Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Inside KYVL: News Sources

Wednesday, September 4th, 2013

As summer winds down and everyone heads back to school, or starts to buckle down in the office news takes on a more vibrant role. Sometimes we need regional perspectives, sometimes we need alternative ones. When conducting research it can be important to “scour the earth” and our KYVL Databases have offerings that can deliver just what you need. We highlight the specifics of  news sources provided by Kentucky Virtual Library below.

Alt-Press Watch (ProQuest)

When seeking access to an independent news source you can rely upon ProQuest’s Alt-Press Watch. This database is offers full-text access to alternative and independent press newspapers, magazines and journals.  The ability to research a city’s weekly news publication, and access the alternative perspective on politics, government, policy and culture, ensures that all views can be presented.

The magazine and journals of the alternative and independent press provide in-depth coverage of a broad range of critical issues confronting contemporary society, including ecology and the environment, grassroots organizing, labor, indigenous peoples, public policy, genetics and more. Topics such as hunger, abuse, religion, arts, culture and the environment are also covered by this database.

Getting outside traditional media sources offers a broader perspective and often times more in-depth research into an issue of great relevance. Alt-Press Watch provides that critical view.

Regional Business News (EBSCO)

Regional Business News provides comprehensive full text coverage for regional business publications. Regional Business News incorporates coverage of 75 business journals, newspapers and newswires from all metropolitan and rural areas within the United States. This database is updated on a daily basis.

This resource is extremely useful if you need to track regional news about a corporation located in a specific area.  It can also be used for business development and marketing research. Small business owners, entrepreneurs and those interested in competitive intelligence will find great use for this gem.

TOPICsearch (EBSCO)

This is the source for current events. It allows researchers to explore social, political and economic issues, scientific discoveries and other popular topics discussed in today’s classrooms including controversial options and viewpoints.

Need students to prepare for a debate on current issues? TOPICSearch is a good reference to rely upon.

KYVL Staff, September 4, 2013

KYVL provides all Kentuckians with equitable access to library resources and to a common foundation of quality online information for lifelong learning, working and living.

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Inside Kentucky Virtual Library: MasterFile Premier

Tuesday, July 9th, 2013

If you are looking for popular resources or your research need is broad and general, MasterFile Premier is the KYVL database for you.  It is a comprehensive, general periodical database that provides access to information on a broad range of topics including general interest, business, consumer health, general science and popular titles including History Today, Saturday Evening Post and Consumer Reports.  It also contains full text for reference books, biographies, and primary source documents such as Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, South Dakota Bird Notes and Handbook of the Middle East .

The Image Collection of over 100,000 thousand photos, maps and flags will help enhance and enrich your presentations, as long as proper credit is provided.

This is the resource that every public library user should know about and rely upon for their research needs.

A live, online training session is scheduled for July 23, 2013 at 11:00 a.m. EST. Register here.  Remember too that the KYVL EBSCO tutorials can be quite helpful in refreshing the skills needed to make the best use of this rich resource.

KYVL Staff, July 9, 2013

KYVL provides all Kentuckians with equitable access to library resources and to a common foundation of quality online information for lifelong learning, working and living.

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Inside Kentucky Virtual Library: The Small Business Reference Center

Tuesday, July 2nd, 2013

KYVL currently provides access to over 30 licensed aggregated content databases. KYVL’s licensed database contracts provide Kentucky citizens access to thousands of full text books, magazines, professional journals and other high value content including images, maps, and video. We want to remind you about some of the content that Kentuckians can access virtually.

Let’s begin by talking about one of our favorite business resources.

The Small Business Reference Center is an electronic database provided by EBSCO. This resource offers comprehensive coverage for business owners and those exploring the idea of starting a business.  The database can be explored by categories ranging from Business Area to Start Up Kits and Business Plans.

If you need to know how to start a business in any state, this collection offers state by state access with all you need to know available through a quick series of clicks.

You can browse the collection by Business Areas.  A few are listed here to give you an idea of what you can discover.

  • Business & the Internet
  • Domain Names
  • Internet Income: Using Amazon
  • Marketing – Affiliate Marketing Programs
  • Selling Your Self-Made Product Online
  • Employees
    • E-Policy, Workplace Technology and Best Practices
    • Health Care Reform
    • Performance Appraisals
    • Problem Employees
  • Going Green
    • Eco Labels
    • Environmentally-friendly Business Practices
    • Green Computing
    • Take Back Programs

As you can see from these few highlights, the resources are well defined, easy to find and easy to access.

Training tutorials are available at: http://www.kyvl.org/tutorials.shtm. Remember to save the date, August 14, 2013 at 1:00 pm EST for an live, online training session on this valuable resource. You can see the training schedule and register for your seat here.

KYVL Staff, July 2, 2013

KYVL provides all Kentuckians with equitable access to library resources and to a common foundation of quality online information for lifelong learning, working and living.

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Help us name our search box!

Wednesday, March 6th, 2013

It’s a snow day in here in Frankfort, but we were too excited about our big news to stay home. Our EBSCO Discovery Search has been up since the end of January, in a soft launch mode while we worked out any glitches.  The official release has happened and we’re also pleased to announce our NAME THE SEARCH contest. We are having a contest to give students, kids, parents, librarians, any Kentuckian, the opportunity to dream up the moniker for our new search.  Maybe it’s an acronym, or a nifty play on words, or maybe it’s something short and to the point.  Who knows?

Contest details and the entry form at located at http://www.kyvl.org/NametheSearchContest.shtm.  Entries will be accepted through the end of March.  KYVL will be giving away new devices provided by sponsors, including an iPad2, to highlight mobile access of the new service.  We’ve got an iPad2 from EBSCO.  A Google Nexus 7 from EQUELLA.  And a nifty CODi vertical messenger laptop/tablet bag from Pomeroy.   So far.  We are still collecting prizes so there may be more to come.

Check out the search.   Submit a name.  You could be famous.

(P.S. Don’t forget to get out there and build a snow person before it all melts away.)

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KYVL’s new discovery tool – up and running!

Thursday, January 24th, 2013

KYVL’s pilot of the EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS) is once again up and running.

Please take some time to experience this new tool by searching via the big blue boxes on the KYVL web site. Don’t forget to visit our Training page and sign up for one of our training sessions on EDS.

As always, we welcome your feedback – please submit any questions and/or comments through our Contact form.

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New Discovery Tool – UPDATE 01/22 4:30 PM

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013

We are having technological difficulties with the EDS  that are quite outside of our control. Thanks to all who reported problems.

The issues only affect IP-authenticated sites, so the service should still be available to all members accessing by logging into http://www.kyvl.org. We hope to have it working properly for everyone very shortly.

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KYVL’s new discovery tool and training opportunities

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013

We are pleased to announce that KYVL has just launched our pilot of the EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS) – a new service designed to make searching even easier. EDS allows KYVL to pull together all of our high quality resources and make them accessible through one interface. Our big, blue and easy-to-use search box is now the front end for a sophisticated search system that removes the guesswork in searching. We have created search boxes that are age appropriate and others that are based on areas of interest, allowing even easier access to magazine and journal articles, e-books and newspapers.

All KYVL members will have the opportunity to attend live and online training sessions featuring this exciting tool. Please visit our Training page to register.

We hope you will enjoy using KYVL’s EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS). We welcome your feedback – please submit any questions and/or comments through our Contact form located at: https://kyvl.custhelp.com/app/ask.

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Scheduled Downtime – May 7-8, 2012

Thursday, May 3rd, 2012

The KYVL proxy server will be down for maintenance, beginning at 11 PM Monday, May 7 until 8 AM Tuesday, May 8. This will prevent users from logging in to KYVL from home and accessing the resources through our website.

If you need to access the databases during this time, you may go to the vendor websites directly using the links below. Your KYVL username and password should work at all of these sites.

EBSCO
ProQuest
Grolier

All other KYVL sites and resources should remain available during this time.

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New Website for Ky Dept for Libraries & Archives

Wednesday, March 16th, 2011

Our friends at KDLA [the state library/archives] have announced a new website.  Per our colleague Nancy Houseal, State Library Services, in an email today:

“Have you seen it? KDLA’s new website (http://kdla.ky.gov/Pages/default.aspx) was launched on March 15. It has a fresh look and was designed with you in mind! When entering the new site, look for the Librarians tab at the top left to find all information relative to you.

KDLA’s web address has changed slightly and many of your old bookmarks will no longer link to your favorite KDLA web pages.  Here is a handy list that will help you locate the State Library’s programming materials and resources:

Kit Request Form: http://kdla.ky.gov/librarians/askalibrarian/Pages/KitRequest.aspx

Ask a Librarian: http://kdla.ky.gov/librarians/askalibrarian/Pages/InformationRequest.aspx

Book Discussion Kits (all types): http://kdla.ky.gov/librarians/programs/Pages/BookKits.aspx

Thematic Kits (all types): http://kdla.ky.gov/librarians/programs/Pages/ThematicKits.aspx

Circulating Audiobook Collection: http://kdla.ky.gov/librarians/programs/Pages/CirculatingCollections.aspx

Circulating Large Type Collection: http://kdla.ky.gov/librarians/programs/Pages/CirculatingCollections.aspx

Can’t find what you need on the new website or want to make a comment (good or bad) about the website? Please contact the Reference desk at (800)-928-7000, ext. 342.”

KDLA is a major financial supporter of the KYVL licensed research databases and a very good friend partner in resource sharing and other initiatives.  You can access the services of KDLA as a state employee or as a citizen of Kentucky.  If you are a university, public library patron or other, you have resources available to you as well, including using interlibrary loan to borrow materials at the state library.  We could go on and on regarding what KDLA offers you but see for yourself.

Visit ttp://kdla.ky.gov !

Happy Spring!

Your friendly KYVL Director,
Enid

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Library Media Survey from AASL/KDE Announced

Tuesday, February 15th, 2011

Survey announcement from our friend Kathy at Ky Dept of Education.  Are you a media specialist in K12 in Kentucky?  Please take a minute and put in your two cents for this AASL survey by 18 March.

2011 Library Media Survey

Hello Fellow Librarians!

The Kentucky Department of Education has officially partnered this year with the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) for its annual national data collection project. Kentucky School Media Librarians are invited to participate in AASL’s “School Libraries Count!” survey (www.ala.org/aasl/slcsurvey). This survey is vital to AASL’s national advocacy efforts and our state’s advocacy efforts. School Media Librarians completing the survey will have access to a personalized report to use locally for their own advocacy efforts. Deadline: March 18, 2011. New questions in this year’s survey cover digital citizenship curriculum in school library programs.

A short survey with questions specific to Kentucky School Media Librarians is also available. The KY-specific survey takes approximately 5 minutes to complete, and the data from it will be used with data from the national survey to create a snapshot of our state’s library media programs. Even if you choose not to complete the AASL survey, please take the time to answer the 11 brief questions at the link below. The survey link will be active through March 31. http://www.education.ky.gov/KDE/Instructional+Resources/Library+Media/Kentucky+School+Library+Media+Survey+2011.htm.

Feel free to contact me with any questions. Thank you for participating in this important task!

Kathy
Kathy Mansfield
Library Media / Textbook Consultant
kathy.mansfield@education.ky.gov

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