Interior Design Resources in LexisNexis

I believe we acquired some Interior Design courses through the vo-tech, and I found this email from LexisNexis about new content in that database which might be useful. I don't know how many of these students will be looking for information, but if so, they might want to try LN.

Furniture Today http://w3.nexis.com/sources/scripts/info.pl?383012
Home Accents Today  http://w3.nexis.com/sources/scripts/info.pl?383016
Casual Living  http://w3.nexis.com/sources/scripts/info.pl?383020
Home Textiles Today http://w3.nexis.com/sources/scripts/info.pl?383026
   
The links above take you to a source information page, which has a link to search just within that source.

Local newspapers online

Here is a great site for online local newspapers.


http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/usstate/usnewjer.htm

Bob

New url for Print Release

http://printsrv:9191 will display all print jobs for all printers in the library (Updated May 2011)

Career Services "Focus" software access code

The access code for Career Services' Focus career assessment software is lower case 'rvcc'

Licensed software applications available in all computer classrooms and open labs

A student asked where he could access Maple15 on Campus -- and I was stumped. There is no mention of it on the MIS link that directs students (and clueless librarians!) to the location of installed software throughout the campus: http://www.raritanval.edu/admin/MIS/TSHome/TSSoft/RVTS_Software_Tools.html

I called Barbara at MIS this morning and she thinks it might be part of the Citrix application. Just know that it IS NOT installed on library computers...

Literary Reference Center - EBSCO database

I stumbled upon this module recently and was delighted with the content.

Every Masterplots series is available full-text, (African American Literature, American Fiction, Christian Literature , Drama, Juvenile & Young Adult, Nonfiction, Poetry, Short Story, Women’s Literature, World Fiction), along with other Salem Press publications like Critical Survey of... (Drama, Long Fiction, Mystery & Detective Fiction, Poetry and Short Fiction) and Magill's Survey of...(American Literature, World Literature, etc.).

Conduct a simple search -- Kate Chopin and Survey of American Literature. When you open the first record, scroll down to the Cross References. There is amazing content here, with all the EBSCO bells and whistles. Check out the pull down menus, too. There are so many ways to tailor the searches! I can't wait for my next Lit Crit class...

Our Digital World Software

From Vera, Jan 2011:  The software, "Our Digital World" is loaded on the computers in the open lab, W212, in the West Building, as per Kevin in MIS.

There is a list of available software in computer labs on the MIS webpage.  Unfortunately, you have to individually select each lab to view which software is loaded, rather than being able to select a software and find out what lab has it.  Still, the software locator is available here:  http://www.raritanval.edu/admin/MIS/software_locator.html.  (It is listed under the MIS Helpdesk menu; Staff & Faculty submenu.

Summer in NJ Wiki

The second Ref computer is set up to face out and display a Summer In NJ wiki I put together with links of things to do and places to go.  http://summerinnj.pbworks.com.  Currently, the links on each page come from RSS feeds of Diigo tags, also set up under a reference account.  You can see the lists of links at http://www.diigo.com/user/rvcc_reference.  The easiest way to add links to the wiki is to log into the reference Diigo account and bookmark the link using the tags I created, if you are familiar with Diigo. 

Please contact me for login information if needed.  Both the PB Works and Diigo account are set up with the reference@raritanval.edu email address.

WebStudy Login Instructions

Instructions for logging in to WebStudy are available at http://www.raritanval.edu/academics/distlearn/LogIn1stTime.html, which can be navigated to from the Academics link on the top of the college homepage, then select Distance Learning from the menu on the left, then Logging in for the First Time from the sub-menu on the left.

If a student does not know his/her WebStudy password, he/she can contact WebStudy support at 888-326-4058 and have the password reset.  This can be done even if the student has never logged in before.

There is a link for WebStudy from a student's Lion's Den.  However, the login page for WebStudy can also be accessed directly at http://rvcc.webstudy.com. Although students should ensure that their Lion's Den login works properly, they do not have to run in circles to MIS if they only need to access WebStudy. 

Search Engine Updates

The LibrarianInBlack blog gave a run down of sessions attended at the Computers in Libraries conference, including several sessions on Google/Bing and other search stuff updates. A few key things I noticed:

• Mention of Microsoft Academic Search which is apparently similar to Google Scholar, only it looks like it only searches for scholarly content in the sciences.
• Blekko was mentioned a few times. Honestly, after a quick read of their About page, I have no idea how this search engine works, but supposedly it in someway keeps out results from "content farms" (big phase in a lot of these) like Ask.com, ehow, and allexperts.
• Google has a proximity search command. Use "AROUND (#) keyword" for example "megan AROUND (5) awesome" to find all of those sites where "megan" is within 4 words of "awesome."
• FaganFinder.com has been around for a while but was acknowledged for being rejuvenated, and to "educate your users that there is life beyond Google, this is a good starting point for them."

Proquest Share This tool

Just testing out Proquest's ability to save an article directly into a Blogger post.

Effects Of Childhood Obesity On Hospital Care And Costs, 1999-2005

LIfe cycle of household goods assignment -- more sources

In addition to householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov, you might try goodguide.com and " The Story of Stuff" (storyofstuff.com)

Metaphor for Subject-Specific Databases

This was an aside in an ACRLog post, but I loved it!! As a metaphor for using Subject-specific databases instead of just Google:

"when I need shoes I go to a shoe store; I don’t go up and down the mall asking for shoes in every store"

Courtesy of Maura Smale http://acrlog.org/2011/03/02/in-praise-of-ideas/

Screencasting for Virtual Reference

I've posted about Screenjelly.com before, and I just had the chance to use it for an email reference questions. Screenjelly.com is a super low-end screencasting website that allows you to quickly record 3 minutes of screen activity. It is not fancy or editable, but is great for a quick and dirty how-to screencast. I created this one to show a student how to access JSTOR and Project Muse to find articles. Her email said she was using "databases" but only finding books, so it sounded to me like she was confusing the catalog with the databases. This quick video helped demonstrate where she was going wrong. You do have to create an account to grab a link for the video, but it's free and easy.

GreenFile Database

We have the Ebsco database GreenFile listed on our Databases page because a few years back we learned that we had (free?) access to it. At the time it was my understanding that it was only citations, so I never promoted it too heavily. However, I taught an Environmental special topics English II yesterday, and discovered that there is definitely a good amount of full-text available through GreenFile. My guess is that it links to content available in other Ebsco databases, and ScienceDirect through the Linked Full Text that we see in Academic Search Premier. Just something to keep in mind for those researching environmental issues - this database may be more useful even to English I's than we (or maybe just I) initially thought!

History Primary Source Documents

A student just came in with an assignment to do an analysis of 3 primary source documents related to early American history. The website suggested by the professor was terrible, but I came across this one while helping her that seemed to have a wealth of useful primary source material.

TeachingAmericanHistory.org/library

And of course Facts on File is pretty useful for this sort of thing.

Datamonitor

There have been a few reference questions lately inquiring if we subscribe to Datamonitor. The library does not have a Datamonitor subscription. However, Datamonitor reports are available in Business Source Premier. The easiest way to access them is to click "Company Profiles" from the options at the very top of the database screen. This takes you to a searchable listing of companies' Datamonitor Reports, which are available in PDF.