Library Databases

Databases continue to be a growing part of the library's offering. Learn how to find the best articles for your research projects and save them on your own personalized web folder for future reference. How about organizing notes on those articles on the web, too? Interested in getting the table of contents from your favourite journal emailed to you? Or, want to get new articles on specific topics emailed to you as they get published? Learn all these things (and more) to make research easier using the library's EBSCO databases. One of our primary vendors in this area is EBSCO Publishing. These databases are upgraded continuously with features such as providing audio, translator options, improved PDF viewer mechanisms and the ability to set up the databases to provide access on mobile devices. The databases also go well beyond research and include everything from book recommendations to providing information on how to do repairs on cars, small appliances and house upgrades. David Lubin presents on all of these features and provides a general overview. His goal is to ensure that libraries use these valuable products to their full potential.

Using Digital Library North as an example, this session will review techniques for environmental scanning and community collaboration for creating a digital library. Community input is reflected not only in the structure of the digital library itself (e.g. culturally appropriate metadata), but also in the way the team continues to build their relationships with the community. Attendees will be invited to consider applications for use in their own communities.
Learning objectives:

• Understand what an environmental scan is and how it can be applied to a library environment
• Create a mini-environmental scanning plan for their own context
• Explore iterative ways to collect and apply community input