Thursday, January 27, 2011

Speaking of online

There is another online resource noted in GALILEO, FDsys(GPO's Federal Digital System), which provides public access to government information submitted by Congress and federal agencies and preserved as technology changes.

The folks at GALILEO are providing a super portal for information that will help the citizens of Georgia!

Get the password to use GALILEO from your Georgia librarian.


-kss

Online anytime

First Search, through GALILEO, offers a specific E-books index (Electronic Books) which includes records for more than 675,000 eBooks that have been cataloged by OCLC member libraries, including titles available from NetLibrary and other providers. Much of the electronic CTC collection is listed in the index.
Links to full-text content: Users can access Web links to full-text electronic book collections licensed by their libraries from NetLibrary and other providers and free resources that are available in the public domain from education, government, and commercial Web sites.

CTC has over 90,000 electronic books through NetLibrary, E-brary, Ovid, and Credo. Using the E-books index shows our books as well as other electronic books. Some may be available because they are government publications or in Google Books. Some are in licensed databases that we don't have access to. If we don't have access, check the Libraries link to see which library holds this resource. It might be a neighboring post-secondary institution. You may ask to use the resource as a guest in their facility!

This E-books index pulls together many electronic collections. Search and read to your hearts content.

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

-kss

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Which version to use?

Discover America from Compton's by Britannica provides access to statistics and summary information for every state.

The facts are the standard capital, bird, flower, population variety. What I found interesting is the main link in GALILEO takes you to the Middle School version. There are no hyper-links within the state information. At the bottom of the page there are tabs for High School and Elementary. In High School I chose the Discover America link to get to the same map visual. Choosing the identical state provided links to articles from within the text.

The elementary version has the same facts but a simpler Introduction to the state (and no hyperlinks).

I wonder why there are links to other information in the high school version but not the middle school version?

To access Comptons in GALILEO, you need to get the current password from your Georgia librarian!

-kss

Monday, January 24, 2011

One, two, three, four

The 1950's Godfather of Fitness went to the fitness center in the sky yesterday. Jack LaLanne inspired millions to get off the couch, exercise and eat right!

I wondered what information I would find about Jack LaLanne in GALILEO. I selected Browse by Subject, Company and Industry Information. A search for Jack LaLanne did pull up references to him. I realized that a search in the document helped me quickly find the mention of his name. Not many articles were about his business in particular. Current fitness practitioners do talk about his influence on them!

When you see a news story, go to GALILEO to see what else there is to know about the topic!




-kss

The show will go on

If you missed an interview, speech or government event, the show will go on
in the C-Span archives. GALILEO collects web sites that will help Georgia residents get the best information, like C-Span archives.

C-Span Video Library includes over 160,000 hours of coverage of C-SPAN programs since 1987. The C-SPAN Archives, which records, indexes, and archives all C-SPAN programming for historical, educational, research, and archival uses, records all three C-SPAN networks seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day. Programs are indexed by subject, speaker names, titles, affiliations, sponsors, committees, categories, formats, policy groups, keywords, and location. The congressional sessions and committee hearings are indexed by person with full-text.

Yes, one can do a Google search for C-Span archives and get the site. For me, it is convenient to do the research in one place like GALILEO, especially when I forget about the specialty sites available on the wild web.

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


-kss

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

To 'e' or to 'a'

Library Journal (Facebook page) noted:
"Today's is Edgar Allen Poe's 202nd birthday, and the 2011 Edgar Award nominees have been announced. Some great picks here: Tom Franklin's Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter; Tana French's Faithful Place; Paul Doiron's The Poacher's Son; Bruce DeSilva's Rogue Island."

Literary Awards are noted in NoveList . See yesterday's post for hints on finding the awards lists.

If you'd like to know more about Edgar Allan Poe, LION, Literature Online has a wealth of information from biographical to critical reviews to full text of his work!

It's interesting to note that the Library Journal poster spells his middle name with an 'e' while LION spells Edgar's middle name with an 'a'. The Washington Post blogger uses All'e'n. A Google search turned up more All'a'n then All'e'n references.

When you don't find what you expect in a search, check the spelling!


-kss

To access LION Literature Online through GALILEO get the current password from your CTC campus librarian!

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

And the winner is?

The movie award season started this weekend with the Golden Globes. Were you surprised by any of the winners?

Books have an award season, too. ALA begins the annual literary award season when it hands out several prestigious awards at the mid-winter meeting. Librarians were on the edge of their seats awaiting the news release on January 10th.

If you want to find out more about book award winners, check out NoveList K-8 in GALILEO.

Across the top of NoveList in the blue bar, select More, and then Awards.

There are hundreds of awards listed in alphabetical order including the 3 Georgia Children's Book Awards (Children's Book for ages 9-12, Picture Storybook, and Teen Reader). When you click on the award, NoveList K-8 takes you to the list of titles by year for that specific award. You then may click on an individual title to get the complete NoveList K-8 treatment!

Get the password to use GALILEO from your Georgia librarian.

-kss

Read all about it

Newspapers are an incredible source for the news of the day! Today we are used to "instant" information via the web. We get the story almost as it happens. In the past, the news had a chance to settle down as facts were checked and the article edited. Newspapers tell a more complete story than the history books.

There are several Historic Newspaper resources in GALILEO. Check out this newest offering!

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The Digital Library of Georgia is pleased to announce the availability of a new online resource: The Athens Historic Newspapers Archive
http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/athnewspapers

The Athens Historic Newspapers Archive provides online access to five newspaper titles published in Athens from 1827 to 1922. Consisting of over 57,000 newspaper pages, the archive provides historical images that are both full-text searchable and can be browsed by date. The site will provide users with a view into the history of Athens in its early years as the home to the first state-chartered university in the nation and its eventual growth into the largest city in northeast Georgia.

The archive includes the following Athens newspaper titles: Athenian (1827-1832), Southern Banner (1832-1882), Southern Watchman (1855-1882), Daily/Weekly Banner-Watchman (1882-1889), Daily/Weekly Athens Banner (1889-1922).

The Athens Historic Newspapers Archive is a project of the Digital Library of Georgia as part of the Georgia HomePLACE initiative. The project is supported with federal LSTA funds administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Georgia Public Library Service, a unit of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. Digitization is also made possible through a grant provided by the Francis Wood Wilson Foundation, Inc.


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

-kss

Friday, January 07, 2011

Money, money, and more money

The holidays are over and the gift buying bills are starting to appear. I went looking for a resource in GALILEO that might have timely articles on credit use. Scrolling through the Databases A-Z list I noticed Banking Information Source (ProQuest).

The description notes: Banking Information Source (ProQuest) combines the currency of the Internet and the perspective of industry journals to provide the ultimate financial services research tool. With over 500 of the most authoritative sources of information, there is simply no better way to keep informed.

I haven't used the new ProQuest interface a lot. This quest for financial information is giving me an opportunity to play.

The cool blue appeals to me visually. The larger search box and the limiter for full text on the front screen simplifies searching.

There is no Scholarly Journal limiter on the front page of Banking Information Source (ProQuest). The Scholarly Journals limiter is on the front page of the main ProQuest database. You can limit to scholarly journals in ProQuest Banking Information Source by going to the Advanced Search screen and using the Source type boxes to limit to Scholarly Journals. They do provide a visual clue of a graduation cap icon before an article that is in a scholarly journal.

ProQuest completes the text as you type and offers a list of topics. I discovered I did need to put a phrase in quotes or it would search for the words individually.

I could sort by date after the search was completed if I neglected to limit the search by date range.

ProQuest provides a search tips link which has a plethora of hints, tips, and very useful tricks for getting the most out of a search!

I was amused to note there is a scholarly journal titled The Journal of Money Laundering Control. Who would have thought such a thing existed! You may get the current GALILEO password from your Georgia librarian.



-kls

Thursday, January 06, 2011

Still judging

What started my thought process about judging a book by its cover* was the Book Case blog entry, Best Book Jackets of 2010. It is helpful (and appropriate) that there are links to the Book Page where one can read reviews. The best part of Book Page is the box in the bottom left corner with links to Independent Booksellers, WorldCat (where you can see the closest library that owns the book), and a site that compares online booksellers prices.

If judging a book by its cover is your selection style, book covers are a part of our library catalog. Looking at the cover is a quick and handy way to figure out if you want to go further.

-kls

*from Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Over 400 reference books are available in Credo Reference through GALILEO.

Judging a book

"Don't judge a book by its cover"*. Yet, we all do it- we make snap judgements based on appearance. The appearance of a persons clothing, their physical shape, their facial expression. Yes, we assess a person immediately based on how they look and act. It has been a survival tool for humanity. How quickly can you decide if someone is friend or foe?

Today is the first day of Winter Quarter. People I've never met are coming into the library for the first time. They are coming to a conclusion about me as quickly as I am about them. I hope we both will be generous with our quick take.

*from Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Over 400 reference books are available in Credo Reference through GALILEO.

Get the current password to use GALILEO from your Georgia librarian.

-kls

Wednesday, January 05, 2011

400 years and counting


Happy 400th Birthday to the King James Version of the bible! In honor of its quatercentenary anniversary, Gordon Campbell has written Bible: The story of the King James Version 1611-2011 [BS 186 .C367 2010].

It's a lively biography of the book that many consider the Word of God. The section that has most appeal to me is Appendix 1 :The companies and later revisers which has brief biographies of the scholars who worked so hard to create a work 'to be read in churches'. It is fascinating how Mr. Campbell uses the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography to flesh out the story of the Bible as we understand it. It is people who make history come alive!

-kls

Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Sign up, now!

Registration for Winter Quarter is going on today.
Winter Quarter begins Thursday, January 6, 2011.

-kls

What happened today?

Using Google to search a date floods one with list after list. The first entry on my search for January 4 is Wikipedia. The Wikipedia list is broken up by events, births, deaths with a calender at the end which allows one to move from date to date.It is very handy for a rather comprehensive list of births and deaths.

If you're looking for a historical perspective on the date try GALILEO and look in the Annals of American History
Annals of American History "includes the full text of primary documents in American history, including historical accounts, speeches, memoirs, poems, editorials, landmark court decisions, and cultural criticism. This resource also has multimedia files, including hundreds of images and video and audio clips of famous speeches."

Put the date in quotes to help the database limit your search to that specific date- otherwise you'll get a conglomeration of January and 4 entries!

The document I found most interesting was the 1815 New England and the Union paper.
Moreover, as the convention's emissaries approached Washington, they were met by the news of General Andrew Jackson's unexpected victory at New Orleans. By the time the emissaries arrived, it was no longer possible to serve the kind of ultimatum contained in the convention's report.

Timing is everything. I wonder what the results would have been with today's instant messaging?

Get the current password to use GALILEO from your Georgia librarian.

-kls

Friday, December 17, 2010

Brain teaser for Christmas

Credo Reference sends out a weekly brain teaser. There are over 450 reference books available through a full subscription to Credo Reference. It is a superb resource for all our students but especially for our on-line students who can't get to one of the campus libraries!

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Welcome to the Friday Brainteaser from Credo Reference.

This week: Christmas
Our brainteaser is all about Christmas. We wish you all a happy one.

Questions:
1. Which rock group has returned its 1973 Christmas chart-topper "Merry Xmas Everybody" to the British charts at least eight times?
2. In which year did the "Christmas truce" occur?
3. Santa Claus is named after which saint?
4. What kind of tree is most commonly used as a Christmas tree?
5. Who wrote the 1973 picturebook "Father Christmas" in which Father Christmas lives in a terrace house with an outside toilet and an old-fashioned stove?
6. Who composed the Christmas Oratorio, first performed in 1734/35: Bach, Mozart or Beethoven?
7. What was the title of Phil Spector's 1963 Christmas album?
8. "A Christmas Carol" was the first of five "Christmas Books" by Charles Dickens which were published together for the first time in 1852. Can you name one of the other books in this collection?
9. What kind of bird is the "colly bird" (often changed to "calling bird") referred to in the traditional song "The Twelve Days of Christmas"?
10. On what date in the year is "Women's Christmas", also called "Small Christmas" or "Little Christmas"?

Questions set by Tony Augarde (www.augardebooks.co.uk)

Check your answers by copying and pasting this link into your browser address bar: http://corp.credoreference.com/quiz

The Brainteaser is posted every Friday morning to the Credo Reference Blog - check it out and comment on questions, or just let us know how well you did! Follow us on Twitter, or become our fan on Facebook!


About Credo Reference
The Friday Brainteaser is compiled using Credo Reference, an online reference library containing hundreds of searchable and browsable reference titles, audio files and images from reference books by leading publishers. With Credo, you can find accurate answers fast.

Thank you,
The Credo Reference team
brainteaser@credoreference.com


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-kls

Moving links

Delicious was one of the first Web 2.0 tools I latched onto. I loved how I could quickly and easily save and tag web sites for access from any computer. It became my favorite Favorites listing! Unfortunately, Delicious seems to be going away. The first announcement that registered in my brain was via ALA's Facebook. I've now exported both sets of my Delicious bookmarks.

The LM_NET list serve is a wealth of hints and tips. Someone on the list suggested this blog which has very clear directions on how to export the Delicious file. The blogger suggests several options for a 'new' portable Favorites. Over the break I'll be exploring my options!


-kls

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Where did it come from?

We talk about citations during each Library Instruction. A citation is so basic, so simple and so easy to do. All your reader wants to know is who did this, what is it called and how does the reader get a copy (author, title, and publisher). Why do people get so unnerved about doing a citation? The punctuation throws them off. Do we use commas, semi-colons, quotation marks, or italicize the title. It's the punctuation that gets one in trouble.

Many database vendors are including the citation format with their articles. Today as I looked at the History Channel, I noticed the Cite This link on the right side. How wonderful that a website is including the citation format.

It is important to tell your reader where the information you used came from. I am grateful for those who help me cite the source accurately.

-kls

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Look what is new!

Check out the new website for Chattahoochee Technical College.

Library info can quickly be found by using the Quicklinks drop down.

You may also find us by selecting Current Students, Student Resources, Library!


-kls

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Patchwork Nation

Patchwork Nation is a website that first came to my attention during the 2008 Presidential election. The authors use demographic and economic data to assign every county into one of 12 categories. These include designating counties as 'Boom Town,' 'Emptying Nests,' and 'Monied 'Burbs.' On the website, one can even find that an index is provided per county of how difficult it is to live in a particular county.

Cobb County is designated a 'Monied 'Burb.' Paulding, Bartow, Cherokee, Pickens, and Gilmer Counties all receive the designation of 'Boom Towns.'

The authors have maintained and updated the website since 2008. A companion book, with the same title, has recently been released. You can find out what local colleges and/or public libraries near you own the book by using the Worldcat database within Galileo.

-JWF

Monday, November 08, 2010

Happy Birthday X-Rays!

Today is the 115th anniversary of the discovery of x-rays! The Radiology degree offered at Chattahoochee Technical College teaches students operating standards and procedures for using the machine and other various forms of radiation technology for visualizing the interior of the human body. Check out the library catalog for more information on x-rays or the college catalog for information about the program.

~ lbm