Thursday, November 19, 2009

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Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Database Trials at the Library


The LMC has arranged for us to try out several new English databases and would like your input. We will have access to these databases from January 10 to February 10. The trial databases include:

For teachers and students researching in education:
ERIC ERIC®, the Educational Resource Information Center, provides access to education literature and resources. The database provides access to information from journals included in the Current Index of Journals in Education and Resources in Education Index. The database contains more than 1,243,000 records and links to more than 224,000 full-text documents from ERIC.
Education Research Complete
Education Research Complete is the definitive online resource for education research. This massive file offers the world's largest and most complete collection of full text education journals. It is a bibliographic and full text database covering scholarly research and information relating to all areas of education. Topics covered include all levels of education from early childhood to higher education, and all educational specialties, such as multilingual education, health education, and testing. Education Research Complete also covers areas of curriculum instruction as well as administration, policy, funding, and related social issues. The database provides indexing and abstracts for more than 1,870 journals, as well as full text for more than 1,060 journals. This database also includes full text for 133 books and monographs, and full text for numerous education-related conference papers
Professional Development Collection
Designed for professional educators, this database provides a highly specialized collection of nearly 520 high quality education journals, including more than 350 peer-reviewed titles. This database also contains more than 200 educational reports. Professional Development Collection is the most comprehensive collection of full text education journals in the world.
For researching general topics:
Academic Search Elite
Academic institutions worldwide depend on this database as their core resource of scholarly information. Academic Search™ Elite contains full text for more than 2,000 journals. More than 140 journals have PDF images dating back to 1985.
The database includes PDF images for the great majority of journals; many of these PDFs are native (searchable) or scanned-in-color.
MAS Ultra – School Edition
This comprehensive database, designed specifically for high school libraries, contains full text for more than 500 popular, high school magazines including America's Civil War, American Heritage, American History, Archaeology, Astronomy, Bioscience, Careers & Colleges, Civil War Times, Congressional Digest, Discover, Economist, History Today, Nation, National Review, New Republic, New Scientist, Popular Science, Science News, Scientific American, Smithsonian, World War II, etc. All full text articles are assigned a reading level indicator (Lexiles). Full text is also available for 85,670 biographies and 105,786 primary source documents. Additionally, MAS Ultra -- School Edition contains more than 360 reference books (including the Columbia Encyclopedia, the CIA World Fact Book and World Almanac & Book of Facts), an Image Collection of 341,655 photos, maps & flags, color PDFs and expanded full text backfiles (back to 1975) for key magazines.


Newspaper Source
Newspaper Source provides cover-to-cover full text for 35 national & international newspapers. The database also contains selective full text for 375 regional (U.S.) newspapers. In addition, full text television & radio news transcripts are also provided.
TOPICsearch
TOPICsearch contains full text for over 105,000 articles from 1,622 diverse sources including international and regional newspapers, EBSCO's unparalleled collection of periodicals, biographies, public opinion polls, book reviews, pamphlets, and government information.
For researching history topics:
History Reference Center
History Reference Center® is the world's most comprehensive full text history reference database designed for secondary schools, public libraries, junior/community colleges, and undergraduate research. The database features full text for more than 2,400 reference books, encyclopedias and non-fiction books from leading history publishers, such as: Branden Publishing, Compass Point Books, Houghton Mifflin, Lerner Publishing Group, Mason Crest Publishers, Morgan Reynolds Inc., Oliver Press, Oxford University Press, Rourke Publishing LLC., Salem Press, Stackpole Books, Toucan Valley Publications, and more. The database also includes full text for 135 leading history periodicals including America's Civil War, American Heritage, American Historical Review, American History, Archaeology, Aviation History, Beaver, British Heritage, Chinese America: History & Perspectives, Civil War Times, Foreign Affairs, German History, History, History Review, History Today (back to January 1975), History: Review of New Books, Kansas History, Journal of American History, Manitoba History, Military History, Naval History, North Carolina Historical Review, Virginia Magazine of History & Biography, Wild West, World War II and more. Further, the database contains more than 61,100 historical documents; more than 57,000 biographies of historical figures; more than 110,200 historical photos and maps; and more than 80 hours of historical video.
World History Collection
World History Collection™ offers a global look at history with content from Africa, Asia, North and South America, Europe and the Middle East. World History Collection contains cover-to-cover full text for 150 titles, including many peer-reviewed journals. Full text dates as far back as 1964. These hand-selected information sources cover a wide range of historical topics including anthropology, art, culture, economics, government, heritage, military, politics, regional issues, and more. In addition to the full text, indexing and abstracts are provided for all journals in the collection. Examples of titles offered include: American Historical Review, American Heritage, American Art, American Scholar, Canadian Historical Review, Civil War History, European Review of History, Foreign Affairs, German History, Historian, History & Theory, History Today, Journal of American History, Journal of Military History, Journal of Modern History, Journal of Pacific History, Political Science Quarterly, Wilson Quarterly, etc. The majority of full text titles are available in native (searchable) PDF, or scanned-in-color. Searchable cited references are also included in this database.
For researching science topics:
Science Reference Center
Science Reference Center is a comprehensive research database that provides easy access to a multitude of full text science-oriented content. This database contains full text for nearly 640 science encyclopedias, reference books, periodicals, etc. Topics covered include: biology, chemistry, earth & space science, environmental science, health & medicine, history of science, life science, physics, science & society, science as inquiry, scientists, technology and wildlife.
Health Source – Consumer Edition
This database is the richest collection of consumer health information available to libraries worldwide, providing information on many health topics including the medical sciences, food sciences and nutrition, childcare, sports medicine and general health. Health Source: Consumer Edition provides access to nearly 80 full text, consumer health magazines.


For researching literature topics:
Literary Reference Center
Literary Reference Center™ is a comprehensive database that provides users with a broad spectrum of information on thousands of authors and their works across literary disciplines and timeframes. It has been specifically designed for public libraries, secondary schools, junior/community colleges, and undergraduate research. Literary Reference Center is a full text database that combines information from major respected reference works, books, literary journals as well as original content from EBSCO Publishing. Literary Reference Center contains full text for 31,098 plot summaries, synopses and work overviews, nearly 100,000 articles/essays of literary criticism, nearly 140,000 author biographies (including 20,000 in-depth bios), more than 430 literary journals, more than 605,000 book reviews, more than 60,000 classic and contemporary poems, more than 15,000 classic and contemporary short stories, more than 5,200 author interviews, more than 7,100 classic texts and much more. In addition, Literary Reference Center also includes Merriam Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature, Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature, Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature, Continuum Encyclopedia of Children's Literature, The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, Beacham's Research Guide to Biography and Criticism (six volumes), The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature, The Literary Encyclopedia, The Columbia Companion to the 20th Century American Short Story, all of MagillOnLiterature Plus™, and much more.
Book Collection – Nonfiction
Book Collection: Nonfiction is a rich research database for school and public libraries. It contains informative abstracts and searchable full text for more than 4,048 popular nonfiction books. The database includes full text entries on core subject areas, as well as information on careers, health, sports, adventure, technology, life skills and more.
For researching business topics and issues in French:
Vente et Gestion
Vente et Gestion provides full text coverage for French language business journals serving both the academic and the professional researcher. This collection also includes publications covering topics such as accounting & tax, administration, industry & manufacturing, marketing, logistics, technology and others.

From January 19 to February 19 we will also have trial access to:
Global Issues in Context

To access these trial databases, go into IC Libraries on the school webpage. Locate the trial databases link on the left side of the page under References and click on EBSCO Host. The user name and password are provided for you on the page.

We are very interested in your feedback. The LMC is planning to subscribe to some of these databases and would like to know which ones are most useful to you and your students. Try them out, then
please contact the LMC and let us know.

Contact: Connie Hadba – chadba@ic.edu.lb
Rola Sakr – rsakr@ic.edu.lb
Milad Makhoul – mmakhoul@ic.edu.lb

Happy Researching!