Congratulations to all of our graduates. We frequently get questions about what happens to library access after graduation.

We have a growing collection of over 3900 DVD titles, including education titles, documentaries, TV series, blockbusters, indies, and foreign films. DVDs are searchable in Addison by title, actor/director, subject, and call number. You can also view a complete list of DVDs. Here are the top 50 checked out DVDs this year.

The addition of Summon to our searchable resources last summer significantly changed how library patrons find resources. It effectively incorporates the functions of the other three search tabs on the home page (Addison, Databases, and Journals). Here are the top 20 searches for the 2011-2012 academic year.

Our popular reading collection is made up of best sellers and recently published fiction and non-fiction. (Old timers would know this as our browse books collection.) This collection is located on the exterior wall beside the second floor Learning Commons. These books check out for 21 days and cannot be renewed. Here are the most checked out books from this collection this year:

Remember to turn in any items checked on on your account (library or Interlibrary Loan books, DVDs, videos or CDs) before you leave town for the summer. Often students forget to turn in items, and then accumulate fines for overdue fees or for recalled books. Check your library account online to see if there are any library items checked out to you. Check your Interlibrary Loan account for ILL items as well.

We track common searches in Addison to improve your search experience. (We gather aggregate data; we can't track individual searches or associate searches with patrons.) Here are the top 20 searches for the 2011-2012 academic year.

New materials lists for items cataloged in April 2012, have been posted.

• Mergent Online now provided international stock prices in addition to U.S.
• Mergent BondViewer provides reports on U.S. taxable bonds, municipal bonds, and retail notes
• Mergent Historical Annual Reports (Mergent Archives) provides annual reports for worldwide companies, industries reports, digitized documents like Moody's Manual, and equity reports

Most of our journal subscriptions supply the full-text articles as PDFs. Now ScienceDirect Ejournals also supply articles as ePUB and Mobi ereader formats that can be downloaded and moved to your device. ePUB is a format widely used by ebook readers and mobile devices like the iPad or Sony Reader. Mobipocket is mainly used on Kindles. Unlike PDFs, these formats allow using features of the ereader, like resizing the text, annotations, and bookmarks. You will find the download option for ereader formats on the right side of the page, below the article abstract.

New materials lists for items cataloged in March 2012, have been posted.

On April 1, 2012, IEEE Xplore Digital Library will upgrade its interface. All current saved searches will be DELETED with this release. We encourage you to copy and paste your saved searches into a document so they can be recreated after launch.

Three databases from the Africa Knowledge Project index the full text of articles, reports, dissertations, short stories and folktales, plus audio and music files on Africa and the African diaspora.

As part of the implementation of the Summon Discovery service by Virginia Tech's University Libraries, we are assessing its use and effectiveness among faculty and students.  We are inviting you to participate in a focus group discussion, or one-on-one interview, on your use of, and experiences with Summon, and your perception of its effectiveness in finding research information. The information collected will provide insight into how the Libraries might enhance the service to better meet your research needs.

Our video collection (VHS) has moved. To help us better serve your media needs, please request VHS tapes 12 hours before you would like to pick them up

The Virginia Tech Libraries have purchased over 120 journal backfiles from Emerald, which has digitized volumes as far back as 1898. The full-text content of these journals are indexed in Summon, and will be linked through Get VText when searching other databases.

New materials lists for items cataloged in February 2012, have been posted.

We are now subscribing to Acta Horticulturae online from the International Society for Horticultural Science. Acta Horticulturae is a peer reviewed, monographic series of scientific and technical publications covering the entire range of horticultural sciences. This series is mainly composed of the proceedings of the International Society of Horticultural Science Symposia and the International Society of Horticultural Science's International Horticultural Congresses. It is indexed in the major life science databases. Virginia Tech access to this publication begins with number 1, 1963.

The American National Biography Online from Oxford provides HTML full-text biographical entries and over 2,700 illustrations on 18,700 men and women -- from all eras and walks of life -- whose lives have shaped the nation. It includes access to The Oxford Companion to United States History encyclopedia with entries on all aspects of American history.

The ACS Symposium Series provides full text ebooks (each chapter is a separate HTML page or PDF) covering agriculture, food chemistry, organic and polymer chemistry, and chemical education topics. Each book is peer-reviewed.

The Grand Corpus des dictionnaires [9e-20e s.] contains entries from 24 French language dictionaries published from the 9th to 20th centuries. You can limit searches to grammatical categories, etymologies, historical usage, and quotes and citations. The interface is in French.

Through the efforts of the University Libraries, Virginia Tech is now an institutional member of BioMed Central . This will enable authors affiliated with the university to qualify for a 15% discount on article processing charges for any of over 200 peer-reviewed, open access journals available from BioMed Central.

Newman Library is increasing its recycling capacity as RecycleMania is in effect on campus. We have worked closely with Facilities Services and campus recycling to direct more materials into the recycling stream, including containers and discarded materials.

New materials lists for items cataloged in January 2012, have been posted.

Advertising Red Books provides information and data on advertisers and advertising agencies including contact information, business profiles, and client lists.

Newman Library now lends a variety of electronic equipment. Items include:

• iPad 2 (16GB)
• iPad camera connection kit
• MacBook Pro (15.4" monitor, quad-core 2.0GHz, 4GB DDR3, 500 GB HD)
• Gateway (17" monitor, quad-core 1.5GHz, 4GB DDR3, 640GB HDD)
• Kodak PlaySport Zx3 Digital Video Camera
• Olympus Digital Voice Recorder WS-700
• Calculators -- TI-89 Titanium Graphing, TI-84 Plus Silver, TI-BAII Plus Pro, TI-30XA

The Mac version of the printer driver for the library's multifunction printers is now available for download. Simply install the driver to be able to print to library printers from your Mac laptop (or home desktop). The final step of printing will have you enter your Hokie Passport number so that your print jobs will be connected to your account.

Art & Architecture Complete from EBSCOhost indexes citations, abstracts, and some full text from journals, magazines, trade publications, and books covering all aspects of art and architecture. It also includes a large image collection. 1901-present.

The Virginia Tech Writing Center has moved to Newman Library's second floor learning commons, just past the elevators. It is a free service for all Virginia Tech students, faculty, and staff, at all levels.

In conjunction with the Newman Book Runners faculty delivery service, beginning January 17, 2012, Interlibrary Loan materials will be deliverable to participating departments (these are listed in the right column). If you are a faculty member in one of these departments, please contact Interlibrary Loan at 540-231-6344 to request departmental delivery.

We are shortening the time items you request (from storage, from Newman's shelves, from another branch, or as a recall) are kept on our hold shelf from 10 to 7 days. If you do not pick up your held material before this period expires, it will either be returned to its usual location or automatically switched to the next patron who has placed a request for the item.

The library carries some textbooks, either as part of the regular collection or in Reserve if placed there by faculty. Using the list of textbooks at the University Bookstore site, you can search Addison, the library catalog, to see if any are available for check out.

Note that the library owning a copy of your textbook does not mean you can avoid purchasing your own copy. Textbooks kept on reserve will have a short check out period: two weeks or two days for most books. Textbooks in the regular collection will commonly be recalled by other students in your class, also shortening the length of time you can have an item checked out.

Beginning in January 2012, University Libraries have added online access to three more journals from Nature Publishing Group to the collections: Nature Protocols, Cell Research, and Molecular Therapy.

WilsonWeb was purchased by EBSCO, and databases hosted on the WilsonWeb platform are transitioning to the EBSCOhost platform. This will allow cross-searching with other EBSCO databases. Users with MyWilsonWeb profiles will need to recreate alerts and saved searches using a MyEBSCOhost profile.

Starting January 9, 2012, books in Newman Library with a status of Available can be requested to be pulled and held for you.

New materials lists for items cataloged in December 2011, have been posted.