Monthly Archives: February 2018

Take Control of Your Health

Are you still keeping up with your new year resolutions? Need health advice or extra support? Check out Consumer Health Complete powered by EBSCOhost. It provides convenient access to easily understandable health and medical information. Consumers can search and browse within medical encyclopedias, popular reference books, and magazine articles.

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Trying to quit smoking? Click on the Smoking Cessation” link. Looking for medication information? Click on the “Prescription Guide” link. Looking for healthy recipes? There’s a link for that, too! (each recipe comes with nutritional facts and diabetic exchanges)

Another amazing feature is the ability to print fact sheets and pamphlets. Fact sheets and brochures educate on selected health topics including allergies & asthma, diabetes, heart disease, mental illness, disabilities, drugs & alcohol as well as fitness and nutrition. These guides can be used throughout the library to promote wellness in the community.

 

 

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Chilton Library

Is your car under a recall?  Chilton Library is a great resource to see if a car has a recall.  Searching is particularly convenient because you do not need to know your VIN number.  You just select the make, model, and year of the car, and then click on the “select” button.

Chilton Library 1In a matter of seconds you will be able to see the list of recalls (if there are any) attributed to the car.  I knew my old 2007 Saturn Ion had at least two recalls as of 2014.  I was only mildly surprised- and definitely triggered- to see the number of recalls for that car has risen to 31.

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It may not be perfect, but my current car (a Honda) is a lot less problematic than the old Saturn.  And thanks to Chilton Library, I can see the only Honda recall involves the Takada airbags, and luckily those have already been replaced.

Kate Straccia, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh – Main

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eMagazines – for Research or Reading?

Someone comes into the library asking if he can access Consumer Reports from the library online. Your easy answer could be “Why yes! There’s even an easy link on the eRec page!” But what if he wants to read it on his smartphone? Or what if he just wants to browse the most current issue at his leisure? Perhaps he’d be better served to view it through RBdigital. The main question here is, is this for RESEARCH or READING?

Certainly EBSCOhost allows for Boolean searching and finding specific topics, which would be much harder (or impossible) in RBdigital. If I mine down to the bedrock of why this person wants to access Consumer Reports to discover he wants a specific issue or article (i.e. the most recent writeup on washer/dryers before he buys one) I would then point him to EBSCO and show him how to search, find, read, and print.

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If, however, I find he just likes to read it every month, or wants something to browse while he’s waiting at the laundromat, then RBDigital it is! MUCH more readable, browsable, colorful, and mobile-friendly for the casual reader. (Although in this case, RBDigital unfortunately only has back issues of Consumer Reports…)

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So my rule of thumb when answering the question, “Can I access a magazine online?” (especially when I know it exists in multiple places) is to find out: Is this for RESEARCH or READING?

Heather Auman
Western Allegheny Community Library

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