Tuesday, June 3, 2008

InfoTrac Databases

This is another of Robert Lindsey's handouts that explains using the InfoTrak database.

InfoTrak offers three seach methods.

  • The “cross-searchable databases” drops you in at a “Subject Guide” search.
  • You can choose to do a “Basic Search” which is more like a keyword search,
  • or an “Advanced Search” which allows the most control.

In a Subject Guide search for Henry VIII the results will look like this: (don’t overlook the subdivisions)

Henry VIII (England)

see Henry VIII, King of England

Henry VIII (King of England)

see Henry VIII, King of England

Henry VIII, King of England

Henry VIII, of England

see Henry VIII, King of England

Henry VIII, King of England

Subdivisions


For Advanced Search youu would enter your search terms in the boxes labeled “keyword” and select the proper linking term (“and” or “or”):

Advance Search

Select index(es) and enter search term(s)

Keyword

and/or Keyword

and/or Keyword

Search

  • Either way, when you get the list of articles, you will see a screen with tabs at the top labeled Magazines, Academic Journals, Reference, etc.
  • Select the proper tab for your search.

  • Then you will get a list of citations.
  • The screen will give a box on the right that lists subject headings and a list of citations at the right.
  • Below each citation are links for: Full text About this Publication How to cite

    • Subject Terms on the left,
    • If they are Full-Text, Abstract, or Citation only,
    • How to Cite in MLA or APA,
    • Total number of articles found under this tab,
    • Tabs across the top indicate what kind of article they are (Multimedia includes transcripts of National Public Radio, or NPR),

  • The “cross-searchable” or all-in-one-search databases are:

Custom Newspapers, Military and Intelligence, Professional Collection, Religion and Philosophy, Business and Company ASAP, Health Reference Center Academic, General Business File ASAP, Computer Database, Gale Virtual Reference Library, Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center, Expanded Academic ASAP, InfoTrac OneFile, General Reference Center Gold, Informe, Junior Edition, Student Edition, LegalTrac, and Academic OneFile.

  • There are other databases that you can use, but are not “cross-searchable” and must be searched individually. They are listed below:

National Newspaper Index 1977 - Current. Index only to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post.

Literature Resource Center - LRC Current. Find biographical information, overviews, full-text literary criticism and reviews on nearly 130,000 writers in all disciplines, from all time periods and from around the world…

Kids InfoBits 2004 - Current. Kids InfoBits is a database developed especially for Kindergarten through Grade 5. Featuring a developmentally appropriate, visually graphic interface. The curriculum-related, age appropriate, full-text content is from elementary reference sources and magazines. This database covers geography, current events, the arts, science, health, people, government, history, sports and more.

Business and Company Resource Center 1980 – Current. Business and Company Resource Center is a fully integrated resource bringing together company profiles, brand information, rankings, investment reports, company histories, chronologies and periodicals. Search this database to find detailed company and industry news and information.

Health and Wellness Resource Center 1980 - Current. Provides instant access to carefully compiled and trusted medical reference materials. Includes nearly 400 health/ medical journals, numerous reference volumes, over 700 health videos from partner Healthology, Inc., hundreds of pamphlets and health-related articles from 2,200 general interest publications in addition to a broad collection of Thomson Gale reference titles. Material contained in this Resource Center is intended for informational purposes only.

Using Heritage Quest

Robert Lindsey, Instruction and Reference Librarian at Pittsburg State University did a Kansas State Library Databases workshop for us last year. His handouts remain popular with folks exploring the databases. He has given me permission to post them here so more people can access them. Unfortunately, his screen prints don't transfer to the blog very well, so I have deleted them.

Heritage Quest

  • Searching the Census: 1790 – 1930. 1890 has only 6,160 names from 8 states and DC. 1930 is not finished being transcribed yet. Heritage Quest does not search 1830, 1840, 1850. If you have series, roll & page number, or state, county & township you can get to your person for those years. 1850 is the first year the Census lists every name in the household.
  • Searching for names: Always look for various spellings. John, Jno, Jon, J; Robert, Rob’t, R, Bob, Bert; Lindsey, Lindsay, Linsey. Middle names were popularly used as the “common” name so look for that also. Sometimes the handwriting or the photocopy is just plain illegible and transcribers made their best guess.
  • Search can be done any number of ways, but must retrieve less than 1000 results.
  • Once you have a list, you can sort it by Surname, Given name, State, Age, County, Sex, Race, Birthplace, or Location.
  • You can view a census form up to 400% zoom.
  • Can view a negative for hard to read pages. Some names will be on Subpage B.

Printing a census form:

  • Print will print the whole page in miniature but with the citation information.
  • Download will allow you to select the section of the page you want to print, or print the whole page full-size. Chose PDF File.
    • Use the Snapshot tool to highlight the section you want to print.
    • When printing be sure Page Scaling says Fit to Printable Area.
    • After printing, write the Roll, Series and Page numbers on printout.

Searching Books:

  • Search by name and/or place.
  • Not very neat or easy.
  • Searches for words from the same search box that are on the same page. For example: in the name search box if you put William Smith it searches for “William” and “Smith” on the same page.
  • If you search for Place: Independence, Kansas, it searches for “Independence” and “Kansas” on the same page.
  • You can use quote marks, “William Smith” but then you might miss Smith, William, or William and Mary Smith, or William E. Smith.
  • Place can be a city, county, state or institution such as Kansas State Teachers College.
  • Keywords: Civil War, mining, railroad, libraries, Progressivism, Baptist, teacher, etc.
  • When your list of books appears, you have a choice to View Hits or View Image.
    • View Image takes you to the book,
  • You want to View Hits.
  • Click on the number on the left under Hits to see pages where your search terms appear.
  • Use the button to go to the next instance of your search term.

Searching PERSI: Similar to books, but no full-text. Just citations. A lot of information.

Revolutionary War: [Includes an estimated 80,000 pension and bounty-land-warrant application files based on the participation of American military, naval, and marine officers and enlisted men in the Revolutionary War.

Monday, April 28, 2008

The Talking Books Librarian Blog



My colleague Jamie has started the Talking Books Librarian blog. Check it out at http://talkingbookslibrarian.blogspot.com/

The blog keeps you current on material available for older adults and those with disabilities, as well as promoting the free Talking Books program by the Library of Congress. You can add her blog to your RSS reader. If you’re not big into RSS readers and blogs in general, she has made it easy on you. You can subscribe to blog updates via email. Simply go to http://talkingbookslibrarian.blogspot.com/ and enter your email address in the “subscribe via email” box on the right-hand side of the page. It couldn’t be easier!

Take a peek at Jaime's blog. She's a great Special Needs Librarian. You'll find some good stuff on her blog.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Law Resources


Andrew Evans spoke to an SEKLS workshop on March 6. He gave us a handout that gives links to online resources that libraries of all sizes can use to help their patrons with legal questions. He was particularly impressed with the Wilson County website because it included blank forms for many things people request. I was impressed with all the links that are available on the Washburn University Law Library site www.washlaw.edu.

Andrew graciously allowed me to share his handout on the idea blog so other librarians can access this information.


Law Resources Workshop for the Small Library Handout

Speaker: Andrew Evans, JD, MLS

Head of Reference & Government Documents Librarian

Adjunct Professor of Law

Washburn University School of Law

1700 SW College Ave

Topeka KS 66621

Introduction

Don't commit legal reference malpractice. The best method is to point patrons towards the information and do not interpret it. Oftentimes, the wrong kind of help can make the patron worse off.

Kansas Legal Services: 1-800-723-6953

Kansas Bar Association: http://ksbar.org/

http://www.martindale.com

Thoughts on collection development:

http://www.aallnet.org/products/pub_sp9912/pub_sp9912_ProDev.pdf

Good Legal LIS Resources

http://www.aallnet.org/products/

www.washlaw.edu

http://nolo.com/

***[highly recommended] Nolo’s “Legal Research: How to Find and Understand the Law” by Stephen R. Elias & Susan Levinkind (14th edition), August 2007

http://www.nolo.com/product.cfm/ObjectID/ADA3D233-2448-4AFE-96BF37FF240C53F7/104/

Statutes

Every library should have a copy of its state's statutes or law. Kansas Statutes Annotated is available from the secretary of state's office. http://www.kssos.org/forms/Elections/LS.pdf

The online version is available for free but does not have annotations. Kansas state legislators can give away 2 sets of the state statues each year. If your library cannot afford to buy a set, ask your legislator to consider giving your library one of those free sets.

http://www.kslegislature.org/legsrv-statutes/index.do

Kansas Administrative Regulations

What are they? http://www.kslegislature.org/legsrv-kars/karInfo.do

The regulations for administrative agencies are also available online.

http://www.kslegislature.org/legsrv-kars/index.do

Internet

Google is very interesting. It is frequently mentioned in pop culture. Google is also a verb. I googled that person I met at the conference.

http://www.google.com

I like Google, but it’s not the end all and be all. Perhaps it can be a good place to start.

http://digbig.com/4tcdf

For my area of work, going to a specialized database is the best method. Also, I prefer starting my searches narrow and then broadening them out.

Washlaw

http://www.washlaw.edu

Washlaw is regularly updated by the librarians and staff of Washburn Law Library. The information on the website tomorrow will probably differ from what is available tomorrow. Legal information is placed in easy to find categories. Stay tuned for changes.

http://www.washlaw.edu/uslaw/states/Kansas/index.html

Let’s look at the state materials. For Kansas, one thing I want to point out is the Rules of Evidence. As you can see, it is a word document. Since no website has consolidated these, we decided to take up the project. It was a lot of cutting and pasting to get all the statutes together. Government documents are often in the public domain.

Kansas Statutes

http://www.washlaw.edu/uslaw/states/Kansas

Kansas Attorney General Opinions

http://ksag.washburnlaw.edu/

Other states are available through www.washlaw.edu

City Codes

http://www.washlaw.edu/cities/

http://www.municode.com

Fredonia http://www.fredoniaks.org/

http://www.lkm.org/publications/sto/2007-sto-order-form.pdf

http://www.lkm.org/publications/upoc/2007-upoc-order-form.pdf

County Codes

Wilson County http://www.wilson.kansasgov.com/ (none online)

Shawnee County http://www.co.shawnee.ks.us/counselor/pdf/SNCode.pdf

County Appraisers

http://www.co.shawnee.ks.us/Ap/R_prop/Disclaimer.shtm

http://www.elk.kansasgov.com/MV2Base.asp?VarCN=10

http://www.allencounty.org/apprais/index.htm

Bill Tracking/Lobbying

http://www.kslegislature.org/legsrv-legisportal/bills.do

Local Courts

http://www.kscourts.org/districts/

Wilson County

http://www.31stjudicialdistrict.org./atty0227wl.htm has attorney dockets

http://www.31stjudicialdistrict.org/Forms.html has very good forms available.

State Courts

http://www.kscourts.org

http://www.osca.state.mo.us

http://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/start.asp?viewtype=COURTS

Legal professionals who practice or work in Kansas, Missouri, or Oklahoma use these websites frequently. In addition to useful court information, one can also link to opinions of state supreme courts, state courts of appeal, and some of the district courts.

U.S. Court of Appeals

http://www.ca10.uscourts.gov

http://www.ca8.uscourts.gov

U.S. Supreme Court

http://www.supremecourtus.gov

Legal Directory

http://www.washlaw.edu/reflaw/refdir.html

News

http://www.washlaw.edu/news/index.html

Business News

http://finance.yahoo.com

http://finance.google.com/finance

http://online.wsj.com

Business Start-up

http://www.kssos.org/main.html

Securities and Exchange Commission

http://www.sec.gov

Guidestar

www.guidestar.org

Executive Paywatch

http://www.aflcio.org/corporatewatch/paywatch/index.cfm

Click on CEO pay database and check the database.

Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure

http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/olms/rrlo/lmrda.htm

Department of Labor

http://www.dol.gov/

U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services

http://www.uscis.gov

Listservs, Blogs, Forums, and Wikis

Listservs

http://www.washlaw.edu/discussion

http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo

http://www.lsoft.com/lists/listref.html

Discussion groups are a great way to network. Forums tend to have a lot of strange members; however, one can learn what not to do.

http://chat.lawinfo.com

http://www.expertlaw.com/forums

http://forums.legalmatch.com

Blogs often allow readers to make comments.

http://law-library.rutgers.edu/resources/lawblogs.php

http://www.blawg.com

Wikis can be information but also serves as tools for information.

http://en.wikipedia.org

http://washalr.pbwiki.com/Annotations

People Finding

http://switchboard.com

http://accurint.com

http://www.melissadata.com
http://www.pretrieve.com

http://www.facebook.com

http://classmates.com

Thursday, January 10, 2008

William Allen White Award Nominees Promoted on YouTube by Topeka Area Students




Robin Clark of Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library shared this with the members of Kanlib-L. What a wonderful idea!

Traditionally, William Allen White (WAW) book award nominee booktalks have been performed annually by Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library staff in person at local area schools. Realizing that it is impossible to reach all students in the service area in person, TSCPL bookmobile staffers Sandy Lane and Robin Clark collaborated with Topeka area gifted students to produce these highly creative student written and performed videos on Youtube featuring book reviews of the current William Allen White nominees for 2007-2008. The videos include interviews from “The Dr. Dyl Show”, several inanimate object reviewers, masked anonymous book reviewers, and one with exceptional headgear.

The boost in exposure includes posting the WAW video links on local, state, regional and national library listservs, the WAW official website, online library newsletters and blogs, as well as emails to area school media specialists.

Hopes are that as students view these peer produced video reviews, they will be more interested in reading the nominees and better prepared to vote by April 15, the end date for selection of the William Allen White award for 2008.

Videos may be viewed here:
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=TopekaLibrary

Leave a comment on Youtube and let us know what you think!

Booklist Book Group Blog

Does your library have a book discussion group? Are you always in the market for new books to discuss and information about those books? The American Library Association's Booklist magazine sponsors a blog called Book Group Buzz. The link is http://bookgroupbuzz.booklistonline.com. I did a quick browse of the blog. It might be enough to encourage me to leave my knitting groups and join a book discussion group. :)

The blurb that appeared in my inbox today reports:

This blog will entertain you as it keeps you up to date on all things book group. A corps of bloggers posts about books that worked well (or books that bombed), and provides organizational tips and read-alike insights. The blog also points you to Web sites that offer book club ideas, reading guides, and other helpful resources. This blog will entertain you as it keeps you up to date on all things book group. A corps of bloggers posts about books that worked well (or books that bombed), and provides organizational tips and read-alike insights. The blog also points you to Web sites that offer book club ideas, reading guides, and other helpful resources.

Friday, January 4, 2008

Parents Lead Fight for School Librarians in Seattle

Across the nation schools are trying to trim budgets by removing librarians from their libraries. We struggle with it here in Kansas just like the other states do. When I visit school librarians they are very aware that they need to be proactive in promoting their services and their value to their schools.

Librarians know that libraries are essential to education. One of the hottest topics for both K-12 and Academic Libraries is Teacher/Librarian Co-operation that brings library materials into the classroom in direct support of teaching units. They work everyday to remind teachers that they are not limited to the resources in their classrooms. The library puts a world of knowledge at their fingertips.

It's refreshing to hear that parents see this too. In Washington State, parents are standing up and demanding that the school libraries be staffed with trained librarians. In Seattle, Washington a loose-knit group of parents began defending their librarians and school libraries. They did e-mail campaigns and created a newsletter. They went to Spokane and lobbied their legislature.

The Los Angeles Times on December 23, 2007 reported
This month, they hand-delivered 2,500 signatures to a state government committee examining Washington's arcane school-funding system. "We did it to find out if anybody cared," said Layera Brunkan, who started the petition drive with Susan McBurney. Their children's elementary school was affected by the cuts.

"We realized that the school libraries are hemorrhaging, and it was far worse than we ever imagined," said Layera Brunkan.

State legislators, accustomed to professional lobbyists and official representatives of public education's many special interest groups, embraced the parents-turned-activists.

GOP state Rep. Skip Priest was buttonholed by the Spokane parents. He sits on the Basic Education Finance Joint Task Force, which will recommend education funding changes to the Legislature next year.
Here's a link to the full article from the Los Angeles Times as reported in American Libraries Direct. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-librarians23dec23,1,6494151.story?ctrack=2&cset=true