(More) Disney Products are now available on hoopla

According to a news release from hoopla, “All your Disney friends, all the characters you’ve come to know and love, are now here as eBooks on hoopla… New Disney classics, like Frozen, Toy Story, Star Wars and more, come to life like never before with hoopla!” 

Readers can choose from titles that feature current characters like    

or

or re-visit old favorites like
and
Lisa
CLP
Continue Reading(More) Disney Products are now available on hoopla

SelectReads, AuthorCheck, & New Book Alerts – a Reader’s Advisory Trifecta!

SelectReads along with its two companion services, AuthorCheck and New Book Alerts, are now live throughout the county. These services have the potential of being invaluable tools to the reference librarian, as well as being user-friendly and customizable enough for the novice customer. Here are just a few ways you can choose to use these services:
1. Add a Book Widget to your library home page.
A variety of carousels, side-scrollers, and banners are available to showcase new books. These can be added to any page on your library’s website, with links to the catalog and weekly updates already built in. A list of these with their corresponding codes was created, including Adult Fiction, Teen Fiction, Children’s Books, and New York Times Bestsellers. Other options are available on request.
2. Keep up with EVERY new book James Patterson publishes…
AuthorCheck allows you to search for a particular author’s bibliography, but even more useful may be the ability to then “follow” that author to keep up to date with their newest releases. Because sometimes it’s just hard to keep up with an author that cranks out a book a week.
3. Be first in line for Ant-Man on DVD.
New Book Alerts gives you a list of the newest releases in a variety of categories, including the sometimes more difficult types to search in the catalog – Multimedia. You can visit the website yourself or have it email you a list every week, and have your friends wonder how you’re always the first in line for new releases. Who needs Redbox?
Heather, Western Allegheny Community Library
Continue ReadingSelectReads, AuthorCheck, & New Book Alerts – a Reader’s Advisory Trifecta!

Featured Resource of the Month: Opposing Viewpoints inContext

The DRC (Digital Resources Committee) is starting a new monthly feature we’re calling the Featured Resource of the Month.  Each month we’ll feature one of resources Allegheny County eResources and provide a quick overview with helpful tips. This month’s resource is Opposing Viewpoints in Context.

Opposing Viewpoints in Context

  • Primary audience: Middle School and High School Students.
  • Excellent resource for projects and reports on social and political issues. (i.e. Capital Punishment, Climate Change)
  • Good complement or replacement for students search for Point/Counterpoint book series.
  • Includes more than 13,000 topics.
  • Easily build balanced bibliographies by choosing resources by delineated categories: Academic Journals, Magazines, Reference Books, News, and more.
  • Patrons can quickly save PDFs of the resources, email them to their selves, or save directly to Google Drive.
  • For other patrons OVIC is a quick and easy tool to provide an objective overview hot button topics in the news.

http://www.einetwork.net/ein/galegroup.cfm?db=OVIC

opposingViewpoints_in_context

Dustin, Sewickley

Continue ReadingFeatured Resource of the Month: Opposing Viewpoints inContext

Better Book Discovery Tools in NoveList

We all use NoveList to find what title comes next in a series, but did you know there are new, rather fun browse features, “Browse by Genre” and “Browse by Appeal,” to help you find that next book to match your, and your patron’s, personal reading styles?

Try out the “Appeal Mixer” found on the “Browse by Appeal” page.

Image of NoveList Appeal Mixer

Are you in the mood for a particular style or mood?  There are some popular combos already there, for instance, something light and heartwarming, or something sweeping and dramatic.  But, you can also mix you own factors and limit by an age group. Examples of appeal factors include:

  • Character (e.g. character duos, flawed, quirky, etc.) NEW!
  • Storyline (e.g. action-packed, character-driven, sweeping, etc.)
  • Pace (e.g. fast-paced, leisurely paced, etc.)
  • Tone (e.g. bleak, funny, sarcastic, etc.)
  • Writing Style (e.g. descriptive, gritty, lyrical, etc.)
  • Illustration (e.g. cartoony, impressionistic, realistic, etc.)
  • Audio Characteristics (e.g. folksy, energetic, read by the author, etc.)

You can also download a copy of the pamphlet The Secret Language of Books: A Guide to Appeal which can help you have conversations with patrons about why they like the kind of books they do, and how to find similar books.

Take note: The top menu bar of NoveList has been redesigned. You’ll find the “Browse By” tab there to get to the new browse features. Take a look at the options in the “Quick Links” tab. You’ll see frequently used sections like book discussion guides or author read-alikes. Use the “How Do I?” tab to take you to help pages which are actually very helpful!

novelist menu bar

Try out the new Novelist features soon and you just may help a patron find their new favorite book they didn’t even know they were looking for!

Helen (USC)

Continue ReadingBetter Book Discovery Tools in NoveList