New York Times and Chronicle of Higher Ed On the Go!

Did you know that you can access digital issues and unlimited website content of The New York Times and The Chronicle of Higher Education anytime, anywhere for free?

ACC Library Services recently added site licenses to both of these publications to our e-resources collection which means all ACC students, faculty, and staff, can now access all of their digital content for free!

Read on to learn how you can get free on-the-go access to these informative resources...

The New York Times

"The New York Times " by Joe Shlabotnik is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Providing readers with insightful in-depth journalism since 1851 with a mission to "seek the truth and help people understand the world" (NYT Co., 2021). ACC students, faculty, and staff can get free access to this tried and true news source by:

• Going to Access NYTimes
• Choosing Austin Community College from the list of participating academic institutions
• Registering with your ACC email address

More information and detailed instructions may be found in The New York Times Academic Pass guide.

The Chronicle of Higher Education

"Home - The Chronicle of Higher Education " by Jason Jones is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Founded in 1966 as The Chronicle and renamed The Chronicle of Higher Education in 1978, this higher education-centered publication provides up-to-date and cutting-edge news and information about the higher education landscape in the U.S. and around the world. ACC students, faculty, and staff may gain free access to The Chronicle of Higher Education website by:

• Going to ACC Library Services Journal Finder page
• Choosing Publisher's Site
• Choosing Sign in and then Sign Up

Issues of The Chronicle of Higher Education dating from 1999 to the present day (full-text delay: 1 month) are also freely available to ACC students, faculty, and staff on the Library's Journal Finder page.

Celebrate Pride! 🌈

 

"ACC at the 2016 Austin Pride Parade" by Austin Community College is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Happy LGBTQ+ Pride Month! 

ACC Library Services has all the resources you need to learn more about, or celebrate Pride. To dive into the history, check out one of our databases -

LGBTQ+ Source provides scholarly and popular LGBTQ publications in full text, plus historically important primary sources, including monographs, magazines and newspapers. It also includes a specialized LGBTQ thesaurus containing thousands of terms. Prefer to celebrate with film? Our Kanopy database has a curated collection of films to celebrate Pride Month. Keep in mind that Kanopy (and not ACC) requires that you create a free account before accessing. You can find Oscar winning films like Moonlight and informational films about the Stonewall Uprising. This is a resource you definitely should check out! Looking for some books from the library? Even though our physical spaces are closed, we have tons of online ebooks in our collection for you to read. Click the orange “View Now” button to access them. You can browse this search, or check out the ebook titles listed below.

• Social Equity and LGBTQ Rights : Dismantling Discrimination and Expanding Civil Rights.
• The queer games avant-garde : how LGBTQ game makers are reimagining the medium of video games
• LGBTQ Americans in the U.S. political system : an encyclopedia of activists, voters, candidates, and officeholders
• Gender identity, sexuality and autism : voices from across the spectrum
• Intersectionality in Feminist and Queer Movements : Confronting Privileges.

There are also some organizations at ACC like LGBT eQuity that you can get involved with. If you are a faculty or staff member wanting to support the LGBTQ community, you can find out more about the ally program here.

As always, ACC libraries are here to help regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. We strive to support and celebrate you this month and every month. 💖💙💚💛💜

Flipster - Download Popular Magazines for FREE!

Did you know that you have free digital access to hundreds of issues of popular magazines?

Flipster is a next-generation digital newsstand that allows people to browse and download digital versions of the latest issues of popular magazines. 

As part of the ACC community, you have access to:

Bloomberg Businessweek | Consumer Reports | Discover | Essence | Forbes | National Geographic | People | People en Espanol | Rolling Stone | Sports Illustrated  | Time | Vogue 

Issues can be browsed or downloaded to all Android and Apple phones and tablets and Kindle Fire tablets for offline reading anytime, anywhere.

You can access Flipster from the Library's homepage or from the Library's A to Z List of Databases. After logging in with your ACC eID and password, you can search for specific titles or browse new and past issues.

Have more questions? Check out the Flipster Guide for detailed instructions, FAQ's, and more!

Get Your Hands Dirty with ACC Agricultural Resources!

After our epic IceMaggedon, Spring's arrival is most welcome. Spending time outside may pique your interest in the natural world. Whether you are a beginning observer or a seasoned expert, ACC Library Services has electronic resources for all! 

Beginner: want an introduction to indigenous plants, animals, and agricultural practices?  Click on the following resources to begin your journey!

Texas Wildflowers Field Guide

A Naturalist's Guide to the Texas Hill Country

Butterfly Gardening for Texas

Food Forward

Food, Inc.

Modern Marvels: Wheat

Vanishing of the Bees

Intermediate: want to try your hand at gardening? Get some tips for successful gardening from ACC's own Marissa Lankes, Manager of the ACC Student Farm and Sustainable Agriculture faculty.

Neil Sperry's Complete Guide to Texas Gardening

Texas Organic Vegetable Gardening

Urban Gardening for Dummies

Herbs in Bloom

Vegetable Gardening for Dummies

Open Sesame: the story of seeds

New Farms, Big Success, with Three Rock Star Farmers

Expert: maybe you already garden but are looking for advice on dealing with your freezer burned plants. Look no further!

Curiosity Quest Goes Green: Food Composting

Great Garden Sources for Texans

The Regenerative Grower's Guide to Garden Amendments

The Vegetable Gardener's Guide to Permaculture

The Science of Propagation

Deep Down and Dirty: the science of soil

Fertilizers: essential plant nutrients

Continue your informal education with trips to local farms and farmer's markets (also a great way to support local farmers!). Or learn formally with a class from the Sustainable Agriculture program. 

Been inspired to go even further? Earn a degree through the Agricultural Sciences program!

Photos used with author's permission and are CC BY-SA.

Statista: Data and Stats You Can Use!

Looking for an interesting current topic to investigate? Need data and statistics to add precision and clarity to your project? Try Statista, an ACC subscription database that specializes in data and statistics from a wide variety of industries, government agencies, and non-governmental organizations. 

 

Not only do credible numbers provide compelling evidence for your claims when you create a presentation, paper, video, or project, but they are a great starting point for generating ideas. 

 

Statista offers statistics, forecasts, surveys, infographics, studies, and reports in a number of easy-to-use formats. Investigate consumer markets, compare countries, and identify social and economic trends using current, comparative data from trusted sources. 

 

 

You can find the official ACC link to Statista on the Library’s A to Z List of Databases page. After logging in with your ACC eID and password, you can search Statista by keyword, or browse by industry, topic, or publication. 

 

Search results will be listed by type, with Statista’s editorial picks at the top. Each result will offer a topic overview, quick statistics, charts and graphs, and links to related information. Results can be downloaded in a range of convenient formats, including images, spreadsheets, and presentations. Try Statista today, and ask a librarian if you have any questions!

It's Research Paper Time! ACC Library Citation Guides

Do you have a research paper due this semester?

Then it's likely you'll need to include a works cited page at the end of your paper.

Not sure how to do this?

Reach out to ACC Libraries for some assistance. We are here to help you! You can chat 24/7 with expert Faculty Librarians or Zoom a Librarian. 

There are several styles of documentation, but they more-or-less all have the same idea:

When you borrow another person's information or ideas, you need to explicitly say in your paper what is borrowed and where it is from.  

The documentation style you use depends on the disciplinary area of the course you are taking (i.e.: English or Nursing). Your professor will tell you which style to use.

For more information, check out our Citing Sources Styles page. 

- APA (American Psychological Association) Documentation 

- CSE (Council of Science Editors) Documentation (Name-Year System) and (Citation-Sequence System)

- MLA (Modern Language Association Documentation, 8th Edition

- Turabian Documentation

Also, be on the lookout for the upcoming MLA, 9th Edition update!

If you have further questions, please ask. We are always here to assist you!

ACC Libraries and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

"Artificial Intelligence & AI & Machine Learning" by mikemacmarketing is licensed under CC BY 2.0

While the concept of artificial intelligence, or AI, has been around for more than a century, it's a particularly hot topic these days with interest spreading to all fields including STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics), art, business, health & medicine, law, and beyond.

ACC Library Services uses AI in a number of ways to support the college's mission as well as assist you in finding and accessing all sorts of great information. In fact, ACC librarians have been utilizing and providing assistance with various AI tools since the mid-1980s. Of course, nowadays a key area for AI use in Library Services is via the many online article and information databases we provide for your use. Some of our most heavily utilized electronic research tools are the more than 60 EBSCOhost databases available including Academic Search Complete, in addition to our many Gale databases such as Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints. Each of these resources employs several AI features including:

• Autocomplete: this occurs when the database predicts words while you're typing in the search box and it's an excellent way to discover available information related to your search. To see this in action, just start typing a search in any EBSCO or Gale database
• Boolean Logic: you may already be familiar with this type of AI as Boolean or propositional logic offers better precision and control of your searches via usage of the limiters AND, OR, or NOT
• Concept Maps: these are a visual, interactive way to explore search topics. A good example of this is the Gale Topic Finder, which creates a clickable concept map that will take you directly to articles on a number of given topics related to your search
• Limiters: these tools provide you with the opportunity to limit your search results to a specific type of information you select. Just some of the ways you can utilize limiters to gain more precise search results include limiting your search results to full text or scholarly/peer reviewed publications. You can locate and access these features near the top of any Gale database search results screen or on the side of any EBSCOhost search results screen

To see more AI tools and learn about the many advantages they can provide to you while using our online databases, just click the Help link whenever you're doing your research (hint: the Help link is located at the top of the screen in EBSCO and the bottom of the screen when using Gale resources).

As AI continues to grow and evolve, we'll witness many impactful benefits that it brings to our library resources and services. There's currently a lot happening as regards AI and the rate of change is often stunning; nevertheless, while it's difficult to predict which aspects of AI will grow and improve and at what rate, Library Services will continue to keep in mind not only the tremendous help AI can provide, but the importance of ensuring that any potential AI biases are recognized in order to support equity and inclusion.