Research Blog : collections

Vacation on a budget...

SuDocQueen@evpl — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:38:00 GMT

Nowadays everyone’s talking about staycations. This reminded me of the wonderful vacations my parents took me on even when we had to watch every penny. How’d we do it? By visiting our National Parks and State Parks (and camping, but that’s a whole ‘nother story). Most parks have entrance fees for an entire passenger car that are cheaper than an individual ticket to Disney World.

Starting in the winter my parents would send away for scads of pamphlets and maps of parks like the Grand Canyon, the Petrified Forest, and Slide Rock State Park. Planning early is still a good idea but now it’s even easier. All you have to do is go to www.nps.gov. From there you can learn about every national park in the country. They have a great search tool on that front page. Just click on the state you’re interested in visiting and you’ll get a list of all the parks in that state. But what if you know the name of a park but not what state it’s in? No problem. Click on the “Advanced SearchTool and Map.” From there scroll below the map and you’ll see a great browser tool that will let you pick your park by name, location, preferred activity, or even topic (like mountains or volcanoes or coral reefs).

But what about state parks? Well, if there’s a site out there that pulls all state parks under one “roof” I haven’t found it yet, but putting “state parks (insert the state name of your choice)” into Google does a terrific job of pulling up each state’s website.

And, if you’re at Central Library stop by and take a look at some of the books and pamphlets the National Parks Service still puts out. We have a whole series of pamphlets on the Blue Ridge Parkway trails. Just ask one of us about Call # I 29.149. Or if you’re interested in the historic details of sites, you might want to take a look in our I 29.88 area. Those are historic structure and site reports on places like Fire Island Lighthouse, the Eleanor Roosevelt Historic Site, and Antietam National Battlefield.

Historical magazines at Central Library

googler@evpl — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 14:58:00 GMT

Central Library has a large collection of magazines, most of which are held for five or ten years. But there's also a pretty impressive collection of older magazines, which have been bound into hardcover and are being retained for their historical value. They can't be checked out, but they can be used in the library.

The oldest is the American Magazine, which the Library has from 1908 to 1953. This was a general interest magazine that was known for publishing features in the muckraking vein, inspirational "Horatio Alger" type success stories, fiction and poetry, and eventually settled into a family magazine slot, much like Life. Other general interest magazines in the collection are Atlantic Monthly (1921-1974), Harper's (191-1973), Life (1936-1972), New Yorker (1956-1974), Reader's Digest (1931-1974), Saturday Evening Post (1956-1968), and Saturday Review (1924-1942).

There are also a few good examples of women's magazines, Good Housekeeping (1924-1954) and Ladies' Home Journal (1927-1949). I sometimes think today's young women would benefit from looking at the stereotypical way women used to be portrayed in publications like this (or in the display ads of any historical magazine).

Another great cultural resouce are old issues of Architectural Record, which the Library has from 1940 to 1970. Enthusiasts of mid-century design and decor will find a lot to enjoy there. Also, business is represented by Fortune from 1930 to 1974. It's a valuable primary source on the Great Depression.

There are also historical issues of news magazines, for contemporary takes on past events: The Nation (1926-1949), Newsweek (1937-1975), Time (1926-1974), and US News and World Report (1951-1974).

The Library has also retained a few important titles in the sciences (although please understand that the older scientific information is, the less accurate it's likely to be). Bound issues of National Geographic is held from 1920 to 1961, and Scientific American from 1930-1974.

And if you use these volumes in the library, please don't reshelve them! Because they don't check out, the only way we know they're being used is when we reshelve them. And we really like knowing they're being used!

"Big Brown Books" Now Available on Your Home Computer

Bufkinite@evpl — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:42:00 GMT

How many of you were given an assignment in a high school or college literature course to find "critical reviews" of some obscure author, and despaired of finding anything meaningful before you found - or were directed to by a librarian - the gold mine of the "Big Brown Books"? Actually different series, entitled Contemporary Literary Criticism, Nineteenth Century Literary Criticism, and Twentieth Century Literary Criticism, these books compile information from a number of literary journals and poetry magazines, and arrange them by author. Each title now runs to well over 100 volumes, and Central Library has a complete run of all three titles.

But now comes Literature Criticism Online, and all volumes are available online through EVPL's databases page. So, not only can you browse them from the public computers at any of the EVPL branches, you can browse them from home, 24/7!

Logging in to Literature Criticism Online presents you with options for a basic or advanced search. Below is a screenshot of the Basic Search window, and you can see there are tabs for an advanced search, as well as for browsing by author, or by work. You can limit your search to one of the titles, e.g. Contemporary Literary Criticism, or choose to search all held titles with one search. The drop-down menu beside the search box allows you to search by keyword, full text, named author, or named work.

Search results present you with a list of links to pdf versions of the original print materials, so that what you find online is visually identical to what you would find in the original printed books. There are cases where copyright restrictions end up presenting the message "Text Not Viewable Online," but they are very few and far between.

So check out Literature Criticism Online, look up your favorite author or work, and find out what the critics had to say!

OverDrive @ EVPL now Mac compatible!

professor.knowsitall@evpl — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:31:00 GMT

OverDrive @ EVPL is a collection of downloadable materials (including audiobooks, eBooks, movies, & music) available free of charge to all EVPL cardholders. Since launch, patrons with Windows PCs have been downloading countless items from this digital collection...unforunately, Mac users were out of luck.

That is no more, as a Mac version of the OverDrive Media Console (the software required to download items) has just been released! Mac users can now download MP3 audiobooks and transfer them to iPods.

Unfortunately, there are a couple caveats for Mac users:

OverDrive MP3 Audiobooks are the ONLY compatible format available for Mac users. OverDrive WMA Audiobooks, OverDrive Music, & OverDrive Video all use Microsoft-based DRM and therefore are not compatible with Macs. Unless Apple were to license this DRM, which is very unlikely, these formats will never be playable on Macs.
OverDrive Media Console (aka OMC) for Macs can only transfer content to Apple iPods. Transferring to a MP3 player/portable device other than an iPod requires the Windows version of OMC, which only runs on Windows-based PCs.
OMC is unable to transfer content to the iPod Shuffle. Owners of these devices can transfer content to their device using iTunes.
Windows users with iPods will continue to use the Windows version of OMC to transfer content to their device. The Windows version of OMC is also compatible with a wide variety of additional devices, including the Microsoft Zune, Creative Zen series, and more.

Visit OverDrive @ EVPL, browse our collection, install the required software, and download to your heart's content! If you have any questions about the recently-added Mac compatibility, or if you have any questions/comments about OverDrive in general, please post them in the comments section below or contact us via Ask EVPL.

More Information

OverDrive @ EVPL: Visit our OverDrive site to start downloading our digital materials!
What is OverDrive?: Check out this guided tour of OverDrive to discover what it is and how to use it.
Compatible Portable Devices: A list of compatible portable media players that can be transferred to using the Windows version of OMC.

Recent changes to our website

professor.knowsitall@evpl — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:32:00 GMT

Ever since launching our new website on May 1, we've been implementing minor tweaks based on feedback from patrons and staff. One suggestion I've received regularly was to make our digital materials easier to locate.

As of this morning, our "Virtual Library" section has been replaced with a redesigned "Downloads" section. Click the "Downloads" tab above to check out this new section, featuring the following content:

OverDrive @ EVPL: While we've offered downloadable WMA audiobooks & eBooks for some time, our new OverDrive section also features downloadable MP3 audiobooks, video (including movies & TV shows), and music! All it takes is a library card and installation of some free software. OverDrive @ EVPL replaces the EVPL Digital Catalog and MyLibraryDV services previously on our site.
EVPL Toolbar: Installing this toolbar on your home computer gives you one-click access to important areas of our website, as well as searching our online catalog! An optional scrolling ticker also keeps you up-to-date on library happenings.
eNewsletters: We have 25 different newsletters, on a wide variety of topics, that you can subscribe to via email. Receive lists of recommended titles, with links to our online catalog, in your inbox!

We're committed to making our website have the best browsing experience possible. If you have questions or comments about our new "Downloads" section, or have suggestions for improving other areas of our site, we'd love to hear them! Please submit them in the comments section below, or submit them via Ask EVPL.

Catalog Your Personal Book Collection Online

HoodooVoodoo@evpl — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:46:00 GMT

If many of you out there are like me, you have hundreds of books sitting on your bookshelf at home in a certain order that only you can keep organized (to a point). Personally, I shelf mine chronologically by author according to genre, but I am very OCD like that. No matter what kind of order you may keep them in, it's still hard to keep track of them all. Also, in case something devastating would happen wouldn't it be best to have a cataloging system listing all the titles you own?

Now you can at Library Thing, an online cataloging site that allows you to enter your collection in a library-type catalog format. Library Thing allows you to catalog up to 200 titles for free, or as many as you like for $10 a year or $25 for life. Library Thing also allows you to catalog with Amazon, the Library of Congress or 690 other world libraries. You can also get recommendations and tag your books, along with checking out other people's tags. To find out more, take the Library Thing tour today.