Thursday, August 23, 2007

How often do you check it?

OK- you do check your e-mails at least once a day. If you didn't it would just become overwhelming and depressing.

You’d like to read a book but who has time to go to the library, find a book, check it out, read it quickly so you can return it on time…..

Here is a solution… DailyLit

These folks have gathered the classics (no best sellers but you did want to read Mark Twain anyway) and they will send you 1 e-mail a day with readable chunks of the book. They have divided the titles into categories including Mysteries!

How cool is that? A treat for getting through your e-mails.

And I didn't even mention GALILEO where you can get to NetLibrary and read more current titles on line.

Thanks to the Librarian in Black for noting this! I read her musings through my RSS feeder.

How do you say that?

Ebsco offers a separate interface for Spanish.
Gale offers a separate interface for Spanish.

In both cases you select either the English or Spanish interface and begin your search.

ProQuest offers the option to change the interface language within the database (upper right corner of the screen). This allows you to change the language of the interface without closing out and going to another database. ProQuest offers more than Spanish as an interface language. It is very interesting to see the Chinese characters displayed across the screen.

Comparing and contrasting shows that one database doesn't do everything. You need to pick and choose the right resource for your search style and information need.

Fortunately we have a variety of resources available through GALILEO.

The current password for home use is available from your Georgia librarian.


Compare and contrast

Comparing and contrasting is a favorite task for teachers to assign. It helps the teacher know that the student really understands the concepts.

I just wrote about Gale Groups RSS in Informe and I've written about Ebsco's RSS feeds. Who else offers RSS as part of their product?

  • ProQuest offers alerts via e-mail but they haven't added RSS (yet).
  • LexisNexis lets you e-mail your search but it doesn't seem to provide alerts for new information added to the database. No RSS feeds.
  • LION offers a "What's New" in LION RSS feed. When I did a search I didn't see a place to create a feed for that particular search.

  • I have found RSS feeds to be very helpful. It puts all my searches in one place.


    These databases are available through GALILEO. The password to use GALILEO from home is available from your Georgia librarian.

    Feeding time

    I read on another blog that Gale Group (an information vendor) offers RSS feeds. We already know that Ebsco provides RSS feeds as well as e-mail alerts.

    Through GALILEO we have access to Informe which is a Gale product. Yes, you can create an RSS feed easily - you can even create an e-mail alert and an RSS feed from the same form page. That is convenient.

    Informe is described by GALILEO as "a database of 46 full-text, Spanish-language and bilingual magazines. It includes popular publications such as Actual, Latina, and ¡Siempre! as well as the full text of El Nuevo Herald, a Spanish-language newspaper from Miami, Florida, as well as the Spanish editions for Newsweek, Time, People, and PC Magazine. This database covers topics such as lifestyle, cultural and entertainment issues; health, family, and parenting; as well as current events and politics."

    Informe has two interfaces, one in English and one in Spanish.

    The articles are in the language they were originally published. The Spanish interface will pull up articles written in English and the English interface will pull up articles in Spanish. You can practice your language skills with the different interfaces.

    You may get the current password to access GALILEO from your Georgia librarian.

    Wednesday, August 22, 2007

    Something new

    MagillOn Literature Plus has been added to the NMTC portion of GALILEO.

    Ebsco notes "MagillOnLiterature Plus is the definitive online source for editorially reviewed critical analyses and brief plot summaries of the most studied works in the history of literature. This database, which is compiled by Salem Press, contains all of Masterplots and Masterplots II, Cyclopedia of World Authors, Cyclopedia of Literary Characters, and Magill's Literary Annual."

    Yes, Masterplots - I remember using those resources. Nice, very nice to have right at my fingertips 24/7 through GALILEO.

    It will be very helpful for our English Literature classes.

    You get the current password for GALILEO from your Georgia librarian.

    Visual Boolean

    Reading Merryll's comment about Visual Search in Ebsco, I had an "ah ha" moment.

    Visual Search seems to works like a Boolean search in limiting (and then organizing) your results with a picture (squares and circles). I checked out Grokker, too. It is intriguing.

    It begins to makes sense and I can see how it would be helpful if you weren't exactly sure where you wanted to go and what might be available.

    Merryll sent a link to Oklahoma State as another example of a visual search.

    Reminds me of the PennTags by the University of Pennsylvania social bookmarking site.

    A picture can be worth a thousand words.

    FYI - Merryl is GALILEO's Merryll S. Penson, Executive Director, Library Services, Office of Information and Instructional Technology, Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. Thank you for reading and commenting.

    Tuesday, August 21, 2007

    Different ways to search

    Ebsco offers a graphical way to display a search through their databases. They call it Visual Search.

    After a demo yesterday, I'm not sure how it would be helpful to me - but someone must think it helps. Here's an Ebsco tutorial that might make it clear to you what their graphical search results mean.

    You can access Ebsco databases through GALILEO. The current password for home use is available through your Georgia librarian.

    Monday, August 20, 2007

    And the wind blows

    Search hints- I used the word hurricane in GALILEO Quick Search and didn't come up with anything useful. When I switched to hurricane Dean articles were found that gave me information of interest. ProQuest Newspapers had 35 articles this morning on Hurricane Dean.

    If I want up to date facts on the weather then I'd go to the Weather Channel.

    Knowing who has the information you need is the best way to start searching.

    Get Advised

    Can you believe it is time for Fall Quarter Advisement? The Summer Quarter isn't done yet!

    Do make an appointment and get advised this week- find out what will be the best courses for you to take to finish your program quickly.

    Early registration for Fall Quarter begins next week.