Reprint from Collections & Connections
Fall 1999, Vol. 4, No. 1

The Educational Resources Center at Western Kentucky University has recently acquired a new television and VCR. A new cart was purchased to provide mobility, and a new set of earphones enables patrons to utilize the new media without disturbing others. These new purchases are popular with ERC patrons, particularly those who teach and are enrolled in teacher preparation classes. Faculty from the College of Educational and Behavioral Sciences can schedule their classes to meet in the ERC to view a selected video, or they can assign their students to view selected videos for class assignments. Furthermore, future teachers can preview videos from the ERC's growing collection of educational videos as they prepare their lesson plans. Perhaps the most popular use of the new media is that by future teachers as they view videotaped versions of themselves teaching lessons. There is no better way to critique one's teaching style than to study oneself in action! These new purchases were made possible by an endowment fund established by Beulah R. Winchel, a 1939 graduate of Western Kentucky University, and a woman who has been devoted to education and librarianship throughout her life.

~Darla Bressler

At the beginning of this Fall Semester, the Reference area in Helm Library was completely reorganized for the convenience of patrons in an attempt to provide more immediate access to Internet-based databases as well as access to the library online catalog, TOPCAT 2000. This reorganization moved all the Reference area workstations closer to the Reference Desk so that library patrons could receive faster assistance from the reference librarians and staff. In addition, the copier was moved to another wall in Reference, the area was rewired , and all the old TOPCAT terminals were removed to make way for new Internet ready computers. The number of Internet capable workstations in the Reference area have been doubled and a few stand-alone computers run the few CD-ROMs for indexes which are not yet available on the Internet or the WKU main CD-ROM server.

Now, the study tables which used to be directly in front of the Reference Desk have been moved to the back of the room where the students studying at them will be less likely to be disturbed by any reference interactions going on at the Reference Desk.

~ Beth Knight and Jack Montgomery

What do the Kentucky Museum, the Chicago Historical Society, Georgetown University, and the State Library of Victoria in Austria have in common? Their staffers have created online exhibits that are listed on the "Library and Archival Exhibitions on the Web" page, a project of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries. This Web site features more than 450 virtual exhibits, including the Kentucky Museum's own online exhibit, "First American Roads, Rails, and Rivers: Warren County Then and Now."

The URL to access this Smithsonian Web page is http://www.sil.si.edu/SILPublications/Online-Exhibitions/online-exhibitions-title.htm. Once you reach the main page, link to the Exhibitions list which organizes exhibits alphabetically by title. Please note that the Smithsonian Library staff has listed "First American Roads, Rails and Rivers" under the letter "R".

~ Sandy Staebell