[nabs-l] academic library access

Sun Jan 10 00:08:22 UTC 2016

Thanks for telling me about the trick with EBSCO databases! I will have to
look into it!

On Sat, Jan 9, 2016 at 5:46 PM, Ashley Bramlett via nabs-l <
nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> Hello Kennedy,
>
> Glad you shared your thoughts. I guess we just have to do what we can do
> and get help with human readers.
> Readers are great when they work well and are dependable, but I've had
> many unreliable readers.
> I am glad someone gets the frustration with ebsco databases. They are
> terrible. What I learned from a good librarian though Ii s something that
> saves me so much time. Before, I did the same search in several ebsco
> databases. This librarian showed me how to search all ebsco databases at
> once, or you can pick which databases you desire to search by checking the
> boxes. So, once you pick the databases you want, you press a button and it
> sets it to that search. Then I limit it to certain types of articles so I
> do not get hundreds of book reviews. It works great, and I wish I had known
> that before.
> I suggest that if you need many ebsco databases that you have a librarian
> show you this trick. Press B to get to the buttons.
>
> My experience is also that some librarians are great, and some are not.
> Yeah, a mixed bag of good and bvad ones.
> It takes more skills and patience to describe what they are doing, and
> some do not have it. They typically show students what they are doing on
> the screen, and since I cannot see the screen, they have to verbalize it.
>
> I was researching Queen victoria, and needed biographical info not online
> through databases. So, I used readers.
> I got an extension on the project as I needed more time as my readers took
> longer to find the info and they cancelled sometimes on me.
>
> Well, we pretty have much the same experiences. Man, if I ever have free
> time and find an ebsco contact for accessibility, I'll write to them.
>
> Ashley
>
> -----Original Message----- From: STOMBERG, KENNEDY via nabs-l
> Sent: Saturday, January 09, 2016 5:28 PM
> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
> Cc: STOMBERG, KENNEDY
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] academic library access
>
>
> Ashley,
>
> It honestly depends on the type of research you are doing. You are so right
> about the Ebsco databases, though. They are a nightmare!
>
> If you're looking for scinitific journal articles, I find that Google
> Scholar is very
> accessable. Bookshare or Learning Allz might also be an option, if
> they have the books you need.
>
> I have had both good and bad experiences with librarians. And I deffinitely
> agree that it's frustrating to still need readers in this day and age! It's
> kind of redicubous!
>
> Good luck with your classes this semester!
> Kennedy Stomberg
>
> On Sat, Jan 9, 2016 at 3:47 PM, Vejas Vasiliauskas via nabs-l <
> nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>> If you have a Bookshare account, you could try looking for the book
>> there.  If you're working on a research paper of some kind, Bookshare
>> usually has some good books on the topic you're researching.
>> I never used the databases in high school; do you find using them helpful?
>> Vejas
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Ashley Bramlett via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>> To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list" <
>> nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>> Date sent: Sat, 9 Jan 2016 16:22:05 -0500
>> Subject: [nabs-l] academic library access
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I’d like to hear about the level of support and accessibility of your
>> library and the resources it has.
>> I’ve written about my struggles before.  The gist is that many library
>> databases have access issues.  The ebsco ones are the worst.  Its hard to
>> open the pull down list of options, but I think I finally did open them
>> with spacebar.  I find that databases run through Oxford and proquest are
>> generally user friendly and accessible.  Jstor is fairly decent, but seems
>> like most articles are image pdfs or display on the screen as images.  I
>> kept wondering why jaws was saying graphic and the next line said page 1
>> of
>> 5 or however many pages it was; then it occurred to me that the text must
>> be an image; so I found the pdf link to download it.
>> The pdf was an image too, so I had to convert it.
>>
>> Generally, when I was in the university setting, I got support from the
>> reference desk.  They retrieved books for me and other students had to
>> find
>> them by call number.  I got pretty much the same support as other
>> students.  I was on my own with access barriers.  Sometimes, I was able to
>> get a library assistant to sit down with me and look at the database and
>> then email me relevant articles.  This worked much faster than jaws.
>>
>> Now, to learn more, I’m taking classes at Northern virginia community
>> college, nova, while looking for work.
>>
>> Many Nova reference staff are great and in fact go the extra mile.  They
>> explain well how to search databases.  Others seem to struggle how to
>> verbalize things.  Normally, they demo the task and have the information
>> seeker watch what they are doing
>>
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