Volppt Intro09

Editor's Notes

• #2: The Vermont Online Library is a series of linked databases. The Vermont Department of Libraries and a committee of librarians from public libraries, colleges and schools chose the individual Gale databases that make up the Vermont Online Library.
• #3: You can access the Vermont Online Library from the library computers; or you can log in from home or work, with a password or library barcode supplied by the library. Each library has a different web address and unique password. The information in the Vermont Online Library comes from magazines, academic journals, and reference books. You get to the information via the internet– but it comes from the publishing world.
• #4: Here’s a screen showing the page that lists each town and the link for the Vermont Online Library websites for that town and library. There are links for the Gale Databases, Heritage Quest (a genealogy product for public libraries in Vermont) and the Wilson Databases (biography indexes). This workshop will focus on the tools for the Gale databases. Find the town and library, and click on the link to go directly to the website.
• #5: Here’s the opening page to the website, in this case the Grafton Public Library website. The box in the middle of the page is for typing in the password from the library. Some Vermont public libraries use the library barcode here. The library password is: _______________________ You will need this password every time you log in. You can use the website from home, from work, or even on vacation in Florida.
• #6: The easiest way to see many resources is to use the PowerSearch. It’s the opening screen once you have logged in. You will notice that all of the databases in this list are checked. While you’re getting used to the Vermont Online Library, it’s easiest just to use the Search the way it has been automatically set up. Type a few words into the box on the left and click the SEARCH button to get started. Don’t type too many words– just try for one or two key words. Reminder: You will see the list of databases on this page. The Search button automatically uses all of them. If you prefer, you can use the check boxes to decide which databases you want to use. The search typed into the box here is hybrid cars.
• #7: The folders march across the page. This is a PowerSearch for HYBRID CARS. The yellow tab is the one showing the magazine articles on hybrid cars– 839 articles. If you look closely above the tabbed folders, you’ll see that there’s a link for hybrid vehicles . Hybrid cars works– but hybrid vehicles actually provides articles on the general subject. Here are the tabs and what each one has: Magazines: You might see Consumer Reports, Time and Newsweek here– more popular magazines. Academic journals: 96 results for hybrid cars. Academic journals are more scholarly than magazines. Books: 6 results here, mostly from reference books. News: 2611 newspaper results Multimedia: 48 results. At this point multimedia usually means podcasts. If you have an Mp3 player, you’ll be able to download podcasts from NPR, for example. Additional databases: the tab for additional databases is a reminder that there are other Vermont Online Library databases to search. Those databases do not use PowerSearch,unlike the grouped databases we’re looking at now.
• #8: This screen shows some of the features offered by PowerSearch. The user is searching for ozone. Each bright yellow box shows a different feature. 1. Starting at the top of the page, look at Search within Results. You use this tool to do a narrower search by document type, for example looking only at book reviews or articles from one publication. 2. The next box shows the Colored Tabs . The light yellow tab shows the results you view now. In this example, Academic Journals shows the page of results. You could click on any of the blue tabs like Magazines to jump to those results. 3. This box shows that Libraries can choose which Tab automatically opens after a search. The default tab for the Vermont Online Library is Magazines– it’s the tab that automatically opens once you run a search. 4. The last yellow box shows the “Instant Limiters.” Instant Limiters will automatically sort the results you initially get. Let’s look at them one at a time. With full text This limitation will weed out the brief summaries, and only retrieve results with all of the text Peer-reviewed Experts in the subject have reviewed these articles. E.g., An economist, for an article on the US economy With images Use this box if it’s vital to have photos or images
• #9: As you use the Vermont Online Library, you’ll get used to its format and structure. Here are some general tips: Each folder has results listed from most recent to older Click on the article to read it Use the red TOOLS to work with the individual article
• #10: Here’s another screen showing some features of an individual article on global warming . The first bright yellow box shows subject headings assigned to the article. You can click and follow. The second box shows the fielded values or labels, like Title, Author, and Source. The third box gives you the Document Tools. PDF allows you to see the article as it appeared in the original publication. The type font, photos and layout will appear just as they occurred when the item was published. Print Uses the computer you’re at to print the article Download Allows podcast downloads, for example Citation is important for students! Citation allows you to choose from several formats to cite material for papers, quotes, etc. TRANSLATE offers 8 languages, Spanish, French, Japanese, German, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, and Korean.
• #11: E-mail and print allow the user to send the entire article or just the brief citation (the author, the title, the magazine or book it appeared in). This screen is what appears when you click the e-mail command in the red Tools Box.
• #12: Many people get pretty good results with the search box, just as many get good results with a search engine like Google. As you get used to searching, you may want to experiment. We’ll take you through each search type in the next few screens. No matter what kind of search you use, you’ll be able to print or e-mail the results using the Tools in the red box. The HELP button is terrific– offers many suggestions for improving searches. You may want to use the library computers the first few times you try the Vermont Online Library. That way you’ll have library staff to offer their HELP too!
• #13: Basic Search uses the search box. If you look closely at the box, underneath it you will see you can choose to find the words you type to one of three areas. Subjects Keywords The entire document Let’s look more closely at the Subject search on the next slide….
• #14: What is the difference between searching by subject guide and searching by keyword? Subject guide searches use a controlled vocabulary. Key words use common language as people use it. “Hybrid cars” is a keyword search, using common American terms. “Hybrid vehicles” is actually the subject, which includes hybrid cars.
• #15: Publication Search is a special feature that allows you to jump into the magazines, newspapers and other sources to read them. Suppose you wanted to know what publications might reference the city New York. You could try typing New York into the Publication Search .
• #16: Publication Search really worked for this one! Two pages of results for Publications, including a Fodor’s Guide to New York City and newspapers including the New York Times, the New York Post, and the Daily News. Click on the publication to search within it.
• #17: People can do advanced searching by date, linking concepts, and full text. For serious researchers, these are powerful tools.
• #18: Wherever you are in the Vermont Online Library, you can find a link for HELP.
• #19: So far, we’ve been using PowerSearch to explore the Vermont Online Library. Instead you could choose just one of the 11 databases in PowerSearch– or you could scroll further down the page to use databases that are not available with PowerSearch.
• #20: Some of the individual databases in the Vermont Online Library are these: Custom Newspapers for over 100 national and international newspapers …. Choose resources for students like Junior-K12 Look for medical information in the Health and Wellness Resources Center
• #21: Let’s take a trip over to the Health and Wellness Resources Center, one of the databases outside of PowerSearch. What is the difference between using this database and the internet? Although there is plenty of good information on the internet, sometimes it’s hard to tell the good from the bad. Anyone can put their ideas out there. All of the Health and Wellness Resources come from standard medical publishers. You’re using the internet to see this database– but no amateurs are posting information here! Health and Wellness Resources Center offers Many medical reference books Suggested links to other resources and related medical terms A quick overview Alternative medicine resources
• #22: Like PowerSearch, the key to finding information in Health & Wellness is the search box. See it– the white box in the bright green square on the right? You can go to other resources directly, but the search box will retrieve results across many of the resources. The grey links across the page allow a user to jump into a single health resource. Notice the Diseases & Conditions, Alternative Medicine, and the Drugs & Herbal Remedies, for example. In contrast, the search box retrieves articles from all of the Health & Wellness resources.
• #23: Here are the results of typing diabetes into the search box. Just like PowerSearch, results are sorted into colored tabs. The green tab shows the page you’re on– Books and Fact Sheets in this example. Let’s look at the tabs of results right across the page: Books and fact sheets – information from medical textbooks, medical reference, and scholarly titles Magazines & Journals – articles from medical associations as well as some popular materials like the Harvard Newsletter Drugs and herbal remedies - drugs and remedies related to the search Pamphlets – general material on popular disease topics, usually well organized and illustrated Video News
• #24: The boxed column on the left has other suggestions related to the search. This search was diabetes. The related suggestions include Diabetes and Cardiovascular diseases Diabetes and Foot care And others as you scroll down. Notice that while you’re looking at the results page, the search box has been moved to the left. There are also links for Marked List, articles you have checked because you want to save them, and “Revise Search,” which allows you to change what you originally looked for.
• #25: People often are interested in alternative health practices– herbs, diet, meditation. Here’s an entire encyclopedia with many articles….
• #26: This screen shows what an article in Health & Wellness looks like. Look closely and you’ll see that we’re in the Books & Fact Sheets tab, and the article is a Harvard Special Health Report from April 2009. The article is the second of 200 results in Books & Fact Sheets. There are 86,534 results in the magazines tab for the search Diabetes. The red words highlighted in the article match the original search, diabetes .
• #27: As in the PowerSeach databases, there are tools for printing or e-mailing the article. In Health & Wellness the print, e-mail and download commands are on the left hand side of the screen when you are reading the article.
• #28: As part of the large green banner, Health & Wellness has a Guided Tour button. Click the link in the upper right corner to start a video tour of the features of this database, including Topics in the News, articles, and tips on using database features.
• #29: The Vermont Online Library has a mission. Here it is: The purpose of the Vermont Online Library is to ensure statewide, online access for all students and citizens to a core set of full-text information resources through the licensing of online/electronic information database products.
• #30: That’s the end of the slide presentation. Are there any questions?