Final Week:
I have greatly enjoyed my exploration of Marvel. All in all, my biggest discovery was Learning Express, which alas the academic library can't use. But I did tell everybody about it at the last staff meeting and encouraged them to try it at home. Maybe this will be something we can offer in the future. I also will direct students to the Encyclopedia Britannica more often, something I had overlooked in the past. The business sources were also new to me and will be useful here at SMCC. I find the hardest part of doing reference is knowing which database or source to use. So the broader my knowledge, the better. Often, a newspaper turns out to be the best source, if the topic is current and political. I was advised to always find out what the class is that the assignment is for, since this will slant the research in a particular way, such as psychology vs political science vs english comp.

I am a reference-librarian in training, so the more exposure to useful sources the better. Of course, SMCC has other resources and databases as well. We man a centrally located reference desk and also have Ask a Librarian online. We are exploring other ways of reaching our students, such as live chat.
E-reference books are increasingly important, and we subscribe to Credo reference books.

This week I viewed the tutorial for AccessScience, which is very important to SMCC. I also reviewed the literary resources in Marvel, most of which I am already familiar. A common assignment here is to find a review and or criticism of a published work.

EbscoHost

This week’s assignment is easy for me. We often use Ebsco when working with students on research topics. In my experience (limited, I’m new a reference librarianship) the difficult part is knowing which database to use or perhaps a book would be better. So I tried out the request for info about zinc in foods. As I expected, a search for food- zinc content using Academic Search Complete and anything that was medical related, turned up 112 results. BUT these were scholarly articles such as “Heterosis studies for grain iron and zinc content in rice”…very specific high level research, but not simply a list of foods that contain zinc. So when talking with a student, I would need to know exactly what they were after, a list or perhaps some very specific research. That would make a big difference.

In order to find a list of foods that contain zinc, I searched for an ebook. Using Ebsco b books, I again tried my food- zinc content and came up with books such as “Prescription Alternatives” and “Smart Guide to Healing Foods”. Both listed food contents.

I tried another search for an actual topic a student asked me for, an ancient Greek sculpture in Samothrace of Nike. Ebsco turned up “Literature and the Visual Arts in Ancient Greece and Rome.” But I also went to Credo reference, where I found lots more info and photos. It is definitely useful to search all text sometimes rather than subject or keyword. When doing reference at SMCC, the questions run the gamut from art and literature, esp criticism or reviews, to global politics. Some topics are easier than others but again, it takes experience to know which database to try first. And often, they are required to cite a book, so ebooks have been a blessing.

Learning Express:
I had to use this one from home with my public library card, as it doesn't work from an academic library.Too bad, since the practice tests and ebooks were exactly what our students need. I have many times requested test materials through ILL for the ASVAB, TOEFL, NET, NCLEX, HOBET, and also accuplacer. I am going to look into subscribing to this for SMCC.

I tried the Nursing School Practice Entrance test and got a perfect score of 8 out of 8 (took me forever) on the first segment. Maybe that will be my next career? I did the Reading Comprehension segment (avoiding all things math or science) and liked the breakdown in the results as to drawng conclusions, inferences, vocabulary etc. This was under Jobs and Careers. I found many tests here that would be excellent for our trade and medical profession students. Also for incoming high school students, who often take one course here. We have many students who come for one or two courses and then sekn full time entry, so they have to take the Accuplacer. I also looked at the Real Estate Person exams (another potential career for me) but found no Maine specific test. A few ebooks to download though. I think I will read up on this.

Ancestry:
I love Ancestry and have done lots of research in it in the past. I am thrilled that Marvel has this available. It has been  while since I used it though, but a few years ago I searched for my great grandmother who died right after my grandmother was born and was immediately erased from the family history. We only knew she was born in Holland and maybe was named Marie, last name Byfield but changed from something Dutch. And we had a photo that we thought might be of her. With Ancestry, I found my grandmother's and great Uncle's birth certificates, naming the mother, then I found a death certificate for Marie. But it was using the message boards that led me to a distant relative who was researching this Dutch family the von Bylevelds.  It turned out that Marie was the missing link...she had about 10 brothers and sisters and nobody knew what happened to her! My newly found relative had photos of my great great and great great great ancestors in Holland! Turns out this large family was living in Chicago at the same time as my grandmother, but they didn't know about each other (or had disowned each other)!!!

This time I tried a search for my Jewish -mother in law's father's family, who came over from Hungary in the 1800's. I was very successful and plan to send this research to her (she is 92). There were lots of relatives she has never mentioned also. Aren't families interesting? And she told me her grandfather was smuggled out of the country on a potato cart (highly unlikely) as he came over on a very fancy ship.

Alas, I found nothing on myself! Also no photos and maps tab...

Now ,back to Ancestry. I could waste time all day here at work on this!

Consumer Health Resources:
I began this week with Health Source: Consumer Ed. I searched for "Shingles" and got peridicals ranging from AHFS Consumer Medication Information to Women's Day, and also reports from CRS: Adult Health Advisor. I noticed there were over 80 full text consumer magazines and reports available. The article I read was very easy to understand. I did notice there was a dictionary feature, but I didn't need it.

Next I decided to try Health Source: Nursing/ Academic Edition, which we use here at the college. This included over 550 full text scholarly journals. My search for shingles retrieved all academic journals and also the AHFS. I looked at an article from the Mayo Clinic Proceedings and found that it was most certainly not for the consumer, but our medical students would be able to use it for their research.

Next I compared Medline Plus with PubMed Central, which we also use here at SMCC. Again, Medline was fun to use, very consumer friendly with colorful graphics. I found links for the latest issue of the magazine, announcements for Get Smart About antibiotics Week and COPD Awareness Month. My shingles search led me to links to images and videos. The video I watched was informative and easy to understand. A search for Black Cohosh under herbal medicine led me to a branch site calledd the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. I found info about the science behind use of this herb, side effects, a good list of ources and links to clinical trials. All great stuff, I'm sure our students will be able to use this. And me too.

Pubmed is a free full text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal lit at NIH/NLM. This is much more academic-friendly, and my search for shingles led to an article from the Journal of the American Geriatric Society. For this, I needed a dictionary!

Wall Street Journal: this I am familiar with and read regularly. My search for small business (su) and health care (all text) FT, and only the last year turned up 58 nice results all sorted by relevance. The suggested limiters were also good: I expect a small business owner would want to know about insurance, policies, and expenditures. This is easy to use, but of course, is slanted toward the editors of the WSJ.

Value Line public: ai have decided to lok at the public version since I sub in a public library and this
often comes up. There sure is alot here...I found it hard to navigate through..in current issue I looked at the various sections. Selection and Opinion is a newletter format, including model portfolios and overviews of the market. Good for someone like me, a novice. Ratings & Reports is a list of companies in the current issue, with one page summary for each with historical value, projected value and a written summary of the company. I suppose anyone investing in an individual stock would want to read this. Summary & Index is what I have seen in paper form, a huge listing that includes the ticker symbol, recent price, ranking, P/E, and estimate for next 12 months. The meat of Value Line. Cover page was just that and Suppl Reports was more narratives about companies. I searched for Linkedin LNKD and found ratings and reports. I couldn"t find a Full Research Report. I noticed alerts: I suppose anyone investing would find that useful. All of this shows me how much I don't know! I will also look at the academic version to see if college students could use it.

Regional Business News: I searched for Wright Express, a local company with national reputation and found 166 items, mostly from Business Wire. For a Maine company I tried LL Bean again, but got only 3 results under subject, from, oddly, Crain's Chicago Business, and Business North CArolina. An all-text search was more interesting, with 57 results of a general nature. Pretty useful if you want to read about a company without alot of facts and figures, just more newsy stuff. I couldn't find anything about Bullmoose Music however. I would recommend this to students researching businesses.

Business Source: I did a su search for FM radio, FT, but did not get much. Searching all fields brought up 1536 sources, ranging from Billborad and PC Magazine to the Federal Register. But Visual Search turned out to be very useful here. It began with a tutoral which threw me off, but after I got started, I found the ever branching list of search terms to be very helpful. Such as: instead of FM radio, I got radio stations and FM broadcasting. I was able to sort by date and filter results as well.

EconLit: I had trouble searching for small business items but again, the visual search was good in that it gave me search term ideas such as new firms: startups: small business etc. I did find a article" Can state tax policies be used to promote environmental activity" in Small Business Economics, a 202 journal.

Week 6: Business Resources
I am expecting to find this useful in the academic library. Our business students often ask for company information. I began with Gale's Business Insights: Essentials, which is also Business-Company Resource Center. I chose a company I used to work for, LL Bean. I found the list of Maine companies useful in finding them. Potential competors would like the related companies info, although I was surprised at the list, as it did not include Land's End or Eddie Bauer, who I thought were major competitors. Suppliers would like to see what products are produced and related spending, esp. finding market share repots useful. Related topics turned out to be articles, although kind of dated? LLB is privately held, so perhaps some info is not available. I also decded to compare revenue from LLB with Land's End and Eddie Bauer and created a revenue history chart. I was amazed to see that while from 2000 to 2004 they were all reatively the same ($2 billion!) Land's End shot ahead to almost $7 billion in 2012! Wow!

NoveList Plus
I really love NoveList Plus! At the college library we don't do too much with popular fiction, so it comes in handy for the occasional reader's advisory question we do have. I also sub in a public library, so I have used NLP many times in my job there. Usually it involves series or readalikes. I searched for my favorite character Kay Scarpetta and easily got all of the books by Patricia Cornwell in order of publication. I created an alert to when the next book comes out and also sent myself an email of the citations for the entire series. This is very useful for patrons by phone I'm sure. For read alikes, I learned about Kathy Reichs, Carl Hiaasen, and Lynda LaPlante, none of which I have read. For collection development, seeing the entire list of works by an author I know is popular is very helpful. I can then see if we have it, or if it is available in the MaineCat system, and if not, then perhaps we should add it to our collection. I also searched for a book I am currently reading, The Art Forger by Shapiro and was very interested in the Lists & Articles section which brought up an article by Joyce Saricks. I also found alot to read on my favorite subject, art forgery and art theft.

Full disclosure...I am a crafter...in fact in my previous career I was a professional weaver for the textile industry. I love to do needlepoint and am a novice knitter. Hobbies and Crafts Reference Center was new to me. I have to be honest...I did not like it. I love craft books and magazines and have Googled things such as quilt patterns or a video on a knitting stitch, BUT what I like and need are colorful photos! That is where I get inspiration and information.

When I tried this database, I was immediately frustrated. I mean blood pressure going up frustrated. So I search for knitting/ Scarves and got 833 rsults. But how do I know if I want the Chattahoochee Scarf? I have to open the file and wait for the pdf to download just to see what it look like. Why is there not a Quick View option? And that search window...so basic! I learned from Help that I can use tags for searchable fields such as SU and AU but who can figure that out? Certainly not the average public library patron. And if a student were to use this for actual research, most of these publications are also in other Ebsco products such as Master File, with it's complete searching functions. An browsing...don't get me started. How can you browse arts and crafts without images?

So, my academic library, which does not subscribe to any craft magazines, might be able to use it to supplement or general interest areas, but for me...

TWO THUMBS DOWN!

This week I watched the tutorial "Maine Resources in Marvel". My search was on Cynthia Dill, with my interest being what's the latest from her campaign. The basic search for Cynthia Dill brought up 890 results, with the first item being from 2005. The results were ranked by relevance. Detailed view showed me 20 items at a time, with CD hilited whenever used in the text. But I wanted the latest news, so I was able to sort by Pub date, with most recent first, giving me a current item. Another search for Cynthia Dill and finances retrieved 116 hits and when I further defined the search to include ad campaign, I got 37 hits. Some of these were not as relevant to CD, but did cover ad campaigns and finances of all the candidates which was relevant to my interest in how her finances for ad campaigns stack up to the other candidates.

I created an alert for this topic and could definetly see SMCC students using this also, especially in a current event or political science class. Agai, I don't think they would create a workspace just for newspapers, as they need to cite a variety of sources. As a instructor, however, I could see using it.

IN PQ Newsstand, I see that other standalone newspapers are Christian Science Monitor, NYT, Maine, WSJ, and Washingtom Post. These are also included in a general PQ Newsstand search.

I have not shown anyone how to use Marvel specifically, as we usually direct students to Ebsco or Proquest which are listed seperately on SMCC's list under Find Articles. Mostly, when a student asks for last's week NYT, I would then direct them to use PQ. Especially if they are trying to photocopy and have to make all those crazy folds to get it on the machine....

I wonder if there are any other academic libarians participating in Marvelous Maine? I think our needs are different from other libraries. I will try to find someone to comment with.

I did my study of the Britannica Academic Edition. I wanted something global for a current event so I chose "Euro-zone debt crisis". This was a great topic and I found a long list of results. I noticed that on the right side I could see brief summaries; clicking on the title brought up the full article. The left side many features. I especially liked the images. Sometimes I find it hard to navigate through databases, but the Britannica was intuitive and easy to use. On the left side, I found links to journal articles, as well as web links. This is important for the college student since they usually have to cite several different types of sources.

Article history was interesting: I could see all the updates the author has made, important for currency requirements. The contributor info especially interested me. Who actually writes for the Britannica? Well I assumed at least a PhD in a topic, but NO...this author has a BA and is a staff copy editor for the Britannica. This astounded me. Could I write for the Britannica? And why is this any better than Wikipedia, forbidden in academic research?

I created a workspace for myself and played around with it. While I liked it for my research conducted only in BAE, I don't think our college students would use it. As I said before, they need to use many sources and would probably email or print their findings. They would like the citation guide at the bottom of the article. I think this would be a great starting point for college students, instead of Wikipedia or Google, but they would have to go on to other databases, websites, and books to complete their research.

My first challenge was to find the introductory tutorials on the MSL website, since I was not using the link in the email. The link is not under About, Getting  Started, or FAQ. It’s not under Public. It’s not under Libraries. I search for Introduction to Marvel in the search window, which brings up a link to http://www.maine.gov/msl/libs/pr/marvel/  but when I go back to the MSL home page, it still takes me a long time to find it again. Eventually I find this path:

Libraries/ Advocacy/ Marketing and Programming /Marvel Resources…

I assume this is not meant for the public to use? The tutorials themselves were pretty elementary for me. What I do want to know more about however, is OneSearch.

By finding the tutorials under Advocacy and Marketing, I did also find all sorts of pdfs and docs that could be used to hand out to patrons for educational purposes. I see now that a link to the tutorials could also be put in a patron accessible place on the library home page. Most patrons would probably not be using the MSL site.

Hello all you Marvelous Mainers! I hope I set this blog up correctly.