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!