National Cybersecurity Awareness Week

This October marks the seventh annual National Cybersecurity Awareness Month sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security. Columbus State University is participating with a Cyber Security Awareness week. There will be a booth located in front of the library from 10 AM - 2 PM on October 27th and 28th. Information, cookies and free giveaways will be on hand.

In addition to this, there will be two Cyber Security Awareness lectures in the Davidson Auditorium.

The first is on October 27th from 11 AM - Noon. Chris Ray from Aflac will speak about Identify Theft and Forensics and Chase Dalton from LCM will be talking about the importance of firewalls.

On October 28th from 12:30-1:30, Sue Dowling from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation will talk about Internet Profiling and Chris Carrow from the Board of Regents will be talking about Social Networking Security.

Here a few steps you can take to strengthen your computer's defenses:

1. Install antivirus software and antispyware software from a trusted source.
2. Keep all software up to date.
3. Use strong passwords and keep them private.
4. Never turn off your firewall.
5. Use flash drives cautiously.

You can also find other helpful information and tips on the Cybersecurity: Our Shared Responsibility page from the Department of Homeland Security.

Puzzle Watch: The Ships are Setting Sail.

The sailboats are almost complete, which is an impressive feat in so short a time considering that most of the pieces were shades of blue, gray and blue-ish gray. Stop in to Schwob Memorial Library sometime early this week to see the final picture.

Summer sails away and in comes fall. The next selection will be a 500-piece foliage scene from Vermont. It will be put out on Thursday or Friday this week. Since it is only 500 pieces, then it should go up quickly and be done by the end of next week, which is appropriate considering the fleeting nature of fall foliage. In the words of Robert Frost from his poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay"--Nature's first green is gold. Her hardest hue to hold.

MathSciNet is Now Available!

CSU Libraries is proud to announce that MathSciNet has been added to its digital collections found in GALILEO.

From the American Mathematical Society website:

MathSciNet is an electronic publication offering access to a carefully maintained and easily searchable database of reviews, abstracts and bibliographic information for much of the mathematical sciences literature. Over 100,000 new items are added each year, most of them classified according to the Mathematics Subject Classification. Authors are uniquely identified, enabling a search for publications by individual author rather than by name string. Continuing in the tradition of the paper publication, Mathematical Reviews (MR), which was first published in 1940, expert reviewers are selected by a staff of professional mathematicians to write reviews of the current published literature; over 40,000 reviews are added to the database each year.

You can access MathSciNet from GALILEO at: www.galileo.usg.edu/scholar/colstate/databases/m/ or directly at: www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=matb-col1

Conference Celebrates Georgia’s Libraries and Media Organizations

Hundreds of librarians and information professionals gathered in Athens for the 22^nd
annual conference of the Georgia Council of Media Organizations (GA COMO) held
October 13 through 15. The conference is sponsored jointly by the Georgia Library
Association, Georgia Library Media Association, and Georgia Association of Instructional
Technology. The theme for this year’s conference was “Celebrate with One Voice.”

Events included speakers, book signings, an author reception, exhibits, workshops, and
a movie night. A raffle with contributions from libraries and benefactors across the state
raises money each year to fund two scholarships for students in library school. Making its
debut this year was the Book Cart Drill Team demonstration.

Carol Stanley, Librarian at Athens Technical College Elbert County Campus, is the
president of the Georgia Library Association and the program chair of the GA COMO
conference.

Linda Jones, Head of Technical Services, Tom Ganzevoort, Instruction Librarian, LuMarie Guth, Coordinator of Government Documents and Jackie Radebaugh, Electronic Resources and Systems Librarian, all attended the conference from Columbus State University.

New Reference Desk

If you have been in the Schwob Library recently, you probably noticed our new reference desk! Designed by Shirley Hinckley, CSU Libraries' Stacks Maintenance Supervisor, the new desk will allow us to provide you with more interactive and collaborative reference services.

Please stop by and check our new reference desk out!

Database of the Month: Hoover's Company Capsules and Profiles

CSU Libraries has many useful business resources.

In GALIEO, there's ABI Inform, which has articles from numerous business publications, and Business Source Complete, which has many articles, as well as financial reports.

Hoovers Company Capsules & Profiles, however, is a database that specializes in companies--over 40,000 of them. Users can search for the company by name or stock ticker symbol or they can browse them in the A-Z list. With the advanced search, users can search for an executive by name or do a location search to find companies headquartered in a specific city.

Each company has a fact sheet listing especially important information, such as the address, CEO's, top competitors, and key financial data. There is also a side-menu allowing the user to look at more detailed information about the company including: a general overview, history, people, products and operations, competitors and financial information. If the user wants to do a comparison of different companies in an industry, they need only find one, and then click on the links to go to the fact sheets for competitors.

The people section gives not only top CEO's in the company, but also names of executives lower in the chain. In some cases, it also lists ages and salaries.

The financial section can be a one-stop-shop for financial information on a company. It contains detailed financial information regarding the balance sheet, income, liability and shareholder's equity, and cash flow that can be viewed annually or quarterly.

Hoovers can be found by going to GALILEO and clicking on the Databases A-Z tab. It's listed under H. It's also reachable by going to Company and Industry Information under the Browse by Subject tab.

Explore GALILEO today and see what it can offer you.

By LuMarie Guth, Government Documents Coordinator

A Successful Banned Books Read-Out

September 28th's Banned Books Read-Out was a huge success. Several people from around campus read passages from their favorite "banned books". An interesting discussion about the Constitutional ramifications of banning books ensued as participants enjoyed lunch-time snacks and drinks.

Banned books are defined as books that have been banned and/or challenged, sometimes through court action, by individuals and/or groups who want them removed from library shelves or from reading lists. Books that have been on a banned books list at one time or another include such classics as:

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• The Scarlet Letter
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
• Isabel Allende’s House of the Spirits
• Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye
  

For more information on BBW and a list of frequently challenged books, please visit the ALA web site.

Puzzle Watch: Old-Timey Coffee Shop is Completed!

Wow! The fall coffee shop puzzle was completed in a week. Kudos to all of the puzzle workers out there.

The next puzzle will be the sailboats puzzle that came in as first runner up in the Puzzle Vote. Its debut will be on Monday. As the fall semester speeds up, the thought of being on a boat sailing over the waters can be a much needed mental break. So, when you come into the Schwob Library to study for midterms, take a moment to help with the progress going on at the puzzle table.