Genealogy Resources

The Scott County Library deals a lot with people conducting genealogy research. We have a room with many local resources on genealogy, but we also provide a great way for people to search our databases. We subscribe to Ancestry.com which can only be accessed in the library and we also subscribe to Heritage Quest. The latter is the one used most frequently and it contains all sorts of census data, military records, and family records. It is a great resource that makes the process of genealogy a lot more convenient. Of course, many of the records that people need to complete their family trees are still in hard copy only. But it's a great start and a way to get quick results.

Overdrive

The Scott County Library deals with a lot of fiction readers, so we have invested in some convenient reading tools. Our audio books have always been popular, so we decided to subscribe to a company called Overdrive to supply us with downloadable audio books. You must be a library card holder to access this service, but it allows you to actually "check out" books into your downloadable account. It stores the books on your hard drive and allegedly deletes them after the check-out period is over. We're still not sure if that works 100% of the time! But after it's downloaded to your computer, you can transfer it to an MP3 player and listen to it that way. Interesting innovation!

Learn-A-Test

The library is taking advantage of another great service called Learn-A-Test. It is basically a database that has access to all sorts of practice tests for students. The tests include the basics such as the ACT, SAT, and GED. But the site also offers more specialized tests such as the Police Officer's Exam, Nursing School Entrance Exam, and the Citizenship Exam. These are practice tests that are exactly like the real exams. They are timed and they will give you your results. This is a great feature that we offer because it provides a service that we don't always have in book form. Our library is not large enough to update our collection with the latest versions of all of these specific tests. That is why this is a great opportunity to take advantage of this technology.

Homework Help

I'm very excited about another technology product our library is taking advantage of. We've signed up for an online tutoring program called Homework Help. It is sponsored by Tutor.com, which is a nation-wide organization. They provide professionally trained tutors to help kids from elementary to high school. The student can log-in through their library, select a grade and subject, and be connected with a tutor in that field. They talk with the tutor through an online chat system and the tutor communicates how to solve the problems, but never gives the answer to the student. They work throught it together. It is a great system that I'm glad our library is taking part in.

Another great addition to our online databases is Books & Authors. This database allows you to search in so many different genres of books with their own sub-genres. For librarians working in the public setting, this is the ideal database. We cannot possibly keep up with all the genres, let alone all the categories that they can be divided into. This database is an excellent resource for reader's advisory, and again, it's all available online. If someone were interested in historical fiction, but really only wanted to read about the Antebellum American South, this database has that precise category. Many libraries just have one list of historical fiction in their reader's advisory resources. That is why this is so unique and helpful.

New Databases

Since this blog deals with libraries and technology, I want to mention how great useful online databases have become for our small public library. We have recently obtained several databases that provide information to our patrons that we couldn't possibly provide with books. For example, we have access to the Chilton's Automotive Repair Database. This has access to almost any make and model of car within the Chilton's system. Our library couldn't financially afford all those volumes, nor physically store them. So this kind of access is a wonderful contribution of technology.

Time Saver?

While I really enjoy the new RFID system we have, I don't necessarily agree that it's a time saver. The biggest advantage is that the checking in/out of the item and activating/deactivating its security is all done at one time. With our old system we had to check out and deal with the security in two separate steps. But our system is not sensitive enough to scan multiple items. It can, but it is not always accurate, often skipping a book. So the staff and the patrons have learned to scan our items one at a time like always. It's a great system, but maybe it doesn't have the efficiency we thought it would.