Federated Searching Tool November 23, 2009
Posted by virtualnotes in Polls.Tags: federated search engines, webfeat
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Cool Tool for Creating image/icon for Social Media Sites November 27, 2009
Posted by virtualnotes in Cool Tools.Tags: icons, picture tool, social media tools
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From the Librarian in Black.
Check out mypictr, a webpage that helps you quickly create perfectly sized profile pictures or icons for websites and social networks.
Just upload any photo to mypictr, then zoom & crop the image automatically to the perfect size, based on what service you need the image/icon for. Choose from all the biggies — Facebook, Twitter, Skype, YouTube, the list goes on and on. Too cool. This is great for libraries with a logo or image of choice who need to create a whole bunch of profile pictures quickly, or even for you as an individual who wants to standardize your identity online. It’s really easy and free. What more can you ask?
New InfoGuide – Economic Resources November 25, 2009
Posted by virtualnotes in Featured InfoGuide, InfoGuides.Tags: economic resources, forelcourses, hot topics, money issues, senior help, social bookmarking, social services, tough times
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Steve Baskin has created a great resource guide for the hot topic - Economic Resources. This guide is full of great resources for patrons about foreclosures, finding work, money issues, local services which can help and help for seniors. We are starting to use a new format for the InfoGuides which will be known as Hot Topics on the new website coming early next year.
Instead of presenting the information by format i.e. databases, websites, etc. we are presenting the information by topic area. The InfoGuide covers a large topic area then is broken down into subsets of the topic with information from databases and websites presented together.
Another change, is how the books are displayed. We are using BookLetter widgets, which allow for the books to rotate on the InfoGuide. In addition we can quickly change out the books or reorder them to freshen the InfoGuide.
There are two new social media features:
- Social Bookmarking is now available for the guide. Patrons can bookmark the guide using their favorite social bookmarking tool such as Del.icio.us. Checkout our reference bookmarks on the library’s del.icio.us account!
- News feed located just below the book widget – the current news feed is only pulling news stories for the foreclosure topic but can be adjusted to pull other topics as well for this guide.
We hope this change will be successful in bring information to our patrons so be sure to let us know what you think of the new format and any suggestions to improve it.
Jon is on Vacation! November 24, 2009
Posted by virtualnotes in Did you know?.Tags: Databases, downloadable
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Jon White is in New Zealand on vacation for the next two weeks. (Checkout some of the sights he may be seeing!) We have his phone forward to another Virtual Library staff member so if you have patrons with database or downloadable book issues still have the patron’s call his number. Someone should be here to help.
Encore Bookbag being renamed tonight November 23, 2009
Posted by virtualnotes in encore.Tags: encore, requesting
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Tonight when we reboot the Encore server the BookBag will become known as eMail List. I’m hoping this will help the patrons who are confused by how the BookBag was acting in Encore compare to the Classic Catalog.
New On Voyager – The Blogsphere November 23, 2009
Posted by virtualnotes in Did you know?.Tags: blogs, Voyager
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You can now read the latest four articles from The Librarian’s Brain and Virtual Library Notes blogs right on Voyager.
To get there:
- Click the Virtual Library Tab on Voyager
- Click The Blogsphere
and you are there! By default The Librarian’s Brain articles appear first but if you click on Virtual Notes link at the top you will see the most recent four articles. Give it a try today!
Patrons say Wow to Wowbrary November 23, 2009
Posted by virtualnotes in Library Website.Tags: coming soon, wowbrary
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Last week the Virtual Library received this comment from a patron regarding our Coming Soon service WowBrary:
Date/Time: Nov 11/21/2009 07:11 AM Date of visit: Nov. 21 Library: www.lvccld.org
The Primary Purpost of the Visit: Other : wo[w]brary
How did you find out about our services: Other : wo[w]brary
Were you satisfied: Extremely
Was the staff helpful: Extremely
Comments: I love wo[w]brary. I get up on Saturday & check my mail and get to get on the reserve list for books and movies that I didn’t even know the library was getting. I used to always be around #500 for my favorite authors and movies – now I am always much earlier on the lists – sometimes even the first 10.
I have also started to look at the other categories that I *thought* I didn’t care about. And I am finding books and dvds that I din’t even know about that I think will be interesting.
Thanks again. Wo[w]brary is great.
OverDrive updates Media Console for WMA Music to iPods & iPhones November 20, 2009
Posted by virtualnotes in Databases - Updates.Tags: downloadables, Media console, OverDrive
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OverDrive has released the latest update of OverDrive® Media Console™ for Windows®, which enables library users to transfer OverDrive WMA Music to iPod® and iPhone™. Albums from blues label Alligator Records will be the first music downloads that can be transferred to Apple® devices, and they expect more publishers to allow iPod transfer in the future.
As part of the update, they have optimized the music transfer experience for iPod owners. When OverDrive WMA Music is transferred to an Apple device, it will be categorized as ‘Music,’ and we will enable ‘Remember playback position’ and ‘Skip when shuffling’.
Download OverDrive Media Console v.3.2.0.3 with OverDrive WMA Music to iPod transfers.
Right now, OverDrive is refreshing the existing Help pages on our download website, and on overdrive.com, to support OverDrive Media Console v3.2.0.3 for Windows. They will also update the Title Details page for OverDrive WMA Music titles that can be transferred to Apple devices. The ‘iPod’ icon in the ‘Plays on’ section of the screen will be enabled where this support exists.
Discontinued Databases in Newsbank November 19, 2009
Posted by virtualnotes in Discontinued Databases.Tags: Las Vegas RJ, Newsbank, Space
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We are discontinuing Acceda Noticias and the Las Vegas Review Journal in Newsbank. You can still access the RJ via Proquest’s link under Las Vegas Review Journal on the Database A-Z list.
Mobile Database – Press Display November 16, 2009
Posted by virtualnotes in Uncategorized.Tags: Databases, mobile devices, newspapers
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Press Display has launched a new app called PressReader for viewing the newspapers on a mobile device.
It lets millions of owners of the two most popular smartphones download their favorite daily read from a selection of more than 1,300 newspapers and magazines available on PressDisplay.com, an online newspaper kiosk. The new PressReader applications are free and available for immediate download from Apple’s iTunes App Store and RIM’s BlackBerry App World.
WowBrary Comments November 16, 2009
Posted by virtualnotes in Uncategorized.Tags: coming soon, new items, wowbrary
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If a patron (or staff member) has comments about Wowbrary, please have them send them to the CONTACT US link on the web page, or directly to:
An awful lot of patrons are thrilled with Wowbrary, because they get the upcoming releases WAAAAY earlier than they did before. Folks are getting in the “first recipient” spaces on the new releases, where before they’d end up being #437 on the waiting list.
Here’s what one patron said this past weekend:
I was actually not terribly happy at first by the library switching things up, but wowbrary has grown on me. It actually is a huge improvement on what the library previously offered for “coming soon” books.
Please cover with your staff all the benefits of Wowbrary, and have your staff suggest the patrons use Wowbrary for a month, then send in a followup comment.
You can also suggest that the patrons subscribe to these two newsletters, which go out every month on the 6th:
Fiction Preview:
http://library.booksite.com/5626/nl/?list=NLPPF
NonFiction Preview:
http://library.booksite.com/5626/nl/?list=NLPPNF
The subscription box is at the top of those pages.
Encore 4.0 – What would you like? November 16, 2009
Posted by virtualnotes in encore.Tags: encore, library catalogs
3 comments
III is planning updating Encore so they are asking what features would you like changed or added to Encore to make it better or easier to use?
Let me know and I will pass your suggestions along to III.
EBSCO Mobile Going Live November 13, 2009
Posted by virtualnotes in Databases - Featured, Databases - Updates.Tags: EBSCO Mobile, mobile sites
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Next week the EBSCO Mobile version for our site will go live on the district’s databases A-Z page. Get a Preview – EBSCO Mobile.
iPhone App for Children Books November 13, 2009
Posted by virtualnotes in Books.Tags: children's literature, iphone apps
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The International Children’s Digital Library (ICDL) , which is the world’s largest collection of children’s literature available freely on the Internet, today announced the release of the ICDL for iPhone application.
Available free at Apple’s iPhone App Store, the ICDL for iPhone application allows users to take advantage of the advanced capabilities of the iPhone and iPod Touch user interface to read a selection of books from the ICDL’s master collection, which today represents thousands of children’s stories from 60 countries. The children’s books can be read in their native language and in English.
iTunes of Magazines November 13, 2009
Posted by virtualnotes in Top Web Sites.Tags: magazines
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This looks interesting: http://www.maggwire.com/
Magazines online and searchable! Get a wifi ebook reader and you could go to town with this store.
Here’s a little something from the “about” page:
“With over 10,000 magazine titles attracting 200 million American readers, Maggwire makes discovering magazine content a personalized experience. Utilizing social intelligence, our system recommends magazine articles you will enjoy reading from over 600 magazine titles…Based on your historical reading preferences, Maggwire learns what you like to read. As you rate articles with 1-5 stars, we begin to build a personalized profile of your interests. Then we predict how you will rate new articles. The more articles you rate, the more accurate our recommendations become.”
ELibrary has been discontinued November 13, 2009
Posted by virtualnotes in Discontinued Databases.Tags: elibrary
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We are discontinuing eLibrary database as of today. The link is still working but will be removed shortly.
Encore New Features Added November 10, 2009
Posted by virtualnotes in encore.Tags: searching the library catalog
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We have some new features which have recently been added.
Under Refine by:
- Availability – Choose to see all items currently available on the shelves or available online for your search.
- Place – Looking for a setting where a story takes place? Use this Refine by – a geographical location.
On result pages:
- Shows the number of holds on an item.
- Order records are now moved into a toggle that defaults to the closed position.
Patron Record
- Added a link to New/Coming Soon list of new items ordered in the past week in the header of the patron record.
Encore Update November 9, 2009
Posted by virtualnotes in encore.Tags: Library Catalog, search issues
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A problem that had been reported a short time ago regarding Encore searches with the article “L’” not working properly (for example, “Louis L’Amour”) has been resolved.
EBSCO Mobile-Test October 22, 2009
Posted by virtualnotes in Databases - New.Tags: EBSCO, mobile devices
1 comment so far
EBSCO has created a mobile website which they will be launching shortly. We have a sneak peak at for a short 7-10 day BETA period. They would like feedback on performance, overall functionality, and cosmetic issues as displayed on your individual SmartPhone/PDA.
To access the BETA version of EBSCOhost Mobile, go to the following URL on your SmartPhone/PDA web browser and select a database(s) to begin:
Please leave your comments here and I will forward them to EBSCO.
Thank You .
Coming Soon is Changing October 19, 2009
Posted by virtualnotes in Library Website.Tags: coming soon, new books, new dvds
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The Coming Soon is changing to a new service called WowBrary . This service is updated each Saturday morning about 3:30am with all new records added to the catalog during the week. This will also include items added by the contract libraries. Patrons can subscribe to the service via email or RSS feed. If you have patrons looking for DVDs coming soon there is a link on the sidebar of the newsletter to just DVDs. I have actually gotten a “soon to be released in the theaters” movie request in and be ranked number 10! There are other links as well by genre and age groups. The listing includes reviews and Amazon ranks. Clicking on the title of the item or the “Borrow” link will bring the patron into the library catalog. There are 25 titles listed on each page and if there are more than 25 titles there are “next” links at the bottom of the list.
In November, we will also be revamping some of our “New” items BookLetters . Any patrons signed up for the booksletters will be notified and encouraged to use WowBrary service to learn what is new to the Library.
This change saves a lot of staff time between collection development, marketing and the Virtual Library. The collection of new records added to the catalog and then the sorting and determining which bookletter to add it to was very time consuming.
We will continue to have some bookletters on the Books, Movies and More page which will contain “new” items such as the NT Times Best Sellers list.
We hope your patrons find this a good improvement as well.
