Resource Recommendation: Quick work tips

The Library offers a Table of Contents (TOC) service for state employees, which allows you to select journals you're interested in and receive an email whenever new articles are published. Around 200 titles are available, so it can be a little daunting to know which ones will really help you in your work.

One of my favorites is Administrative Professional Today. Even though I'm not technically an administrator, I find lots of useful tidbits about communicating, interacting with coworkers, and using technology more effectively. It's published monthly and each issue has 20-25 short articles, most around 100-200 words, with a couple of longer feature articles.

An example of the email for Administrative Professional Today, with links that take you to the full articles (but not in this image - it's just a screenshot of the email).

As you can see from the sample, the articles have a wide appeal. Many of us could improve our networking skills, learn how to handle a bad boss or coworker, and wonder how to have a great career. The articles are short, readable, and provide concrete tips, like ways to deal with a frustrating situation you might encounter at work.

If these are things that would help you, sign up to receive the TOC. If you're a state employee, go to http://library.alaska.gov/forms/tocrequest.aspx and create a TOC subscription or add Administrative Professional Today to your current subscription. If you're not a state employee but are an Alaska resident, you can set up your own TOC emails by following these instructions.

Update: The Library has discontinued the Table of Contents service. If you'd like to receive notifications when this or other journals publish new issues, visit our TOC guide. 4/27/2018 

Since You Asked! Episode 20: Mango and OWL for Language Learning

Librarian Freya Anderson talks about how she uses Mango Languages and OWL videoconferencing to gain confidence and keep her brain young. Find out more about these great resources, accessible to all Alaska residents with internet access, and how you can join the Alaska State Library's French language discussion group.

Listen to Podcast (.mp3)
[10 minutes]
Recorded on November 12-13, 2014

Find out more:

• SLED
• Mango Languages for Alaska residents
• Language learning resources
• The Alaska OWL Program
• Learning a second language as an adult keeps your brain young, by Jessica Hullinger, in mental_floss, published online July 7, 2014
• What happens in the brain when you learn a language? by Alison Mackey, in The Guardian, published online September 4, 2014

A SLEDing Summer

Question: Can SLED help me find stuff to keep my children entertained and maybe educated during summer vacation?

Answer: The librarian-selected resources on SLED cover a wide range of subjects. While we can't guarantee results for any specific child or adult, we think SLED has something for nearly everybody:

• Use SLED's Daily Living section to pull up the Internet Movie Database and figure out what movies to watch or rent.
• Use the Digital Pipeline on SLED to read magazines like:
• Field & Stream
• Macworld
• People
• Sky & Telescope
• Do a search on "paper airplanes" in the the SLED search box and find Amazing Paper Airplanes from the Internet Public Library Kidspace.

Is there a general topic you're interested in? Let us know in comments and we'll check to see if SLED has something for you.

To SLED, Or Not To SLED?

Question: Can SLED help me find a copy of Richard III by Shakespeare? I also could use some commentary on the play.

Answer: Yes, SLED can help you with Richard III or any other Shakespeare play. The fastest way would be to use the SLED search box in the upper left hand corner of the SLED home page. Type in [richard III shakespeare] for your search and you'll find:

• Famous quotes from the play
• A 1914 e-book of the play itself

Add the word "criticism" and you'll get:

• A link to the Internet Public Library Online Criticism Collection with Richard III sites
• Location information on an anthology of Shakespeare criticism

If you're needing information on more than just one play or perhaps a different writer, it would be helpful to click on SLED's category of Arts, Literature & History. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and check out some of the following sites:

• Online Literary Criticism Collection
• Novelist

Coming back to the title of this post, I hope you'll choose to SLED when thinking about literature in or out of Alaska.

Let SLED Help Your Garden Grow

Question: What is SLED and can it help me with my gardening?

Answer: SLED is a public service providing easy and equitable access to electronic information. SLED was developed by the Alaska State Library and the Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks. It stands for Statewide Library Electronic Doorway, but everyone who knows about SLED calls it SLED. The sites on SLED are picked by an advisory committee that includes librarians from around the state and a member of the general public.

SLED can help you with many things, including your gardening. If you go to SLED at http://sled.alaska.edu and click on Daily Living, Recreation & Sports, you'll find an entries for the Alaska Master Gardener Association and for Cooperative Extension Service Publications from the University of Alaska. Both of these sites have a wealth of Alaska-related gardening information.

If you use the search box that appears in the upper left hand corner of SLED, you can ask it gardening questions. Try searches using these terms:

best time plant anchorage
growing tomatoes
growing fruit fairbanks

Good luck and good growing!