What was its name?

Do you ever wonder what a poem or story was called?

You can describe the plot, the characters - even come up with the ending...but you can't think of the title or the author so how can you find the book (or poem) at your library?

The Library of Congress has created a tip sheet with suggestions for finding that elusive title.

Fortunately, several of the resources they suggest are available to you through GALILEO. This list may help you remember the name of that favorite story!

- Book Collection Non-Fiction a cross-curricular research database that contains abstracts and searchable full text for more than 3,800 popular nonfiction books for youth on core subject areas, as well as information on careers, health, sports, adventure, technology, life skills, and more.
- Book Index with Reviews is a comprehensive database that provides information on over 3.8 million book titles in a wide range of formats, including large print and books on tape.
- Georgia Cat a customized, union catalog of Georgia Public Library System's bibliographic records. GeorgiaCat includes the records from the collections of all Georgia public libraries that have added their holdings to WorldCat.
-LION full-text library of over 330,000 works of British and American poetry, drama and prose.
- NoveList an online readers' advisory tool that helps readers find new books based on books they've read or on topics in which they are interested.

There are tools to help you "remember" that title!

Reading not Listening

This tip was picked up in conversation with a librarian while attending AABIG (Atlanta Area Bibliographic Instruction Group) at GSU. I had no idea I could do this.....if you open your e-mail and enter a cell-phone-number@teleflip.com as the e-mail address, then type your message, and hit send - it will deliver a text message to that cell phone number (fairly quickly)!

Quite handy if you want to send a text message to someones cell phone from your e-mail (especially if you know they need info but not conversation and your text messaging skills are rusty - or non-existent)

The caveat - and of course, there is always a caveat - my test message (I sent one to my cell phone as a test) came through twice- then I received a text message from teleflip offering me their online service. If your recipient pays to receive a text message - they won't be amused- or pleased.

Still - what a handy tool. I'll bet it could be used to share reference information....

Another reason to attend conferences- chatting with participants leads to revelations of "new to you" resources.

Click, click, click

I've started taking pictures in the library, posting them in the digital frame at the circulation desk and today....I uploaded two batches to Flickr.

Organizing the photos in "sets" is easy. My "free" account allows me three sets. I'm going for People, Places, and Things. I'll see if I can purchase a Pro Account with next years budget. It's not too pricey and it would allow me to organize the pictures in more sets. I could do award winners, events, class materials.......it could become a visual del.icio.us!

The circle grows

Thanks to Gerry McKiernan on the ili (Information Literacy / ALA) list for sharing this information that Gerry gleaned from Bernie Sloan:

OCLC and Google to exchange data, link digitized books to WorldCat DUBLIN, Ohio, USA, 19 May 2008-OCLC and Google Inc. have signed an agreement to exchange data that will facilitate the discovery of library collections through Google search services.

Under terms of the agreement, OCLC member libraries participating in the Google Book Search* program, which makes the full text of more than one million books searchable, may share their WorldCat-derived MARC records with Google to better facilitate discovery of library collections through Google.

Google will link from Google Book Search to WorldCat.org, which will drive traffic to library OPACs and other library services. Google will share data and links to digitized books with OCLC, which will make it possible for OCLC to represent the digitized collections of OCLC member libraries in WorldCat.

[snip]

WorldCat metadata will be made available to Google directly from OCLC or through member libraries participating in the Google Book Search program.

Google recently released an API that provides links to books in Google Book Search using ISBNs, LCCNs and OCLC numbers. This API allows WorldCat.org users to link to some books that Google has scanned through a *Get It* link. The link works both ways. If a user finds a book in Google Book Search, a link can often be tracked back to local libraries through WorldCat.org.

The new agreement enables OCLC to create MARC records describing the Google digitized books from OCLC member libraries and to link to them.
These linking arrangements should help drive more traffic to libraries, both online and in person.

[snip]

The new agreement between OCLC and Google is the latest in several partnerships between the two designed to increase the visibility of libraries on the Web and deliver information to users at the point of need. OCLC will be working with other organizations to include digitized content in WorldCat in the months to come.

[snip]

[ http://www.oclc.org/news/releases/200811.htm ]

Gerry notes - "Thanks to Bernie Sloan for the HeadsUp! "

We keep sharing and sharing and sharing!

Does durable mean what you think it means?

When a database vendor notes a "durable" link, what does that mean?
The American Heritage Dictionary (available through Credo) defines durable as Lasting; stable
The Collins Dictionary (available through Credo) defines durable as Long-lasting; enduring.

LION offers a durable URL link to the information available - poems, etc. LION notes you may post the link in an e-mail or document. The implication is one may send the link and the recipient will be able to click on the link to access the LION document.

The durable link remains durable in the sense I think of "durable" on campus where we have direct access to GALILEO and LION. Yet off campus, the link opens up a screen in LION requesting a log in.

I'm missing something about the long lasting, stable enduring part of the the LION link.