Monthly Archives: September 2018

Help patrons find their new favorite books with our Gale’s Books & Authors database.  This fun reader advisory tool offers a way to explore endless combinations of books, authors, genres and topics. It can help people of all ages make informed reading choices, build book clubs, and ultimately increase circulation.  Books & Authors has easy-to-use menus and a nice visual search technology.

From the home page, patrons can browse by:  Title, Author, Genre, Who What When Where, Expert Picks, or Award Winners.    (Note:  Home and Help buttons are anchored at the top of the screen so patrons can access Home and Help no matter where they are on the website.)

Browse Titles:

• Search by title (starts with or contains), narrow down by alphabet.
• Advanced search – limit by author, title, genre, sub-genre, character name, or full text.
• Filter by fiction or non-fiction or find books for adults, young adults or children
• When you click on a book – you get:
  1. Information about the book including main characters, genre, sub-genre, setting, subject, time period, and recommended similar titles.
  2. Information about the author.
  3. Book reviews and read-alike books.
  4. Ability to print and email lists.

Browse by Author – An author search is easily done by typing in the name or scrolling through the author list alphabetically.

Browse by Genre – Patrons can browse genre categories easily from this page.  Fiction and non-fiction are separated by tabs with sub-categories listed under each tab.

Who, What, Where, When – An innovative way to look for a book is the WHO WHAT WHERE WHEN page. Patrons can browse by Character, Subject, Location and Time Period.  They can then select any combination of up to three fields (who what where or when), and view a diagram of the results on the right. When patrons click on the intersecting area, they will get a list of books that match their interests.  Love it!

Expert picks – Patrons can browse recommended reading lists created by librarians and subject experts.  They can scroll through the lists alphabetically and then click on the item to get a list.

Award winners – Patrons can scroll through a list of award winners to get a list of books that have won awards or have been bestsellers.

Reading Room – Patrons have the option to sign up for an account in Books & Authors.  This allows them to create and save book lists in their own personal Reading Room.  In the Reading Room, patrons can:  save and modify reading lists; write reviews and rate the books they have read; create a Marked List – a collection of lists the patrons makes (i.e. author lists, favorite genres, etc. ) and create and manage their profile.

Overall, Gale’s Books & Authors is a powerful, easy-to-use database that can help patrons and staff discover some great books!

Lisa DeLucia, Upper St. Clair Library

After careful consideration, the Digital Resources Committee – Downloadables committee has determined that we will not renew our RBDigital (Zinio and OneClick) subscription for 2019.

This was not a simple decision to make, but several factors helped with our decision-making.

• OverDrive is offering eMagazines. OverDrive offered eMagazines in the past, but their service was connected to Nook and ultimately ended in December 2016. We subscribed to this service for a year in 2015-2016 and saw high usage. The DRC-Downloadables committee is considering subscribing to eMagazines on OverDrive
• Two eMagazine platforms are sufficient. Assuming that a decision will be made to subscribe to OverDrive eMagazines, we will need to eliminate one of the two current eMagazine platforms. The committee evaluated RBDigital and Flipster to determine which of these two platforms would be the best choice going forward.
• RBDigital’s eMagazine usage is down. There has been a decrease in of RBDigital’s eMagazine usage since the introduction of the RBDigital merged platform app.
• The circulation for OneClick titles has not been robust. Cancelling RBDigital means we will no longer have access to OneClick. OneClick is Recorded Books online eAudioBooks service, which was also integrated into the new RBDigital app.

Our current subscription to RBDigital expires on November 30, 2018. After this date, we will no longer have access to RBDigital eMagazines or eAudioBooks.

The following staff and customer notifications will be made:

• An email regarding this change will be sent to the Digital Resources Committee Contact List which will include talking points for staff
• An email regarding this change will be sent to all staff via the einLibs contact list which will include talking points for staff
• Notices regarding this upcoming change will be posted on the county electronic resources website
• Notices regarding this upcoming change will be posted on the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh website
• Notices regarding this upcoming change will be posted on the Library Catalog
• An email regarding this upcoming change will be sent to customers who have used RBDigital in 2018

In addition, please consider posting a notice on your library’s website if you link to RBDigital directly.

Please contact me if you have questions.

Thank you! Hilary Lewis Lackner

One of the best features of Gale’s Infotrac Newsstand is that it provides full text coverage from the New York Times for 1985 to present.  I recently worked on a reference question about the history of the Theresa Hotel located in Harlem.  Gale’s Infotrac Newsstand yielded immediate results that I otherwise would have obtained by using microfilm.

Access to content from the New York Times is just one great resource offered by Infotrac Newsstand.  The database also offers full text coverage from many other newspapers both local (The Pittsburgh Post Gazette and The Tribune Review) and those with a more national scope (The Washington Post.)  Additionally Infotrac Newsstand offers full text transcripts from podcasts and from news programs including CNN, FOX, and MSNBC.  Infotrac Newsstand is your go-to hub for all types of news resources.

Kate Straccia

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh – Main

Khan Academy is a great resource full of free courses in a variety of disciplines, as well as test prep and career guidance.

This summer, Khan Academy has also added a Kids version, with apps for Apple devices and beta versions of apps for Google and Amazon. This has been developed for children ages 2 through 6.

Khan is a trusted name in learning software and this is an exciting development that will appeal to parents, educators, and kids! This would be nice to include as part of school readiness programs and more.

Explore more by downloading the app on Apple, Google (beta), or Amazon (beta) or explore at Khan Academy Kids.

Jeff, South Park