Thing 17 - ELM productivity tools

I have some experience with the ELM databases, but it's mostly the technical "this-isn't-working-how-do-I-fix-it" kind of experience.

I did the search for social networking in ProQuest and found some interesting articles that I both downloaded and emailed to myself. 

I had the same trouble with the EBSCO db that others did (according to the comments at the bottom of the Thing 17 page) - didn't get a "create search alert" link or a way to add the RSS feed, and couldn't get the QuickTime videos to play. So much works so well - it spoils us for when things don't work!

I also clicked around some in NetLibrary. Many of the titles indicated they were unavailable to my library, but they did look interesting. Hmmm.....ILL?

Some other 23Thing-ers blogs have indicated that they were totally unfamiliar with the ELM resources. I've done a little bit of searching - partly to make sure things were working, partly to help create a training demo for kids when we were doing some outreach programming, and partly when helping patrons ask questions. Databases are one of those things where it is extremely useful to go back and do a refresher course periodically, both to remind yourself of what features are available and to see what features have been added. What a great service from the state these ELM databases are!