The Dissertation House is comprised of a series of workshops, meetings, and seminars that are held on college campuses and at conferences to facilitate successful completion of the doctoral degree. The workshops emphasize writing the dissertation, preparing for the defense, and communicating with faculty. The Dissertation House is a program of the National Science Foundation’s PROMISE: Maryland’s Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) and is supported by the Graduate Schools at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), the University of Maryland College Park, and the University of Maryland Baltimore.  Growth of the program is also attributed to the Council of Graduate School’s Ph.D. Completion Project.

Patrons have been reporting problems accessing their library (catalog) accounts. This problem has been reported to ITD and we are waiting for a response.

Here is a brief description of the problem. When you try to log into your catalog account (either through the 'My Library Account' link on our website our through the 'my account' link in the catalog) the log in process starts as expected. You are asked to select your campus, then you get taken to the UMBC single sign-on screen (if you are not already logged into a UMBC account). After logging in you get a blank screen for a lengthy time which eventually switches to a basic catalog search, but it doesn't show you as being logged in you and have no access to your account.

We have a similar problem with Research Port. You are able to get into Research Port both on and off-campus. From on-campus, as long as you don't try to log into Research Port, everything seems to work fine. If you try to log in (either on or off-campus) it doesn't show as being logged in (your name doesn't appear) and there is a limited selection of databases available. The odd thing is that when we access the databases from off-campus via the proxy links on our website we are able to log in with no problem.

We hope to have this issue fixed soon. Thank you for your patience.

Greetings to all graduate students who are working on dissertations. Dr. Carter has posted the Summer 2011 Challenge!  We will have Dissertation House sessions in Maryland this summer, but anyone — in any state, in any country — can join us online. Click here to join us: http://dissertationhouse.wordpress.com/blog-online-challenge/summer-2011-challenge/ .  If you’ve participated in our challenges in the past, or if you are still working with us in the Winter 2011 Challenge section, we invite you to join us in the summer section.

Good luck … we look forward to supporting you!

The following one hour drop in sessions will be held in Engineering 025. DoIT staff members will be available to work one-on-one with with users who show up during the designated times.

Additional dates and times may be added as demand warrants.

Maybe you're waiting to see the Thor movie until after finals are over. Maybe you've seen it and you're dying to get more back story on the mythical God of Thunder. Maybe you've been staring at journal articles all morning and just need a break. Maybe you just love comics loaded with exclamation points! Whatever the reason, Special Collections has just the thing for you. As part of our fantastic Comic Books Collection, we have more than 200 back issues of the original Thor comic books dating from 1965 through 1990! The first issue in our collection, number 119, even includes a battle against one of Thor's movie foes, The Destroyer!

But Thor isn't limited to his own book. You might also know him as part of The Avengers, along with Captain America, The Hulk and Iron Man! Don't worry; we've got you covered there as well, with more than a hundred issues from the 60's, 70's and 80's. Catch up on the Avengers back story now, before their movie comes out next year! And before you ask, yes, we've got classic 60's and 70's issues of Captain America, the Incredible Hulk and Iron Man as well!

Special Collections will be open from 1 until 4 pm Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday all the way through Finals Week, and until 8pm on Thursdays. During the summer, we'll be open by appointment only. To find our superhero lair, enter the Library Gallery and walk straight back- you'll see our doors on the right. No secret decoder ring required!

To browse all of the comics available at Special Collections, enter comic books in the Collection field in the following search; or put in more specific search terms to find the exact comic you're looking for: http://umbc.pastperfect-online.com/37467cgi/mweb.exe?request=advform .

by Steve Ammidown, Special Collections Student Assistant