Hibernation Mode

If you’re anything like me (and most bears) you agree that this is the best time of year for hibernating. Well, why not check out some fab new library resources and web research tools while you’re tucked away in hibernation mode? We feature a few such tools this week. From the Library we have: 1) a new podcast on E-Journal Portal, 2) help while in EBSCOhost, 3) Library forum and suggestion box, 4) new content in facultyspace and 5) more in our “meet the new databases” series. And from the web: 1) a meta book search engine, 2) emigration records now online, 3) wikipedia search tool, 4) music recommender tool and 5) a revolutionary health web site.

News from the Library @ Mohawk

1) New Podcast: E-Journal Portal: should that be Easy Journal Portal?

Well, the “e” actually doesn’t stand for “easy” but it should! Listen in to this week’s podcast and learn just how easy it is to find an online magazine or journal on the Library’s web site. In case you haven’t heard, the E-Journal portal is a tool that makes it easy for you to find out if a particular magazine or journal title is available in the Library’s online collections! Learn all the nitty gritty in this week’s podcast.

2) Librarians lurk inside EBSCOhost – just waiting to help!

Now if you get stuck doing research in the online magazine and journal database EBSCOhost, help is just a click a way! When you’re searching in the database, take a gander at the top right corner to see the Ask-A-Librarian link. Then, if you get stuck with your research, just click on the link! You can also include your search history if you’d like us to help you refine or broaden your search.

3) Got a suggestion?

Got a burning library-related issue that you need to get out there? Want to start a conversation about your favourite library service? Who doesn’t? Well, now you can! Head on over to the Library’s Suggestion Box and User Forum and tell the world what you think about the Library, make a suggestion or ask a question. The Library Forum can also be accessed from the left navigation bar on the Library home page – just look for the Library Forum link!

4) New resources in facultyspace!

Fab online resources are continually being added to the facultyspace. This month we’ve added a handful of sites on podcasting…learn what it is, how to do it and what educational institutions are doing with this new technology. Also, check out some great assessment resources! To access, go to the facultyspace and enter podcasting or assessment (or any other topic that tickles your fancy) into the keyword search box.

5) Meet the new databases!

As I mentioned last issue, I’ll be introducing you to some of our brand new online databases in each blog posting. This week, I’d like you to meet InfoTrac Onefile…this is Thomson Gale’s largest, most comprehensive database. (Thomson Gale is the name of the vendor of the database in case you’re wondering). This feast for the brain covers almost 11,000 magazines, journals and newspapers and almost 6500 are in full text! (Full text means the whole article can be accessed online – right then and there!) But what subjects does it cover, you ask? Well, you name it! This baby covers the full gamut! It’s got your business, your science, your health, your news, your arts…and more! Well, how far does the archive go, you might wonder. Some issues go back to 1980 – the new wave era! Now, that’s an archive! But don’t just listen to me…check out all the facts or go on a guided tour! And when you’re ready to take her for a test drive, go to the Library’s magazine databases page and click InfoTrac Onefile.

Some exciting new web resources:

1) Triple your fun book search!

A new meta search engine (meta search engines let you use many search engines at once) lets you search 3 book databases at once! The appropriately named Book Search x 3 searches A9, Google and MSN Live Search all at the same time! These engines search public domain electronic books (that means, books no longer under copyright)…which means you can download and read ‘em right away. Nice, little book covers included in results!

2) Records from the old sod now online

Passenger record lists from the U.K. covering 1890 – 1899 went live this month on the web site findmypast and remaining decades between 1900 and 1960 will go live over the next six months. From the database, you can view digitised images of the original ship passenger records which contain over 1.5 million pages, listing the 30 million passengers who travelled on long-distance journeys from UK ports. If your ancestors came to Canada from the U.K., you just might see their names!

3) More fun with Wikipedia!

Wikiseek bills itself as “a better way to search wikipedia”. It searches entries in the wikipedia and also sites that are cited in wikipedia entries resulting in a nice, clean, spam-free interface! Why not just search Wikipedia? Unfortunately the evil-doers of the Internet world have awoken to the vast marketing (read: spamming) possibilities of wikipedia. With spam in the mix, your results can be diluted or just plain inaccurate. For more info on the challenges Wikipedia is facing, check out this interesting blog article by lawyer Eric Goldman.

4) More Music

Any time I hear of a new music recommender system, I like to tell y’all about it. Just discovered iLike and it is similar to Pandora that I’ve mentioned before in that it recommends music you might like based on your preferences. iLike goes one step further and includes a social network…see what other people are listening to and if you have similar tastes, you might discover new music based on their preferences. iLike also connects you to GarageBand.com, a site for emerging artists which contains free music. In addition, iLike offers a plugin for iTunes so that you can share playlists with friends. USA Today had a good article on 6 music services earlier this month if you’d like to find out more.

5) >A revolution in health web sites

There are loads of health sites on the web but RevolutionHealth is particularly interesting. Why? Like many web tools today, it’s social! This means that much of the content on the site has been rated by users. Looking for a treatment? See which treatments got the highest rating. Looking for nutritional information? Check the resources others found the most useful. Need to talk? Join the forums. Not sure exactly how much I would trust the information for a serious health issue; however for everyday health concerns like food labels, recipes and the like, it’s an interesting concept. In addition to all that, there are some great tools accessible right off the home page…a BMI index, a symptom checker (this part has authoritative information from sources such as the Mayo Clinic and National Institutes of Health), exercise and calorie trackers and more. Some of the content is primarily for U.S. residents (the doctor and hospital ratings for instance), but most of the content is of interest no matter where you live. The site is in its infancy now but as more people find it and add content I can see it growing in popularity. Join the revolution and check it out!

hanging out in the e-Library

P.S. You may notice that our display is a little off if you are using Internet Explorer. Our host, Blogger.com has recently made an upgrade…please bear with us as we work through the resulting changes. For a better display (and hassle-free web experience), you might want to download the Firefox browser. It’s free and both Internet Explorer and Firefox can be installed on your computer at the same time, so no problemo!

New Year, New Tools!

Happy new year, dear readers! With the new year comes incredible busyness and time in diminishing quantities so let’s get straight to the goods, shall we?

This week, we look at 1) the great online magazine and journal databases in the Library, 2) a review of a favourite Library service – AskTheBRAIN and 3) some web tools for podcast and video content!

1)

New Mags Galore!

As I mentioned in December, the Library @ Mohawk now offers more online magazines and journals than ever. Through the Knowledge Ontario initiative, we’ve added 15 new online databases – you read right – 15! In each BRAIN_blog entry, I’ll take you on a little tour of one of these babies so you can see what all the excitement is about.

This week, let’s take a gander at Academic OneFile! Academic OneFile includes indexing of over 8000 magazines and journals, the majority in full-text. Subjects covered include the physical sciences, technology, medicine, social sciences, the arts, theology, and literature! Your results are divided up for you into academic journals, magazines, reference materials (this includes encyclopedias, dictionaries and the like), news and multimedia (this includes images, podcasts and sometimes video). Subject terms down the left side offer up subject terms so that you can hone in on exactly what you want. Not finding what you need?Click the Expand/Limit link handily placed at the top of your results to add dates, titles or limit by format. There’s loads more but I’ll leave you with that little teaser for now.

To access all of these goodies, go to the Library’s collection of magazine and journal databases

2) A Trusty Old Friend – AskTheBRAIN!

Did you know that you can get live online help with library-related questions? The AskTheBRAIN chat service has been around for three years now and is still offering instant online help from real, live library people! Just click on the AskTheBRAIN link on the left sidebar of TheBRAIN and you’ll be connected with a library staff person who can chat with you online to help you with your information questions! We begin our Winter semester service at 10am on Monday, January 15^th and we are online ready to help from 10am until 9pm Monday to Friday and 9am to 5pm Saturday and Sunday. Pop on over and say “hi”!

3) Have iPod, need content

Did you get an iPod for Christmas and not sure what to put on it? Well, the web is now teeming with podcasts and videos and here are a few resources for your listening and watching pleasure.

PublicRadioFan.com has a great collection of broadcasts from public radio – topics covered run the gamut from music to culture to education to business. When you get to the page, look under Program Finder for Programs by Category. A handy drop down menu will list the subject areas available. I gave documentary a whirl and got hits from reputable sources like the CBC, BBC and NPR. If you want programs from a particular source, for example, the CBC, click Programs by Source to get the goods that way.

Open Culture offers a nice directory of cultural podcasts in a browsable list. Check out the audiobook collection or foreign language lessons – fun times await! Some universities and colleges offer up podcasts of their classes – check out the University Podcast Collection to learn on the run.

And don’t forget, the Library offers podcasts too – on all things library!

If you’re looking for Videos, Videoronk is a metasearch engine just for videos. You can limit by particular video site such as YouTube or Google Videos and can also search by music videos only. For a complete rundown of video hosting web sites, check out this rundown from the Light Reading web site.

4) Baby boomer search engine

CRANKy is a brand new search engine and bills itself to the 50 plus set. From the site: “When you search, cRANKy shows the four highest-rated search results based on Eons editors’ and members’ ratings. After visiting a site, cRANKy will invite you to rate it. Added together, members’ ratings raise or lower a site’s ranking. The reactions and opinions of the community determine how Eons ranks sites, making cRANKy the world’s first age-relevant search engine.” Signing up to become an Eons member is free and they ask that you be 50 plus. This way, the sites that come up are relevant for this particular market. An advertisers dream come true! And an interesting concept to boot!