New Interface for Literature Resource Center

After extensive research with Librarians and Patrons, GALE has designed and launched a new interface specifically designed for Literature. There are several benefits to the new interface, among them:

A cleaner, more intuitive interface, making it easier for users to get the information they need.
Enhanced indexing which makes relevance ranking even more powerful.
Cross searching – You can now cross search the Literature Resource Center and LitFinder which allows users to find full text content within a single interface.
Citation Generator – Included now is a citation generator which will compile student bibliographies in multiple formats.

There are many additional features in the new interface including audio content from NPR, a translation feature and bookmarking capabilities. I would encourage all staff members to preview the new interface and please do not hesitate to contact me if you should have any questions.

Trial URL: http://access.gale.com/public/go/?key=2735_612058

The new interface will launch on May 1st, so take a look and see the changes before they happen!

Oxford Grove Art Online

Oxford/Grove are delighted to announce the launch of Oxford Art Online and the redesigned Grove Art Online. Grove Art Online was first published in 1998, and this launch represents a long-anticipated upgrade in site functionality and graphic design. With this new release, we have been able to significantly improve the searchability and presentation of Grove art content. We have also added valuable Oxford art reference titles to enable users to search and browse a suite of complementary art reference publications simultaneously. Check out the new page and all it's new features at http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/

Changes at Grove Music Online

Grove is happy to announce that after two years of development, Grove Music Online http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/has now been relaunched as part of Oxford Music Online, a new gateway for online music resources. There is a new structure and now articles are grouped together under one search result (e.g. Mozart or Paris). When you get time take a look at the many editorial and content changes on their new page.

New Titles added to Overdrive

If you are no familiar with the product Overdrive, you might want to take a look. Overdrive is a Digital Media Catalog where you can browse audio books and music and check out and download 24/7 to your PC at home, in the office, or from anywhere in the world! You can also transfer titles to your MP3 player, or burn many onto CD for listening on-the-go. About every 2 months new titles are added to our selection and below is a list of the latest titles added in March. Happy listening!

New Titles:

Amelia Earhart
American Gangster and Other Tales of New York
At the Center of the Storm
Beautiful Boy
Blasphemy
Blood Dreams
Boom!
The Color of Water
Creation in Death
The Darkest Evening of the Year
Dispatches from the Edge
Divorced From the Mob
Elijah of Buxton
Eternity in Death
Fear the Night
Final Seconds
Garlic and Sapphires
Gone
Here’s Johnny!
In Defense of Food
The Killing Hour
Lean Mean Thirteen
Learn In Your Car Italian Complete
Learn In Your Car Spanish Complete
Letters to a Young Artist
The Lost Painting
Magic Tree House Collection Books 1-8
Magic Tree House Collection Books 9-16
Malice Prepense
The Mephisto Club
Monsters of Templeton
My Life in France
The Namesake
The Next Accident
The Night Caller
The Night Spider
Olive's Ocean
The Painted Drum
Plum Lovin'
Plum Lucky
Protect and Defend
Proust Was a Neuroscientist
Savages
The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry
Sizzle and Burn
Speechercise Level 1
The Spiderwick Chronicles, Volume I
Stardust
Strangers in Death
Travel Talk Chinese (Mandarin)
Twinkie, Deconstructed
Wine Appreciation
World without End
Wrongful Death

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].