What’s New

Searching for Theses and Dissertations Just Got a Little Easier

The OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center has been updated with a new look and a worldwide ETD search.

Save time with the new worldwide ETD search by using a single search to find ETDs from a global index of freely available electronic theses and dissertations provided by major ETD collections around the world. This index allows you to search for information about each ETD, including authors, titles, and abstracts. It does not search the full text of the ETDs.

The OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center is a free, online database of more than 14,600 theses, dissertations and honors theses from 21 participating member colleges and universities. The full text is freely available for 90% of the theses and dissertations in the ETD Center.

Ohio's colleges and universities are invited to join the OhioLINK ETD Center and have their graduate students submit their theses and dissertations electronically. Visit the FAQ to find out more about the ETD Center and how interested institutions may join.

What's Your OhioLINK Story?

No one explains the importance and value of OhioLINK to education, teaching and research better than the students, faculty and staff who depend on it and the librarians who help make it great. We're currently searching for a few more good stories from OhioLINK users. So tell us, how has OhioLINK helped you? Were you able to finish a research project that would not have been possible otherwise? Did you get an A on a class assignment? Did you teach your students something new? Perhaps you found that rare resource you had been searching for?

If you have a story or testimonial that provides a clear picture of the value of the OhioLINK program, please share it with us. Your story might be featured on the OhioLINK Web site and/or in future publications.

While we're always happy to receive your stories, we're on the lookout for some great stories and testimonials by January 14 for use in the 2007 OhioLINK annual report.

New Digital Videos Cover Global Warming, Childhood Development, the Writing Process and More

OhioLINK's Educational Films & Documentaries collection offers more than 2,000 digital, educational videos that you can stream or download from your desktop to show in class, link to from course pages and utilize for research. The new videos cover a variety of subjects including architecture, literature, psychology, science and social studies.

Some of the newest digital videos include:

• Acutely Anxious (Biological Mind series)
• Introduction to Spanish Literature (Glories of Spanish Literature series)
• Green Building and Design (Ethical Markets series)
• How We Study Children: Observation and Experimentation (Childhood Development series)
• Introduction to Designing Experiments (Research Methods in the Social Sciences series)
• The Last Neandertal: Competing Theories of Human Origins
• Moyers on America: Capitol Crimes (Moyers on America series)
• Power and Leadership (War of the Sexes series)
• The State of World Population Report (The Aging Game Series)
• Too Hot Not to Handle: Winning the Battle against Global Warming
• The Writing Process: Research (Writing Lessons series)

Educational Films & Documentaries collection is available to all students, faculty members and staff at OhioLINK member institutions. The videos are available for viewing and downloading (for temporary storage only) from on or off campus. Free software from RealNetworks is needed to view these videos. The current version of this software, called "RealPlayer," is available.

Looking for more digital videos? Try these other OhioLINK resources:

• Foreign Language Videos (freely available to anyone worldwide)
• Encyclopedia of Physics Demonstrations

Chat with a Librarian Service Ends December 21

OhioLINK's Chat with a Librarian service will cease operations after December 21, 2007. After December 21, OhioLINK students and faculty who desire online assistance should use their library's Instant Message service if one is available, contact their library, or try KnowItNow a statewide live online reference service.

During five years of service, librarians from 40 libraries have taken turns providing online research assistance to students and faculty from OhioLINK member colleges and universities through Chat with a Librarian. More than 52,000 chat sessions were conducted since the service began in 2002.

Changes in libraries and information technology, and declining use of Chat with a Librarian, have led us to re-examine this service. In the last several years, Instant Messaging has become a major communication tool on campuses. Many libraries have begun to use IM to answer questions for their own communities. This way, students and faculty are served by librarians from their own institutions.

In addition, the State Library of Ohio supports a live online reference service called KnowItNow, which operates twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. KnowItNow is a service of the State Library of Ohio and local public libraries. An academic service is being added to this program.

We sincerely thank the hundreds of librarians who have provided Chat with a Librarian service, and the thousands of library users who appreciated the anytime/anywhere help.

For library assistance, check your library's Web site or find contact information.