The August issue of Minitex’s Reference Notes includes this summary of the new Research Project Calculator, written by Jennifer Hootman:

It’s back to school and the perfect time to announce the newly redesigned Research Project Calculator including more interactivity and customization! The RPC is specifically designed to help students stay on track with research assignments. Students can choose from the research paper, video project, or slide presentation templates or start their own assignment from scratch. Email reminders for project milestones, tips, and links to resources help students along the way. Teachers, too, can create their own research assignments and utilize the teacher resources for classes.

The Research Project Calculator is funded by Minitex. Check it out!

EBSCO has added text-to-speech (read aloud) support to all HTML full-text articles in all EBSCOhost databases. These databases include EBSCO MegaFILE, Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier, CINAHL, PsycARTICLES, Regional Business News, Science Reference Center, Teacher Reference Center, and many others. From the announcement:

Text-to-speech support… allows users to read along while a human-sounding voice speaks the text on the screen. The support toolbar provides significant assistance to those for whom text-to-speech capabilities are highly valued such as English Language Learners, users with low vision, slight physical and/or learning disabilities, as well as eBook and PDA users.
…
Utilizing the text-to-speech feature via the EBSCOhost platform provides many advantages. Users have the ability to read-aloud by selected text, sentence, paragraph, or continuous reading with dual color synchronous highlighting (highlighting of the passage being read with a second color highlighting the specific word being read aloud at that moment). User control of read-aloud personalizes the learning experience for each user. Users can control reading speed as well as select between three different high-quality voices –American, British, or Australian. These options also enable teachers and professionals to incorporate the features as a tool for teaching English and reading.

Read the full announcement here, then try it out in our EBSCO databases!

Jing is a free easy-to-use service that lets you make short screencasts and send them either publicly or privately to your students. For some assignments, it’s a more effective way to give feedback to your students than having to write out comments. This post from the ideaconnect blog has a great real-world demonstration.

Credo Reference posts a new “Brainteaser” quiz every Friday, whose answers can be found in Credo Reference eBooks. This week’s theme is rock and pop groups. I got 5 out of 10 without looking up the answers and Barbara Tuttle got 4. What’s your score?

You can find past quizzes and answers at Brainteaser Answers.

Check out the latest CQ Researcher report on reality TV. What do you think? Is it harmless entertainment or a cultural threat?

Haggerty, Maryann. “Reality TV.” CQ Researcher Online 20, no. 29 (August 27, 2010): 677-700.

Check out the new books we added to our collection this summer. You’ll find these and other great titles in our catalog, MnPALS Plus.

Jennifer Matheny from LexisNexis provides this Tip Of The Week:

Did you know that LexisNexis Academic includes Consumer Reports and Product Reviews?
Are you doing research on a household item? Do you need current information for your business class on automotive recalls? Besides research, are you on the cusp of a major purchase and just want to read some reviews?
One of the newest forms in the enhanced version of LexisNexis Academic is the “Consumer Information” form. In the Subject Areas section, navigate to the Consumer Information form. There, you will see sources such as: Consumer Reports; Homewares, Appliances, and Electronics Stories; Home Decorating and Renovation Magazines; etc.
These sources can help you find recent or historical coverage on Consumer Information. Buyer Beware!
To learn more about this form, visit our wiki article/help text by clicking here.

If you’ve used any of our EBSCO databases lately (and we hope you have), you may have noticed a new look to the results you’re getting. EBSCO describes some of these changes:

• The Limiter(s) and the date slider column have moved from the right to the left side of the Result List, which is a more intuitive position for these popular features, consolidating all the ways users can refine and work with their results in one area. To view a sample of the updated Result List, click here.
• Detailed record pages are more streamlined, and links to full text, customer’s link resolvers, ILL, etc. are more prominently displayed on the left.
• Users can select multiple clusters and source types when managing results.
• Enhancements have been made to the PDF Viewer, Content Viewer, HTML Full Text, etc.
• The number of languages into which users can (machine) translate HTML full text articles has increased substantially. For details click here.
• A “breadbox” shows users which limiters, expanders, and source types have already been selected.
• Simpler overall interface elements increase the intuitiveness of the user experience.

To keep up with these changes, EBSCO has also updated many of their database tutorials, most of which are available in both Flash video and PowerPoint formats.

For more information about the changes, see EBSCOhost Updates and Medical Searching Upgrades.

Credo Reference added 11 new titles and updated seven this month. The new titles are:

• The A to Z of Corporate Social Responsibility (2007)
• An African Biographical Dictionary (2006)
• BCS Glossary of Computing and ICT (2008)
• Encyclopedia of Consciousness (2009)
• Encyclopedia of the Antebellum South (2000)
• The Encyclopedia of Tourism and Recreation in Marine Environments (2008)
• The Essentials of Philosophy and Ethics (2006)
• A Financial History of Modern U.S. Corporate Scandals from Enron to Reform (2006)
• Historical Encyclopedia of American Labor (2004)
• Learning in Adulthood: A Comprehensive Guide (2007)
• Myths and Legends of the Celts (2005)

The updated titles are:

• BUSINESS: The Ultimate Resource (2009)
• The Dictionary of Human Geography (2009)
• The Hutchinson Chronology of World History (2010)
• The Hutchinson Dictionary of Scientific Biography (2010)
• The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2008)
• The Penguin Dictionary of Physics (2009)
• The Penguin Dictionary of Psychology (2009)

LexisNexis is offering several web-based training sessions on how to do research in the new LexisNexis Academic interface. See below for details and to register.

LexisNexis Academic
Learn about this premier general reference tool that provides access to news, business, and legal information from one interface. Redesigned specifically with students in mind, this research tool provides students as well as other researchers across all disciplines with comprehensive results on the past and the present. Whether the search is on a current hot topic in the news, financial information of a specific company, or a following of a judgment on a case, LexisNexis Academic has it all.

• Monday, August 30, 12:00 p.m.: Register here
• Tuesday, August 31, 12:00 p.m.: Register here
• Tuesday, September 7, 11:00 a.m.: Register here
• Wednesday, September 8, 2:00 p.m.: Register here
• Monday, September 20, 2:00 p.m.: Register here
• Monday, October 4, 1:00 p.m.: Register here
• Tuesday, October 19, 1:00 p.m.: Register here
• Monday, October 25, 2:00 p.m.: Register here

LexisNexis Academic – Business
Learn about this premier general reference tool that provides access to news, business, and legal information from one interface. Redesigned specifically with students in mind, this research tool provides students as well as other researchers across all disciplines with comprehensive results on the past and the present. This session will concentrate specifically on conducting business research.

• Thursday, September 16, 12:00 p.m.: Register here
• Thursday, September 23, 1:00 p.m.: Register here

LexisNexis Academic – Legal Research
Learn about this premier general reference tool that provides access to news, business, and legal information from one interface. Redesigned specifically with students in mind, this research tool provides students as well as other researchers across all disciplines with comprehensive results on the past and the present. This session will concentrate specifically on conducting legal research.

• Monday, August 23, 1:00 p.m.: Register here
• Monday, August 30, 2:00 p.m.: Register here
• Tuesday, September 7, 3:00 p.m.: Register here
• Monday, September 13, 1:00 p.m.: Register here
• Tuesday, September 21, 12:00 p.m.: Register here
• Monday, October 11, 2:00 p.m.: Register here
• Tuesday, October 26, 12:00 p.m.: Register here

LexisNexis Academic – News
Learn about this premier general reference tool that provides access to news, business, and legal information from one interface. Redesigned specifically with students in mind, this research tool provides students as well as other researchers across all disciplines will comprehensive results on the past and the present. See how to search current hot topics in the news, as well as archival news information and tailor search results to fit your needs.

• Tuesday, August 24, 12:00 p.m.: Register here
• Monday, September 20, 12:00 p.m.: Register here
• Tuesday, October 12, 12:00 p.m.: Register here