The McGill Library has introduced OverDrive, a new service that allows you to browse, check out, and download digital media with your McGill ID card. Our opening collection includes downloadable music, audiobooks, language learning courses, videos, and e-books in a variety of formats.
You can enjoy titles on your computer, transfer them to a portable device, or even burn some to a CD. Take a guided tour, or begin searching now.
The Law Society of Upper Canada’s library has put together a “great” (if you’ll pardon the pun) quick guide to Canadian legislation online. The page provides annotated links to federal and provincial legislation and statutes, organized by category. This eliminates the need to seek out the relevant web pages of each provincial government separately, in addition to providing an overview of primary sources available for research on legislation.
This week, the library is unveiling a new, simplified design for its website. It still contains the information found in the former website, but much of the duplication has been removed. The result is a streamlined, more organized structure that makes it easy to find information about the wide variety of resources and services offered by the McGill Library. As always, if you can’t find what you need, don’t hesitate to contact me.
The library welcomes your feedback, so please feel free to send me your comments, questions, and complaints!
The United Nation’s YouTube channel is a great video resource for classroom use or general interest viewing. Over 500 video clips currently appear, including statements from the Secretary-General, daily briefings, and reports on the numerous global issues with which the organization is concerned.
Historical footage is also available, such as Che Guevara’s 1964 statement before the General Assembly and a 1947 documentary on physiotherapy for children. Some highlights from the historical archives are featured in the video below.
Political Science instructors should have received a message about the library’s expanded Course Reserves service through an academic staff listserv; please check your e-mail for more details.
Beginning from Fall 2009, online versions of material on course reading lists will be linked from the Course Reserves section of the library catalogue.
From the Course Reserves catalogue, students will be able to access a list of the print material on Reserve in addition to direct links to all articles from e-journals, e-books, and websites on their reading lists, as seen in this example.
**NOTE! The links primarily are being compiled from course packs that are produced by Ancillary Services. Therefore, if you are NOT preparing a course pack for your class, you can send your syllabus or reading list directly to me in order to have the links included in the Course Reserves catalogue.
Example of a course listing
The library recently acquired a collection of online handbooks and encyclopedias from Blackwell Reference.
The following are specifically of interest to Political Science:
Encyclopedias like these are excellent resources for students to get a quick and authoritative summary of a particular topic. The articles explain the key concepts related to a topic, provide an overview of how the topic has been studied in the past, and most importantly, list key readings and important thinkers for the subject. Indeed, they are worthy tools to promote in the Wikipedia world.
Many other sources of background information are listed on the Political Science subject guide.
This screen shows an example of an article on human rights.
This handy guide from McGill’s IT knowledge base compiles instructions for connecting to various resources when you’re off campus. For example, there directions for accessing voice mail, configuring e-mail clients to the campus exchange server, downloading anti-virus software, and so on.
Remember, too, the all-important Virtual Private Network (VPN), which must be connected when you access licensed libraries resources or download programs like EndNote from off-campus.