Reference Universe - Worth A Second Look

It is easy to overlook, but Reference Universe is vastly improved in content and searching. For example, a search on Irrigation was slow. Two years ago, this subject search allowed you enough time to 'go for a cup of coffee and come back to get results finally...' to now being WOW... I can say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and get 10 citations on "irrigation" before getting to the "cious" part of the word -- Reference Universe is FAST.

There is a higher level of detail in Reference Universe then the regular ibistro catalog for hard to answer questions using print resources and it even has a few electronic resources we have access to.

Database content...
- 20,000 works from print and e-resource form with table of contents and index citations, 100's recently added just in June alone....
- Prominent publsher with the books in our collection from Gale, Greenwood, Springer and others..
- Patrons stumble upon seredipitous/useful facts to what they are looking for...

Keys to searching the database well...
- Use the browse searching if your unsure how to search. It functions similiar to catalog subject search.
- Use of phrase searching is the main way to use the databae.
- Use of "and" or "or" boolean searching in a strict sense does not work -- think phrase searching.

Things to watch for while searching...
- Each result should be checked for a title availability searching in Ibistro. Due to ISBN linking, format, and edition problems e-resources/books we do have in the collection say (prior editions) to links in database might not show up in Ibistro eventhough it is on the shelf or available online.
- AccessScience/GVRL direct full-text links within the database recently went down... we are hoping to restore these soon.
- If a title sounds to scholary for a public library, we probably don't have it -- try ILL or CofC if this is what the patron wants and it seems there is NO alternative for the needed info...

Career/Job Finding Process Ebooks

Learning Express Library has a collection of ebooks covering career starter guides and the job finding process. A May 2007 Charlestonref blog post also provides a general product overview. There is a registration process after logging in initially; and this is so you can stop a test or activity and then pick it back up where you left off at a later point in time. Instructions for how to access the product and create a login are listed on the website for in library and home access use.

Once you have logged into the product, to access ebooks within the resource scroll down to the bottom portion of the screen. Keep in mind that you may need to scroll down on the page depending upon screen size. You will need to look for and select the link with an illustrated arrow pointing to: Ebooks: Browse our complete listing of ebooks. Once you have have clicked on the link, a search dialog box appears for entering your topical terms of interest. What follows are a sample of many of the ebooks within the resource tool.

Select Career Starter Ebooks:

Firefighter Administrative/Executive Assistant Career Starter, 2e, Computer Technician Career Starter, Cosmetology Career Starter, 2e, Cosmetology Licensing Exam, 2e, Culinary Arts Career Starter, Early Childhood/Teacher Career Starter,Hotel/Restaurant Career Starter, Paralegal Career Starter, 2e, Pharmacy Technician Career Starter, Practical Solutions to Everyday Work Problems, Teacher Career Starter, 2e, The Complete Professional, Visual Communication, Webmaster Career Starter, 2e, and others...

Select Job Finding Process Ebooks:

Goof Proof Interview, Goof Proof Resumes & Cover Letters, Great Interview, Great Resume, Job Interviews that Get You Hired, Resumes that Get You Hired, Search Smart and Get Ahead,Your Career, and others...

Job Hunting Resource - Part 4 Furthering Your Education

This is the forth post in a series on Job Hunting and the South Carolina Pathways.org website. Previous posts on the topic are available in 1, 2 and 3. Are you looking at continuing your education in a degree or non-degree program? The Kuter “Considering Education or Training” section may help.

The education or training component covers degree and non degree programs for further areas of study you may want to consider. The schools profiled in detail are based on in person classroom settings or online throughout the United States, military installations and US territories. Various tabs such as “name and location”, “school and campus characteristics”, “programs and majors” and “admissions and costs” all allow a person to narrow there list of schools down by various criteria in one search list combined in a “see list” format.

Overall, the Kuter education component is very useful in considering furthering your education, tuition costs, application process and other preferences associated with selecting a school of your choice and desired education outcomes.

Job Hunting Resource - Part 3 Picking a Specific Occupation

This is the third post in a series on Job Hunting and the South Carolina Pathways.org website. Previous posts on the topic are available in 1 and 2. This post covers the Occupation Sugesstion section of the website and the process of examing an indviduals interests, skills, abilities and values and then the survey tool suggests occupations based on those inclinations.

The assessment tool is divided into various segments
- from preference assessments in part 1 and by education level
- Previous skills from previous jobs
- Various self rated abilities you have.

The self assessment also involves ranking your own skill levels at such functions as public speaking, problem solving and numerous other areas. Each area, you self rate your skill level as being above average, average and below average. A list of occupations will come up that rank highly in your own interests, skills/abilities and values as illustrated above.

The second graphic is just a sample of a few of the occupations that generally my survey assessment matched me up with... All I feel are fairly accurate, I do have to chuckle that technical writing was listed. Technical Writing at times is a weakness of mine and I can't imagine myself doing that as a career. Blogging about database is helping to enhance that skill though...

Note: Graphics are available for viewing in an enlarged view by clicking on the image.

Job Hunting Resource - Part 2 SC Pathways Product

This is part 2 in a series on South Carolina Pathways tool available to all South Carolina residents. Part 1 is below.

In concrete descriptive and measurable terms, it is useful to know what you like to do career wise based on your own personality traits and skills or just confirm that your in a field of work you enjoy. Part 1 of the assessment tool of SC Pathways involves answering a series of questions to help measure in definitive terms what your interests, skills, and work values are. The series of questions develops a greater measure of confidence in knowing that your personality can actually match up with your career choices based on thousands of others who have taken this assessment and found reliable results. This assessment assigns numerical scores for your personality interest based on the kind of work you may want to pursue.

Your interests are assigned scores for a cluster of various kinds of work with the ranges being: High Interest 75 - 100, Medium 25-74 and Low 0 - 24. For example, I love tinkering with technology and my Information Technology interest sore of 96 on the survey bears that out. Also on the flip side, I don't like public speaking, but I can do it as a large part of my college studies were in communications classes. My interests in that are a definitive low, a score of 4 points points that out, as a career. A significant number of people will score low in certain areas and that is normal. You can be excellent, really good or do an average job at something such as "Arts, Audio-Video Technology, and Communications" areas, but absolutely dislike doing it and say score 4 points in that category like me.

An interest assessment survey such as this can be really useful in changing or confirming that the career you may be in now or in the future fits your personality and interests well.

The Job Hunting Resource Helps Statewide...

A new resource is available for South Carolina residents looking for a job change, wanting directional help in their job search or returning to the workplace after an abscence. The SC Pathways website, which is powered by Kuder skills assessment testing and paid for by various state agencies/organizations, for SC residents is available to adults, students of all ages and businesses for people to find jobs that interest them and businesses to find employees. In the next series of posts, I'm going to cover the four main components of the Kuder resource. Keep in mind this product does require a registration process that takes a few minutes. SC Pathways is available for just SC residents and residents of other states who have paid access to the the following:

Skills/Interests Assessments Section

Occupational Interests

Education or Training Considerations

Getting Ready for the Job Search

= Creating Resumes Online

= Finding Employers

Note: SCOIS at this time is not available as part of SC Pathways for adults, but is available to most students state wide through individual schools.

Reference Universe - Need for Speed Answered...

Reference Universe in the past was a product you could go for a cup of coffee and still be waiting on search results... Recently, search result speed was greatly enhanced. The same general search strategies of using just one or two words in a phrase still works best and it will be nice to see possibly boolean searching become available some day. Bottom line, by far the faster retrieval time of search results is the best improvement to the database outside of content since we got it a couple of years ago or so...

Hathi Trust Ditigal Library - Great Ebooks Online

The Hathi Trust provides a combined collection of public domain/content restricted titles from primarily academic libraries in ebook form online. According to the Hathi website on November 8th, 2008, there are approximately 353,000 titles like Charleston Furniture 1700-1825 which are publicly available online, while approximately an additional 2 million are online with digital rights management restrictions. The Hathi Trust now has a beta ebook search website.

Educator's Reference Center

With over 1,100 education related periodicals, and of that half of the Education Resource Information Center (ERIC) database journals in full-text, the Educator's Reference Center is very practical for those needing the latest research and development in Education. In looking at this database, there is also a few book like content sources such as Great Thinkers of the World and links to the ERIC database documents previously found in microfilm only format. Some of periodicals in the database include: Education Week, Instructor, Teacher Magazine, Young Children and several discipline specific education periodicals. Overall, Educator’s Reference Center has actual full-text content in periodical sources not found freely on the ERIC database. For additional information read ERIC : An Education Resource Information Center Database.

ERIC: an Education Resource Information Center Database

ERIC Education Resource Information Center database is very practical and useful resource in a variety of education and related subject areas. For example, I was able to find lesson plans on teaching English as a second language in a large business or for industry. The advanced search is rather useful in limiting results to full text or by audience levels as well. If you are student or just wanting to learn the fundamentals of premium database searching this an excellent resource that provides search aids including a thesarus. Bottom line, the ERIC database has great education related content with 1.2+ million bibliographic records that are well indexed, abstracted, and in many cases full-text documents.

Practice Tests, Tutorials & Career Ebooks: Learning Express Library

Learning Express Library provides a variety of academic and vocational tests and has tutorials. Preparation and practce tests for the GED, GRE, GMAT, LSAT, and numerous others have long been in this database. Some of the practice tests also cover speciality areas such as advanced placement testing in a few disciplines. However, some of the newer content such as vocational testing, career guidance ebooks, and skills develompment tutorials covering English and math disciplines can get overlooked. Below the labels, click the read more link to contine.

Tutorials
There are some tutorials at different proficieny levels (grades 4 to 9+) such as: humanities subject areas of English grammar, reading, writing, comprehension; several areas in the math discipline being algebra, geometry, and statistics; and in the U S Citizenship Exam covering history and civics. Tutorials typically provide a page or two of content then followed up by questions on that content. Most tutorials are short and take about an hour or so to complete. Some subjects on the Choose a Subject page such as spelling can be in two or more Improvement groupings such as Reading Skills, Skills, and School Level.

GED
When GED tests are offered, usually we have significant demand and print titles are not available at all branches. This is an excellent way to fill the gaps when you actually prefer the online version to the print and or when print titles are not available. The GED practice section covers subjects indvidually by language, reading, math, science, social studies, and writing.

College Entrance Exams
ACT, SAT, and TOEFFL (separate heading).

Advanced Placement Testing
Those who have had high school or general knowledge in a subject may choose to test out of a college class by taking a test. This databases provides some Adbanced placement testing in: biology, calculus, chemisty, English, and various government and history timespans.

Graduate School Entrance Tests
There are some graduate practice tests in: GMAT, GRE, MCAT, and LSAT.

Vocations
The menu of tests available, can seem overwhelming or incomplete at times. Some of the vocational practice tests available are in: civil service, cosmetology, EMS, law enforcement, military, nursing, teaching, and real estate. Take for example the topic of Real Estate exam preparation. Real estate has a separate vocational subject heading. When looking at it, there are two listed tests one for broker and one for sales person. By clicking on either, an expanded list of tests for specific states appears. Fortunately, practices test for those intrested in a license for South Carolina appear within the expanded list. Some states have states specific tests for a vocation or career.

Bottom Line
Learning Express Library is an extremely convenient product for tutorials in select subjects, self tests in skills sets, entrance and placement practice exams, vocational testing (which include select ebook career guide titles) and the database also scores completed practice tests.