If you use LexisNexis to find business and legal information, there’s a change coming to our database lineup that you’ll want to know about. Our access to LexisNexis will end on July 31, 2015. Earlier this year, we purchased Westlaw, a database that also provides business and legal information. If you’ve been using LexisNexis for your research, give Westlaw a try. If you have any questions about using Westlaw (or any of our other databases, for that matter), you can call, email, or chat with a Reference Librarian by visiting http://ask.consortiumlibrary.org/.

What is that bird I hear every morning? Is that plant poisonous? How many kinds of edible berries are there in Alaska? Where is the best place to look for mushrooms?

For answers to these and other questions, take a look in the Library’s catalog for books, field guides, handbooks, and much more on the plants and animals found in Alaska.

Don’t forget that ARLIS has a variety of these sources as well.

Using Founders Online, you can search through and read the correspondence, diaries, and other papers of our founding fathers: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Alexander Hamilton. The website is produced by the National Archives’ National Historical Publication and Records Commission and the University of Virginia Press. Enjoy reading what the Founders wrote and discussed during the first draft of the American democracy!

MathSciNet, the comprehensive database covering the world’s mathematical literature from the American Mathematical Society, celebrates its 75th anniversary this year.  The database includes reviews, abstracts, and citations for much of the mathematical sciences literature, with over 100,000 new items added every year.  Coverage goes back to the early 1800s.

It’s a great feeling at Commencement to walk across that stage and receive your diploma after years of toil and effort, as many associate, bachelors, masters, and doctoral students will do this May. And I’m sure that many students have grown accustomed to using at least a few of the many databases that are available through the Consortium Library. But after graduation?

Well, you’ll still be able to come into the Library and sign in as Guest to use those databases, but you’ll no longer be able to get to them from home and off-campus because our licensing agreements only include on-campus use and current students, staff, and faculty. This is where – as new alumni and Alaskans – you really need to know about one of the best-kept secrets in Alaska, SLED: the Statewide Library Electronic Doorway. You can find a link to SLED at the lower right of the Library’s home page, or go here: http://sled.alaska.edu

SLED’s home page is a sort of resource control panel; clicking on one of the 12 labeled images will take you to a variety of databases that are paid for by the State for ALL Alaskans, not just university people. What if a database asks you for a logon and password? Look beneath the images for database assistance. And if you don’t want to figure out which of the images would be best for what you need, you’ll find a search box above them.

Are these useful databases? Many of them are ones we use all the time in the Consortium Library, such as Academic Search Premier. Others, like MasterFile Premier, are more public library-oriented. Which is good, because – need a new fridge or a lawn mower? – you’ll find things like Consumer Reports in full text in MasterFile Premier. You’ll also find databases for language learning, auto and small engine repair, genealogy, and many other subjects in SLED. Thinking about going on to graduate school, or perhaps you need to take the PRAXIS test? In the Testing and Education Reference Center database, you can find preparation materials for things like the GRE, the MCAT and LSAT, CLEP, PRAXIS, TOEFL, U.S. Citizenship, and other tests. There are also databases for our younger population, such as Searchasaurus, the ever-popular Live Homework Help, and Teen Health & Wellness – which is not just about teenagers, but is actually for teenagers.

SLED has more than databases. One of the 12 images (and a delightful place to browse) is for Alaska’s Digital Archives, created from the collections of libraries across the state for the 50^th anniversary of statehood. It includes not only photographs, but also short films and oral histories.

So why is it called SLED? Steve Smith, who led much of the early work on SLED, said that he and his kids had gone sledding not long before the service needed to be named, and that they’d had such a wonderful time that they just wanted to go sledding again and again. He named the service SLED in that same spirit, in the hope that Alaskans would find SLED to be such a wonderful and vital resource that they, too, would want to go SLEDDING again and again. And in the case of this particular SLED (and thinking back on our last two winters), no snow is required!