The Miller Writing Center will be open this summer to all students from May 19 through July 25 in two locations:  the Ralph Brown Draughon Library and the Student Athlete Development Center.  Click here for more information on how to make an appointment, hours of operation, etc. 

   The Ralph Brown Draughon Library location is on the Second Floor next to the Learning Commons area.  The library location telephone number is 844-7482.  The library location hours of operation are Monday - Thursday, 1 - 4 p.m. and Sunday, 4 - 7 p.m.

John (Auburn Class of 1962) and Faye Vick of Andalusia, Ala. recently donated thousands of 19th.-century artifacts to Auburn University.   The Vick Collection focusses on American postal history, the Civil War, naval history, and the history of Alabama.

A portion of the collection is currently on display in 13 glass display cases in the Special Collections and Archives Department located on the Ground Floor of the Ralph Brown Draughon Library.

Among the items on display is a letter signed by Raphael Semmes, captain of the Confederate Navy commerce raider CSS Alabama.  The ship was the South's most successful naval commerce raider during the Civil War.  Also on display are Confederate Marine Corps letters from Lieut. Edward Crenshaw of Butler County and many historical postal items.

The Vick Collection will remain on display through August.  Click on this link to see hours of operation for the Special Collections and Archives Department.

The Auburn University Bookstore now offers fax service at its Ralph Brown Draughon Library location, the Study ER, located on the Second Floor.  The service costs $1.00 per page, the same rate as offered by the Bookstore at its Haley Center location.

Points of View Reference Center  provides essays that present multiple sides on current issues. The full text pieces are categorized by format: "points of view", periodicals, newspapers, books, transcripts, reference and images.

Public Health Law Research Distracted Driving Laws Dataset, 2000-2011

This project compiled state and District of Columbia laws regulating the use of mobile communication devices (MCD) by individuals operating motor vehicles and coded some of the laws' features in a data file.

The data file contains information about prohibitions against talking or texting on a MCD for different groups of drivers:

• 16 year old drivers with provisional or beginner licenses
• All 16 year old drivers
• 17 year old drivers with provisional or beginner licenses
• All 17 year old drivers
• 18 year old drivers with provisional or beginner licenses
• All 18 year old drivers
• All drivers with provisional or beginner licenses
• All drivers

For each of these groups, the coded features include the date each provision against talking or texting on a MCD went into effect, whether there is hands-free exception to the prohibition, whether there is a primary or secondary method of enforcement, and the minimum and maximum fines for the first, second, and third violations. The data file is structured so that each record reflects the coded features of relevant law at a given month. Thus, every state and the District of Columbia has 144 records in the file, one for each month from January 2000 to December 2011.

A separate PDF file contains the text of the laws.

This dataset is available through the ICPSR (Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research) database which provides search and browsing access to abstracts and data sets in the world's largest archive of computerized social science data. Search or browse title of study, principal investigator, words in abstract, or study number. Browse major research categories..  Auburn University students, faculty, and staff only may create an account that will allow access to the membership-only data.

Please contact Barbara Bishop at bishoba@auburn.edu or (334) 844-1690 if you need more information concerning ICPSR .

Be sure to click on the Hours link located in the upper central section of the Auburn University Libraries homepage to find out library hours of operation during the Intersession schedule, May 4 - 15.  Regular hours of operation begin on May 16.

Seminars on EndNote and Advanced EndNote software citation programs are being offered during the Summer Semester.  Click on the Seminars link located under the "Services"  link located in the upper left hand side of the screen of the Auburn University Libraries homepage for registration information, etc.  Seminars are free but registration is required. 

Currently, the following EndNote and Advanced EndNote seminars are being offered:

EndNote:  Saturday, June 1:  10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Advanced EndNote:  Saturday, June 1:  12:00 - 1:00 p.m.

EndNote:  Tuesday, June 11:  3:30 - 5:00 p.m.

An office supply vending machine has been installed on the First Floor of the Ralph Brown Draughon Library near the entrance of the Media and Digital Resources Lab (MDRL).  The machine stocks office supplies such as pens, batteries, flash drives, and more.

Optics Infobase is a repository of optics research providing access to the full-text Optical Society of America e-journals to which Auburn University Libraries subscribes.

The International Encyclopedia of Media Studies, Media History, and the Foundation of Media Studies is edited by Angharad M. Valdivia and published by Wiley-Blackwell in 2013.   This six-volume set is available in electronic format.