February 2007 - Posts
Seriously, I'm in love with a website (again)! (I have warned you that I love all things literary!)
This week's site of the week is bartleby.com. It's fantabulous! Originally, I was just going to post on The Oxford Book of American Essays on this site because it gives you full-text access to essays by Benjamin Franklin, Henry James, Theodore Roosevelt, Walt Whitman, Nathaniel Hawthorne and more! It looked really interesting and I always like full text. (I'm very into full-text articles on-line, especially academic or literary ones!) Imagine my surprise when I started clicking around on the site. That was ONE book out of I don't even know how many!
If you look at the top middle of your screen you will see four tabs marked: Reference, Verse, Fiction and Nonfiction. (The Oxford Book of American Essays is on the Nonfiction page).
Reference: In this section you can find an anatomy book from 1918, a Fannie Farmer cookbook, Parliamentary Procedure, Encyclopedias, Thesauri, a section on religion an mythology, a section on language, style & composition and four books of quotes!
Verse: So this is pretty easy, you're going to find poetry here. Not just any poetry though! There are about 25-30 anthologies of poetry, plus another section below of individual writers! This is where you can find your Dante, Dickenson, Eliot, Frost, Hardy, Keats, Lawrence, Millay, Milton, Sandburg, Whitman, Wilde, and Yeats in a no-fuss, no-muss style. The anthologies have a large selection as well. No, I did not put everyone down here. (If you don't recognize any of these names you may want to take a gander. ahh-hem There are some BIG WIGS of poetry in here!)
Fiction: So this is my FAVORITE section! Besides your regular ol' run-of-the-mill adult "classics," Bartleby's has also included texts by Aesop, Hans Christian Anderson, and the Brothers Grimm! (Hooray for Fairy Tales!) I know that at least one of the links included another link to illustrations...Yippee! You can also find some of my other favorites here like Austen, Cather (even Agatha Christie-not a "favorite", but only because I haven't read her-I know, I know I should. There's only so many hours in a day, ya' know?) , Dickens, Dostoevsky, Fitzgerald (sigh, I heart him!), Hawthorne, James, Jewett, Lewis, Poe, Scott, Shakespeare, Sophocles, Stein, Thackery (I heart him too! Have any of you read Vanity Fair? Soooo very good!), Tolstoy, Twain, Wharton and Woolf. That's not everyone! Okay, there are a couple here that aren't really in my "favorites" category....but I've read something by all of them, so that's gotta count for something!
Nonfiction: Holy Batwings Batman! I almost don't even know where to begin here, but I'm sure I'll figure it out. On this page of the site you can find things like Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography, about twelve links by or about Theodore Roosevelt, Rousseau, Confucius, Booker T. Washington, Adam Smith, Plato, Hobbes (alas, no Locke!), Einstein and more! Hopefully I've given you enough of a diverse group to want to check out this site!
The link below will take you to Bartleby's reference page.
http://www.bartleby.com/reference/
Go forth and read! (or research:)
Well, since we closed over the past weekend we decided to offer you extended hours this week for no particular reason at all. Tee-hee! (Okay, I lied a little there.) But I bet you can guess why they're being extended!
Tuesday - Thursday Feb. 20-22 8 am - midnight
Friday Feb. 23 8 am - 10 pm
Saturday Feb. 24 9 am - 10 pm
Sunday Feb. 25 1 pm - midnight
Monday - Thursday Feb. 26 - March 1 8 am - midnight
Stop on in for a little bit 'o quiet study time! We also help with questions too!
In honor of President's Day the library will be closed:
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Sunday, February 18, 2007
The library will re-open at 4pm on Monday the 19th.
Have a great weekend!
I am VERY excited about this weeks site. (I know I say that every week, but it's so much fun finding these things!) In looking it over, I have to say there is probably more information on this website than I can go through in a year!
So... I'm sure that at one point of your college career you'll hear the name 'Charles Darwin' mentioned. I'm also guessing that some of you won't want to buy a book that he wrote because, let's face it, you already spend a lot of money on textbooks, and all the library copies have probably already been borrowed already. Guess what? I have the solution for you!
It's:
The Complete Works of Charles Darwin
http://darwin-online.org.uk/
and they're not joking! I looked through the site and you could really get lost in all the information that's on here! There are "over 50,000 pages of searchable text and 40,000 images." Seriously, you could get lost in a single book!
The truly fantabulous thing about this site is the fact that there are illustrations AND text. You're not missing out on anything! You can also see images of his actual notebook alongside the typed text (extremely beneficial having the typed version right next to the handwriting!).
Oh, and did I mention that accessing all of that informational goodness is free. Yup, free. Now you're really interested, aren't you?
The library has added some new resources to help you with your studies!
You're excited, right? Right? Well, I am anyways!
Okay, here's the list:
- New Language Dictionaries in the "Quick Reference" box. Languages that are included are: Spanish, Norwegian, Latin and German (you can find them by starting with the English or other language version). I'm still looking for ones with more words in their collections, but these will get you started anyways!
- Under Government Resources in the "Quick Reference" box you will find a link to the Minnesota Attorney General's Office and Historical Population Reports. Historical Population Reports gives you access to British population reports for Britain and Ireland from 1801-1937.
- Oxford Reference has been added under "Journals and Articles." You will NOT find journals and articles here. It's more of an informational site, with definitions and explanations of various things. For example, say I wanted to know more about the Lady of the Lake from the Arthur legends. I would just type that in the search box, and look at the definition. There are also links to other people/places/things within the definition of who she is. You can search by subject and then browse or enter your search term(s). Really, there is A LOT to learn here! Ooohhh! Added bonus: there's a feature under each definition that tells you how to cite this reference (and it looks to be a MLA style citation).
- Also included under "Journals and Articles" is a link to RefShelf Plus. Click on that link, then select "Current Issues: RefShelf Plus" in the tan colored box. This will bring up a page with pictures of current issues. This site ranges from Africa to Torture to Veterans to Womens Rights. There is a plethora of information here. Once you click on a picture you will be given subtopic options and links to places to find more information.
- If you scroll down to the "Other Resources By Subject" area you will see a new addition, a link entitled Literature. Here you will find links to a Children's Literature Database, the Oxford Reference database, and a link to the Victorian Web. Both are highly recommended by moi. I have used the Victorian Web and have found it to be very informational. The Children's Literature database has some free information on it, but some you have to be a member of or pay for to gain access. Take a peek, you can still find good information here.
- Faculty - I'll blog on the new resources for you as soon as everything is up and working. In the meantime, you can check out the new "Faculty Resources" box on the library's homepage. The bottom three links are up and running, but the top three will be a few days. Thanks in advance for your patience!
Do you want up-to-date information that you can trust? This weeks site of the week is BBC News:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
A factor that I really like is that the BBC doesn't have advertisers or shareholders to produce for. What does this mean for you? The BBC "can concentrate on providing high quality programmes and services for everyone" (About the BBC).
The BBC is a product of the UK, but their information is factual, pertinent and unbiased. Take a look at their "About the BBC" page. You'll find a lot of information that lets you know it is a good source for news. Plus, another benefit of the BBC news (especially if you don't watch their news program on tv) is that they cover the entire world, not just who, what or where is the most important to their place of residence at the moment.
Their values are extremely admirable:
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Trust is the foundation of the BBC: we are independent, impartial and honest
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Audiences are at the heart of everything we do
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We take pride in delivering quality and value for money
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Creativity is the lifeblood of our organisation
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We respect each other and celebrate our diversity so that everyone can give their best
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We are one BBC: great things happen when we work together
(About the BBC page)
So, my point is, take a gander and see if you learn anything new! (I'm willing to guess you'll find something on their pages that you didn't know before!)
With Valentine's Day just around the corner there are numerous commercials, advertisements and all that other good stuff telling you to tell your sweetheart how much you love them.
Well, I'm here to recommend you protect YOUR heart. February is American Heart Month.
What does that mean for you? Protect your heart, your true love's heart and everyone else you can pester with heart healthy facts.
Check out the following website for information on heart disease and factors that contribute to it, information on a leading a healthy lifestyle and heart facts for women (I learned that the third leading cause of death for women aged 25-44 years is heart disease.)
http://www.cdc.gov/dhdsp/announcements/american_heart_month.htm
Take a look and learn something new today!
My first featured library site is about books. Big surprise there! Seriously, this site is fantabulous (yes that is a word in the world in which I live).
So what's the point of this site? Reading you silly goose! If you need a book and the library's copy is checked out and you put off getting the book until the last minute (sound familiar??) you should go to Netlibrary.
The site is easy to navigate: Simply click on "Netlibrary" under the Electronic Books section on the library's webpage and you're there! Enter your search terms by title, keyword, author, subject or full text and away you go! Netlibrary has new and older books (yes, entire books!) available for you to read on-line.
The only thing I think I need to caution you on is this: sometimes a title is already being viewed by someone else. You'll just have to check back later in this unfortunate incident.
If you'd like more information on Netlibrary and its features, check out my video about it under Services, then select "Video Help: Library Resources" and Netlibrary is listed right there! (The video does have audio....just so you know!)
Attention Education Majors! (And anyone who likes a fun way to learn something new! The second site would be especially for you, since the first one is mainly lesson plans.)
Site #1
This week I've found a couple of sites that could possible be of help to you in your future teaching positions - so don't forget them!
Teach Engineering is a website that provides lesson plans for grades K-12 in the science and math areas. (Don't let the name scare you! If you look at the bottom of your screen you will see a rolling headline that reads, " No engineering background required to use this site.") According to the site:
The TeachEngineering digital library provides teacher-tested, standards-based engineering content for K-12 teachers to use in science and math classrooms. Engineering lessons connect real-world experiences with curricular content already taught in K-12 classrooms. Mapped to educational content standards, TeachEngineering's comprehensive curricula are hands-on, inexpensive, and relevant to children's daily lives.
http://www.teachengineering.org/index.php
I've done some digging on this site, and it looks to have some intesting and relevant materials. If you select the 'Browse Curriculum' area you can search by subject areas, curricular units, lessons and activities. Once you start searching, you will see that each item is listed by a title, summary, grade level, the state where the plan came from, the estimated time length, group size and whether or not there is a cost. The areas I browsed ranged from free to $10. (The free ones are always nice!) Take a gander and be inspired!
Site #2
KOL Expeditions: Path to Adventure
http://aolsvc.kol.aol.com/expeditions_more.adp?id=5-400-6078
This site is fun! Get ready to explore these fun adventure paths: Studying Dolphin Communication, Enter the Blue Zone (areas where people live longer), NASA Earth Crew Mission, Ancient Volcanoes and Return to the Titanic. There are video interviews with the scientists conducting their research, videos of the topics themselves, games, photos and more!
This is a site you could spend quite a bit of time on learning about scientists and how they work. Personally, I thought the Titanic section was interesting. The man who found the Titanic in 1985 is one of the scientist's highlighted. His current mission is to preserve the Titanic, whether that means it stays on the ocean floor or that it's raised and taken somewhere (to protect it - it's deteriorating much faster than anticipated and people are stealing artifacts from aboard).
I would look at this site as a supplement to a unit on oceans, volcanoes, space, etc.
I've turned the comments on this blog on. What that means is:
- You're comments will be sent to me
- You are not allowed to anonymously comment at this time
- If your comments are in any way inappropriate they WILL NOT be posted - this blog is for good clean learning and library fun
- After I've approved the comments they will show up in the comments section beneath each post.
In case you hadn't heard, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is scheduled to be released on
July 21st. YAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!