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.