2023 Samford Student Research Colloquia -- This Friday

 

The Samford University Library is proud to once again host the Samford Student Research Colloquia this Friday starting at 9:30 am!  

The colloquia is sponsored and organized by the Research Advisory Collaborative, in partnership with the Office of Research. It is a public forum where Samford students (undergraduate and graduate) present their scholarship and research.  The library hosted the first-ever colloquia on April 22nd of last year with an impressive turnout in terms of both submissions and visitors -- and this year looks like it'll be the same.

Please be advised that noise levels in the building will be elevated during this time due to the colloquia.  DBH 112, DBH 113, and Brock Forum will be available next door if you desire a quieter place to study.  We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your cooperation.

Click here to visit the colloquia website, including links to lists of both 2022 and 2023 abstracts.

New Online Resource -- Statista

The Samford University Library is excited to announce that we are now able to offer Statista to our students, staff and faculty!  Samford joins over eight hundred institutions of higher learning in offering this electronic resource -- a community that includes prestigious schools such as Harvard, Michigan State, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, M.I.T., Rutgers, Stanford, Vassar, the University of Tennessee, and the University of Alabama.

Statista is a statistical database that offers comprehensive and efficient access to over one million statistics and facts on eighty thousand topics in one hundred seventy multidisciplinary categories from more than twenty-two thousand sources. It has the ability to quickly and comprehensively access multifaceted statistical data in six hundred industries, making this resource applicable to a wide variety of programs and disciplines.

Where does the data in Statista come from?

Image source: Statista

Statista allows you to search by concept, location, industry, societal trends, etc., and to export the reference for the original source into a variety of formats.  Furthermore, it automatically formats the reference to be compatible with five different academic style guides.  These features make it easier than ever for students to use its data in term papers, presentations, or projects.

Samford students and employees can access Statista via our website’s database listings.  If you are visiting the campus, please visit the University Library’s circulation or ASK US desks to inquire about temporary access to online research resources.

Friday: Hellenic Scholars' Library

The Hellenic Scholars' Library

Samford Classics professor Doug Clapp noted that although pride in Greek culture was exaggerated for comedic effect in the film "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," "it is no stretch to say that we can trace our ideas, our ways of thinking, back to their ancient Greek origins through the writings of, among others, Homer, Plato and Paul." "By preserving a multitude of Greek voices," Clapp said, "the Hellenic Scholars Library can help a twenty-first century world maintain access to ancient wisdom that can help us thoughtfully consider our modern quandaries."

Since 2005 over 3,000 volumes have been donated to the collection. The Hellenic Scholars' Library is located on the lower level, adjacent to Special Collection. Materials are accessible through the Samford Libraries Catalog. 

Please join us Friday, 10:00am, for the reception.

This year National Library Week is all about how Communities matter @ your library. Gifts to the University Library provide valuable opportunities for enhancements to existing library resources and services. Developing and maintaining a scholarly library and center for learning now and in the future is a long-range enterprise that requires a wide base of support to ensure preservation of and access to key information resources for scholarship. The Samford University Library has been the beneficiary of many generous gifts through the years that have enabled it to provide additional key resources that significantly enhance our offerings that nurture persons learning and knowledge in direct support of the mission of the institution.

This week we highlight five gifts: ALFA Presentation Room; The Saint John's Bible, Heritage edition; The Pilgrim's Choice and other hymnals; C.S. Lewis and other fictional works; and the Hellenic Scholars' Library.

 

Wednesday: C.S. Lewis Collection

CS. Lewis Collection

Through the gift and direction of a generous local donor, University Library has added 72 titles by and about C. S. Lewis since January 2012. The enhanced collections provide a complete catalog of novels, poems, theological and philosophical monographs, literary criticism, children's books, essays, and memoirs by this highly influential Christian scholar. The goals for the collection now include adding audio books and DVDs, a process that has already begun, as well as secondary works about Lewis. 

It's hard to overestimate the influence Lewis had and continues to have on generations of scholars and the public. His science fiction, children's literature, and devotional writings persist in popularity, while his scholarly works continue to be studied and analyzed. Derivative works such as movies and plays entice young audiences and lay the foundation of a generous and beautiful Christian theology. Lewis' prodigious body of work can be found throughout the library.

Help us celebrate C.S. Lewis and our other favorite authors by creating a collage inspired by YOUR favorite work! Just add it to Pinterest or Tweet using the hashtag #sulibrary (and be entered again in our daily drawings). 

This year National Library Week is all about how Communities matter @ your library. Gifts to the University Library provide valuable opportunities for enhancements to existing library resources and services. Developing and maintaining a scholarly library and center for learning now and in the future is a long-range enterprise that requires a wide base of support to ensure preservation of and access to key information resources for scholarship. The Samford University Library has been the beneficiary of many generous gifts through the years that have enabled it to provide additional key resources that significantly enhance our offerings that nurture persons learning and knowledge in direct support of the mission of the institution.

This week we highlight five gifts: ALFA Presentation Room; The Saint John's Bible, Heritage edition; The Pilgrim's Choice and other hymnals; C.S. Lewis and other fictional works; and the Hellenic Scholars' Library.

Temporary loss of select databases

Due to changes in the Alabama Virtual Library's statewide subscriptions, we have temporarily lost access to the following databases:

Academic Onefile 

Educator's Reference Complete 

Expanded Academic ASAP 

LegalTrac 

If you have trouble accessing the full-text of a journal or article, please                Ask Us!, and we will see about finding it through another source.

Elections are coming... and we're here to help!

Government Documents Librarian Carla Waddell has pulled together a number of great (and free) resources to aid you in researching the candidates for local, state, and national elections. You’ll find ways to research voting history & local issues that’ll be on your ballot.

Check out this Research Guide to the Elections, then rock the vote!

Temporary Disuption to Some Journal Links 11 PM August 24

 We try our best to make your search and access experience a seamless one. When you look up an article, then click through to the full-text version, we hope the mechanics are kept behind the scenes. Occasionally, our software providers need to provide maintenance on those systems, which can cause momentary disruptions on those services. 

Please note the affected times and resources below. We hope, with this advanced notice, you can schedule your research times around this brief inconvenience. If you have any questions, our reference librarians can offer assistance in finding alternate resources. Please Ask Us for library and online chat hours or to ask your question by email.

Scheduled System Maintenance on 24-25 August 2012

EBSCO will be performing scheduled maintenance from 24 August 2012 at 11:00 PM to 25 August at 3:00 AM Eastern Time (25 August, 03:00 – 07:00 GMT) on our e-journal full-text access servers.
Direct access to articles from EBSCO’s linking services will be unavailable for the following list of publishers:

• National League for Nursing
• American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP)
• Intellect Ltd
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press (MIT Press)
• College of Business and Public Affairs
• e-Med
• IUPAC
• NRC Research Press

Only articles from these eight publishers accessed via A-to-Z TOC Browse, EJS, or SmartLinks+ will be affected. These publishers account for only 80 of our more than 15,000 journals handled by our linking services, so the overall impact to your users should be minimal. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.