Online Learning @ ERL

NoveList Plus and NoveList K-8

2008-10-14T16:30:00.009+11:00

Tell Me

NoveList Plus and NoveList K-8 are subscribed to through the Gulliver consortium.

Developed by librarians NoveList Plus is a complete resource for fiction and nonfiction pleasure reading. NoveList Plus offers bibliographic information on more than 200,000 titles, including over 50,000 nonfiction titles selected for their appeal to the general reader. Approximately 20,000 new titles are added each year. In addition to the title records, NoveList Plus offers a rich array of customized feature content such as Author Read-alikes, Book Discussion Guides, BookTalks, and Feature Articles. Hundreds of ready-made, hand-crafted reading lists on popular fiction and nonfiction genres provide additional support for readers looking for their next great read.

NoveList K-8 is the 'junior' version of NoveList Plus aimed at Primary School children with age-appropriate reading suggestions.

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A short tour of NoveList Plus can be found at the following address:

NoveList Plus Tour - 5 minutes to watch

You can find more in-depth information on how to search both databases at the following address:

NoveList Plus Training Centre

Let Me

NoveList Plus and NoveList K-8 are both found on the Online Resources page under " Reading & Libraries" - gop to the following page:

http://www.erl.vic.gov.au/info/ondbase.htm#reading

Test Me

1. What do Ophelia Jensen, Aurora Teagarden and Helma Zukas have in common?

2. What is the title of the 6th book in the Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch series?

3. Sitting at the Information Desk you are approached by a library member who has the following question for you.

"I have just read a review of a romance book about a vampire librarian who is accused of murder but have forgotten the title and author. Can you please tell me what it is called and who wrote it."

Oxford Reference Online - Premium

2008-10-07T15:10:00.018+11:00

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Oxford Reference Online - Premium is subscribed to through ERA ('Electronic Resources Australia').

Oxford Reference Online brings together language and subject reference works from one of the world's biggest reference publishers into a single cross-searchable resource.
The Premium Collection offers over 175 fully-indexed, cross-searchable dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press, including detailed information across a broad subject range from titles in the world-renowned Oxford Companions Series.
ERL also subscribes to the following two collections "Literature" and "Western Civilisation".

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A guided tour of Oxford Reference Online Premium can be found at the following address:

Premium Collection Tour - (10 minutes to read)

If you wish to be amazed check out the complete list of Subjects and Books available in the database here:

Subjects and Books

For a better understanding of how to search on "ORO" (yet another TLA*) go to:

Search Tools

Let Me

Oxford reference Online - Premium is found on the Online Resources page under "Encyclopedias & Dictionaries" - go to the following page:

http://www.erl.vic.gov.au/info/ondbase.htm#encyc

Test Me

1. What is the Irish word for "library"?

2. What does TLA* stand for?

3. Find a definition of the Buddhist term "Samsara".

Biography Resource Center

2008-06-04T15:22:00.013+10:00

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The Biography Resource Center is one of the databases subscribed to by ERL and a number of other Victorian Libraries through the Gulliver consortium.

The Biography Resource Center combines over 440,000 biographies on more than 340,000 people from over 1,000 volumes of more than 135 respected Gale sources such as "Contemporary Authors", "Encyclopedia of World Biography", "Newsmakers", "Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television", "Contemporary Musicians", "Historic World Leaders", "Notable Twentieth-Century Scientists", "Contemporary Black Biography", "International Dictionary of Art and Artists", and "Writers Directory", with full-text articles from more than 325 magazines and newspapers including "American History", "The New York Times", and "USA Today". Yes that's a whole lot of information in that database and not all of it is USA-centric - there are 2213 entries on famous and infamous Australians ranging from AC/DC to Fay Zwicky.

You can perform keyword searches or conduct a search across a variety of "Biographical Facts" such as Nationality, Occupation and Gender.

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A guided tour of the Biography Resource Center can be found at the following address, takes a while to load.

Biography Resource Center Recorded Webcast - (10 minutes)

For more in depth material check out the Biography Resource Center Navigation Guide.

Biography Resource Center Navigation Guide - (15 pages)

Let Me

Biography Resource Center is found on the Online Resources page under "Biographies" - go to the following page to try it for yourself.

http://www.erl.vic.gov.au/info/ondbase.htm#biog

Test Me

1. How many Australian Librarians get a guernsey in the Biography Resource Center?

2. What was Hugh Jackman's nickname at school? (Hint - read through the "Biographical Essay" on Jackman)

3. Which football team does the English author Nick Hornby follow?

Science Resource Center

2008-05-12T14:55:00.007+10:00

Tell Me

Science Resource Center is is one of the databases subscribed to by ERL and a number of other Victorian Libraries through the Gulliver consortium.

The reference content comes from over 50 titles published in book form by Cengage (formerly Thomson Gale), such as the "Gale Encyclopedia of Science" and the "Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine", the "World of Biology/Chemistry/Physics" series and UXL encyclopedias. Other content includes 200 full text magazines, journals and newspapers, 500 weblinks and 8000 multimedia items.

It is ideal for school students - each article is marked with one of three symbols to denote basic, intermediate or advanced levels. They relate roughly to Upper Primary, Secondary, and Upper Secondary/Tertiary levels.

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For a brief guided tour go to the following link.

Science Resource Center Guided Tour - (5 minutes)

For more help with advanced searching check out the search tips.

Science Resource Center Search Tips - (2 pages)

Let Me

The Science Resource Center is found on the Online Resources page of the website under "Science and Technology" go to the following link to explore it for yourself.

http://www.erl.vic.gov.au/info/ondbase.htm#science

Test Me

1. Do a "person" search for a famous scientist. Find an entry with some useful information for a grade 6 assignment.

2. Find some information about the new status of Pluto in the solar system. What is the status and what article did you find it in?

3. Find an article in a magazine about genetic testing. List the article title, author, date and content level.

Britannica Online

2008-03-11T12:18:00.010+11:00

Tell Me

Britannica Online is is one of the databases subscribed to by ERL and a number of other Victorian Libraries through the Gulliver consortium.

Encyclopedia Britannica Online Library Edition, to give it the full title, offers encyclopedias at 3 different levels according to age group. It is possible to search across all 3 levels at the same time or to specify a search at one particular level.

Encyclopedia Britannica is for adults.
Britannica Student is for Upper Primary and Secondary School students.
Britannica Junior is for Primary School students.

Completed searches will not only give you traditional written articles but links to other websites, relevant magazine articles and multimedia such as photographs and videos.

Show Me

The following link will take you to a tutorial provided by Britannica.

Introduction Tutorial - click here (3 pages)

For a more in-depth look at searching and browsing go to the following help pages.

Advanced Tutorial - click here (7 pages)

Let Me

Britannica Online is found on the Online Resources page under "Encyclopedias and Dictionaries" - go to the following page to try it for yourself.

http://www.erl.vic.gov.au/info/ondbase.htm#encyc

Test Me

1. On what date did the Titanic crash into the iceberg?

2. What year did the last "Thilacine" die? Spot the deliberate spelling error. Check out the neat little box next to the Search Box in Britannica entitled " Unsure of the spelling" - click it and see what happens after entering "Thilacine".

3. How long is a Lacrosse field?

QUEST Training

2007-10-04T11:20:00.001+10:00

The QUEST

Hero quest:The central event in the universal hero myth, the heroic monomyth, is the quest, in which a hero—the representative of a culture—seeks some significant goal or boon for his people. Often the voyage involves archetypal stages such as the search for truth or riches or a lost loved one, a struggle with monsters, and the descent to the underworld. So Jason goes in search of the Golden Fleece, Parcifal in search of the Holy Grail, the Buddha in search of enlightenment and the Librarian in search of the perfect answer.
"Hero quest" The Oxford Companion to World mythology. David Leeming. Oxford University Press, 2004. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press.

Or in our case just a useful acronym for the following essential parts of the Reference Interview:
Question - defining the topic.
Use - what is the information for?
Evaluate - what material will meet this need?
Sources - how much information is needed?
Timeframe - how much time do I have to find an answer?

The Power Point presentation for the QUEST training can be found here.
(The link will take you to a site called "ZohoShow" - to see the slides on a full screen click on the little box like widget in the bottom right hand corner underneath the slides. To go forwards or backwards click on the arrows.)

The other websites mentioned in the training and worthwhile checking out are:

CAVAL - www.caval.edu.au - check out the conditions for "Reciprocal Borrowing".
Deakin University DISC memberships for members of the public - found here.
State Library of Victoria online memberships - found here.
Whitehorse Manningham Libraries' website - www.wev.vic.gov.au
"Unshelved" cartoons found surprisingly enough at www.unshelved.com

ANZ Reference Centre

2007-08-09T11:19:00.014+10:00

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The ANZ Reference Centre is one of the databases subscribed to by ERL and a number of other Victorian Libraries through the Gulliver consortium.

To quote the EBSCO blurb the "Australia/NZ Reference Centre combines Australasian magazines, newspapers, newswires and reference books to create the largest collection of regional full text content available to libraries in Oceania. This database includes leading Australia/NZ periodicals and international periodicals in full text; full text reference books; 84,774 full text biographies and an Image Collection of 235,186 photos, maps and flags. "

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The following tutorials have been provided by EBSCO. The first link will take you to an online tutorial on basic searching.

Searching Tutorial - click here (4 minutes)

If you are feeling more adventurous after looking at this tutorial perhaps you may like to remind yourself what "Visual Searching" is all about and how it works. Again the good folk at EBSCO have put together an online tutorial that will help. This one only runs for 2 minutes and 20 seconds so get yourself a cup of tea and shift your mind into training mode.

Visual Search Tutorial - click here (2 minutes 20 seconds)

For those of you who really want to be known as "Power Users" have a look at the tutorial on how to create search and journal alerts.

Search and Alerts Tutorial - click here (4 minutes)

EBSCO have released an upgrade to the look of the database. For more information go to the following demonstration.

EBSCOhost 2.0 user interface

Let me

If you're feeling a bit more enlightened now is the time to go back and play with the database. It can be found on the Online Resources page listed under "Newspapers and Magazines", go to:

http://www.erl.vic.gov.au/info/ondbase.htm#news

Test me

See if you can find information or answers to the following questions:

1. Find a review of "That Memory Book" - who wrote the book and who wrote the review?

2. Recommend 2 articles on the use of Stem Cell Technology to make Insulin. Name the articles and their authors.

3. Find a recipe for Chocolate Mud Cake and Mandarin Ice Cream. Which copy of the Australian Gourmet Traveller did you find it in?