News from the Reference Desk Category: Web Resources

Fashion books in GVRL

fashion-fadsGale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL) contains a large variety of reference books available for reading online. One of the subjects we have is fashion. You can look through the complete range of titles for adults here: Gale Virtual Reference Library Primary Research.

Some individual titles are Clothing and Fashion: American Fashion from Head to Toe, The Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion, Fashion Fads through American History: Fitting Clothes into Context, Fashion, Costume, and Culture, ed. 2: Clothing, Headwear, Body Decorations, and Footwear Through the Ages, and World Clothing and Fashion: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture, and Social Influence.

Consumer Reports

Awesome news! MPPL now subscribes to ConsumerReports.org, the official website of Consumer Reports Magazine. You can find the reviews you trust for things like mattresses, cars, and laptops, but also bacon, bedding, and pet food.

Web Resources

 

Searching Consumer Reports Made Simple

if yoConsumer-Reports-Logou were familiar with the convoluted method of searching the Consumer Reports databases through MasterFILE, you will be relieved to hear those days are over. Consumer Reports is now easier to search through Article Finder. We have set up a special link to help you. Click here – Consumer Reports – and put whatever items you need reviews for in the box, then hit enter. You’ll find it’s an easy and modern search!

Britannica Library

britannica libraryThe Library now subscribes to the excellent and authoritative Encyclopedia Britannica’s online presence, Britannica Library. Explore thousands of topics in science, social studies, language arts, and mathematics for school projects, review concepts taught in the classroom, or learn something new. Very impressive are the more than 90,000 images, videos, and audio clips. There are 3 levels – children’s, teen, and adult – with great information for everyone. It would be easy to spend an afternoon or evening exploring here.

One-Stop Veterans’ Benefits Help

Helping veteran and other service members find ways to connect to benefits is one of the services provided by the reference staff. Thanks to Executive Order 13426 (issued in March 2007) this previously somewhat confusing and laborious task got a whole lot easier. Order 13426 established the President’s Commission on Care for America’s Returning Wounded Warriors, which recommended the creation of a web portal that would provide service members, veterans, their families and authorized caregivers with a single sign-on, central access point to clinical and benefit data. This portal, now known as eBenefits, has arrived and is a great resource to research, find, access, and, in time, manage their benefits and personal information.

eBenefits utilizes the National Resource Directory (NRD), a partnership among the Departments of Defense, Labor and Veterans Affairs. Information contained within the NRD is from federal, state and local government agencies; veteran and military service organizations; non-profit and community-based organizations; academic institutions and professional associations that provide assistance to wounded warriors and their families. In addition it partners with and uses information from a variety of sources including Benefits.gov, Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS), Defense.gov, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Military Health System, MilitaryHOMEFRONT, My HealtheVet (MHV), Social Security Online, and TRICARE.

Veterans and service members can create an account and access their current benefits status, download their DD-214, search by location and topic for employment and education opportunities designed specifically for veterans and service members, and more. The site offers detailed tutorials on how best to use it, broken down by the type of user (e.g. veteran, current service member, related family). It even shows you how to connect with other vets via Facebook and Twitter! Without a doubt, if you or someone in your family is a veteran or active service member, it’s well worth taking a look at eBenefits, either on your own or at the library with a reference librarian—make an appointment today and let us help you navigate this comprehensive resource!