Thing 17: ELM Productivity Tools

1. Gale
RSS feed...crash and burn. I had no trouble searching InfoTrac Student Edition via ELM (I used it quite a bit as a student and when I worked at the reference desk), but every time I tried to add the RSS feed to either my webpage or Google Reader, I got some variation of "Oops...an error occurred." I did try...it's just that apparently http://find.galegroup.com.proxy.elm4you.org/itx/generateRssFeed.do?qrySerId=Locale%28en%2C%2C%29%3AFQE%3D%28SU%2CNone%2C13%29youth+smoking%24&DB=&searchType=BasicSearchForm&tabID=T003&prodId=STOM&digest=2f511610d02dd02e918c3b118349add4&userGroupName=mnsminitex
is not recognized as a valid RSS feed.

2. EBSCO
Creating the webpage wasn't difficult, but there are better tools out there...I wouldn't want to have to use this on a daily basis.

3. ProQuest
I sent the "webpage" to myself and my friend Margie - I wish I'd know about this tool when I was still doing research papers!!!

4. NetLibrary
Done and done.

How can these tools be applied to your everyday work? If I ever need to do a presentation (an all-to-real possibility), then these tools are fairly painless research aids. And of course I think students who may not be aware of the functionality of electronic databases at their library would be if not excited, then at least interested. The thing I though would be fun, however, is if, when we do committee work and have to read an article, if we could create a "group" login, and all make notes that everyone could read.