New Database Roundup: Staff Development Day 2011

The last year has seen databases added, deleted and changed. Some of the changes have been with the resources funded by the State of NJ and others with the resources OCL pays for. Some changes have been vendor driven and once in awhile the change has been because OCL drove the vendor to it! (or another way of putting it, we asked very sweetly and VERY firmly to have something changed).

Here is some information to supplement the program at Staff Development Day, June 3, 2011.

Universal Class
on OceanNet
Booksmarks with the OCL website URL specific to our Universal Class customers
Handout to use in Outreach specific to OCL and Universal Class
not on OceanNet
but on Recorded Books promotion and merchandising page for Universal Class, go to here and here. These links on the Recorded Books site (they handle Universal Class for the library market) can change as they add and delete promotional material. The items are listed alphabetically by product so find the end of the alphabet for the Universal Class stuff.

Morningstar
for the library patron guide: http://www.deschuteslibrary.org/Files/morningstar_patron_guide.pdf

Ancestry Library Edition
Check out the recent databases frequently. You'll never know what you'll find. Career Transitions
New at the end of 2010, it has an easy to use resume maker, job search, all sorts of tools, no email needed. Look on OceanNet under Reference, Workshops, April Job Hunters Workshop for a document that compares the features of Career Transitions with Job and Career Accelerator. Know the features, pluses and minuses so you can recommend the right job resource for your patron.

Contemporary Authors
We had access already within Gale’s Literature Resource Center but now just the CA stuff is pulled out and can be searched easily. Includes “over 140,000 Gale proprietary author biographies. Biographies typically include extensive personal information, thumbnail summaries of principal works and their critical reception, lists of works by the author, and sources for additional information. Content consists of the most recent and complete version of coverage of each author in the print series Contemporary Authors and Contemporary Authors New Revisions, updated continuously online with information received since the print version was published. CA author interviews and autobiographical essays are also included.” This database alone saves us from shelf space for more than 515 print volumes. See http://www.gale.cengage.com/title_lists for details on what titles are in the different databases

Job and Career Accelerator New at the end of 2010, part of the BTOP grant initiative for Job Hunters. Advanced features for customers comfortable with computers, requires registration with email account before you can explore. Look on OceanNet under Reference, Workshops, April Job Hunters Workshop for a document that compares the features of Career Transitions with Job and Career Accelerator. Know the features, pluses and minuses so you can recommend the right job resource for your patron.

Learning Express Library has added many more tests, ebooks and ecourses for adults. It isn’t just for young people looking for GED, ASVAB or SAT practice anymore.

Mango new languages have been added, along with more advanced practice options. The new languages are Cantonese Chinese, Croatian, Danish, ESL Mandarin Chinese, Finnish, Haitian Creole, Irish, Levantine Arabic, Norwegian, and Urdu!

.ListenNJ Check out the new tools and training on OceanNet to help your patrons with eBooks and eReaders. Go to Reference, then click on eBooks to see what is available.
Don't forget on OceanNet to check out the Reference page on Databases. That is where current trials for databases are posted.