Author Archives: Arabella Holzapfel

EBSCO E-books – how-to

A few months ago, the library subscribed to EBSCO e-books. You can search for them here, or in the library catalog, or if you do a Summon search and one of these more than 157,000 books has content connected to your search term, Summon will lead you to the book.

Then what?

Below is a screenshot of what you’ll see, showing red boxes around some key things.

  • Scroll down to read a brief description of the book, see how many users can view the book at a time (most have “unlimited user access”), and see other information about the book.
  • To ‘save’ it to read later in the same browsing session, click “Add to Folder” (Note that if you close the tab or window, the folder will empty.)
  • To read the book page by page online on the EBSCO platform, choose the “PDF full text” icon in the left menu.
  • To download it to read offline, or to retain it in a folder after you close your browsing session, you need to create your own personal account on EBSCOhost. To do that, click the “Sign In” link on the top bar, and create your account. (It is best practice to not use the same username or password that you use for Middlebury logins.) Once you have created an account and logged in, you can download an EBSCO e-book for up to seven days.
  • There are EBSCO e-book apps for Android in the Google Play Store and for iPhone in iTunes. You need to create a personal EBSCOhost account as described above (on a laptop or desktop) to use for the app.

How Do You Use Your Library?- Oz Aloni

This is the first in a series* of posts about members of the Middlebury community who value the library. Today’s profile is of Oz Aloni.

Delal Bridge in Kurdistan

Where are you from and what’s your academic specialty?

I’m from Jerusalem, Israel. I teach at the Modern Hebrew program at Middlebury. I’m a Semitic Linguist, which means I research languages of the Semitic family, a family that includes Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, Amharic, and many more. My research is focused on a language called the North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA) – in fact only on one dialect of that language: the Jewish dialect of Zakho, Kurdistan.

Two books authored/edited by Oz Aloni in the Faculty Authors Collection in the Davis Family Library: The Neo-Aramaic Speaking Jewish Community of Zakho, and Lishana deni : leḳeṭ agadot ṿe-sipure ʻam mi-masoret Yehude Kurdisṭan mesuparim be-Aramit be-lahag Yehude Zakhu

What do you like about Middlebury?

The beautiful nature surrounding us; the college’s great facilities; the friendliness of Vermonters.

How do you use the library?

For my own research I use the library mainly through its online databases and resources, and also its efficient interlibrary loan service. Two of the databases that were recently added to the library’s collection are particularly valuable for me: the Responsa Project and the Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics [see note below]. They are also very useful for my students, as research tools for the assignments I give.

How can the library better serve you?

The library is doing a pretty good job as it is. One thing that can be an improvement is expanding the Hebrew collection, and I’m happy to help with that.

Note that the library has free access for one more week to the Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics while we decide whether to subscribe. Check it out!

*How Do You Use The Library? is a social media series based on the “Humans of New York” model. 

Inconsistent problems with Oxford Journals

The relatively new Oxford Academic platform is experiencing some “instability.” Oxford is aware of and working on the problem. Below is one problem scenario. If you encounter this or any other problem, please report it to eaccess-admin@middlebury.edu, including the journal title and issue.

We subscribe to the journal African Affairs. This morning, if I click on the current issue, I see the shopping cart icon next to all the article titles, which normally would indicate we do not have access:However, if I click on the article link, I see the full text of the article. If I then navigate to the journal page and choose the same issue, I see the unlocked green padlock next to all the articles, which indicates we do indeed have access. Oxford has asked libraries to report these problems, with as much information about the journal, issue, article, etc., as possible. If you encounter this or any other problem with Oxford journals or any of our other library resources, please let us know by emailing eaccess-admin@middlebury.edu

Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics (trial through March 22, 2017)

TRIAL EXTENDED THROUGH APRIL 10, 2017!

Middlebury students, faculty, and staff have free access to the Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics Online.

EHLLO offers a systematic and comprehensive treatment of all aspects of the history and study of the Hebrew language from its earliest attested form to the present day. It features advanced search options, as well as extensive cross-references and full-text search functionality using the Hebrew character set.

Let us know what you think – email eaccess-admin@middlebury.edu or contact your library liaison.

Vermont Online Library now available to anyone in Vermont

The Vermont Department of Libraries now provides access to the Vermont Online Library (VOL) to anyone accessing the internet from an IP address located in Vermont.

The VOL includes resources for school-age children, career explorers, automobile repair and maintenance from and much more from the Gale-Cengage family of resources. The Department of Libraries has taken on this expense so that public and academic libraries throughout the state can provide rich online resources to all of their patrons.

(Note that anyone traveling outside of Vermont who is not associated with an academic institution needs to arrange access to these resources, if possible, with their public library. These resources are incorporated into Middlebury’s library holdings; Middlebury students, faculty, and staff can access these from outside of Vermont by authentication through a link on a library website such as a search in Summon or through the library homepage.)

ProQuest downtime this weekend

Virtually all ProQuest resources will be unavailable from 10 pm Saturday, January 28th until 6 am Sunday January 29th (Eastern time zone). Some of the Middlebury resources that will be impacted are listed below. We apologize for the inconvenience.

  • ProQuest platform (search.proquest.com) (includes many full-text journals and newspapers)
  • ProQuest Congressional (congressional.proquest.com)
  • Chadwyck-Healey US databases (includes Early English Books Online)
  • eLibro (Spanish language e-books)
  • ProQuest Digital Microfilm
  • Ancestry
  • RefWorks
  • Books In Print
  • Book-cover illustrations in Summon and Midcat listings

New year, new platforms

A number of library content providers have made significant changes to their platforms in the last several weeks, or they will early in 2017. Listed are some of the major ones, and where you can find out more.

There are probably others; this post may be updated in the near future. If you encounter any problems, please contact eaccess-admin@middlebury.edu or your liaison.