CNAQ.Library.Technology

Health Sciences – eTheraputics + Complete

Brett — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 05:19:16 +0000

eTheraputics + is the Canadian Compendium of Pharmaceuticals and Specialties in a handy electronic format. This is a resource for identifying drugs, their interactions with other drugs and the potential side effects a drug may have.

Final year students can use this database to complete your last semester projects.

Specialist databases like eTheraputics + are just one of the services the library offers. If you need some help understanding how to use this database, stop by the library in Building 14 or message us @CNAQ_Library

ebrary and Downloadable eBooks

Brett — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 05:51:59 +0000

ebrary, one of our main ebook databases offers ebooks that can be downloaded for up to two weeks.

We have a walkthrough on how to download ebooks from ebrary at Ask a Librarian.

ebrary is a fantastic ebook resource. You’ll find ebrary books in our library catalog, by searching directly on the ebrary site.
If you have a new iPad, Android tablet, or eReader and want some help with getting your eReader working with the college library resources, stop by Building 14. We’re always happy to help!

Why yes, we do have a newspaper from Gander (and Moose Jaw)

Brett — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 05:29:32 +0000

Here at the CNA-Q Library we have a huge number of newspapers. We get all the local English and Arabic newspapers at both of our locations. We also provide a huge selection of Canadian newspapers, from all the big cities and many small and medium-sized cities across Canada. They’re delivered daily by specially trained Canadian geese.

OK, that last bit isn’t true.

Instead of Canadian geese flapping madly across the Atlantic, we have a great database: Library Press Display.

Library Press Display has a huge database of daily newspapers from around the world. All of the newspapers are displayed in their original layout and most of the English newspapers can be read article by article.

If you just can’t get enough of your hometown news, each newspaper has an RSS feeds. (If you don’t know what that is, here’s some help. Still not making sense? Just stop by and have a chat with Brett at Building 14)

Welcome back to another year at CNA-Q

Brett — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 07:31:14 +0000

Hello, Students and faculty of 2012!

We have an exciting year ahead of us.

In technology news at the library, we’ve completed a major upgrade to our Integrated Library System. This is the large peice of software that helps us run the library and this upgrade will help us serve you better.

We have a lot of resources to help you, so please contact us

You can find us

@cnaq_library on twitter
CNA-Q Library on Facebook
Library Website
Library Catalog
Mobile Library Website
Ask A Librarian

The Library: How to find the CNA-Q Library

Brett — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 07:30:51 +0000

This series of posts will save you a lot of time when you are trying to find books, electronic books journals and videos in the library.

So where is the library? We’re in Building 14, right next to the second cafeteria (Building 13) and the Male and Female recreation buildings.

If you’re at home, you can still visit the library. Take a look at the main CNA-Q public webpage.

You can find the library under ‘Library System’ up at the top of the page under Quick Links. This is the fastest way to get to the library website.

It’s that easy!

Purchasing an eReader – A guide from the CNA-Q Library

Brett — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 09:53:53 +0000

I have seen a number of Faculty at CNA-Q coming in to the library to ask us about Ebook Readers. If you are purchasing an eBook reader, this post will serve as an information guide to help you find as much information about ebook readers as you can.

What kind of screen do you want?

Ebook Readers come with two kinds of screens, eInk and LCD.

eInk screens are the kind of screens found on the Kindle, the Sony reader and many other dedicated ebook devices. This type of screen uses tiny capsules inside the screen that turn on (black) or off (white). The electricity only flows for a millisecond, and the screen can display the words without using any more power.

E-ink screens are like electronic paper. They don’t glow in the dark, and they are much easier to read in bright sunlight.

LCD screens are the kind of screens found on the iPad, and most Laptops. There are some black and white LCD screen readers that look like e-ink. They are often less expensive or have more features than dedicated e-ink devices.

LCD screens use a backlight to shine light through the screen. They glow in the dark, but don’t always look very good in bright sunlight.

To help choose a reader, MobileRead.com has an excellent wiki on mobile ebook reading. The article on ebook devices is always up to date with the latest information about ereaders for sale and those that have been recently announced.

eBook Devices

What format do you want to read?

Ebook formats are a mess. It’s often frustrating for consumers to sort out what books will work with which device. Here’s a quick breakdown of the most common formats.

ePub
Industry Standard
Works on almost every eBook device, except Kindle.

AZW
Amazon Standard
Works on the Kindle

Mobi
An old industry standard.
Works on the Kindle, and many other eBook devices.

PDF
Preserves the printed look of a page, an industry standard
Works on many eBook devices including Kindle, may not display well

Now, to make this more complicated.

Ebook publishers wrap their ebooks in DRM (Digital Rights Management), which is like the can part of a can of soup. Ebook formats are the soup. They are what you really want to get to. You have to have a special opener (a program on the ereader) to open many ebooks.

Here are the kinds of DRM you may run into

Adobe DRM
Industry Standard
Works on most devices, except Kindle
Many apps for iPad, iPhone, Windows Phone 7, Android and WebOS support it.

Amazon DRM
Amazon Standard
Only works on Amazon Kindle and Kindle Apps
Only supports ebooks you buy from Amazon.

Apple DRM
Apple Standard
Only works on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch app iBooks.
Only works on books you buy from the Apple iBooks app.

If you want more information, the MobileRead Wiki has an extensive article on eBook formats and DRM

eBook Formats

What works with the Library?

Not much at the moment.

In the Library catalog, we’ve added a selection of eBooks from the Project Gutenberg catalog. Project Gutenberg books are books that are in the public domain, or in other words, are not protected by copyright. These are free books that you can read on any device, and have no DRM.

You can find our suggested Project Gutenberg books here.

Due to some complications with Canadian and Qatar copyright law, we’re not sure if we can use Canadian suppliers for lending eBooks to the CNA-Q community. We’re actively looking into this issue at the moment.

If you have or use an iPad

Safari Books provides a service called ‘Safari to Go’ via an iPad app You can download up to 10 books to take with you from our subscription via this app.

You can find full details on how to do this on our answer to Can I download books from Safari Books to a computer or mobile device?

If you have a eReader that supports PDF

You can transfer most PDF files from our eJournals and ebook chapters from CRCnetBASE to your e-reader for reading. Compatibility will vary widely.

If you have a large collection of PDF articles you want to transfer, the free Calibre program works well for ebooks.

Mendeley works well for Journal articles

Contact us @cnaq_library on Twitter, talk to us on our Facebook page, Ask us a Question, or drop by Building 14 for more help.

CNA-Q Library Mobile Website

Brett — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 07:22:02 +0000

The CNA-Q Library’s Mobile Website is now up and running.
Features include:

FALCON OneSearch access to electronic journals, ebooks and the library catalog
Library Help Guides for every subject (All the time!)
Access to specific databases (for the experts)
Ask a Librarian reference service
All the library’s electronic forms to suggest a book, make a one-on-one consultation with a reference librarian, book a tour etc.

To access the mobile library – go to http://cna-qatar.libguides.com/content_mobile.php?pid=154522&sid=1309865 [Here’s a short URL : http://goo.gl/1Qsau ] OR
Use this QR Code*

* What’s this??? This is a QR (Quick Response) Code – take a picture with a QR Code reader app on your camera phone and it will automatically load the library’s mobile website. It’s that simple. Most Blackberry and Nokia smartphones already have a QR code reader. IOS and Android users will need to download an app, you can find applications through the IOS App Store and the Android Market.

Where can I find a QR Code reader App? – http://cna-qatar.libanswers.com/a.php?qid=54251

If you have any questions, bug reports or problems, please send them to Ask a Librarian at http://cna-qatar.libanswers.com/

Answers on Twitter

Brett — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 12:15:49 +0000

On the go? Need a question answered? Use Twitter on your Mobile to ask a question of the CNA-Q library staff!

Tweet or DM your question (140 characters, no more!) to us @cnaq_library. The question will be directed to our LibAnswers site and answered by a Librarian. That’s all there is to it!

New to Twitter?

For information on how to set-up a Twitter account, visit http://support.twitter.com/groups/31-twitter-basics/topics/104-welcome-to-twitter-support/articles/100990-how-to-sign-up-on-twitter

For instructions on how to use Twitter on your mobile, check out http://support.twitter.com/groups/34-mobile/topics/123-getting-started/articles/134921-how-to-post-tweets-replies-or-dms-on-mobile-twitter-com

Remember to follow us @cnaq_library.

CNA-Q Library – Library Guides

Brett — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 07:26:38 +0000

The Library has put together a large collection of guides to help you with research in the library. You can find all of the library guides at cna-qatar.libguides.com.

You can find help with research on the subject guides for Students and Faculty.

Subject Guides Students

Subject Guides Faculty

Entrepreneurship & Small Business

You can get access to all of our electronic journals and databases, including Newspapers.

Electronic Journals and Databases

Newspapers

We have how-to guides for using the catalog, and some library tools to help you complete your research.

Library How-To

Library Tools

We even have a set of assignments to help with information literacy. For more help with these assignments contact Gerry McCrae.

Information Literacy Handouts

If you have any questions, just ask!

LibAnswers

Vocaroo – A quick, simple voice recorder

Brett — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 09:45:58 +0000

Vocaroo is a extremely simple voice recorder. You can download, link to and use your recording.

If all you need is a quick way to record students speaking or for an exercise, you can’t go wrong with such a simple website.

http://vocaroo.com/

via Free Technology for Teachers