Are they reading my blog?

Just got this from EBSCO. Please do go and watch the flash promo, check out the Beta site:

We have some very exciting news about EBSCOhost. This summer (July 2008), EBSCOhost will receive a brand new look and feel, based on extensive user testing and feedback, to provide you with the most powerful, clean and intuitive interface available.

This is the first redesign of the EBSCOhost interface since 2002, and its functionality incorporates the latest technological advances.

In future email messages, we will notify you about the wide range of tools and information available to help you learn about the new interface and its many features, and to streamline the transition in July 2008. An overview of EBSCOhost 2.0 is provided in the Flash demonstration here.

(If you cannot open this link, paste this URL into your browser: http://www.ebscohost.com/2.0_flash).

To view the EBSCOhost 2.0 web pages and learn more about its key features, click here. (If you cannot open the link, paste this URL into your browser: http://www.ebscohost.com/thisTopic.php?marketID=1&topicID=969).

Stay tuned for additional information about the exciting new EBSCOhost 2.0!

Notice the colors and pictures - I am so pleased. Since they refer to extensive testing, I must not be the only one who was disgruntled with the orange and green interface.

Carmen Agra Deedy

A post from the Georgia Library Association list:

Award- winning author Carmen Agra Deedy whose works include the Library Dragon and Growing up Cuban in Decatur Georgia, has been named spokesperson for School Library Media Month by the American Association of School Librarians, a division of ALA. For more information, see the following ALA link:
http://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleases2008/february2008/deedy08.htm

NoveList in GALILEO provides information (reviews, reading levels, etc)and ideas for Teaching with Fiction. NoveList has 6 of Ms. Deedy's books listed. The link to WorldCat appears after you've selected the title from the list.

Book Index with Reviews (also through GALILEO) notes 38 titles by Ms. Deedy. BIR has a link to WorldCat right next to the title in the list.

The WorldCat link is very handy for finding the closest library that has the title you're looking for!

You know who can give you the password to use GALILEO at home - your Georgia librarian.

Well, ahem, well

Yesterday I was a bit miffed that I was paying for Magill and yet I could access it through Student Research Center- well, ahem, well - after phones calls and e-mails with other librarians who share GALILEO - it seems if one pays for Magill it is automatically routed through Student Research Center by EBSCO.

Which brings up the question- why aren't all the EBSCO databases routed through Student Research Center? I don't think of Magill as necessarily appropriate for Middle and High School researchers - more High School than Middle. Auto Repair Reference Center would surely appeal to High School students. I just did a quick look for an "administrator" control. That might be handy. The Librarian could add EBSCO databases to the Student Research Center.

EBSCO can create a colorful interface for their document search. I wonder if they leave the Academic Search Complete interface plain for a reason? Do "serious" researchers prefer the austere look? Probably - because it's not as distracting. Obviously, I'm not a serious researcher since I would like pictures and colors!

You can explore the resources in GALILEO by getting the password for home use from your Georgia librarian!

Hidden resource

Pictures do help with searches. We've gotten accustomed to icons rather than text as a way to communicate information quickly and easily. The red stop sign is a universal symbol, a house for home, you can think of other symbols used regularly to note directions.

I've mumbled about Ebsco's plain and simple text portal to the databases but they can make it "pretty". Check out Student Research Center - aimed at middle and high school. Look at the pictures that help you decide what you want to select.

Most amazing is what I found when I was looking through the titles included to see what was included - and look at what I found :

MagillOnLiterature Plus

MagillOnLiterature Plus, produced by Salem Press, is the premier literary database, combining MagillOnLiterature and MagillOnAuthors. This database includes all the literary works, reviewed critical analyses and brief plot summaries that are included in MagillOnLiterature, as well as all the biographies and author essays included in MagillOnAuthors.

That is amazing. In Advanced Search you can use the special limiters just for Magill - . And I'm paying for the MagillOnLiterature Plus - harumph. Not next year.

Don't be put off by a title like Student Research Center- there is more in there than the title indicates!

Get the password to access GALILEO from your Georgia Librarian!

Search tool

At first glance, I wasn't sure what the benefit of E-Books Index by First Search would be-

provides records for more than 450,000 eBooks that have been cataloged by OCLC member libraries, including titles available from NetLibrary and other providers.

Key features:

.....Links to full-text content: Users can access Web links to full-text electronic book collections licensed by their libraries from NetLibrary and other providers and free resources that are available in the public domain from education, government and commercial Web sites.
.....Links to library holdings in WorldCat. Within E-Books, you can view a list of libraries (or library groups) in your region or state that own specific titles.
.....Searches can be limited to NetLibrary titles.

yes, it's a catalog of electronic books but I can search through the NMTC OPAC to find the electronic books we have access to....

Then I did a search and noticed- the URL's gave me clues- for example- Heritage Quest. I don't have access to Heritage Quest from my school GALILEO but I do have access through the public library GALILEO.

What a treat - I can look in one place and figure out where to go next for an online book.

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