It’s the End of the Year as We Know It!

I’m always a bit nostalgic towards the end of the year, and what a year 2012 has been! We saw a lot of things that made us smile, broke our hearts, and made history. Here’s a highlight reel of all things 2012…

January: Hailey Yancy was the first baby born in St. Louis for 2012. Many new babies arrived at the St. Louis Zoo in the first few days of 2012 – Studebaker the Bangteng Calf, a King Penguin Chick, and Tundra the Mountain Bongo.

February: Giants beat Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI.  Whitney Houston passes away, after her success as one of the greatest pop divas of all time.

March: “Hunger Games” comes out in theaters, making $155 million at the box office on its first weekend.

April: Kelly Clarkson’s “What Doesn’t Kill You” tops Billboard charts. Chen Guangcheng, a Chinese government dissident, seeks asylum in the US after speaking out against his government.

May: Mitt Romney of Massachusetts captures the Republican nomination.

June: Wildfires in Colorado and New Mexico burn through 200,000 acres and cause thousands to flee their homes.

July: A gunman opens fire in a movie theater for “The Dark Knight Rises,” killing 12 and injuring 58. Stars of the movie visit victims in the hospital.  

August: The Summer Olympics kick off in London, and the US brings home the gold for gymnastics. Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, passes away at the age of 82.

September: An attack at the US Consulate in Libya kills 4 people. This becomes a major issue for the Presidential election.

October: Hurricane Sandy devastates the Northeast with over $50 billion in damages. Jerry Sandusky is sentenced to 30-60 years in prison for his part in the scandal at Pennsylvania State University.

November: Obama wins Presidential election against Mitt Romney. Later in the month he pardons turkeys Cobbler and Gobbler.

December: “The Hobbit” makes $84 million on its first weekend. A tragic school shooting in Newton, CT claims 26 lives.

To find out more about what happened in 2012 and any year, check out “Year by Year” or “World News Digest.” Happy New Year!

---Anna H., Jamestown Bluffs

Books in Print access

Due to Hurricane Sandy, access to Books in Print will be limited or not at all for the time being. I will update this post when access has been restored.

Updated 10/31/12 - Access has been restored!

LearningExpress Library System Maintenance

From the LearningExpress website:

LearningExpress Library...will be unavailable from the close of business (EST), August 24 until 8:00 am (EST), August 25, 2012 so that we can upgrade our system. Thank you for your patience.

Scheduled Site Maintenance

The library will be performing scheduled maintenance on Friday, August 10. As a result, the catalog, databases and eMedia may be unavailable from 5:00-7:00 p.m. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Business Insights: Essentials

Business and Company Resource Center [Gale] is now Business Insights: Essentials. It contains the same content as the Business and Company Resource Center but will have some new features: interactive charting, a new business glossary, text-to-speech capabilities, citation tools, and more. Check it out today!

The end of the Grzimek's Animal Life database

After June 30, Gale will no longer be offering Grzimek's Animal Life as an online database. Instead, check out the Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, a 17 volume set. These eBooks are available in our Gale Virtual Reference Library.

Kids Search

Starting on July 1, 2012, Kids Infobits will no longer be available. Instead we have added Kids Search, which is available now. You will find links to this new site on the library's Research Page, under ‘For Students’ and alphabetically, and on the Kids Homework Help pages.

Kids Search is a search interface designed specifically for elementary/middle school students built around their needs and search abilities. The Kids Search interface combines a state-of-the-art search engine (powered by EBSCOhost®) with a child-friendly, graphically-rich design that is both powerful and fun to use.

You can practice navigating the new site with this scavenger hunt (the answers are included on the last page).

Scheduled Site Maintenance - Saturday, June 9

The library will be performing scheduled maintenance on Saturday, June 9. As a result, the catalog, databases and eMedia will be unavailable from 6:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Gleeks Unite!

I have a confession to make...I'm a Gleek. The show that makes my husband curl up in a ball (he has an aversion to musicals) is my pride and joy. I’ve been watching “Glee” for the past few seasons as characters Rachel, Finn, Quinn, Kurt, Puck, and others grew up before our eyes tackling issues like teen pregnancy, bullying, and finding your place in life. But what I really love about the show is the music!

A former choir nerd, I am entertained by the creative interpretations and mash-ups of popular music! If only my high school group did half of the cool things the kids at McKinley High get to do...sigh. I suppose it’s part nostalgia and part envy on my part that keep me watching week after week.

Should you be looking for a music fix in between episodes, check out Oxford Music Online for the latest news in the music industry, search for a piece you heard on “Glee,” or listen to the difference between a plagal and Phrygian cadence.

--Anna H., Jamestown Bluffs

Scheduled Site Maintenance - Wednesday, May 23

The library will be performing scheduled maintenance on Wednesday, May 23. As a result, the catalog, databases, and eMedia will be unavailable from 9:30 p.m.-10:00 p.m. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Database Access Issues - Resolved!

It appears we are having issues with access to our databases. We are working to resolve the problem but it looks like it may be tomorrow before we have any answers. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for your patience!

Novelist Plus

If you haven’t used Novelist Plus in a while, you will notice a much transformed interface. Novelist Plus has enriched the screen with useful links and, as you will discover, it has simplified the process of finding series and read-alikes.

One outstanding feature in the current version is the Recommended Reading Lists. These are divided into fiction and non-fiction and can be customized by age group. Adult fiction lists are
arranged according to genre such as Romance, Westerns, etc. Teen and older children’s lists are arranged by topic and also include a read-alike feature heading: “If you liked. “ Young readers 0-8 years have their own topics including Fairy Tales, Stories of the Seasons, or Animal Stories, for example. Thus, in just a couple of clicks you can find suggested readings based on individual interests and age group.

Finding read-alikes has never been easier. You can browse the suggested author read-alikes or search for your own, specifying author or characteristics you would like to see in the read-alike such as tone, storyline, location, etc. For author read-alikes, Novelist Plus offers an analysis of the given author and indicates how suggested authors compare, thus helping you make an informed decision about what to read.

Series are easy to locate as well. Just select “Series” in the search choices and type the name of the main character in the search bar. Click on the series and the books come up in chronological order, making it easy to know what to read next. There are often large selections of reviews to consult and, of course, there is a popularity rating for each book.

Novelist also provides assistance to book discussion group leaders. There are 500 Book Discussion Guides available. Each guide gives information about the author, a summary of the book followed by thought-provoking discussion questions with answers. Finally, suggestions for further reading and additional sources of information about the book are listed.

--Alice R., Reference

Scheduled Site Maintenance - Wednesday, May 9

The library will be performing scheduled maintenance on Wednesday, May 9. As a result, the catalog, databases, and eMedia will be unavailable from 9:10 p.m. - 1 a.m. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Gale databases - Scheduled Maintenance 5/12

As part of ongoing product enhancements, on May 12, 2012, between the hours of 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. CST, users accessing Gale, Cengage Learning resources may experience a brief interruption in service during this time.

Scheduled Maintenance - Thursday, May 3

The library will be performing scheduled maintenance on Thursday, May 3. As a result, the catalog, databases, and emedia will be unavailable from 11:00 p.m.-5:00 a.m. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Fix It Yourself!

I’m an inquisitive person (a little cheap, too), so I like to do things on my own before I call in the experts. This is why, of course, I only seek advice and information from reliable sources, right? Wrong!

The first time my car window wouldn’t roll up or down, I surfed Youtube and watched several videos on repairing it. The next afternoon pieces of my door were scattered on the front lawn while I struggled to make the window motor work. Before I knew it, I broke the motor even more and had to install a wooden cutting board to keep the window from falling down. Yes, classy, all the way. If I went through a car wash without checking the window thereafter, my interior would get wet or riding over bumps would cause the cutting board to slide out of place. I should have checked out ALLDATA!

My husband and I were trying to mow the lawn for the first time this spring when our “new” lawnmower wouldn’t start. He tried to change the oil by pouring an entire quart into the engine. It started the next time with enough toxins to cause another hole in the ozone! If we had perused the Small Engine Repair Reference Center, we wouldn’t have had to bother our kind neighbor to fix it for us.

This just goes to show that before you take on any project you should do your homework and our databases can help you do that!

--Anna H., Jamestown Bluffs Branch

Global Road Warrior

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a businesswoman in Kyrgyzstan? Me,

neither, but St Louis County’s Global Road Warrior database can answer hypothetical country/

cultural questions like that. Tired of hypotheticals? How about something closer to home?

GRW can tell you about the climate, demographics, language and religion of Mexico, or any

other country you’d like to see. This database is great for students’ country reports, though

it may be more appropriate for middle school, high school and college students. Elementary

school students interested in country and cultural information might enjoy our CultureGrams

database.

Global Road Warrior is also a boon for long-term and business travelers. Topics include finding

education for children, doctors and pharmacies, money and banking, travel essentials and

a security briefing. I’ve searched GRW before every international trip I’ve taken since SLCL

purchased the database. As the saying goes, I don’t leave home without it.

--Paul S., Reference

Oxford Music Online Database - Your Starting Point in Music Research!

Do you have to write a paper on a musician or musical time period and aren’t sure where to start? Those wishing for a more reliable music-related source than Wikipedia will want to explore the “Oxford Music Online Database,” which features multiple full-text music sources: “Grove Music Online,”“The Oxford Companion to Music,” “The Oxford Dictionary of Music,” and the “Encyclopedia of Popular Music.” The database covers a wide range of genres, including jazz, country, folk, rap, reggae, techno, musicals, and world music. There is something for everyone!

Articles are brief, but authoritative, written by leading scholars in the field of music. The database excels in providing an overview of subject matter, particularly focused on the biographical. A noteworthy feature is the timeline element, which includes timelines on women in music, operatic premieres, and contemporary music. There are also topical guides providing overviews of the major music periods and a guide to articles on women composers.

While “Oxford Music Online Database” may not be your final stop in music research, it should definitely be your starting point!

--Connie D., Rock Road Branch

Grandma’s Purse

Antiques Reference P4A is a database that covers descriptions and prices of items sold at about 50 regional auction houses in the United States. It is very easy to locate the item’s price one is looking for. To find the look alike of the purse I had seen in an antique shop, all I had to do was to enter the key word “purse” and enter the category silver &gold from the drop down menus. This database is the perfect place to start if you are curious about the value of a coin, a painting or glassware you have at home. If you are planning to buy an item of value, Antiques Reference P4A, will give you the value of the pre sale estimate, the sale history and an excellent description of the item.

--Roz K., Jamestown Bluffs Branch

Build-A-Bear With Hoovers Premium Online

“The Build-A-Bear Workshop covers the "bear" necessities and much more.” If you’ll pardon

the pun, this is a pretty funny opening line from a business database. Of course, when you’re

using Hoovers Premium Online you can expect such attempts at witticism.

Hoovers is more than just humorous lines; it’s a comprehensive, up-to-date database that helps

users find in-depth information on companies. Take St. Louis’ own Build-A-Bear Workshop, for

example. Not only does Hoovers offer entertaining company histories, it also offers financial

information taken from Dun and Bradstreet, Hoovers’ parent company.

Job hunters will love Hoovers’ Key People function, where company officers and employees

can be located by job type, such as Human Resources. Often, contact information is included.

It’s just what you need when you want to figure out who to address your cover letter to. This

feature is particularly useful when combined with a website like LinkedIn. A customer of mine

used Hoovers to contact Build-A-Bear Workshop’s Chairman and Chief Executive Bear Maxine K.

Clark (yes, that’s really Ms. Clark’s title).

You can have a look at Hoovers Online by follow this path:

1. Go to www.slcl.org/

2. Click Research at the top of the page, in the middle

3. Under Subject Guides, click Business & Investing.

4. Under Databases, click Hoovers Premium Online.

5. Type your last name, St. Louis County Library card number and PIN number in the

appropriate boxes.

6. Type the company you’d like to find in the Keyword box.

Give Hoovers Premium Online a try and you’ll be smarter than the average bear…

--Paul S., Reference

Academic Research Help

The library can help students with academic research papers, with ease. Assume that you are writing a paper on the success of daily deal websites like Groupon, for a class. By going to http://www.slcl.org, then selecting the tab for Research, then Databases A-Z, then Academic OneFile, you can enter the term "daily deals" in the search box. There are 65 results. Note that Groupon is a keyword for three results and cited in five documents. Altering the search to find "Groupon" in the entire document yields 62 results, with 27 having Groupon as the keyword. The beauty of databases such as this are that a researcher can limit the results to full-text articles and to peer-reviewed journals. In this case, the search results came from, among other periodicals, the Journal of Internet Law, Information Today, CFO Magazine, and the International Journal of E-Business Research. These journals may be difficult or impossible to find in print at the researcher's home or school library. The beauty of the databases is that they allow students to do sophisticated searches and review the latest journals in full text. They allow students to save time on research and focus on writing and analysis.

--Harry C., Reference

Mobile Databases

You've heard that the library has a new mobile app, but did you know that you could access databases on it? Many of the library’s databases can be accessed from the “Online Databases” section of the SLCL Mobile app. Below is a description of each database option and an example of how you might find it useful!

Ebscohost offers access to the databases Academic Search Elite and MasterFile Premier; to search both, touch Select All. Search terms are entered in the search box at the top of the page; touch Search Options to limit your results to a certain publication or date. Be aware, to view an article on your device you will need to have an app that opens PDF files (ex. Adobe PDF Reader). Use this mobile database to find a “Consumer Reports” product review while shopping.

Novelist Mobile offers information about books and authors. Novelist has a basic search box at the top of the page. To narrow your results, touch Search Options and scroll down to Document Type. There you have options such as Author (to find a list of their works) or Read-alikes (to find similar authors). Use this in the stacks to find out which book came first in a series.

Two of the databases, Gale/Cengage and Mango require you to download an additional app to use them. Touching Gale/Cengage will automatically open the Gale App (called Access My Library in the App store). Pick a St. Louis County Library location on the library map and touch View Gale Resources. Touch Update My Library and then Gale Databases. Over 20 databases are available. Use this to look up ingredients for a recipe in Culinary Arts Collection while at the grocery store.

To use Mango, the language database, you will need to have already created a Mango account through the database on the library’s website and use that to log into the Mango app. Unfortunately, Mango is currently only available for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Waiting in line at the DMV? Log into this app and learn Italian while you wait.

The last two mobile databases are Worldbook and Worldcat. Worldbook is an easy-to-use mobile version of the online encyclopedia. Use this in place of Wikipedia! Worldcat, the multi-library catalog, offers less search options than the online version but uses GPS to show books at libraries close to your location.

--Susie B., Reference

Research Papers – Narrow Down Your Results

Do you need help writing a high school or college level research paper and are not sure where to begin? Try “Academic Search Elite” [EBSCO] database. This database contains full-text articles – including peer-reviewed ones – on a broad range of subjects for more than 2,100 journals.

What’s a peer-reviewed article? When an article is peer-reviewed, it means that it has been read by experts in that particular subject. The expert examines the article for mistakes and ensures that it is of the highest quality before it goes to publication. Frequently teachers will ask that articles cited in a paper be peer-reviewed. By simply checking the peer-reviewed box before you search the database, you can examine only these types of articles.

No one has time to read thousands of articles. Learn how to narrow down your search results! For example, a keyword search for “dogs” will produce results ranging from the dates 1908 to 2012. When I searched for “dogs” it yielded 41,717 articles to be exact (at the time of writing this).

Most teachers require the most recent articles for your paper. To sort results by date, use the scrolling bar on the left side of the page. Instead of searching for results between 1908 and 2012, try searching from 2010 to 2012. You’ll find that the results are easier to examine this way!

If I want to narrow down my “dogs” search further, I can check the “full-text” tab, the “peer-reviewed” tab, and narrow the dates between 2010 and 2012. Now instead of 40,000+ articles, I have a much more manageable 500+ articles. Let’s take it one step further and narrow it by type of dog. Try using the same search criteria as above and typing dogs AND poodle. You receive 6 results. That’s a lot easier to read than 40,000!

--Connie D., Rock Road Branch

It Means the World to Me

One may be wondering, which of St. Louis County Library's many Databases is the one that every library user should know. As this may be quite subjective, I would like to share my favorite Database: Worldcat

Worldcat literally “means the world to me” because it is the largest inclusive library catalog containing more than 246 million different records and over 1.77 billion physical and digital assets in more than 470 languages, included in all public and academic libraries in the United States.

If you want to know whether a book, a DVD or any other item was ever owned by a library or whether it forthcoming, please check Worldcat before you give up.

--Roz K., Jamestown Bluffs Branch

First Research

I often teach databases to high school and college students and job seekers as part of my job. At the end of my classes I often get the question, “what’s your favorite database?” For me, that’s like asking a parent their favorite child. First Research is like the shy kid in the back of the class who is easily overlooked at first but who has special qualities on second glance.

Unlike many of our other business databases, First Research searches industries rather than individual companies. A search for “information technology” results in an industry profile entitled “Information Technology Services,” dated February 6, 2012. Talk about being up to date- I’m writing this blog on February 9! Not only is the profile current it’s also comprehensive; all profiles include an industry overview, business challenges, executive insight, call preparation questions and financial information. You can even download the profiles into an MP3 audio podcast.

I use First Research when I work with small business owners and new entrepreneurs who want to learn as much about their industry as possible. Job hunters also find the executive insight and call preparation questions very useful for job interview preparation. Wouldn’t you like to have a list of potential interview questions, and their answers, before your next interview?

If First Research sounds as good to you as it does to me, you can access it through the St. Louis County Library’s Research page. Interested customers can also book a Reference librarian for one-on-one First Research instruction by calling 314-994-3300 ext. 2050. I think once you start using First Research you’ll understand the shy kid has a lot to say when it comes to industry research.

--Paul S., Headquarters

This one is for the History Buffs...

The American Civil War Research Database is for the history buffs as well as for those of us whose ancestors participated in the Civil war. Though I do not have ancestors that participated in the Civil War, I find it fascinating to see regimental dynamics, allegiances, types of losses Confederate and Union soldiers suffered, all in graphs.

It is amazing to see the list of battles each State fought in. Missouri fought 615 battles and Idaho fought the Grand Pass Battle.

Remember, this is a great source for teachers and students as well.

--Roz K., Jamestown Bluffs