Uncategorized

PA Photos and Documents

Through Power Library, card holders can access thousands of digitized documents and photographs from collections across Pennsylvania with the PA Photos and Documents database.  The main intention is to provide historic, cultural and other collections of interest to the citizens of our state.

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The collections can be browsed by subject or institution.

Subjects include:

  • Church and Missionary History
  • Culinary Arts
  • Film History
  • Health and Medicine
  • Local Newspaper
  • Pennsylvania History
  • Pennsylvania History Colonial
  • Pennsylvania History – Civil War
  • Pennsylvania History – Depression and WWII
  • Pennsylvania History – Industrial Revolution
  • Pennsylvania History – Progressive Era
  • School and College History
  • Sports History
  • Women’s History

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After selecting a specific subject and institution, the Advanced Search option allows all collections to be searched at one time!

Recommend to your genealogist patrons or others interested in significant local history.

– Rob Kalchthaler / Bethel Park

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Searching More than One Database Simultaneously

I think that we can all agree that MasterFILE Complete is a wonderful resource on its own, but you

can expand the amount of full text results by adding Business Source Premier to your search.

For example by adding Business Source Premier you can get full text articles  from

_The Harvard Business Review_  dating back to 1922, and up to the present.

To add databases to your MasterFile Complete search just click on “Choose Databases”

located above the top search box on the Masterfile Complete launch page, and then check the box

for Business Source Premier on the popup.

Searching: MasterFILE Complete Choose Databases

 

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SIRS Discoverer (not for Dummies)

The SIRS Discoverer database is designed for elementary and middle school students and is provided through the POWER Library by the state of Pennsylvania.  County library staff have access to the link through http://articles.einetwork.net, and CLP staff  have access through the CLP site.  This resource has full text articles and images from over 1900 domestic and international newspapers, magazines and government documents.  It also contains content from reference books and over 30000 color graphics, photos and maps.

New to the site are nonfiction books (in PDF format) organized by topic.  Many of them are Dorling Kindersley books (Eyewitness series of books for children).  Also new is the iThink Skills Tutor, a tutorial which helps students, through the use of an animated guide, to select a research topic and create a research strategy.  The Skills Tutor might interest a student new to writing research who might use it once or twice.  It’s more of a novelty than something that might become an essential teaching tool, mostly because it seems to offer the same limited number of potential research topics each time you start the tutorial.

The Skills Discoverer feature is a good way to find reliable information on the web for hundreds of topics, and the interface is easy to navigate with pre-selected topics.  The interface eliminates the need for time-consuming keyword searching within the database.

Educators will like the ability to search a state’s Common Core Standards for any subject area.  The database also provides hundreds of teaching resources for any given standard in a subject area.  There are research articles and activities for potential lesson plans.  The link to this is featured prominently on the site under Common Core Correlations (nice alliteration!)

There is a section of the site with science experiment ideas called Science Fair Explorer.  This is a fun tool if limited in number of potential experiments.  SIRS Discoverer however is a useful resource in and of itself with thousands of references for science education.

Strongest Pro for using SIRS Discoverer:  thousands of reliable websites on a ton of topics in the Skills Discoverer section of the site. Even older students, adults and library staff would make use of this resource.  Although SIRS Discoverer is for students serious about finding research, there are still some fun graphical interactive parts of the site.  (Adults like me who appreciate larger typeface at times will also like the easy-to- read layout of their website).  The additional of hundreds of high quality PDF books also adds to the site’s attractiveness. 

If you’ve used SIRS Discoverer, please give us your review.

Ann Andrews

Reference Department

Cooper-Siegel Community Library

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Continue ReadingSIRS Discoverer (not for Dummies)

OverDrive Launches New Help Site.

Still looking for help in assisting patrons, particularly new users, in using the OverDrive platform?

OverDrive has launched a fresh help site with new features.

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It’s easier to get started.

From the home page, you can click on any of the quick links to see a list of articles pertaining to a particular category.

On each of these quick link category pages, the content is shown by device or platform, and each has its own drop-down menu.

Under each drop-down, you’ll see a list of pertinent articles.

It’s easier to navigate.

There is persistent navigation to help you find what you need no matter where you are on the site. Across the top, you’ll see links to the four main landing pages for help.

  • Home/Quick links: This is the landing page, where you’ll find quick links to popular categories and a large search bar.
  • Videos: The videos will show up in search results and you can get straight to any series right from the navigation menu.
  • Devices: This replaces the Device Resource Center.
  • Articles: This page is a list of articles sorted by topic

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It’s easier to understand compatibility.

The new device profiles quickly and clearly spell out what and how to use OverDrive materials on each device.

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It’s easier to use on a mobile device.

The new help website is fully responsive. That way, no matter what size screen you’re using, you’ll find the help you need with a minimal amount of fuss.

It’s easier to see how things work.

The new help videos landing page lets you pick which videos you want to watch, from any series, without having to scroll down a page or open a new tab.

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It’s really easier.

There’s a new troubleshooting section that’s organized by platform. Overdrive is continually adding new content and updating the existing troubleshooting materials with a focus on adding specific error codes. Take a look at see what you think.

Karen S. (Northland)

 

Continue ReadingOverDrive Launches New Help Site.