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Many of us have become blase about space travel but just a reminder that the 131st shuttle mission is set to blast off on Election Day.  If you want a rest from the news of elections check out NASA.gov/mission_pages/shuttle.  This will be the 39th and last flight for Discovery which had its first flight in [...]

EBSCO Publishing has released the third of five series from American Antiquarian Society (AAS) with American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection: Series 3. The series is part of a collection that provides digital access to what is by far the most comprehensive collection of American periodicals published between 1691 and 1877. American Antiquarian Society Historical [...]

Over the past few months I've been writing about what Reference Books Bulletin's annual Encyclopedia Update tells us about some of the changes in encyclopedia publishing. Previous posts are here, here, and here. As they entered the twenty-first century, encyclopedia publishers offered a dizzying array of formats--print, disc-based (both CD and DVD), and Internet-based.  For several years, CD-ROM [...]

England's venerable Royal Society is marking its 350th anniversary this month. To celebrate, the Royal Society Digital Journal Archive will be freely accessible until November 30. This is a tremendous science history resource, containing as it does every paper published in the Royal Society's journals, starting with the very first issue of  Philosophical Transactions in 1665.  The [...]

Gale, part of Cengage Learning, today announced the availability of the first AccessMyLibrary Public Edition Android application and the first AccessMyLibrary College Edition application for iOS devices (iPhone, iTouch and iPad).  The AML Public Edition Android app allows researchers using an Android device to access Gale resources through public libraries within a 10-mile radius, similar [...]

As budgets are cut, the question looms - what resources to cut. Do we cancel electronic subscriptions, and potentially lose all we've had? Do we stop buying new material and maintain what we've had? As the budgets get smaller, and prices get higher, the importance of perpetual access, ownership, and licensing differences grows as well. [...]

At our last staff meeting, our collection development coordinator told us that our major database vendor was offering a deal to our consortium: a  package of reference e-books worth $150,872 for an 89% discount, so it would cost only $16,995-such a deal! Never mind that we have no money for any new electronic resources-here is a [...]

Annie, the publishing assistant I share with Booklist Media Editor Sue-Ellen Beauregard, is enrolled now in San Jose State's online MILS program, and this semester she's taking a reference sources class. The class has been working on the familiar  assignment of using standard reference sources to find answers to a list of questions. I was curious about the reference [...]

This past weekend was a good one for librarians, at  least in radioland. If you're a regular National Public Library listener, you might have heard librarian Kee Malesky mentioned from time to time in show credits. On Saturday there was a Weekend Edition Saturday piece about Malesky, who has been answering questions for NPR reporters for 20 years.  She [...]

Since it was founded in 1997, the Archive of American Television, the preservation arm of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences foundation, has conducted more than 600 interviews with notable people in the industry. Over 2,000 hours of these interviews are online at EmmyTVLegends.org.  All TV professions are included, from network founders to actors to [...]

This free app, compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, is produced by the Poetry Foundation.   The introduction to Poetry encourages users to also try the web site since the number of poems are limited on the app.  The app was created to "introduce new audiences to the world of poetry. " You may [...]

With all the buzz about e-books completely displacing print, there's an interesting article in today's New York Times regarding the use of e vs. p textbooks among college students. Read it here.

Just in time for Halloween! The National Institutes of Health has a website devoted to bone health. Go to www.bones.nih.gov to learn about your risk for osteoporosis (men get it, too), other bone disorders, and keeping your bones healthy. The site has a quiz to help determine your risk for osteoporosis, information for men, women,ethnic [...]

Chosen as one of RUSA's Best Free Reference Websites of 2010, newseum.org/todaysfrontpages is a gold mine for anyone that is a news junkie. Of the more than seven hundred newspapers that daily supply their front pages to the Newseum, a top ten are selected each day.  They may focus on the headlines, photographs, or design.  This [...]

IGI Global has just launched its Business-Technology-Solution database. It offers a comprehensive collection of over 100 journals, 950 books, and 500 cases. There are over 42,000 full-text articles and more than a million citations with no content embargo. They cover all aspects of business: accounting, e-business, global business, business and the environment and more. You [...]

The RUSA Machine-Assisted Reference Section (MARS) has published its 12th annual list of "Best Free Reference Websites."  A few sites in particular that would have made my life easier if they'd been around back when I was doing reference:  Abbreviations.com, The Baby Name Wizard, The Poetry Tool, and U.N. Data. You can find the full [...]

ebrary® announced that it has collaborated with librarians and publishers to develop a new patron driven acquisition (PDA) model.  With ebrary’s implementation of PDA, libraries may create collections of titles of their choice, provide full access to end-users, and have titles automatically added to their permanent collection in real-time based on usage. Key features and [...]

There are numerous medical sites but MayoClinic.com is considered one of the best for the lay person.  The home page has a search box but also a "find it fast" for  diseases, symptons, drugs, tests, lifestyle and first aid.  These topics will limit.  For example lifestyle suggests weight loss, nutrition, stress management, stop smoking, etc.  Other [...]

ASP just announced new functionality for their video products.  The following is from an email from ASP:  I am pleased to let you know that we now have "Send-to-Mobile" functionality for our video collections as well as our streaming music collections. Videos in Dance in Video and Opera in Video can now be sent to [...]

Gale released a college version of the Access My Library iPhone app.  Using a college email address, students can gain access to Gale resources using their mobile device.  The public library version, which was released a while back, offers apple and android apps, the school library and college versions are for apple products only right [...]