USF Polytechnic Library

For fun and a good cause:
First Book is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books. They partenered with cereal-brand Cheerios and actor/author John Lithgow in a book donation challenge. Cheerios will be distributing 100,000 children’s books by John Lithgow to programs serving children in need across the country.

Visitors can “help decide where the books will be donated by answering trivia questions […] from now through Sunday, June 15, 2008. Every correct answer counts as one vote […] Cheerios will donate 20,000 children’s books to programs in each of the 5 states that receive the most votes. Cheerios’ nonprofit partner First Book will be identifying programs that will receive the books in each state where the books will be donated.”

As of today, Florida is in the 13th position.

John Lithgow has written 7 children’s books, including Marsupial Sue, Micawber, I’m a Manatee and The Remarkable Farkle McBride.

Gale is currently experiencing intermittent problems with their online databases. They are working on it as we speak. The USF Libraries have access to several Gale databases, including Academic ASAP, Business & Company Resource Center, General One File and a multitude of online reference encyclopedias and dictionaries.

The USF Libraries have acquired the multidisciplinary database SourceOECD.

SourceOECD is an online library of statistical databases, books, and periodicals from OECD, the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development. The OECD, a membership of 30 countries, is one of the world’s largest publishers in the fields of economics and public policy. SourceOECD is comprised of over 1,800 online books with unrestricted access grouped in 24 themes, 24 periodicals, 3 reference titles, and 26 OECD statistical databases, all in full text. Themed groupings include: Education, Energy, Emerging Economies, Environment & Sustainable Development, Finance and Investment, Science, Social Issues, Urban and Regional Development, Transportation and more. Twenty-six statistical databases from the OECD are presented enabling users to download data and build their own tables, in real time. Users can also build cross-database tables. OECD has recently launched OECD.Stat that allows searches across the various OECD databases. It is now in a beta test until September 2008. The USF Libraries hold a subscription to all OECD online publications with the exception of the third-party IEA Statistics.

To access it, search MetaLib by using the “Search the Databases” link on the library’s main page.

The APA just released new rules about the citation of electronic documents with Digital Object Identifier (DOI) numbers. You can find details on the APA website at http://www.apastyle.org/elecmedia.html as well as on the University of Maryland University College Library’s website at http://www.umuc.edu/library/guides/apa.shtml#DOI.

But, students, before you apply these new rules, check with your instructor first.

The data from the 2006 Journal Citation Reports is now available in the ISI Web of Knowledge database. This data gives information on how many times a journal was cited, how many it has cited other journals and it’s impact factor, among others.

This kind of information is interesting when you are choosing a journal to submit an article, or when you are collecting additional information for a tenure and/or promotion dossier.

You can access the Journal Citation Reports in the Web of Knowledge database. Go to MetaLib, search the database by name and click on the resulting link. In the database itself, at the very top, you will see a drop-down menu. You will see the option for the Reports. If you are from off campus, don’t forget to log into the network first.

In recognition of Black History Month, publisher Thomson Gale has launched a free Web site comprised of historical facts and figures, biographies, relevant Web links and lesson plans. This site is designed to help students, teachers and families celebrate the month. Access to lesson plans, biographies and quizzes are available. A list of titles that will help students gain a deeper appreciation for African-American heritage also is available, as is a timeline that takes visitors through nearly 400 years of black history.

http://www.gale.com/free_resources/bhm/

I found the following webpage that lists the differences between the PubMed and MEDLINE databases:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/dif_med_pub.html .

MEDLINE is a component of PubMed and both deal with the life sciences. PubMed is free and while it may be easier to use, MEDLINE will be more specialized and will link to more full-text. Both databases are still very useful to know. The USF Libraries gives you access to MEDLINE via different platforms; the OVID platform contains a subject headings map (a list of predetermined descriptors) - the MeSH - to help you formulate your queries. It is also available in PubMed. A common strategy is to use PubMed to draft a search query you will then use in MEDLINE.

The data from the 2005 Journal Citation Reports is now available in the ISI Web of Knowledge database. This data gives information on how many times a journal was cited, how many it has cited other journals and it’s impact factor, among others.

This kind of information is interesting when you are choosing a journal to submit an article, or when you are collecting additional information for a tenure and/or promotion dossier.

The National Council on Teacher Quality made a report public today entitled “What Education Schools Aren’t Teaching About Reading–and What Elementary Teachers Aren’t Learning”.

NCTQ studied a large representative sampling of ed schools to find out what future elementary teachers are–and are not–learning about reading instruction. The report, the most comprehensive of its kind, determined that education schools are ignoring the principles of good reading instruction that would prepare prospective teachers how to better teach reading.

You can either access the Executive Summary or the full text.

May 14 to 20 is national Reading is Fun Week in the US. Growing a love for reading is especially important for kids; check the Reading is Fundamental website for some ideas to enliven the week. And take advantage of our growing Children’s Books collection in the PCC/USF Library (last shelves along the back wall).