Protest for real- VOTE

Ask the closest Occupy Wall Street protester- did you vote today? A Google search for 'election November 8' turned up many states having an election - New York, Georgia, Ohio and more.

To get a historic sense about elections, I did a search for 'election' in Annals of American History in GALILEO. There is an article by Daniel Webster (1844) requesting reform on Naturalization Law because some politicians were naturalizing immigrants quickly to get more votes.

What is that saying about the more things change, the more they stay the same?

Go vote!


-kss

GALILEO (get the current password from your Georgia librarian)
...Databases A-Z
....A
......Annals of American History

Vote on Tuesday

November 8th is election day in many parts of the country. In Georgia, we will be voting on local issues like the continuing of a special options tax for schools and whether liquor can be sold on Sunday. Check out the Georgia Secretary of State My Voter Page. You might b e surprised at what your county has on the ballot.

If you want to protest effectively- make sure you're an informed voter and get to your polling place early.


-kss

A portable advisor

In looking for something to read, using an on-line resource like NoveList in GALILEO can be helpful for requesting a title through inter-library loan (WorldCat).

But what if I'm going to a book store, do I have to remember the titles or the author I was interested in? Is there a readers advisory tool that I can tote around?

A search in our catalog for the subject readers advisory turned up 13 titles, all electronic books, all in Ebsco. Each title is available for download onto an e-reader. The books can be 'checked out' for up to 7 days.


There are two titles published in 2011 (audiobooks and Fang Tastic). The other titles range in publication date from 2004 to 2010. You might not get the latest titles but you'd have a plethora of options for your portable readers advisory.

You do need a login and password to use the Ebsco e-books. Check with your campus librarian for that information!

-kss

What to read next?

The chill in the air encourages me to stay home and read. I enjoy reading series that show the main character growing and changing. How do I find another series that I can read and read and read while curled up in front of the fire?


Through GALILEO, NoveList has recently added some new features.
- Goodreads Now Available: All of the NoveList databases now include reader ratings and book reviews from Goodreads.
- Easier to Find Read-alike Content: In addition to the Read-alikes located on the right side of every Title, Author, and Series Detail page, NoveList has added links to Title, Author, and Series Read-alikes at each record in the search results.
- Easy to find Author Information: Author information is located in one easily accessible location. Just enter the author name in the search box and go to the Author Detail page where you can find author read-alikes, author descriptions, a list of all of the books by that author, and a list of all the series by that author (if applicable).

See this announcement from EBSCO for more information.

-kss

GALILEO ask your Georgia librarian for the current password
...Select Databases A-Z
.....Select N
.......Select NoveList

Asking your opinion

Regularly I dread being asked my opinion. Usually the 'asker' is doing it to make the 'askee' feel involved. The 'asker' rarely has any intention of following through on the opinions of the 'askee'.


In the case of GALILEO's annual survey, I say ask away! The staff at GALILEO do listen and follow through on the suggestions, concerns and compliments offered by users. Please take their annual survey. Your response will make a difference.

The annual GALILEO user survey will start Monday, November 7 [that's today], and this year’s incentive is an iPad drawing. An iPad will be awarded in a random drawing of survey respondents. In addition to the drawing, the survey gives users an opportunity to relate their experience with GALILEO and to share their ideas for the future. Please encourage your patrons, students, faculty and teachers, colleagues, and others to participate. The survey link will appear on the GALILEO welcome and home pages November 7-13 and is available at the link below. Take the GALILEO survey: http://galileo2011.questionpro.com

-kss

1967

Today has been a day for writing about time. I have had a song in my head where the artists shouted TIME followed by music, a shout of TIME, and then more music. I could hear the song but I couldn't think of the title.

I searched in YouTube. There are lots of videos with 'time' in the title. This particular song eluded me. I figured it had to be from my high school era. You remember my post on popular music and how I haven't paid attention to current trends in music since then.

A friend sent a link to Poem Hunter. Scrolling through the selection on 'time' didn't turn up what I thought I was looking for.

A post on my Facebook was aimed at my peers, who I hoped would remember the group and the song. Social networking can help with research. Two friends suggested it was the Chamber Brothers from 1967. They were correct!



So now I know that 'time has come today' and on Saturday we'll fall back one hour.


-kss

What to do?

We are in the process of weeding our health collection. Standards say it should be current (less than five years old). We do have a few books to pitch. What should we do with the discards?

NPR Blogger, Robert Krulwich, wrote about a lovely Scottish mystery. The blog is not a 'how to' on art crafts for old books but a gentle, sweet discussion about a humble and anonymous artist. The pictures are amazing!

Maybe we should make library furniture with our discards or offer them to artists to make dioramas like these. Who knows what we'll decide to do.

-kss

Clocks

Saturday night before I go to bed, there will be a spell of time changing as I reset the clocks to an earlier hour. We'll be falling back an hour. It is autumn (fall) so it seems appropriate to fall back. Makes me think of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Do I get a 'do over' for that hour? Yes, I must be rambling.

Dictionary of clocks and watches by Eric Bruton [TS540.7 .B7 Reference] is at the Marietta campus in the Reference section. I've asked a librarian there to take a look at it and give me a 'report'. The description in the catalog says it is illustrated. The title says it is a dictionary but what in the world can you say about clocks and watches?
-- clock and watch terminology with definitions, some pictures
-- example : Balance Staff - The shaft or axle of the balance

Now we know why it's in the Reference section!


-kss

It's coming!

Back in September, I wrote about the beta testing for Auto Repair Reference Center.

Today this e-mail arrived from EBSCO:

We are pleased to announce that, as a current subscriber to Auto Repair Reference Center (ARRC), you will soon (in about one week) notice that your ARRC interface has been automatically replaced by the new version announced last spring.

We hope that you found it helpful to have the opportunity to try the new interface for several months in advance of its automatic upgrade to the new design. Key features of the updated interface include:

• Intuitive, user-friendly navigation
• Enhanced searching within content collections
• Ability to print/email/save high-quality PDF records
• Increased repair coverage – more than 37,000 vehicles covered
• Expanded, in-depth repair information from the major original equipment manufacturers, including Ford, Honda, and GMC
• On-Board Diagnostics (OBD II) codes with description and troubleshooting information

To learn more about the new Auto Repair Reference Center, please sign up to attend one of our free online training sessions at http://training.ebsco.com.

My quick spin with it in September inspired me!

-kss

To use GALILEO, get the current password from your Georgia Librarian
...Select Databases A-Z
.....Select A
........Select Auto Repair Reference Center.

Saturday night

From Time and Date.com: Many people in North America and the United Kingdom (UK) use the term “spring forward” and “fall back” when they refer to the daylight saving start and end dates. This is mainly due to the fact that DST occurs in the spring season and ends in the fall (or autumn) season in the northern hemisphere, where Canada, the UK, and the United States (USA) are located.

The term “to spring forward” refers to when people set the clocks one hour forward, marking the start of DST. It is a term that is easy to remember for many people in countries such as Canada, the UK and the USA. This is because the DST start date coincides with the spring season in these countries. It is the time of the year when the days begin to have longer hours of sunlight after the winter’s end, in addition DST, which brings forth an extra hour of daylight in the afternoons or evenings.

The term “to fall back” suggests that one must set the clocks one hour back when DST ends. [more from Time and Date.com]


-kss (This is not my original work and there's more to read. What I admire about Time and Date.com is the way they credit every photo. It's a very nice example of appropriate citing.)

11022011

A palindrome date for us.

As someone noted it was this number nine months ago in Europe. Why do they put the month in the middle and we put the month at the beginning?

-kss

Pen in hand

We're coming up on the time of year when families gather to reminisce. November is National Novel Writing Month! You could start today and have the great American novel ready (well almost ready) for Thanksgiving.

I started thinking about family stories. Little Women is the first that came to mind. I know there are other novels that use the family as their foundation. I just can't think of any- well, I thought of Little House on the Prairie but I couldn't think of any adult titles. A search in NoveList for Little Women revealed the genre tagged as 'family sagas'. That gave me a clue on what to search for.

The advanced search option in NoveList has a drop down box with GN genre. The search for family sagas as genre turned up over 1800 titles!

Now I need to narrow my search again. On the left side there are boxes to help narrow results. I picked Location. That dropped down to reveal a number of areas. I selected Southern States and then North Carolina. Three titles turned up. I wasn't interested in their characters so I x'd out North Carolina and tried Georgia.

I can see this might take some time!

Once you find the right book, click on the World Cat link to see which library has the book. There is a request a copy link. Because I went into NoveList through GALILEO I can request a copy be sent to my campus library.

Start writing or start reading to get ideas for your great American novel.

-kss

Get the password to use GALILEO from your Georgia librarian.
Select Databases A-Z
..Select N
....NoveList

Dem Bones

The spate of CSI programs with crusty but clever doctors deciphering the clues left by the body have inspired many a student to go into Criminal Justice.

Beyond the body farm (GN69.8 .B35 2007) in which "Forensic anthropologist Bass nicely complements his memoir, Death's Acre, with this unnervingly cheerful collection (ably co-written by science journalist Jefferson) of case studies and anecdotes from the field of corpse identification. With careful attention to detail and the occasional darkly humorous aside, the authors describe charred maggot cocoons; the grotesquely dismembered victims of a fireworks factory explosion; and the forensic uses of sonar, scanning electron microscopes and computer databases. [More]" You can get a hint of what you'll learn by reading the excerpt at the author's site.

This book is available at our Woodstock campus. We do move books around the system through the courier. Check with your CTC Librarian for your reading needs.

-kss

Rattling bones

Now that Halloween has passed, the neighborhood skeletons are back in their closets.

You have time to learn the names of the bones before they rattle their way out next year. We have access to two online skeletal resources which make it possible for our Anatomy and Physiology students to study bones anywhere and anytime.

ESkeletons,from the University of Texas at Austin, Department of Anthropology,"provides an interactive environment in which to examine and learn about skeletal anatomy. The purpose of this site is to enable you to view the bones of both human and non-human primates and to gather information about them from our osteology database." Access to this resource can be had through GALILEO.

CTC Library subscribes to Anatomy.TV which is a 3D anatomy resource. The Systemic Edition covers Skeletal, Muscular, Surface, Cardiovasular, and Lymphatic systems. Students do need the login and password for this resource off campus.

There is a difference between the two- ESkeletons has photographs of bones, Anatomy.TV has line drawings.

Between the resources, you can learn the names of the bones before they shake loose.


-kss

Another financial thought

From the overview for An anatomy of the financial crisis.

How did the US financial crisis snowball into USD 15 trillion global losses? This book offers a clear synthesis and original analysis of the various factors that led to the financial crisis of 2007-2010 - namely, an asset price bubble and excessive leverage. The focus is on the ingredients of and dynamics within the international financial system, and as such is the most comprehensive publication in scope to date in terms of market, country and instrument coverage.[more]

An anatomy of the financial crisis is one of our electronic books, available 24/7. To access the title off campus ask your CTC Librarian for the login information for ebrary.

-kss

The Law

Henry VI, Part 2, Act 4, Scene 2- Dick the Butcher says "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers" and laughter ensues in the audience. Seth Finkelstein wrote in July of 1997 how lawyers take this phrase and explain it as praise for lawyers rather than contempt. If we did get rid of all the lawyers, would being run by political innocents be any better? Dictators regularly purge the educated (lawyers, professors, teachers, clergy, doctors) to keep the ignorant truly in the dark.

Honest, good, ethical lawyers try to protect the innocent from the powerful. The good lawyers try to keep the playing field level for all participants, no matter their economic power. We teach Business Law to our Marketing students. To help the students find legal information, we've created a Library Guide for MKTG 1130. We refer them to print and non-print resources. The information we provide opens their eyes to the need to understand there are rules (laws) designed to protect both consumer and retailer.


-kss

Money, money, money

The Occupy Wall Street movement is angry at the greed and corruption of the financial industry. Folks regularly say that money is the root of all evil, but the Bible notes it is the "Love of money" that is the root of all evil [1 Timothy 6:10]. What is going on in the Banking industry that has turned a fair return on investment into an addiction for more and more?

GALILEO has over 100 databases with current journals, magazines, and newspapers at your fingertips. Banking Information Source (Proquest) combines the currency of the Internet and the perspective of industry journals to provide the ultimate financial services research tool.

In today's banking world, keeping informed of what's happening in economic markets is as important as monitoring national and international developments. Banking Information Source (Proquest) can help users predict future market trends, monitor the rise of future competition, and even pick up ideas that have worked successfully in the financial services market. The database brings together leading journals from the most important international markets and allows you to analyze and compare articles from 360 full-text sources in a manner of seconds.

My complaint with the banks is the new charge for debit card use. I understand that the unintended consequence of the Dodd-Frank bill, which was an effort to help retailers, by putting a halt to the fees banks could charge the retailers for debit card use, ended up pushing banks to make up the loss in income by charging the consumers. Unintended consequences can turn a good idea into a terrible one.

My search in Banking Information Source (Proquest) for debit card charges (no quotes) turned up a hodge podge of articles. A second search for "debit card charges" (in quotes) turned up a few appropriate articles. The drop down list under the search box caught my eye with the phrase, 'debit card fees'. Using that phrase and sorting by most recent date gave me just what I hoped to find. Among the 12617 'hits' pulled up The November 5th, Investment Weekly News and the November 1, American Banker came first, followed by the Credit Union Journal and the Economist. Each has multiple articles referring to 'debit card fees'.

To access Banking Information Source (Proquest)
Go to GALILEO
..Select Database A-Z
....Select B
......Select Banking Information Source(Proquest)
You may get the password to access GALILEO from your Georgia librarian.


-kss

Waiting for the Great Pumpkin

Tonight is the night when Linus sits waiting for the Great Pumpkin to arrive.


Why does he wait? What is he waiting for? It does seem like the wait must be a theological response to something Linus feels is greater than himself. A search for "great pumpkin" in the Religion (Proquest) database in GALILEO turned up 15 articles dating to 1989. There are humorous, serious, reflective, even German responses to Linus, the Great Pumpkin and God. But no one seems to really know why Linus waits. It's a puzzle.

-kss

The password to access Religion (Proquest) in GALILEO is available from your Georgia librarian. Just ask.

Analyzing Popular Music

The Credo pop music quiz had me searching for popular music in our catalog. I wondered what we had that might help me with the Credo questions. My search for facts was derailed when I ran across two e-copies of Analyzing Popular Music by Allan F. Moore [MT146 ONLINE RESOURCE 2003]. A trip through Google looking for more info on the title led me to Amazon which has a 2009 print edition for sale.

To see if there had been a seismic shift in the six years between editions, the "Look Inside" option allowed me to compare the Table of Contents and the first page of the index of the two editions. With my, admittedly quick, skimming I couldn't see any differences between the 2003 and 2009 versions.

The book description offered at Amazon gives hints on the content

How do we "know" music? We perform it, compose it, sing it in the shower; cook, sleep and dance to it. Eventually we think and write about it. This book represents the culmination of such shared processes. Portraying a wide range of genres (rock, dance, TV soundtracks, country, pop, soul, easy listening, Turkish Arabesk), the essays cover methodology, modernism, postmodernism, Marxism and communication.

This title does offer an erudite look at popular music. It didn't help with the Credo quiz but it did offer thought provoking entries.

To use the e-books in our collection you do need a log-in. Check with your CTC librarian.




-kss

Singing along

Credo Reference sends out a weekly trivia quiz:

This week: Pop Albums

This week's brainteaser is about albums of popular music. Can you say which group or artist released these albums in the years indicated?

1. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967).

2. The Dark Side of the Moon (1973).

3. Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967) and Sticky Fingers (1971).

4. Pop (1997) and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (2004).

5. Aladdin Sane (1973) and Heroes (1977).

6. Californication (1999) and Stadium Arcadium (2006).

7. The College Dropout (2004) and Graduation (2007).

8. Songs in the Key of Life (1976).

9. Heart of Stone (1989) and Believe (1998).

10. Such Sweet Thunder (1957).

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

The only one I 'knew' was the first one. That dates me doesn't it? It also shows I just didn't keep up with pop music. The answers to these 'teasers' can be found in the music collection of Credo Reference!

Check with your CTC librarian for the log-in to Credo. You may also access Credo through GALILEO. You know who can give you the password to GALILEO?

-kss