Surname Frequency in the US Census

The New York Times online has done an article about the recent US Census Bureau's analysis of surnames in America. You can visit the article and search a database of the 5000 most common last names.

"The number of Hispanics living in the United States grew by 58 percent in the 1990s to nearly 13 percent of the total population, and cracking the list of top 10 names suggests just how pervasively the Latino migration has permeated everyday American culture.
Garcia moved to No. 8 in 2000, up from No. 18, and Rodriguez jumped to No. 9 from 22nd place. The number of Hispanic surnames among the top 25 doubled, to 6.
Compiling the rankings is a cumbersome task, in part because of confidentiality and accuracy issues, according to the Census Bureau, and it is only the second time it has prepared such a list. While the historical record is sketchy, several demographers said it was probably the first time that any non-Anglo name was among the 10 most common in the nation. "

Where are you on the list?

Google News Archives - Historical Newspapers

Google has launched additional services with their Google News site – indexing and archiving of many of America’s newspapers – full-text, keyword searchable and …full-page digital images.

This initiative makes more old newspapers accessible and searchable online by partnering with newspaper publishers to digitize millions of pages of news archives. Let's say you want to learn more about the first years of the Gandy Bridge. Try a search for [gandy bridge] on Google News Archive Search, and you'll be able to find and read an original article from 1924 through the late 1980s in a digital edition of the St. Petersburg Times. Nationally, the newspaper archives goes back more than 200 years into America’s past.

This will be a great resource for student – and anyone else – doing historical research through some of America’s best known newspapers.

Give it a try:
(1) go to Google
(2) select News from the options at the top left of the page
(3) select the “News archive search” option
You can search nationally or choose the advanced search feature to limit to a specific newspaper. The St. Petersburg Times is the only local paper currently included.

First Day of Hurricane Season- June 1st

Today is the first day of Hurricane season. There are many sites and databases that can help you and your customers with information as well as research for hurricanes, both past and present. Do you have a student who needs hurricane and weather information. Steer them towards Facts on File Science Online. http://www.fofweb.com/Science/default.asp?ItemID=WE40 The Weather and Climate page on Science Online has links to many kinds of natural disasters, including hurricanes. Do you need to know the predictions for the 2008 hurricane season, or what hurricane names have been retired? Go to the NOAA free site http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/
for this information as well as radar readings, tracking maps, and how to prepare for a hurricane. The Weather Channel http://www.weather.com/ will provide you with local as well as national updates. So keep all these sites in mind when helping your customers over the next several months. Let's keep our fingers crossed that it is a quiet season!

NewsBank Enhancements

There have been a few design enhancements to the Newsbank family of databases: America's Newspapers, Access World News and America's Genealogy Bank.

Through a streamlined design and robust new search capabilities, users can easily:
• compare and contrast different perspectives by state, region, country or continent
• refine searches for more relevant returns
• sort by name, date range, location and source type
• limit searches by article word count to filter out news briefs and minor articles

Users receive finely targeted results through unique search navigators that:
• refine results and pinpoint articles by title, date, source type and geographic location
• display topic and events results over time
• uncover differing viewpoints and differences in the way news is presented
• show search terms in context to help users identify the most relevant articles

Other enhancements include:
• an intuitive map that helps users pinpoint searches by location
• an improved toolbox that makes it easy to print, email or cite articles
• context-sensitive help throughout
• flexible tools for exporting citations to programs such as RefWorks, EndNote and ProCite

View a brief online demo of the changes.

Personalized News Delivered to You Daily!

You can create a Power Search Alert to get regular email notices or RSS delivery of recently published articles.

This is a great time saver if you want current news and research delivered directly to you.


Search Alerts
From your search results list or from the Issues page you can request notification when new content is added to the database that matches your search criteria. You may choose to have the system check for new content on a daily, weekly or monthly basis and sent you an e-mail message in html format when updates are found. Or you may subscribe to an RSS feed provided by Gale and have content delivered directly to you.

Requesting an E-mail Search Alert

Here's how to set up an e-mail alert:
1. Perform a search using any of the search types to search for the information for which you want to receive alerts; you may use any type of search criteria, including search limiters
2. On the results list, click the Create a Search Alert link
3. To receive alert e-mails, enter your e-mail address in the Mail to field (only one e-mail address allowed)
4. Use the default Alert Name or enter your own text
5. Select the Frequency in which you want the system to check for new content based on your search criteria: Daily, Weekly or Monthly
6. Click the Save button to submit your request

You will be sent an e-mail message to confirm that your request has been received. Then the system will check for new content based on the frequency you selected. The alert e-mail will contain individual links up to the first 20 new content items plus a link to the full results set.
All e-mails you receive will contain a link allowing you to opt out of the alert so that you no longer receive future alerts.

Subscribing to an RSS Search Alert Feed

Here's how to subscribe to the Gale RSS feed alerting you of new content in this database:
1. Perform a search using any of the search types to search for the information for which you want to receive alerts; you may use any type of search criteria, including search limiters
2. On the results list, click the Create a Search Alert link
3. To subscribe to the RSS feed, copy the Feed URL and paste it into the software you use as your RSS reader or news aggregator
4. Click the Close when you have finished.

Now that's a PowerSearch!

You can find the PowerSearch option at the top of every section of the Library's Databases & Websites.
Click here for more information about using RSS (courtesy of CommonCraft).

Newsbank Hot Topics for November

Looking for a research topic for school...
Just want to keep up with current events...

Newsbank has provided the following hot news topics for November, 2007. These topics can be searched by visiting the America's Newspapers or Access World News databases.

Here's a few sample topics (you can get the full list below):

HEALTH - Superbug MRSA
TOPIC: A superbug found in over 1600 Australian hospital beds and causing scores of deaths as well as showing up heavily in the US is identified as Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). What is the major obstacle to patient recovery presented by superbugs? How do staph infections transmit?
SEARCH TERMS: staphylococcal infections

ENVIRONMENT - California Wildfires
TOPIC: A rash of terrible wildfires have caused about a half of million people to flee their homes in southern California. What have been some of the obstacles faced by firefighters when trying to contain and extinguish these fires? What are some of the causes of the fires?
SEARCH TERMS: California AND fires

Civics, Government and Politics - Primary and Caucus Schedules
TOPIC: The Democratic Iowa caucus has been rescheduled to January 3, 2008. This change aligns to what other political schedule? What are some of the overall changes in this primary season for schedules of presidential primaries and caucuses?
SEARCH TERMS: caucuses OR primaries AND presidential election AND 2008

ENVIRONMENT - Georgia Drought
TOPIC: A severe drought is limiting the water supply in Georgia, especially in the metro Atlanta area. What has been an environmental concern that has prevented Atlanta from some water that could ease its drought? What are some other contributing factors to the drought?
SEARCH TERMS: Georgia AND drought

SPORTS - Joe Torre
TOPIC: Manager of the New York Yankees, Joe Torre, has resigned his position after rejecting a controversial offer. What were the specifics in the contract that Torre found objectionable? What are the outstanding contributions made by Torre to baseball that will constitute his legacy? Will he be part of baseball next season?
SEARCH TERMS: Joe Torre

Want to see more? Get the full list of Hot Topics (PDF format).

NewsBank Hot Topics, April 2007

If you are interested in Intenational Relations, check out this month's Hot Topics search hints from NewsBank. Find news articles from around the US and around the world for environmental, health, education, crime and politics.

Hot Topics makes a great starting point for your reseach into our contemporary world. NewsBank is the provider of the Access World News and America's Newspapers databases. These can be found with the library's Databases & Websites under "Magazines & Newspapers".