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.
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 15th 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!
