To see or not to see

We are becoming a society of visual learners. We absorb information from pictures rather than by making pictures of our own from the text we read.

YouTube has become one source for visual information. It is a veritable 'how to' library. GALILEO has a channel with 14 videos to help one learn how to use what is available in GALILEO!



The videos are also available on the GALILEO home page. On the right - under Getting started, select what can I do in GALILEO? You may click on Related tutorials to begin opening up other titles!

Learn how to use GALILEO!
You may get the current password to use GALILEO at home from your Georgia librarian.

-kls

Something new

The upgraded Library catalog is up and running.

It has many new (to us) features- including book covers and a visual search. I’m enjoying playing with the visual search – I clicked on the Visual Search link (the link is in the gray bar toward the middle of the screen) .


There are a few options pictured in alphabetical order - I picked Food.
When I click on a picture, the books available in the CTC collection are displayed.
Select a book by clicking on the details tab.

Some titles will display the Table of Contents

and some extra information about the book- including reviews.

Do you see the subject links? Clicking on one of them narrows your search to just that subject!

What a superb tool to help you make the best selection.

I’m looking forward to showing classes how delightfully fun this catalog is.

I have 8 English classes scheduled next week- they are in for a treat!





-kls

5 letters across

Do you do crossword puzzles? Do you ever find yourself just stuck? Janice Levine, one of the librarians at the Paulding campus, attended a webinar for Credo Reference. Here are her notes with the great hint for solving crossword snafus!

Some of the features that I liked:
• Citations at the end of each entry, in four possible formats, MLA , APA, and 2 others
• I liked the "Related Resources" that show up in the left column when you go to an entry, that link you back to our CTC online catalog and to Encyclopedia Brittanica
• There is also easy access back to the table of contents/index and to biographical entries and images and videos (if there are any) in a reference source through the "Browse Book" feature at the bottom left of any entry
• The advanced search feature allows you to limit your search by specific subjects or book titles, as well as by date, image, etc.
• Also, like in some other systems, one can save results as you flip from one article/entry to another, then delete unneeded info, and save or email info that you would like to keep
• The Gadgets box to the right was also very neat-it allowed you to do a quick search for definitions, people, images, pronunciations, crossword puzzle clues, quotations, holidays and festivals, and to easily convert from one type of measurement to another.
• *Yes-for those of you who are crossword puzzle fans you can actually put in the clues you have so far for a particular crossword puzzle word in the Gadgets box under "Crossword" and the computer will give you options as to what the word should be. So, next time you are doing a crossword puzzle while you are near a computer and you get stuck, you can try out this feature of Credo Reference!

JWF pointed out that Credo Reference has updated the MLA citations to MLA 7!

You may access Credo Reference through GALILEO and through the CTC Library page
Get the password to use GALILEO at home from your Georgia librarian.

-kls

A Librarian read....

Do you remember when Wolf Hall [PR 6063 .A438 W65 2009] arrived at Chattahoochee Tech, North Metro campus? I did a blog noting it was two inches thick and I just wasn't sure if I'd wade through it all. I did start it but couldn't, just couldn't finish it. Another librarian, Lauren Barnes at the Woodstock campus, borrowed the book.
Lauren e-mailed:

I have to say the work getting through the book was worth the interesting viewpoint. It was an interesting angle on the familiar Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII story. It was written from Cromwell’s viewpoint, who usually is painted as a villain. This time he’s the main character. The author starts talking about someone and you don’t know who she’s talking about. Like towards the end of the book there’s a conversation with “The Maid”. In this case, I would say it would make a better movie than a book! It was difficult to read, but if you’re a student of this era in time, it’s worth the time spent.

Maybe I'll try again.....

-kls

Black New Yorkers

The Black New Yorkers : The Schomburg Illustrated Chronology, 400 years of African American History [F 128.9 .N4 D63 2000] written by Howard Dodson, Christopher Moore, and Roberta Yancy offers a chronological history of African Americans in New York.

There are two lists with brief biographies of African Americans - Early Black New York leaders (pg 425) and The New York Black 100 (pg 426). Both offer just a bit of information - birth year, death year, and their accomplishments. If you're looking for Black History tidbits- this book offers you a plethora of opportunities to explore not only New York but America's Black History.

Amazon.com offers a peak inside the book as well as reviews.

-kls

Literature Resource Center

Literature Resource Center is a literature database in Galileo. The database allows you to look up articles of literary criticism, as well as information on various authors.

When you conduct a search in LRC, you will be given a list of search results. Select one of the results from your search. The page displayed for this item will have a red box on the right hand side of the page that is labeled 'tools.' One of the links in the tools box is for 'citation tools.' Clicking on this link will open up a new window that will allow you to select from a variety of citation formats for that particular article. One of these options is for MLA 7, which is the latest update to the MLA citation format.

You should also note that databases in Galileo that are produced by the GALE group, such as Literature Resource Center, all now carry the updated version of MLA. This should make life a bit easier for students citing in the updated MLA format.

Remember that the Chattahoochee Technical College Library has a PDF handout for the updated MLA, with examples, posted on the library's website.

JF

It's here!

The new and improved Lexis Nexis is available through GALILEO!

Today is Fat Tuesday also known as Mardi Gras . The day many Christians clean out the cupboard of dairy and meat products to spend the next 6 weeks fasting. I did a search in the new Lexis Nexis for Fat Tuesday.


Searching for Fat Tuesday (no quotes) turned up 971 articles that emphasized fat. It must have only looked for the word fat.
Searching for "Fat Tuesday" (with quotes) pulled 993 articles.
Sorting both results by publication date shows -
- the no quotes search has a GlaxoSmithKline Health care article first.
- the quote results search lists the Feb 16, 2010 Washington Post article on DC Fat Tuesday activities first.

The sort options are intriguing - chronological puts the articles in publication date order so the oldest article is first. Publication date puts the most recent article at the top of the list. I wonder why they didn't choose one term and note oldest and most recent as options for the sort?

And then, as long as I'm complaining - after you've selected an article, look to the right of the screen. See the icons? The printer, the envelope, the disc are all self explanatory . It was the open book that confused me. It is the icon they are using to send the bibliographic notes to RefWorks (Export of RefWorks format will be redirected to the RefWorks login center.). I know my institution does not subscribe to RefWorks but as an experiment, I clicked on the links.

I could apply for a 30 day trial account (an individual RefWorks subscription would be $100 per year). Why can't they just use whatever ProQuest and Ebsco use to create the citation?

I like Lexis Nexis for the legal information for our Business Law classes. I like it for transcripts of television or radio programs that I want to check.

It isn't as friendly for students to use for research because of the lack of a durable URL to an article. The lack of citation information isn't critical but they obviously know people want citation information or they wouldn't have the link to RefWorks.


I'm glad the new interface for Lexis Nexis is available. I hope they'll add a durable URL and a better citation system.

Get the password to access GALILEO from your Georgia librarian.

-kls

The links for Fat Tuesday and Mardi Gras are thanks to Encyclopedia Britannica, another resource available through GALILEO!

Why we read for fun!

Thank you to Non Sequitur's author Wiley Miller for making it so clear why reading can be anything but boring.

-kls

Happy New Year

Coinciding with Valentines Day this year is the Chinese New Year of 4708. That juxtaposition seems appropriate. A New Year is a perfect time to get on the right foot with ones sweetheart. Though saying just what you want to say is sometimes harder than it seems!

ProQuest through GALILEO offers two tools that might assist you - the first tool will translate the article - look under Document view for a drop down box that says Select Language. The options are astonishing ranging from English to Chinese (Simple))to English to Spanish! If you aren't looking to impress your sweetheart - this would a super place to practice that language you need to suceed in your program. You could open two windows - going back and forth between the English version and the Other Language version.

Proquest does offer this caveat "You have requested "on-the-fly" machine translation of selected content from our databases. This functionality is provided solely for your convenience and is in no way intended to replace human translation."


The other translation tool allows you to change the Interface Language only. This way you could practice following the directions, while being able to read the article in the language you are most comfortable reading.

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


-kls

Nelson Mandela and Interlibrary Loan

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the release of activist Nelson Mandela from prison in South Africa. Mandela had been jailed for decades for speaking out against Apartheid. Apartheid was the political system by which a white minority dominated and segregated the other races of the country of South Africa. Mandela's release, along with the legal restoration of his African National Congress party, began a swift process which saw the dismantling of Apartheid and the eventual election of Mandela in the country's first elections open to people of all races.

This anniversary proved to be a bit ironic as I am currently reading a book about Mandela and the fall of Apartheid. The book is entitled Playing the Enemy and was written by John Carlin. The book was recently adapted into a film version entitled Invictus.

However, you will notice by looking through the Chattahoochee Technical College Library catalog that the book isn't part of our collection. So how then, did I get the book? It was through a process called Interlibrary Loan. This is a service that the college library provides to you. We are able to get books not in our collection by borrowing them from other participating libraries all around the United States. Go to Worldcat and type in a book title to see what libraries near your present location own the book.

There are exceptions to Interlibrary Loan. Please read the rules regarding Interlibrary Loan on the library's section of the Chattahoochee Technical College website. The biggest exception students need to be aware of is that the library will not request textbooks for students through Interlibrary Loan.

JWF

Snap Judgement

The Chattahoochee Technical College Library has some books on cd-rom for patrons and staff.

One such book is entitled 'Snap Judgement: When to Trust Your Instincts, When to Ignore Them, and How to Avoid Making Big Mistakes with Your Money,' by David Adler.

This book examines, primarily through the medium of finances, how humans tend to make decisions based more on emotion than on empirical evidence. This explains the level of gambling consumers apply to the rise and fall of stocks on the open market. The book points out that we, as humans, need to slow down with our decisions and apply empirical knowledge and evidence to our choices before we make a decision.

JF

You can find more audio titles by going to the CTC Library catalog
...select the Power Search tab
.....type in your topic
.......look down at the search options - select itemtype
.......select cd or cassette tape

Learning tips

A co-worker shared:

I took a webinar this morning that gave instructions on how to access and use Credo Reference,located both on our main website and on GALILEO. Credo has a huge database (400+) of reference resources focused on a wide selection of topics.

The organizers enjoy receiving feedback on ways to add or improve their title selection in case you notice something lacking in a certain area.

A couple of interesting tips I learned:

 Credo is linked to our online catalogue and Encyclopedia Britannica.
.....To access this tab, type in a search word into Credo .
.....After reviewing the Credo hits, you may browse our catalogue or Britannica by selecting the search box on the right called “Continue searching in…”

 At the bottom of each article, students will find how to cite the material using the APA, Chicago, Harvard, or MLA format.

 Medical students would be interested in the Taber Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary, which has a pronunciation feature.

I hope you find the information useful!

- LM

The password to access GALILEO from home is available from your Georgia librarian.

Scouting turns 100

Robert McHenry wrote

Today is the 100th anniversary of the chartering of the Boy Scouts of America. The scouting movement had begun in England in 1907, when Robert S.S. Baden-Powell, hero of the siege of Mafeking in the Boer War, organized a camp for boys on an island off the Dorset coast. The next year he published Scouting for Boys, based in part on Aids to Scouting, a handbook he had written some years earlier for use in the army.

...to read the rest of the story

Robert McHenry does ask a valid question - is scouting still relevant? Check the official Boy Scouts of America site to see what you think!

Happy Birthday- and Be Prepared!

-kls

Encyclopedia Britannica online is a resource subscribed to by Chattahoochee Technical College Library. There is a link to EB from our library page.

Who is free to vote

Reading The First Emancipator by Andrew Levy [F229 .C34 L48 2005] has made me wonder a bit about what I really know concerning black history. The concluding sentence of the introduction intrigues me - "The mystery of Robert Carter, then is really two mysteries: why he freed his slaves, and why we couldn't care less."

I went to GALILEO, selected Databases A-Z, selected show all and began to scroll through, looking for a database that might tell me more about emancipation. The Annals of American History which
includes the full text of primary documents in American history, including historical accounts, speeches, memoirs, poems, editorials, landmark court decisions, and cultural criticism seemed like a great place to start.

Searching for emancipation brought up 100 articles. The difficulty with using this database is I can't see how to sort the articles by time/date, author, title, or something. I just get a list of articles. The Help menu notes there should be a Sort By link - I'm not seeing that option after the results come up from a search.

Letting serendipity guide me by scrolling through I noticed an article that refers to African Americans right to vote in Pennsylvania being denied in 1838 ["Appeal of Forty Thousand African Americans, Threatened with Disfranchisement"].
The document is quite clear- African Americans had been voting in Pennsylvania since the Revolution- not all blacks, not everywhere in Pennsylvania but enough to warrant a protest with 40,000 people. Free blacks voting in a northern state prior to the Civil War. Why don't we know about this?

A Google search on Black voting rights turned up the 15th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act and an ACLU voting rights timeline. None of these sites noted blacks voting in
Pennsylvania pre-1838. This article from the Historical Society of Pensylvania shed a bit of light on who was voting and what happened in 1838.

I did get distracted didn't I? Started out looking for emancipation- ended up with voting.

Following a trail can lead you to a destination unthought of- get the password to use GALILEO at home from your Georgia librarian.


-kls

The First Emanicpator

[F 229 .C34 L 48 2005]

Black History month is a time set apart to emphasize the contributions of African Americans. There have been Caucasians who assisted African Americans on the long road to being freely integrated in society. Andrew Levy wrote a biography of one Caucasian who put words into action at a time in our countries history when the words of liberty were frequently used. Robert Carter, a Virginia Planter, Founding Father of the United States, and neighbor to George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, freed his slaves in 1791. Mr. Levy pieces together the path Robert Carter took to doing something others said would be nice but they just couldn't do right then.

A search in GALILEO using the basic search tab and typing The First Emancipator as a Keyword search, turned up several reviews of the book including this review from Journal of Southern History.

You may get the password to use GALILEO at home from your Georgia librarian.

-kls

Slave Narratives

My co-worker attended an Ancestry.com webinar. She was sharing a feature I wasn't aware of- the slave narratives.

go to GALILEO.
..select Databases A-Z.
....select A.
......Ancestry.com (only available on campus).
Click the Search tab (middle tab).
Notice on the right side- a column with Browse records.
Scroll down to Stories and Publications.
Select Slave Narratives.

Now here's where the fun begins! See Type and Location?
Click on the drop down box under type - here are wonderful options from Famous Personalities to War stories! You may limit your search to a specific state.

Keep in mind that the stories told by the former slaves were collected by the Works Project Administration. Federal Writers Project. Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves. Washington, D.C.: n.p., n.d. in the 1930's. The people telling the stories and remembering would have been over 70 years old.

This is a wonderful resource to use with students during Black History month. Ancestry.com is only available on campus but it's available through any computer on campus!

A caveat- I searched for Lincoln as a surname, limited the search to Georgia and Lincoln county came up in the results.


-kls

Only the Shadow Knows!

Today is Groundhog Day. The day men in fancy dress disturb Punxsutawney Phils rest to see if spring will come soon to the north east!

For fast news:
GALILEO.
..Databases A-Z.
....L.
.....LexisNexis.
Search for groundhog.
Limit to previous week and newswire services.

LexisNexis has posted multiple articles from the AP wire (8:45am, 2 Feb 2010).

Meanwhile in Lilburn, Georgia General Beauregard Lee noted:

It's an early spring! Beau did NOT see his shadow when he emerged at 7:35a in rainy, 40 degree weather

Georgians are looking forward to living into the truth of Gen. Beau Lee, Ph.D's forecast!

-kls


For those too young to remember, the title refers to the classic mystery, The Shadow!

Grammy

The 52nd Grammy awards were given out on January 31. The official award site has a cornucopia of information about winners past and present!

GALILEO has resources that will offer a different perspective than the industry promotes. I started my quest with
Browse by Subject
...Arts and Humanities
.....Music.
I was disappointed in the search options. I was offered Academic Search Complete and Research Library with GIL and Encyclopedia Britannica as the Show More Options. I thought there might be something more musical in the list.

I went to the Basic GALILEO Search tab at the far right.
I typed in Grammy Awards
...Selected full text
......Selected 2010 only
Clicked on Show More Options which allowed me to add Newspaper Sources and ProQuest Newspapers (though I can not add Lexis Nexis or NewsBank) to the Basic Search alongside Academic Search Complete and Research Library .

Voila- enough articles to satisfy my curiosity about what happened and why!

Interesting to see that Research Library and ProQuest Newspapers offered more stories dated February 1 than the others!

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


-kls

Full Moon Names

Saturday you experienced the Full Wolf Moon. This is the old Native American name for the full moon of January. Lacking formal calendars, some Native American tribes attached names to the full moon for each month as a way of marking the seasons. January is the Full Wolf Moon due to the packs of wolves that were often found near villages during the cold months. You can read more about the various moon names here.

JF

Howard Zinn

Historian Howard Zinn passed away today. Zinn was 87.

Zinn is best remembered for his book, A People's History of the United States [E 178 .Z75 2005]. The book takes a bit of a populist and left leaning stance toward US history. Zinn's history grew in popularity over time, by word of mouth. The book was briefly mentioned in one of the therapy scenes between Matt Damon and Robin Williams in the film Good Will Hunting.

A copy of the book is available at the North Metro campus library. Remember that if you are not a student at the North Metro campus, you can contact your Chattahoochee Technical College campus librarian to have the book sent to the campus location most convenient for you.

JF

and we say farewell

J.D.Salinger ,RIP

I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, ...I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be.

~The Catcher in the Rye , Holden Caulfield in Chapter 22

The Catcher in the Rye [PS3537 .A426 ] was published in 1951 to horror and acclaim, depending on whether you were young or old. If you missed reading this classic work of adolescent angst- you can read the cliff notes version in our electronic collection.
Go to Chatahoochee Technical College
...Select Quicklinks
.....Select Library
.......Select Find books
Search for Catcher in the Rye, limited to Just Electronic Books.

There are two electronic books - both in NetLibrary - the Cliff notes and Blooms. You will need to create your 'free account' [library card] on campus to use NetLibrary.

-kls

What's it about?

A few days ago, I wrote how you may find the new titles added to our catalog by:
...going to Chattahoochee's main page
.... selecting Quicklinks
......selecting Library
....... selecting Find Books
.........clicking on the blue New Books box in the top left corner

Some of our fiction titles do not have a complete description. The title, author, publisher and a few subject descriptions are displayed - but what about the plot?

If you go to GALILEO
....select Databases A-Z
......select N
.........go to NoveList where you'll find more information about many fiction works!

NoveList is 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. NoveList provides enhanced subject access to over 125,000 fiction titles and more than 90,000 full-text book reviews or annotations.

As an experiment let's look for one of our newest books which was mentioned in the PeachBuzz in Sundays AJC [link from NewsBank], The Help by Kathryn Stockett. We have a brief description of the story in our catalog

In Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962, there are lines that are not crossed. With the civil rights movement exploding all around them, three women start a movement of their own, forever changing a town and the way women--black and white, mothers and daughters--view one another.

That might give me enough of a clue on whether I wanted to read this book but what if it wasn't quite enough.

A search for The Help in NoveList limited to title and adult pulled up 6 titles. The Help I was looking for was on this list.

NoveList has a slightly different summary

Limited and persecuted by racial divides in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, three women, including an African-American maid, her sassy and chronically unemployed friend, and a recently graduated white woman, team up for a clandestine project.

There are two book reviews, three study guides, a Find Similar Books link and the World Cat link which allows me to see the closest library to my IP address that carries this book!

If you aren't getting enough information in any catalog about a fiction title - open a second internet tab and go to NoveList in GALILEO.


-kls

What's it worth to ya?

Instructors regularly suggest that students look for information to compare and contrast. History, Sociology, Marketing, Accounting and the Allied Health programs look for statistics to use in these academic comparisons.

It seems like it ought to be easy to find statistics from one historical period that can be compared to the same type of event from another historical period. I've had trouble doing this online. I've rediscovered a book that pulls numbers from 1860 to 2004. These economic indicators can be used by a variety of program areas.

The Value of a Dollar 1860-2004, 3rd edition [REF HB 235 .U6 V35 2004] by Scott Derks is reviewed on Amazon by Booklist:

This engaging statistical summary presents the history of the American people through the prices they paid for a wide variety of products and services. The first section is organized into six chapters covering 20-year periods and then into subchapters covering 5-year spans. Each subchapter presents a chronology of mostly economic events; tables showing typical wages and incomes, expenditures, and investment yields; a representative "food basket" comparing prices in different cities; prices on items from alcoholic beverages to travel; and more. Following these summaries is a new section called "Pricing Trends," which tracks changes in the costs of goods and services in various categories and also show values compared to today's dollar.

Sometimes a print resource is easier to use than wandering through the wild web! Stop by your library and peruse the Reference collection. Let your fingers do the walking through the print information.

-kls

Australian Coups

Today is Australia Day, which is the national holiday of Australia. The holiday celebrates the arrival of the 'First Fleet' under the command of Arthur Phillip at Sydney Cove in the year 1788. This British fleet would mark the first permanent European settlement of Australia. (Remember that the Aboriginal peoples were living in Australia for centuries prior to the first Europeans doing so.)

Twenty years to the day after the arrival of the first fleet, Australia went through its first and only coups. The Governor of the colony of New South Wales, one William Bligh (yes, that William Bligh), was overthrown by elements of the military and economic and political elements within the colony. This event is called the Rum Rebellion. The government of Australia has remained stable since then, although Prime Minister Harold Holt did disappear while swimming in 1967.

Going to the History Reference Center database in Galileo and performing a search for Australia and Rum Rebellion yields some articles related to the event.

JF

What's new on the shelf?

An anonymous benefactor has gifted the North Metro campus library with 121 hardback books from their collection. Mostly fiction, mostly current fiction which is even better for our readers!

How do you figure out what's new to a campus library? Each Friday our catalog updates and produces a list of titles added to the catalog. Go to our catalog.

Chattahoochee Technical College
..Click on Quicklinks (upper right corner)
....Select Library
......Select Find Books (middle of column in red letters)
Now you're in the catalog. In the upper left corner right under Web cat- there is a blue box that says NEW BOOKS.
Select that blue box.
Click on the campus you're interested in or select All New Books!

That's it! Now you can explore what's new on our shelves.



-kls

Happy Birthday season, Mr. Burns!

Encyclopedia Britannica blogger, Robert McHenry, notes the poet Robert Burns 251st birthday was January 25th. I like to celebrate birthdays for weeks before and weeks after the actual day.

We have access to Encyclopedia Britannica through GALILEO. We also have several literary databases that can give an indepth look at the poet.

I went to the Browse by Subject tab inGALILEO
..selected Literature, Language, and Literary Criticism
...then selected the Literature and Literary Criticism link

Here I can do a bulk search of 5 resources.
I chose to search for Robert Burns and limit my search to the Subject.
This definitely limited the results to under 50 hits.

The Literature Resource Center (Gale) had no results at all, which I admit I thought was odd.
I went to Databases A-Z, selected L, and directly selected Literature Resource Center (Gale).

The same search pulled up 96 biographies of Robert Burns. I quickly realized that I needed to limit my search to the radio button person- by or about. I continued to have to drill down through the various Robert Burns (who knew there were so many authors named Robert Burns) till I found the correct Robert Burns.

Literature Resource Center (Gale) allows you to create a bookmark that can link you to the specific article you found. Literature Resource Center (Gale) also offers the opportunity to listen to the article or download it in an mp3 file!

Learn more about poets who have literary longevity by using the resources in GALILEO.

You may get the password to access GALILEO resources from your Georgia librarian!

-kls

Monday morning quarterback

Big games on TV with exciting finishes will lead to intense discussions about who did what best and when. Getting sports stats is pretty easy- just go to ESPN.

If you're looking for analysis there are resources in GALILEO that are used by the students in the Sport and Recreation Management program. They need access to something a little more indepth than just numbers for sports management.

You are already aware I really like LexisNexisfor news articles. Chattahoochee Tech Library subscribs to NewsBank with articles going back to 1985.

Here's another source that the Chattahoochee Tech Library subscribes to: Facts.com.

Facts.com highlights articles on current issues and controversies in society and science. Additionally, Facts.com contains a World Almanac Reference Database, World Almanac Encyclopedia, Reuters news articles, and World News Digest special features and articles from 1940 - present.

Go to GALILEO
...Databases A-Z
.....Select F
.......Select Facts.com
In the right hand column, they offer a News Services Cross Search
This will search three of the Facts. com resources - World News Digest, Todays Science and Issues and Controversies.

A search for "Minnesota Vikings" (put the words in quotes or you'll get references to Norway and vikings) turned up 195 articles. Facts.com
doesn't put the results in any order. I discovered I can click on the date link at the top of the right column and sort the articles with the most recent at the top.

There's another handy tool in Facts.com. The last tab is Reference Shelf. Clicking on that tab reveals the source for the articles - either encyclopedia or almanac. There is the citation in MLA and APA at the very bottom of the article!

Go looking for something to wow the folks around the water cooler with your indepth understanding of the recent sports event.

-kls

the Poe Toaster

The Poe Toaster was a mysterious visitor to the grave of Edgar Allen Poe. Each year, the toaster would leave some roses and a bit of cognac at Poe's grave in Baltimore on the anniversary of Poe's birthday. 2010 marked the first time in over sixty years that the toaster failed to arrive. This disappointed a crowd of observers at the grave, many of whom gather each year just to watch the toaster's early morning visit.

Information on Poe and his macabre works can be found in Galileo. One good database to use is Literature Resource Center. A search for Edgar Allen Poe in this database provides you with links to biographies on Poe, news about Poe, and critical analysis of Poe's works.

JF

The Birthday season begins for GALILEO

News from the GALILEO staff:

Believe it or not, GALILEO will turn 15 on September 21, 2010.

Way back in 1995, long before Google, GALILEO helped bring the University System of Georgia libraries, students, faculty, and staff the ability to search indexes and retrieve full-text materials on this new thing called the “World Wide Web” using something called “ASCII text.” For many of these users, GALILEO was their first introduction to the Internet, much less graphical interfaces, as well as the benefits this technology had for learning and research.

In fact, GALILEO helped put public computers into the University System libraries and provided fax machines for interlibrary loan articles, at time when some campuses had a single fax machine in the President’s office. Institutions that had only a few journals suddenly had access to hundreds of journals. GALILEO’s delivery over PeachNet helped people understand the benefits of robust networks for transmitting data, providing the impetus and legislative support for bringing both internet access and GALILEO to public libraries and schools.

Even in this era of ubiquitous information that has followed its early innovation, GALILEO still provides the core resource for the libraries and media centers of Georgia, fulfilling its mission to be “One Statewide Library” by bringing quality, authoritative, and secure digital materials of all kinds to the citizens of Georgia, including encyclopedias, books, thousands of periodicals, and unique materials of historical and cultural significance. Over one billion user experiences attest to the success of GALILEO.

The spirit of innovation and collaboration that has been part of GALILEO since the beginning continues, as today GALILEOhas multiple interfaces that serve different audiences and communities of interest, special tools for federated searching and linking to ejournals across all resources, a toolbar for easy use in common browsers, online training for library staff, and video tutorials for users. The future promises to continue apace, as new discovery tools and tools to assist the integration of library resources into online learning environments enhance the GALILEO environment.

As a teenager, GALILEO will continue to need the support, encouragement, and thoughtful guidance of the GALILEO community; the birthday is a great opportunity to share and express the value that GALILEO provides to the state of Georgia.

• GALILEO Life Contest: Use your creativity to show support for and use of GALILEOby making a video, poster, powerpoint, or a library “fan.” Contribute entries by May 14th. Prizes will be awarded for the 5 age groups in each of the three media (poster, video, and powerpoint) categories and the 3 library types (public, academic, and K12) in the fan category. See details about the contest guidelines and submission instructions.

• GALILEOScrapbook: Collect your stories, quotes, and pictures and share with GALILEO to post in an online scrapbook of community and sharing. Details will be available soon.

• GOLD/GALILEO User Group Conference: Our annual gathering will include special events and activities to recognize GALILEO’s birthday and contributions to libraries in Georgia and your participation in the contest and scrapbook activities. Details will be available later in 2010.

• Virtual Birthday Celebration, September 21, 2010: A special online event to share and recognize the 15th birthday and the GALILEO community.

The celebration starts today — watch for regular news and information in the coming months, and in the meantime, remember: you are part of GALILEO, so this is your 15th birthday too!

-reposted by kls

Have You Seen . . .

The Mountain View campus library has a new book for you to checkout. 'Have You Seen . . .?: A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films' is a 2008 book by David Thomson (call number-PN1997.8 .T46 2008). Thomson is a noted writer and has done works on film in the past. The book is really quite simple, with the author giving just what the title says, a personal introduction to 1,000 different films. The rear of the book has an index that notes the titles that are covered by year of theatrical release. It is interesting to note that some years have several films listed in the book, such as 1977, while 2002 has only one (the Nic Cage film Adaptation). Many favorites of film are found within the book, including the Wizard of Oz and Star Wars, along with some great films a bit less known to general audiences, ex. Wild Strawberries and Belle du Jour.

The book is quite thick at over 1,000 pages. You might not want to read the whole book. However, you can use the work to gain some perspective on some old favorites, or get an opinion on a film you considering renting through Netflix or your local video store.

JF

The weather is

The weather is a neutral topic of conversation. Wherever you are, you can make a comment about the weather to a perfect stranger. This may start up a conversation that will pass the time pleasantly. Casual conversation does build the web that keeps society civil.

What if you're looking for weather information that will inspire an in depth conversation? Where do you go to get the clever facts for your area? Most folks might peruse The Weather Channel before going out. Yet, there are other weather fact sites where you might find that odd little fact that starts the conversation going in a direction that has a bit of character - more than the usual- "yes, it is warm/cold/wet/dry/humid,etc".

How do you find those sites?

Our Environmental Horticulture department uses weather information in their classes. They have found these sites to be useful. I admit to being fond of Trippish. It's like Google maps but with weather pictures. Now there's a conversation starter!

-kls

Starting anew

On NPR I have heard two stories about eco travel in Egypt. Tour groups are taking small groups of visitors out into the desert away from the classic pyramid sites to really experience Egypt. Today the story mentioned a blacksmith who's bread and butter business is making farm implements. With the tourist trade arriving, he is starting to make trinkets for the guests. He's wondering if this is just a blip on the economic radar or a true growth opportunity for his business.

Listening to the story, I thought about a resource Chattahoochee Technical College Library subscribes to - Entrepreneurship by Proquest.

Search worldwide publications and multi-media related to the topic of Entrepreneurship. Intended to bridge theory with practice, the Entrepreneurship database covers a wide spectrum of resources useful to educators, researchers, students and practitioners. Content ranges from the scholarly - including journals, dissertations, working papers and conference proceedings - to a full toolkit of practical guides, templates, forms, sample business plans, and tips from successful entrepreneurs.

Small business owners don't need to guess if what they are doing has promise, they can read articles that note the experiences of other business people. Learn from others success and failure!

You can access Entrepreneurship from the Chattahoochee Technical College Library page or through GALILEO (it's under E in Databases A-Z).

-kls

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

High tech vehicles

An article in the 27 Dec 2009 AJC on pg 4B (High-tech vehicles pose trouble for some mechanics by Daisy Nguyen) tweaked my interest enough to clip it out and plan to talk about Auto Repair Reference Center in GALILEO

I went looking for the article in GALILEO so I could give you a durable URL to the article about auto repair shops not being able to access the latest information for car repair. Then I'd say - here in Georgia you can access Auto Repair Reference Center for information about your car!

Auto Repair Reference Centerdatabase includes automotive repair information supplied by Point 5 Technologies, Inc., under license from Nichols Publishing, the former publisher of Chilton® Information ...

- The quick search in Academic Search Complete and Research Library (at ProQuest) did not bring up the article.
- My search in NewsBank revealed nothing.
- Newspaper source had articles by Daisy Nguyen but not this current article.
- I did find the exact article in Lexis Nexis

Hie thee hence to GALILEO
Select Databases A-Z
...Select L
.....Select Lexis Nexis
Search under the News tab
...limit your search to wire services
...search for Nguyen as author and the word Humming in the lead paragraph

-kls


The current password to use GALILEO from off campus changed on January 4th. Stop by your Chattahoochee Tech campus library to get the current password!

Bring one, take one

Did you know that just inside the doors of Room 103 (the North Metro campus library) there is a book cart with a sign that says “Paperback swap - bring one, take one”?

Over the break a fan of reading weeded their paperback collection and we are overflowing with different (new to us) titles.
Stop by room 103 (library), step inside the door and peruse the swap rack.
Take a book and promise to bring the book back or promise to bring in a different paperback! We really don’t keep track. It is the honor system.

If we get a snow day this week… you might like to have something non-electronic at home for entertainment (if the power goes out- oh my)….

-kls

Break is over, Quarter begins

It has been very, very busy at the North Metro campus of Chattahoochee Terchnical College as students arrive to begin the Winter Quarter. There have been a few technical glitches which the library staff have worked around to help students figure out where they needed to be and when...

New materials are arriving! We'll share what they are in the next few days.


-kls

Who lived there?

Carolyn L. Barkley notes:

"I have written on several occasions about the exhilaration of moving beyond names and dates and adding detail about the lives of our ancestors. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to put their feet on the ground in a specific place and time. A significant resource in that effort can be found in Sanborn fire insurance maps."... here's the rest of the article

If you are traveling to visit family this holiday season, it seems appropriate to share the two resources available through GALILEO that can help you find the information to flesh out the story about the family home.

The two resources are the Georgia Sanborn Fire Insurance maps and the US census in Ancestry Library Edition.

Go to GALILEO
Select Databases A-Z
....A for Ancestry Library Edition which is only available for use at the public library
.......Select census collection, US census.
.......It's not easy to search by location but once you have the township you can browse through the list. It's easier to find a person in the census than a house.
....S for Sanborn Fire Insurance or go directly to the Digital Library of Georgia (no password needed).
........It's easier to find the house than a name in the Sanborn collection.

You'll need to use your detective skills to figure out how to find the people in one source and find the house in the other. And let me know how you do it!

Happy holidays.... see you in January.

-kls

It's the busiest day

The news reports are noting how busy the post office, Fed Ex, and UPS will be in helping move presents around the country! We are a generous group of folks who live too far apart.

I wondered where I might statistics on the mail. Yes, I could do a Google search but, well, I'm fond of starting in GALILEO. I know the stats probably won't be in Academic Search Complete or Research Library. They are great resources for articles but not for statistics.

I clicked on Databases A-Z, searched for 'statistics". 16 databases came up. I scrolled through and I'm not sure any of them are just right but I'll try World Data Analyst. I selected United States from the list of countries. A seven page pdf file was revealed with all sorts of statistics on the United States - the most current seem to be from 2006. None have anything to do with the post office or Fed Ex or UPS.

Still thinking- where else might these numbers be? I went back to Databases A-Z, selected all database and just 'browsed' through the list till I came upon the Feds sites USA.gov. This is not a proprietary site. I could have found it through Google but - it's nice it's in GALILEO(our virtual library). A search for postal statistics pulled up an assortment of pdf files that show use per quarter. 2009 is listed!

-kls

Festival of Lights

At sundown Jews begin celebrating the Festival of Lights that we also know as Chanukah or Hanukkah. I wanted to find information that I could rely on - not just any old web site freely accessed on the web. I went to GALILEO and did something a bit different - because sometimes one wants to narrow the search for information by using "off the beaten path" databases!

I selected the search tab
..typed in my search term
....left full text and peer reviewed unclicked
....did not change the years
Unclicked Academic Search Complete and Research Library (yes, these are the big boys but I wanted to try something a bit different)...
Then selected Show more databases
Scrolled down and clicked on Encyclopedia Britannica, the Religion database, and World History

I searched this group three times. I used Chanukah, Hanukkah, and Festival of Lights.

Using the word Chanukah turned up 1 article in EB, 1 in World History and a few more in the Religion database.

Hanukkah resulted in 14 EB, 2 World Historyand 32 in Religion.

Changing the search term to Festival of Lights brought up 32 in EB, 6 in Religion and 5 in World History.

Fascinating what a difference a word makes in the search. Get off the beaten path- explore different databases using the search tab and the Show more databases option!

-kls

You may get the current password to use GALILEO at home from your Georgia librarian.

Just browsing

When a sales clerk asks if I need help in a store, I regularly respond with "I'm just browsing". Patrons in the library respond the same way when I ask if they are finding what they need on the shelves -"just browsing, thanks".

ABI Inform (a Proquest resource) has a Browse tab (fourth tab from the left) for those who don't know exactly what they want but are looking to see what's available. Most ProQuest resources do not have this feature.

What does Browse do for you that a regular search does not? ABI Inform has noted specific topics and categories:
-- Industry and Market Research
-- Commodity Reports
-- Company Reports
-- Country Reports
Under each heading are links that focus the browsing.

When you aren't sure what to search for but you have some general ideas on what you might like to know- use the Browse tab in ABI Inform.

-kls

The password to use GALILEO at home is available from your Georgia librarian.

Weeding and New Stuff

Greetings,

Weeding is the term librarians use to describe the process of sifting through the collection and removing materials that are out of date or no longer necessary. This is done so that the library's users won't be given false or incorrect information in a book. Indeed, the accrediting bodies related to our college's programs often check to see that the materials in the library are current and up to date. Medical books in particular are removed in most cases no later than five years after their publication.

Often there are those who see this as a waste. My own father does not believe old encyclopedias should be discarded. The 'someone might get something out of them' argument is used to defend this position. But what if the 'something' were incorrect? This could potentially be harmful, particularly if it is medical information.

This week I have gone through the reference section at the Mountain View campus and have removed some items. These were items of a statistical nature for which we had a more recent version. A few other items I left on the shelf, but made a note to order the most recent version the next time I do a book order.

The weeding of the reference collection freed up some shelf space. I have decided to dedicate this space to the creation of a new materials section. This small area will house books that are new to the library. The idea is to make faculty and students more aware of the books' existence. Just one more way to promote our materials.

Remember friend, you can find out the new materials in the library's collection. Just go to the library's catalog. Click on the button that says 'new books,' located in the top left corner of the page. You will then be able find out the newest materials in the collection by campus.

JF

Listening

Are you a visual or an aural learner? Gale Literature Resource Center offers an audio icon with the option to download the text as an MP3 file. I'm listening to a file as I type - the female voice is pleasant but there is an electronic quality to the reading that is a bit like listening to a good SciFi movie.

From Gale's help screen:
What types of content can be read aloud?Full-text documents. Citation-only or abstract-only documents will not display the Listen icon. You will also be able to listen to Help pages and Dictionary definitions.
The audio player may not read aloud all links within the document. In addition, it will ignore image captions.

I can see this being used by athletes, travelers, and folks who just want to listen! Being able to select articles on topics I'm interested in, then downloading the article to my MP3 player makes it possible for me to create a library of short audio titles for free!

Chattahoochee Tech users may access the Gale Literature Resource Center through GALILEO. Stop by your campus library to get the current password.

-kls

Let's not forget

Hat Tip to Dear Myrtle

Footnote.com Opens Their WWII Collection Free To The Public During December
Lindon, UT – December 7, 2009 – In honor of Pearl Harbor Day, Footnote.com announced today that they will make the largest interactive WWII collection on the web including the Interactive USS Arizona Memorial free to the public during December. Featuring over 10 million records, documents and photos from the National Archives, this collection helps family members and historians better understand the people and events of WWII......

GALILEO offers Ancestry Library Edition in the library. There are ten resources in Ancestry Library Edition that have World War II in the title.

- U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946 Military USA
- U.S. World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942 Military USA U.S.
- Rosters of World War II Dead, 1939-1945 Military USA
- World War II and Korean Conflict Veterans Interred Overseas Military USA
- World War II Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard Casualties, 1941-1945 Military USA
- World War II Prisoners of War, 1941-1946 Military USA
- Japanese Americans Relocated During World War II Military USA
- World War II Japanese-American Internment Camp Documents, 1942-1946 Court, Land, Wills & Financial USA
- World War II Young American Patriots, 1941-1945 Military USA
- New York Southern District, World War II Military Naturalization Index, 1941-1946 Immigration & Emigration USA

If you're looking for the person in your family who served during World War II, come to your Georgia library and use Ancestry Library Edition

Go to GALILEO
..select Databases A-Z
....select A
......select Ancestry Library Edition
scroll down to More Collections, click on list all databases
type in World War II for the title


-kls

What's new at GGP

An announcement from the Digital Library of Georgia:

The Digital Library of Georgia is pleased to present the redesign of the Georgia Government Publications.

Developed in 1996 as GALILEO's first digital conversion initiative, the Georgia Government Publications database contains born-digital publications and scanned print documents produced by Georgia state agencies. The GGP provides a comprehensive repository of state publications 1994 to the present, and project participants are actively scanning documents printed before 1994 to provide researchers with a valuable source for online historical research.

The Georgia Government Publications(GGP) database consists of over 44,000 documents produced by 100 Georgia state agencies. Georgia agencies are required by law to submit print and electronic publications that they produce for the public to the official depository at the University of Georgia Libraries. These publications are all included in the GGP, which features such publications as Guide to Alligator Hunting in Georgia, Members of the General Assembly of Georgia, rack cards on the Georgia state parks, images of Georgia's song birds from the Traveling Songsters poster, and thousands of other items generated by Georgia's executive branch of government.

The Georgia Government Publications database is part of the Digital Library of Georgia, a GALILEO initiative.

I will say the Guide to Alligator Hunting in Georgia looks especially intriguing to this city girl!


-kls

the Great Game

The term the Great Game denotes the imperial struggles between Russia and Great Britain in central Asia during the 1800's. The nation of Afghanistan was used as a buffer state between the Russian and British colonial holdings in southern Asia. It has been suggested that some of the blame for the recent geopolitical troubles in Afghanistan can be traced back to the playing of the Great Game. The Great Game started a long history of involvement in Afghanistan by foreign powers for various reasons.

Doing a general search in Galileo for 'Great Game' and 'Afghanistan' (don't put in the quote marks when searching) then sorting the results by relevance, yields some good results. Some of the highest relevancy ranked results deal with a new playing of the game in Afghanistan, now involving India and Pakistan.

JF

Afghanistan

Did you do a Google search on Afghanistan after the Presidents speech? Google pulled up Wikipedia (the 122 references in the Wikipedia article had more than a few Find It buttons connecting to GALILEO ) and the CIA Factbook.

Thinking about those reference links in Wikipedia, I did a search on Afghanistan in GALILEO, I selected:
Browse by subject
..History
....History
......Typed in Afghanistan
........ I unclicked the Digital Library of Georgia. I selected more resources and clicked on Encyclopedia Britannica.

Thousands of articles were pulled going back years. The Google search did give me resources for basic facts. GALILEO provided depth for my quest for information about the topic.

Sometimes "just the facts" is enough. Sometimes depth is necessary.


-kls

You may get the password to use GALILEO at home from your Georgia librarian.

Little cat feet

When I see fog, I think of the poem by Carl Sandburg that I had to memorize in elementary school. This picture of Fog is copyright © copyright-free-pictures.org.uk

CTC Library subscribes to Literature Resource Center which provides biographies on thousands of authors, as well as literary criticism, historical context, and social implications of literature .

A basic search for Carl Sandburg turned up 56 biographical references. As I scrolled the list, I noticed only 4 that seemed to be specifically about Carl Sandburg. I'm guessing the others referenced him in some way. I started playing to see how I could narrow the search to just biographies on Carl Sandburg.

At the Basic Search page, I typed in Carl Sandburg
..I clicked on the radio button Person - By or about
....I unclicked the content type options leaving only biographies
Search pulled up 5 biographies - a much easier to peruse selection!

Narrowing the search by learning what buttons to click is worth the time and effort! Play with the databases till you can create a search that pulls just what you want - not too much and not too little (as Goldilocks might say - it's just right)!

-kls

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

How does your garden grow?

Frost was again on the roof (and yard) this morning. People who like to garden are curling up with seed catalogs. They are preparing for the spring planting!

What if you aren't sure what you might be able to do with your garden? Garden, Landscape & Horticulture Index in GALILEO provides access to articles about gardens and plants, including topics such as horticulture, botany, garden and landscape design & history, ecology, plant and garden conservation, garden management, and horticultural therapy. A highlight of the database is its focus on environmentally sustainable horticultural and design practices. This index and abstract product is designed for gardening enthusiasts, professionals, and students of horticulture and of garden and landscape design & history. It covers more than 300 core serial titles that include general gardening titles of national, international, and regional interest, and titles devoted to specialty gardens and plant groups.
Because Garden, Landscape & Horticulture Index is an index - you'll mostly pull up citations with a Find It button to let you know which library has the journal. If you select Linked Full Text- this will limit your search to those articles available in the database full text. PDF files have full color pictures.

Curl up with your lap top and peruse the articles. You can beginning planning your spring garden while enjoying the warmth of the fireplace!

-kls

The password to use GALILEO at home is available from your Georgia librarian.

More H1N1 resources

Online vendors are sharing their expertise and resources to help all of us get the most accurate information available to help us weather the flu season.

ebrary understands there is a lot of anxiety, confusion, and frustration regarding H1N1. In fact, we are experiencing it ourselves.

This site was created by ebrary employees, who in the course of researching H1N1 to protect our families and friends, realized that our technology can help.

While some of the most important information in the world is contained within PDF documents, it is a very difficult format to search, use, and manage online. To enable people to discover valuable H1N1 data, we created a highly interactive database of PDF documents from government agencies and other authoritative sites (copyrights permitting or with permission).

We plan to continually grow this collection and welcome your feedback by emailing h1n1@ebrary.com.


-kls

The sky is falling!

Do you remember fire drills in school? Some were a surprise to instructors, some were noted on a faculty calendar. All were intended to prepare students (and staff) to exit the building in an orderly fashion without panic or confusion. At an education conference, meeting in a hotel banquet room, there were over 300 instructors seated for a meal. The hotel fire alarm went off. 300 adults calmly stood up, pushed in their chairs and exited the space. The hotel people were trying to tell us it was a mistake and we should stay inside. We continued to exit down the stairs, not taking the elevator and gathered at a safe distance from the building - practice does make it possible to cope with an emergency without chaos.

Which brings me to disaster movies (and books). Are they the fire drill for the mind? Do we watch the end of time movies and get ideas on how to best respond when the end appears?


The Road [PS 3563 .C337 R63 2006] by Cormac McCarthy which won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize has been turned into a movie.

The book discussion guide in NoveList through GALILEO offers thought provoking questions, several responses to the questions noting that each reader brings their own thoughts to the task.

The book discussion guide concludes with 6 other titles to read that have similar themes. I was glad to see Alas, Babylon c1959 mentioned.

The survivors of a nuclear holocaust are forced to rely on their own resources as they join together in the struggle for survival amidst the ruins of Fort Repose, a small town in Florida.

I was intrigued that 50 years ago the apocalyptic story revolved around a group gathering together to help each other rather than individuals struggling on their own.

What do we learn from these two stories? Has our societal response changed so much in 50 years? Books can be fire drills for the mind!

-kls

Get the password to use GALILEO from your Georgia librarian.

What to watch?

What will you be doing this weekend? Will you be looking for a movie to watch, a book to read, or an event to attend? Do you want to know what someone thinks about the movie, book, or event before you invest your time and money? How do you find a review?

You can find Movie Reviews (and other reviews) in GALILEO by:
Selecting Databases A-Z
...Select P
.....Select ProQuest Databases
........Select Advanced Search (second tab)
..........Type in the movie title
Leave the citation and abstract as the search.
....Scroll down a bit - and click on More Search Options. This opens up the bottom of the screen.
........Scroll down to Document Type
..........Click on the drop down box
............Select Film review (for the movies)
Press enter

Now you have the opinions of others to help you decide if you want to invest your time and money!

Hope your holiday weekend is just what you want it to be.

-kls

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

Visual Learning

Are you a visual learner? Does seeing someone do something help you process the directions?

ALA Facebook suggested the Flu videos for kids posted by the US Department of Health and Human Services. Yes, our Government has a You Tube channel.

If you're looking for visual information on how to protect your self or teach your child how to protect themselves from the flu - just watch a video.

And don't forget to read about the latest news in flu protection at the EBSCO Influenza: Evidence based portal or checking Flu.gov.

Stay healthy over the holidays.

-kls