Christmas brainteaser

This week's Credo brainteaser is about things connected with Christmas.

1. The three gifts that the Wise Men brought to the infant Jesus were traditionally gold, frankincense, and what else?

2. What is the date of the first day of the Twelve Days of Christmas?

3. When drilling for oil or gas, what is a Christmas tree?

4. What phrase is used for a late-night church service on Christmas Eve?

5. In Charles Dickens's novel "A Christmas Carol", what was the name of Tiny Tim's father?

6. A yule log is a large log which used to be put on the hearth as the foundation for the fire - on which day?

7. In which book by Louisa May Alcott did someone say "Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents"?

8. What is the English title of the Christmas carol which is "Adeste Fideles" in Latin?

9. In the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" ("On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me..."), what total of gifts was given over the whole twelve days: 78, 280, or 364?

10. According to Clement C. Moore's "The Night Before Christmas", Father Christmas had eight reindeer. Can you name six of them?

Questions set by Tony Augarde (www.augardebooks.co.uk)
________________________________________
Answers
Find out the answers here, or copy and paste this link into your browser address bar: http://blog.credoreference.com/2011/12/credo-reference-brainteaser-christmas/

It is fun to have Credo provide the weekly trivia! We have access to the complete Reference collection in Credo- 579 titles.

Credo is accessible through GALILEO. If you use your CTC library account, the passwords are in the My Account information!
...Databases A-Z.
.....C.
.......Credo.

I'll blog sporadically till January 3rd when we start up again for our second semester.

Merry Christmas.


-kss

American Political Rhetoric

The day began with a commendable commencement speech by a local politician. An e-mail from Facts on File reminded us about using Issues and Controversies to keep up with the campaign season. Both events segue nicely into considering the electronic book American Political Rhetoric 6th edition. Speeches and politics with history thrown in. Perfect for this time in the political cycle. The book description on Amazon notes that the book

explores fundamental political principles through classic examples of political rhetoric, from the Declaration of Independence to today. Selections include the entire political spectrum and contributors range from the founders to elected public officials, Supreme Court opinions, and representatives of historic movements for social change. Organized thematically, American Political Rhetoric allows students to explore the institutions of government and current controversies in civil rights, race, gender, and America's role in the world as the issues have evolved over time.

The 6th edition includes several speeches by President Obama. This volume offers a timely opportunity to compare and contrast current political speech with past offerings, all tied together with the United States Constitution.

The author, Peter Augustine Lawler , is Dana Professor of Government at Berry College in Georgia.

-kss

Use your student ID to access this book off campus.

Are you ready?

The official 2012 campaign season begins in a few weeks. Facts on File sent out a reminder.

As the 2012 election year nears, we want to remind you of Issues and Controversies invaluable election-related content. Don't forget to direct your students and patrons to the comprehensive background on all presidential races since 1996--including lengthy articles about the candidates' views on major campaign issues, party platforms, excerpts from convention speeches, and more.

Plus, our ongoing in-depth coverage of key 2012 campaign issues will culminate in a full-scale examination of the entire presidential race, including maps, charts, and discussion questions, which will be published a few weeks before the November 2012 election.

Issues and Controversies is used by our English classes when they are researching their argumentative, persuasive, pro&con paper. Issues and Controversies has a quick overview of both sides of a topic.

Go to the section under Curriculum Tools, Student tools, select the More link.
On this screen Select Issues Pro and Con in the Tools for Students box.
Now you can scroll through the list or use the alphabetical tool to hop to your topic.

In three sentences they give you both sides of a topic. It is a very handy way to see that, yes, there could be another side to this subject.

Keep up with current issues by using Facts.Com, Issues and Controversies!


-kss

Galileo
...Databases A-Z
....F
......Facts.com
Notice the link to the login/password which you'll need to use even though you're in GALILEO.
Select Issues and Controversies

Commencement

The December CTC Graduation ceremony was held this morning at the Cobb Performing Arts Center.

The speaker was Senator Chip Rogers. The three points he gave the graduates will work for anyone. Here's my take on what he said- Look forward to Monday morning because when you're doing a job you enjoy, you'll do it well. Ask when you need or want something. If you don't ask for it how will you ever get it. Last but not least, give back to the community, service to others makes life worthwhile.

Sometimes commencement speeches are just dreadful. It was good to hear one with a clear and useful message.

Congratulations to the current crop of graduates. May you love Monday morning, remember to ask for what you need, and  always serve others.


-kss

Compare and Contrast

MasterFILE Premier is a "general database created for a public library audience. It provides abstracts and indexing for over 2,690 titles as well as full text for over 1,800 journals and general magazines covering nearly all subjects including general reference, business, consumer health, general science, and multicultural periodicals.". It is not a resource usually used by students for their research. One of the EBSCO standards for college students is Academic Search Complete with over 6000 periodicals.

Since both databases are produced by EBSCO, I wondered if there was that great a difference in content? Comparing the two Publications lists, it became very apparent that MasterFILE Premier is not a watered down version of Academic Search Complete.  MasterFILE Premier starts with 1931. Academic Search Complete starts with 1911. Scrolling through the A's, I noticed MasterFILE has AARP, Academic Search Complete does not. They are aiming at different audiences. Yet, I can see some Health programs that would use the AARP information. I'll remind students to check both resources!


-kss

GALILEO you may get the current password from your Georgia librarian
...Databases A -Z
.....Select M for MasterFILE Premier
.....Select A for Academic Search Complete

What do we have?

We are blessed with multiple resources in GALILEO. Regularly users say to me that they can't find anything in GALILEO. GALILEO is a library. It's not a single source. Just like in the physical library there are many places to look for information.

The physical library has a catalog that serves as the index for the collection. The Databases A-Z tab is the closest thing to a catalog for GALILEO.

- You may select the all databases link and scroll through the list. I do that a lot. I like stumbling upon a new resource. It reminds me of browsing through a shelf of books. This doesn't work well when you absolutely, positively need an article!
- You may click on letters to see the resources that start with that letter. You do have to have an idea of what you might be looking for.
- There's a search box where you can use keywords to search through the list. This is the closest to a catalog tool. It searches through the list and pulls up various resources for you to choose from.

If you're not sure which resource will suit your needs, there's a more >> link which opens a description of the resource. When I describe a resource in the blog, I'll use the GALILEO description.

There is a plethora of information in GALILEO. It can be overwhelming at first glance. The Databases A-Z tab will help you find the best resource to use for your information needs.


-kss

Online Dictionaries

Obviously, Today in Georgia History has set off a dictionary stream of consciousness.

On the books tab, the Fundamentals of English Library Guide has a search box for the Credo Reference English Dictionaries. A search for one of the vocabulary words pulled up 51 entries . The first few were the strict definition in a 'regular' dictionary.

A click on the definition opens the screen and shows links to related entries on the left. Those related entries pull from reference sources that you might not consider using when looking for the meaning of a word. It's not the same historic perspective of the OED but it definitely broadens your horizon on the use of a particular word.

Talk to your CTC librarian about how to access Credo Reference off campus.


-kss

What does that mean?

Today in Georgia History has a vocabulary work sheet. They suggest looking up the words in a dictionary. We have a dictionary that not only provides the definition but the history behind a word. The 20 volume Oxford English Dictionary in our Reference section is a treasure of information about single words.
From Amazon: The key feature of the OED, of course, is its unique historical focus. Accompanying each definition is a chronologically arranged group of quotations that illustrate the evolution of meaning from the word's first recorded usage and show the contexts in which it can be used. The quotations are drawn from a huge variety of sources--literary, scholarly, technical, popular-and represent authors as disparate as Geoffrey Chaucer and Erica Jong, William Shakespeare and Raymond Chandler, Charles Darwin and John Le Carre. In all, nearly 2.5 million quotations--illustrating over a half-million words--can be found in the OED. [More]

The English teachers have an assignment where students must come to the physical library and use the physical OED. I bless them for this task.

The OED is available online via a subscription.  GALILEO used to offer the subscription. When the online OED was dropped, we purchased the print edition. You don't have to worry about a subscription being canceled when you own the hard copy. Stop by the North Metro campus library (Room 103) and read all about it.



-kss

What happened?

My scroll through the list of Databases A-Z in GALILEO revealed a link to Today in Georgia History. It is a 'public' site available on the free web. The link in GALILEO is a service to Georgia residents.

Today in Georgia History is an educational program that includes daily television and radio segments focusing on significant people and events associated with a particular day in Georgia history. A joint collaboration of the Georgia Historical Society and Georgia Public Broadcasting, this interactive website allows you to access streaming audio and video of the episodes, as well as transcripts, tips for teachers, curriculum, writing prompts, review questions and discussion topics, classroom exercises, follow-up research topics and selected primary-source material. Together, these resources will reach students of all grade levels, cover all subject areas based on content, and will align with Georgia's social studies curriculum and performance standards.

On the right side of the screen under the Audio Player button is a link for a Daily Activity. The activity is geared to the 8th grade curriculum. As a parent, I can see this Daily Activity being used by the family during the holiday break. Homeschoolers might find it a very handy way to cover Georgia History!

I'm going to get a dictionary and go through the vocabulary words for today. Another way to keep my brain active.


-kss

Exam week

Today is the first day of final exams. Students are studying earnestly. Some are looking forward to graduation from CTC. They are asking about standardized tests to enter the next phase of their education. We have a Library Guide just for this purpose.

The Study / Test Prep Guides Library Guide has tabs for books, articles and internet sources. The internet sources page has boxes for Health Sciences, General Tests, Personal and Public Service. The test prep areas that charge a fee have the $ sign after the title.

The Library Guide is a handy tool to get ready for the next step now that this first tier of higher education has been mastered.

Our Library Guides can be found through the CTC Library page.
..Look on the right side, on the scrap of notepaper for Library Guides.
.....Select All Library Guides to get to the main page.
........The Study / Test Prep Guides is in the Program and Special Topic Guides area.


-kss

Where are the ebooks?

In our catalog there is a drop down link to search our Electronic Book Library. We have electronic books through ebrary, Ebsco, Ovid, Credo, and Project Gutenberg. We don't have everything these vendors make available. If we don't have an electronic version of a title you'd like to use, how might you search for an electronic book without going to each vendor?

In GALILEO, E-Books Index (Electronic Books) includes records for more than 675,000 eBooks that have been cataloged by OCLC member libraries, including titles available from NetLibrary [now Ebsco]and other providers. They include Project Gutenberg titles that have been cataloged.

The difficulty with electronic books is you can't 'borrow' them from other libraries (as far as I know). This index lets you know which vendor produces the title and which library has access. Some public libraries will let you pay for an annual library card which would give you access to their electronic books.

Our library shows up often enough in the list. We do have an extensive e-book collection. The Ebsco, ebrary and Project Gutenberg titles can be downloaded. Get ready for break by 'borrowing' electronic books to read (and not misplace) while traveling.

You will need a CTC login to use our ebrary, Credo and Ebsco electronic books. Check with your CTC librarian for the access information.


-kss

To access the E-Books Index
Go to GALILEO (get the current password from your Georgia librarian)
..Select Databases A-Z
....Select E
......Then select E-Books Index