Mango Languages - Online Language Learning!

Mango Languages provides all of the educational tools essential to learn foreign languages. The increasing importance of foreign language knowledge is more evident today than ever before. And Mango has utilized advanced technologies to make this increasingly necessary process of foreign language learning incredibly fun, simple, effective and accessible.
Mango Languages provides its users with remarkable conversational results after each and every lesson. Whether it's for your community’s students, educators, business personnel, or language lovers, learning a foreign language is now easy, effective, and convenient with Mango.

You can learn Brazilian Portuguese – Spanish – Japanese – French – German – Italian – Greek – Russian - Mandarin Chinese - ESL Polish - ESL Spanish - ESL Brazilian Portuguese.

• Mango Languages will maximize language learning by providing remarkable conversational results after each lesson.


• Mango Languages offers in-library and home access that provides you the luxury of being able to master a foreign language from the comfort of your own home or anywhere convenient to you.


• Mango Languages is fully equipped with English as a Second Language (ESL) courses that teach people how to communicate in English.


• Mango is very simple and user-friendly, bypassing any need for training. Users just login and the program leads them step-by-step through their language lessons.


• Mango is computer-friendly. Since Mango is web-based, it requires no installation, no download, and no technical expertise to make the program available.

You will find Mango Languages on the Dababases & Websites section of the library's Website - hcplc.org.

Auto Repair Reference Center Free Online Training

Did you know that EBSCO Publishing offers online, one-hour training sessions on our Auto Repair Reference Center each month, free to EBSCO customers? Because training reinforces product knowledge and stimulates interest, this training will help you to get the most from our EBSCO databases.
Auto Repair Reference Center training is available at the following times:

Thursday, June 12, 2008 from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m., Eastern Time
Tuesday, July 8, 2008 from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m., Eastern Time
Wednesday, August 20, 2008 from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m., Eastern Time

TO REGISTER, go to:
http://training.ebsco.com/training_request.asp
select the desired class from the "Which service?"drop-down list, and complete the form.

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!

Science Online Adds New Content

Facts On File is pleased to announce that we have just added a significant amount of new content to Science Online.
The new content and features added to Science Online come just in time for anyone prepping for final exams and standardized tests. This update includes new searching and sorting options, new page features, more than 600 visual and video aids, and content from 56 of their print titles.
Users who need to narrow their research will find more options in the Advanced Search page. They may limit their searches by type of entry (essays, biographies, diagrams and illustrations, etc.), as well as locate news articles published between any dates they select. Our Science in the News articles may now be sorted by subject or by date. A featured news article box has also been added to the top of the page. Those writing papers will appreciate the American Psychological Association (APA) style now included in their How to Cite pop-up page. Finally, their editors have added permanent Record URL links to each of the "Explore Subjects" pages.


More Advanced Search Options: Limit searches by entry types and news articles by date range.

Science in the News: Sort by date or by subject, plus locate a featured news article box at the top of the page.

APA Citation Style: Find American Psychological Association (APA) citation style information.
Explore Subjects Record URLs: Link directly to the Explore Subject pages.

New Illustrations, Images, and VideosScience Online's outstanding collection of visual and video learning aids is now even larger. The editors have added more than 600 new images as well as new videos on topics such as cyber safety, security, and ethics. These records are often very colorful and help grab and hold on to the attention of learners. They also convey concepts in a clear manner that allows users with different learning styles to better understand scientific ideas.
Examples of new records include:
Color illustration: Evolution of Mammalian Jaw
Photograph: Kilauea Volcano
Video: Online Identity Thieves.

Many essays have been added on a variety of topics including hurricanes, biomes, biohazards, spaceflight, plant biotechnology, forensic science, physics, and mathematics. It is easy to print, email, and save the essays to a folder using the "Page Tools" available at the top right-hand side of each record. Some essays also include embedded images and tables that help illustrate the content of the text.

New essay records include:
Farms and cities as ecosystems
Recording and storing music and movies
Genetically modified plants.

Military archives free online until May 31

People interested in what their ancestors did in wartime are getting a free look until the end of the month, at a vast collection of military records online.
The National Archives and Ancestry.com have worked out an agreement to speed the transfer of millions more war records to the Web and make an existing collection free for people to see during a Memorial Day commemoration from Tuesday, May 20th through May 31st.
Military records containing information on some 100-million people can be accessed free at ancestry.com/military. After May 31st, a paid subscription will be required to see them.

Special Reports from NewsBank- What are they?

NewsBank sends out a monthly newsletter and the information in them is always timely. They often feature a Special Report section. Below is an example of a Special Report along with an explaination about what these Special Reports tend to cover and address.


The 2008 Summer Olympics and Other New Special Reports

• 
  The 2008 Summer Olympics will take place in Beijing, China August 8th - August 24th.
  Early activities include the final work on the game sites, the torch relay and the athletes' preparation.
  Coverage of these activities and more are now available in NewsBank's newest Special Report.
  Over the next several months follow the events leading up to the opening ceremony in this Report.
  
• trials and qualifying
  
• training
  
• site and security issues
  
• the Olympic committee
  
• profiles of top athletes
  
• country information
• Then after the Olympic torch is lit, visit NewsBank's Special Report on the Olympics each day to keep up with the latest news from Beijing on
  Olympic events and competition
  Athletes
  Award ceremonies
  Other news from and about the Olympics
  Related images, maps, links to related web sites, and suggested search terms to use in your NewsBank products to find out even more about the 2008 Summer Olympics are also included.
  

NewsBank offers a variety of Special Reports as part of your subscription. They offer a way to quickly find the latest information on important topics.
Special Reports include a wide array of globally-oriented topics like health, environment, economics and education. New articles are added daily to provide current coverage of these topics. The background information helps one understand today's issues. Therefore, these Reports are helpful for researchers looking for current events articles or articles on a specific topic. Since many Reports focus on all regions of the world, a variety of global perspectives are available offering researchers the information needed to understand world issues and to draw their own conclusions.
Other New Reports include:
World Travel (now available)
World Issues in Mental Health (coming soon)
Currently featured reports include:
U.S. Presidential Campaign - 2008
Poetry Around the World
Science and Health in the News
World Environment
Places in the News

Many other Reports are also available. All NewsBank Special Report Sites are located on your product menu page or under the Other NewsBank Products link on full text newspaper products.