Telegram
8. People Weekly
9. Better Homes & Gardens
10. Esquire...&...House Beautiful (tied for 10th)

For more information, please visit the Periodicals web page.

Is This Journal Peer-Reviewed?

You may get an assignment from your professor that requires you to use peer-reviewed journals. Peer-review is a process of evaluation that an article in a scholarly journal goes through before it is published. Experts, working in the same field as the author, review the article and either accept it, decline it, or return it to the author with suggested revisions before it is published. This process helps to maintain a high level of quality within scholarly journals.

How can you find out if a journal is peer-reviewed? Use Ulrich's Periodicals Directory, which you can find in the A-Z database list from the library's home page. Use the Quick Search box in the upper right-hand corner to search by keyword, subject, or title; or you can browse by various subjects or indexes.

When your search results screen appears, you'll see a legend in the upper right-hand corner:
For example, if you do an exact-title search for Journal of Food Science, you will get the following results:

Note that Journal of Food Science IS a peer-reviewed journal, because it has this image of a referee's shirt to the left of the title:

JTACs

Most old issues of the J-TAC student newspaper, through 2007 and going back 90 years to 1919, are now available on microfilm in the Periodicals section on the main floor of the library. The Periodicals department is open anytime the library is open, and the friendly student workers, led by Periodicals Specialist Sandy Dennis, will help you use the microfilm reader-printers. You can print a copy of the page for ten cents cash (or use your Texan card to reduce the cost to eight cents per copy).

These J-TACs are also available as paper copies in the Tarleton Room in the library's Special Collections Suite on the lower level. The Suite is open Monday through Friday, 8 AM to 5 PM, and the newspapers must be used in house - but we do have a copy machine available for your use at ten cents a page (eight cents with your Texan card). Some of the older issues are quite fragile, and we encourage you to use the microfilm instead.

Issues from August 2007 on are available online and also in the Tarleton Room in the Special Collections Suite. The Grassburr yearbooks are also available; read this post to learn more. The Special Collections Suite will be open this Saturday, October 24, for Homecoming, after the parade at 10 AM and before the football game at 6 PM.

Print Periodicals

A couple months ago you read about how books and audiovisual items are added to the collection (selected, ordered, received, cataloged, and processed). What about periodicals: newspapers, magazines, scholarly and professional journals? This post will talk about those that come in a physical format (in print or on microform: microfiche, microfilm, or microcard), as opposed to electronic journals accessible through the library’s databases.

“We have individual subscriptions to 740 titles, although some are print, some are online, and some are print+online, just to keep it interesting,“ said Janie Jones, Assistant Director for Serials and Electronic Resources. For both print and microform newspapers and journals, Periodicals Specialist Sandy Dennis checks them in to our SIRSI database, to make the issues show up as part of our holdings in the online public access catalog.

The 15 newspapers the Dick Smith Library subscribes to are processed first, and put out on the shelf ASAP, due to their often-daily nature. The latest issue is on display in the eastern side of the Periodicals area (at the back of the main floor of the library), with slightly older issues on the shelf just below it. Even older issues are kept in a back room for a certain length of time, usually until a microform version of the periodical arrives.

Magazines and journals come out weekly, monthly, or even less frequently. The volume number and issue number are written in the top left corner of the cover with a colon between them (for example, 28:4 for volume 28, issue 4). The volume refers to all the issues published during a given publishing period (usually a calendar year, but not always).

Like newspapers, the latest issue of a periodical is displayed face-out, with a few older issues on the shelf just below. Older issues are kept either until a microform copy arrives, or until one or more volumes can be bound together with a hardback cover.

“We have five rows of cabinets full of microfilm and microfiche,” said Sandy. When the microforms arrive, they are checked in like paper copies and filed.

What happens if an issue of a newspaper or journal does NOT come in on time? How do we get it? “They may be claimed after a designated period of time through [the vendor’s] claims process,” explained Sandy. “Usually we receive a replacement. If we are unable to get a replacement we then add that title to our Gaps list,” and those missing issues are requested through Duplicate Exchange, a national listserv through which libraries offer unneeded titles to other libraries.

Binding helps preserve the journals by keeping individual issues from falling apart or being lost. The Dick Smith Library contracts with a bindery service. The number of issues bound together depends on the thickness of an individual issue. “Some journals are thick and you may only be able to bind two or three of the journals at a time,” said Sandy. “The bound thickness cannot be over 2.75 inches.” Very thin journals might have two or more years’ worth put together. They are bound inside a solid-colored hardbound cover which is printed with the name of the journal and the volume number(s) and year(s) it includes.

Bound journals are stored on the northwest side of the Library, going back to 1986. Journals from 1985 and earlier are stored Offsite. Sandy stated, “We have Offsite request forms for patrons [also available online] and we check email [periodicals@tarleton.edu] for requests” as well as for interlibrary loan. “Trips to Offsite are scheduled twice a day,” explained Janie, “but we will try to work with patrons.”

Faculty and grad assistants may check out periodicals for a week. Students are not allowed to remove periodicals from the library, but may make copies as needed. Periodicals requested from Offsite are held at the Circulation Desk for a week for use by the student, and are subsequently returned Offsite. “We do note usage of onsite periodicals, so patrons do not need to refile periodicals; they may be left on tables, or placed in the bins available,” said Janie. “And so it goes!”

Choosing Sources

• Know you need to locate articles for a project or paper?
• Not sure which types of periodicals would be the best to use?
• Not quite sure how to tell the difference between the different types of periodicals?
• Not sure why you should care about the difference between different types of periodicals?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, know that you’re not alone.

Because the types of sources used in projects and papers often (if not always) influence how well your finished product will be received (what grade it will receive or what your supervisor will think about your abilities), it’s important to learn how to tell the difference between the types and how to use them appropriately.

A brief overview of periodical types -- their characteristics and uses -- is provided by the YouTube video Scholarly vs. Popular Periodicals, which was created by Peabody Library at Vanderbilt University.

Need more assistance figuring out what type of article to use, where to find the articles, and how to cite them? Tarleton Libraries are here to help!

• Call us: Dick Smith Library, Reference Desk 254-968-9456.
• Email us: http://www.tarleton.edu/~library/askaref.html
• Drop by and talk with us: library hours