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].

Free Credit Report? Make Sure You're Getting The Real Thing

If the thought of identity theft scares you like it does me, or you're looking to make a major purchase and you need to check your credit rating, those ads for companies that promise you "free credit reports" may have caught your attention. Truth is, you don't need those guys. You can get a copy of your credit report for free, all by yourself.

The Federal Trade Commission requires the three major credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian (formerly called TRW) and Trans Union to give you a free copy of your credit report once a year. The credit bureaus are not part of the government; they're companies that keep track of your borrowing and debt records so lenders can get an idea of how good a risk you are when you apply for credit or for certain services.

It's really easy to get your free credit report and it's available from only one central place: AnnualCreditReport.com. There are companies that have websites with similar names. And they may offer you a "free" copy of your credit report but you'll have to buy other services from them first to get it. AnnualCreditReport.com is the only official site where you can get a genuinely free copy of your credit report from all three reporting agencies. And if you'd rather order your free credit report by phone or by mail, you can do that too.

You can choose whether you want to get your credit report from just one of the credit bureaus at a time or if you want to get a report that has the information of all three combined. I like to get my reports one at a time, spread out over the course of a year. I stop back at AnnualCreditReport.com every four months for a report—Trans Union in January, Equifax in May and Experian in September, for example. Since all three agencies have very similar information, this allows me to check my credit for free more than just once a year.

When you're on the AnnualCreditReport.com site, you'll be asked some identifying information including your Social Security number. Normally, you wouldn't share that with anybody—especially online—but because this is the official place to get your free credit report, and it's a secure website, it's safe to share the personal information they need to make sure you're you, and to get you the right credit report.

If you've never seen a copy of a credit report or you're not sure how to read one, here's a good sample from Experian. (If you can't see the sample report, you'll need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader onto your computer.)

Re-posted from Gov Gab: Your US Government Blog.

Tutor.Com in the News Again!

In the News
Tutor.com was recently featured in the Cyberfamilias column in the New York Times. Read about how Tutor.com is expanding into individual homes, and revolutionizing the way families handle getting homework done! Go to (http://e2ma.net/go/942391143/831776/30135052/goto:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/fashion/31CYBER.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5124&en=7e55fe77d4377379&ex=1359522000&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink)

to read the article.
Quick Tip
Did you know that Live Homework Help has been Macintosh compatible since April 2007? Live Homework Help can be used by Mac and PC users alike. Tutor.com supports the Safari and Firefox browsers, as well as Internet Explorer. For more
information see our technical requirements (http://e2ma.net/go/942391143/831776/30135051/goto:http://extranet.tutor.com/clients/techrequirements.aspx).



Tina R.
Reference Coordinator

Down Under: Florida

If you are into Genealogy and live in the Tampa Bay area this video may be of interest to you. It is set in the Oaklawn Cemetery of Tampa Florida. There are also inside shot of the History and Genealogy Department of the John F. Germany Library.

POTUS and New World Book Interface

In case you have not had time to look over the Databases and Websites page lately I wanted to point out two helpful tools. POTUS http://www.ipl.org/div/potus/ free website for Presidents of the United States has been add to several pages. You can find it under the free links on the Education, Biography, and History pages. Hope this helps with your kids when doing reports. Also we recently added a new additional interface in the World Book Online Reference Module. It is the World Book Advanced interface . When you get to the main page you will then select Advanced interface in the right corner.

This is a great addition for your older students going up through the first two years of college. It give you primary and secondary source content in one interface and also allows you to build your own bibliography right off the page. Check it out I think you will be impressed.

Tina
Reference Coordinator