Research Blog : databases

Service unavailability on Thursday, September 13, 2012

professor.knowsitall@evpl — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 21:28:00 GMT

A number of services at EVPL locations and on our website will be unavailable most of the day Thursday, September 13 due to system maintenance.

Unavailable Services
Classic Catalog, Encore, & Mobile Catalog	Checkouts of eBooks or downloadable audiobooks
Freegal Music	Self-Checkout Stations
MediaBank DVD Dispenser	Creating new cards
Checkout without a physical library card	Account activities: paying fines, editing info, placing holds
Account lookup	Certain databases: Books 24x7, Digital Sanborn Maps, LitFinder, Million Dollar Database, & Value Line Research Center

The following services will still be available.

Available Services
Most of the EVPL website	Most databases
Browsing OverDrive & Axis 360 collections	In-library public computers with internet access
Checkout at the desk with a physical library card

The maintenance is expected to take most of the day. We appreciate your patience during the downtime and apologize for any inconvenience it may cause.

If you have questions, feel free to submit them below or call any EVPL location.

College Admissions, round 2

kiya@evpl — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 21:14:00 GMT

My second child is now a high school junior, and we are once again getting overwhelmed by mail from colleges, the alphabet soup of tests - PSAT/ACT/ SAT/CLEP, and sometimes even the kindly questions about where she will go to school from every adult she meets.

If you, too, need help finding your way through this process, I highly recommend the College Prep series of programs scheduled at Red Bank Branch this month. This Thursday, the 13^th, will be a presentation on Choosing the Right College, followed on Thursday the 20^th by a talk on Applications and Admissions. The series wraps up on Thursday the 27^th by a program on Paying for College and Financial Aid. All programs begin at 6pm, and are presented by those who work in the field.

Once you have those under your belt, check out some of these materials:

8 first choices : an expert's strategies for getting into college / Joyce Slayton Mitchell

College admission : from application to acceptance, step by step / Robin Mamlet, Christine VanDeVelde

The financial aid handbook : getting the education you want for the price you can afford / Carol Stack and Ruth Vedvik

Then take a look at the following databases, available to you free through our website:

Career Transitions: Career Transitions walks users through the job-search process from beginning to end. Users can return to their profile in their library - or remotely - to track and update their progress. Career Transitions employs a step-by-step approach to help people: 1) explore new career possibilities; 2) assess their interests and experience; 3) identify ways to improve their prospects, including networking and education; 4) prepare for a job search; and 5) search and apply for jobs.
Testing & Education Reference Center: A start-to-finish resource with all the information and support materials needed to make informed, confident decisions to shape the rest of your life. Includes High School Tools, College Prep Tools, and Career Tools.

Paying for college

HelperBee@evpl — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 20:10:00 GMT

The start of a new school year is a good time to think about how to pay for college, and the library is a great place to explore some of your options. Ask at the Information Desk to be shown to a wide selection of books, from savings to scholarships.

You can even search for scholarships with our Testing & Education Reference Center database. Just choose the College Prep Tools option, followed by the Scholarship Search link. You will need to register, but it's well worth the time because this database has a lot to offer, and not just for those headed to college.

Finally, don't forget to check out our Useful Websites page, where we've gathered some sites for the College Bound.

We have a lot of great resources for anyone looking to pay for college, including at least one DVD. So be sure to check it out!

Local Farmers Markets

SuDocQueen@evpl — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 21:39:00 GMT

Most of us know our local commercial farmers markets, the type that have an established retail location, the ones you can find in the yellow pages, but what about the ones that are gatherings of smaller sellers? The ones that bring their produce to town for sale one day a week? Those don't normally show up in the local yellow pages, so how do you find them?

The USDA has created a database to help people with that. http://apps.ams.usda.gov/FarmersMarkets/ First enter the zip code you want to search in and choose the radius you want to search, anywhere from 5 to 200 miles. You'll get a list that includes the name of the market, its city and state, and a link to its website if it has one. After the list comes up, you can narrow the results by the type of produce (click the file tab that says "Products Available") and/or the type of payment accepted. If you're interested in seeing more details on a particular market on the list, click on the little blue box to the left of the market's name. You will get a pop-up window with the location of the market, times of operation, products for sale, directions, and additional miscellaneous information. This is, of course, assuming that the market has supplied that information to the database.

All in all, I found this a very fun and easy database to use. I do wish it included the markets that have established retail centers, but maybe those aren't strictly farmers markets...?

Expanded coverage in Literary Reference Center

googler@evpl — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:37:00 GMT

We recently expanded our online literary resources when EBSCO upgraded Literary Reference Center to Literary Reference Center Plus. This new database offers additional reference works, literary journals, new contemporary literature titles, full-text literary study guides, audio content, and videos. This additional content, blended with the specialized and easy-to-use, browsable interface, creates an authoritative literary tool for users.

Literary Reference Center Plus includes all of the content currently in Literary Reference Center as well as more than 1,100 full-text literary reference books and works focusing on plays, drama, poetry, and religious, children’s and Hispanic literature. LRC Plus also presents a focus on multicultural studies, folklore, mythology, Latin American literature and historical literature by offering more than 125 literary magazines and journals in these areas. Thirty-five extensive
volumes of new reference content on contemporary literature from Salem Press also contribute to this new resource relating to fantasy/science fiction, contemporary literature, world philosophy, and biographies of Nobel Literature Prize winners.

Users of Literary Reference Center Plus will also have access to 40 full-text literary study guides to help explore novels and plays in American and English literature and to better understand the characteristics of different forms of literature. The database also contains 74 literary videos pertaining to classic literary works and authors.

Like other browsable/GUI databases in the EBSCO family, this interface uses tabs. Your result list defaults to "all results," but note the tab for "literary criticism," which is what many students will be after. (I'm a little disappointed that although media has been added to the database, there isn't a tab for audio/video. Use advanced search to limit to "multimedia/study guides.") Also, keep an eye on the "full text" notation of your results. As with other EBSCO databaes, some results are available in full-text in the database, but some are citation/abstract only -- these may or may not be in EVPL's collection (but if not, they can be requested via interlibrary loan).

The databases can be accessed by cardholders via our database page, in the "Literature" category. As always, please call your branch library or Central Library Reference (428-8218) if you have any questions about using this or any database.

Up-To-Date H1N1 and Flu Information Available Now!

Bufkinite@evpl — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 21:09:00 GMT

As public concern about pandemic H1N1 and the upcoming flu season continues to grow, the medical and nursing editors from both EBSCO Publishing and the Gale Group have responded by offering the latest scientifically verified flu-related information available for free.

These free flu information resources are available in the following ways:

To access EBSCO's information, click here.
To access Gale Group's information on the science and history of H1N1, click here.
To access Gale Groups up-to-the-minute global news on H1N1, click here.

This free flu information will be continually updated, so please check both of these sites often, and feel free to share, post, and email a link to this blog post to your colleagues, family and friends.

Hobby and craft info galore

googler@evpl — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 22:26:00 GMT

Hobbyists and crafters will be in heaven browsing our new database, the Hobbies and Crafts Reference Center. It contains content from more than 740 magazines and books, as well as access to more than 720 videos and over 140 hobby reports, with detailed "how-to" instructions and creative ideas to meet the interests of virtually every hobby-enthusiast.

Accessed through the Library's databases page (the category is "How-To"), the user is presented with a user-friendly screen dividing the many topics into categories for fun browsing, such as collecting, model building, needlecraft and textiles, paper crafts, etc. For more immediate access to a specific topic, use the search box at the top of the screen.

The result list contains both specific projects, when available, and general information articles (and searchers can use a tab to go directly to the projects, if that's what they're after). The searcher can also use the list of more specific terms that are presented, to narrow the results.

Patterns and instructions are taken from popular magazines and presented in PDF or HTML format. And take note of the "video" tab found for a number of crafts. The short videos are quite informative, and any new knitter needing to learn to cast off, for example, will be happy to have them.

Ladies and Gentlemen Start Your Engines

wag.mado@evpl — Thu, 21 May 2009 18:18:00 GMT

Central Library’s Lobby Display starting next week will be featuring circulating materials about car racing and automobiles. With the Indianapolis 500 being this weekend, and NASCAR racing in full swing, it seems a good time to pull those items off the shelf.

If you like fiction, we have plenty of books and movies about the world of automobile racing.

There are biographies about race car drivers too.

We not only have car racing resources, but also materials regarding the history of automobiles, customizing, and maintenance/repair manuals on almost every make and model for the past 20+ years. If you cannot find the right manual, you can access our Auto Repair Reference Center database from your home computer and search for repair/maintenance instructions and diagrams for your specific auto.

Maybe you're not in “love” with your car like most Americans, but just want to know how to be a more responsible owner. In that case, we have books with information on saving gas, living greener, cutting back on the use of your car, and much more.

Visit your favorite library branch to take a look - and don't forget to buckle up!

Explore Issues of Global Importance with New Database

Bufkinite@evpl — Sat, 16 May 2009 16:56:00 GMT

Need up-to-the-minute information on child labor? Want to have an idea about current world opinion regarding the US military's use of torture? Are you concerned about nuclear weapons in failed states falling into the hands of international terrorist organizations? Are you confused by the proliferation of different and conflicting information about global climate change and sea-level rise?

Information on all of these issues and much more is available through a new database called Global Issues in Context. Available through the EVPL database page, this resource offers global news and perspectives on issues and events of international importance, like the ones outlined above, and provides background information on them, placing them in the proper sociopolitical, religious, and cultural context.

Searching Global Issues in Context can take place in a variety of ways, starting with simple keyword searching in a single search box. There is also a clickable world map, where choosing a particular country then links to issue portals where that country is mentioned.

Global Issues in Context has a great deal of multimedia components, including extensive audio and video clips from such places as NPR, PBS, CBC, and NBC news; interactive maps, and links to world newspapers.

TEACHERS AND EDUCATORS: Global Issues in Context's conten is aligned to state and national social studies and science standards and is up to date. Thus it can be used across the curriculum. It also encourages and develops critical-thinking skills by providing students a variety of pertinent global perspectives on the issues.

Check out this resource; it will broaden and deepen your understanding of current events and issues affecting countries and people around the world.

Two New Databases Emphasize U.S. & World History

Bufkinite@evpl — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:47:00 GMT

History buffs now have two new resources at their disposal 24 hours a day through the databases page at the EVPL web site. The History Resource Center: World and History Resource Center: U.S. are easy to navigate, rich resources.

History Resource Center: U.S. was named a "Best Reference" by the New York Public Library, and provides a easily searchable interface to a unique combination of primary and secondary sources. The most extensive online collection of historical information available today, History Research Center U.S. delivers:

- comprehensive coverage of the most-studied topics in U.S. history, including the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World Wars I and II, and the post-Cold War era
- a "roll-over" chronology that features a graphical, annotated timeline of significant events spanning pre-Columbian prehistory to today's headlines
- more than 5,000 primary source documents, including more than 9,000 commentaries
- over 350,000 periodical articles
- over 130 reference books
- thousands of downloadable images, maps, charts, and flags

Whether you're a student in high school, college, or a life-long learner, History Resource Center: U.S. delivers unmatched pinpoint results and reliable sources, allowing you to establish the context within the content.

History Resource Center: World was named a "Best Reference" by Library Journal, and offers students and researchers access to more than 5,000 years of world history, including 15,000 pages of primary source material, more than 50 encyclopedias and compendiums, more than 150 academic journals, more than 1,600 maps, atlases and other images, hours of video content, and daily podcasts from NPR, CBC, and other reputable sources, and annotated Web links to history-specific academic and news information sites.

Featuring extensive coverage of the 20th century, this resources also features coverage of teh Ancient Mediterranean, Ancient Near East and Asia as well as the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the modern Middle East and Latin America. Other highlights:

- Asian history recounts the events from Bronze Age China to modern India
- African, Indian, and Latin American history includes the end of colonization in Africa and India as well as the social and political movements in Latin America
- the same kind of "roll-over" timeline as the one featured in History Resource Center: U.S.

Both of these resources feature a very simple search tool, which allows you to search either one - or both - resource centers with one search by clicking the appropriate radio button. An example of the search box can be seen below. You can also search by a person or by a subject, and there is an advanced search option that allows you to limit by document type, historical date ranges, date of publication of the resource, and to use Boolean operators.

Consumer Reports Now Available Online

Bufkinite@evpl — Tue, 12 May 2009 21:06:00 GMT

One of the library's most requested resources, Consumer Reports magazine, is now available online. Not only do the magazine's articles appear here, all of the product testing and review information is archived there as well.

This is sure to become one of the most used databases available at EVPL. As of this writing, it is already number 8 on our "top ten" list of most popular databases.

Check it out!

New database for corporate info

googler@evpl — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:53:00 GMT

EVPL is now subscribing to the Million Dollar Database, which provides detailed information on over 250,000 public and private companies with at least $9 million in annual sales or at least 180 employees. Company data is updated frequently to ensure the most accurate information possible.

Company profiles include specialty information like executive biographies, number of employees, sales, year established, and Dun & Bradstreet's "prescreen score," assessing the risk of delinquent payment. The database offers you unlimited searching, viewing and printing of detailed company profiles with contact information.

The database is especially designed to help you find in-depth company and contact information, find new sales opportunities, conduct marketing research, and identify potential job opportunities. With that in mind, the database includes a Basic Search for simple company lookups, and a Search Designer that lets you search by a combination of over 30 criteria. And using the Million Dollar Database's File Builder, you can easily download a list of leads in minutes.

The initial search screen is a very simple, with search boxes for company name and location. (On this screen you can also search by phone number or SIC codes if you have that data but no company name.) For more complex searches, choose "advanced search" and choose from the list of criteria (zip code, minority owned, size by sales or employees, etc.). Be sure to click "add to criteria" and then make sure your "current search criteria" contains the ones you chose.

After you click "run search," you'll be able to sort the result list, click an entity name for detailed info, and select records to download.

A PDF file with more information on using the database can be found here.

As with all databases, call Reference Services at 428-8218 if you have any questions!

New Database Brings the World to your Desktop

Bufkinite@evpl — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:26:00 GMT

A new database called Global Road Warrior brings you comprehensive information on 175 countries around the world. And when I say "comprehensive" that is exactly what I mean. There is information in over 100 specific areas for each country listed.

There is basic information like geography (including flags and maps for each country), govenment, and climate; information about the society and culture, like standard greetings and courtesies, food peculiar to the area (including recipes), holidays, religions, and sports; information about how business is conducted, with special attention given to women in business; information about the currency used there, including a currency converter; and infrastructure information including electricity, telephones, Internet connectivity and ISPs, telegram, fax, and postal services.

In addition, there is a "security briefing" for every country taken directly from the CIA's World Factbook, health and medical information, and contact information - addresses, email, and telephone numbers - for all foreign embassies and consulates within each country.

Below left is a screen shot of the home page for Mongolia. The menu on the left is standard for each country, and includes the information outlined above and much more. Below right is a close-up of the standard menu, with an example of the sub-menu choices for "Society and Culture," to give you an idea of the richness of this resource.

Teachers will especially enjoy global road warrior! The maps listed for each country include a simple outline map as well as an outline map that includes outlines of states & provinces. There is also a list of "essential terms" for each country: how to say "hello," "goodbye," "yes," "no," and the other essential words and phrases you'll need to get around.

The search interface is very easy to use, and allows you to search within a particular country, or search for a particular term across all countries. Try it today and see what you think about EVPL's newest database offering.

Magazines now included in Google Book Search

googler@evpl — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 20:46:00 GMT

Google hasn't published a list of titles, for some reason, but they've started adding lots of page images from a variety of magazines, some going back to the 1800s.

Start at books.google.com, and click on the small "Advanced Book Search" link that's to the right of the search box. If you want to find a particular magazine, use its title as a phrase search (as an example, type Mother Jones into the exact phrase box). If you want to look for topic in that magazine, type those keywords into the topmost search box (for example, type in pesticides). Be sure to use the radio buttons to restrict your search to magazines. You can also scroll down and specify years, to make sure you get only recent articles. (Or, for nostalgia's sake, you might enjoy a search in something like Popular Science for a time span like 1850-1900.)

This article has a little more information on this project, for the curious.

And don't forget the Library's vast access to full-text magazines, available through databases we subscribe to (notably Masterfile). These databases can be access by all in any library, or from outside of the library by current resident card-holders.

Indiana Veterans of World War I

seeker@evpl — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 18:53:00 GMT

Do you have a family member who served during World War I, the "war to end all wars""? The original federal military records were lost in a fire in St Louis, so a 5-year project is researching the Indiana Veterans of World War I. Among other resources used, Service Records of Vanderburgh County by Ethel F. McCoullough and C.F. Hammerstein covers 4,537 local veterans, so we are well represented. The site also includes information from interviews from returning veterans: home front stories, camp life, hospital experiences, women in service, P.O.W. memories and explanations of the various brances of service.

Check out the names of veterans you've heard of and see how well they're represented. If you are aware of a veteran who is not listed or have additional information, you can contribute anything you know about him or her by emailing Jan Mattingly at WWVets@Gmail.com.