The Science Behind the News

Have you ever wanted a little more information about a news topic related to science, like What causes Earthquakes?

Then you need the Why Files? Supported by the Graduate School of the University of WI-Madison, the website is for the geneal public with nontechincal language. Yeah!

For you education majors, you will discover that clicking the Teaching Activities (pencil) will articles that include classroom activities.

Expelled: No Intellligence Allowed (documentary)

Have you seen Ben Stein's new documentary about the violation of scientist's intellectual and academic freedom when they question the theory of evolution? In his typical dry style, so famously immortalized in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Stein interviews scientists who have lost their jobs for entertaining the idea of intelligent design...Hear also from evolutionists who try to explain how life began.

Here's the 'Official Website.' You can watch the preview.

PluggedInOnline's review: here.

The New York Times sees it from another side: "Resentment Over Darwin Evolves Into a Documentary."

Use Fandango to find in a theater near you.

Are there REALLY alligators in the sewers of NYC?

Have you heard? You are going to need to register your cell phone in the 'do not call' list or telemarketers are going to eat up your 250 mins/mo really fast.

Have you recieved this or a similar email? All in a panic...you scramble.

But wait, have you been the victim of another circulating urban legend? Does eating carrots improve your vision, click here to find out!

When in doubt, go to Snopes.com the urban legends reference pages.

NEW! Free Business Search Engine

One of the first search engines for business professionals (started in 1996), Northern Lights (http://www.northernlights.com/) is about to launch a new (beta) site (http://www.nlsearch.com/) sometime in April. Northern Lights' CEO says that the new search engine "allows small firms and individual researchers to use tools previously available only to Fortune 50 companies."

Read the Information Today article to learn more: Northern Light Readies New Free Business Search Engine by Paula J. Hane.

Information Trapping (Part 2)

As I discussed in Information Trapping (Part 1), you can keep up with news and blogs by subscribing to pages using RSS and a reader like iGoogle.

Not to be left behind, the EBSCO Research Databases also allow you to subscribe to content through Search Alerts & Journal Alerts. ProQuest has similar alerts (search and publication/journal) through emails.

How does this help me?

If you are doing an extended research project, say for your Senior Project, you will be working on the topic for several months (not weeks, days or hours like typical papers). If you performed a killer search that retrieved really good results, you might want to save that search and run it again later to see if more information was added to the database. Similarly, a journal alert lets you know when new articles for a particular title have been updated in the database.

Setting up a Search Alert.

Once you have performed a search, on the result screen, click on "Create alert for this search" A popup window gives you the syndication feed link which you can then cut and paste into your RSS reader (according to that aggregator's instructions).

Journal Alerts.

For a journal alert (new content added), you need search for the journal title under Publications or click on the title in a citation. In Publications details screen, click on Journal Alert (upper right). You'll need to log in to your EBSCOhost account, then you can select your preferred method of delivery: email or RSS.

Personalize your Library Databases in Blackboard

Are you confused about which databases have information on your topic? Does the list of 60 databases seem overwhelming? Well, we've finally figured out a solution.

Now you can choose the databases you use the most.

Login to Blackboard & click on the Library Tab. Click on the pencil icon on the upper right corner of the Library Resources box to select the Databases by subject/discipline.

The first four sections are books--ebooks, ereference, ejournals & multidisciplinary databases (these databases have information covering many subjects). The other sections to choose from are...

Art & Humanities,
Business,
Education,
History & Social Sciences,
Psychology,
Religion,
Sciences, OR if you liked the old list--
All Databases.

Click on Submit to save changes.

Information Trapping (Part 1)

In this age of information overload, how do you keep up? Do you visit a half-dozen blogs and news sites to gather your daily fix? Wouldn't it be nice to have all that stuff delivered to your front door each morning like the slap of the daily paper on your front step? Try RSS feeds.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds allow you to 'subscribe' to your favorite sites through a reader of your choice. If you have a personal computer, an easy way to keep track is using the Feeds filter -- part the Favorites menu in IE (Internet Explorer) -- so all your favorite blogs are gathered into one list. However, if you normally use a public computer for Internet access, you might want to use a reader attached to your personal online accounts like myYahoo, iGoogle or GoogleReader.

You can also subscribe to this blog. Scroll down to the bottom of this page. You will see... Subscribe to: Posts (Atom) <- click here ...and you are on your way OR you can click on the link to the right.

Electronic Journals Service (EJS)

Under FIND ARTICLES on the library webpage you might have seen a link for Electronic Journals Service. EJS helps the library manage the single passwords to online subscriptions that come with having print subscriptions to certain journals.

Currently, there are 57 journals (from SDCC & SCS) that include an online subscription (usually through the publisher’s website).

You will need to log in to EJS using your Student Network Account. When you select a journal & you click your way to the publisher’s website, the username & password will be on a banner on the top of the screen. Use this to log in to the website and access the full text.

Please note: the 57 journals full text availability is not listed in the e-journals list at this time. There are still some technical issues that we have to resolve.

If you have any questions or need assistance please contact the library 619-441-2200 x1227 or library@sdcc.edu