Tips & Tools

Resources in this category:

Authorities & Vocabularies (Library of Congress)
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/

"The Library of Congress Authorities and Vocabularies service enables both humans and machines to programmatically access authority data at the Library of Congress via URIs."

Cataloguer's Toolbox
http://staff.library.mun.ca/staff/toolbox/

Complies a list of useful links, tools, and resources for catalogers covering a wide variety of topics, from MARC to cataloging blogs.

Comics Recommended for Libraries
http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/asl/guides/comics.html#Re...

Guide for librarians when choosing to add comics to their collection, including links to other sources as well as reviews.

DIALOG Bluesheets
http://library.dialog.com/bluesheets/

A subject guide to the to the hundreds of databases on the DIALOG system. Each database has a hypertext link to a blue sheet which contains the details of the database structure.

Evaluating Information Found on the Internet
http://www.library.jhu.edu/researchhelp/general/evaluating/i...

Guide for researchers examines issues of evaluating authorship, publishing body, point of view or bias, eeferral to other sources, verifiability, and currency. Discusses "the criteria by which scholars in most fields evaluate print information, and shows how the same criteria can be used to assess information found on the Internet."

Lexis-Nexis Knowledge Base
http://support.lexis-nexis.com/default.asp

Provides instructions, sample searches and FAQs for Lexis-Nexis products

The Librarian's Guide to Anime and Manga
http://www.koyagi.com/Libguide.html

A tool for librarians who might want to add manga or anime materials to their collection, including an explanation of the two media and offering examples of them as well.

OCLC DeweyBrowser
http://deweybrowser.oclc.org/ddcbrowser2/

A tool that returns Dewey Decimal Classification "captions" (subject headings) and class numbers for keyword searches. Meant to help users access library collections in a novel way.

The Researching Librarian
http://www.researchinglibrarian.com/

Web directory aimed at librarians who need to do research. Academic librarians may find this site particularly useful. Provides links to sites with information about funding, conferences, research tools, statistics, and current topics of interest in the library world.

Search for Public Libraries
http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/libraries/librarysearch/

"The Public Library Locator is a tool to help you locate information about a public library or a public library service outlet when you know some, but not all of the information about it. The information in this locator has been drawn from the NCES Public Libraries Survey." Libraries can be searched by name, address, phone number, etc., but also by legal service population, number of full time or professional staff, operating expenditures, operating income, collection size, services offered, types of transactions recorded - and many more. This allows users to compile lists of similar libraries across or within regions, states or counties. A powerful and flexible tool.

SOL: Spanish in Our Libraries
http://www.quicktopic.com/22/H/BhC64pQyGQy

SOL (Spanish in Our Libraries) strives to be a forum and resource bank for librarians who want to improve their services to Spanish speakers. It does so through a 150-member discussion list, an archived digest of mailings, and its ongoing consolidation of the Public Libraries Using Spanish website.

Virtual Acquisition Shelf and News Desk
http://resourceshelf.blogspot.com/

Resources and news for information professionals and researchers compiled by a professionl university librarian. The site provides abstracts and links to articles describing new Internet sources of information and what's new on or about the Internet. Other sections are Fast Facts (resources of factual information), Direct Search (a compilation of links to "Invisible Web" resources not easily found by general search engines), News Center ("one-click access to many news resources"), Price's List of Lists with "information in the form of rankings of different people, organizations, companies, etc.", texts of speeches and transcripts, audio and video access to current events, and a clearinghouse to many Congressional Research reports.

VOYA Online: Voice of Youth Advocates: The library magazine serving those who serve young adults
http://www.voya.com/

VOYA is "a bimonthly journal addressing librarians, educators, and other professionals who work with young adults," and the "only magazine devoted exclusively to the informational needs of teenagers." Its website offers highlights of articles from its current issue and web-only features like the Teen Pop Culture Quiz and other resources to help librarians keep up with teen culture.