This week, on the BIG screen...

The Ritz Library has recently installed LG flat panel TV screens in two of our group study rooms. Students who have a Mac or Windows laptop can now, when studying in a group, display any resources they have in electronic format.

Windows laptop owners can connect to the TV with a VGA cable available at the Circulation Desk; when you want to sign out the room, just tell the Circ staff that you have a Windows laptop and they will provide you with the proper cable.

Mac owners will need to specify which cable adapter they need depending on the age of your Mac. Show your Mac to the Circ staff and they should be able to determine which cable you'll need.

Mobile Access available for OmniFile database

The Ritz Library now offers mobile access to OmniFile, a database that contains articles from almost 3,000 journals & magazines. With coverage begining in 1994, OmniFile allows you to get research material from a wide variety of publications, and a special emphasis upon the fine arts such as painting, photography & ceramics.

Access OmniFile by pointing your smartphone's browser to WilsonWeb Mobile. At the login prompt, put in your MyDCC username and password.

More information on DCC research services for smartphones and tablets is at the Ritz Mobile Access Guide.

Questions? Call 845.431.8634 or email Ritz Reference.

Ebrary goes to the Ritz!!

Your ability to search many more books in your research just expanded. SUNY has added the electronic records of ebrary's 1000s of online books to the Ritz Library's book catalog.

If you'd like to search in the catalog specifically for electronic books, go to the Advanced Search page. Below the three search boxes you'll see a drop list labeled More Collections:. Change it from All Collections to Electronic Books. Go back to the search boxes and type in your subject or search terms. Click on go and allow the search to perform. All the books that come up will be online books.

The ebrary database also allows you to sign up for a free account. With a free account you are permitted to save any books you need to a "Bookshelf" list, allowing for quicker access the next time you need them. If you'd like to sign up for an account, click Sign In in the upper right corner then click on Create a new account to the left. Fill out the form and you're in!

Use your phone to help write a research paper!!

It's not unusual for people to use their cameras to snap photos of pages in a book or journal for research purposes, but now there's a new smartphone app that turns your phone's camera into a citation generator.

With Quick Cite you use the camera on your smartphone to scan the bar code on a book. The service then e-mails you a citation for the book in one of four styles, including APA and MLA, that you can then paste into your paper. This app is available for both Android and Apple products.

Want more info? Go to Quick Cite

Gale Mobile Database App now available for Android phones

There's a new way to search some of the library's most popular databases from your mobile device. Gale Cengage is now offering a version of its Access MyLibrary app for the Android operating system . Some of the databases available through this app are:

• Opposing Viewpoints


• Literature Resource Center


• Virtual Reference Library

Download the app through the title of this post. More on Gale's support for mobile access is at:

Gale Apps

Nursing Management Salary Compensation Survey

Each year the journal Nursing Management sends a salary questionaire to subscribers. The results of the survey are then published in that publication and placed on the Web.

The results for 2010 have just been posted and include the graphs and tables that illustrated the printed report. These images can be downloaded as a Powerpoint presentation as well as copied individually.

Use the title link above to access the survey.

Let’s go on a (Pro)Quest!!

One of the Ritz Library’s more widely used databases, ProQuest, has a new look this year – please don’t panic! The database’s designers have redone the interface to make searching for specific topics more effective when you do your research, and most of the same search options are still available and can be easily found on the Advanced Search page. The good news is that there are several brand new features that can also help you focus your search to find more specific results.

Most of the new features can be found over to the right of your search results list or when you bring up an article. There’s a Thesaurus which will help you find terms that are similar to those you’re searching on. When you’ve searched and brought up your list of results you’ll find the Sidebar containing additional functions that will allow you to limit your results to specific dates, source types (publication types), titles, companies and specific names. There’s also a new Share box which connects to social networking sites and services like Facebook, Twitter or StumbleUpon.

If you have any difficulties or you have any questions about the new ProQuest, please be sure to contact the Ritz Library Reference staff via email, phone or Meebo. We’ll be happy to help you out.