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Friday, August 25 , 2006

"By or About" Fastlinks

Free fastlinks can now be generated for any material by or about (“bora”) a particular person through the new Fastlink Generator available from the "Conditions and Terms of Use" page when searching TGIF.  In the search box, type in as much of the person’s name as desired; beneath the search box there are examples of how to format the name.  Click on “Go get it!” and a list of TGIF records by or about the person will display.  The fastlink will be the URL that appears at the top of the results page.

Note that not all records about a person may be found with a single search.  For example, searches for people who write under nicknames with different first initials than their given names will not retrieve all of the available records.  Searching for Smith, Melissa will miss relevant records if the person also writes under Smith, Liss.  In cases like these, creating fastlinks for both names would ensure that all of the records in TGIF related to the person are found.  A simple last name search would, however, collect all of the records for a person with a very unique last name.

People can also make fastlinks for works by or about themselves through the Fastlink Generator!

Monday, August 21 , 2006

USGA Green Section Record (and Predecessors) Rescanned!

The Turfgrass Information Center (and MSU Libraries' Digital & Multimedia Center) has recently rescanned and reloaded the USGA Green Section Record (and predecessors) at the archive site http://turf.lib.msu.edu/gsr.  Originally scanned in the mid-1990s, these new PDFs are better representative of the printed version, especially photographic content in older material including great cover photos!  Also, as old PDFs were basically replaced with new PDFs, this transition from the previous scans to the recent scans is seamless, too!

Monday, August 21 , 2006

Request Document Deliveries Online!

You can now request a Document Delivery for many of the items in TGIF from within the TGIF record for the item.  While looking at a full TGIF record, simply scroll to the bottom of the screen where it reads, “To request the item for this record (some restrictions apply) or if there are problems with this record, send us feedback.”  Click on “feedback” and a screen will appear in which you can write out your request for the record in the “Request/Comment/Feedback response” box.  If you reside outside North America, you can also specify whether you would like the document delivered via fax or through Airmail.  Select “Submit Feedback” and you’re done.

It’s important to note that not all items in TGIF are available for delivery due to certain restrictions, such as when the record is for an entire book.  Copyright restrictions may also prohibit a Document Delivery; more information about copyright and fair use can be found at http://fairuse.stanford.edu/.  For subscribers, the $5 charge per item covers up to 20 pages (which covers most TGIF records).  Detailed information on charges can be located on the “TIC Services” webpage under Document Delivery.

If you have any questions about online Document Delivery requests, please contact us!

Friday, August 18 , 2006

Summer 2006 Issue of The Sward Now Available

The Summer issue of The Sward, TIC's newsletter, is now available. For an electronic version (with additional online hyperlinks), please see: http://tic.msu.edu/e-sward/swardv7n1.pdf

Thursday, August 3 , 2006

New Sort Options Now Available

In early June, we asked for suggestions for how users wanted search results to be sorted.  Recently, we’ve added and tested several different sorts:

• New to Old
• Old to New
• Author A to Z
• Author Z to A

These sort options are now available in the “Brief Table” and “Full” display formats.  The Default sort of:

Available Full-Text Online (Newest to Oldest) then Not Available Full-Text Online (Newest to Oldest).

To change how search results are sorted, just choose whatever display/sort combination is desired from the dropdown menu labeled “Display Format – Sort”.

We’re interested in what users think of these new sort options.  Are any more useful than the Default?  Is there a useful sort option that is not included? Are there any problems users see? Let us know!

View a Flash demonstration of new sort options.

Wednesday, August 2 , 2006

Persian rug in the Turfgrass Information Center

!?!? A Persian rug in the Turfgrass Information Center?

Prior to the dedication of the James B Beard Turfgrass Library Collection in July 2003, the Turfgrass Information Center’s public area received a special item – a 100+ year old Persian rug!

This 17 foot 4 inch by 29 foot (528 cm by 886 cm) rug was woven by experienced weavers somewhere in Iran, probably by a group commissioned to weave it. It is known to be at least 100 years old, and was acquired for Dr. John H. Kellogg by a commissioned agent sent to Europe and the Near East to purchase furnishings for his sanitarium and offices in Battle Creek, Michigan, around 1900.

When the United States military took over the sanitarium during World War I, they stored or disposed of the furniture and rugs; Mr. J. H. Alexanian came into possession of the rug in the late 1920s. He later gave the rug to MSU for use by Dean S. E. Crowe in the Lecture Concert programs. It was used to cover the stage when celebrities came to perform on the campus. Thus, for some years it was used infrequently.

When the current West wing of the MSU Main Library was erected, then-Library Director Dr. Richard Chapin and Mr. Jackson Towne consulted with Mr. Alexanian about a rug or carpeting for the Patriarch Room (now the Reading Room of MSU Libraries Special Collections. Mr. Alexanian, through MSU President Hannah, persuaded Dean Crowe to present the rug to the Library for use in the Patriarch Room, with the Libraries furnishing Dean Crowe a less expensive rug in the exchange.

Since that time, the carpet has resided in several locations in the Main Library, as well as in Cowles House, the MSU President’s on-campus home, for a while.

The rug bears a block of text which has not yet been translated. Any translations (even partial) would be greatly appreciated!

Photo of the rug in the Turfgrass Information Center

Photo of an inner-corner of the rug

Photo of an inner section of the rug

Photo of text block (untranslated – help!) in center edge of the rug

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Thanks to you!

We're pleased that numbers of TGIF users are taking advantage of the 'feedback' link which has been present within every specific TGIF record (from within TGIF itself) since January. These comments, suggestions, and corrections are very much appreciated! Because many have been submitted anonymously (which is fine), we don't know who to thank in many cases -- so thank you!

Taking the time to point out these kinds of things, as TGIF records are being used, is not only very helpful to us, but also to the collective user audience of TGIF -- as the resource becomes stronger for all.
We do appreciate it!

Friday, June 16, 2006

Five new "Turf Topics" just about Books (and only books!)

Check out five newly available "Turf Topics" relating to book and book-like items. All emphasize more recently published, and generally still in-print, items.

1. Golf Course Design Books (Recent)
2. Turf Science & Management Books (Recent)
3. Golf Course Turf & Maintenance Books (Recent)
4. Sports Turf Construction & Maintenance Books (Recent)
5. Lawn Care Books (Recent)

For any of these lists, please let us know if we've missed any you think should be on a list!

Two other already-available but related 'bookish' Topics are:

1. Dissertations & Theses - Full-text
   which lists known scanned (off-copyright or permission-granted) loads of digitized turf-related Masters and Ph.D. theses & dissertations.
2. Turf Books Online
   which lists scanned (off-copyright -- and thus older) or full-text book and book-like items which are available to all on the web.

To view any of these lists, log onto TGIF (via "Search Now!"), select "Browse Turf Topics" on any left-side sidebar, and then select from the complete list of Topics. And if you have a suggestion for some other 'topic', please let us know!

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Two new Architect's Gallery features!

TIC is pleased to note that two new capabilities have been added to the home page of the ASGCA Architect's Gallery. Both provide for summary data about content featured within the Gallery:

1. Table of Architect Videos

2. Table of Architect Blueprints

(Both use data drawn from entries for these items in the Turfgrass Information File database)

Thursday, June 8, 2006

TGIF currently includes records for over 1,500 theses and dissertations.  We are seeking to expand our resources by making these accessible online as full-text documents.  In order to do this, we need the permission of the author of each work to allow a digital copy to be made available within TGIF.  The database record for each item will include an acknowledgement of the author’s permission, and a stable, public URL for the item(s) will be provided to the author.  To grant copyright permission for your thesis and/or dissertation, please complete the form at: http://www.tic.msu.edu/copyrightpermissions.html

We are also actively in search of any publications resulting from theses/dissertations.  The TGIF records for the resulting publications will be linked to the TGIF records for the thesis/dissertation.   If you have any such publications, please complete the form at: http://tic.msu.edu/resultingpubsform.html

Wednesday, June 7, 2006

Currently, TGIF search results are default sorted as follows:
Available Full-Text Online -> Not Available Full-Text Online
and subsorted by Year of Publication Newest -> Oldest. Tell us what other sorts would be beneficial to users!

Tuesday, June 6, 2006

USGA TERO's 100th issue!

Congratulations to the USGA Green Section Research Program, Director Dr. Mike Kenna, and Manager (and Editor) Dr. Jeff Nus on issuing the 100th issue of USGA Turfgrass and Environmental Research Online (TERO)-- see http://usgatero.msu.edu. Since the first issue of TERO in March of 2002, this online technical journal has concisely communicated the results from projects funded by the USGA Turfgrass and Environmental Research Program.

Monday, May 22, 2006

Last April, TIC introduced a new default search results screen called "Brief Table". It was designed for the most efficient screen use, and the feedback we've gotten on it has supported this. It was the first time TGIF provided a URL to an item without showing any of the notes associated with it, such as the last checked date, software required to view it (like Adobe Acrobat), and whether the URL was accessible to everyone or had access restrictions. Users could still get to this information by viewing the "More" or "More Detail" information but only for individual records. To help alleviate frustration associated with clicking on a URL that a person may or may not have access to, records with access restrictions have been tagged with "* - Access Restrictions" after the title. For an example of this, here's a fastlink to "Golf's best customers" from the January 2006 issue of Golf Course Management.

Monday, May 15, 2006

We've listened to your suggestions and concerns about displaying in Brief Table "Item is a...Journal Article" for any articles from periodicals, peer-reviewed journals, magazines, etc! Now, these items will display with their corresponding category level and then "article". This will help users better understand at what audience the article is aimed. Additionally, it will alleviate the question of what constitutes a "Journal". Tell us what you think about this change!

Monday, May 15, 2006

A new "Limit by Industry Sector" choice has bee added: "Independent or Unassigned". Although TGIF construction has continued for over 20 years, assigning Industry Sectors to sector-specific articles is relatively new (~6 years). In order to help users not miss out on some great older materials, and also to help those not searching for industry-specific materials (independent of sector), this option has been added.

Friday, May 12, 2006

A recent upgrade to a new database server has dramatically increased retrieval speed for records. Due to this improved efficiency, the "Max Records to be Retrieved" option in searches has been changed to a default of "All" records. Users will still be able to if desired limit the records retrieved by changing this in the drop-down menu.