NewspaperCat

"The George A. Smathers Libraries Catalog of Digital Historical Newspapers (NewspaperCat) Web site http://ufdc.ufl.edu/hnccoll ... facilitates the discovery of online digitized historical newspaper content from newspapers published in the United States and the Caribbean."

FLA PASS

What is FLA - PASS?
In 2010 the Florida State Legislature passed into law a bill on electronic resource licensing that requires the Florida Center for Library Automation (FCLA), which supports the state university system, and the College Center for Library Automation (CCLA), which supports the state college system, to deem as authorized users of state funded e-resources all students in public secondary school “accelerated” programs. The program by which students have access to these resources is called Florida Library Access – Pass for Accelerated Secondary Students, or FLA-PASS.

There is a website with information about how to get your login and an explanation of what databases are available:  http://www.fla-pass.org/

Census data

historical data from the US Census of population and housing is available at http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/decennial/index.html (1790-2000)

old magazines

Google books has older magazines like Life fully scanned, available, and free (at least for now) See: http://books.google.com/books or http://books.google.com/books?id=s1QEAAAAMBAJ&source=gbs_slider_gbs_user_shelves_1004_homepage

Searching the OPAC for availability of study rooms, etc

enter: usfsp as a title search in the library catalog to locate records showing availability of study room keys, laptops, or calculators

USF-GOLD

From the Poynter Library Systems Department knowledge base: USF-GOLD

Please note that configuring the settings for any encrypted wireless network is inherently more difficult than an open/unencrypted network. As such, configuring USF-GOLD is more difficult and time consuming than just using the existing USF network. Documentation is available at https://www.net.usf.edu/wireless/USF-GOLD/instructions.php - It will take you step-by-step through the configuration. Information Technology help desk (813-974-1222) is available to help with any problems you might encounter.

Configuration instructions for USF-GOLD, per device and platform:

Windows 7 & Vista https://www.net.usf.edu/wireless/USF-GOLD/vista-gui.php
Windows XP https://www.net.usf.edu/wireless/USF-GOLD/windows-gui.php
Mac OS X https://www.net.usf.edu/wireless/USF-GOLD/mac-gui-10.4.php
iPhones and SmartPhones https://www.net.usf.edu/wireless/USF-GOLD/iphone-gui.php
Symbian 60 devices https://www.net.usf.edu/wireless/USF-GOLD/symbian60.php

Catalog of Digital Historical Newspapers

NEW improved link for Catalog of Digital Historical Newspapers (NewspaperCat)

http://ufdc.ufl.edu/hnccoll

backup access to Blackboard

If students can't get into my.usf.edu, try sending them to learn.usf.edu

Bedbugs

http://bedbugregistry.com/

Portfolios using Google Docs

Question: A student was trying to upload a Word document with clip art to her Google portfolio. The text would display but not the clipart.

Solution: If they are using Google Docs as the portfolio, the problem is probably with the upload. When you get to the choose file screen there is a
Checkbox that asks if you want to convert the format to Google Docs from Word, Excel, or whatever. The default is ‘yes.’ You save disk space
By checking it, but you loose graphics. If they uncheck the box before uploading it should work.

faculty salaries

USF System operating budget: http://usfweb2.usf.edu/bpa/opbudgets.htm (but web version my not include faculty salaries)

Florida Government salaries (including USF) searchable by name (relatively current but date of update not listed: http://www2.tbo.com/news/databay/fact-finder/

Full USF operating budget available on CDROM in special collections.

Uploading files with graphics in Google portfolios

Some students are using Google Docs as the portfolio. There may be problem when uploading files with graphics. When you get to the choose file screen, there is a checkbox that asks if you want to convert the format to Google Docs from Word,Excel, or whatever. The default is ‘yes.’ You save disk space by checking it, but you loose graphics.

If the student unchecks the box before uploading, it should work.

More on saving MS Word files

If there is a problem saving Word files in the Info Commons (may see message about "Normal Template"), try this work-around:

1) Copy the content from MS Word to Notepad, or send in an email for safekeeping.
2) Close MS Word, and reopen it with the Shift key down. This opens Word with all macros DISABLED.

Finding online videos in the USF OPAC

To locate online videos in the USF book catalog, go to the Advanced Search screen and select "video (all formats)" from the format pull-down menu. Type in a keyword and, when you get to the search results, narrow the results by selecting "online resource" in the left side format menu. If you need a demo, ask Tina or Jerry. There is a growing collection of these resources that faculty and students may find useful.

Oil Spill info

1. USPSP SEAS (Student Environmental Awareness Society) is organizing beach cleanups and other activities for USFSP students
For more information (and contact info) http://www.stpt.usf.edu/coas/espg/seas/index.htm

2. We have heard that Florida Fish and Wildlife – is providing Haz Mat training for the oil Spill Response today. They also have a webpage for oil spill volunteer opportunities -- http://www.volunteerflorida.org/


USF Marine Science http://www.marine.usf.edu/

Locating course reserves

In the USF catalog (http://usf.catalog.fcla.edu/sf.jsp ), if you choose the ‘Course Reserves’ option from the brown tabs, rather than the ‘Course Reserves’ on the upper left under the brown tabs, you’ll get different options for searching Reserves (http://reserves.catalog.fcla.edu/sf.jsp ).

There is a line of Browse options with drop down menus for Instructors, Course Titles, and Course Numbers. The old reserve searching (http://sf.aleph.fcla.edu/F/?func=file&file_name=basic-u-sfu30&local_base=u-sfu30 ) required entry of some type. So, if students don’t remember the instructor’s or the course’s name, the browsing may help trigger a useful memory.

laptops in group study rooms

Instructions for connecting in the group study rooms -- It is also available on the web by navigating to the Systems area, Computing Resources, Student Use Computing, and reading the section on the Group study rooms (link below)

http://www.nelson.usf.edu/systems/studentareas.html

SPSS printing output

I was baffled by the occasional difficulty that some students would have in getting prints of their SPSS outputs when they would copy paste sections of the output into Word. I have learned that if you copy / paste SPSS output charts into Excel, they print out beautifully.

saving Word documents

In the past week, I have had two students, working on Word documents, who encountered saving problems. When they go to Save As, nothing happens, no menu to select location or name the file. Copy/pasting the content to a new Word doc did not help. There is something going on with the program and once it does this, it will not allow anything to be saved. (In both cases, the student opened a file that they sent themselves via email but we don’t know if that is part of the problem. You should be able to open a file from email and then save as to the temp storage space in any case.)

In order to save what they had done, I highlighted and pasted the contents into Word Pad. I was then able to save (as) the file. So far, Word Pad has done a good job of maintaining some formatting and embedded graphs as well.

When it happened a second time (different students, different PC), Berrie was available. We saved the work as a Word Pad file as a safety precaution. Then Berrie closed down the Word program completely. When asked if he wanted to save the material on the CLIP BOARD, he selected YES. After Word was completely shut down, he opened a new Word session and new document. He tried to save as, this time successfully. He then was able to paste the content saved on the clipboard into the new document and saved the file again successfully.

Primary documents

Links to primary document sites for history:
http://www.nelson.usf.edu/reference/subject_guides/AS/history/encyclopedias.html