Tag Archives: INSPIRE

Indiana State Library renews INSPIRE contract; offers new learning resources for Hoosiers

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The Indiana State Library has announced the renewal of its INSPIRE contract with EBSCO Information Services and TeachingBooks. INSPIRE, Indiana’s Lifelong Learning Library for Hoosiers, is a collection of more than 70 online academic databases and other information resources that can be accessed by Indiana residents at no cost at inspire.in.gov. The new contract enhances INSPIRE product offerings to provide a robust collection of online resources to all residents of Indiana who have internet access at school, home or work. 

Beginning July 1, residents of Indiana will have access to all EBSCO resources that have previously been available through INSPIRE, as well as a few new databases. Resources span across various research needs offering academic, business and general interest resources, including EBSCO’s distinguished Academic Search Complete™ and Business Source Complete™ resources. EBSCO databases available through INSPIRE also include medical research resources, as well as children’s and teens’ resources, e-book collections, communications and literature resources, newspapers and multilingual materials.  

New to the collection, Job & Career Accelerator™ provides job seekers with tools to explore careers, build resumes and find and apply for open positions. Rosetta Stone Library Solution Plus™, an interactive world language immersion program, will also be accessible and includes more than 50 hours of foundational instruction in each level of each language. LearningExpress Library Complete™ is also now part of the collection and provides academic skill-building, test prep and career-related resources.  

Additionally, the Indiana State Library has renewed its contract with TeachingBooks, a resource collection that includes author and illustrator interviews, video book trailers, audio book readings, book discussion guides and more. TeachingBooks can be accessed via INSPIRE.  

Indiana State Librarian Jacob Speer anticipates continued success with the wealth of resources INSPIRE provides to the residents of Indiana. “We look forward to continuing our relationship with TeachingBooks and EBSCO and to seeing the benefits that our residents gain from the comprehensive collection of resources made available to encourage lifelong learning,” Speer said. 

This blog post was submitted by John Wekluk, communications director. 

Upcoming webinars from the Indiana State Library’s Professional Development Office

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Greetings this holiday season! The Professional Development Office is busy planning a wide range of webinar topics for the coming year.

Below you will find the important dates for the Indiana State Library’s training and professional development events taking place in 2023. You’ll notice that we will feature a What’s Up Wednesday webinar training series on the last Wednesday of each month and our new webinar training series called What’s Up Wednesday: Trends & Technology will take place on the second Wednesday of each month. Some topics are still being developed, but we hope you can find some areas of interest in the list below. Best wishes from the Professional Development Office.

January 2023
Jan. 11 “What’s Up Wednesday: Trends & Technology – Dementia Friendly Libraries.” Hosted by Thrive Alliance and Bartholomew County Public Library.
Jan. 25 “What’s Up Wednesday – INDiPres.”

February 2023
Feb. 8 “What’s Up Wednesday: Trends & Technology – How to do a Presentation, Best Practices.” Presented by Paula Newcom, Northeast regional coordinator at the Indiana State Library.
Feb. 22 What’s Up Wednesday: Topic to Come!

March 2023
March 8 “What’s Up Wednesday: Trends & Technology – Powered by Sunshine: How Solar Projects Benefit Libraries and Their Communities.” Hosted by the Brown County Public Library and Pendleton Community Public Library.
March 29 “What’s Up Wednesday – All Free for the Finding: Digging up Family History for Free on the Internet.” This presentation is a sampling of the best, free websites for genealogy. Attendees will become versed in research tips, general genealogy websites, Indiana genealogy websites, immigrant genealogy websites, British genealogy websites and newspaper websites. Presented by Angela Porter, Genealogy librarian at the Indiana State Library.

April 2023
April 12 “What’s Up Wednesday: Trends & Technology – Enhancing Services with Outreach.” Hosted by Floyd County Public Library.
April 26 “What’s Up Wednesday – LaPorte County Public Library and The Exchange.” Hosted by the LaPorte County Public Library.

May 2023
May 10 What’s Up Wednesday: Trends & Technology – Topic to come!
May 31 What’s Up Wednesday – Topic to come!

June 2023
June 14 What’s Up Wednesday: Trends & Technology – Topic to come!
June 28 “What’s Up Wednesday – Bendable.” Hosted by St. Joe County Public Library.

July 2023
July 12 What’s Up Wednesday: Trends & Technology – Topic to come!
July 26 “What’s Up Wednesday – Edelweiss & Libraries.”

August 2023
Aug. 9 What’s Up Wednesday: Trends & Technology – Topic to come!
Aug. 24-25 (tentative) “Indiana Library Leadership Academy 2023.”
Aug. 30 “What’s Up Wednesday- What’s New in INSPIRE.” Presented by Paula Newcom, Northeast regional coordinator at the Indiana State Library.

September 2023
Sept. 13 “What’s Up Wednesday: Trends & Technology – Building Back After the Fire.” Hosted by the Eckhart Public Library.
Sept. 15 The Difference is You Conference.
Sept. 27 What’s Up Wednesday – Topic to come!

October 2023
Oct. 11 What’s Up Wednesday: Trends & Technology – Topic to come!
Oct. 25 What’s Up Wednesday- Topic to come!

November 2023
Nov. 8 “What’s Up Wednesday: Trends & Technology – The Bridge: Noble County Public Library’s Makerspace.” Find out how The Bridge Makerspace evolved at the Noble County Public Library. Presented by Derrick Leatherman, IT services manager at the Noble County Public Library.
Nov. 29 What’s Up Wednesday – Topic to come!

December 2023
Happy holidays from the Professional Development Office!

Submitted by Laura Jones, Northwest regional coordinator, Indiana State Library.

New EBSCO eBooks added to INSPIRE

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This year, the Indiana State Library has added over 75,000 new EBSCO eBooks to INSPIRE. The eBooks are divided into the following collections: K-8, High School and Public Library. These are in addition to the eBooks previously offered in INSPIRE.

You can access these collections by visiting the Databases A-Z list in INSPIRE. Scroll down to the E section and you will find a link to each of the eBook collections. Once you access the eBook collection that you’re interested in, there are three ways to find eBooks you are looking for: use the search bar at the top of the page; search by category on the left side of the page; or click on the cover of a book included in the Highlights or Featured eBooks sections located in the middle of the page.

EBSCO recently launched a free app for mobile devices that allows you to search for and download the eBooks available in INSPIRE. The EBSCO app can also be used to search for articles related to your topic of interest. Find the EBSCO app in the App Store for Apple devices or Google Play for Android devices. For more info about the EBSCO app, click here.

Once you set up an EBSCOhost account – you will be prompted to do this when you download a book for the first time – and have the EBSCO app installed, you can download books to your mobile device. Also, make sure you have downloaded Adobe Digital Editions to your device so that you can read the eBooks once you have downloaded the book you want. We have an unlimited use license for these book collections which means you will never have to wait for or put a book on hold. For example, 100 or more people could check out the same book at the same time! This is a true gift for schools and public libraries.

EBSCO Connect provides access to free promotional materials for librarians to use when promoting these new eBook collections. You can find these promotional materials listed under the Tools & Resources tab on the landing page of EBSCO Connect. Promotional materials provided for EBSCO eBooks include things like a web banner or logo to use on your library website, posters and handouts. Librarians can also access eBook training documentation by going to the “Learn More” button under the eBook Support Information section located in the bottom left corner of each collection’s search page.

In addition, a training video will soon be available on the Indiana State Library’s Archived Webinar page. To learn more about training opportunities related to EBSCO eBooks, please contact Kara Cleveland, Professional Development Office, Indiana State Library.

Please note that during the week of May 5-12, 2021, EBSCO will be upgrading key pieces of the EBSCO eBook system. This will cause some service disruption. During this timeframe, users will still be able to read eBooks online, download chapters and read previously downloaded eBooks. However, users will not be able to download full eBooks to read offline from EBSCOhost, EBSCO Discovery Service and New Discovery Service. Additionally, hold ready alerts will not be sent to end users during the downtime.

This blog post was written by Kara Cleveland, Professional Development Office supervisor at the Indiana State Library.

Upcoming Get INSPIRED! sessions

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This year, the Indiana State Library is hoping to help library employees across the state to Get INSPIRED! The Professional Development Office has added a second series to our webinar offerings, What’s Up Wednesday – Get INSPIRED! This series is on the second Wednesday of every month and will be a focused look at some aspect of the INSPIRE suite of tools. The remaining 2021 webinars in this series are below:

April 14 – “Ebooks”
Learn how to use the different features available in the new and expanded EBSCO Ebook collections in INSPIRE.

May 12 – “Live Q&A”
This will be an informal question and answer session about all things INSPIRE. If you have specific questions, please add them to this form and they will be answered during this session.

June 9 – “Business Databases”
Learn how to use the various business databases available in INSPIRE to access valuable business information.

July 14 – “INSPIRE for Career Prep”

Aug. 11 – “Live Q&A”

Sept. 8 – “Top INSPIRE Databases for Assisting Students”

Oct. 13 – “Digital Collections with Justin Clark”

Nov. 10 – “Live Q&A”

These webinars are all worth one TLEU each for Indiana library staff. Keep an eye on the PDO calendar of events and the INLibraries Listserv for more details. January’s “Introduction to INSPIRE” webinar can be found on the archived webinars page. March’s webinar “INSPIRE Search Strategies” will be archived soon, so be sure to check the archived page for this great opportunity.

This post was written by George Bergstrom, Southwest regional coordinator, Professional Development Office, Indiana State Library.

What’s Up Wednesday adds INSPIRE sessions

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The Indiana State Library’s Professional Development Office will be adding a new session to the What’s Up Wednesday series that started in 2020. This year we will be adding Get INSPIRED sessions on the second Wednesday of every month. INSPIRE is Indiana’s virtual library of databases made available to residents free of charge across Indiana. It has existed for the past 22 years and, although that is a long time, there are still people who have never heard of INSPIRE. So, we want to help people learn what resources are available as well as how to use them.For example, did you know that you can access Consumer Reports or learn a new language with Rosetta Stone by using INSPIRE? There are also a variety of databases for health research and these are reliable sources of information that you can trust, not something you read on Facebook. The list of health databases includes Alt Health Watch which focuses on holistic medicine and therapies. Consumer Health Complete covers key areas of health and wellness and it does this by being available in 16 different languages. Health Source – Consumer Edition provides access to 80 consumer health magazines like Men’s Health, Prevention, Bicycling, Golf Digest, Health, Parenting and more.

If you are a parent who is homeschooling, or a parent helping your child with homework, Explora is available for different grade levels – elementary, middle and high school – and allows the student to find articles on their grade level about a wide variety of topics. We have also increased the number of eBooks available to more than 75,000. The eBook collections are divided into grade levels K-8 and High School. TeachingBooks offers resources related to fiction and non-fiction books for school-age children. You can meet an author, hear the author pronounce their name, read a portion of their book, watch book trailers and many other activities and resources related to books. The Points of View database is an excellent place to start if you are doing a speech or trying to decide on a topic for a research paper. Learning Express Library offers practice tests for the SAT and ACT as well as study guides.

INSPIRE offers a rich collection of research databases for academic institutions, as well. These include Academic Search Complete, Humanities Full-Text, Literary Reference Center Plus and other databases that are subject- specific like History Reference Center, Science Reference Center and Social Sciences Full-Text.

For people looking to start their own business, they can access databases such as Small Business Reference Center, Entrepreneurial Studies Source, Business Wire News and Legal Information Reference Center. Census.gov offers demographic information that can help when writing a business plan.

Indiana-specific databases offered by the Indiana State Library through INSPIRE include Hoosier State Chronicles, which offers access to historical collections of newspapers from around the state that have been digitized. Indiana Memory is a collection of primary sources (i.e., letters, photos, maps, etc.) that have been digitized so that people can access them virtually.

As you can see, INSPIRE offers access to a vast collection of resources related to many subject areas and interests. We hope that you will join us on the second Wednesday of every month to learn more about INSPIRE. The session in February will be an open Q & A session where attendees can submit questions in advance to George Bergstrom and he will answer as many as he can during the session. Each What’s Up Wednesday Get INSPIRED training session is worth one TLEU.

This blog post was written by Kara Cleveland, Professional Development Office supervisor at the Indiana State Library.

Highlighting new INSPIRE databases

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In July, the Indiana State Library announced the addition of a new set of databases – and more content – to INSPIRE, Indiana’s virtual library. INSPIRE is a service provided by the Indiana State Library and is free to all Indiana residents. Here’s a brief overview of these exciting new additions:

Legal Information Reference Center
This data base contains more than 310 full-text publications and reference books including the NOLO books. Information is available related to money and financial planning; businesses and corporations; family affairs and divorce; immigration and travel; patents, copyright and trademarks; property and real estate; rights and disputes and wills and estate planning. Legal forms are available and searchable by state.

EBook Collection for K-8, High Schools and Public Libraries
These eBook collections offer unlimited access to over 75,000 eBooks. The books may be downloaded to your reading device or you may print the information you need to take with you. Simultaneous access allows teachers to assign class-wide reading assignments which benefits schools using virtual learning. The eBooks cover a wide variety of topics and are selected by librarians.

Learning Express Library
Learning Express Library offers a variety of resources to help library users meet their personal and professional goals. Includes test prep info as well as practice quizzes. There are resources in the following categories: career preparation, high school equivalency, college admission and test preparation, school center (K-12), college students and adult core skills in English and Spanish. The database also incorporates tutorials and eBook content.

Communications and Mass Media Complete
Communications and Mass Media Complete combines the content of CommSearch and Mass Media Articles Index. The database offers more than 210 full-text, non-open access journals.

Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection
This database offers full-text coverage from 480 journals, with especially strong coverage of child and adolescent psychology and various counseling areas. Useful for psychologists, counselors, researchers and students.

Religion and Philosophy Collection
The Religion and Philosophy Collection is comprised of full-text journals and magazines providing coverage of the last 100 years of theological and philosophical holdings. Topics covered incorporate world religions, religious history, political philosophy, history of philosophy and the philosophy of language.

Databases that were already included in INSPIRE, but have increased coverage are Academic Search Complete, Consumer Health Information (available in 17 languages), MAS Complete and MasterFile Complete.

For tutorials and promotional materials, visit the EBSCO Connect page.

This blog post was written by Kara Cleveland, Professional Development Office supervisor at the Indiana State Library.

EBSCO expands database content available via INSPIRE until June

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Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, EBSCO has graciously decided to expand database content available via INSPIRE until the end of June. This includes upgrades from Academic Search Premier to Academic Search Ultimate, with over 9,200 active full-text journals and magazine articles; from Business Source Complete to Business Source Ultimate, with over 3,200 active full-text journals and magazine articles; and from Masterfile Premier to Masterfile Complete. These upgrades are now live and may be accessed on INSPIRE. If you have questions or need assistance with any of the resources on INSPIRE, please contact us. Read EBSCO’s statement below:

“As the library community adjusts to the impact of the COVID-19 virus, EBSCO, as a key content provider and partner for INSPIRE, is looking to ensure end users have access to an expanded breadth of online content. Many college, university and K-12 students will be completing the current academic term in an entirely online format. To assist with this initiative, EBSCO has made the following offering available to all members of INSPIRE: Academic Search Ultimate, Business Source Ultimate and Masterfile Complete. This collection will bring thousands of additional full-text journal and magazine titles into each library’s collection.

Please let us know if you would like direct URLS for your libraries to access the new content.”

Those with questions may contact Deborah LaPierre, senior academic account executive with EBSCO. EBSCO tech support can be reached at 800-758-5995.

EBSCO has also made available all levels of Rosetta Stone until June 30. Libraries interested in access to the expanded edition of Rosetta Stone should contact Leah Griffin, account executive at EBSCO. Library patrons should contact their local public library to inquire about availability.

The upgraded databases can found under the Databases A-Z link on the INSPIRE homepage.

This blog post was written by John Wekluk, communications director, Indiana State Library.

New Directors Workshop 2018

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On Aug. 15, 2018, at the Indiana State Library, 32 new public library directors, representing 24 counties in Indiana, were introduced to each other and to the Library Directors One-Stop Guide. Public library consultants Karen Ainslie and Angela Fox hosted the annual New Director Workshop and presented on multiple topics.

The workshop offered an orientation to the many resources of the guidebook, including contacts for public library directors. The guidebook’s 20 chapters inform directors on the many tasks and responsibilities necessary for the day-to-day management of public libraries.

Welcome, new directors.

The opening presentation focused on the distinct roles of the director versus the board, including standards, library laws, certification and professional development. Additional presentations covered sharing resources, the INSPIRE database and other digital resources. The morning activities concluded with a walking tour of the Indiana State Library.

In the afternoon, directors heard about the roles that the Department of Local Government Finance and State Board of Accounts play in the budget and financing of public libraries. A survey of grants was followed by a session on public purchasing and public works to familiarize directors with the bid process and obtaining quotes. Also included was an overview of the children’s services provided by the Indiana State Library. The day concluded with a group picture taken near the Great Hall.

This blog post was written by Karen Ainslie and Angela Fox, public library consultants, Indiana State Library.

INSPIRE turns 20!

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Can you believe it’s been 20 years since INSPIRE was born? Here are a few other highlights of 1998:

  • Google was founded in Menlo Park, California.
  • “E.R.” was the most popular TV show, followed by “Friends.”
  • The song “The  Boy is Mine” by Brandy and Monica was number one for 13 weeks on the Billboard charts.
  • A gallon of gas was $1.15.
  • Windows 98 debuted in June.
  • The Ford Cougar was first produced.
  • Harry Caray died Feb. 18.
  • The band Coldplay formed.

In January of 1998, INSPIRE began as a collaboration between the Indiana State Library, INCOLSA and Lilly Endowments. INSPIRE is a free service for all Indiana residents. Users can access INSPIRE via the internet at school, home, local public library or workplace.

INSPIRE it… don’t Google! Okay, so maybe that’s not quite as catchy as saying “Google it,” but using INSPIRE is your best bet when looking for articles, biographies, history and other resources. Information in INSPIRE databases is vetted and authoritative, so you can rest-assured that you’re getting reliable information and not something that can be manipulated. Did I mention INSPIRE is free!? Tomorrow, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Indiana State Library, we celebrate INSPIRE with stories about INSPIRE, learning and networking at INSPIRE Day. Here’s to another 20 years and beyond!

This blog post was written by Kimberly Brown-Harden, northwest regional coordinator, Indiana State Library. For more information, email Kim.

INSPIRE database spotlight: Consumer Health Information

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Consumer Health Information offers detailed answers to the 200 most commonly-asked health questions. Supporting the needs of patrons and patients, these answers are provided in evidence-based reports that feature graphics, illustrations, easy-to-read text and links to additional information. The database is available in multiple languages:

• Arabic
• Chinese (simplified)
• Chinese (traditional)
• Farsi
• German
• Hindi
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Polish
• Portuguese
• Russian
• Spanish
• Tagalog
• Vietnamese

Each language is offered as a separate database to allow for a simple, easy-to-use research experience for users where English is not their native language. Available databases include user interface screens with help, searching functionality and full-text in its own particular language.

In addition to evidence-based reports, Consumer Health Information also offers an interactive body map that assists users in locating articles about health-related topics for all areas of the body.

All of the content in Consumer Health Information is written by experienced medical writers and independently reviewed by medically credentialed experts. The articles in Consumer Health Information are reviewed and updated on a regular basis to reflect the most recent information and research available.

Consumer Health Information can be found by visiting the INSPIRE website, clicking on either Databases by Subject or Databases by Subject – Tiled and selecting World Languages. In the Databases A-Z category, it can be found under the Consumer Health Complete database link, which also has the information in English. INSPIRE is free to use for all Indiana residents.

Note: As of 2024, the multilingual Consumer Health databases have been discontinued. 

Note: Information provided in this database should not be viewed as a medical diagnosis.

This blog post was written by Amber Painter, southwest regional coordinator. For more information, contact the Professional Development Office (PDO) at (317) 232-3697 or via email.