Hunt for tech books on Safari

Safari Books Online is the premier on-demand digital library providing technology, digital media, business books, and videos online. Safari Books Online, is paid for and licensed by Steen library. Currently a Custom Safari Books Online Library that contains a specially-tailored subset of 115 titles available through Steen library's website and increasingly through the catalog SteenFind. Now when searching for books about Windows 7, your Smartphone, or on more technical topics, you will find the latest titles available online in full-text. For a more thorough search of the tittles, and to search the full text of these books go directly to Safari.

If there is a computer science book you would like to see the library purchase or a specific topic represented feel free to contact Phil Reynolds. New titles both online and in print are acquired by the library on an ongoing basis. Suggestions for the Computer Science Subject Guide are also welcome.

R. Philip Reynolds preynolds (AT) sfasu.edu rm. 202b 936.468.1453 Subjects - Computer Science, Military Science, Philosophy, Religion, Political Science, Geography, Kinesiology

Argue like a Pro with "Opposing Viewpoints"

Opposing Viewpoints is a database that presents both sides of controversial issues. It is a good starting point for choosing a topic, getting an overview, and finding related material. The series can be useful for writing speeches and debating. "Opposing Viewpoints" links to recommended websites, so it provides some “quality control” for the Web.

To get to it, click on the Databases A - Z on the Library home page. Scroll down to the O section and click on Opposing Viewpoints.

R. Philip Reynolds preynolds (AT) sfasu.edu rm. 202b 936.468.1453 Subjects - Computer Science, Military Science, Philosophy, Religion, Political Science, Geography, Kinesiology

What to do When “No” is the Wrong Answer

Sometimes while doing some online research the database you are using will return no hits. You may see a message saying:

“No matches found”

“No records matched your search”

“No results were found”

This can be frustrating when you need the right answer, right article, or just the right book. Fortunately, there are a few of quick steps you can take when “No….” is the wrong answer.

First, check your spelling, most of the time when a database can’t find anything matching your query it is because you misspelled something. While Steen Library does not currently have any books on kenisiology it does have several about kinesiology. With Google You can find almost 3500 web pages about kenisiology, you might want use one of the 930,000 or so pages Google returns for kinesiology.

If you are still getting no hits on your search your next step is to make sure you are using the right database. When doing online research the axiom “use the right tool for the right job” holds true. If you want to find a book in Steen Library, use the library’s catalog. If you need a journal article, use a “General Database” or “Subject Database” listed on one of the library’s “Subject Guides.” If you need a web site check the “Websites” section of one of the Subject Guides, or use a search engine like Google, Yahoo, or Bing.

Next, make sure you are using the right terminology. Many times when searching refereed or scholarly journals searchers will use different terms than those used in the discipline. While you may tell someone you broke your collarbone, you would probably want to find the latest treatment methods by searching for articles about a broken clavicle.

Of course, you can always Ask A Librarian. Whether you Ask A Librarian at the beginning so you can get the information you need faster, or wait and ask as a last resort, the librarians at Steen Library are ready to help.

R. Philip Reynolds preynolds (AT) sfasu.edu rm. 202b 936.468.1453 Subjects - Computer Science, Military Science, Philosophy, Religion, Political Science, Geography, Kinesiology

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Reading, Writing and RECON : Military Professional Reading Lists

Roughly stated RECON is a mission to obtain information about an adversary, or the characteristics of an area. Today military professionals must know more about their profession and the world they live in, than ever before. For many gathering this information includes books, both electronic and digital. All branches of the military have recommended and/or required reading lists. The Combined Arms Research Library (CARL) at Fort Leavenworth, has one of the better-maintained list of these lists on the web. Their page of Military Professional Reading Lists links to more than twenty-five different lists. However, between the five branches of the military, their schools, commands, and civilian government the number of lists is almost impossible to enumerate.

As part of Steen library's collection development efforts, librarians will often use tools such as bibliographies and professional reading lists when purchasing materials to support learning, instruction, and research at SFA. For Military Science, the library has made a specific effort to acquire all of the books on "The U.S. Army Chief of Staff's Professional Reading List." (2004, this list has been superseded by the U.S. Army Center for Military History Professional Reading List) In addition many other titles from other military reading lists are part of the library collection. In an effort to make locating the hundreds of titles available at Steen Library from several of these lists, I recently created a spreadsheet this information and posted it on the web. The page "Combined Military Professional Reading List" provides easy access to titles owned by the library from many different lists. Links to some of the official lists are on the "List of Lists" page of the spreadsheet. The library owns almost all the titles from "The U.S. Army Chief of Staff's Professional Reading List", as well as many or most of the titles found on other reading lists. Through inter-library loan any additional titles not currently owned by Steen Library are readily available to the SFA community.

If you would like to recommend a favorite title or list of titles for Steen Library, contact your reference librarian.

R. Philip Reynolds preynolds (AT) sfasu.edu rm. 202b 936.468.1453 Subjects - Computer Science, Military Science, Philosophy, Religion, Political Science, Geography, Kinesiology

"The sky is falling! The sky is falling!" Licensing, Fair Use, and Copyright.

In June of 2009Brigham Young University's Harold B. Lee Library, discontinued a short-lived pilot project wherein the library provided inter-library loan services to faculty using Amazon's Kindle. Roger Layton, communications manager for the library said.

"We are pretty fast on the interlibrary loans, but it still takes days....With the Kindle, we can have a new book available for someone in a matter of minutes.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705310939/BYU-suspends-Kindle-program-over-legal-concerns.html

while this incident caused a bit of a stir in the library community it could have quietly faded into obscurity if Amazon had left well enough alone. Instead around July 14th of this year Amazon "began e-mailing a few hundred owners of its Kindle reading device to explain that it had deleted electronic copies of the George Orwell's "Animal Farm" and "1984" and had refunded the $0.99 purchase price." according to a recent article posted at Information Week's website. http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal_tech/drm/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=218501227

Until now many saw no significant difference between purchasing copyrighted material and purchasing a license to use copyrighted material, despite the fact that almost every piece of software we use or "purchase" has for years been made available under a license agreement. People who bought a Kindle became painfully aware of the difference between buying a book and paying for a license to use a book.

Well So What?

Why should we care? Amazon gave refunds for the EBooks and said they "will no longer delete books in this manner." (Read apolofy from Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos) Amazon and other corporations may have the best interest of their customers at heart for the moment there is no guarantee that this will last. By lisenceing access to digital versions of a book or magazine, companies can circumvent or even eliminate consumers' rights of "fair use" and "first sale." The Kindle manual states "Digital content will be deemed licensed to you under this Agreement". The manual also states that "Amazon reserves the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue the Service at any time, and Amazon will not be liable to you should it exercise such right." (Amazon Kindle: Liscence Agreement and Terms of Use)So they can take back any EBook at anytime without any liability. Would this agreement stand up in court, or in the marketplace? It is hard to say, but the same types of licensing agreements have stood up in court for years in regards to software and End-User Liscense Agreements or EULAs. It is becoming an increasing concern in regards to music and movies purchased and managed by Digital Rights Management (DRM) software. (see the Computer & Communications Industry Association web site on defending fair use http://www.defendfairuse.org/index.html)

If this was just about Amazon and the Kindle then there would be no problem, people could just stop buying Kindles if they didn't like the licensing agreement. However, it is not just about Amazon. How much of our reading, research, watching movies, and listening to music do we do online or with our computers? If a company could license our access to all or most of our information, they could control, or at least exert an unprecideneted influence over what we could and could not read, hear or see through a EULA.

Google's Terms of Service
Your relationship with Google

• Whenever you use our services it’s under the terms of a legal contract with Google.
• This contract is made up of the Terms of Use and the Legal Notices for the services you’re using.
• We will make any additional Legal Notices available to you when you sign up for the service concerned so you’ll know they apply.
• If you misbehave, we may terminate our agreement with you. This might result in your access to some or all of our services being disabled. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
• We may also decide to stop providing services to you. While we don’t plan to discontinue any service, we reserve the right to.
• You can terminate your agreement with us at any time by closing your account for the services you use. We’ll be sorry to see you go, but you can come back anytime!....

About Google’s services

• We are constantly changing and improving our services. If you’re scared of change, this isn’t the place for you....

http://www.google.com/accounts/tos/highlights/utos-us-en-h.html

Fair use and copyright law does not appear to apply in regards to the Kindle, Google, Google Scholar, Google Books, or almost any information accessed with a computer. Think about how much of your work, study, entertainment, and research you do through the use of Google, or any computer software (including operating systems). What would happen if Google, Apple, or Microsoft decided to "terminate our agreement with you. This might result in your access to some or all of our services being disabled...." "We may also decide to stop providing services to you. While we don’t plan to discontinue any service, we reserve the right to."

Now it all of a sudden is not about whether you want to buy a Kindle, its about your access to almost any information that at some time may be stored on a computer. While Google's current corporate philosophy includes the idea of "do no evil" is comforting, it could easily change."We are constantly changing and improving our services. If you’re scared of change, this isn’t the place for you...." Google's definition of "evil" is suddenly relevant to almost everyone whose life is touched by a computer. http://www.google.com/corporate/tenthings.html

Is the sky falling?

No, but you might want to think about licensing the use of an umbrella.

R. Philip Reynolds preynolds (AT) sfasu.edu rm. 202b 936.468.1453 Subjects - Computer Science, Military Science, Philosophy, Religion, Political Science, Geography, Kinesiology

RIS Recommends: The Color of Money: Fair Use and Copyright or: Free the Bound Periodicals!

CRS Reports Congress' not so Secret Weapon for First Class Research

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American Library Association (ALA) today sent letters to Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), thanking them for introducing S. Res. 118, legislation to allow no-fee public access to taxpayer-funded Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports.

The CRS produces well-researched and balanced reports on a wide variety of current issues affecting our citizens and country. Unfortunately, CRS reports are not systematically made freely available to the public through the Federal Depository Library Program or any other means. No-fee public access to these reports has been a goal the ALA has pursued for many years.

The CRS home page describes its service to congress as providing independent and professional "analytic capabilities" with the capability to "integrate multiple disciplines and research methodologies. In a fast-paced, ever-changing environment,". The site goes on to say that the "CRS approaches complex topics from a variety of perspectives and examines all sides of an issue. Staff members analyze current policies and present the impact of proposed policy alternatives, even if it means bringing to light facts that may be contrary to established assumptions. With public policy issues growing more complex and political debate turning more contentious, the need for insightful and comprehensive analysis of the issues has become vital. Congress relies on CRS to marshal interdisciplinary resources, encourage critical thinking, and create innovative frameworks to help legislators form sound policies and reach decisions on a host of difficult issues."

Wouldn't it be great if you could get access to this type of information on issues not ten years after the event in a book or filtered, slanted, or chopped up into sound bites as so often happens in political reporting of the day? Well at the risk of losing my ALA membership card, I will let you in on a librarian secret. You can get access to thousands of CRS reports that have already been released, or leaked to the public. Most of them would be difficult if not impossible to find using Google. Fortunately, several libraries and organizations have created online collections of these reports for public access on the Internet. Finding the right report for your research involves choosing the right collection of CRS reports to search.

Full text PDF versions of thousands of CRS reports are available at the OpenCRS site http://opencrs.com/. They act as a clearinghouse or central access point for CRS reports however, they do not have all the reports that are available online. While this source appears to have the most current overall coverage, subject access is provided by many groups including the ones listed on the OpenCRS collections page. http://opencrs.com/collections/

According to the web site OpenCRS
http://opencrs.com/ taxpayers pay nearly $100 million dollars a year to fund the Congressional Research Service (CRS) at the Library of Congress.

• National Council for Science and the Environment/National Library for the Environment
  http://ncseonline.org/NLE/CRS/
  


• Thurgood Marshall Law Library/University of Maryland School of Law
  http://www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/crsreports/index.html
  


• US Department of State Foreign Press Centers (FPC)
  http://fpc.state.gov/c18183.htm, PEPFAR
  CRS Reports,
  


• Franklin Pierce Law School Intellectual Property, Cyberlaw, and Electronic Commerce
  


• Federation of American Scientists Intelligence, Military and National Security
  

Two other clearing houses for CRS reports include the massive Archive IT directory (http://www.archive-it.org/collections/1078) and the web site WikiLeaks which reportedly uploaded 7000 CRS reports recently. The collection of CRS reports at the WikiLeaks site provides not only a full text search of the reports, but an alpabetical list, and (possibly the most significant contribution for research and analysis) a chronological listing of CRS reports.

For those who want to be sure that no virtual stone is left unturned you may want to do one final search with a Google Scholar. Use the advanced search feature with "Congressional Research Service" as an author. http://scholar.google.com/scholar?as_q=&num=30&btnG=Search+Scholar&as_occt=any&as_sauthors=Congressional+Research+Service&safe=off

When you need some of the best and most current information Congressional Research Service reports a hard to beat. Now you have a secret weapon of sources for your research papers that is sure to impress your teachers and improve your grade.

This blog will self-destruct in 10 seconds…

R. Philip Reynolds preynolds (AT) sfasu.edu rm. 202b 936.468.1453 Subjects - Computer Science, Military Science, Philosophy, Religion, Political Science, Geography, Kinesiology