November 13, 2009

Currently, some users connected to the on-campus wireless networks are having difficulty accessing some library databases, including Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe. Off-campus users and on-campus users connecting through a wired network port are not affected.

While the problem is being investigated and fixed, there is a workaround. Please first connect to the UNH VPN.

To access the UNH VPN, go to https://vpn.unh.edu. Click the Faculty/Staff or Students/Faculty link and login with your username and password. If you are asked to allow software from “Juniper Networks, Inc.,” please click “Allow” or “Run.”

Mac users should read the UNH Web VPN Help page for more information about connecting to the UNH VPN with Snow Leopard.

Once connected to the UNH VPN, you should be able to access library databases normally by connecting through the Library website. Again, this problem only affects some on-campus wireless network users.

If you have problems connecting to the UNH VPN, please contact the IT Help Desk at 862-4242, or stop by the IT Support Center in Dimond Library.

November 10, 2009

In time-honored library tradition, the UNH Library is offering a scavenger hunt in recognition of Geography Awareness Week. If you like maps and also like scavenger hunts, then you’ll love what we’re calling the UNH Library Geography Awareness Map Scavenger Hunt. There are prizes!

The list of scavenger hunt questions are available in the Map Room (Room 347 on Level 3, Dimond Library), the UNH Museum (Level 1, Dimond Library), and the Dimond Library Circulation Desk. All questions can be answered by visiting these places and using the Library Catalog and the Library’s online collection of maps.

Entries are due by Friday, November 13. Winners will be announced Tuesday, November 17.

November 8, 2009

Special Collections recently cataloged a collection of records from Fort Constitution left behind by Ordnance Sergeant James Davidson from his time in service there in the middle of the nineteenth century. The records contain correspondence (including circulars and invitations), personnel records (such as muster rolls, orders, court proceedings, and reports), inventories and requisitions for fuel, food, clothing, ordnance, and other provisions, and financial records (such as payrolls, expenditures, and invoices).

Fort Constitution, originally known as Fort William and Mary (or Castle William and Mary), was built in 1632 on the island of New Castle, New Hampshire, at the mouth of the Piscataqua River, to protect and defend Portsmouth Harbor. It became a center of rebellion several months before the battles of Lexington and Concord ushered in the American Revolution. Read more

October 17, 2009

UNH alumna, Sherrie Flick, has written a novel set in Portsmouth, and more specifically, the Ceres Bakery (renamed in the book). For more detail, see the boston.com story:

The author worked at Ceres (SEE-rees, after the goddess of agriculture in Roman mythology – and the street of its first location in town) from 1987 to 1990, around the time she earned her bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of New Hampshire. Flick now lives in Pittsburgh, where she writes and is artistic director of the Gist Street Reading Series.

A copy of this novel is currently being processed for Dimond Library.

October 16, 2009

A number of faculty, staff and students have expressed frustration in getting access to the UNH Library’s online databases and full text journals from off campus.

All you need to do is sign into Blackboard and click on the library tab.  You’ll see

Connect to Databases

right at the top of that page.

If you don’t have a blackboard account, click the Login Help tab and follow the directions.