Wednesday, October 3, 2012

CHOICE(R)-Recommended Online Resources!

CHOICE® “is a publishing unit of the Association of College & Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association."  The following online resources were featured in the July 2012, Volume 49, No. 11 issue of Choice magazine (pages 5, 9, and 77, respectively) and are included here as items of potential interest for your future research:

General

The National Park Service:  U.S. Department of the Interior website provides valid information on "the history, current events, and culture pertaining to national parks in the US."  General subjects "related to nature and science" are also included.  Maintained by The National Park Service, this "well-organized and easy to navigate" site is intended for "general readers, students of all ages, and educators".  In addition, the site is a visual feast with "images, virtual tours, web cams, and multimedia presentations..." galore. 

Udemy, known as "'the academy of you'", provides "thousands of courses in a range of subject areas, from traditional topics like business and psychology to more timely topics such as developing iPhone apps."  It is important to note, however, that while most courses are free, "some have a $5 - $250 fee, based on individual instructors' pricing".  To access the free courses, you must "log in through a Udemy account or via Facebook."  The use of Udemy via Facebook offers the best of social media possibilities:  "students may connect with others in a class,...and with the individual who created the course."  The scope of materials available for each course is impressive and include "lectures, PowerPoint presentations, videos, audio files, and PDF documents."  The site is well-organized and "easy to browse" with courses arranged by categories.  Even better, if you are interested in creating your own course, you "may use the Udemy platform to design a course for free and then decide whether to make it available to students at no charge or for a fee." 

Social & Behavioral Sciences

Global Resource Directory, created by "globalEDGE...at Michigan State University serves as a digital library to several thousand high-quality online global business resources."  This very well-organized site is a favorite among "business professionals because most of its resources are freely available and would be challenging to locate by other means."  Each resource includes a "brief annotation and a review date...", while items considered to be "superior have a 'globalEDGE Recommended' logo,..., and appear at the top of entry lists."  Be sure to check out "the Multi-Country subheading under Research, which provides access to country profile resources, including a popular in-house product titled globalEDGE Country Insights...".  This product allows you to compare data and statistics for over 200 different countries.

                                                                     -Kerry Vash, Online Librarian, Blog Co-editor -

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