Handy how-tos to try at home (and more)

In this issue, we launch a new column by our newest member of the E-services team called Francesca�s Digital Dish. It features the latest scoop in the web world! Also some handy how-to�s that you can try at home: how to get what you really want out of the EBSCOhost databases, how to create a course reading web page without the fuss and muss, and how to easily create and share documents online with Writely! And a dandy little video/audio resource for your educational enjoyment!

1) Francesca�s Digital Dish
It�s that special time of year when friends, family, loved ones and the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) come together to foster goodwill and the equalization of educational access for people in developing countries. The Development Gateway Foundation�s Open Educational Resources portal is a new Web initiative that will connect anyone with Internet access and the desire to learn to a world of free, high-quality educational materials. The goal is simple: to improve the chances for a better life for people in the developing world. At the same time, the U.S. Library of Congress is kicking off a campaign to build a World Digital Library, with a little help from Google Inc. A $3 million donation from the search engine giant should go a long way to kick-start the project, the main goal of which is to document the great and lesser-known cultures of the world. Looks like the world is going to get a little smaller, and a little warmer, this holiday season.

In other news, there’s been momentum to create a new standard to enable Internet, cellular, Wi-Fi and telephone networks to communicate with one another. The Internet Protocol of Multimedia Subsystems (IMS) aims to introduce a common interface for bridging data. But like with all new technology, IMS has issues and a long way to go. Implementation will not begin until mid-2006, and most of that will be ‘behind the scenes’. The telecommunications industry has issues with IMS as it has not yet been tested in a real-world setting – therefore, they don’t know if it will meet the customer’s stringent requirements for reliability. And with hundreds of millions of customers relying on their communications devices every day, which company wants to be the first to try it out?

2) New way to find exactly what you want in the EBSCOhost databases! Limit by number of pages!
Now it is easier than ever to hone in on exactly the type of resource you want with the vast array of limiters that awaits you in the EBSCOhost databases. (You may remember EBSCOhost as the producer of such popular magazine and journal databases as Academic Search Premier, Business Source Elite, Health Source � Nursing among many others.)

The newest limiter (added just last month) is the �Number of Pages� limiter. Many times students are asked to find articles that are only a couple of pages in length�perhaps they need to find only a cursory overview of a subject, or a short newsy piece. Now, they need only scroll down the search page a bit to find the �Number of Pages� drop-down. Here they can enter the desired number of pages to be found per article. Are you looking for an in depth study? Enter a larger number as usually longer articles are more in depth treatments of a subject. You can choose to look for articles that are so many pages �equal to�, �greater than� or �less than� a certain number.

I know what you�re thinking��this is sheer madness�the absolute usefulness of it is mind boggling!� Well, hold on to your frilly pantaloons�there�s more! Other exciting limiters to try out are: the �Cover story� checkbox � enter a subject and select �cover story� to be sure to get longer stories on your desired subject; document type�search for a book review, bibliography, recipe, report, etc.; publication type�limit your search to only books, educational reports, newspapers, periodicals and more. The business database Business Source Elite contains even more of these babies�search by Ticker symbol, Company, Product Name and more! These limiters are available in the EBSCOhost databases on the bottom half of the search page. Give �em a whirl!

3) BRAINwave of the month: Create a web page of course readings with ProQuest
Need to create a list of magazine and journal articles or a link to a search for your class and have no time to mess around with all that HTML craziness? ProQuest databases to the rescue! Now it is easy to save a list of magazine/journal citations and/or a link to a search all within a handy web page. Here�s how:

1. Choose a ProQuest database to search. (ProQuest is the producer of such databases as Canadian Business and Current Affairs (CBCA), ProQuest Nursing, and ProQuest Science. Take your pick from the magazine databases page on TheBRAIN.)
2. Perform your search by entering search words in the search box.
3. Read through your results and mark the articles you�d like to add to your list (to mark an article, click on the checkbox next to the article citation.)
4. When you�re finished collecting articles, click on the My Research tab at the top of the screen.
5. The My Research page displays. Click on the Create a web page link.
6. The articles you�ve saved and a link to your search displays. Click the Edit link if you�d like to add notes or make any changes. (You can add notes such as��read these articles by next class�.) You can keep the link to the search you performed or you can delete it. If you keep the link on your page, each time it is clicked a new search is performed. That means that if new content has been added to the database, these new articles will appear in the results.
7. All done? Click the Download link. Then from within your browser, click File from the menu bar and then Save As�
8. Note that if you add this page to your Fred or WebCT course site, your students will need to authenticate before accessing the articles. That is, they will need to log in with their student number and PIN which is the last 4 digits of the student number. They will only need to do this once per session.
9. Need more help? Let me know�I�d be happy to help you to add articles to your course site!

4) New Collaborative Writing Tool: Writely!
Writely is a new, free web-based tool for collaborative document creation and sharing. Register for a free account, and using an online editor that looks very much like Microsoft Word, create documents. Then email a notification to others who can sign in and add to your document. View all of the iterative changes online and keep track of all the changes and who made what change. Access the document from any computer with Internet access. Why would you need such a thing you ask?

• use it when your faculty or workteam is collaborating on a document. Upload the MSWord document and everyone can sign in and make changes. No need to send a document via email, download it and resend in a neverending cycle of email heck!
• Have a team-based class assignment? Encourage students to work on the assignment using Writely and when the project is completed, the document can be made public so that the whole class can view it as a web page. Project the document in the classroom for all to see.
• Need to work on a document at work and at home? Using Writely means you always have access�.no more getting home to realize that the document you need is on your hard drive at work!

No, I don�t own shares in Writely�.just overwhelmed by the loveliness of it all.

5) For learning out loud!
LearnoutLoud.com, a seller of audio and video educational resources has recently launched a directory of free educational audio and video. Many are short lectures and talks that the LearnoutLoud people have gathered from many different sources such as MIT, Columbia University, C-SPAN and others. Copyright is not cleared for public performance, nonetheless, a nice collection for your personal learning pleasure.

6) Information Discovery Tour Presentation Online
For the masses who were unable to make it out to the Information Discovery tour last week, the slides are available here on the blog�lower right corner under �Tutorials�!

New titles, trials, tutorials, tricks, a toolbar, a testimony, a tour and some dancing

In this issue: new stuff in the Library @ Mohawk, more ways to find copyright-free materials for your courses, an indispensable dictionary toolbar, another great report on our students and technology, some solid avian flu resources and a little dancing.

1. New stuff in the Library!
a.) New Titles Galore!
Check out the latest titles added to the Library @ Mohawk collections! Our New Titles list has just been updated to show you all the new stuff added since last summer along with call numbers so that you can find these goodies right away!

b.) New Trials
For a limited time you can try out some databases that we have on trial: Mosby�s Nursing Consult , ScienceDirect College Edition and Reviews.com. (All require username and password that you can get from the friendly library staff at any location and no remote access is available for trials.) Mosby�s Nursing Consult contains comprehensive drug info, nursing reference books, journals and customizable patient handouts. ScienceDirect provides access to over 1800 titles in the fields of science, medicine and technology�high-quality, peer-reviewed journal articles and authoritative reference works exclusive to ScienceDirect and not available anywhere else online. Reviews.com from the Association for Computing Machinery “aims to provide access to current research, theory and applications in all subdisciplines of computing via the review medium. CR compiles expert, unbiased critical reviews of current publications of note in computing.” Take �em for a whirl and let us know what you think�keep them on the Library island or vote them off?

c.) New Tutorial
Heard about social bookmarking and need a quick primer? Check out the new tutorial just added to the BRAIN_blog tutorials (lower right corner of this page). It features a quick roundup of the 4 most popular social bookmarking tools out there.

2. More tricks for finding copyright-free material
This month, Google added a new usage rights filter to its advanced search that lets you search for materials that are free to use, share or modify. (Click on Advanced Search on the Google home page, then look for the drop-down next to Usage Rights that is set by default to �not filtered by license�.) This is a great tool to use when looking for materials to steal, er, borrow from for development of course materials. Yahoo! also offers this type of search through their Advanced Search interface. Look for �Creative Commons Search� and tick off the box to find the free stuff. The Creative Commons web site lets you search for this type of material using Yahoo! or Google. Creative Commons also offers a delightful little search page just for us in Education! Just look at that lovely search box that lets you search for materials you�d like to use commercially or otherwise. And take a gander at those nifty links to MIT free courseware, Public Library of Science, and more! The sheer unadulterated usefulness of it all! (Sheepishly wondering what Creative Commons is but afraid to admit it? Quick�see this BRAIN_blog posting (bullet #2) and no one will ever know you didn�t know!)

3. A world of words has just opened before my very eyes
Merriam Webster has joined the toolbar game and released their very own toolbar. Look up words instantly, research better words using the thesaurus and in just one click, access the Word of the Day! Oh joy, oh bliss. Let the rejuvenation of this tired, insipid prose begin!

4. The future�s so bright…
Another great report in the �getting to know our students� department� College students are wired for the future! According to the study The Internet Goes To College: How Students Are Living In the Future With Today�s� Technology (from the Pew Internet and American Life Project), nearly 79% of students agree or strongly agree that Internet use has had a positive impact on their college academic experience. Among the advantages cited: better communication with their professors, 24/7 availability and ease and selection of research. Check out the report for the full scoop.

5. Now is the time on BRAIN_blog when we dance
Ordinarily, dear reader, we dedicate this space to resources that are of the strictest research quality and academic interest. I break with this practice now to bring you a resource that is recreational in nature but cannot go unmentioned. Pandora is a musical tool that is just too groovy to be missed and well, it also gives a sense of the direction that online recommender and social tools are going (recall the book recommender system we discussed a while back.) Enter an artist or song and Pandora looks for similar artists and songs. It also explains why it chose particular artists and songs to recommend. If you don�t like a song that has been recommended you can give a thumbs down to guide the tool to find music more to your liking. The music is instantly streamed. Sadly, only a trial is available for us up here in the Great White North�but they are working on opening access for us too!
Ok, time to stop dancing. Ahem. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

6. Avian flu resources
Nothing better than some solid information to help quell the tide of fear. Check out this great resource list on avian flu gathered by the folks at one of my favourite blogs, Resourceshelf.

7. Information Discovery Tour
Wee reminder that next Wed., (23rd) at 12 noon, in room i204, the information discovery tour leaves the virtual station! Come out for a whirlwind 1 hour tour of new stuff at Google, Yahoo and MSN, alternative search engines, and tools for managing mounds of information. See you there!

The mysteries of daylight saving time and other conundrums

In this issue, we unravel a few mysteries concerning: students and their use of IT; the size of the web; magazines and journals in your subject area; social bookmarking; a new search engine, and daylight saving time. Also, some info about the magical, mystery information discovery tour.

1) Two Exciting Studies Released
October saw the release of two interesting studies for us here in AcademiaLand. First, the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research (ECAR) released its ECAR Study of Students and Information Technology, 2005: Convenience, Connection, Control, and Learning. From the site: “this 2005 study is based on quantitative data from more than 18,000 freshman and senior students at 63 higher education institutions. It focuses on what kinds of information technologies today’s students are using, with what levels of skill they are using them, how IT use contributes to the undergraduate experience, and what value the use of IT adds in terms of learning.” The report also covers the use of Course Management Systems by students and what students like and dislike about these systems (systems such as those that we use here: MoCoMotion Course Tools, FRED and WebCT). Sure, the focus is the U.S. and university rather than college students, nonetheless some relevant info for those of us who work with students and need to know what they are really doing when they duck behind their laptops in the classroom.

Also, in October, the BBC released a report on the size of the Internet. In the year to October the web grew by more than 17 million sites, monitoring firm Netcraft states in the story. “This figure exceeds the growth of 16 million sites seen in 2000 when net fever reached its most intense pitch”, notes the report. Some more interesting tid bits: There are 74.4 million addresses on the Web. Netcraft’s first survey in 1995 found only 18,957 sites. Yikes! You know what that means?! Now, there’s more info than ever before to wade through when you’re looking for good, quality web resources to use for your research! Which leads me to my next point…the raison d’etre for us here in LibraryLand! Our sole mission in life is to guide you through the morass of meaningless and questionable information to lead you in the end to a glorious dawn of relevant, fulfilling and stupendous information resources! [sigh] Or something similar. But truly our mission is to “connect you with the right information at the right time” so if you need some guidance on the Information Highway, we’re here to help!

2) BRAINWave of the Month: Deep thoughts about magazines and journals
Have you been wondering lately exactly what magazines and journals we have in your subject area in our online collections….or perhaps you are pondering over a particular magazine or journal title, scratching your head, ruminating over the possibilities, cogitating over whether or not it is indeed included in one of the Library’s many subscription databases? Well, speculate no longer and head on over to the E-Journal Portal!
To find out what magazine and journals we have in your subject area:

1. Click E-Journal Portal on TheBRAIN’s navigation bar.
2. Scroll down a tad to the heading: Browse e-journals by subject and click on the subject category drop-down.
3. Select your subject from the drop-down. These subjects are very broad so your exact subject might not be listed. Choose a broad subject to see narrower subcategories. For example, “Journalism” is listed under “Humanities and Reference” and “Civil Engineering” is listed under “Technology and Applied Sciences/Engineering”.
4. Click on the appropriate narrower subject category from the list that appears. Check out the handy number in brackets – this tells you how many titles are available in our collection!
5. A list of journals in that subject area displays on the next screen.
6. If you’d like to take a gander at the issues available for a journal, click on any database link next to the title. Examples of databases you will see are: ProQuest Science Journals, Academic Search Premier, etc. Once you do this you will be entering the database. Note: If you are accessing E-Journal Portal from home or offsite, you’ll be asked to log in with your faculty/staff/student number and PIN. Don’t have? No problemo! Get in touch and we’ll set you up!

Now let’s say you are looking for a particular magazine or journal:

1. Click E-Journal Portal on TheBRAIN’s navigation bar.
2. The first box on the screen lets you search by Title. You can enter words with which the title begins, enter the exact title or enter words in the title. If you know the ISSN, you can enter that too.

Easy peasy? If not, get in touch, we�ll show you all the in�s and out�s! (P.S. if you can�t find the title you need, try recommending a title. While we can�t promise we will purchase all recommendations, we will seriously consider all requests!)

3) The Magical Mystery Information Discovery Tour!
…is coming to take you away, take you away, take you away. Ok, it’s not magical or mysterious, and it isn’t quite a tour and has nothing really to do with The Beatles or magic �shrooms. But it is all about information discovery! Hop onboard! This bus is hitting the highway, the Information Highway, that is! (Sorry, couldn�t help saying that.) On Wed., Nov. 23rd between 12pm and 1pm I’ll be in Room i204 to take you on a little tour of some new sites in the world of Internet search. There will be Google, Yahoo!, and MSN but there will also be some newbies on the scene, and some nifty information management tools! And if I can dig up some Beatles tunes, there will be that too. Plus, it would be positively dreamy to meet some BRAIN_blog readers, so come on out and show your faces! (Special thanks to the IAR for including us in their most excellent “IAR Presents…” series!)

4) More Social Bookmarking Tools Exposed!
A while back on the BRAIN_blog, we reviewed social bookmarking tools. These little babies are gaining in popularity and now PCMag has followed our lead (well, not really, but we can dream) and published a review of more social bookmarking tools. We reviewed one of their featured tools in our expos� (del.icio.us) but the other reviewed tools are pretty new and exciting so check them out in their article: Share and Play Tag on the New Web Playground..

5) Exciting Exalead
Yes, I�ve used the word �exciting� yet again in this issue�and I don�t throw that word around lightly! The search engine Exalead has been around for a while but has never really caught my attention. Well, wowee…it pays to take a second look!
Here are some of the neat-o-keen features:

• three cool ways to view your results: with thumbnail pictures, with thumbnails and text, or with only text. Click on a thumbnail and a 1/4 screen preview of the site displays;
• add bookmarks to save results you are interested in returning to later;
• add shortcuts to the main page to save links to sites you go to most often…and it’s easy – click the “add shortcut” box and add your shortcut!
• Bookmarks and shortcuts are saved in your browser…no need to login (of course this means that you can’t save your settings to access on a different computer);
• Related terms show up in the left sidebar…and they are actually pretty helpful!
• Related categories also display. Very useful when there are different applicable categories for your search. For example, I performed a search on salmon and related categories such as cooking, biology, business and recreation displayed. All useful when you want to zero in on those yummy salmon chowder recipes.

6)Daylight Saving Time: What is it, anyway?
If you are anything like me, you obediently put your clocks back in the fall as instructed and wonder silently to yourself what this �daylight saving time� thing is really all about, why we do it, and why on earth it�s called �daylight saving time� all the while struggling to remember how one actually adjusts the car clock. Well, at last the answers to these burning questions have been found in a handy dandy little web site from the Institute for Dynamic Educational Advancement. And in addition, the CBC has a concise and useful overview and history of DST. At last! Except for the car clock, that mystery remains unsolved.