Tallahassee Community College Library in Tallahassee Florida
is a multifaceted resource serving our students, faculty and our community,
on campus and online !

Friday, September 16, 2005

Why RefDesk.com is my homepage !

Refdesk ...

  • ranks number one at google in search results (out of over 300 million sites) on key word reference.
  • is free.
  • offers free Daily Mailings of the 'Site-of-the-Day' and the 'Thought-of-the-Day.'
  • Daily listings of Current Events topics and History Today.
  • publishes no pop-up or pop-under ads.
  • provides links to Anti Pop-Up Ads and Anti SPAM Tools.
  • links to no adult-related, sexually explicit sites, and is 100% family-friendly.
  • publishes an Advertising Policy.
  • is more than 99% content, with a bare minimum of graphics and ads.
  • has over 20,000 selected links on more than 500 pages .
  • checks and validates, twice yearly, links on top 200 pages.
  • has a strictly enforced Privacy Policy and collects no 'cookies'.
  • has Site Inclusion Criteria for accepting new sites.
  • selected by PC World Magazine as '2004: Best Reference and News Resource,' PC Magazine as '2003: Top 100 Web Sites,' Yahoo! Internet Life magazine as 'Best Reference Directory' for both 2001 and 2002, along with numerous other awards.
  • is Colin Powell's 'Favorite Site'.
  • averages over one million daily page views.
  • Disclaimer on Advertisments And External Links

It's the next best thing to having a Reference Library at your fingertips ! Take their site tour. Mission : "Refdesk has three goals: (1) fast access, (2) intuitive and easy navigation and (3) comprehensive content, rationally indexed. The prevailing philosophy here is: simplicity. "Simplicity is the natural result of profound thought." And, very difficult to achieve." But they have. this is definitely a site to bookmark for future use !



Monday, September 12, 2005

What do you learn at a Database Workshop ?

TCC Library currently provides over 80 databases online for students, faculty and staff.

  • Each database utilizes special features and provides unique shortcuts.
  • Some databases collect specific types of resources, like newspaper articles, or magazines
  • Other databases may collect a wide variety of resources including encyclopedias, government publications, articles and pamphlets
  • Many databases concentrate on specific subject areas, for example
    • Art
    • Business
    • Contemporary Women's Issues
    • Criminal Justice
    • e-Books
    • Health & Medicine
    • Literature
  • Others are general databases that cover a wide range of topics, including
    • Academic Search
    • InfoTrac
    • OmniFile
  • Many databases provide full-text access to thousands of publications not available on the WWW !
  • All TCC Library databases are available 24/7 online via your TCC ID card at LINCCWeb Library Information Network for Community Colleges
  • TCC Library also has an online guide to finding articles and choosing databases

In a Database Workshop, we'll look at a selection of database families, explore search strategies designed to improve your research results, examine the kinds of resources found in these programs, and highlight the latest improvements !

Interested ?

Database Workshops are offered during Fall 2005 semester in
September, October and November
with sessions on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday at various times -

visit Library Workshops for a complete listing of dates, times and locations

no pre-registration is required, and promptness is appreciated !