Woodbury Public Library

Providing library service to all residents of the Town of Woodbury in Orange County, New York

Woodbury Public Library

wpl@rcls.org

Library Research and Reference Tools

Internet Search Engines

Internet search engines are special sites on the Web that are designed to help people find information stored on other sites. There are differences in the ways various search engines work, but they all perform three basic tasks:

They search the Internet -- or select pieces of the Internet -- based on important words.
They keep an index of the words they find, and where they find them.
They allow users to look for words or combinations of words found in that index.

Here are links to some of the most popular Search engines:

Bing.com Yahoo!.com Ask.com

Databases

A database is an online resource that a library subscribes to that contains articles and information from print sources such as magazines, newspapers, journals, and reference books. WPL subscribes to two different types of databases: Article and Reference databases.

An Article Database (EBSCO, for instance) enables you to search through hundreds of different periodicals to find articles on a particular topic. Some of the articles are in Full Text, which can be both read and printed out, while other articles are only found in abstract form (a summary), or a citation (a listing of where you may find a printed version of the article).

A Reference Database provides information such as facts and statistics from a printed source. We have access to Encyclopedia Britannica Online, which is an internet version of the 32 Volume edition. An online version of a printed source takes up less shelving space. Reference Databases are usually subject specific, so while one database may be just an encyclopedia, another database may cover just History or Art or Science.

Although you can access a database from the internet, what you are accessing is a reprint of a hard copy source. Therefore, these sources should not be referred to as "internet" sources. These sources are usually not found by searching on Yahoo or Google.

Woodbury Public Library's Databases

- Encyclopedia Britannica, Mango Languages, Country Watch, ERIC, and EBSCO

News - Custom Newspapers, New York State Newspapers

Literature - Twayne's Authors, Gale Literature Resource Center

Science and Health - Encyclopedia of Science, Medline Plus, PubMed Central, Health and Wellness Resource Center

Business - Gale Business, Ferguson's Career Guidance Center.

History & Genealogy - HeritageQuest, Annals of American History

Biography Resource Center

Students - Britannica Kids, EBSCO Middle Search, Grolier Online

How does a database differ from a website?

Databases get their information from experts or professionals, while websites can be written by anyone regardless of expertise.
Databases contain published works where facts are checked, while website content is not necessarily checked.
Databases are easy to site in a bibliography, while websites often do not provide the information to create a complete citation.
Databases can help narrow down a topic or suggest a related subject, while websites are not often organized to support specific research needs.
Databases are frequently updated and include date of publication, while websites may not indicate when a page is updated.
Websites that tend have more factual and updated information have Domain Names such as .edu (education), .gov (government), .org (organization) and .com (company).

Periodicals

A periodical is any publication that is published in regular intervals. These include:

Journals - a scholarly refereed publication usually aimed at members of a professional organization
Magazines - a publication usually containing advertising, sold by subscription or on a newsstand and aimed at the general public
Newspapers - current news published daily, weekly, monthly or on some other cycle
Newsletters - a short summary of current information about an organization and its members

Woodbury Public Library Periodicals 2013

The following periodicals may be found in hard copy at the Branch specified:

Highland Mills

American Art & Review Businessweek Brides Car & Driver

Consumer Reports Cooking Light Cornwall Local Country

Living Ebony Entertainment Weekly Family Circle

Fortune Good Housekeeping Horticulture Hudson Valley

Kiplinger's PF More National Geographic Traveler

Natural Health New York New York Times

Parents People Popular Mechanics Popular Photography

Prevention Quilter's Nwsltr. Readers Digest (LP) Scientific

American Sports Illustrated Time Times Herald Record

US News & World Report Vanity Fair Vogue Wall St. Journal

Yankee Yoga Journal

Central Valley

American Girl Better Homes & Gardens Bon Appetit

Boy's Life Click Consumer Reports Cornwall Local Discover

Disney FamilyFun Every Day with Rachel Ray Fitness

Glamour Health Hudson Valley Ladies Home Journal

Mad Martha Stewart Living Money National Geographic

NG Kids New Moon Girls New Yorker New York Times

O: Oprah Organic Gardening Parenting Early Years/School Years

PC World People Popular Science Prevention

Ranger Rick Real Simple Redbook Seventeen

Taste of Home Times Herald Record Zoobooks

Dewey Decimal System: What is it?

In 1876, Melvil Dewey (1851-1931), a Librarian, devised a method of classifying books based on a decimal (from latin word decem, meaning ten) system. There are ten large groupings or classes in the system. These ten classes of books correspond to the main divisions of human knowledge:

000 - 099 General Works, Computer Science

100 - 199 Philosophy and Psychology

200 - 299 Religion

300 - 399 Social Sciences

400 - 499 Languages

500 - 599 Natural Sciences and Mathematics

600 - 699 Technology (Applied Sciences)

700 - 799 Fine Arts

800 - 899 Literature

900 - 999 Geography & History

Each of the ten large classes are then further subdivided to include ten smaller subjects or topics within the large class. For example, the 800's - Literature books are classified and would be found on library shelves as follows:

800 Literature

810 American

820 English

830 German

840 French

850 Italian

860 Spanish

870 Latin

880 Greek

890 Minor Languages

American Fiction actually has assigned Dewey number of 813. Libraries have taken 813's out of the non-fiction section entirely and put it in its own section in the Library, called Fiction.