Where did they come from?

I mentioned yesterday that I'm into genealogy. On July 1, the DTAE libraries gained access to a wonderful resource through GALILEO - Ancestry.com. One can only access Ancestry on campus.

If you're doing your family tree- you start with yourself and work backwards- one generation at a time. Ancestry has the US census online from 1790-1930. You can see who your grandparents neighbors were by checking the census!

What do you need to know to find your family in the census ? - It helps to know the state they lived in. If you know the county they lived in your search will be focused.

What will you find out about them? Each census gathered different information. Ancestry notes that "The 1930 United States Federal Census is the largest census released to date and is the most recent census available for public access. The census gives us a glimpse into the lives of Americans in 1930, and contains information about a household’s occupants including: birthplaces, occupations, immigration, citizenship, and military service."

Check it out- those family stories just might be true.

The password for home use of GALILEO is available to the citizens of Georgia from your librarian. Some resources noted in this BLOG are only available to NMTC patrons.

Cite your sources

I do genealogy for fun. Sometimes I look at information I've gathered and I wonder if I copied it correctly- the data just doesn't seem correct. Fortunately, I've cited my sources for information so I can go back and check myself (and anyone who uses my data can check my research by referring to the sources I've cited).

How do I cite my sources? The basic formula is:

• Who did it (the author- last name first- like the phone book)
• What did they do (the title)
• How does my reader find it (the publisher, copyright date, and page)

APA (American Psychological Association) and MLA (Modern Language Association) follow this formula- the differences are where the commas, periods, quotes, and parenthesis are placed (at least that's how it looks to me).

Yesterday I noted that Encyclopedia Britannica online gives you the way to cite their articles in both APA and MLA style.

GALILEO has a tutorial on citing articles in their Quick Help drop down box. Also in the Online Library Learning Center #8 "Giving Credit Where Credit is due".

The password for home use of GALILEO is available to the citizens of Georgia from your librarian. Some resources noted in this BLOG are only available to NMTC patrons.

Who had a birthday today?

Elmer Hader, a children's author of some reknown, was born this day in 1889. He and his wife Berta wrote and illustrated "The Big Snow" (the Caldecott winner in 1949).

I saw his birthday on an Author Calendar. I looked for Elmer Hader in Book Index with Reviews and also in NoveList. The books he wrote/illustrated are listed but I was having trouble finding a biography for him. I went to Google - you can tell I was desperate- 612 sites came up by using "Elmer Hader" biography of Elmer Hader- I was trying to reduce the number of hits. Nothing was clearly marked as a free biograpgy- I could pay for some information.

Where else could I look- for free?

I went back to GALILEO (our Georgia tax dollars have already paid for this) and skimmed the list Databases A-Z till it hit me- a basic reference source is the encyclopedia!

In Encyclopedia Britannica- there was the biography I was looking for.
Here's a portion..."Elmer Stanley Hader was born on Sept. 7, 1889, in Pajaro, Calif. He received art training in San Francisco and Paris, the latter excursion financed by three years of touring on a vaudeville circuit. His budding career as a painter was interrupted by World War I, and he served in the United States Army Camouflage Corps."

There's a wonderful resource at the bottom of each article in Encyclopedia Britannica online...how to do the citation for that article in APA and MLA style!

I must remember that the basic reference sources are the best for getting quick general reliable information!

The password for home use of GALILEO is available to the citizens of Georgia from your librarian. Some resources noted in this BLOG are only available to NMTC patrons.

How do you feel?

Do you have symptoms that baffle you? You're sure you're not sick enough for a doctor visit but you'd like a clue about what could be causing the aggravation- and then you may discover you are sick enough for a doctor visit.

We've added the Med Web @ Emory University site to NMTC's portion of GALILEO. They have collected all sorts of medical sites in one place. They even have compiled links for Katrina information.

The password for home use of GALILEO is available to the citizens of Georgia from your librarian. Some resources noted in this BLOG are only available to NMTC patrons.

Labor Day

We sang "Come Labor On" at church this weekend. One of my favorite old hymns. We usually sing it on Labor Day weekend. No, it wasn't written for the Labor movement.

The hymn was written by Jane Laurie Borthwick (1813-1897) based on Matthew 25:23. Ms. Borthwick wrote the hymn in 1859, revised it in 1863.
Found this info at The Blue Letter Bible http://www.blueletterbible.org/hymns/htm_c_o_comlabor.html

There are, of course, articles and editorials about Labor Day in GALILEO.
You can check Lexis-Nexis Academic (Databases A-Z, jump to L)
.....Guided News Search
..........General News, Major papers, Labor Day, today

I turned up 58 articles for today- a grand variety of opinions!