Just as with medical or disease topics, there are many sites about the law and criminal justice topics, from a variety of self-proclaimed “experts”. Fortunately, there are also good, quality sites that will help you find not just answers, but answers you can trust.
Note: this list is not a guarantee that every link on each page of equal quality, usability, and value. Be sure to evaluate what you plan to use carefully.
GENERAL
Guide to Law Online - Law Library of Congress (Library of Congress)
http://www.loc.gov/law/help/guide.php
A collection of links and guides on state, national, and international law. This link goes directly to the “Research Help” section. Many sections, pages, and links are annotated.
Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School
http://www.law.cornell.edu/
Award-winning website for legal information. Sections include: Constitutions and Codes; Court Opinions; and two Topical Libraries, on ethics and social security. The “Law about…” section – click on “All Topics” to get the full list – has areas ranging from adoption to contracts to elections, each with a well-written overview and menu of sources from federal, state, and other resources.
Reddy's Forensic Page
http://www.forensicpage.com/
A huge collection of, unfortunately not annotated, links relating to forensic science. Sections include: fingerprints, arson, forensic nursing, and DNA, as well as broader categories such as scientific working groups, forensic science laboratories, and ethics and forensic science.
Bureau of Justice Statistics Home page
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/
The best place to find actual numbers on crime and crime-related topics.
LOUISIANA
Louisiana State Legislature
http://www.legis.state.la.us/searchlegis.htm
Go directly to the source, for current laws and bills in Louisiana. The “How do I…?” section gives instructions on both using the site and finding legal information.
Louisiana State Supreme Court
http://www.lasc.org/default.asp
The official site for the highest court in the state. The “Library Information” page has a good introduction to the print collection, and has online guides to legal research, many of which are specific to Louisiana laws and sources.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Monday, November 24, 2008
Library Website Information
Visit the Library's site at http://library.lsue.edu/.
Use the Library's catalog at http://lsue.louislibraries.org/.
The library staff understands that your time is precious. Please refer to the handouts on the library's webpage (http://library.lsue.edu/searching.htm).
Should you need help during our regular hours, please feel free to call or e-mail. E-mail questions will be answered as quickly as possible.
Your librarians.
Use the Library's catalog at http://lsue.louislibraries.org/.
The library staff understands that your time is precious. Please refer to the handouts on the library's webpage (http://library.lsue.edu/searching.htm).
Should you need help during our regular hours, please feel free to call or e-mail. E-mail questions will be answered as quickly as possible.
Your librarians.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Nursing/Medical Websites
There are a lot of sites about nursing and/or medicine. Many of them would be very poor choices to use for either a class or personal need. While the few listed below are some of the best, the are not the only good ones – however, finding medical information on the internet requires a higher lever of evaluation then, say, English literature. Thinking that Hamlet is the main character of “A Rose for Emily” makes you look silly; allowing someone ‘just one cookie’ based on “this website I saw” could make you responsible for making them much more sick, if not worse.
Be especially cautious about sites hosted by pharmaceutical companies. Some are well-designed, regularly updated, and cite facts from reliable sources. Others are not and do not.
And not all bad sites are as obvious as, say, “aliens cure cancer” (or the more popular, “aliens cause cancer”, to judge by basic Google searches). Yes, it does take time, effort, and practice to separate the good from the bad. But isn’t your health, and the health of your future patients, worth it?
These sites are divided into two sections, based on the two big projects in NURS 1001 (the career paper) and NURS 2501 (the disease paper) at LSUE.
CAREER
Occupational Outlook Handbook
http://www.bls.gov/oco/
The best place to find information about careers in the United States. Each career entry has sections about the nature of the work, average salaries, training and qualifications, and estimated job growth (or lack). Updated yearly.
Office of Science Education - LifeWorks
http://science-education.nih.gov/LifeWorks.nsf/feature/index.htm
Information on health and medical science careers, created and run by the National Institutes for Health. There is some overlap between this and the OOH, but not much.
MEDICINE
MedlinePlus: Health Information from the National Library of Medicine
http://medlineplus.gov/
Worth listing twice. The absolute best place to start for health and medical information, run by the National Library of Medicine. All outside links (for example, to the American Cancer Association) are clearly labeled.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
http://www.cdc.gov/
Information on most diseases, with focus on public health/prevention. Entries have sections on basic information, statistics, and a glossary. The A-Z index works better than the search box. One of the better government sites for clearly dated pages.
BONUS
Study Tips: Tips From Former Nursing Students
http://www.medi-smart.com/study-tips.htm
List of tips and suggestions from and for nursing students. Worth looking at despite the date (2004), but the rest of the site is not recommended.
Be especially cautious about sites hosted by pharmaceutical companies. Some are well-designed, regularly updated, and cite facts from reliable sources. Others are not and do not.
And not all bad sites are as obvious as, say, “aliens cure cancer” (or the more popular, “aliens cause cancer”, to judge by basic Google searches). Yes, it does take time, effort, and practice to separate the good from the bad. But isn’t your health, and the health of your future patients, worth it?
These sites are divided into two sections, based on the two big projects in NURS 1001 (the career paper) and NURS 2501 (the disease paper) at LSUE.
CAREER
Occupational Outlook Handbook
http://www.bls.gov/oco/
The best place to find information about careers in the United States. Each career entry has sections about the nature of the work, average salaries, training and qualifications, and estimated job growth (or lack). Updated yearly.
Office of Science Education - LifeWorks
http://science-education.nih.gov/LifeWorks.nsf/feature/index.htm
Information on health and medical science careers, created and run by the National Institutes for Health. There is some overlap between this and the OOH, but not much.
MEDICINE
MedlinePlus: Health Information from the National Library of Medicine
http://medlineplus.gov/
Worth listing twice. The absolute best place to start for health and medical information, run by the National Library of Medicine. All outside links (for example, to the American Cancer Association) are clearly labeled.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
http://www.cdc.gov/
Information on most diseases, with focus on public health/prevention. Entries have sections on basic information, statistics, and a glossary. The A-Z index works better than the search box. One of the better government sites for clearly dated pages.
BONUS
Study Tips: Tips From Former Nursing Students
http://www.medi-smart.com/study-tips.htm
List of tips and suggestions from and for nursing students. Worth looking at despite the date (2004), but the rest of the site is not recommended.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Online Books
Collections of online books – or electronic books, or eBooks – are growing. Some of the more well-known and useful ones are listed below. All of ones listed are free and offer the full book, not just selections or chapters (or did at the time this was posted). There are others listed in the left-hand column; some of those require logging in with an email address or additional information (always read the privacy policy first!).
Be aware that a very small percentage of books are available online, and an even smaller amount is available for free. Most free online books are classics or older, as the copyright has expired, so no one has to pay to make them available. (Other than the obvious expenses, such as web hosting, organizing, and access.)
Any online books that the LeDoux Library has paid for will be found in the Library’s online catalog, at http://lsue.louislibraries.org/ or under “Find a Book”.
Project Gutenberg
http://promo.net/pg/
The first, and biggest, collection of free online books. All are available in plain “vanilla” ASCII text, which pretty much all computers should be able to read. The bulk of their material is from before 1923.
The Online Books Page
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/
This isn’t a collection of online books, but instead are searchable listings to online books found elsewhere (including Gutenberg). The criteria require books to be available for free, in their entirety, not require registration, and be in any “stable, well-maintained format” such as HTML, PDF, or plain text.
Perseus Digital Library
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/home
This began as a collection of materials from and about Ancient Greece and Rome. While that is still its strong point, the library has expanded into other areas, including Early Modern English Literature and 19th century (1800s) United States History.
Note: this URL is different from the one on the left; this is for the new 4.0 edition.
Baen Free Library
http://www.baen.com/library/
All work and no play is no fun. Baen, a major science fiction and fantasy publisher, had decided to experiment, in 2000, with putting some of their books online for free. Eight years later, the Free Library is still going strong. Most books will be the first or the first few in a series, and are offered in a wide variety of forms, for various electronic book-readers, HTML, and RTF (rich text format; like ASCII, but a bit enhanced).
Be aware that a very small percentage of books are available online, and an even smaller amount is available for free. Most free online books are classics or older, as the copyright has expired, so no one has to pay to make them available. (Other than the obvious expenses, such as web hosting, organizing, and access.)
Any online books that the LeDoux Library has paid for will be found in the Library’s online catalog, at http://lsue.louislibraries.org/ or under “Find a Book”.
Project Gutenberg
http://promo.net/pg/
The first, and biggest, collection of free online books. All are available in plain “vanilla” ASCII text, which pretty much all computers should be able to read. The bulk of their material is from before 1923.
The Online Books Page
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/
This isn’t a collection of online books, but instead are searchable listings to online books found elsewhere (including Gutenberg). The criteria require books to be available for free, in their entirety, not require registration, and be in any “stable, well-maintained format” such as HTML, PDF, or plain text.
Perseus Digital Library
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/home
This began as a collection of materials from and about Ancient Greece and Rome. While that is still its strong point, the library has expanded into other areas, including Early Modern English Literature and 19th century (1800s) United States History.
Note: this URL is different from the one on the left; this is for the new 4.0 edition.
Baen Free Library
http://www.baen.com/library/
All work and no play is no fun. Baen, a major science fiction and fantasy publisher, had decided to experiment, in 2000, with putting some of their books online for free. Eight years later, the Free Library is still going strong. Most books will be the first or the first few in a series, and are offered in a wide variety of forms, for various electronic book-readers, HTML, and RTF (rich text format; like ASCII, but a bit enhanced).
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Helpful Internet and Online Resources
ENGLISH/LITERATURE
Visit the Library's site at http://library.lsue.edu/.
Use the Library's catalog at http://lsue.louislibraries.org/.
Guide to Grammar and Writing
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/
Extremely useful site on all aspects of writing - from parts of speech to organizing a paper. Sponsored by the Capital Community College Foundation.
Literary History
http://www.literaryhistory.com/index.htm
"A selective list of open access literary criticism, links directly to articles, with separate pages for more than 200 American and British writers. Literaryhistory.com focuses on signed articles by recognized scholars, articles published in reviewed sources, and web sites that adhere to the Modern Language Association."
The Mississippi Writers Page
http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/english//ms-writers/
"The Mississippi Writers Page is a multi-faceted Internet Resource about writers in, from, or otherwise associated with the state of Mississippi. Presented by the Department of English at the University of Mississippi, it is designed both as an introduction to the diversity of literary talent in Mississippi and (we hope) as a source of accurate and timely information for the serious literary scholar." This as a good example of what to look for in a website - clear author and goals, good material, signed and dated. The big author included that we use is William Faulkner.
HEALTH/MEDICINE
MedlinePlus
http://medlineplus.gov/
The absolute best place to start for health and medical information, run by the National Library of Medicine. All outside links (for example, to the American Cancer Association) are clearly labeled.
SCIENCE
Science.gov - Government Science Portal
http://www.science.gov/
"Science.gov is a gateway to over 50 million pages of authoritative selected science information provided by U.S. government agencies, including research and development results." Listed by topic, special collections, and featured sites. Also has a search box right at the front of the site.
Science NetLinks - Resources for Teaching Science
http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/
"Providing a wealth of resources for K-12 science educators, Science NetLinks is your guide to meaningful standards-based Internet experiences for students."
REFERENCE
FedStats
http://www.fedstats.gov/
The best place to start looking for statistics collected by the federal government, which are most of them. Browse by subject, agency, or state, or search "across agency websites". The Statistical Research Shelf includes:
Statistical Abstracts and Health, United States.
LII - Librarian's Index to the Internet
http://lii.org/
Organized, annotated collection of websites on a vast array of topics, run by librarians and continually updated. Can be either browsed or searched. As it says, "websites you can trust".
ODP - Open Directory Project
http://dmoz.org/
A directory of websites organized and edited by volunteers - currently over 70 thousand of them, with over 5 million sites. The quality ranges from topic to topic, but overall very well done. As with LII, it can be either browsed or
searched.
Saugus.net - Glossary of Computer File Extensions
http://www.saugus.net/Computer/Extensions/
Simply put, this is a listing of the last 3 letters in a file name that tell which program is needed to open that file (for example, ".doc" for Microsoft Word). This can be very helpful when a file won't open.
Google (http://www.google.com/) and Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com/) offer more than just a web search engine. Both provide e-mail accounts, online storage for files and the ability save your searches. Google provides software that you can use to create a WORD document or an EXCEL file. Google and Yahoo are both capable of saving your bookmarks for portability. Yahoo has a directory style based on traditional libraries. For assistance in evaluating information found in any search engine, please ask a librarian or refer to the library handouts located on library’s website. These are not the only web based search engines, but a good start. Try del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us/) and other social bookmarking sites, you can find a wealth of information useful to you.
Plagiarism: What It Is and How to Recognize and Avoid It
http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml
Gives examples and explanations of acceptable and plagiarized uses of sources. While the source is another school's Student Code, academic honesty is also listed in the LSUE Student Handbook.
Research and Documentation Online
http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/home.html
Explains the top four citation styles - Humanities (MLA), Social Sciences (APA), History (Chicago), and Sciences (CSE), with both finding and documenting sources. Each style has a sample paper with examples and notes. Please be aware that the author uses both the writing rules and the citation rules, so if your professor only wants to use the citation rules, not all of the examples will apply (such as including an abstract).
OTHER ONLINE TOOLS
Media Convert - Free and Online File Conversion
http://media-convert.com/
This site is full of ads, but just ignore them. This site will convert files from one type to another, which is very helpful if you use a different software at home, but the computer lab only has Microsoft Products. While it does offer automatic detection, that is the only part that doesn't run as smoothly, so here is where the link above can really help. They do say that the files aren't kept, just converted and sent, but as a precaution DO NOT use this with files that have passwords or sensitive data - but term papers should be fine. You can choose to download the new document directly or in a zipped format (mostly for movies or other large files). Please be aware that this does not offer the newest form of Word (".docx") to convert from or into.
OpenOffice (word processor, spreadsheet and presentation software)
http://www.openoffice.org/
If you do not have WORD or other Microsoft Office software required for a class, OpenOffice is a good work around. OpenOffice “is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. … It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose.”
PDF Converters/Editors (free)
PDF is Portable Document Format is a document that is readable on almost any computer. There will be times you want to use a converter to transform your Word or other document to a PDF format. Several sites offer this service or the software needed for conversion: PDFCreator at pdfforge.org or PDF online at http://www.pdfonline.com/.
Visit the Library's site at http://library.lsue.edu/.
Use the Library's catalog at http://lsue.louislibraries.org/.
Guide to Grammar and Writing
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/
Extremely useful site on all aspects of writing - from parts of speech to organizing a paper. Sponsored by the Capital Community College Foundation.
Literary History
http://www.literaryhistory.com/index.htm
"A selective list of open access literary criticism, links directly to articles, with separate pages for more than 200 American and British writers. Literaryhistory.com focuses on signed articles by recognized scholars, articles published in reviewed sources, and web sites that adhere to the Modern Language Association."
The Mississippi Writers Page
http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/english//ms-writers/
"The Mississippi Writers Page is a multi-faceted Internet Resource about writers in, from, or otherwise associated with the state of Mississippi. Presented by the Department of English at the University of Mississippi, it is designed both as an introduction to the diversity of literary talent in Mississippi and (we hope) as a source of accurate and timely information for the serious literary scholar." This as a good example of what to look for in a website - clear author and goals, good material, signed and dated. The big author included that we use is William Faulkner.
HEALTH/MEDICINE
MedlinePlus
http://medlineplus.gov/
The absolute best place to start for health and medical information, run by the National Library of Medicine. All outside links (for example, to the American Cancer Association) are clearly labeled.
SCIENCE
Science.gov - Government Science Portal
http://www.science.gov/
"Science.gov is a gateway to over 50 million pages of authoritative selected science information provided by U.S. government agencies, including research and development results." Listed by topic, special collections, and featured sites. Also has a search box right at the front of the site.
Science NetLinks - Resources for Teaching Science
http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/
"Providing a wealth of resources for K-12 science educators, Science NetLinks is your guide to meaningful standards-based Internet experiences for students."
REFERENCE
FedStats
http://www.fedstats.gov/
The best place to start looking for statistics collected by the federal government, which are most of them. Browse by subject, agency, or state, or search "across agency websites". The Statistical Research Shelf includes:
Statistical Abstracts and Health, United States.
LII - Librarian's Index to the Internet
http://lii.org/
Organized, annotated collection of websites on a vast array of topics, run by librarians and continually updated. Can be either browsed or searched. As it says, "websites you can trust".
ODP - Open Directory Project
http://dmoz.org/
A directory of websites organized and edited by volunteers - currently over 70 thousand of them, with over 5 million sites. The quality ranges from topic to topic, but overall very well done. As with LII, it can be either browsed or
searched.
Saugus.net - Glossary of Computer File Extensions
http://www.saugus.net/Computer/Extensions/
Simply put, this is a listing of the last 3 letters in a file name that tell which program is needed to open that file (for example, ".doc" for Microsoft Word). This can be very helpful when a file won't open.
Google (http://www.google.com/) and Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com/) offer more than just a web search engine. Both provide e-mail accounts, online storage for files and the ability save your searches. Google provides software that you can use to create a WORD document or an EXCEL file. Google and Yahoo are both capable of saving your bookmarks for portability. Yahoo has a directory style based on traditional libraries. For assistance in evaluating information found in any search engine, please ask a librarian or refer to the library handouts located on library’s website. These are not the only web based search engines, but a good start. Try del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us/) and other social bookmarking sites, you can find a wealth of information useful to you.
Plagiarism: What It Is and How to Recognize and Avoid It
http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml
Gives examples and explanations of acceptable and plagiarized uses of sources. While the source is another school's Student Code, academic honesty is also listed in the LSUE Student Handbook.
Research and Documentation Online
http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/home.html
Explains the top four citation styles - Humanities (MLA), Social Sciences (APA), History (Chicago), and Sciences (CSE), with both finding and documenting sources. Each style has a sample paper with examples and notes. Please be aware that the author uses both the writing rules and the citation rules, so if your professor only wants to use the citation rules, not all of the examples will apply (such as including an abstract).
OTHER ONLINE TOOLS
Media Convert - Free and Online File Conversion
http://media-convert.com/
This site is full of ads, but just ignore them. This site will convert files from one type to another, which is very helpful if you use a different software at home, but the computer lab only has Microsoft Products. While it does offer automatic detection, that is the only part that doesn't run as smoothly, so here is where the link above can really help. They do say that the files aren't kept, just converted and sent, but as a precaution DO NOT use this with files that have passwords or sensitive data - but term papers should be fine. You can choose to download the new document directly or in a zipped format (mostly for movies or other large files). Please be aware that this does not offer the newest form of Word (".docx") to convert from or into.
OpenOffice (word processor, spreadsheet and presentation software)
http://www.openoffice.org/
If you do not have WORD or other Microsoft Office software required for a class, OpenOffice is a good work around. OpenOffice “is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. … It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose.”
PDF Converters/Editors (free)
PDF is Portable Document Format is a document that is readable on almost any computer. There will be times you want to use a converter to transform your Word or other document to a PDF format. Several sites offer this service or the software needed for conversion: PDFCreator at pdfforge.org or PDF online at http://www.pdfonline.com/.
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