Great image of how Google searches for information from the Chicago Tribune, courtesy of ACRLog…

For the 503 class, remind students that their textbook Reference and Information Services has a bibliography at the end of each chapter with the resources that will answer the questions they have. I have a copy in my office on the first shelf as you enter on the second or third shelf down; if they don’t have their textbook with them (and they don’t…), you are welcome to borrow it. The World of Learning is mentioned in the chapter on directories, and is current to 2006 for the Malawi question.

This week SLAIS students need to know how many agricultural research stations there are in Malawi. (It’s one of the questions on the latest Reference sources assignment.) Patrick found the answer in the International Research Centers Directory. Thanks Patrick!

Some students have been asking about colour copiers in the library. We do have a new XEROX machine in the copy room that makes colour copies at 40 cents each.

Re the observing students, I will give them a tag to wear saying Observer….D

It may be all over by now, but we had a steady stream of students looking for Place Names of British Columbia last week under various incorrect versions of the title (BC Place names, etc.), author names (Aldridge, Agrik: it’s Akrigg), and also the very general question, “How can I find out what this word means?”

On floor one, some of the lights are out; staff in sorting have contacted Richard, Plant Ops, etc. It should be fixed soon.

The annual 4th year English class assignment that requires the students to look at a title in the ESTC has started. The assignment requires them to look at the microfilm version (and notes that the librarians will try to direct them to EEBO!). 1641-1700 is call number AW1 .R-972 and 1475-1640 is AW1 .R475 in storage in the back of 219. Most seem to have the reel number and document number as they have searched in the ESTC.

Picked up some good tips at Lynn’s Lexis-Nexis session. My favorite: segment searching in Lexis-Nexis Academic.
One of my frustrations with this db was the limited range of search fields: full text; caption; author; headline.
However, you actually can use “segments” or field searching to search common journalistic segments such as bylines, company, person, sections of the paper (ie, news). All documents are divided into searchable fields, which you can see in bold at the top of documents, like this:

To search a particular field, use the format below (remembering to select “fulltext” in the pulldown menu:

The field codes are given in this Advanced User Guide, p.7, along with other tips.

Good news! Globe and Mail on Canadian Newsstand is now available back to November 1977 full text. The backfiles all seem to be there. Newspaper website has been updated to reflect this.