AVL Back to School Quiz

This just in from the AVL Digest:

Thanks to the generosity of the AVL database partners and the technical expertise of the Alabama Supercomputer Authority, your library can win great prizes when your students use AVL databases to answer a few fun questions.HERE’S HOW YOUR SCHOOL OR PUBLIC LIBRARY CAN WIN! Beginning Tuesday, September 2, and continuing through Monday, September 15, invite, encourage, BEG your library patrons — especially students, to answer the questions in the AVL Back to School Quiz on the AVL website.Users will be asked to identify their LIBRARY or SCHOOL. This nominatesthe library or school for one of the great prizes! THEN, users will be asked to answer a few simple questions using the AVL databases. These are easy questions requiring only a simple keyword search in the suggesteddatabase. Please do not give out or encourage the sharing of answers — the real purpose of this activity is to encourage USERS to EXPLORE the wonderful AVL databases available to them.A prize will be awarded to at least one library or school for each of the five quiz categories. Winners will be randomly selected from entries in each category when the AVL Back to School Quiz ends September 15.Categories to receive prizes are:
ELEMENTARY School Media Center/Library
MIDDLE School Media Center/Library
HIGH School Media Center/Library
PUBLIC LIBRARY
COLLEGE/UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

It’s easy — and FUN! Build this contest into your own Back to School celebrations and library orientation events to promote use of the AVL. PLEASE NOTE: The AVL Back to School Quiz is NOT available via remote access because one of its purposes is to encourage users to visit the library -so YOU can teach them about the AVL and demonstrate how to use it.The AVL Back to School Quiz will be GREAT FUN! Be sure to include it your back to school plans.

 

JCPLA Staff Development Day

I enjoyed seeing many of you last week at Homewood.

All of the Handouts from the presentations are available on the Handouts page of this blog. I will gladly send you the Powerpoints, just email me.

Thank you(!) to Ka’ryn and Jim for putting this together and inviting me to present. I’ve heard good things about the other presenters and sessions. Also Thank you(!) to Homewood Library (a great venue for this sort of thing.) Also Thank you(!)  to :

Brooks F. of HPL for helping me set up

Sandra S. of HPL for being amazingly prepared for anything!

And Barbara W. of Central BST for filling me in on LiveMocha- What a great (and Free) resource! BPL has a link available from their databases page.

 

Downloadable Audio with Overdrive

Register for Overdrive’s Open Training Month

September is OverDrive’s Open Training Month! Join the expert trainers at Overdrive
in an educational and fun program designed to increase staff knowledge
and maximize circulation of your OverDrive download library.

The curriculum covers each area of your download service:

Collection Development
User Experience
Patron Support
Promotion
Reports
Learn more and register here:
<http://overdrive.com/products/dlr/training/CourseSignUp.asp> .

 

Congratulations Claudette!

Well, the first Database Challenge was a success!

Claudette C. of BPL- Avondale Branch won the $30 gift card from Applebees!

I look forward doing it again soon and I really appreciate the great response!

 

Free* Dinner for 2!

How would you like to take your sweety (or very best friend) out to dinner for free*?

I thought you might!

Here’s How:

Take my Database Challenge

Click here and look at these 6 screenshots .

Visit www.JCLC.org and access our list of databases under ‘Resources’.

Try to find which database corresponds to each screen image. Notice that I have masked the database names from the screen images- I didn’t want it to be too easy! 

The images come from different areas of the databases, not just the homepage. All I want from you are the names of the databases pictured.

Send me an email with your contact info and the database names labeled A-F.

If you have any questions, let me know!

**Important Information:

This Database Challenge is open to staff of public libraries in Jefferson County, AL. One winner will be selected from from all correct submissions.

All submissions must be sent via email to mdevins[at]bham….(you know the rest). Basically, if your answers are correct I’ll put your name in a basket. After June 20th, I’ll have a coworker draw one name.

This Database Challenge will end JUNE 20th at 5pm.

*By “Free” I mean anything under $30.00. The winner will be presented with an Applebee’s Gift Card valued at $30.00.

Thanks! and Happy Searching!

 

 

Walter J. Hanna

Thanks Lora and Sandra for having me out to visit Walter J. Hanna Library in Fairfield. I hope you, the staff and the local Fairfield school professionals found the presentation on local databases helpful!

 

Free EBSCOhost Training Coming Up

Only a few days left until the free EBSCOhost training. For Jefferson County and other local librarie the training will be held Wednesday, February 6th from 9am – 12pm and again from 1pm to 4 pm.

If you haven’t yet registered or if you can’t make it, the training will be held in Jacksonville State University on February 7th and Calhoun Community College on February 8th.

Contact Jodi for more details. If you don’t know how to contact Jodi, then contact me and I’ll get the information to you.

 

PLD Mini-conference

“Thanks Edith!” for inviting me to present at the PLD Mini-conference in Homewood.

Also, “Thanks!” to all the participants who attended the Database Potpourri session.

I hope you all got something out of it. If you want additional copies of any of the handouts, visit the handouts page of this blog. if you don’t find what you’re looking for send me an email and I’ll get it to you.

 

What toys are safe?

Christmas may be over but many of us (and our patrons) are still trying to make sense of the toy recalls.

Here are some informative resources that I’ve found in my own search for safe toys. If you have any suggestions please let me know.

First things first, since we have this terrific set of databases just begging to be used- I visited the AVL (of course). Using EBSCO’s MasterFILE Premier and Academic Search Premier I found a plethora of helpful articles. My initial search phrase was “toy safety.” EBSCO conveniently list suggestions on the left to aid ma in my search. The variety of results came from Scholastic News, Business Week, USA Today and others.

As it turns out, this was a pretty great place for me to start in order to gain a footing with such a controversial and heated topic.

I also checked out another great resource, the Internet.

The Consumer Product Safety Commision posts recent list of recalls and has product safety news.

There are also civic minded organisations answering the call. Check out these websites:

www.healthytoys.org-A consumer action guide to toxic chemicals in toys. Developed by The Ecology Center based in Ann Arbor, Michigan and the Washington Toxics Coalition.

ToyInfo.org - is provided by the Toy Industry Association, Inc. One of the goals of the site is to answer consumer questions about toy safety and recalls. 

ConsumerReports.Org - provides articles and ratings fro a variety of products.

This list is small and only the beginning. The Internet and databases are amass with differing opinions and concerns regarding toy safety. I hope this helps you with your search.

 

Parlez vous francais? New and Improved

I would be the first to tell you- I was sad to see Rosetta Stone pulled from our online resources. Not only was I really planning to learn Spanish one day (eventually) but also we had this great video on YouTube that everyone just loved!

Fortunately the sting was lessoned a bit when I heard we would find something to replace it.

I had my doubts, but so far the new Tell Me More language learning software from Auralog has impressed me.

If you plan to try this out, let me first tell you that it is NOT Rosetta Stone. And I think Auralog prides themselves on that.

Tell Me More is a little more academic in its style and it has more variety in its excersises. The latter I think will appeal to people of different learning styles. There aren’t as many languages available yet, however Auralog plans to expand their collection.

Setting up a free account is easy. Just click the link on our homepage. Within the library you will be taken directly to the site and can click the link to start an account. From home, you will be asked for your name and library card number first. There is no software to download.

Here are the languages offered: German, English, Dutch, Spanish ( Latin America and Spain), French and Italian.