Spotlight on: Auto Repair Reference Center

Have you tried Auto Repair Reference Center, from the publishers of Chilton's automotive manuals? It's the most comprehensive online collection of automobile repair reference information.

Auto Repair Reference Center (ARRC) contains repair and maintenance information on most major manufacturers of domestic and imported vehicles. New repair procedures, TSBs and updates are added to the product on a regular basis.

All of the content in ARRC has been created by ASE certified technicians.

Features include:

• Coverage of more than 37,000 vehicles from 1945 to present
• Millions of drawings and step-by-step photographs
• Approximately 110,000 technical service bulletins & recalls issued by the original equipment vehicle manufacturer
• Over 180,000 enhanced wiring diagrams for easy viewing and printing
• Specifications & maintenance schedules
• Labor Time Guide & Estimator
• Video overviews of auto systems with AutoIQ
• Quick Tips (a complete guide to vehicle ownership & maintenance)
• Ability to email high-quality PDF records
• Diagnostic information
• Unique, user-friendly interface

Repair/maintenance information is provided for -

• Transmissions
• Brakes
• Ignition systems
• Exhaust systems
• Heating/Cooling
• Electrical systems
• Wheels/Tires
• Bodywork
• Diesel Engines
• and much more...

Check out the Auto Repair Reference Center for yourself by going to www.pamunkeylibrary.org/databases_by_subject.htm. Click on Auto Repair and choose (Library) or (Work, Home, or School), depending on where you are. Don't forget to have your library card handy if you're away from the library.

If you have any questions about Auto Repair Reference Center, please e-mail ask@pamunkeylibrary.org.

Find the language of love with Mango Languages!

Do you want to learn the language of love? Or do you just love languages? Why not give Mango Languages a try? Mango is an online language learning tool that offers 35 foreign languages, including Spanish, French, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, German, Mandarin Chinese, Greek, Italian, Russian and more. Mango also has 15 English courses available. You’ll hear useful phrases spoken by native speakers, and you can learn at your own pace.

Go to www.pamunkeylibrary.org/databases_by_subject.htm#languages and click on the link for Mango Languages to get started.

If you have any questions about Mango, ask a friendly staff member or e-mail ask@pamunkeylibrary.org.

Check out the new Find It Virginia web site

Check out the new Find It Virginia web site from the Library of Virginia. Find it Virginia is a collection of databases that provide free, 24/7 access to newspapers, magazine and journal articles, and reference books for all age ranges and interests.

Highlights of the new site include custom collections for high school students and adults, including the following:

• The Fine Arts and Music Collection covers arts and the humanities to social sciences, science and technology, across all academic disciplines. Access to many scholarly journals, news magazines, and newspapersincludes full text and images!
• The General Science Collection is composed of nearly 300 predominantly full-text academic journals and general science-focused magazines. It provides coverage of all scientific endeavor, including particle physics, quantum theory, advanced mathematics, and biotechnology.
• The U.S. History Collection provides coverage of the current thinking and events in U.S. History, as well as work being established in the field in over 40 robust and balanced scholarly journals.
• The World History Collection includes nearly 40 predominantly full-text journals, providing balanced coverage of events in World History, useful both to the novice historian and to the advanced academic researcher.
• The Vocations & Careers Collection offers content from over 300 largely full-text sources, providing content from general career guides to highly specialized industry journals.
• The War & Terrorism Collection appeals to researchers and students of history, social science, and current events, who will gain insight into conflicts: their causes, their impact, and how they are perceived on a global scale. Almost 100 full-text periodicals are included, with coverage beginning in 1980.

If you have any questions about the Find It Virginia web site or any other library resources, please call or visit your local branch library or e-mail ask@pamunkeylibrary.org.

Spotlight on: Mango Languages

Do you Mango? We have something new for you!

Do you want to quickly learn key words and phrases in another language, but don’t have a lot of time? Try Mango Basic, with lessons in 22 languages, including Hebrew, Tagalog, Hindi, Vietnamese, Turkish, Arabic, and much more!

Want to learn languages in depth like Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, French, German, and more ? Try Mango Complete, with 100 lessons for each language. And if you’ve already created a profile and started learning, Mango remembers where you left off.

Try the new Mango now!

Questions? – ask@pamunkeylibrary.org

A New Look for PowerSearch

Do you use PowerSearch, a great tool that lets you search for information in 12 databases at one time? Now is a great time to check it out, because PowerSearch has a new look and lots of new features, including:

• Custom profile creation, where you can modify the home page so that the topics and publications are fed through RSS feeds directly to the page when you log in. You can also name and save any search.
  
• Web 2.0 sharing tools like Del.icio.us, MySpace, Reddit, Digg, Facebook, Newsvine, Twitter and others that let you share interesting articles with others.
• ReadSpeaker (text-to-speech technology), lets you listen to each article on your computer or you can download its mp3 file to your iPod or other audio device.
• Search results that incorporate images, video and podcasts, as well as text articles
• On-demand translation of articles into 11 different languages.

Look for the PowerSearch box on our home page (under the navigation menu on the left side of the page) or visit Find It Virginia and log in with your library card number. You can also get to PowerSearch through the following databases by clicking on Gale Databases:

• Biography Resource Center
• Business and Company Resource Center
• Child Development*
  
• Computer Database*
• Expanded Academic ASAP*
• Gale Virtual Reference Library*
• General Reference Center Gold*
• Health and Wellness Resource Center and Alternative Health Module
• InfoTrac Junior Edition K-12
• InfoTrac Kid's Edition
• InfoTrac OneFile*
• InfoTrac Religion and Philosophy*
• InfoTrac Student Edition*
• Kids InfoBits - K12
• LegalTrac*
• Literary Criticism Online
• Military & Intelligence Database*
• Professional Collection*
• What Do I Read Next?
• Women in History*

* Searchable with PowerSearch

If you have any questions about PowerSearch or any of our online resources, ask a library staff member or e-mail ask@pamunkeylibrary.org.

Introducing the New eLibrary!

Seek, Learn, and Discover with the new eLibrary

Today, eLibrary introduces a new look and more interactive features. eLibrary is great for looking up articles in magazines & newspapers, audio/video clips, transcripts, maps, and much more! New features include the following:

• Essential Pages centered on the most-studied topics.
• Personal workspaces that incorporate saved lists, note-taking tools, and citation generators
• Custom study units, Lexiles, and translation tools
• Integrated timeline templates, slideshow makers, and lesson plan tools to promote online collaboration and sharing.

You can find eLibrary on our web site on the alphabetical database page (http://www.pamunkeylibrary.org/databases_by_alpha.htm) or the subject page (http://www.pamunkeylibrary.org/databases_by_subject.htm) under "General Reference" or "Magazines and Newspapers." You can also get to these pages on the home page under "Find Magazine Articles & More."

If you have any questions about eLibrary or any of our other databases, call or visit your local branch library or e-mail ask@pamunkeylibrary.org.

Introducing ReadSpeaker

Do you ever wish you could listen to articles online, as well as read them? ReadSpeaker (www.readspeaker.com), a text-to-speech web service from VoiceCorp lets you do just that. And now it's available on our Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL) and Kids InfoBits databases.

Kids InfoBits

Gale Virtual Reference Library

There's no need to download any plugin or extra software. You will see a link to the ReadSpeaker player at the top of every article. Just click "Play" or "Download MP3" to hear the full text of the article read aloud. There's also a link to ReadSpeaker Help if you want to find out more about how to use ReadSpeaker or if yu have problems getting it to work. All of the text-to-speech audio is generated mechanically by ReadSpeaker - not prerecorded - and is read back to you by an automated electronic voice. The fluency and clarity of today’s text-to-speech technology sounds much more human, compared with earlier techniques that sounded more robotic.

Don’t forget to have your library card handy when you use the Gale Virtual Reference Library and Kids InfoBits databases from work, home, or school. If you have any questions about any of our online databases or library services, please e-mail ask@pamunkeylibrary.org.