Information Services Team Blog

Passport to Communication – Let’s Go Mango!

Mango Languages database is an online language-learning system that can help you learn over 30 languages like Spanish, French, Japanese, German, Greek, Italian and more.

The online language learning resource uses real-life situations and actual conversations to more effectively teach a new language. By listening to and repeating after material designed from native conversations, you will not only learn the individual words and phrases, you will know how they are used in practical situations and conversations. You will learn more than grammar and vocabulary. You will learn how to communicate.

 
The database is very useful when you travel as you can acquire practical verbal skills in another language for everyday polite conversation situations. Click on the video for a quick overview of how to go about learning a new language or even improving on a language you already know.

Click on "Mango Languages Database" or start the video below:

 

 

See also related post:
Aloha! Pehea ‘oe? Learn Hawaiian with Mango Languages Database & your Library Card!

Got Film Fest Fever? Get Film Indexes Online!

The 37th Toronto International Film Festival is coming up soon, from September 6th to 16th, 2012. If you are suffering from a serious case of film fest fever, find relief through the library and get Film Indexes Online!

                                                    

 Image of Fumeo film projector by Mattia Luigi Nappi via Wikimedia Commons. Used under Creative Commons license.

 
Previously accessible from Research and Reference branches only, Film Indexes Online is now available from any Toronto Public Library branch or from home using your library barcode and PIN, which is great news for serious researchers, students, and film buffs alike.

Film Indexes Online is a portal to three top-notch film resources:

1.American Film International Catalog (AFI)

AFI documents over 48,000 American feature films produced between 1893 and 1973. Most records include substantial plot summaries and comprehensive filmographic information, plus citations for reviews and articles. Includes the popular "AFI 100 Years..." series of cinematic milestones, such as AFI's Top 100 Movies, Top 25 Musicals, and Top 50 Stars. Compiled by the American Film Institute (AFI) and updated twice annually.

2. FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals Plus (FIAF Plus)

FIAF Plus provides abstracts and full-text articles from some 340 academic and popular film periodicals from 1972 to the prsent. Produced in collaboration with the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) and updated monthly.

3. Film Index International (FII)

FII features cross-referenced records for 120,000 films and 750,000 film personalities from over 180 countries. Coverage is from 1900 to the present and includes all genres of film, from the first silent movies to the most recent blockbusters. Also includes international film awards, searchable plot summaries, and annotated citations. Based on the Summary of Information on Film and Televison (SIFT) database from the British Film Institute (BFI) and updated twice annually.

Film Indexes Online can be used to search all three databases at the same time or each separately. With the all-in-one search you can search or browse by keyword, film title, date, or person. The search interface supports Boolean, exact, truncation, and proximity searching. For more advanced searches, you can search each database separately to take advantage of unique functionality (e.g., hierarchical subject thesauri).

For a video demonstration of how to use Film Indexes Online click here.

Wondering how the Film Indexes Online database compares to the freely available website resource Internet Movie Database (IMDB)? To find out, I searched for one of my all-time favourite films, Rear Window, in both resources.

Here is some of what I found:

Source material: 

The AFI record in Film Indexes Online notes that the film is based on the short story "It Had To Be Murder" by Cornell Woolrich, published in Dime Detective in February 1942, and includes a brief publication history of the story. The IMDB record, by comparison, simply lists Cornell Woolrich under "Writing credits".

Subject indexing:

The AFI record includes two genre headings (Mystery, Suspense), plus dozens of primary and secondary cross-referenced subject headings (e.g., Apartment buildings, Voyeurism, Traveling salesmen). IMDB, on the other hand, includes three genre headings (Mystery, Romance, Thriller) but lacks controlled subject headings.

References:

The combined records in Film Indexes Online include approximately 200 citations to reviews and articles, including approximately three dozen that were published at the time of the film's original release. The IMDB record does not include any citations to published reviews or articles, but does include hundreds of user reviews and an active message board.

In sum, while IMDB is a useful and popular ready reference tool, Film Indexes Online in the resource to use for more complex reference questions and scholarly research.

Happy film fest everyone!

E-CPS - Drug Information

 e-CPS has so much more to offer than the big blue book.  While still the top resource for the use and interactions of drugs available in Canada, e-Therapeutics also contains information on illnesses and conditions.  "Therapeutic Choices" presents an overview of the prevention and treatment of medical conditions such as influenza and age-related macular degeneration.  Under the tab "Drug Interactions" is a powerful tool.  LexiComp's Lexi-Interact allows you to type in the name of a drug or natural product and then  brings up a list of products and the the severity of the interactions.

The information in e-CPS is updated every two weeks or more  frequently depending on the urgency of the information.  Health Canada alerts are added to the drug monographs as they are issued. 

All in all a great source of current, Canadian drug information.

For quick instructions on searching e-CPS Download CPS (Compendium of Pharmaceuticals and Specialties)

 

 

All things Canadian databases - Canada's Information Resource Centre

Canada's Information Resource Centre databases give instant access to information on Canadian organizations, businesses, libraries, schools, governments, and cultural institutions. The list of databases includes:

• Associations Canada
• Canadian Almanac & Directory 
• Canadian Environmental Resource Guide
• Canadian Parliamentary Guide
• Financial Services Canada
• Governments Canada
• Libraries Canada

Click on  Canada's Information Resource Centre-An Overview for an overview of the above databases and the breadth of information available.

 

                                                

 

What's up ... docx?

Microsoft word documents created using MS-Office 95 to MS-Office 2003 have the file extension as .doc while Microsoft word documents created using MS-Office 2007 have the extension as .docx. You can open older version files in Office 2007 and can work with them, but to open files with .docx extension, you need to use the Microsoft Office Viewer.

Click on  What's up ... docx? to find out how.