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Wowbrary – free emails to patrons about new books & DVDs September 21, 2009

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wowbraryCheck out Wowbrary at www.wowbrary.org. Wowbrary is a nonprofit service that sends the public free weekly emails and RSS feeds about their local library’s most recent acquisitions. Wowbrary is a free service supported by grants, donations, sponsorships, book sale commissions and volunteers.

The Wowbrary service reaches both avid library patrons and those who haven’t used libraries in years. Wowbrary serves as an online version of the new-book shelf, but one that spans all library branches, includes items that are checked out, and comes by convenient email and RSS feeds for those who don’t visit the library website or facilities regularly. By showcasing the latest arrivals and allowing patrons to click through directly to the library website, Wowbrary makes it easy to scan quickly what’s new and encourages greater library use.

Wowbrary extracts information about a library’s newest acquisitions from the library’s OPAC (Open Public Access Catalog) and/or via Z39.50. Information is collected without any effort by staff or interference with the OPAC’s function. Wowbrary’s service works with ILS (Integrated Library System) products from major vendors, including Millennium from Innovative Interfaces.

Once you sign up for the service, you get a get a weekly email, or you can subscribe to an RSS feed. Click here to see a sample Wowbrary email for the New York Public Library.

Gale’s Marketing Page August 24, 2009

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Need a poster, bookmark or tent card to promote a Gale database?  You can get them at the Gale’s marketing page.

Online adventure story to launch at National Book Festival August 13, 2009

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National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Jon Scieszka is the first in a chain of authors who are writing a serial adventure story for publication on a new Library of Congress website. Cosponsored by the Center for the Book and the National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance, “The Exquisite Corpse Adventure” will bring young and old together with rollicking family entertainment. The updated website and the initial installment of the story will premiere at the National Book Festival on September 26….
Library of Congress, Aug. 7

Articles in Gale Databases August 4, 2009

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Gale PowerSearchWe 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 appears on the individual databases like InfoTrac OneFile. Here are a couple of features you need to know about.

  • User Logins – all users of the database can create a login and save articles and searches.  Besides saving they can -
    • Customize the RSS feeds displayed on the home page
    • Share their folders or articles via email or bookmarks (great for teachers or librarians)
    • Always available from any Gale database supplier.  That’s right if a student is attending UNLV and uses Gale Databases at college then wants to come to one of our libraries and continue working from our Gale databases they can do that if they setup their own Gale login. By logging in to their account from our database they will see all the articles and folders they created while logged in at UNLV.
  • Time magazine goes back to 1923 in full text.  Got a student looking for what happened on August 4, 1929? Use this resource-
    • Browse Publication
    • Search for Time
    • Select Full text coverage year
    • Select 1929
    • Select Issue
    • Select an article from the Table of Contents for the issue
  • Translates article in 11 languages on the fly
  • Build in dictionary – highlight a term and click dictionary
  • Provides images, videos and podcasts as well as articles

Let me know what wowed you!

Tweets about the Library July 30, 2009

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tweetsWhat are people saying about the library on Twitter? If you go to Twitter and enter:

near:Las Vegas within:25mi library

you will see some conversations about the library.

Ebony Issue July 6, 2009

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This was posted on one of my listservs:

Yesterday one of our patrons pulled out our special issue of Ebony Magazine (Vol. 63, Iss. 2) for December, 2007 that focuses on Michael Jackson and warned us that we needed to pull it from circulation.  Apparently this issue is now worth over $200.00 on Ebay.  I thought some of you might like to know this information.

Dr. John Jaeger

Doctoral Research and

Reference Librarian

Dallas Baptist University

Did You Know? June 15, 2009

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In OverDrive patrons can set their own personal lending periods.  Back in April, we added the feature of allowing patrons to select their own lending – example:  7, 14, or 21 days for books.  This was added because there is no “Return” feature available. Patrons who read or listen to books quickly can choose a shorter lending period so they don’t have to wait should they reach their limited of items checked out.  When we added this feature, we also added in their “eMedia Account” the default setting feature.  Each patron can set their default lending period to what works best for them.

It’s easy to do.defaultlending

  1. Go to eMedia Catalog
  2. Click eMedia Account
  3. Login
  4. Select Lending Periods
  5. Change your defaults
  6. Click Done

2009 E.B. White Read Aloud Awards June 12, 2009

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The 2009 E.B. White Read Aloud Awards were announced at BEA, and our BookLetters Award list and Widget have been updated.  The 2009 winners were:

Book Cover Visitor for Bear
By Becker, Bonny
Denton, Kady MacDonald
2008/02 – Candlewick Press (MA)
9780763628079 2009 E. B. White Read Aloud Award for Picture Books

Cheery persistence wears down a curmudgeonly bear in a wry comedy of manners that ends in a most unlikely friendship. …More

Book Cover Masterpiece
By Broach, Elise
Murphy, Kelly
2008/09 – Henry Holt & Company
9780805082708 BookPage Notable Title
2009 E. B. White Read Aloud Award for Older Readers

In this follow-up to Shakespeare’s Secret, Broach delivers a fast-paced mystery in which a young boy and a beetle attempt to pull off a staged art heist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Illustrations. …More

Nevada Statewide Digitization Initiative June 11, 2009

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The final report for the Nevada Statewide Digitization Initiative is now published on the NSLA website at:

http://nevadaculture.org/nsla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1702&Itemid=1

It is linked on the right side of the page in the category of digital initiative documents.  The final report includes the plan and the survey as appendices.  The plan and the survey are also linked as separate documents.

Did You Know? April 17, 2009

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Did you know patrons can have III notices sent to more than email address?  It is possible to add a second email address to the patron record now.  Sending to multiple emails can be done with the syntax of [email][,][email].  There can be no space in between the email addresses and a comma must be the divider.

Patrons can do it themselves from their account page, just click the “Modify Patron Information” button and scroll down to the email section. Add the email addresses and submit the change.

Did you know? April 3, 2009

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Some of Gale’s Literature databases are now cross searchable? Go to any Gale Literature product – like Literature Resource center.  Click on the “Change Databases” link in the upper right hand corner. Scroll down about half to the “cross-searchable” section. One of the links is:

Literature Criticism Online, Something About the Author Online  Apr 2009

Cross-search two or more of Gale’s literature archive resources, including Dictionary of Literary Biography Complete Online, Literature Criticism Online, and Something About the Author Online. These award-winning and long-standing literature series are delivered in an easy-to-use 24/7 online format that matches the exact look and feel of the print originals.

Do you think we should add a link to our Databases A-Z list for the cross searchable platform of Gale Databases?

Social Security Death Index March 16, 2009

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Looking for the Social Security Death Index that use to be in America’s Genealogy  Bank? Look for it on the Genealogy InfoGuide under “National Websites”.

Did you know? March 6, 2009

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BrainFuse hit a record high in February with 893 tutoring sessions!  Compared to Live Homework (Tutor.com) at 361 tutoring sessions.

Here’s the top 10 areas of tutoring for BrainFuse:

Geometry

10.3%

Reading – Grades 10-12

9.33%

Physics

7.88%

High School English

6.3%

Social Studies

6.3%

Pre-Algebra

6.06%

Algebra 1

5.94%

Chemistry

4.85%

High School Writing

4.85%

Math Grade 5

4.61%

Did you Know? February 26, 2009

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The State Database link on the Library’s Database page can be used by ANY Nevada resident with a library card.  This means Henderson or North Las Vegas patrons don’t need to leave our website to use the statewide databases.

Also remember, there is a PTYPE which does allow school age children in any Library District in Clark County to have access to our databases.  The child just needs to ask to be changed to the PTYPE. 

School Reading Lists January 15, 2009

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School Reading Lists – can be found in the database Read the Books. 

Links for the database can be found on:

eMedia Page December 4, 2008

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I have discovered some staff don’t realize what is located on this resource page so I would like to point out couple of features.

  • Remote patrons can use this page to signup for a NetLibrary/Recorded Books account.  They need to use the link near the bottom of the page in the Online eBook section.
    1. Select How to use netLibrary
    2. Select the link Create an account (need to look for it closely as it is buried)
    3. Fill in their information and they are good to go.

Please note: if patrons are using cox.net for their Internet service, when they create the account they will get a “proxy error” message.  They just need to login with their account information they supplied.  It will work.  There is something with Cox service which will not return the confirmation screen.

While checking out eMedia Page you will see the page now contains a search box for Gale Virtual Reference Library.  This neat little “widget” searches all of GVRL from this page.  A great shortcut your patrons will love!

Recently Reviewed BookLetter December 2, 2008

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We’ve made an improvement in the Recently Reviewed bookletter which hosts a sampling each month of items our patrons have reviewed in the catalog. In addition to the patron’s review you will now see a short summary about the book or movie.

We think this will be a nice improvement for our patrons.

eAudio Books and iPods November 26, 2008

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 ipods 

eAudio Books at eBooks To Go (Overdrive) now work with iPods and Mac computers. View the selection of MP3 audio books.

Did you know? November 14, 2008

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Access My Library by Gale is a free online access to thousands of articles and specialty encyclopedias. To use create an account by entering your email address and zipcode and enjoy! If you verify your email address, you get access for 7 days.  There is a box which tells patrons to visit their local library for additional resources.

Did you Know? November 7, 2008

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Teen Tech Week is March 8-14, 2009 and ALA has ideas for libraries to work with teens and technology in the library.  In the resource guide there was one example from Charlotte, NC on creating a teen MySpace area for the library.