Monday, March 28, 2011

Wake Up you have incoming information!

The Google Reader is a busy format. I like the inflow of information that makes it easier to have everything in the same place at once, but I am not a fan of the small framed windows. Possibly, if I had a room sized wall to view it on I could stand in front of the section I wanted to read it wouldn't be so bad. I did find another blog I wanted to subscribe to but had to do it as a Feed with the icon on my Command Bar. My subscriptions are mostly tied to literature. I have subscribed to LFPL, but wish they had one just for new chidlren's and teens, and Library Journal. The other one I subscribed to is a hails from Britian but focuses on children's literature, which I like. It's The Carnival of Children's Literature and it is simply reviews of children's books and some of the things they inspire parents to do with their children.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Choices, Choices....Database

Which data base would I keep? Magazines & Journals. Most often I am searching for articles about subject, with full text and there are a number of resources available under this heading that I can put to good use. The upper grade levels Middle school up is where I often need more current information that I don't have on the shelf.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Are you Listening?

NetLibrary was one my favorite options offered to  us as staff and patrons, until they took away the good stuff. Children's and Young Adult are almost non existant. My middle schoolers enjoyed our program on downloading books and seeing what we had.

What News?

I subscribed to three sites but will probably choose to go to the sites rather then read in Google Reader. It's too distracting with everything that is going on around the subscription box.
I chose Louisville Free Public Library, Library Journal and Children's Literature Book Club.

One lone research tool

Over the years, I have found myself returning time and again to the Magazines and Journals listing. I have found information I needed for patrons and myself. Pictures I can locate on the Web, books I can find in the library, Audio downloadables are almost non-existent for children's and young adult.  I am aware of the popularity of Genealogy for many adult patrons, but this is still a small percentage compared to those  who need current information about subjects that we may not have on our shelves for various reasons. So,  if I am limited to one source it would have to be Magazines and Journals and for everything else I would hope we could find the information on our newly stocked shelves since we didn't have to pay for so many data bases.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Full of Info

Betty Jean McMichael’s death was reported in the Courier-Journal on March 18, 2008. She leaves behind four sons.

British Journal for the History of Philosophy and Clinical Medicine and Research
There is some delay in getting full text for some of the articles, which appear to be newer then 2009
There is a delay of Full Text of 12 months goes back to 3-1998. At first I didn’t see this journal listed in the Ebsco database listing so thought maybe we didn’t get it. So I looked to the right to search under “Journal/Magazine/ Newspaper Search” which is where I located the information that we did indeed have it and have collected back to March ’98. It may be found by searching in the Academic Search Premier. What you will see if you take the round about trip is slightly more information or at least I did. LFPL gets Full Text for the articles in this journal up to a point. Due to publisher’s restrictions (embargo) we have to wait a full twelve months to get the Full Text articles. We get the citation and abstract only within the first twelve months.
Telos – locating this journal wasn’t easy. In Master File Premier and Academic Search Premier,  I finally located it when I realized it was a publication for English as a second language. Key words are important for digging up information.

Morningstar Investment Research Center Vanguard Target Retirement 2020 doesn't do too bad. If these were my children's grades from school it would please me.

Stewardship Grade SM02-10-11 
Overall
Grade
Corporate
Culture
Board
Quality
Manager
Incentives
FeesRegulatory
Issues
BA B D A A

Duane F. Kelly is the manager who has been with the company since 1989, picking up managerial duties in 1992.
Within the MasterFile Premier I found seven articles between 2008 and 2009 from Consumer Reports with full text that discussed LCD and Plasma TV's. I discovered that by limiting my search to Comsumer Reports Magazine, Full Text and the dates Jan 2008 - Dec 2009 I came up with seven articles, not too many to have to look through but enough for the information I wanted.
Coffee Shops in the 40202 area number eight and that the only ones that primarily focus on coffee, while there were a number of others that serve it as well. But in the area of competition the top eight would be my target to check out. Starbucks comes out as the number one competition since it has a total of three in the downtown area with a larger staff, where I assume would be the most convenient and popular spot for someone opening a Coffee Shop in the area. For information I went to the Business ReferenceUSA and just looked up coffee shops. It took me a few tries to get to the 40202 zip but I managed to single out eight shops. I found information here about management, number of employees, addresses and more about the companies.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Feast for the eyes

Flickr certainly offers some of us a lot of entertainment just looking at the photos. The range of colors and images alone could keep me busy for a long time. I am always fascinated at what others see when they train their camera on an object. You could create whole stories just from what others have captured in their frames. I uploaded a photo from our renovation of Shawnee for all to see and will add one or two more as we get closer to finishing.
The World Map is a whole other world! I searched Children’s Museums in Ireland, Australia, England and Japan with some interesting results. In Australia, I got five hits but only one real children’s museum photo taken outside. In Japan there was an Anpanman, flying superhero, museum and a children’s playground at Hakone Open-Air Museum which I am ready to visit or recreate in our library at once! Then I moved on to Children’s Libraries. In Ireland, they looked pretty much like our modern library children’s areas. But in Japan, I am ready to learn Japanese and apply for a position at the International Library of Children’s Literature. It is exquisite, painfully so!
Spell with Flickr - there was some fun for me while coming up with signage for storytimes. The Color toy with Flicr focused in on photos of one color with made me think of some of our programs for children on color.
All in all the pictures are a treat for the eyes. As to how we might use them, well that's a little more touchy since the photos all have copyrights. For our patrons this makes a grand place to store photos they have taken, would like to share with others or would like to keep in a safe place, maybe, a bank vault for their photos. As part of a program I could probably come up with more uses for Flicr.
For now I will just settle for looking at the great photos.

      “The Lost Girl”  by Casey L. Bond Blurb:  Welcome to Neverland. Where shadows consume and magic is frighteningly real.   Ava is strugg...