Science Information Searching

The federal government’s Office of Scientific and Technical Information has created three search engines to assist the science researcher in locating timely information.

• SCIENCE accelerator provides searching for the 12 OSTI databases as well as DOE data.
• Science.gov searches 42 databases and over 2,000 selected web sites from 18 scientific and technical organizations from 14 federal agencies.
• The World Wide Science Organization provides a search on 76 databases from 65 countries and international organizations.

For help searching these databases, contact the Documents Department in the library at 5410 or Janice Marotta at jmarotta@ashland.edu.

Library Spotlight: New Books

New books are added to the library collection throughout the academic year. When shelf ready, titles are featured on the new book shelf on the main floor near the computer and recreational reading area.

Books have been selected by AU librarians and are subject to the library's collection development policy which includes professional reviews and faculty recommendations. Contact your library liaison for more information or submit a suggestion via the library catalog.

Recent additions to the collection include:

• Hindsight: The Promise and Peril of Looking Backward
  BF378.H54 F74 2010
• Faces of America: How 12 Extraordinary People Discovered Their Pasts
  CS49.G38 2010
• Country Driving: A Journey Through China From Farm to Factory
  DS712.H457 2010
• Why Organizations Struggle So Hard to Improve So Little:  Overcoming Organizational Immaturity
  HD58.8.K588 2010
• A New Brand of Business: Charles Coolidge Parlin, Curtis Publishing Company, and the Origins of Market Research
  HF5415.2.W29 2010
• Abortion
  HQ767.2.A26 2010
• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
  HB9950.A437 2010
• Bringing Reading Research to Life
  LB1050.6.B75 2010
• Free for All: Fixing School Food in America
  LB3479.U6 P55 2010
• Morning Miracle: Inside the Washington Post: A Great Newspaper Fights for Its Life
  PN4899.W31 W346 2010
• Island Beneath the Sea: A Novel
  PQ8098.1.L54 I78 2010
• White Coat, Black Hat: Adventures on the Dark Side
  R724.E385 2010

The Instructional Resource Center Blog routinely provides information regarding new additions to the IRC, juvenile, and education collections.

OhioLINK Authentication

OhioLINK authentication was broken this evening but has been restored.  If you are still not able to authenticate, clear the cache of your browser.  For assistance contact AU Library Reference at library@ashland.edu or 419-289-5402.

Update: Entrance Change

Beginning today, please use the main exit doors to enter the library. Work has moved to the other side of the entrance; weather permitting concrete will be poured and the project complete next week. We recommend:

• Enter and exit the library using the patio doors.
• Enter the library using the main exit doors, leave via the patio doors.

Thank you for your continued patience.

Update: Walkway & Sidewalk

The library is open!

Work continues on the sidewalk and walkway outside the library. Last week concrete was poured on the exit-door side of the main library entrance. For safety reasons, rotating closures remain in place for the main entrance and exit doors. We recommend:

• Enter and exit the library using the patio doors.
• Enter the library using the main doors, exit the patio doors.

Thank you for your continued patience.

Banned Books Week 2010

Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read, is September 25 - October 2, 2010.

"Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States." - ALABanned Books Week

The Office For Intellectual Freedom created a video for their YouTube channel that features the Top Ten Banned and Challenged Books of 2009 and reasons for challenges and bans. Included in the top ten list are classics; The Chocolate War, The Color Purple, The Catcher in Rye, and To Kill a Mocking Bird; and children and young adult titles; The Earth, My Butt, And Other Big Round Things, And Tango Makes Three, and Twilight.

For more information: Internet Resources

• ALA Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read
• ALA Frequently Challenged Books
• ALA Banned and Challenged Classics
• OIF Blog
• Huffington Post: 10 Graphic Novels And The Shocking Reasons They Frequently Come Under Fire
• Banned Books Week 2010: Which Books Drew the Most Fire Last Year?
• Banned Books Week: Ten Flashlight Worthy Books People Most Wanted Banned
• Banned Books Week 2010: 15 Iconic Movies Based on Banned Books
• 10 Banned Books You Might Not Expect
• Banned Books Week: Q & A How Books Get Banned

For More Information: AU Library collection

• Robert Cormier: Banned, Challenged and Censored
  PS3553.O653 Z615 2008
• Teaching Banned Books: 12 Guides for Young Readers
  Z1019 .S33 2001
• Places I Never Meant to Be: Original Stories by Censored Writers
  PZ5 .P6635 1999
• Art Speigelman: Conversations
  NC1429.S5687 A35 2007

Visit the IRC News blog for a different look at Banned Books Week provided by The Puppet Book Banners.

Update: Library Walkway & Sidewalk

The library is open!

Demolition continues on the sidewalk and walkway outside the library main entrance. In order to safely remove concrete up to the library display windows, there will be rotating closures for the main entrance and exit doors.

• Enter and exit the library using the patio doors.
• Enter the library using the main doors, exit the patio doors.

Weather permitting, plans are in place to pour new concrete the end of this week. Thank you for your continued patience.

IRC Hours Update

The Instructional Resource Center will be closed this weekend, Saturday 9/25 and Sunday 9/26. Computers and regular printing remain available on the second floor, as do general second floor collection items.

Color printing, laminating, the Ellison Machine, and other services offered inside the IRC will not be available. We will re-open on Monday following regular hours.

Need to color print? There is a color printer available in Patterson.

IRC News: Big Books

Have you ever searched for a big book in the library juvenile collection? Located on the second floor, big books were crowded into two rolling carts.


Not anymore! Each big book has been placed in large hanging media bag and the entire big book collection relocated next to the book kits. Hanging bags will make it easier to transport big books to and from the library and provide protection for the book during inclement weather.


Looking for a specific big book? Call numbers are located at the top left / bottom left side next to the spine of each book. The collection now has added functionality and browse-ability. Stop in and see the new big book area the next time you are in the library.