More H1N1 resources

Online vendors are sharing their expertise and resources to help all of us get the most accurate information available to help us weather the flu season.

ebrary understands there is a lot of anxiety, confusion, and frustration regarding H1N1. In fact, we are experiencing it ourselves.

This site was created by ebrary employees, who in the course of researching H1N1 to protect our families and friends, realized that our technology can help.

While some of the most important information in the world is contained within PDF documents, it is a very difficult format to search, use, and manage online. To enable people to discover valuable H1N1 data, we created a highly interactive database of PDF documents from government agencies and other authoritative sites (copyrights permitting or with permission).

We plan to continually grow this collection and welcome your feedback by emailing h1n1@ebrary.com.


-kls

The sky is falling!

Do you remember fire drills in school? Some were a surprise to instructors, some were noted on a faculty calendar. All were intended to prepare students (and staff) to exit the building in an orderly fashion without panic or confusion. At an education conference, meeting in a hotel banquet room, there were over 300 instructors seated for a meal. The hotel fire alarm went off. 300 adults calmly stood up, pushed in their chairs and exited the space. The hotel people were trying to tell us it was a mistake and we should stay inside. We continued to exit down the stairs, not taking the elevator and gathered at a safe distance from the building - practice does make it possible to cope with an emergency without chaos.

Which brings me to disaster movies (and books). Are they the fire drill for the mind? Do we watch the end of time movies and get ideas on how to best respond when the end appears?


The Road [PS 3563 .C337 R63 2006] by Cormac McCarthy which won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize has been turned into a movie.

The book discussion guide in NoveList through GALILEO offers thought provoking questions, several responses to the questions noting that each reader brings their own thoughts to the task.

The book discussion guide concludes with 6 other titles to read that have similar themes. I was glad to see Alas, Babylon c1959 mentioned.

The survivors of a nuclear holocaust are forced to rely on their own resources as they join together in the struggle for survival amidst the ruins of Fort Repose, a small town in Florida.

I was intrigued that 50 years ago the apocalyptic story revolved around a group gathering together to help each other rather than individuals struggling on their own.

What do we learn from these two stories? Has our societal response changed so much in 50 years? Books can be fire drills for the mind!

-kls

Get the password to use GALILEO from your Georgia librarian.

What to watch?

What will you be doing this weekend? Will you be looking for a movie to watch, a book to read, or an event to attend? Do you want to know what someone thinks about the movie, book, or event before you invest your time and money? How do you find a review?

You can find Movie Reviews (and other reviews) in GALILEO by:
Selecting Databases A-Z
...Select P
.....Select ProQuest Databases
........Select Advanced Search (second tab)
..........Type in the movie title
Leave the citation and abstract as the search.
....Scroll down a bit - and click on More Search Options. This opens up the bottom of the screen.
........Scroll down to Document Type
..........Click on the drop down box
............Select Film review (for the movies)
Press enter

Now you have the opinions of others to help you decide if you want to invest your time and money!

Hope your holiday weekend is just what you want it to be.

-kls

Get the password to use GALILEO at home from your Georgia librarian.

Visual Learning

Are you a visual learner? Does seeing someone do something help you process the directions?

ALA Facebook suggested the Flu videos for kids posted by the US Department of Health and Human Services. Yes, our Government has a You Tube channel.

If you're looking for visual information on how to protect your self or teach your child how to protect themselves from the flu - just watch a video.

And don't forget to read about the latest news in flu protection at the EBSCO Influenza: Evidence based portal or checking Flu.gov.

Stay healthy over the holidays.

-kls

On the go searches

Have you started using your mobile device for quick searches?

News from the GALILEO folks:

Beginning today, you will find the following custom EBSCOhost Mobile links appearing in GALILEO - EBSCOhost Mobile Academic.

Each of these interfaces has been configured to provide a direct multi-database search of EBSCOhost databases that are appropriate for the indicated audience. For detailed information regarding which databases are included in the search, please see the “More” link that follows the database name within the Databases A-Z list.

Please note that your phone must have javascript enabled in order to use EBSCOhost Mobile. Although EBSCOhost Mobile should work on all javascript enabled smartphones, it was exclusively beta tested on the most popular models:

Blackberry

Dell Axiom

iPhone

Palm 750

To get more information about this service
go to GALILEO
...select Databases A-Z
.....select E
........scroll to EBSCOhost Mobile Academic - click on the More... link to find out more about this resource.

I admit- I do not have a 'fancy' phone. I can't test how this works. If you do have a 'fancy' phone- please do share how well you can search with EBSCO on your phone. Or if it has glitches- you can share that too.

You will need the current password to use GALILEO. You may get that password from your Georgia librarian.

-kls

Can you find it?

Sometimes professors have students search for information that might not be as easy to find as the professor thinks. Case in point- an unnamed professor at another educational institution told his class to find an article he had written that was in an Ebsco database. The task was to write an APA citation for an article by the professor. The professor gave his name and the database. That should have been enough information. You know from the way I started that - no, this is not enough information.

One of the professor's students has a friend who is a librarian. The student had searched and figured they just weren't doing it correctly. They asked their friend the librarian. This librarian couldn't find an article in the noted database either. The librarian asked me. I also did not have any success searching in the particular Ebsco database for the professors name. I used initials, quotes, full name, last name only- and nothing came up. It could be Ebsco.

I did a Google search for the professor. This professor fortunately has an educational biographical web site. The professor happily lists their publications. Publish or perish being the mantra for many higher education institutions. I was able to note in which journals this professor had published.

...With the journal information
......I could search in the Ebsco database using publication search
........Ebsco offers a search this publication link
Victory! I found several articles. They aren't full text but they do give enough information that the student can complete the assignment.

I have no idea why the professor's name did not pull up articles in the Ebsco database. There are ways to work around a problem!


-kls

Carl Hayden

Until today, Carl Hayden was the longest serving member of Congress in United States history. Originally a sheriff in Phoenix, Arizona, Hayden was elected as the first Congressman for the new state of Arizona. He represented the entire state, which at that time was still a rural state with very few people.

Hayden was later elected to the US Senate and served for over forty years. He retired in early 1969 when his last term expired and died in 1972. He lived to see his sleepy state grow into one of the fastest growing in the country.

Much of the information here was gleaned from Hayden's entry in the Biographical directory of the United States Congress, an official government resource. The photos of former members of Congress on the website are considered government property and are in the public domain, hence they are often used for Wikipedia entries.

JF

Historical Fiction

After writing about finding book reviews for Wolf Hall, I began to think about finding other historical fiction to read. NoveList in GALILEO is a useful Readers Advisory tool.

A search in NoveList for Wolf Hall provided links to Find Similar Books, reviews, Subject headings, and the public World Cat.

When you select the Find Similar Books link, you are given a check list to limit your search to Required or Desired subject headings. I think that's a very interesting distinction- is the topic required in the story or just desired? The default setting is for desired. What would you choose as a required subject or a desired subject in your Find Similar Books choice?

You may get the password to use GALILEO at home from your Georgia librarian.


-kls

Wolf Hall

One of the English instructors encourages students to read award winners. The 2009 Man Booker award winner, Wolf Hall : a novel, has arrived at the North Metro campus library.

I'm not familiar with either the book or the author. I wanted to know a bit about the book before I lept in to read it. I admit - it's almost two inches thick and I'm thinking- oh my, do I have time or energy to read this book?

To find reviews for this title, go to GALILEO
..Select Databases A-Z
.....Select P
........Scroll to ProQuest Newspapers

Here's where selecting a specific database can be more helpful then a general search.

Click on the Advanced Search tab.
...Type in Wolf Hall
.....Click on more search options
........Select Document Type - the drop down box offers me many options
........Select Book review
Search and 5 reviews came up!

If you want to know what others think about a book, movie, television show, poem, etc before you spend your time or money .... use the Advanced Search features in ProQuest and Ebsco to limit your search to a specific document type!

You can get the current password to use GALILEO from your Georgia librarian.

-kls

Keeping up with the story

To get a mammogram or not to get a mammogram? What's a person to do when the scientists change their opinions so radically?

There are multiple medical resources in GALILEO. You can create RSS feeds or e-mail alerts to receive the latest articles posted in the professional journals.

Look in your favorite database to see if they offer alerts/RSS feeds. The Ebsco databases like Academic Search Complete and the ProQuest databases like Research Library offer fairly obvious ways to create an alert or set up an RSS feed.

Having the latest and most reliable information is the only way to make an informed decision!

Get the current password to use GALILEO at home from your Georgia librarian.

-kls

Nature vs. Nurture

The Psychology instructor asked me to show the students how to find peer reviewed articles on the Human Growth and Development topic, Nature vs. Nurture. The timing for this topic couldn't be better with the holidays spinning towards us. All those kin around the table - are they the way they are because of genetics or did birth order (and the improving parenting skills) define the people? Do you really act like your relatives because of your genes or because of the environment you grew up in? Something to think about as we share a meal with the people we claim as family.

Back to the initial question - how do you find those peer reviewed articles? Professional Journals with peer reviewed articles won't be on the magazine racks at the grocery store or book store. GALILEO offers a video explanation on how to find peer reviewed articles:



You may get the current password to use GALILEO at home from your Georgia librarian.


-kls

Busy bees

A Short History of the Honey Bee [SF 523.7 .I45 2009] by E. Readicker-Henderson. History can be a recitation of facts in chronological order. This history reads like a story weaving between the authors childhood, Greek myths, Egyptian pharaohs, Medieval authors and 19th century scientists until the author comes to the current science of beekeeping. Photographs by Ilona are sprinkled liberally amidst the 160 page book.

I searched GALILEO for suburban beekeeping - peer reviewed, full text- but retrieved no hits. I tried again and used only the term beekeeping and full text. This turned up 125 articles in Academic Search Complete and 198 articles in Research Library.

I think I might like a bee hive in my back yard!

Get the current password to use GALILEO from your Georgia librarian.



-kls

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

At the Sirsi Users group meeting held at the Robert Woodruff library at Emory, we had time to explore the library a bit during breaks. Just outside the meeting room was a lovely display of new books, both fiction and non-fiction. The books were displayed in a way to entice the browser to try something just for fun.

I selected The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I had just enough time during the breaks to get drawn into the story:

January 1946: writer Juliet Ashton receives a letter from a stranger, a founding member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. And so begins a remarkable tale of the island of Guernsey during the German occupation, and of a society as extraordinary as its name.

I found myself at page 90 by the end of the day. I wondered if my public library would have the book?

I went to GALILEO
...clicked on Databases A-Z
.....selected W
.......and scrolled to WorldCat
.......... I searched for Guernsey literary
The search pulled up 38 records for books by this title.

I selected the first record (over 2000 libraries hold this title).
I clicked on Libraries Worldwide that own the item. The Georgia libraries are at the top of the list in alphabetical order.
I scrolled to my public library and clicked on the link. The public library catalog opened and I could see which branches had copies on the shelf.

Voila. My local branch had the book. I went the next morning and borrowed The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

If my public library had not owned a copy, I could have clicked on the Borrow this item from another library link and filled in the Inter Library Loan form which would have started the process to borrow the book from another library.

Get the password to use GALILEO at home from your Georgia librarian.


- kls

Louis Riel

Today is the anniversary of the death of Louis Riel. Riel was a political figure in Canada during the late 1800's. Riel was a leader of the Metis, a people of Canada who have a mix of French and First Nations (Native American) heritage.

Riel is considered the father of the Manitoba, being associated with a provisional government in that province as part of a rebellion against the Canadian government. He was later exiled to the United States, only to return and be executed for his part in a second rebellion in 1885.

The legacy of Riel is a bit complicated. He is considered a hero to French Canadians, particularly in Quebec, and has been associated with the Quebec movement for independence. Riel was actually elected to the Canadian Parliament twice for the riding (district) of Provencher, which is still a riding in southeastern Manitoba. Bills have been introduced by MP's (member of Parliament) over the years to call for an official pardon of Riel, but none have passed in the House of Commons.

There are several good articles on Riel available in Credo Reference. These articles are entries from various reference books and are considered reliable sources of information that you could use when writing a report or reference paper. If you need information to access Credo Reference off-campus, please contact your Chattahoochee Technical College campus library staff.

JWF

Links to Louis Riel, Metis, and Manitoba are from Encyclopedia Britannica in GALILEO. Get the password to use GALILEO at home from your Georgia librarian.

Triskaidekaphobia

Today is Friday the 13th. Except in Australia, which by the time I write this it is Saturday the 14th I should think.

Triskaidekaphobia is the term given to the fear of the number 13. This is a fear common in North America and Europe. This fear has morphed into a fear of the date Friday the 13th. Fear of Friday the 13th has given rise to a slasher film franchise, which subsequently created higher sales of ice hockey goalie masks (but that's another story).

A search for triskaidekaphobia in Galileo yields 4 results in Academic Search Complete and 4 results in Research Library. The results span all the way back to 1980, and most of the articles deal with the psychological aspects associated with the number 13 and its perceived lack of luck.

And in unrelated news, the people of Sweden voted to join the European Union on this day in 1994.

JWF