Mango Languages - NEW!

Mango Languages, an online language learning system for many languages including English, is now accessible to you through libraries in South Dakota. 

• DSU folks can access Mango Languages in the “Database Quicklinks” dropdown menu that is near the top of the Mundt Library home page.
• If you are accessing Mango from off-campus, you will first have to login with your library ID number. For information on library ID numbers and how to get one, see off-campus login instructions.
•  Also, you will need to create a personal account in Mango so that it can keep track of where you are in the learning modules.  That login screen is the first thing you see when you link to Mango Languages, so this step will be obvious.
•  After creating your personal account, you will receive an email from Mango with a URL to use to activate your account.
• After that, it’s just a matter of choosing lessons in English or another language for study.

If you encounter any problems with access or if you have any questions, contact the DSU Librarians. 

Open Access Week Oct 21-27, 2013

Open Access Week provides an opportunity to remind people of the need for open access and to understand the issues that stand in its way.

“Open Access” to information – the free, immediate, online access to the results of scholarly research, and the right to use and re-use those results as you need – has the power to transform the way research and scientific inquiry are conducted. It has direct and widespread implications for academia, medicine, science, industry, and for society as a whole. [Open Access: Redefining Impact]

Curious to learn more?  Visit SPARC "Why Open Access?"  to learn what "open access" is and why it matters.

Federal shutdown and your assignments

The Federal shutdown has caused the closure of several key websites that provide information and data for classes. Librarians may be able to find alternative sources for the information on which you depend, so please ask the librarians for help if you are having difficulty due to loss of access.

Even though the Mundt Library subscribes to many research databases and purchases other material in order to give you access to credible sources, we also rely on many excellent sources of information and data provided without charge to the public by the Federal government.  

Typically, there is no single alternative to replacing the missing website.  For example, the data-packed U.S. Census Bureau is irreplaceable as a whole, but we may have or be able to get some specific information or data you need from other sources.  In other cases there may be at least partial access. For example the ERIC education database is shutdown, but we do have access to the citations, abstracts, and many journal articles on the EBSCOhost platform. Because EBSCOhost links out to the Federally-sponsored ERIC website to access the full-text ERIC documents, EBSCOhost cannot and is not currently showing the links to the ERIC docs. In some cases, data and information available on September 30th remains available, but no updates are being made. Examples include the Consumer Expenditure Survey which remains available on the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) website and PubMed, the health and medical research database provided by the National Library of Medicine.

Bottomline: Ask the DSU Librarians if you need help finding sources of information.

If you are curious about access to various Federal agencies during the shutdown, see the agency contingency plans available on the site of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).