Gale Literature Criticism Online (LCO) and Literature Resource Center (LRC) available at WPL

Remote access to a suite of literature databases from Gale is now available to Worcester Library card holders. The new databases include:

Literature Criticism Online (LCO) is the platform that hosts 10 Gale’s comprehensive literary criticism series. Worcester Public Library has purchased the complete

• Contemporary Literary Criticism (CLC),
• Short Story Criticism (SSC),
• Something about the Author (SATA),
• Children's Literature Review (CLR).

All those literary series can be cross searched and access remotely.

Literature Resource Center (LRC) is a subscription database that offers literary criticisms, articles, work overviews, and author biographies. Rich in biographical, bibliographical, and critical content. Excellent resource for information on literary figures from all time periods and writings in such genres as fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, history, journalism, and more. It delivers most of the content from Dictionary of Literary Biography, most of the content from Contemporary Authors & New Revision, and roughly 60% of CLC, TCLC, NCLC from 1998 forward.

To access:
Go to http://www.worcpublib.org/
Click on Online Databases in the left column
Then select Literature
Or
Access from this blog
Look under WPL Remote Databases in the right column of this blog

If you have any questions, feel free to contact Ping at pschen@cwmars.org

A not so obvious source...

The other day I was thinking about Abraham Lincoln as it was the 200th anniversary of his birth. My mind wandered to the fact that it is also Black History Month and that Abraham Lincoln could be considered a significant figure in American black history. So, I decided to run a search on him in the Facts on File African-American History Online database. There were over 200 results – some more relevant than others. One of the primary sources that I found particularly interesting was the "Correspondence between Abraham Lincoln and the Workingmen of Manchester, England." According to the entry, this is a:
Letter addressed by workers of Manchester, England, to President Abraham Lincoln, praising his Emancipation Proclamation. English working classes, which were opposed to slavery as a blot on free labor and civilization, sympathized with the Union in America's Civil War, thereby forming a counterweight in British politics to upper- and commercial-class sympathy for the Confederacy.
His response to them is included and both are intriguing, almost as much for the style of writing as for the content.
After this success, I tried Robert Kennedy as my next search with over 100 results. The results included such things as the text of his announcement after Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated as well as video clips of that time.
Finally, to use the database in a more traditional way I tried Magic Johnson (someone had been in for a biography of him last week) and of course, Barack Obama. Both searches supplied plenty of information for a child writing a report demonstrating this database might be just the thing when your library no longer has anything on a not-so-current athlete, or everything on a big name is checked out.

Mergent Online

Mergent Online is a subscription database providing financial information on 10,000 U.S. and 20,000 non-U.S. public companies. Many libraries are not familiar with this sophisticated and pricey service. Small libraries are more likely to subscribe to Value Line Investment Survey which compiles single page reports on some 1,700 publicly traded companies. Value Line has a unique system of ranking stocks by summarizing the facts about a company (background on what the company does, past profitability, market-related measures, risk- and volatility-related measures, and projections). Research is all important when buying any stock and Value Line has some great advantages as a starting point.

While Mergent Online does not rank stocks it does go well beyond Value Line by providing key financial information for those working in the investment management field as well as the academic and corporate information fields. Coverage includes history, mergers, acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures, property, long-term debt, bond ratings, capital stock, balance sheets, income statements, cash flow, annual reports, insider trading, ratios and more.

With Mergent Online you can create any number of reports. For instance, you can choose a company (or more than one) and compare that company against the industry as a whole or you could create a competitors report.

Also, if your library has traditionally subscribed to Europa World Yearbook you will appreciate even more the information on foreign countries (and the U.S.) provided by Mergent Online. Each country profile offers detailed organized information and statistics on that country's history, geography, people, government, economy, stock exchange and corporate filing practices.

The Worcester Public Library provides remote access to patrons with a Worcester Public Library card.

Reference USA

For a number of years the Worcester Public Library has subscribed to the residential and business databases published by Reference USA. These databases are so heavily used that we decided to provide remote access for our patrons. If your patrons would like to use these two databases from home, and they reside in Massachusetts, they can come to the Worcester Public Library and get a free library card from us.

The folks at Ref USA have compiled information on 14 million United States businesses. As a result, Ref USA is one the most comprehensive business databases being published. However, one of the drawbacks to all business databases, and this includes Ref USA, is that small private businesses generally fall through the cracks. A typical Ref USA business record includes address information, corporate information (including headquarters and all branch locations), annual sales, and credit rating score. You will be told if the company is private or public. If the company is public you also have access to SEC filings, stock exchange information, and annual reports.

Another great advantage to using Ref USA is that the database provides information on home based businesses. While the business database is certainly used to find information on a single company this is not primarily how it is used. Many of our Worcester patrons use the business database to compile lists of like companies within a geographic area for job searching or to market their own product or service. Many entrepreneurs use the database to show venture capital firms who their competition is or isn't!

The residential database holds information on 102 million United States residents. New listings are picked up by Ref USA eight to twelve weeks after they are listed in the telephone white pages. Also, Ref USA consults the national change of address database every month. So, if someone moves after they are listed in the telephone white pages, Ref USA will publish this information within a month. On the minus side, people who have unlisted phone numbers will not show up in the database at all. The residential database can also be consulted for United States census data to determine median household income, median home value, and percentage of owner occupied housing. There are many free online telephone directories out there but Ref USA is clearly the winner.

Novelist Plus is now Offered by WPL

The Worcester Public Library now offers remote access to Novelist Plus – a complete readers’ advisory solution. Novelist Plus is available to anyone with a valid Worcester Public Library card.

Special features:
• Information on more than 200,000 titles, including over 50,000 nonfiction
• Approximately 20,000 new titles added yearly
• Author Read-alikes, Book Discussion Guides and BookTalks
• Hundreds of reading lists covering all genres and reading levels and over 300 award lists
• Continued coverage of series information with thousands of adult and juvenile, fiction and nonfiction series, all in reading order
• Librarians and patrons can create and annotate their own lists using “My Folders and Alerts”

To access:
Go to http://www.worcpublib.org/
Click on Online Databases
Then select Reading Suggestions
Or
Access from this blog
Click on Novelist Plus under WPL Remote Databases in the right column of this blog

If you have any questions, feel free to contact Ping at pschen@cwmars.org

Learning Languages Online

The Worcester Public Library staff, along with the staff of the Literacy Volunteers of Greater Worcester, are considering two online world language programs to offer to patrons interested in learning or improving a second language whether it be a foreign language or English.

I spent a little time trying both Mango and Tell Me More through our trial subcriptions and my thoughts are below.

Regarding Mango:
· The ESL programs are designed for learners with a specific native language – there is no general ESL.
· The grammatical explanations appear to be inserted irregularly and are quite technical.
· Both the German and Spanish language programs (the two world languages I tried as I have some knowledge of both) introduced the informal “you” in the second lesson, in the context of first meetings. They did identify this as Informal/Friendly Conversation, but my understanding is that there is no such thing as an informal conversation in German and Spanish speaking countries when you are merely acquainted unless you are talking to a child or an animal. This seems to be a true flaw. It may be interesting to note that in the Spanish-to -English lesson, formal address was maintained in the Friendly Conversation.
· The slides seemed slow to load.
· The optional repetition and color-coded breakdown of phrases is useful.

Regarding Tell Me More:
· Much more content, and greater depth unless Mango only allowed access to partial
content.
· More interactive with greater variety of learning activities.
· Multiple language choices for the portal.
· General ESL.

If I was interested in learning or practicing another language, I would choose Tell Me More. Who is our audience? What role do we want this program to fill?

Are you familiar with Tell Me More or Mango? If you are interested, go to their websites and learn a little more about these products: www.tellmemore.com and www.mangolanguages.com. Please feel free to share your thoughts about these products. We would be especially interested to hear from any libraries that have offered this service to their patrons.

RefUSA--Phone & Business Directories available remotely

The Worcester Public Library now offers remote access to RefUSA --Phone and Business Directories. RefUSA databases are available to anyone with a valid Worcester Public Library card.

The offer includes both U.S. Business and U.S. Residential databases.

U.S. Business contains14 million U.S. Businesses which are verified, accurate data and updated monthly. U.S. Residential includes 135 Million U.S. Households. Those records are continuously updated and processed against the USPS National Change of Address (NCOA) and Delivery Sequence File (DSF).

To access:

Go to http://www.worcpublib.org/
Click on Online Databases
Then select Business & Finance
If you have any questions, feel free to contact Ping at pschen@cwmars.org

Downloadable Pimsleur Language Series Available at WPL

Worcester Public Library is excited to offer Netlibrary downloadable eAudiobooks to our patrons.

Netlibrary eAudiobooks include:
-Pimsleur Language Series Collection: (39 languages) Easy-to-understand lessons for beginners, intermediate level language learners including ESL students.
-eAudiobooks Core Collection: the latest audio best-sellers, book club favorites, award-winning authors, timeless classic and more.
- eAudiobooks Essentials Collection: Classic fiction with titles from Dickens, Joyce, Melville, Dostoyevsky and many more.
- Holy Bible Collection in 30 parts

The eAudiobooks can be played on a wide range of desktop, laptop and portable devices. The collection is available to anyone with a Worcester Public Library card.

For more information, go to http://www.worcpublib.org/

Does the Worcester PL have Rosetta Stone Language Learning Software?

Worcester Public Library has received many inquiries asking if the library has Rosetta Stone Language Learning software. The answer is Yes. But it is for learning ENGLISH (As a Second Language) only. It is accessible through the library's website to anyone with a Worcester Public Library card.

Literacy Volunteers of Great Worcester offers classes in the Worcester Public Library’s computer lab for people who want to learn how to use the software. Please contact LVGW directly at 508-754-8056 for more information.