Friday, November 30, 2012

Credo Reference Topic Pages

Have you used these Yet? Why not start today?

Topic Pages are Credo Reference’s approach to organizing and presenting information resources. They are a dynamic “one stop shop” where you can find much of what your library has on any one topic. Topic Pages aggregate information from Credo Reference, your other library databases and the open web, all on one screen.


There are close to 10,000 Topic Pages live on the Credo Reference platform. They are a place where you can find information from many of your library resources, all on one Topic, all on one screen. There are three ways to find Topic Pages on Credo Reference:


1.  Keyword Search: Place a term in the search box and click ‘search’. If a Topic Page matches your search term, it will be listed first on your results page, under the Heading ‘Topic Pages’
2. Topic Browse: Click ‘Find a Topic Page’ in the top tool bar to be brought to two options. Browse our full list of Topic Pages by subject or view an alphabetical list:
3. Related Topic Pages: On the Topic Page itself, you will see a tag cloud on the right hand side of the screen below the images. These links all point to Topic Pages related to the Topic Page you are currently exploring. Click the link to be brought to that Topic Page.

Try this out. You won't be disappointed. If you need further help, come to the library and talk with the library staff.


Find Credo Reference on the library page list of databases.















More Information about State Budget Cuts

The Budget Office Announced $170 million in rescissions to help bring the state budget Into balance. The reductions are the first part of the state’s deficit mitigation plan that will go to the Legislature in December.


Allotment reductions for the State Library totaled $205,595.
Personal Services $ (60,000)
Computer Access Program ( 9,500)
CLC (17,500)
Grants to Public Libraries (10,714)
CT Humanities Council (107,881)

Source: Ken Wiggins, State Librarian

Thursday, November 29, 2012

CQ Researcher: Changing Demographics

Changing Demographics:
Will the rising minority population benefit the economy?

The nation is undergoing one of the most important demographic transitions in its history. For the first time, minority babies outnumbered white newborns last year, and Census estimates predict that by 2042 non-Hispanic whites will no longer be in the majority. Already, more than a third of Americans are minorities, and non-whites accounted for 92 percent of population growth between 2000 and 2010, a trend driven by rising Hispanic immigration. Meanwhile, as millions of baby boomers retire, the nation is growing older. More than a fifth of Americans will be 65 or older by 2030, compared with one in eight today. Seismic changes also are occurring on the religious front: Protestants are no longer in the majority, and millions have abandoned religion altogether. And, in a striking trend of reverse migration, millions of blacks are moving back to the South. Read the whole report (password protected). Contact the library for user name and password.

Source: CQ Researcher November 16 report
Image: Happy Citizenship Day! A youngster rests after joining other local children who attended a naturalization ceremony in Los Angeles on Sept. 19, 2012. Some 40 million Americans — about one in eight — are foreign-born. (Getty Images/Kevork Djansezian)
Next Report: Sugar Controversy




State Budget Cuts and Our LIbrary

We receive a number of services from the state, including ICONN-many databases from Gale plus a few from EBSCO and ReQuest-our Interlibrary Loan service that uses CCAR,   Neither iCONN nor CCAR are affected by the reductions. 

For the Connecticut Library Consoritum (CLC) there is a 5% reduction. That impact has not been defined by CLC as of yet.  We belong to the Connecticut Library Consortium, a membership collaborative serving all types of Connecticut libraries by initiating and facilitating cost-effectives serves, creating and supporting education and professional development, andhelping libraries strengthen their service to users.








Monday, November 26, 2012

Project MUSE Trial

Our trial of the full text journals in MUSE is now active and may be accessed at the MUSE website, http://muse.jhu.edu. . Access is based on the IP addresses submitted with your request, therefore, a login and password is not needed. Just in time for the end of semester research!


Trial Start Date: November 23, 2012
Trial End Date: January 6, 2013

Project MUSE is a leading provider of digital humanities and social science content for the scholarly community. Since 1995 the MUSE journal collections have supported a wide array of research needs at academic, public, special, and school libraries worldwide. MUSE is the trusted source of complete, full-text versions of scholarly journals from many of the world's leading university presses and scholarly societies, with over 120 publishers currently participating.




Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Android Apps and Security Risks

Bit9 analyzed more than 400,000 apps within the Google Play marketplace, focusing on the permissions requested by these applications and the threat each vulnerability poses. Alongside our Android app analysis, Bit9 also conducting a targeted survey of IT security decision makers responsible for the mobile policy of more than 400,000 employees. Our report, "Pausing Google Play: More Than 100,000 Android Apps May Pose Security Risks" shows that 72 percent of all Android apps (more than 290,000) access at least one high-risk permission. 71 percent of respondents say that their organization allows employee-owned devices to connect to their company's network.

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Thursday, November 15, 2012

NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS

Last night Louise Erdrich won the National Book Award for Fiction with The Round House, a novel about racial injustice on a North Dakota reservation. The nonfiction category was won by Katherine Boo for Behind the Beautiful forever: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity. She tells the story of the slum dwellers struggle in the shadow of luxury hotels in India. The award for Young People's Literature went to William Alexander for Goblin Secrets. The Poetry award went to David Perry for Bewilderment: New Poems and translations. Arthur Sulzberger Jr., publisher of the New York Times was honored with the Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community.  The award for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters went to novelist Elmore Leonard.

To be eligible for an award, a book must have been written by a United States citizen. Winners receive $10,000 and a bronze statue.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Wilson Quarterly stops print editions.

There is no easy way to say it: The Summer issue is the last print edition of The Wilson Quarterly.
Beginning with the Autumn issue, the WQ will appear in digital formonly--as an app available for Apple and Android devices, on the Nookand Kindle, and as a PDF available for download on your computer.  It is a change born of both economic necessity and faith in the future. We hope you will join  the next leg of a journey that has already stretched over 36 years. Newsweek, too, will stop publishing a print edition at the end of this year. The times they are achanging;

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

LIBRARY FACT: INTERLIBRARY LOAN SERVICE

The Hoffman Family library participates with more than 200 school, public, and academic libraries throughout Connecticut that have expanded their resource sharing services with reQuest Interlibrary Loan (ILL). With reQuest ILL in our library, you can create and track your own ILL requests for books and other resources through an easy-to-use Web interface that is available 24/7.  We also lend and borrow from more than 75 libraries outside of Connecticut. Directions are on the library page or just ask any librarian.

NO TALKING ON CELLPHONES IN LIBRARY



REMINDER
Talking on your cellphone is prohibited in the Hoffman Family Library!

  
Failure to comply with requests will result in being asked to leave the library.

Thank you for your cooperation!

HISTORY OF THANKSGIVING



Learn the real story about one of America's favorite civic holidays!

 ~ In the Classroom ~

CONSTITUTION HALL PASS
Webcast Air Date: November 2012

Live Chat: Weekdays November 12 - 21, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST
It's free to view and participate - all you need is an internet connection  

Grab a seat at the table as we talk turkey! Learn the real story about the Thanksgiving holiday: find out about the native peoples who were living in what is now New England, learn about what kinds of foods our early Thanksgiving dinners did and didn't have, and discover how the day was made a national holiday during the Civil War.

Don't forget to use our great discussion questions
before and after you watch the episode! 


Tuesday, November 06, 2012

FREE ACCESS TO ELIBRARY THROUGH DECEMBER



Staying informed, getting homework help, and finding relevant information quickly. We know that access to information is critical in times like these, and PROQUEST IS here to help. 

 In an effort to provide information in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, from now through December 2012, ProQuest will provide access to its eLibrary® product—including access to the full text of The New York Times—to  library users and students in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.  

For your information needs, eLibrary includes 8 different types of media comprising more than 2,500 full text magazines, newspapers, e-books, and transcripts, along with thousands of images, maps, websites and videos.  In addition, users can search more than 7,000 editor-curated Research Topics.

To get started, here is the link for our library users and students: 
 http://elibrary3.bigchalk.com/elibweb/elib/do/search



Monday, November 05, 2012

7 Days of Free Downloads

The Library Journal to create awareness for VideoBlocks.com is giving away 7 days of complimentary access to download anything you want from over 50,000 clips of video, motion backgrounds, production music, and more. Contact me at the library to use this 7 day window of opportunity.

Thursday, November 01, 2012

Changes to EBSCO Searching

Boolean Operator Changes

EBSCO will be introducing a change to query processing so that AND, OR and NOT are only interpreted as Boolean operators if they are in UPPERCASE. The objective is to enable the search engine to handle unintended Boolean operators literally so book titles and phrases don't fail or return poor results. Examples of phrases and book titles with unintended Booleans:

And then there were none
And so it goes
To be or not to be
Moby Dick or the whale

eBook Apps

Following the success of eBooks on EBSCOhost, eBook apps will extend the portability of eBooks from currently-supported eBook Reader devices to Android and iOS tablets and phones.

Other Changes
Planned enhancements include integration with WorldCat to locate books at other libraries, integration with HathiTrust to enable full text searching within books, and cited references, and customization of real time circulation display. Additional enhancements will improve subject and journal search experiences.