Monthly Archive Index for KSL News Blog
Collaboration Yields...Data
Ohio is a rich state for information resources. Academic consortia (OhioLINK, school consortia (InfoOhio), and public library consortia (OPLIN) collaborate more and more to share resources. New license agreements bring yet another of these titles to Case researchers.
World Data Analyst Online, a resource of Encyclopedia Brittannica, Inc., affords fast comparisons of data for countries and regions around the world. Search current data, historical statistics (up to 90 years of back data), create customized comparisons between coutnries...and create instant charts for the analysis-at-a-glance. Or, choose tables and export the data.
If you like country snapshots, fast number crunching, ranked statistics, take a look at World Data Analyst Online, courtesy of our consortium membership. KSL also has rich research statistics available for you from Government Document collections, ICPSR data, our Center for Statistics and Geospatial Data, and more, including selections from our Research Database list.
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Renew, Renew, Renew...Renew! New Borrowing Policies...
Often, you simply need books longer than the due date (and even the one renewal) allow...whether it's a book on religion, engineering, or one of our Leisure collection books. That's now a thing of the past.
**Beginning with books checked out on June 1 and thereafter, you can renew most books up to 4 more times, thus expanding your reading opportunities. Some exceptions apply (reserve, media, scripts, faculty annual fixed due date loans) but for most books, the extended renewals amount to a semester's worth. (Great for graduate students, and those working on projecjts.) So get that travel guide from our KSL Leisure collection on the main floor, and prepare for and go on your vacation with that resource!
Also simplifying circulation services, you'll no longer have to wonder which book is due in 28 days and which is due in 21 days–now initial loan periods for both Case and OhioLINK books are the same. Insider tip: later in 2005, OhioLINK books will also offer up to 4 renewals, further complementing Case collections...and your research needs.
Enjoy the extra reading time!
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KSL Hosts the CTCNet Annual Conference Reception 6/17
Friday, June 17, KSL hosts technology advocates from around the country, at their annual conference evening reception. CTCNet selected NE Ohio for its efforts at bridging the digital divide through infrastructure and opportunities for all residents, regardless of technology access or skill levels.
Local officials and technology leaders will present remarks to the 300+ conference attendees, and all will have an introduction to the new Samuel B. and Marian K. Freedman Digital Library, Language Learning and Multimedia Center. The Freedman Center has a Grand Opening scheduled for September 8, and more information about it and CTCNet and its collaborative efforts at expanding community access is available from the KSL Homepage News section. Welcome, to CTCNet conference attendees!
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Looking for [Many] Reviewers & Opinions...
The Research Database List, with close to 300 offerings, is undergoing revision to better display useful information for you. Currently testing 2 prototypes, we'd like your opinion on how they look and work for your research needs.
Check out the search and browse options on each, and tell us how you'd like to see the desctiptive line that helps you decipher what to select for your research. View and critique:
Prototype 1 and
Prototype 2
Each option has an email link that tracks which option you're reviewing, so you can tell the staff what you prefer, and why.
New versions should help you make faster, relevant choices...so you can tell what HarpWeek is (a Case librarian helped refine and bring this product to the web), or what CAN DO will do for you, or what Empire Online, Perseus, or Poole's Plus can reveal for your research. Try out these amazing links, and others, by glancing at their one-line descriptions.
The current Research Database list can be found from the EuclidPLUS pulldown menu, or from the KSL homepage main menu bar, under "Research Tools." You'll also find the two prototypes for your reviewing pleasure. We look forward to your reviews!
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Today's Front Pages from Around the World...
Newseum:
Online and at the corner of Sixth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. in Washington D.C. (future site of the new Newseum building), you can visit virtually or peruse the outdoor exhibit to compare todays Page One news coverage from all U.S. states plus a selection of international newspapers.
Newseum staff arrive at the current Arlington, VA headquarters as early as 4:30 a.m. each day to begin downloading and organizing up to 140 front page color submissions, sent to Newseum via the Internet. Sixty eight will be posted on the walls of the construction site, full size and in color, protected from the elements by lexan covers and an overhead canopy (all the better for casual browsing).
A recent weekend trip to the National Gallery took me to the nearby corner, where I stopped to look at the headlines and graphics. At first I noted how many had President Bush on the cover, the new Pentagon photos of caskets, and then saw the kind of news item that is easily missed when on vacation and not reading the paper regularly...the discovery of the previously thought to be extinct ivory-billed woodpecker.
It began appearing in front page after front page, so I began again, at the beginning of the wall. I got a new snapshot of the world for that day--which paper reported it, and in what region/city was it? Did it get a paragraph at the bottom corner, or was it headline news? Did the international papers pick up on it?
South Carolina devoted three-fourths of the front page to the wily woodpecker, understandably, since it was re-discovered in the South. Fargo had a brief mention. The NJ Star Ledger thought it was more important to share the news that a pair of 9/11 terrorists used library computers at the state college to order their airline tickets...and Le Monde and Il Gazzettino (Italy) reported nary a bird.
An amazing richness of news and graphics, the Newseum site offers a fast glimpse of the world and how places view their world (large and small) on a given day. The D.C. site is fascinating, and by the time I finished carefully looking, reading, smiling, commenting, there were at least twenty others who were compelled to stop and read the news from around the world and ponder with me the European editorial cartoon about the new Airbus A380.
Newseum, the Interactive Museum of News is now a daily must for me--rich graphic options lead you in, from rolling over the small graphics at the top of the screen, to the NewsMania Quiz Game, archived pages, the map where you can select a place, or the best feature: Today's Front Pages--433 front pages from 44 countries, in alpha order. They display in thumbnails, four dozen at a time, for fast comparisons. Pause over one, and a larger color image displays on the right. Click, and you have a full pdf file to read.
Take a world tour, every day, and surprise yourself with what front pages can tell you and offer for research. Or quick reading! And stop by that display wall in D.C. next time you're there, for the real thing and the experience of it in the nation's capital.
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