the Girls' Guide to Rocking

Rock bands of past years that featured all female lineups are going to get some more attention with the release of the film the Runaways this spring. The film tells the story of an all-girl rock band of the late seventies that featured Joan Jett and Lita Ford, who would later go on to become big stars as solo acts during the 1980's. Other notable all female bands include the Go-Go's, the Bangles, the Indigo Girls, and the Donnas.

The Chattahoochee Technical College Library has a book about female rock bands. The Girls' Guide to Rocking [ML 3795 .H775 2009] is a book about how to start an all female band. The book includes basic information on getting started in the music business, writing songs, and choosing equipment. The book also provides some information on the history of women in rock.

This book is located at the Mountain View campus library. Remember that current Chattahoochee Technical College students can have library books located at one campus sent to another campus library for pickup and checkout. So check it out and start rocking!


JF

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