NoveList and NoveList K-8 User Interface Redesigns

The popular NoveList and NoveList K-8 user interfaces have received new looks. In conjunction with the redesigns, many new features have been added to these trusted readers’ advisory resources.

NoveList:
The new NoveList home page facilitates searches for new titles, and provides instant access to all of NoveList's content rich features. Here is an example of the new home page design for NoveList:

A new, single Find field lets users simultaneously search by author, title, subject, and/or series, for example.
Note the removal of the tabs, which means that all of the content is accessible directly from the new home page. Users can browse Author Read-alikes, Book Discussion Guides, BookTalks and awards lists, etc. without searching under tabs first. Access to hundreds of book lists will be available through the Recommended Reads link.
On the right side of the new home page, there is an expanded, completely revamped Readers' Advisory section.
The Result List has been enhanced to include appropriate books and customized content, sorted by tabs for ease of retrieval. Note that in the example shown here, the Result List from a search for legal thrillers yielded a combined total of 525 book titles, Author Read-alikes, Recommended Reads and Series.

NoveList K-8:
The new look for NoveList K-8 is even more intuitive, and includes all of the great new features in NoveList's new design.
The Working with Kids section from the Browse panel enables teachers, media specialists, childrens' librarians and parents to find quality content linked to curricular topics, organized by grade levels and filled with great ideas for young readers to explore.

You can find NoveList and NoveList K-8 on the Find a Good Book section of the Databases & Websites area of the library;'s Website - hcplc.org.

National Archives Makes Some Passenger Arrival Records Available Online

For the first time, the National Archives and Records Administration has made available online more than 5.2 million records of some passengers who arrived during the last half of the 19th century at the ports of Baltimore, Boston, New Orleans, New York, and Philadelphia. The records were transcribed from original ship manifests into electronic databases by Temple University’s Center for Immigration Research at The Balch Institute. The Center donated the digital records to the National Archives. The records are known as Data Files Relating to the Immigration of Germans to the United States, 1850-1897; Data Files Relating to the Immigration of Italians to the United States, 1855-1900; and Data Files Relating to the Immigration of Russians to the United States, 1834-1897.




There are more than 100 unique “country” codes used in these records. In about 93 percent of them, passengers identified their country of origin or nationality as Germany, Italy, or Russia, or cities or regions of those countries. Passenger records typically include name, age, town of last residence, destination, and codes for the passenger’s sex, occupation, literacy, country of origin, transit and/or travel compartment, and the manifest identification number for the ship. Information on each ship is in a separate file and includes the ship manifest identification number, the name of the ship, the code for its port of departure, and date of arrival. The ship manifest identification number indicates the port of arrival.

Access to these new electronic records is available through the National Archives Access to Archival Databases (AAD) system, a research tool that makes a selection of the National Archives’ most popular electronic records available to the public over the Internet. The AAD system currently includes almost 80 million electronic records from 50 records series in 30 record groups, and four collections of donated historical materials. AAD highlights include records of passengers who arrived at the Port of New York during the Irish Famine, World War II Army enlistment and Prisoners of War, records of Japanese-American internment, and Central Foreign Policy Files from the Department of State.


Reposted from NARA Press Release [February 28, 2008].