Do you have a music lover on your holiday list? Are they a music buff that you just cannot keep up with? Never fear AllMusic is here! You can search for artist here to learn more, look at their staff picks, or even look through specifics genres to see more artist your music buff may like – the musical learning is endless.
You can even search through their database of musical information to find that specific holiday song you just cannot remember the title of if it is just eluding you. Find more musical information with AllMusic!
School is back in session, which for many students means homework. The library is here to help with resources like POWER Library. Free to anyone with a Pennsylvania library card, POWER Library offers access to many databases on various subjects.
Helping students navigate a research project and look for information? Check out the Gale research databases! There are ones specifically for elementary, middle, and high school students.
Students can find anything ranging from articles, to images, to videos for their projects. In addition to being able to print and email content, the databases will also show students how to cite their resources.
Be sure to explore what else POWER Library has to offer.
Introducing an exciting new database you can share when your patrons ask you this eternal question! Thanks to Power Library, all libraries in Allegheny County now have access to a robust run of National Geographic, featuring a collection of fully searchable issues running from 1888 –2020. This is great news for students, researchers, and anyone interested in this classic American magazine that explores the natural world, both on and off planet Earth.
The search interface will be familiar to anyone who has used a Gale product before. We have access to lots of great Gale content! They all work in similar ways, and I’m here to point out a few exciting things I’ve found in the new National Geographic Virtual Library.
Because I am so dorky, I always head to the advanced search page to see what it can offer. This advanced search page provides some useful options for sifting through such a large collection, including multiple keyword fields, date ranges, and content types. Yes, you can search through National Geographic content not just for the articles but also for the iconic covers, detailed maps, and even the advertisements!
I’ve been having a grand time searching through 132 years’ worth of advertisements!
The electric car won’t happen overnight in November 2002, pg. 39
An electric car from November 1914, pg. 549
I’m a fan of the dynamic reading pane, as well. Readers can flip through the pages, zoom in and out, and read in a full screen view. There are tools to adjust contrast and brightness to enhance accessibility. Here, I’ve used the “Invert” tool to create a kind of “dark mode.”
The table of contents is also fully linked. Readers can explore content by type within the reading pane if they want a more direct, hyperlinked reading experience, as opposed to the flippable browsing kind. National Geographic is covering cheetahs, the Bronze Age, the Brothers Grimm, Y2K and more just in this issue! You can see other navigation options listed along the left side, as well, offering a rich search experience for patrons (and staff!).
Click here to get started with the National Geographic Virtual Library. Let me know in the comments what interesting articles, beautiful maps, and (especially) weird ads you find.
Allegheny County library users are fortunate to have access to some great newspaper databases covering local, regional, and national papers. Did you know that there are a few other online collections out there that supplement these robust collections?
Chronicling America
The Chronicling America collection includes America’s historic newspaper pages from 1777-1963. The site also features the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Search by state, date, or even by language – with newspapers printed in 19 different languages!
This resource also includes the Newspaper Navigator that lets users search for visual data across newspapers from 1789-1963.
Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.
Google News Archive is an extension of Google News providing free access to scanned archives of newspapers and links to other newspaper archives on the web (both free and paid). Includes The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Pittsburgh Press, other local papers, and national and international titles.
While the search feature leaves something to be desired, the browsability of this site is fairly useful.
