Knox County Public Library, Knoxville, TN

Ebooks that don't expire

Did you know that we have ebooks you can download that don't expire? They don't have a due date because they don't get checked out--they are reference books.

Our extensive collection of online reference books in the Gale Virtual Reference Library offers downloadable ebook and audiobook features. You can download the books in sections, usually one chapter or article at a time.

Of course you can search the entire collection, but also you can browse the bookshelves by subject, select a volume and view the table of contents, and go to an article or chapter. Then you can download a PDF of the section. You can send to a Kindle by emailing the section to your @kindle address.

If you prefer to listen while you do other things, the built-in ReadSpeaker technology turns the text into speech. You can listen as you read along, or download an MP3 to play later. The mechanized voice sometimes has odd pitch and pronunciation, but after you get used to it, you'll be able to listen fairly comfortably.

(Downloading PDFs and MP3s directly on some devices can be problematic, but it always works to use a PC and save the files to your device over a USB connection. On Android devices, you may need to use the Firefox browser for direct downloading and saving to work. Let Melissa know if you run into problems.)

Since the books don't get checked out, they're always available; you never wait your turn to use them.

Here are just a few of the latest books in the collection:

• IQ and Psychometric Tests: Assess Your Personality, Aptitude and Intelligence
• Ultimate Job Search: Invaluable Advice on Networking, CVs, Cover Letters, Interviews, Psychometric Tests and Follow-up Strategies
• Readymade Job Search Letters: Winning Letters and E-mails to Help You Get Your Dream Job
• Ultimate Interview: Make a Great Impression and Get That Job
• World Folklore for Storytellers: Tales of Wonder, Wisdom, Fools, and Heroes
• How Your Government Really Works: A Topical Encyclopedia of the Federal Government
• The Gale Encyclopedia of Diets: A Guide to Health and Nutrition
• The Cook's Herb Garden
• Grow It, Cook It: Simple gardening projects and delicious recipes
• Garden Design
• Grow Organic

For business managers:

• American Time Use: Who Spends How Long at What
• Best Customers: Demographics of Consumer Demand
• Household Spending: Who Spends How Much on What
• Everyday Finance: Economics, Personal Money Management, and Entrepreneurship
• How to Market Your Business: A practical guide to advertising, PR, selling, and direct and online marketing
• Strategic Planning: How to Deliver Maximum Value through Effective Business Strategy
• Effective Internal Communication

Finding more read-alikes

NoveList displays reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and School Library Journals in Series and Title Detail pages when available, and these are great sources of information when you're deciding whether to pick a book up. But did you know that you can use the Advanced Search to mine those rich reviews to help you pick your next great read?

For example, you can use reviews to find read-alikes. Let’s say you loved the Kay Scarpetta mysteries, but you’ve already read the series suggested in the "NoveList Also Recommends" section of the Series Detail page:

Use the Advanced Search to look for more suggestions:

1. Access the Advanced Search page by clicking the Advanced Search link in the Search For… box on the homepage.
2. In the first field, enter scarpetta, and select RV Review from the adjacent drop-down.
3. In the next row, select NOT from the Boolean drop-down.
4. Type cornwell, patricia daniels (or just patricia cornwell) in the next field, and select AU Author from the adjacent drop-down.
   
   
5. Click Search.

This will give you a list of titles with reviews that mention the Kay Scarpetta mysteries, without listing the titles written by Patricia Cornwell.

More about using Novelist

Genealogy databases: training and prize

Free training

Learn how to use two of the Library's genealogy databases—Heritage Quest and Ancestry Library Edition—with free live webinars by ProQuest. Registration is required. Recorded webinars are available for viewing, too. If you take one of the webinars, leave us a comment on how it was.

Win a prize

In celebration of October as Family History Month, ProQuest is joining with Ancestry.com and their research firm ProGenealogists® to sponsor the Explore the Amazing History of You Sweepstakes:

• Grand prize: An expert professional from ProGenealogists will work one-on-one with the lucky winner for up to 20 hours to research their family history. ProGenealogists specializes in researching and documenting genealogy and family history, including: immigrant ancestors, European origins, Canadian origins, lineage societies, United States colonial research, and Medieval British research.

• Two runners up will be chosen randomly to win either a one-year subscription to Ancestry.com's World Explorer or Family Tree Maker software (PC or Mac).

Visit ProQuest's Facebook page to enter between October 1-8, 2011.

The training and the prize are not related. You do not need to take a webinar to enter the sweepstakes.

Free online seminar for business owners

Topic:  Start, Manage, Grow!  How Businesses can use ReferenceUSA
Day/Date:  Mondays (through September 26)
Time:  2:30 PM Eastern (1 hour)

Entrepreneurs and business owners will learn how to use ReferenceUSA (one of the Library's resources) to find the mission critical information necessary to start, manage and grow a business. Topics include:

• research prospects and prospective clients
• locate hard to find vendors, both locally and nationally
• network with other businesses in your area or in your industry
• develop relationships with related business for co-branding opportunities
• understand community demographics
• survey locations for expansion
• conduct competitive analysis
• locate subject manager experts and professional services
• source new employees
• find investors, venture capitalists and angels
• plan delivery routes and service areas

Register for a session. Note the times may display in the Central time zone. You can change your time zone in the website.

New catalog features roll-out

The Library upgraded the system running the catalog, which is called "e-Library." Features that you've been asking for are now available in the catalog software, which stands alone from the website. If you want to set a quick link (i.e. bookmark, favorite) in your browser, the address is http://cat.knoxlib.org. (If you navigate to the site and then bookmark it, edit the URL in the bookmark properties so that it ends with .org.)

Features

1. My Lists

You've been asking for a way to see what you've checked out, or to keep a list of items you want to remember for the future. You can now create lists that are saved in your account until you choose to remove them, or they are purged automatically by the library after a long time of inactivity (like, you move away). You can view, print, or e-mail a list. From the list, you can go to the details of an item in order to request that item.

• You must log into the e-Library to use the My Lists feature.

• It will be up to you to keep updating a list of items you've checked out.
  

(The lists feature of WorldCat is still recommended if you want to make lists including items that are not in the Library's collection.)

My Lists versus Marked Items

A Marked Items bibliography is created by selecting the Mark button for items in a search results list. The Marked Items bibliography is temporary because it is retained only for the length of the current e-Library session. While you can create any number of lists to be saved in the My Lists area, only one bibliography of marked items can be maintained in an e-Library session.

2. My Account

You've been asking for the ability to sort what you have checked out; most of you want to sort by date due. You also want to see how many times you've already renewed something. In eLibrary, you get both. Sort the My Account lists by clicking the column headers or arrows.

3. Permalinks

You can click a button to create a permanent link (permalink) to an e-Library page, such as a Search Results page or a Details display page for an item. Copy the permalink and paste it into a website or e-mail message.

4. Bookmarks

You can create a bookmark so you can return to a particular e-Library page, including a Search Results page or a Details display page for an item. Look for the Bookmark This Page option on a horizontal bar near the top of the web page.

5. More Lists of New Stuff

When you visit e-Library you'll notice several links under New at KCPL, on the far right. These are lists of new adult books by genre, plus children's items, movies, audiobooks, and music. These are updated weekly.

6. NoveList links and A Look Inside

In a list of search results, clicking the title or cover image takes you to the Item Details. From there, if you see a tab that says "A Look Inside," you'll find more information about the item by clicking that tab.

You'll sometimes see a small button below the item details. Clicking it takes you to NoveList for reviews, books in a series, author read-alikes, etc. You might be asked for your library card number to gain entry into NoveList, but it's worth it. Once you get logged in to NoveList, for the rest of your session you should be able to go back and forth between our catalog and NoveList without having to put in your number every time.

7. More format selections

We've expanded the selections you can make to target your search to specific types of goodies. In the website version of the catalog, for example, you can target your search to books, CDs, or DVD/VHS formats. Well, that just wasn't good enough! We wrestled with what else you might want, and after some heated arguments among ourselves (we're very dramatic about these things), we've come up with 13 formats you can target.

Questions?

If you have questions about how any of these features work, please call Reference at 215-8700.

NoveList: find books that appeal to you

NoveList uses appeal factors like writing style and pace to help you get better reading recommendations.

Watch a video tutorial [requires Adobe Flash Player].

Click on the image below for a screen shot of a way to use the new appeal factors in combination.

In this example, someone got a list of books that are described as "thought-provoking" (S1) but there were too many of them. Then she looked at a list of books described as "reflective" (S2) and there were too many. So, she clicked on "Search History" and saw both of the searches in the list. She clicked on the check boxes for S1 and S2, and then clicked the "Search with AND" button.

The result of combining those searches is a smaller list (S3, with 119 items in the list) of books that are both thought-provoking and reflective. Now she can get an even smaller list using the limits on the right-hand side, such as Adults, Fiction, Award winner.

New recommended reading lists

To find these lists, type the title in the Search For… box on the NoveList homepage. Then, click the Lists & Articles tab above the Result List.

Imaginary Creatures. With sneaky trolls and fire breathing dragons, the books on this list view imaginary creatures as either heroes or villains.

Ghost Stories. This list of scary books features ghosts in all kinds of settings, including haunted houses.

Murder with a Foreign Accent. For readers who have been won over by the mysteries of Henning Mankell and Stieg Larsson, the Scandinavian juggernaut of outstanding mysteries continues; what is even more exciting is that more mysteries from around the world are also being published in North America, so that readers have an ever-expanding range of foreign mysteries to enjoy.

Mobile version

Scan this QR code on your smartphone and go to the URL (or if you're reading this on your phone, go here), then set a bookmark. Then you can add the bookmark to your home screen if you wish.

Community directory

The Directory of Local Organizations lists about 600 community organizations in the Knox County area, with browse categories such as Hobby and Recreation, Retirees and Senior Citizens, Appalachia, Environment, and many more. Each listing contains a description of the organization along with basic contact information. You can explore further using tags, search with keywords such as "scholarships," and download records for mailing lists.

If you know of an organization that might be suitable for the directory, or if you would like to update information for an existing organization, please email the Reference staff at reference@knoxlib.org.

Dead Sea Scrolls

Time Magazine is covering a controversy about the community who saved and stored the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Essenes. The Library just happens to have an online reference book about the scrolls. Using your library card number, you can login to the Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The encyclopedia's article about the Essenes points out some similarities and differences between classical sources (such as Josephus) and other data.

The Economy's Tough--the Library Can Help.

Visit the Career Center at Lawson McGhee Library to find many sources to help plan a career or find a job--even in rough times. There's information on writing a great resume and presenting yourself in an interview, information on specific careers, and resources for those on the job search (including area resources, salary comparisons, even specialty databases for students or those over 50). Check out some of the online resources, or head to Lawson McGhee Library to chat with our great Business Reference librarians. Want more help? There's a free Career Transition Fair in the Jacob Building at Chilhowee Park, March 10, 2009, from noon – 7 p.m. Learn more about the fair here.

Keep lists, share lists

There's a list feature in the "e-Library"  (catalog/My Account software).

• You must log into the e-Library to use the My Lists feature.

• It will be up to you to keep updating a list of items you've checked out.

You'll find that the list feature is handy for many purposes. You can create a "to read" list, a "have read it" list, and any other lists.

It's not "Mark"

When you click the Mark button for items in a search results list, you're creating a Marked Items bibliography. The Marked Items bibliography is temporary because it lasts only for the length of the current e-Library session. 

My Lists versus Marked Items

• Only one bibliography of marked items can be maintained in an e-Library session, but you can have many My Lists.
• From a list in the My Lists feature, you can go to the details of an item in order to request that item. This is not available in Marked Items.

Other library databases with personal lists:

1. WorldCat

WorldCat includes not only our library catalog, but the catalog of thousands of other member libraries. So, in making your reading lists on WorldCat, you're not limited to just items that Knox County Public Library owns.

You start by going to http://kcp.worldcat.org and registering for your account there. Then you can search for an item, and when you find the one you want, add it to a list. You can make your lists public or private, and you can add your own comments and reviews. You can also subscribe to someone else's public list if you find another user who has tastes similar to your own.

From any item in your list, if we own it, you can click the link that is our library's name and be taken to our website where you can reserve the item. Interlibrary Loan can try to get items for you that we don't own.

Your WorldCat account also allows you to post your stuff on social networking sites, install a WorldCat browser tool, or even a mobile phone application if you're super high-tech.

2. NoveList

You can make multiple lists in the NoveList database, and from any item in NoveList you can link to our catalog to look for the item. Here's more about NoveList.

Please call Melissa Brenneman at 215-8723 if you have any questions about any of this.