Doesn’t everyone deserve the best answers to their questions?

Help US keep helping YOU!

NJKI will end June 30 unless the state continues funding it.
Click here to sign a letter to tell the state government you want to keep this program going.  I just got finished sharing how great databases are and now I have to share that one of the most useful New Jersey resources funded by the state is in danger.  Have no idea what I’m talking about?  I’m talking DATABASES!

The New Jersey Knowledge Initiative gives NJ residents free access to all these databases:
•  Academic Search Premier 
• Biomedical Reference Collection 
• Business Source Premier
• CINAHL 
• Pre-CINAHL 
• MEDLINE 
• Nature Online Journals 
• Nursing & Allied Health Collection 
• OVID Selected Core Medical Journals 
• RefUSA 
• Regional Business News 
• Wiley InterScience
 
Don’t know what they are?  Find your answer @ http://www.njki.org/

The Knowledge Initiative Program can be useful to anyone.  In my library, many users want to look up information about businesses and science.  RefUSA resources cannot be beat.  Having access to the databases saves taxpayers money because libraries do not have to pay for journal and magazines that have the information people need.  If someone wants to get this information over the Internet, most of the time they would have to order the journal or pay for the article from a web site.

The Knowledge Initiative (KI) was created in 2005 to provide New Jersey’s entrepreneurs, small business owners, researchers and students with access to information resources for the 21st Century through statewide web access to high-end Science, Technology, Medical and Business Databases. 

Many of today’s learners need to find out how databases can give them the answers to their questions from reliable sources.  Many of today’s librarians also use the New Jersey NJKI resources to help library users get answers to problems in person and online. 

Do you see a down side to keeping this great resource available in New Jersey?

Theatre in Video is a cool database the West Deptford Free Public Library has been able to subscribe to thanks to a grant from the New Jersey State Library and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.  Databases are great tools for the general public that many times elude the masses.  Many people believe they can just Google a term and in a matter of second exactly what they were looking for appears.  More often than not this is not the case.  A Google search can easily net a million hits on a given search term.  Granted the search structure is good and usually there will be terms matched up in the first few hits.  However is the content what the user really wanted to uncover?  Not always!

This is the great thing about databases.  Database companies have paid to have the content of their products specialized on a given topic. 

Take for example, a high school student who needs to learn about the plays of Shakespeare.  There are several options.  He/she can Google “Shakespeare� and sift through the 42,900.000 hits, visit the local library and locate the works themselves, literary criticisms, analysis, and perhaps a DVD copy of Romeo and Juliet.  Now at WDFPL the user can also watch the actual play being performed on stage at the physical Library building or in the comfort of home thanks to Alexander Street Press’ new product, Theatre in Video.  Check it out at http://www.alexanderstreetpress.com/products/ativ.htm   http://www.alexanderstreetpress.com/brochure.pdfs/ativ.wf.pdf .