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Read Sports Illustrated, Other Publications Online

bloggingatbriggs — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:36:36 +0000

The sports fans at my house love Sports Illustrated. Recently, they have enjoyed the coverage of the Olympics and articles to help with their fantasy football leagues. The library has Sports Illustrated in print format from 1954 to the present. You will find the most current issues in the Popular Periodicals area on the main level.

SDSU students, staff, and faculty who can’t make it to the library can also read Sports Illustrated online, through our electronic databases.

To read Sports Illustrated via EBSCOhost, use the following directions.

· On the library’s homepage (http://lib.sdstate.edu/) use the link to EBSCOhost. (Click here or here for information on off-campus access.)

· Once you’ve accessed the EBSCOhost database, click on the Publications link at the top of the page.

· Enter Sports Illustrated in the “Browsing:EBSCO MegaFILE – Publications” search field (the lower field).

· Click on the Sports Illustrated link, then on the year you want to access. At this point you will see links to specific issues, open one and enjoy the articles.

Not a sports fan? Read publications on other subjects as well. Use the same procedure to search for other titles, or search the list of publications by subject and description. EBSCOhost is also an excellent resource for searching by topic across many titles.

Linda Kott

Information Services Librarian

OCLC FirstSearch

Julie Zhu — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 15:01:50 +0000

OCLC FirstSearch

Mergent Online

Julie Zhu — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:59:41 +0000

Mergent Online

Reference USA

Julie Zhu — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:58:02 +0000

Reference USA

Encyclopedia Britannica Online

Julie Zhu — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:56:24 +0000

Encyclopedia Britannica Online

Gale Databases

Julie Zhu — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:51:03 +0000

Gale Databases

EBSCOhost Databases

Julie Zhu — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:48:16 +0000

EBSCOhost Databases

Library Databases

Julie Zhu — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:38:20 +0000

Library Databases

Briggs Library's Catalog for Books is Down Aug 11-15

bloggingatbriggs — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 14:29:26 +0000

The library system that is used throughout the state of South Dakota is being upgraded to a new and improved version during the week of August 11-15. That means that our catalog will not be available for searching that week. We have access to another database that contains our book collection as well as those of many other libraries that you can search if you are in need of books during this week. The Books link under the Find category on our homepage will link you to that database. You can use a more advanced search in the same database by going to the Articles and Databases link next to the Books link and going to WorldCat Advanced on the Articles and Databases page. If you have questions, please contact the information desk at 688-5570 or blref@sdstate.edu.

~Elizabeth Fox, Digital Information Services Librarian

Just Cuil it.

alison — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 15:04:56 +0000

I think the kerfuffle about Cuil, a new search engine that claims to have reimagined search. It's name comes from an old Irish word for knowledge, and it's creators claim that Cuil:

searches 3 times more pages than Google;
has results are ranked on page content & relevance, NOT on the popularity ranking system of Google;
analyzes the web, not its users, so is thus more sensitive to user privacy issues than the big G.

My completely on-the-fly, gut-reaction ultra-mini review...

The Good:

pleasing layout of results -- more horizontal than vertical,
good tool to narrow your results -- "Explore by Category"

The Bad... and the Ugly (let's just wrap it all up here in one):

lack of localization -- that is, it doesn't analyze where you are located as google does and thus return hits that are geographically near you. This is helpful when doing work research; unhelpful when researching where to eat at lunchtime.
lack of documentation -- what Boolean does it recognize? what search tricks does it support? To find answers, you have to just try it out. I tried the site: trick (e.g., tried to search "site:.edu (health veterans)" in order to return only results from .edu domains) but it didn't work
the tool I liked above "Explore by Category" doesn't always appear, and for reasons I cannot figure out
Fails to acknowledge the good that popularity rankings (that is, ranking based on how many other sites link to a site) can do for search results. To give a single example of an ugly result: I searched for "middle east" gender studies and got a single result comprised of erotica and other unseemly things. Hmm. The same search on Google gets you this. Better yet, see what you get on Exalead, with its nifty "narrow your search" box.

A conclusion:
Play with it if you have time. I'm sure the developers, who are Google grads, are playing with it as well, changing it up. Maybe in a few years it'll be a go-to tool. Or maybe in a few months, who knows. In the meantime I am more than happy with Google, Exalead, and, oh yeah, my "industrial strength Google" tools such as LexisNexis, Web of Science, PAIS International, EconLit, Hein Online, ABI-Inform...

But don't just take my word for it. Further reviews on Cuil: Libraryola, and Libraryola again, Tame the Web, Library Journal, Law Librarian Blog, PC World, the Albany Public Library, BabyBoomerLibrarian, BlogScoped, and on and on.

Or, read what the Twitterati have said about Cuil.

New EBSCOhost Interface

bloggingatbriggs — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:04:56 +0000

EBSCOhost has a new look. When you research journal articles for a topic in EBSCOhost you will experience a new, simpler basic search screen, an enhanced result list, and several other exciting new features. A number of databases are available via EBSCOHost including Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier, CINAHL Plus with Full-Text, EBSCO MegaFILE, Inspec, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, and MLA International Bibliography. If you have any questions or would like more information about this change ask at the information desk, by email, chat or phone (http://lib.sdstate.edu/askus.html).

Mary Caspers-Graper, Head of Technical Services