connect icut ’s search engine Volume 13 , Issue 3

Apri l 2014

I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E :

iCONN OneSearch Video Tutorial

P.1

Why Not Just Google It?

P.1

Statewide eBook Platform

P.1

The Heartbleed Bug P.1

CEN Conference P.1

eBook Symposium P.2

EBSCO and CCSS P.2

Access to OneClickdigital

P.2

iCONN Training P.2

T H E I C O N N T I M E S

r e

iCONN OneSearch Video Tutorial

iCONN is a service of

the Connecticut State

Library’s Division of

Library Development.

Come visit iCONN staff at

the Connecticut Education

Network (CEN) Annual

Member Conference on

May 22.

Click here for conference

details and registration.

iCONN and EBSCO, in close

consultation with the iCONN

Database Committee, have

completed an introductory

streaming video tutorial (4:37)

on iCONN OneSearch – the

tutorial is embedded at

http://bit.ly/Pu7U3c. Soon,

EBSCO will add a prominent

link to this video from the

OneSearch basic search

screen as well as from every

OneSearch search results page.

During March and April, four training sessions were conducted by EBSCO staff on

comparing iCONN OneSearch with free web search engines. Archived recordings of

these sessions will be available soon at: http://bit.ly/1iMClgx. The training compares

iCONN with popular search engines and reviews ways that OneSearch brings reliable,

vetted content to the users of these resources. A concise enumeration of the advantages

of iCONN over free web search engines—which informed the training—can be found

at: http://www.cslib.org/iconnsitemap/staff/iCONNsAdvantages.aspx.

Why Not Just Google It?

Statewide eBook Platform Possibility

H.B 5477 is “An Act Concerning A State-wide Platform for the

Distribution of Electronic Books.” The bill was raised to give the

State Library authority to establish a statewide platform for the

distribution of eBooks. The current status of the bill is posted at

http://1.usa.gov/Qy3XLS. Kendall Wiggin, State Librarian, requested

$2.2 million in bonding funds to develop and "stock" a state-owned

and operated statewide eBook platform in lieu of using a third party vendor. The

Advisory Council for Library Planning and Development and the E-Book Task Force

will be among several committees advising on the development of the platform.

CEN Conference May 22 at the Connecticut Conference Center

The Heartbleed Bug—Status Report

The Heartbleed Bug is described at http://heartbleed.com/. We have queried all vendors

who are supplying services to iCONN.org and posted their encouraging responses at:

http://www.cslib.org/iconnsitemap/staff/HeartbleedStatus.html

Page 2 Volume 13 , Issue 3

The iCONN Times is a quarterly

publication of iCONN—

Connecticut’s re-search engine.

Find it on the site index at:

http://bit.ly/qLlmwu.

iCONN

786 South Main Street

Middletown, CT 06457

(860) 704-2220 or toll free

(888) 256-1222

Free iCONN Training

eReaders and

OneClickdigital

Workshops

iCONN Electronic Resources

Coordinator, Eric Hansen

describes and demonstrates

OneClickdigital, iCONN’s

eAudio and eBook service.

After a brief discussion of

the history of the service,

Eric will demonstrate

browsing, searching, account

creation, placing holds,

adding to a wish list, and

checking out titles. Bring

your iPhone or iPad, Android

phone or tablet, or Kindle

Fire for some hands-on

exploration of your own.

You will also be able to

practice with our Kindle and

Nook eReaders to see how

they work with the OneClick

platform.

You will need a valid email

address and Connecticut

public library card number to

create an account and to

place holds and check out

titles.

To register, click on one of

the following dates/locations

of your choice:

May 14 at the Middletown

Library Service Center

June 11 at the Middlebury

Public Library

Update - EBSCO and Common Core State Standards

iCONN's Electronic Resources Coordinator Eric

Hansen organized a statewide eBook symposium

that took place at the University of Hartford on

February 28, with help from ACLPD eBook Task

Force members Ernie DiMattia, Mary Anne

Mendola Franco and Kate Sheehan. iCONN ILL

Coordinator Steve Cauffman assisted with setup

and registration. The symposium, attended by 104,

featured a keynote address by Alan Inouye of the

ALA, and a lively panel discussion moderated by

Kate Sheehan that included Skip Dye, Vice President

of Library and Academic Sales, Random House, and Adam Silverman, Director of Digital

Business Development, Harper Collins. Deputy Commissioner for Consumer Protection

Michelle Seagull presented her report on eBooks, Connecticut libraries and the publishing

industry. Mary Anne Mendola Franco presented the results of her statewide survey of

eBooks in Connecticut libraries, and Eric Hansen presented results of his surveys of

eBook costs to libraries and book sales as a source of revenue to Friends of Libraries. In

all, the symposium served to lay the groundwork for a successful dialogue between

Connecticut libraries and eBook vendors, with the eventual goal of a statewide eBook

platform. PowerPoint presentations from the symposium are available on SlideShare at

http://www.slideshare.net/csldld.

eBook Symposium

Working in close coordination with the iCONN Database Committee, we provided a

number of specific recommendations to EBSCO on how its K-12 content and search

interface can best support Common Core State Standards (CCSS). We expect many of

these recommendations will be incorporated in a new K-12 platform which will be

released in stages later this year.

Until then, we have asked EBSCO to provide training for library media specialists on how

EBSCO’s current platform supports the Common Core State Standards. To support that

training, iCONN has posted a page that explains how search results can be limited by

Lexile level (the only quantitative measure of text complexity referenced by the CCSS)

and by number of pages today: http://bit.ly/1hrnROc. The page provides the command syn-

tax needed to execute these searches in resources where these functions are not available in

advanced search.

Access to OneClickdigital by K-12 Students

From the beginning, iCONN's downloadable eAudio and eBook service,

called OneClickdigital, has required a valid Connecticut public library card

number to create an account for placing holds and checking out titles.

iCONN has come to find that student use of the service is low because many

students lack the necessary public library cards. iCONN presently is testing

account creation within the building for a few volunteer K12 schools whose

IP addresses iCONN furnished to OneClickdigital. This method renders

public library card numbers unnecessary for registration, and once an account is created,

the student can access that account with their username and password from anywhere at

any time. If the test schools are successful with this approach, iCONN and OneClickdigital

will roll it out to all K12 schools statewide.

Silverman, Seagull, Rep. Sear, Dye, DiMattia