Summer's almost here and I know there are a lot of vacation plans. My favorite part of summer is catching up on all the books I've been denying myself because I've been too busy with other things. I have very specific interests and I already have my books ready to read but if you don't or you want to start reading something and don't know what, try Googling "summer reading lists" or "reading lists". If that doesn't appeal to you, here are some websites that offer recommended reading lists.
O magazine has a list of 25 books for summer reading at their website, http://www.oprah.com/omagazine/Summer-Reading-List-Summer-Books.
UC Berkeley has current and past reading lists at this website, http://reading.berkeley.edu/.
If you're looking for reading lists for your children, About.com has the top 10 summer reading lists at their website, http://childrensbooks.about.com/od/forparents/tp/summer_reading.htm.
Although you may just want to settle down with some old favorites and reread those!
Enjoy your summer and happy reading!
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Google vs. Database
Libraries use the term database a lot! That's because so much of what libraries do involve databases. Databases store information and make it easy to retrieve when we need it.
"So what, Google does the same thing!"
Actually, it doesn't because Google doesn't store information it finds information and if it doesn't have access to that information, it can't find it for you! If you need information, Google is a great place to look for it but it can't always give you the exact data you need. For instance, let's say you read a great article on a newspaper website. You decide you would like to have a copy of that article but can't remember where you read it. So you use Google to find it and it does! Unfortunately, when you go to the website, you have to pay to access that article and can only read a summary of it.
So what do you do? pay? or complain that it should be free if it's on the Internet! I've got a better idea, go to the library website and look for their newspaper databases. Academic libraries usually have 2 or 3 of them and public libraries usually have at least 1. Then take the title and author of that article and search for it in those newspaper databases. Chances are you'll find it full text and usually for free! If you want to print it out at the library, you'll usually have to pay for it but if you send it to yourself through your email, you can print it out at home for FREE!
Databases are wonderful storage places that are easily searched using keywords. What could take you all day on Google to find, may only take you 10 minutes to find in the right database. Now databases aren't perfect, they can't have everything you're looking for but if you know the subject your topic falls under, you can search databases specific to that subject and find a lot of information on your topic. You could also use Google to find information, then take the citations for the articles Google finds for you and plug that information into the database. You'll get those articles or ones that are similar without the hassle of having to pay for them!
It really shouldn't be a question of Google vs. the database but rather, Google collaborating with the database to help you streamline your research and find the information you need so you have time to enjoy your life!
"So what, Google does the same thing!"
Actually, it doesn't because Google doesn't store information it finds information and if it doesn't have access to that information, it can't find it for you! If you need information, Google is a great place to look for it but it can't always give you the exact data you need. For instance, let's say you read a great article on a newspaper website. You decide you would like to have a copy of that article but can't remember where you read it. So you use Google to find it and it does! Unfortunately, when you go to the website, you have to pay to access that article and can only read a summary of it.
So what do you do? pay? or complain that it should be free if it's on the Internet! I've got a better idea, go to the library website and look for their newspaper databases. Academic libraries usually have 2 or 3 of them and public libraries usually have at least 1. Then take the title and author of that article and search for it in those newspaper databases. Chances are you'll find it full text and usually for free! If you want to print it out at the library, you'll usually have to pay for it but if you send it to yourself through your email, you can print it out at home for FREE!
Databases are wonderful storage places that are easily searched using keywords. What could take you all day on Google to find, may only take you 10 minutes to find in the right database. Now databases aren't perfect, they can't have everything you're looking for but if you know the subject your topic falls under, you can search databases specific to that subject and find a lot of information on your topic. You could also use Google to find information, then take the citations for the articles Google finds for you and plug that information into the database. You'll get those articles or ones that are similar without the hassle of having to pay for them!
It really shouldn't be a question of Google vs. the database but rather, Google collaborating with the database to help you streamline your research and find the information you need so you have time to enjoy your life!
Saturday, May 1, 2010
The Need to Weed
I've been doing a lot of weeding at my Library. It is very small and we are bursting at the seams so I'm weeding. There's a real misconception about weeding and libraries. I've known of faculty who complain that we're throwing out perfectly good books but we aren't! We're throwing out books that are absolutely no use to anyone!
When I was the Collection Development Librarian at another job, I instigated a weeding project to rid the library of law books. Our library was small and campus enrollment was growing. As lawyers moved to online databases, they would donate their law libraries to us. Unfortunately, that became a real problem because we had every law book ever published and nobody ever checked them out. They sat on the shelves taking up over a twelfth of all the shelves in the library. We needed that space to support our new programs so we weeded the books. I don't know if any of you have ever looked at a law book but they are boring. They are word for word recordings of cases and what the outcomes were. Anyone who has ever sat on a jury or been involved in a court case knows how tedious the proceedings can be and law books are a record of all of that! What I find really interesting though, is there are people out there who want the law books, not to read but to turn into purses and safes for valuables.
Just so you know that weeding is not something that happens only in academic libraries, here is one a favorite library blog, Awful Library Books. It's all about the need to weed in libraries. Take some time and check out some of those books. I'm sure you'll agree, they needed to go!
When I was the Collection Development Librarian at another job, I instigated a weeding project to rid the library of law books. Our library was small and campus enrollment was growing. As lawyers moved to online databases, they would donate their law libraries to us. Unfortunately, that became a real problem because we had every law book ever published and nobody ever checked them out. They sat on the shelves taking up over a twelfth of all the shelves in the library. We needed that space to support our new programs so we weeded the books. I don't know if any of you have ever looked at a law book but they are boring. They are word for word recordings of cases and what the outcomes were. Anyone who has ever sat on a jury or been involved in a court case knows how tedious the proceedings can be and law books are a record of all of that! What I find really interesting though, is there are people out there who want the law books, not to read but to turn into purses and safes for valuables.
Just so you know that weeding is not something that happens only in academic libraries, here is one a favorite library blog, Awful Library Books. It's all about the need to weed in libraries. Take some time and check out some of those books. I'm sure you'll agree, they needed to go!
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