The Electronic Newsletter of the Palm Beach County Library System

Contents:
1/ Introduction to Books & Bytes
2/ All About Our Literary Databases
3/ Useful Web Links Section Highlight – Society Links
4/ Reader's Advisory Section Highlight – Science Fiction
5/ Memorial Day Closing – Monday May 27
6/ In Next Month's Issue

1/ Introduction to Books & Bytes

Welcome to the May issue of Books & Bytes. This month, we will tell you about our four free Literary Databases. This will be followed by an exploration of the “Society” category in Useful Web Links. We will explore the “Science Fiction" section in our Reader's Advisory and alert you to a holiday closing.

We hope you enjoy receiving Books & Bytes. Please let us know what you think of our publication by writing to: webmaster@pbclibrary.org

2/ All About Our Literary Databases

The library provides free access to four great literary databases, all from the comfort of your home. With your library card number in hand, a massive wealth of information about books and authors is at your fingertips. The four databases are:

Literature Resource Center
Novelist
Poem Finder
Story Finder

They are all available at:
http://co-op.pbclibrary.org/patronlinks.html

The Literature Resource Center is a complete literature reference database designed for both students as well as the casual user. Rich in biographical, bibliographical, and critical content, the Literature Resource Center contains information on literary figures from all time periods writing in such genres as fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, history, journalism, and more. In addition, the Literature Resource Center offers biographical coverage of more than 113,000 writers. The database also contains more than 10,000 critical essays on authors and their works written by academic scholars.

If you are looking for a great fiction book to read, NoveList is for you. It allows readers to use a favorite author or title as a template to locate other authors and titles of interest. NoveList includes natural language searching and Boolean searching, and added full-text searching of reviews to “Describe a Plot.” Users can browse theme-oriented book lists at every reading level through “Explore Fiction,” and look for outstanding titles in “Best Fiction.” Many title records have direct links to Web sites with information about the author or teacher resource materials. Besides locating books to read, users can learn more about books and authors through “Feature Articles,” “Book Discussion Guides,” and “BookTalks.” NoveList contains materials for all ages including picture books, children's "chapter" books, young adult titles and books for adult readers.

Poem Finder is a large, comprehensive and current poetry database. It is international in scope, and covers poetry from antiquity to the present. It contains:

* 100,000+ full-text poems including over 10,000 copyrighted poems
* 800,000 poem citations and excerpts
* Subject Navigator
* Year's Best Poetry Anthology (New Poems)
* Kids' Korner
* Explanations
* Biographies
* Pictures
* Glossary

Full representation is provided for significant periods such as Early English, Middle English, Elizabethan, Romantic, Victorian, 20th Century War Poetry and Modernism. The database includes all important schools and movements and provides the complete works of poets from every continent, presented in the finest available English translations. Search by any keyword in the text, by author name, by subject and more, all available to print or save instantly

Story Finder provides thousands of full-text short stories plus explanations, biographies, pictures and more. The database is updated constantly with classic and contemporary stories. Current Story Finder features include:

* Thousands of full-text short stories
* Explanations
* Biographies
* Pictures
* Genre Navigator
* Just Published Stories Anthology

The Story Finder collection has been carefully selected to provide a representative, rich anthology of short stories. The stories have been chosen based on standard library indexes. In addition to providing the stories themselves, Story Finder also endeavors to provide a wonderful context for the stories by including explanatory material such as biographies, explanations of stories, pictures and more. The collection includes stories from the classic to the most contemporary.

Next time you need information about books and authors, pull out your library card and explore these wonderful literary databases at:
http://co-op.pbclibrary.org/patronlinks.html

3/ Useful Web Links

As a regular feature each month, we examine one section of our Useful Web Links. Our web directory is compiled by librarians who apply their knowledge and Internet experience to locate the best web sites for each topic.

Do you have a question about employment law? Is it time to choose a school for your child? Are you in need of support in your retirement years? The “Society” section of Useful Web Links will lead you to great web sites to address these needs.
http://www.pbclibrary.org/links-society.htm

This “Society” section is divided into three subsections: Law, Education, and Social Issues. Below are a few selected examples to demonstrate the wide variety of resources available in this section.

The Law subsection links to web sites that deal with legal and justice information.

“FindLaw” is a legal search engine which looks like Yahoo!, but searches for legal information.

“The Internet Law Library - Florida” provides an authoritative list of Florida law links originally built by Offices of the U.S. House and currently maintained by the 'Lectric Law Library.

“Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory” allows users to locate lawyers by name, type of practice--has listings for US, Canada and many other countries.

“West Legal Directory” searches its database of 1,000,000 lawyers and firms; there is a separate page for international searching.

“Shark Talk” is a law dictionary from Nolo Press which can serve as your life-raft in the sea of legal jargon.

“FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List” is the most famous list designed to track down the country’s most dangerous criminals.

The Education subsection contains a host of sites that deal with learning issues and institutions.

“Palm Beach County Board of Education” is the official School Board web site contains information about every school in Palm Beach County.

“Palm Beach Community Educator” allows you to register for Adult Education, ESL, and High School credit courses.

“College Rankings” at the University of Illinois at Urbana links to many recent articles on college comparisons.

“Universities.com” is a search engine for finding colleges, universities, and distance learning programs.

“FastWeb” allows users to create a personalized profile to gain access to the program's directory of 400,000 scholarship opportunities.

“The Financial Aid Information Page” links to many financial and college planning sources and has sections to explain the variety of aid available.

The Social Issues subsection lists an array of sites to assist the young and old alike.

“Aging with Dignity” provides Living Will information: where you can download the "Five Wishes" living will form.

“The Resource Directory for Older People”: this directory from the Administration on Aging contains names, addresses, and phone numbers of organizations which provide information and resources on matters relating to the needs of older persons.

“The Children’s Home Society of Florida” is a nationally accredited agency reaching out to children and their families.

“Where to Turn” is an extensive database of social agencies designed to help you locate service organizations.

This is only a taste of the resources available in the “Society” section of Useful Web Links.
http://www.pbclibrary.org/links-society.htm

4/ Reader's Advisory Highlight

Looking for more information on famous and not-so-famous literature? Do you want to delve deeper into a genre? Or do you simply want to read a good book? As a regular feature each month, we examine one page of our Reader's Advisory. This month, we will explore "Science Fiction."
http://www.pbclibrary.org/read-sciencefiction.htm

“The Internet Speculative Fiction Database” is a wonderful site for the student of science fiction! The Author Directory has complete bibliographies--including essays and articles as well as books--with awards, book editions, interviews, reviews, and links for each author.

“SF Site--The Home Page for Science Fiction and Fantasy” offers reviews, reading lists, forthcoming books, publishers, artists, and 26 pages of author websites and tributes.

“Locus Online” is the foremost purveyor of news, reviews, resources and perspectives on the science fiction field. We also have a link to the Locus Index to Science Fiction (1984-2001) to track down old articles from this periodical.

“Science Fiction Weekly” is the SciFi Dominion's weekly magazine--not just books and authors, but also television, movies, anime, sci-fi news--everything the well-rounded SF fan could want.

“Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc” contains information about authors web pages, links, awards, news--one-stop shopping for science fiction authors.

Finally, “SciFi.Com” is the Internet home for the Science Fiction television network--includes information on programming and schedules.

Check out web sites that are out-of-this-world in the Science Fiction section of Reader’s Advisory.
http://www.pbclibrary.org/read-sciencefiction.htm

Also, look at our recommendations for great Science Fiction works found @ your library:
http://www.pbclibrary.org/sf.htm

5/ Memorial Day Closing

All Palm Beach County Library System locations will be closed on Monday, May 27, in observance of Memorial Day.

No materials will be due on that day. All library locations will reopen on Tuesday, May 28, at their regular hours.

6/ Next Month in Books & Bytes

On June 1, our new Community Health Information Service will debut. It will serve as a valuable reference tool for the residents of Palm Beach County. In our next issue, we will profile this new service.