Galvin Library is proud to announce the addition of over 450 new online journals from SAGE Publications to the library’s collection. Full-text access to these peer-reviewed titles is available from 1999-present.

The journals cover a wide spectrum of subjects, including:

• Business
• Humanities
• Management
• Medicine
• Psychology
• Public Administration
• Social Sciences

Search the library’s Journal A-Z List to find a specific journal, or browse a list of available titles by going directly to SAGE Journals Online.

You can also use the SAGE site to customize your own automated search alerts and get journal table-of-contents delivered via email or RSS feeds.

And of course, access to these journals is fully integrated into Galvin Library’s GetArticle service — just look for the icon in any research database that indexes SAGE journals.

Intersession hours start Sunday, December 16 and continue through Monday, January 21. We will be closed for Winter Break from Sunday, December 23 until Wednesday, December 2. See the full schedule below:

Intersession Hours:
December 16 - January 21
Monday - Saturday: 8:30 am - 5 pm
Sunday:  Closed

Winter Break:
December 23 - January 1
Closed

For more information on library hours, click here.

The fall issue of Booklines, the official newsletter of the Paul V. Galvin Library, is now available. Learn about new library resources, staff developments, updates on the Graham Resource Center expansion, IIT Archives exhibits, and more. Click here to view a PDF version, or pick up a copy at the Circulation or Reference Desk at the library.

The October 5th Chicago Tribune featured an article on IIT alumnus Charles Warner Pierce, who in 1901 became the first African-American to receive a degree in chemical engineering. Pierce received his degree from the Armour Institute of Technology, a predecessor school of Illinois Institute of Technology.

As a technological college, Armour offered courses primarily in engineering, opening in 1896 with degree programs in Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering. Civil Engineering was added in 1899, and Chemical Engineering in 1901, making Pierce a member of the first class to be offered this program. In fact, Pierce was the only member of the Class of 1901 (a total of 13 graduating students) to receive the Chemical Engineering degree.

Learn more about Pierce’s accomplishments through exhibits researched and organized by University Archivist Catherine Bruck. Visit the online collection and check out the materials on display inside and outside of the Archives, located on the lower level of Galvin Library.

Got a paper due for midterms? Maybe you’re beginning your thesis or dissertation this semester? Galvin Library has the resources you need, whether you’re writing that first college paper or doing research for a dissertation. Our Reference section, located on the upper level of Galvin Library, has a number of books on how to conduct research and write papers. Use the IIT Library Catalog to do a subject search for “Report writing” to see what’s available.

You can also ask any of our friendly reference librarians for more help researching your topic. Stop by the Reference Desk on the upper level, or make an appointment with your subject specialist. Don’t want to leave your home or office? IM or Email us instead.

Of course, IIT students are known for their independent critical thinking skills. If you want to begin your research at Galvin on your own, or if you get stuck along the way, try our Research Guides for help. For beginning research, we recommend checking out Finding Scholarly Articles, Using Databases, and Evaluating Online Resources to get you started.

Galvin Library is here to help you achieve your academic and professional goals!

Galvin Library would like to recognize the importance of free speech and intellectual freedom by highlighting Banned Books Week, which takes place September 29th to October 6th.

From the American Library Association:
“Banned Books Week celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met.”

Your favorite book may have at one point been banned or threatened to be removed from libraries! You can find out the top 100 most challenged books of the previous decade here.

Some of the most popular and important books in history have been challenged or banned from libraries. You can view 2005’s list here. This list details which books that are owned by the most OCLC libraries have had the most challenges (over 57,000 libraries belong to the OCLC). You may be surprised to see that the Holy Bible, Huckleberry Finn, Don Quixote, the Koran, and Tom Sawyer are in the top five.

Are you surprised by any of the books on these lists? Let us know your opinions in the comments.

You can now get links to IIT Library services from within Scirus, the scientific-information internet search engine. Scirus is different from other search engines in that it focuses only on Web pages and sites containing scientific content, such as preprint servers, digital archives, repositories and patent and journal databases.

To set up IIT Library Partner Links, click on the “Search Preferences” link on the Scirus home page. Click “Enable” under the “Library Partner Links” section, then select “Illinois Institute of Technology – Galvin Library” from the drop-down list under “I”. (See the screenshot below).

When you conduct your search, you’ll see IIT’s Get Article icon in the search results for journal articles and other scholarly literature. Follow this link to the SFX menu, which will show you options for getting the full text of the article. Most journal articles aren’t available for free online, so you need to go through the library’s links to access the full article. Also, if you’re trying to access the article from off-campus, you’ll be prompted to log in to the library proxy network.

Remember, even if the GetArticle menu says that “No full text is currently available online for this item,” you can still get a copy of the article via MyILL, the library’s new online system for requesting materials via interlibrary loan. MyILL is fast, convenient, and free to all IIT students and faculty!

To watch a brief video tutorial on how to use Scirus, click here.

Disclaimer: Users should note that Scirus is not considered a viable replacement for a search using library-provided bibliographic databases and indexes, the majority of which do not allow search engines to access their content. If you experience problems getting the full text of an article via the GetArticle link, use the Journal A-Z List or Article Finder on our web site to see if full-text access is available.