New Reference Books in Gale Virtual Reference Library

The Virtual Library reference collection has just received these great resources to the Gale Virtual Reference Library: Animals Atlas of the World’s Strangest Animals (Science) DK Eyewitness Books: Endangered Animals (General Reference) Mammals of the Northern Hemisphere (Science) Mammals of the Southern Hemisphere(Science) Rourke’s World of Science Encyclopedia: Animal Life (Science) College College Financing Information [...]

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 [...]

Reader Advisory

How would you respond to a reader who asked if Guy Gavriel Kay had a new book coming out. Each of the responses below isn’t just about the service we provide. It is about the type of relationship we want to build with a reader. Which of these responses to the Kay question are you [...]

New Topic Pages in Credo Reference

This week Credo Reference has added the following new Topic Pages. Vaccination Barack Obama DuPont Egyptian Protests

Fayetteville Public Library Hosts Open House to Showcase Various E-Resources

Marketing for Libraries Transitioning from tried and tested print subscriptions to online resources can be difficult for some library patrons. Staff members at the Fayetteville Public Library in Arkansas assessed their marketing strategies and tactics in order get their users accustomed to the number of research databases available without a trip to the library under [...]

New Gale Directories Now Available

The following have been added to Gale Directory Library:  GDL: American Wholesalers and Distributors Directory, 22nd ed.  GDL: Awards, Honors, Prizes, 32nd ed.  GDL: Gale Directory of Publications and Broadcast Media, 147th ed.

Ask a Librarian Update

You may of noticed Ask a Librarian in the Catalog and on the mobile site is different.  We have been experimenting with a different software company – LiveHelpNow.  The cost for this help desk software is far less than the current Docutek software. We will be switching to the new software in early May.

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 [...]

New Literature Criticism

The following titles have been added to Literature Criticism: Contemporary Literary Criticism Vol 298 Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism Vol 235 Poetry Criticism Vol 111 Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism Vol 245

Sign-a-Palooza

There is a great article in the October 2010 issue of Computers in Libraries on how New City Library is using 10 inch digital photo frames at their service points to promote their events and services instead of paper signs. If you need a copy of the article go to Academic Search Premier and search [...]

Law Google Search

The New York Law School’s Mendik Library has recently developed DRAGNET, a search tool that allows the user to find a topic simultaneously in more than 80 legal web sites and databases.   DRAGNET stands for “Database retrieval access using Google’s new electronic technology. “ DRAGNET was developed over the summer by librarians at the New [...]

New Literature Titles

Contemporary Literary Criticism Vol 289 Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism Vol 226 Poetry Criticism Vol 104 Short Story Criticism Vol 137 Short Story Criticism Vol 138 Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism Vol 234 Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism Vol 235 Something About the Author Vol 210 Something About the Author Vol 211

Top Websites

The original Alice in Wonderland manuscript from the British Library’s Online Gallery, digitized in all of its gorgeous glory! DOE Green Energy – official site for research documents relating to green energy. Time Line – Volcano Iceland Volcanoes of Iceland

National Indian Law Library

National Indian Law Library The Native American Rights Fund (NARF) and West, a Thomson Reuters business work to improve access to Native American tribal law available through NARF’s National Indian Law Library (NILL). Selected tribal law content will be editorially annotated by West for Westlaw and will be cross-linked to court opinions and other law on [...]

Find Newspapers, Magazines & Journals

We have a development site for our new product from Serial Solutions – Find Newspapers, Magazines and Journals. We still need to get the linking turned on in the databases and the MARC records loaded into the catalog for all our electronic subscriptions.  This site is good if you already have citation information and need [...]

WebFeat Tweaks

After reviewing the usage of our federated search –  WebFeat the Virtual Library made a few minor tweaks to help improve the results patrons get when they use it to search the databases. Changed the ranking of articles to Relevancy ranking from grouped. (This was done to both Kids and Adult webfeat).  Previous results we [...]

Searching the Deep Web

Experts say search engines such as Yahoo! and Google only pick up about 1% of the information available on the Internet. The rest of that information is considered to be hidden in the deep web, also referred to as the invisible web. So how can you find all the rest of this information? This list [...]

Resume Writing

After reading the article Downturn Puts New Stresses on Libraries  this week in The New York Times I thought today would be a good time to remind staff about a couple of online resources we have which could help patrons looking for jobs. Resume Maker - this “database” allows patrons to write their resume and store it [...]

March is Women’s History Month

Be sure to checkout the ideas and resources for Women’s History month available on The Librarian’s Brain.  Upcoming articles will cover Women’s History resources and March Holidays around the world. Also remember the library’s InfoGuide Women’s History.

Reference Search Engine for Patrons

There is a group in the NewYork area which is working on a concept for a grant to build a “search engine” which will search vetted websites.  This search engine could then be embedded into library websites, catalogs, blogs, etc. The mission of the project is to build an application which will “find credible information in [...]