Saturday, September 25, 2010

LibGuides, Library Research on Steroids!

A New Look and Great New Functionality for Library Research Guides

What’s the key to successful library research? Sure, you can use Google, Bing, Safari, or Wikipedia to find information. But for successful research, nobody knows better than a librarian where to find the facts, statistics, arguments, and evidence that you didn’t even know existed.



Librarians are information gurus, and the LBCC Library’s latest innovation, LibGuides, promises to provide not just a medium for alerting the library’s customers to important information resources, but also a way to continue the dialogue, and to deliver much of the information directly to the student and faculty desktop.

The LibGuides approach to enabling library research:

• Has been embraced by over 1500 libraries in 25 countries
• Uses the latest web 2.0 technologies
• Enables content to be reused and shared within and across institutions
• Can be used to create multimedia guides that share knowledge and information and promote library resources to the campus community
• Is available on Facebook and can be integrated with Twitter to connect with customers wherever they are
• Can distribute content into other websites, blogs and courseware systems
• Allows embedding of videos, RSS, and podcasts

LBCC librarians have compiled and published “subject guides” for as long as the library existed, first as paper handouts, and more recently on the web are the basis for LibGuides content, but now the librarians have access to publishing tools that will take them to the next level, benefiting the entire LBCC campus community.

See examples of the library’s first LibGuides publications, including guides for Statistics, Anthropology at http://lbcc.libguides.com/ and look for others, as the transition to LibGuides continues throughout the coming months.

For more information about LibGuides, contact Dena Laney.

Library Update #76

Serials Solutions - The Library Makes Exploring E-Journals Easy!

The Library Makes Exploring E-Journals Easy!

The library has thousands of full-text journals and newspapers that are available to the LBCC community from any web-enabled computer. Want to see what we have and link to them seamlessly? Just go to the library home page http://lib.lbcc.edu/ and click on “E-journal Title Search.”

This link will take you to a portal that provides:

  • An alphabetical list of the full-text digitized periodicals, newspapers, magazines and journals that the library can provide to LBCC students, staff and faculty through its many online databases
  • An alphabetical list of, and links to, all these online, full-text databases (such as ProQuest) available from the library that contain these journal and newspaper articles
  • A display of these e-journals grouped according to the subject area that they fall within (note: these are broad subjects --health, education, the arts, etc.—that are the focus of the particular journal; to get articles about a specific subject (like “mitral valve prolapse” or “carbon footprint”) choose one of the databases above and enter your subject

Typical questions that these links can answer:

  • I found a reference to an article I need in an April, 1997 issue of Business Week—can I get that issue online through the library?
  • I’d like to browse some psychology journals to get ideas for a paper. I need to do that at home, so what psych journals does the library have online?
  • I am researching an event that happened in Boston in 2001? Does LBCC Library have the Boston Globe online for that year? In what database?

For more tips, ask a librarian at the Library’s reference desk.

For more information contact: Nenita Buenaventura goodventure04@gmail.com

Library Update #77

Serials Solutions

The Library Makes Exploring E-Journals Easy!

The library has thousands of full-text journals and newspapers that are available to the LBCC community from any web-enabled computer. Want to see what we have and link to them seamlessly? Just go to the library home page and click on “E-journal Title Search”

This link will take you to a portal that provides:

• An alphabetical list of the full-text digitized periodicals, newspapers, magazines and journals that the library can provide to LBCC students, staff and faculty through its many online databases

• An alphabetical list of, and links to, all these online, full-text databases (such as ProQuest) available from the library that contain these journal and newspaper articles

• A display of these e-journals grouped according to the subject area that they fall within (note: these are broad subjects --health, education, the arts, etc.—that are the focus of the particular journal; to get articles about a specific subject (like “mitral valve prolapse” or “carbon footprint”) choose one of the databases above and enter your subject

Typical questions that these links can answer:
  • I found a reference to an article I need in an April, 1997 issue of Business Week—can I get that issue online through the library?
  • I’d like to browse some psychology journals to get ideas for a paper. I need to do that at
    home, so what psych journals does the library have online?
  • I am researching an event that happened in Boston in 2001? Does LBCC Library have the
    Boston Globe online for that year? In what database?

For more tips, ask a librarian at the Library’s reference desk.

For more information contact: Nenita Buenaventura

Library Update #77

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Focus on Environment @ LBCC Library

New Books and a New Database Reflect a New Focus on the Environment by the Library

The news is out: the Library has been buying books again. A “museum quality” collection has been refreshed with hundreds of new titles at both LBCC libraries.

One of the areas of the collection in which current events have had the biggest impact is the environment, and library customers will find titles such as
• Fueling the Future, a series on alternative fuels with volumes on biomass, coal, water, wind, nuclear power, natural gas, and geothermal power
• The Wild Marsh: Four Seasons at Home in Montana by Rick Bass who channels Walt Whitman in exploring the wilderness with his family
• What is Biodiversity? By James Maclaurin and Kim Sterelny, a theoretical and conceptual exploration of the biological world and how diversity is valued

These and many other new titles are on the “Recent Additions” shelves at both
LBCC libraries. Come in and browse!

Prefer to get your environmental information online? No problem. Thanks to the library’s subscription to Environment: A Current Issues Database members of the LBCC campus community can get 100% full text articles from key publications that cover a variety of environmental issues. And of course they’re available through the library’s web site 24/7. Begin with a key topic that you choose from an easy point and click display, such as deforestation, carbon trading, endangered species, biofuels, oil spills, green jobs and many others. You can expect to see 25-35 relevant articles for each topic, selected for their quality and comprehensiveness, plus the option to extend the search to view additional articles.

Give it a try by going to the library home page http://lib.lbcc.edu/ , clicking on “Articles and Databases,” then selecting Environment: A Current Issues Database.

Remember, though, if you’re off campus click first on this button to verify your LBCC affiliation:




For more information contact: Dena Laney dlaney@lbcc.edu

Global Business Information @ Your Desktop: Business and Company Resource Center Debuts


LBCC Library introduces a comprehensive database that provides accurate, up-to-date company and industry intelligence for thousands of firms.

Business & Company Resource Center delivers access to a wide variety of global business information including competitive intelligence, career and investment opportunities, business rankings, company histories and much more.

Choose from a variety of search options:

Company search: by company name, ticker symbol or industry code
Industry search: by SIC or NAICS code or by industry description
Articles Search: by keyword, subject guide, or limit by peer-reviewed journals, etc.
Publication Search: look for specific publications and view the editions and articles included
Advanced Search: for a variety of additional limiting and searching options

Take a test drive: http://lib.lbcc.edu/ click on “Articles and Databases”

For more information contact: Nenita Buenaventura

Library Update #74

Saturday, September 4, 2010

What’s New (and What’s the Same) for Fall, 2010

The Library Staff at LAC and PCC Library welcomes you to a new academic year. We’d like to alert you to library services and information resources that will support teaching and learning and foster the success of our LBCC scholars. Some are new, some are improved, and others are unchanged, but important for new students and faculty to know about:

New for 2010:
New books! A “refreshed” and updated collection of new titles in a broad range of disciplines has been selected and is ready to check out. Look for the display in the LAC library lobby. (There’s a new and growing selection of DVD’s too.)
New database: ARTstor is a nonprofit digital library of more than one million images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and social sciences with a suite of software tools to view, present, and manage images for research and pedagogical purposes. This incredible resource contains contributions from outstanding museums, photographers, libraries, scholars, photo archives, and artists and artists' estates and is available 24/7 through the library web site.
New library staff: new adjunct librarians come to LBCC Libary with subject specializations, perspectives and skills that will enhance the library’s ability to meet the needs of today’s students and faculty.

Ongoing (but not to be missed):
Library orientation and courses. Help students write better papers and give more authoritative presentations by knowing how to identify, retrieve, evaluate, and synthesize information. Invite a librarian to give your class an orientation and/or collaborate with a librarian in designing an assignment.
Reserve services. Many of our students can’t afford their textbooks! Instructors can help them by putting a copy of each text on reserve with the library where they can be made available for limited loan.
24/7 Services. Get library information when it’s convenient for you, any time of the day or night. Use the online catalog, Voyager, access a database for full-image research articles from journals or newspapers, get an electronic book, or chat with a librarian online, all through the library’s home page. (Plus, LBCC is one of the few community colleges that hasn’t cut library building hours during the recession.)
Access to CSULB Library: LBCC students and faculty can check out books and media from our neighboring institution with their current LBCC campus id.

For more information contact: Dele Ukwu libdh@yahoo.com

Library Update #73