Any patron with a home computer can get information from our website or check to see if we have a book available at any time of the day or night. The statistics on our web pages show that they do that. Not just our patrons, but people all over the country and even other parts of the world access our web page. Using the "MY ACCOUNT" feature of the catalog, local patrons can also check to see when books are due or renew them. We also provide online access to material through Encyclopedia Britannica and link to the databases provided by the state library commission at wvinfodepot.org.
But what if a patron needs information on Alzheimer's, neurodegenerative diseases, statistics on the costs of crime, stress and depression or some other specific topic? It's now possible to get that information at any hour with the library's e-reference books. The library has purchased ten books from Gale's Virtual Reference Library which are available through our catalog with a Mary H. Weir library card. Gale is a well respected publisher of print reference material. These e-books are duplicates of the print versions of multi-volume reference sets that Gale publishes. However, the online version has some major advantages over the print version. In addition to 24 hour access, the whole series can be searched online at one time. If a topic is covered in more than one of these titles, it will show up in the search results.
The ten titles that the Mary H. Weir Public Library has available from the catalog include:
- Countries and their Cultures
- Encyclopedia of Aging
- Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice
- Encyclopedia of Drugs, Alcohol and Addictive Behavior
- Encyclopedia of Education
- Encyclopedia of Food and Culture
- Encyclopedia of Public Health
- Encyclopedia of Sociology
- Gale Encyclopedia of Science
- New Catholic Encyclopedia
The articles in these reference books come up in full text and may be saved, printed or e-mailed. Each article also provides the format for citing the article in both MLA and APA format. Most of these titles are designed to be used at the high school or college level. They are excellent sources of information for reports or papers.
While our building be open 54 hours a week, the need for information isn't confined to those hours. Our online catalog and web page are providing information 24/7.
