Cool Resource: Google

While you've probably "googled" everything from your old high school teachers to the menu of your favorite restaurant, there are probably some things you didn't know about Google that can help you be a more precise and efficient researcher. The library just updated three Powerpoint Presentations on its Handouts and Research Guides page on using a resource that you have do doubt used many times. Take a few minutes to view these tutorials and you could be surprised at what you've been missing. For example:

In Google Search Tips: Lesser Used Features learn about using Google as a dictionary, a calculator, a metric converter, and more.

In Google Search Tips: Lesser Used Databases, learn about Google News, Maps, Books, Scholar, and more.

In Google Search Tips: Advanced Features learn about how to use wildcards to search for commonly misspelled words or title variations, using query modifiers, and much more!

Go to the Darling Library's Handouts and Research Guides page at http://library.hiu.edu/guides/library_handouts.htm for a full list of online research guides.

Chapel Messages Now Online

Now select Hope International University chapel messages are available online. Currently, you can listen to streaming audio recordings from the web, but soon they will be downloadable (as permitted).

In the future, the site will include an RSS feed allowing subscriptions and use with iTunes. To access recent chapel messages online, go to http://library.hiu.edu/podcasts/chapel/chapel.htm and click on a message link.

Also planned is the conversion of past analog recordings on tape to digital formats for preservation and online access. Click here to find a list of past chapel messages available on tape in the library. Some go as far back as the 1970s!

What's New with the Library Staff?

Welcome to the newest member of the library staff, Solange Christmas. Solange is our new Public Services Assistant working 20 hours per week in the evenings. She is an international student from Canada beginning her MEd at Hope and will be assisting with student worker supervision, Reserves, and will provide instructional support for evening classes.

Not quite farewell to Bethany (Dye) Ahlberg who was married on June 2nd and began graduate work in Biblical Studies at Pepperdine this fall. She continues working 10 hours a week for the library in a more behind the scenes role as Systems Assistant.

Welcome back to Caleb Acton, formerly Interlibrary Loan Assistant who was on loan to Kenya last semester. He returns to us in a new role assisting our Reference and Instruction Librarian 10 hours a week. Also returning is Chris Caudillo, our seasonal Audiovisual Assistant after a summer off.

Additionally, our fifteen Student Library Assistants are back in force providing coverage for our Circulation and Information Commons desks during our regular hours of operation.

NetLibrary's September eBook of the Month

The NetLibrary electronic book (eBook) service we subscribe to makes a specific title available each month to all subscribers. So even though we may not have purchased that title, it will be freely available for the month in which it is the "book of the month." The September eBook is The Economist Pocket World in Figures 2008. The book is published by The Economist.* The NetLibrary advertisement describes the book as follows:

Where is economic growth fastest or inflation highest? Who consumes the most energy? What country has the most asylum seekers? Who are the heaviest drinkers and smokers? If you want to know the answers to these, and thousands of other questions, you’ll find them in the September eBook of the Month.

Completely updated, revised, refreshed and expanded for 2008, The Economist Pocket World in Figures contains rankings on more than 200 topics in subject areas as wide-ranging as geography, population, business, the economy, trade, transport, finance, industry, demographics, the environment, society, culture and crime.

To access this book:

1. Go to http://library.hiu.edu
   
2. Click Research Databases
   
3. Scroll down the screen and click NetLibrary
   
4. Login using your Library login
   NOTE: Your Library login is your Hope ID and your Library password (the first 3 letters of your first name and the first 3 letters of your last name)
   
5. You should now be in the NetLibrary service
   
6. Click the featured book that appears on the right side of the screen
   
7. Enjoy reading!

You must be a current student, faculty, or staff at Hope International University to access this book via the NetLibrary service.

Please contact a Librarian at library_ref-help@hiu.edu if you have questions about the NetLibrary service.

*The currently featured NetLibrary eBook is not a recommendation or endorsement by Hope International University. Such posts as this are intended to advise the Hope community of services available to it.