At the close of another year,  the staff of the library gratefully pause to wish you a warm and happy holiday season.

In celebration of this holiday season, the library will close at noon on Friday, December 22nd and will not reopen until the morning of Wednesday, December 27th. 

If you need library support please submit your request online and we'll respond when we return. 

​

-Ken Winter, VDOT Research Library

Click on the image above to jump straight to the library's updated "What's New" page.

The VDOT Research Library is continuously receiving new print publications and electronic documents, from publishers you rely on like: AASHTO, ASTM, TRB and too many others to count. 

Check out the latest update to our "What's New Page" to see selected new items added in the past 90 days. Library staff review new acquisitions, select some of the most relevant items, then group them by category to save your time and energy. The new online listing lets you choose "Ship to me" or "Hold for me" and so we can reserve your items (first come first served!) and ship them free of charge to any VDOT employee, in any district or division! 

This quarter we are also highlighting two recently added, new and improved, subscription databases: Skillsoft Books24x7 and EBSCO Business Source Corporate Plus. We encourage folks to also check out this new guide to Books24x7 to learn all about access options and this previous Connections post with details on the new Business Source Corporate Plus. 

And remember, we also have our Online Recommendation Form that VDOT employees can always use to suggest new items for our collections. We'll consider anything that's within the scope of our collection development policy. 

If you have questions about library collections please contact Gil Kenner (434-293-1926) and if you have questions about borrowing contact Barb Neyman (434-293-1902).

As always, we're here to help!

Gil Kenner

(434) 293-1926

VDOT Research Library

This new research guide explains exciting new access options for Books24x7, including from your home PC or your Smartphone.

Thanks to a nifty new Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication, VDOT employees who want to use the Books24x7 database can get in from VDOT's network with a single click.  That's right, no need for a user name and password because SSO remembers your VDOT login. 

If you've never used Books24x7 or want more details about how to get started, check out this Books24x7 Quick Start Guide before returning to this post to learn more. Or, simply follow these three steps: 

1. Make sure you are connected to the VDOT network, either "at the office" or remotely through VPN. 

2. Make sure you are using Internet Explorer, the browser that supports "single sign-on" authentication at VDOT.

3. Click this link: https://vdot.skillport.com/skillportfe/custom/login/saml/login.action?  Congrats, you now have an account!

Now that you have an account you can explore a variety of access options using our latest guide Books24x7 Access Options.

What exactly do we mean by "access options" you ask? 

Let's say you want to access Books24x7 from your personal PC at home. You can now do that by following these Home PC instructions.  Got a tablet?  Try these Tablet instructions!  Or maybe you're at your work computer, but prefer an alternate browser to IE?  Try these Alternate Browser instructions. 

Best of all, if you're interested in access from a Smartphone, we've now got you covered!  

Most of us use smartphones with screens 5.5 to 6 inches. Not a lot of real estate to work with, but if you install the free Skillsoft Learning App you can have unlimited access to nearly 80,000 books, videos, summaries and audio books from your VDOT-issued or your personal smartphone  — or both!  Trust me, it is fantastic for the new audio book content category just added to VDOT's collection.

Complete directions for finding, installing and using the App are available online, and this neat video tutorial shows you how it works. But we found the process so easy directions aren't really necessary. 

First try these steps:

To learn more about Skillsoft Books24x7 or to get help from Skillsoft customer support (24 hours a day, 7 days a week), go to Skillsoft Customer Support. Support options include: E-mail: support@skillsoft.com, phone: 866-754-5435 , submit a case online, and Live Chat. 

As always, we're always just a call or a click away if you have questions. 

Ken Winter, MLIS
​VDOT Research Library
530 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville  VA  22903
Ph: 434-962-8979 | E-mail: Ken.Winter@VDOT.virginia.gov
Web Site: http://library.virginiadot.org/home

The VDOT Research Library has upgraded its "Business Source Complete" database to "Business Source Corporate Plus"

Don't look now, but VDOT's popular Business Source Complete database from vendor EBSCO has been upgraded.  We've replaced it with Business Source Corporate Plus, which looks and works the same way, but contains even more premium content, including hundreds of thousands of full text articles!

What's in there?  More than you may realize, and plenty of interest to state DOT employees. Content includes: 

• More than 5,600 full-text business magazines, journals and trade publications
• More than 1,300 full-text newspapers with same-day currency 
• More than 1 million full-text company profiles 
• More than 1.6 million TV and radio news transcripts

Jump in there and search for journals and magazines by title to see what's indexed, or scan this complete list of titles.  Or simply run a search to see what you find!  You may be surprised. The list includes works on HR, economics, government administration, planning, management, leadership and more, including titles like:  

• Harvard Business Review
• Engineering News Record
• American City & County 
• Journal of the American Planning Association 

For pointers, check out this guide to basic searching from EBSCO or get started with this video overview (below): 

But remember, if you find a citation to an article you want, but there's not link to full text, no worries.  Cut and paste the citation details into this ONLINE DOCUMENT DELIVERY FORM and the VDOT Research Library will find the full text and deliver it to you. 

After all, our job is to help you do your job!

Ken Winter, MLIS
VDOT Research Library
530 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville  VA  22903
Ph: 434-962-8979 | E-mail: Ken.Winter@VDOT.virginia.gov
Web Site: http://library.virginiadot.org/home