What's New Library Blog - LaGuardia Community College Library Media Resources Center

Online Databases

Due to a power outage, anyone trying to access the databases through the library home page has to be redirected to the CUNY Web site. The CUNY database page is http://libraries.cuny.edu/resource.htm. Just click a green house and enter the bar code from the front of your LaGuardia ID card to enter a database.
Database access should be back to normal on Wednesday. Sorry for the inconvenience!
UPDATE: Everything is back to normal.

posted by Steve in the Library on Tuesday, November 30, 2004

New York Times Blog

Since this blog is kind of new, I thought it might be helpful to go into more details about what a blog is. Then I noticed New York Times technology columnist David Pogue has a blog on the Times' site now.
He's a bit long-winded, but kind of interesting.
And rather helpfully, he has a short explanation of blogs posted.
I applaud anyone's efforts to blogs, but I sure do hope someone at the Times, the so-called newspaper of record, is archiving his posts. It would sad for them to be lost to the ages. And they just might be. None of his blog postings seem to show up in LexisNexis.
So good luck trying to remember what the Times blogged about in 20 years.

posted by Steve in the Library on Tuesday, November 30, 2004

There Is Nothing Wrong with Call Numbers

This is pretty crazy.
Chris Cobb, who runs a bookstore in San Francisco, re-arranged his entire book collection so everything is in color order.
That means all the red books are together and all the blue books are together and so on.
The project is called "There Is Nothing Wrong In This Whole Wide World."
Here's what it looks like.
I can't even imagine trying to find a book there. Here at LaGuardia, our books are in Library of Congress call number order. That doesn't always make sense at first, but once you know to follow the numbers and that similar books are grouped together, it makes finding books painless.
Seeing all of those books organized by something as arbitrary as color makes you really appreciate the value of call numbers. And of CUNY+, which gives us the call numbers of books.
You can read more about "There Is Nothing Wrong In This Whole Wide World" here.

posted by Steve in the Library on Monday, November 29, 2004

Online Databases

Due to a power outage over the Thanksgiving break, anyone trying to access the databases through the library home page has to be redirected to the CUNY Web site. The CUNY database page is http://libraries.cuny.edu/resource.htm. Just click a green house and enter the bar code from the front of your LaGuardia ID card to enter a database.
Database access should be back to normal on Monday. Sorry for the inconvenience!

posted by Steve in the Library on Wednesday, November 24, 2004

Amazon Plugs Government Documents

Amazon.com just released their picks for the top fifty books of 2004.
Number one is an interesting choice — "The 9/11 Commission Report."
It's not every year you see government documents cracking the year-end wrap-up lists.
It's also not every year that you see a bookseller trumpeting a book that's available for free online.
If you don't want to spend the $7 Amazon is charging for the book, you can read it online. I found it by throwing the title 9/11 commission report into the CUNY+ catalog. You can see the record here. The record will take you to the site where you can read the book as a PDF file.
You might want to check out some other government documents, too. You might find next year's top book before Amazon does.

posted by Steve in the Library on Wednesday, November 24, 2004

World News Guide - find out what the world thinks about current events

World News Guide is a compendium of Web links to global news media outlets that includes newspapers, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), radio, and wire services, plus the paper's special country reports and can be found at http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldnewsguide/. This guide is published by The Guardian, a respected, left of center British newspaper known for the quality of its reporting and analysis and is part of the paper's web presence -- Guardian Unlimited. The links are arranged geographically by region then country which makes it easy to focus on the country or region of interest. Naturally many of the sites are in the language of the country of publication but there are also links to English language sites taht are authoritative and representative. A sample includes the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (UK), Radio Netherlands, Dawn (Pakistan), The Guardian (Nigeria), The Jakarta Post (Indonesia), and Kathimerini (Greece). This is a a great place to find out the world's perspectives on events in the US and overseas.

posted by Steve in the Library on Tuesday, November 23, 2004

Welcome

Welcome to our blog!
You might have noticed some minor changes to the LaGuardia Library Web site. We hope you'll find that they make our site easier to use.
You'll also notice some larger changes, like the arrival of this blog. What's a blog? A blog is a constantly updated Web page that has links, ideas, and information. This blog will have information on upcoming library programs and classes, and links to interesting articles that deal with technology and research. Librarians will be posting on it, but if you have something you want to say, feel free to drop us a line and we can post something for you. My e-mail address is sovadia@lagcc.cuny.edu.
For examples of what this blog will do, feel free to scroll through this page. You'll find some pretty cool links and ideas.

posted by Steve in the Library on Tuesday, November 23, 2004

Good website for ESL and ABE learners

A good starting point on the web for English as a Second Language and Adult Basic Education students is http://www.firstfind.info. This site has links to web pages related to many topics of interest to adults, such as government, family, jobs, immigration, and education. The site is menu-driven, guiding the user from one topic to the next without the need for typing and spelling. All of the sites are easy to read, at a low-intermediate (4th - 6th grade) level with short sentences, simple vocabulary, and relatively little text per screen. Users can quickly find information on how to become a citizen, prepare for a job interview, or help their child with homework. There is also a section on local resources where students can find information about the New York Metro area. Created by the Westchester Library System, the site's motto is Easy to find, easy to use websites in plain & simple English, and the site lives up to its word.

posted by Professor Amsberry, Library on Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Online Military Records

England put up an online index of people who received service medals in World War I. You can search the list here for free, but you have to pay to download a record.
It's a cool tool.
And guess what? The U.S. has a bunch of military records online, too. You can play with them here.
Genealogy has really never been easier. Governments are getting so good about putting records online.

posted by Steve in the Library on Monday, November 08, 2004

Electronic Reserves (ERES)

You might have noticed a new link on our home page. It's a link to Electronic Reserves (ERES).
What does that mean?
A lot.
Very soon professors will start using Electronic Reserves to post everything from handouts to class readings to practice tests. But only students will have access to the documents.
If you're a student, it'll mean being able to access these documents from anywhere with an Internet connection.
If you're a professor, it'll mean not having to deal with copying and torn pages.
Remember the phrase Electronic Reserves. We think it's going to make your lives a lot easier.

posted by Steve in the Library on Friday, November 05, 2004

Test Prep

Today's Times has a cool heads-up.
There's a site number2.com offering free ACT, GRE, and SAT test preparation. They even have a vocabulary builder.
How are they able to offer this for free? It's sponsored, so there are some ads on the site. Still, it's a cool tool.
And don't forget, the library offers access to some free online test prep sites, too (well they're not really free — your tuition and technology fees pay for them). You can access them through our online database page.

posted by Steve in the Library on Thursday, November 04, 2004

Election Round-up

Even though as I write this, the election still doesn't seem 100% settled, you can see what the rest of the world is saying about it.
Just go into LexisNexis and click the Guided News Search tab. Then select World News for Step 1. You can choose whichever area you're interested in for Step 2. Then search today's news for United States and election. It's pretty interesting to see how much our national elections interest the whole world.

posted by Steve in the Library on Wednesday, November 03, 2004

Be Picky with Online Information

AP has a story about the guy who created the Web site Electoral-Vote.com, a site that tracks who's leading in today's presidential election. Apparently he's an American professor living in Amsterdam and apparently his site is very popular. But I can't figure out why. Some of his data seems to be months old and there's really no easy way to tell how he's synthesizing everything.
Now take a look at a similar site done by the New York Times. The Times' graphic at least says their information is based on regularly updated information. Plus, the Times gives you the voting history of each state.
Just another reminder that it's good to be picky when you look at information online. Why settle for one man's take on the elections when you can at least look at sourced data from an organization that's probably better equipped to process tons of poll information.

posted by Steve in the Library on Tuesday, November 02, 2004

Election Day

Don't forget. Tomorrow is Election Day.
If you're not sure where you vote, check out MyPollingPlace.com. New York City also has a nice voter information page.

posted by Steve in the Library on Monday, November 01, 2004

What is a blog? About the Library FAQs Library Information Library-Faculty Liaisons Policies Programs and Workshops Units and Services What's New Library Blog CUNY CUNY Resources CUNY Library Tutorials Inter-Campus Book Delivery (CLICS) Library Resources Ask a Librarian: Reference Help Career & Job Search Common Readings CUNY+ Catalog Electronic Reserves (ERES) Faculty Resources Find Articles (Online Databases) RefWorks Research Guides by Subject Online Forms Interlibrary Loan Library Instruction Request Media Renew a Book Request a Book Purchase Search the Site Blog Archives 09/01/2004 - 10/01/2004 10/01/2004 - 11/01/2004 11/01/2004 - 12/01/2004 12/01/2004 - 01/01/2005 01/01/2005 - 02/01/2005 02/01/2005 - 03/01/2005 03/01/2005 - 04/01/2005 04/01/2005 - 05/01/2005 05/01/2005 - 06/01/2005 06/01/2005 - 07/01/2005 07/01/2005 - 08/01/2005 08/01/2005 - 09/01/2005 09/01/2005 - 10/01/2005 10/01/2005 - 11/01/2005 11/01/2005 - 12/01/2005 12/01/2005 - 01/01/2006 01/01/2006 - 02/01/2006 02/01/2006 - 03/01/2006 03/01/2006 - 04/01/2006 04/01/2006 - 05/01/2006 05/01/2006 - 06/01/2006 06/01/2006 - 07/01/2006 07/01/2006 - 08/01/2006 08/01/2006 - 09/01/2006 09/01/2006 - 10/01/2006 10/01/2006 - 11/01/2006 11/01/2006 - 12/01/2006 12/01/2006 - 01/01/2007 01/01/2007 - 02/01/2007 02/01/2007 - 03/01/2007 03/01/2007 - 04/01/2007 04/01/2007 - 05/01/2007 05/01/2007 - 06/01/2007 06/01/2007 - 07/01/2007 08/01/2007 - 09/01/2007 09/01/2007 - 10/01/2007 10/01/2007 - 11/01/2007 11/01/2007 - 12/01/2007

		Online Databases Due to a power outage, anyone trying to access the databases through the library home page has to be redirected to the CUNY Web site. The CUNY database page is http://libraries.cuny.edu/resource.htm. Just click a green house and enter the bar code from the front of your LaGuardia ID card to enter a database. Database access should be back to normal on Wednesday. Sorry for the inconvenience! UPDATE: Everything is back to normal. posted by Steve in the Library on Tuesday, November 30, 2004 New York Times Blog Since this blog is kind of new, I thought it might be helpful to go into more details about what a blog is. Then I noticed New York Times technology columnist David Pogue has a blog on the Times' site now. He's a bit long-winded, but kind of interesting. And rather helpfully, he has a short explanation of blogs posted. I applaud anyone's efforts to blogs, but I sure do hope someone at the Times, the so-called newspaper of record, is archiving his posts. It would sad for them to be lost to the ages. And they just might be. None of his blog postings seem to show up in LexisNexis. So good luck trying to remember what the Times blogged about in 20 years. posted by Steve in the Library on Tuesday, November 30, 2004 There Is Nothing Wrong with Call Numbers This is pretty crazy. Chris Cobb, who runs a bookstore in San Francisco, re-arranged his entire book collection so everything is in color order. That means all the red books are together and all the blue books are together and so on. The project is called "There Is Nothing Wrong In This Whole Wide World." Here's what it looks like. I can't even imagine trying to find a book there. Here at LaGuardia, our books are in Library of Congress call number order. That doesn't always make sense at first, but once you know to follow the numbers and that similar books are grouped together, it makes finding books painless. Seeing all of those books organized by something as arbitrary as color makes you really appreciate the value of call numbers. And of CUNY+, which gives us the call numbers of books. You can read more about "There Is Nothing Wrong In This Whole Wide World" here. posted by Steve in the Library on Monday, November 29, 2004 Online Databases Due to a power outage over the Thanksgiving break, anyone trying to access the databases through the library home page has to be redirected to the CUNY Web site. The CUNY database page is http://libraries.cuny.edu/resource.htm. Just click a green house and enter the bar code from the front of your LaGuardia ID card to enter a database. Database access should be back to normal on Monday. Sorry for the inconvenience! posted by Steve in the Library on Wednesday, November 24, 2004 Amazon Plugs Government Documents Amazon.com just released their picks for the top fifty books of 2004. Number one is an interesting choice — "The 9/11 Commission Report." It's not every year you see government documents cracking the year-end wrap-up lists. It's also not every year that you see a bookseller trumpeting a book that's available for free online. If you don't want to spend the $7 Amazon is charging for the book, you can read it online. I found it by throwing the title 9/11 commission report into the CUNY+ catalog. You can see the record here. The record will take you to the site where you can read the book as a PDF file. You might want to check out some other government documents, too. You might find next year's top book before Amazon does. posted by Steve in the Library on Wednesday, November 24, 2004 World News Guide - find out what the world thinks about current events World News Guide is a compendium of Web links to global news media outlets that includes newspapers, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), radio, and wire services, plus the paper's special country reports and can be found at http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldnewsguide/. This guide is published by The Guardian, a respected, left of center British newspaper known for the quality of its reporting and analysis and is part of the paper's web presence -- Guardian Unlimited. The links are arranged geographically by region then country which makes it easy to focus on the country or region of interest. Naturally many of the sites are in the language of the country of publication but there are also links to English language sites taht are authoritative and representative. A sample includes the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (UK), Radio Netherlands, Dawn (Pakistan), The Guardian (Nigeria), The Jakarta Post (Indonesia), and Kathimerini (Greece). This is a a great place to find out the world's perspectives on events in the US and overseas. posted by Steve in the Library on Tuesday, November 23, 2004 Welcome Welcome to our blog! You might have noticed some minor changes to the LaGuardia Library Web site. We hope you'll find that they make our site easier to use. You'll also notice some larger changes, like the arrival of this blog. What's a blog? A blog is a constantly updated Web page that has links, ideas, and information. This blog will have information on upcoming library programs and classes, and links to interesting articles that deal with technology and research. Librarians will be posting on it, but if you have something you want to say, feel free to drop us a line and we can post something for you. My e-mail address is sovadia@lagcc.cuny.edu. For examples of what this blog will do, feel free to scroll through this page. You'll find some pretty cool links and ideas. posted by Steve in the Library on Tuesday, November 23, 2004 Good website for ESL and ABE learners A good starting point on the web for English as a Second Language and Adult Basic Education students is http://www.firstfind.info. This site has links to web pages related to many topics of interest to adults, such as government, family, jobs, immigration, and education. The site is menu-driven, guiding the user from one topic to the next without the need for typing and spelling. All of the sites are easy to read, at a low-intermediate (4th - 6th grade) level with short sentences, simple vocabulary, and relatively little text per screen. Users can quickly find information on how to become a citizen, prepare for a job interview, or help their child with homework. There is also a section on local resources where students can find information about the New York Metro area. Created by the Westchester Library System, the site's motto is Easy to find, easy to use websites in plain & simple English, and the site lives up to its word. posted by Professor Amsberry, Library on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 Online Military Records England put up an online index of people who received service medals in World War I. You can search the list here for free, but you have to pay to download a record. It's a cool tool. And guess what? The U.S. has a bunch of military records online, too. You can play with them here. Genealogy has really never been easier. Governments are getting so good about putting records online. posted by Steve in the Library on Monday, November 08, 2004 Electronic Reserves (ERES) You might have noticed a new link on our home page. It's a link to Electronic Reserves (ERES). What does that mean? A lot. Very soon professors will start using Electronic Reserves to post everything from handouts to class readings to practice tests. But only students will have access to the documents. If you're a student, it'll mean being able to access these documents from anywhere with an Internet connection. If you're a professor, it'll mean not having to deal with copying and torn pages. Remember the phrase Electronic Reserves. We think it's going to make your lives a lot easier. posted by Steve in the Library on Friday, November 05, 2004 Test Prep Today's Times has a cool heads-up. There's a site number2.com offering free ACT, GRE, and SAT test preparation. They even have a vocabulary builder. How are they able to offer this for free? It's sponsored, so there are some ads on the site. Still, it's a cool tool. And don't forget, the library offers access to some free online test prep sites, too (well they're not really free — your tuition and technology fees pay for them). You can access them through our online database page. posted by Steve in the Library on Thursday, November 04, 2004 Election Round-up Even though as I write this, the election still doesn't seem 100% settled, you can see what the rest of the world is saying about it. Just go into LexisNexis and click the Guided News Search tab. Then select World News for Step 1. You can choose whichever area you're interested in for Step 2. Then search today's news for United States and election. It's pretty interesting to see how much our national elections interest the whole world. posted by Steve in the Library on Wednesday, November 03, 2004 Be Picky with Online Information AP has a story about the guy who created the Web site Electoral-Vote.com, a site that tracks who's leading in today's presidential election. Apparently he's an American professor living in Amsterdam and apparently his site is very popular. But I can't figure out why. Some of his data seems to be months old and there's really no easy way to tell how he's synthesizing everything. Now take a look at a similar site done by the New York Times. The Times' graphic at least says their information is based on regularly updated information. Plus, the Times gives you the voting history of each state. Just another reminder that it's good to be picky when you look at information online. Why settle for one man's take on the elections when you can at least look at sourced data from an organization that's probably better equipped to process tons of poll information. posted by Steve in the Library on Tuesday, November 02, 2004 Election Day Don't forget. Tomorrow is Election Day. If you're not sure where you vote, check out MyPollingPlace.com. New York City also has a nice voter information page. posted by Steve in the Library on Monday, November 01, 2004