I’m writing to ask you to consider acquiring the journal Maritain Studies, which is devoted to metaphysics and history of philosophy in the spirit of wide-ranging scholarship found in the work of Jacques Maritain. The website for the journal is http://www.stfx.ca/people/wsweet/etudes.html

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: Thank you for your suggestion. Answer Person has passed it on to our resource specialist for philosophy, who is responsible for making final decisions on new serial subscriptions. It would be very helpful if you would contact her directly (see the “Resources in Philosophy” web page: http://www.lib.duke.edu/reference/subjects/philoso/index.htm) so you may answer any questions about potential use of the annual.

For some reason, I am unable to use the BARD service from home–says NETSCAPE unable to recognize Proxy server. Can this be fixed?

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: Usually the problem is that you don’t have your proxies set in Netscape (or whatever interface you are using). This is also necessary if you are using any of our subscribed databases and are not coming in through DukeNet–the system needs to verify that you are an authorized user.

OIT has instructions on how to set the proxies: http://www.oit.duke.edu/remote_access/proxy.html.

As you can imagine, this is a difficult problem to work out via e-mail, much less the normally elegant communications of the Answer Person. As with any of the your information access needs, I suggest you call the ever helpful people at the Reference Desk (660-5880) for expert, one-on-one assistance.

Why am I so preoccupied with looks (mine and other people’s) and how do I stop living in this obsessive hell?

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: Sometimes the best way to deal with an obsession is to develop a new one. How about obsessive surfing of the Internet? Too broad a topic, I know, so how about mining the wealth of the Duke libraries! In the process you will be entertained, you will gain untold knowledge, and will discover even more interests. More importantly, you will attain higher wisdom and more mature values. And remember: no one cares what you look like on the Internet!

Question or suggestions:

I would like to read the recent issues of journal of portfolio management, which perkins has subscribed already. However, it would be more convienent if I could broswer throught the internet on my PC in my office.

The Journal website http://www.iijpm.com/issue.asp does provide webaccess to subscribers. So if the arrangement can allow us at duke community access the journals on line through their website, it would be great!

Here us what they say:
If you are a current subscriber, but don’t have your online account info,
please call our Customer Service at 212-224-3800 or email us at
info@iijournals.com to get your web access.

please check it out with them and let us know how it goes.

thanks and best regards,

benjamin

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: The good news is we are way ahead of you. We already have electronic access to the journal. If you look it up in the online catalog (always a good way to see what we have, in whatever format), you will see two options; I suggest you try the ProQuest approach.

Happy portfolio management!

I found that we cannot access the Journal “Computer Networks” at http://www.sciencedirect.com. However, it is the current subscription in Vesic library. I think it may be caused by the changing of its name in 1999.

Can you check and solve this problem so that we can have access to it?

Thanks.

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: There are actually two problems here. First, it did change titles from “Computer Networks” to “Computer Networks and ISDN Systems,” but in 1999 it changed back to the original title. (All this is indicated in the online catalog, if you follow the chain of evidence, but it is confusing.)

The other problem is that when searching SCIENCE DIRECT, you can’t go directly to the URL. As we have this on license from the publisher, to insure that only authorized Duke users have access you have to go through our gateway. Simply go to SCIENCE DIRECT through our “Research Databases” pages, click on “more Info,” and then click on “Search Science Direct.”

Even more simply, you should be able to either go through links in the “E-Journals” list, or through the journal’s online catalog entry. Our Electronic Resources Coordinator does yeoman’s service trying to keep the thousands(!!!) of e-journal listings up-to-date, but we don’t always get up-to-date listings from the publishers. In any case, the links will be added and should be up within a couple of days.

It would be useful to have a link of the most recent electronic journals to come out, just like (at least in the Biosci) there’s a shelf for the most recent hard copy journals the library has recieved.

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: That is a very good idea! I’ll pass it along to the people who do the main library web page and database updates, and we’ll see what is desirable and possible. More later.

For non-Duke researchers, there seems to be inadequate parking for any kind of extended stay in the library.

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: And inadequate parking for attending campus events, or even for Duke employees! Answer Person shares your frustration, and, sometimes, the excitement of looking for an available space . . . in Durham County.

One thing that might help is a guide to parking for outside users. It is located at http://www.lib.duke.edu/reference/directs.htm.

Happy hunting.

When I want to search the Duke catalogue, I always start at the NCSU home page — http://catalog.lib.ncsu.edu/. Their interface is so much more convenient as compared to the Duke interface. I suggest Duke adopt a similar design.

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: Well, what can Answer Person say? I have to admit that the NCSU site is a lot less complicated (some would say less cluttered), and in that sense is much easier to navigate. On the other hand, ours has developed as we have determined user needs and responses, and reflects the range of resources we offer and the range of information people tell us they want. We can’t please everyone, but I can assure you that we will continue to keep in mind your plea for convenience.

In the bio-sci library there are instructions posted on the printers explaining how to reload paper that has been printed on one side and left lying around. This is an easy way to reuse old paper and save new paper from being wasted. Do you think similar instructions could be posted in Lily and Perkins librarys? It seems that e-reserves could easily be printed on re-used paper, which there is no shortage of.

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: This is a tough one, with, like the paper, two sides of the issue. A lot of people do reuse paper, or simply print on both sides, and seem to have little trouble. On the other hand, people in charge of maintaining staff and public clusters point to the high incidence of paper jams. Some of the jams are so serious that the printers require expensive repairs, costing far more than the value of the paper saved. Answer Person will pass your suggestion and this response on to the relevant parties.

2/20/01–Further Response from the Library’s Systems Support Staff:

The practice [of sending paper back through again] is recommended against by Hewlett Packard. Unless great care is taken to preserve the “recycled” paper in original condition, it will very likely result in paper jams. In practice, this has been found repeatedly to be the source of paper jams resulting from torn bits of paper being “lost” inside the inner workings of the printer. In cases where a printer is, essentially, a “personal” printer (one or two persons who are responsible for putting paper back into a printer and then watching to see that it works correctly,) one can sometimes get away with this practice. In the case of Perkins or Lilly, it is a highly unworkable, unreliable use of the resources. Printers with paper lost inside are rarely out of service for less that two days, most likely approaching a week of unavailability. In the case where availability of the resource is so important, it is critical to minimize the opportunity for avoidable failure. Encourage the judicious use of the print button rather than place the printers at risk. In this case, the appropriate use of the “Reduce, reuse, recycle” philosophy is to 1.) reduce wasted paper by avoiding unnecessary printing, 2.) reuse unneeded printouts by using it as scratch paper and 3.) recycle unneeded printouts by placing them in the appropriate Duke Recycles receptacle.”

Not a suggestion, but an offer. A friend of mine, a writer, reviewer and UNCG alumna,
recently sent me a couple of books for possible addition to the library here at UNCG. They are
however too specialized for us, and I wondered if Duke might be interested in them.

One is “The years flew by” (Arlen House, 2000), a memoir of Sidney Gifford Czira, a woman
who was a journalist in Ireland writing under the pseudonym ‘John Brennan’.

The second is “Women in Parliament: Ireland, 1918-2000” (Wolfhound Press, 2000) and is a
biographical dictionary with a couple of “contextualizing” chapters.

Let me know, at your convenience, if these items would enhance the collections at Perkins.
If so, I will send them your way!

Take care,

Mark Schumacher
Jackson Library
UNC Greensboro

mark_schumacher@uncg.edu

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: The Duke libraries are always interested in donation of books (yes, we do rely on the kindness of strangers, friends, students, earthly and unearthly aliens, etc.). We even have a web page which tells you all about the process and the issues, including details for your annual love letter to the IRS (http://www.lib.duke.edu/colldev/giftplcy.htm). Answer Person will send your message on to Virginia Gilbert, Head of Collection Development for General Collections, vag@duke.edu, 919-660-5815.