Research Blog : research

What are the odds?

googler@evpl — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:15:00 GMT

Ever wonder what the odds are that an adult planning a Halloween costume will be a cat? How about the odds of being killed by a shark? There's a new website, The Book of Odds, that does just that — it gives you odds.

You can do a simple keyword search, an odds search (finding anything that has a 1 in 100 chance of occurring by entering the number 100), or click on "advanced search" to look for additional content (articles and blog posts). Searching all content can be pretty interesting, particularly if you're looking to spice up a speech or a research paper, but there's not a huge amount of that kind of content.

The data comes from a lot of demographic studies, much of it market-based or governmental, and because of that, you tend to see age, gender, income, and location breakdowns that many people won't find that useful and tend to pad the result list.. (They're not consistent breakdowns though, so no comparison of shark attack odds between Indiana and Florida.)

If you see something in the result list that you want to know more about or want to use in some way, click on the odds for an item and you’ll get a visual representing those odds and a list of unrelated odds that are close or exactly the same as the one you’re looking at. The detail page also has a button marked "Sources & Definitions." Click it and you’ll get information on the source, rounding information, and even an appropriate way to cite the data presented. If you don't find odds for something you think should be there, click on "suggest odds" at the bottom of the page, and they may be able to research it and add it.

If you register and create an account (it’s free) you can start your own book of odds, which allows you to track odds, send odds information to a friend, mark those that you like or those that apply to you, etc. Worth a visit! Oh, and before you leave the Book of Odds site be sure to visit the "About Us" page. I got a chuckle out of this : "Book of Odds is not a search-engine, decision-engine, knowledge-engine, or any other kind of engine…so please don’t compare us to Google(tm). We did consider the term 'probability engine' for about 25 seconds, before coming to our senses."

Remembering 9/11

librarianinheels@evpl — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:30:00 GMT

As a student of history, I am fascinated by the interactive ways in which New Yorkers (and others who were in NYC at the time the World Trade Center was attacked) are contributing to the memory of 9/11. The outpouring of personal stories, videos, photos, items from loved ones and other ephemera is staggering and impressive. The National September 11 Memorial and Museum has just launched (today) an online initiative to collect as much material on a special website as folks want to contribute. It's a browsable, real-time collection of photos, videos and audio material contributed by those who experienced 9/11 first hand. It's called Make History, and invites citizen journalists of the world to contribute to the memory of the terrorists attacks. The site contains largely unedited material, however, and may contain graphic and disturbing images and some foul language, so be forewarned. Still, this huge collection of grass-roots data is a fitting tribute to the memory of those who perished in the attacks, and it's fascinating to look at what's being contributed. (Click here for a link to the Yahoo article discussing the new site.)

Note: The site may not load right away, due to the large amount of anticipated traffic as the 8th anniversary of the terror attacks passes. Additionally, if you arrive at the site and it takes a longer than usual time to load, try clicking on the "Skip to low-bandwidth story search" option.

Speak your mind…opinions welcome, wanted, and appreciated

SuDocQueen@evpl — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:11:00 GMT

Hello out there to everyone in EVPL blogland,

I have a dilemma that I could use your help with. Every year I sit down to plan a workshop on useful government documents and websites (more websites than actual documents now-a-days) and every year I get overwhelmed with the glut of information I could offer… Do I focus on how to find useful health and nutrition information? Or on how to find those interesting statistics you always hear quoted from the Census and Labor Departments? Or what about consumer safety information? Or how to navigate Social Security’s website? Or how about following legislation? The list can go on and on. So, I’m opening the floor to all of you, the people that the government is trying to reach with all of this information. What do you most want to know about? What do you need help discovering? Let me know how best to help you.

Bird Jammin'

wag.mado@evpl — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 20:08:00 GMT

The Reference Department at Central Library often gets questions regarding animal behavior. One recent question was "Can a giraffe lick its ear with its tongue?" On any given day, we have to be prepared for those perplexing questions that need to be answered. One of you out there may be wondering if animals can dance. Well, read on and see for yourself.

According to a new study from the Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla California, humans are not the only ones who have a sense of rhythm. Some birds, dolphins, elephants and seals might be able to move to a beat and actually dance. One of the subjects studied by scientist Aniruddh Patel and his colleagues was a cockatoo named Snowball. Snowball actually lives in Indiana at Bird Lovers Only Rescue. He appears to prefer rock music - especially The Backstreet Boys. You may have seen Snowball on YouTube. He not only moves his head, but his feet and other body parts to the beat of music.

In another study at Harvard University, researcher Adena Schachner and colleagues studied thousands of dancing animals on YouTube and concluded that several species of parrots and elephants have the ability to perform synchronized movements in accordance with various musical beats.

Snowball was one of the favorites in both studies. And after viewing his videos, you will know why.

Out of these studies came a theory that the ability to dance is related to a propensity for mimicking sounds vocally - that somehow the two are interconnected. What about elephants? Well, they have been known to mimic sounds in their environment also.

So, there's your answer - although additional studies are needed to prove the above theory.

Oh, and by the way - the answer to the giraffe question is yes. The length of a giraffe tongue is about 18-20 inches!

Read more about animal behavior by checking out these books. Or, contact us today with one of your own questions.

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.

Now You Can AskEVPL Direct

Bufkinite@evpl — Tue, 12 May 2009 21:35:00 GMT

If you haven't been to the AskEVPL web site recently, you're in for a pleasant surprise! Now, thanks to an bit of Instant Message software called Meebo, you can ask EVPL Reference Staff a question anytime.

Here's how it works: when you open the AskEVPL web page, the upper lefthand portion of the page contians a box labeled AskEVPL. This is the AskEVPL widget, and inside it is a smaller box that says "type here and hit enter to send a private message." An example of what the AskEVPL widget looks like is to the left.

Once you type a message and hit enter, your message will come directly to the library's reference staff, and will be answered just as it would if you called, mailed, emailed, or walked in.

You can still IM us using AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, or Windows Live Messenger, but if you don't have one of those IM clients installed, you can still IM us using the AskEVPL widget!

What is YOUR question?

The Best Medicine

wag.mado@evpl — Thu, 07 May 2009 21:56:00 GMT

Every three weeks we have a Lobby Book Display at Central Library on a different theme or topic. Some topics are naturally more popular than others. However, "Laugh Out Loud" in the month of March was such a favorite that we found it difficult to keep books on the display. The books were fiction and nonfiction titles that were generally written to make people laugh.

Now, I've always known about the importance of laughter since I first saw the "Laughter is the Best Medicine" section in Reader's Digest as a child. And as an adult, I learned about the psychology of laughter while studying Norman Cousins in my college psychology classes and later in a cancer support group I attended. But none of this prepared me for the speed at which those humorous books flew off the book display.

Just about the time I was preparing the book display, I heard that the economic recession was having an effect on the demand for humorous speakers.

Then, about two weeks ago came a news story regarding a new scientific study by Dr. Lee Berk which shows that "mirthful laughter" can raise good cholesterol, reduce inflammation and reduce levels of three detrimental stress hormones in high risk diabetic patients. And, according to a 2006 study by Dr. Berk, just the anticipation of laughter can boost health-protecting hormones and reduce potentially harmful ones.

Next, I discovered that May 3 was World Laughter Day and that it was being promoted by a group who practices Laughter Yoga. Who knew!

So, this got me thinking. Are people attracted to humorous things because they feel better just thinking about that funny stuff? Do they subconsciously know that a laugh is just what they need to get them through these stressful times we live in? Well, I think so.

So my proposition is this: Why not pull a humorous book or movie off the shelf every time you visit the library. Hold it in your hand and look at it often. Even if you don't ever get around to reading it or watching it, just the anticipation alone should be enough to make you feel better. And if you do read or watch it, just think of all those health-protecting chemicals that will be floating around inside you for the next 12 to 24 hours.

"Everyday Mysteries" answers interesting questions

googler@evpl — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 23:20:00 GMT

"Everyday Mysteries," subtitled "Fun science facts from the Library of Congress," is a great website for reading interesting articles on a variety of topics, getting ideas for research papers, and submitting your own questions. Each article includes both links to related websites and a bibliography of written materials, so it's a great jumping-off point for further study.

Some of their articles include "What does it mean when they say the universe is expanding?" and "Who invented the automobile?"

"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!

Business Central Now Open For...(wait for it)...Business!!

Bufkinite@evpl — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 21:21:00 GMT

On Wednesday, October 15th, the Metropolitian Evansville Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon cutting on the second floor of Central Library to open a new, business-focused area of Central's reference and non-fiction collections.

Business Central is many things:

It's a place within Central Library, on the second floor. This location gathers legal and business reference materials, and a cooperating collection of the Foundation Center, with numberous reference resources for finding grants for non-profit and not-for-profit corporations. It also offers an extensive circulating collection of materials dealing with management, commerce, international commerce, marketing, public relations, customer relations, finance, planning, and career development and advancement.

It's a web presence with the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library web site that links to resources within the library and on the web that have to do with everything from starting a business to managing time, money, and personnel.

It's a team of library professionals who know business and the information needs of entrepreneurs and business professionals.

So whether you've already got a business up and running or are planning to start one; whether you're looking for capital or strategic planning information; whether you're doing in-depth market research, or just wanting to stay abreast of current business and economic trends, Business Central is your destination for business information!

LibGuides from HowStuffWorks

seeker@evpl — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 18:29:00 GMT

I've always been a sucker for dropping by HowStuffWorks to see entertaining how-to's. After all, you never know when you might be called upon to build a straw bale house or explain to your 7-year-old how a Star Wars light saber appears to be real in a movie but she's not going to see a working version in Wal-Mart any time soon. Certainly not in time for Christmas! The short articles offer a clear picture of how something functions, is put together, or its history. Designed by Discovery Channel and its spinoffs, the information is sound, the speculations are reasonable, and the information is presented in an entertaining way. (The accompaning ads that allow it to be a free site are clearly marked and easy to skim over.)

On the other end of the spectrum, I enjoy exploring the more serious LibGuides collection of guides by research librarians, whether they're subject guides, information portals, or focused research tip sheets. These reliable explorations were originally written for their individual library, so not all resources listed are available for free, but there always seems to be some valuable content in each topic I've opened so far.

Now How Stuff Works has joined the LibGuides community with their own collection of research guide topics at HowStuffWorks LibGuiides . They combine HowStuffWorks' entertaining outlook with LibGuides' research orientation. The topics run from cooking to dinosaurs to elections & politics, each with videos, articles, questions and links to other informative sites. One of the features I particularly liked is the ability to pull up the most recently written guides. For an intriguing introductory meander through a new broad topic area, browse through HowStuffWorks' LibGuides.

Hot Topics

MediaPhile@evpl — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 21:17:00 GMT

HOT TOPICS.....

Need some ideas for a topic for a research paper? Don't know what subject heading to look under for books on manga drawing? On a quick trip to the library for materials on kitchen remodeling but don't know the Dewey Decimal #?

Then the HOT TOPICS section of our website may be the answer.

Access this alphabetical list of subjects and Dewey #s by.....

bookmarking it
clicking on the Search Catalog button at the top of our home page, then selecting Hot Topics on the left
or clicking on the Research tab, then on Topic Guides, then Hot Topics

This information is also available in a free pamphlet at many library locations. So check the literature rack and "get in the know."