In Celebration of National Library Week 2012

From Proquest – SIRS Knowledge Source, CultureGrams™   Historical Newspapers, The New York Times 1851-2008 and Los Angeles Times 1881-1988 ProQuest is happy to join you in celebrating National Library Week. Here’s what we’re bringing to the party April 8-14, 2012. Sweepstakes: Start here…for a chance to win. During the week, visit the ProQuest Facebook [...]

Gadgets in Credo Reference

Today we’re featuring the Credo Reference gadgets, which are right there every time you visit Credo Reference! We’ve got a pretty neat assortment of gadgets, including Define, Person, Images, Pronunciations, Crossword Solver, Quotations, Holidays and Festivals, and Conversions. To highlight a few: Crossword Solver: Get help with your crossword puzzles! For example, you can put [...]

Monday Morning Smile

What type of books does Jane E-y-r-e (patron spelled out) write? Are you familiar with her? Madison Ediger Olathe Public Library Olathe, KS In Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Jane moves gradually from primitive and occasionally violent reactions to a more rational and civilized response. Eventually, both Jane and the novel evolve to the point that [...]

Monday Morning Smile

We offer free WI-FI at the library. A patron called and asked if they could access the WI-FI from their home. Kenneth Kugler Queens Public Library Queens, NY Wireless networks for computing, such as Wi-Fi, are isolated and limited to a radius of around 50 to 100 feet. This limitation is quickly being overcome, however, [...]

Monday Morning Smile

Where are the anthropologies? (She meant “anthologies”) Judy Terry Victory University Library Memphis, TN The Literature Resource Center has a host of anthologies as well as information about them. Also Student Resources in Context is a good source for anthologies. Besides the anthologies in print the eMedia Catalog has 25 anthologies in ebook and eaudio [...]

May: Healthy Vision Month

From The Pulse – Health and Wellness Resource Center: Here is another idea for incorporating health programming into your overall library programming strategy. Keep looking  for us on the first of each month to find programming ideas for three months out. (Still working on March or April programming? See March Nutrtion and St. Patrick’s Day and April Autism [...]

Library Programming: ‘Muffins and the Market’

Marketing for Libraries Patrons of Portage District Library Use ‘Muffins and the Market’ Investment Group Staff members at the Portage District Library in Michigan go above and beyond for their patrons. One of their most successful programs is an investment and discussion group, Muffins and the Market. Business and reference librarian Nicolette Sosulski explains how [...]

Money Smart Week

The American Library Association and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago are recognizing April 2-9 as Money Smart Week at your library. This is a week for libraries to help promote financial literacy and hold programs designed to help consumers manage their personal finances. Morningstar Library Services will be participating in Money Smart Week with [...]

Reference USA Map Based Search

There is a new feature in Reference USA called Map Based Search. To get to it: Select U.S. Businesses Database (currently it is only available for this database) Select Custom Search Select Geography Select Map based Search Beta To start a search click Open Map To learn how to use view the tutorial: Since this [...]

Credo Reference Updates

The following updated title was recently released in Credo Reference . Expect more soon! The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide, Helicon   Also available in Credo Reference for African American Heritage Month: Black Firsts -2003 An epic record of African American achievement, it testified to a rich but often overlooked part of [...]

Monday Morning Smile

“Are you warm-blooded or cold-blooded?” (I didn’t know if this was a biology question or a comment on my personality.) Christopher Waldron Concordia Elementary Library Fort Wayne, IN Winter is difficult for all warm-blooded animals (those that maintain a constant internal temperature despite their environment), since they must spend most of their energy just keeping [...]

Price Check Time-Saver

The Training Corner | by Lars Wasvick, Associate Product Manager at Morningstar Has anyone asked for prices on a number of different stocks? What if a patron wants the loss or gain from the previous day on multiple mutual funds? It’s actually quite easy to find this information on Morningstar Investment Research Center. Here’s one [...]

Monday Morning Smile

“My teacher basically rewrote my research paper. Do I need to cite her as a source?” (Asked by a student learning how to create citations) Diana Pierce Leander High School Leander, TX Opposing Viewpoints in Context helps students research, analyze and organize a broad variety of data for conducting research, completing writing assignments, preparing for [...]

Providing Investment Knowledge Without Influencing Investing Decisions

The Training Corner | by Lars Wasvick, Associate Product Manager One concern some clients have when training patrons is accidentally giving patrons investing advice. I’ve had this issue come up a few times during training sessions. For example, when looking at a stock report a patron will often ask the librarian, “Do you recommend that [...]

Morningstar Can Help You with Investment Program

The Training Corner | by Lars Wasvick, Associate Product Manager Using Scenarios At Morningstar we want to provide you with the training resources you need so you can educate your colleagues and patrons on how to use our database. We are happy to work with you in creating training materials, as many clients have done [...]

Natural Standards – New Feature

Natural Standard launched a new Tables & Charts database that classifies natural products and medications based on their potential pharmacological properties. This decision-support tool is subdivided into two categories: herbs and drugs. Users can click on specific therapeutic properties (such as antidepressants or anticoagulants) to see which products may have these effects. The charts are [...]

EBSCO Mobile Going Live

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.

Animals. From aardvark to zorilla.

Grzimek’s acclaimed 17-volume Animal Life Encyclopedia is the print standard for conventional animal reference collections. But students and researchers today need dynamic resources that foster discussion and critical thinking. That’s why Grzimek and Gale offer an online solution that sets the benchmark for comprehensive and credible animal information while facilitating interaction. Grzimek’s Animal Life is [...]

Gale’s One Search

Yesterday we talked about the new Gale’s Power Search. Today I would like to talk about a feature within Gale’s Power Search called One Search. Power Search only searches the magazine and newspaper databases. One Search searches across all the Gale databases we currently own. This includes the resource centers such as Student Resource Center [...]

Articles in Gale Databases

We are in the process of grouping Gale databases together under one search link.  Articles in Gale (this is what we are calling it on our Databases A-Z page) – searches all the magazine and newspaper databases we own. This ‘federated search’ provides for some really cool features. It is the same interface as what [...]