West Nile virus online resources

There are West Nile virus deaths and illnesses reported in several states this year, but Texas has been hit hardest. As a result, Dallas and most surrounding cities have decided to move forward with aerial spraying.

You may be looking for more information about West Nile virus, mosquitoes, and what you can do to help prevent both. Here are some resources that may help.

Dallas-area information:

• The city of Dallas is posting maps about aerial mosquito spraying and links to West Nile virus information at the city website.
• The WFAA-Channel 8 Health pages are being updated with news stories and briefs as information is released by various health and city officials. 

2012 West Nile virus information:

• The Centers for Disease Control West Nile has an infections by state table:
  http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/surv&controlCaseCount12_detailed.htm
• The U.S. Geological Survey has an infection map posted (current as of Aug. 14, 2012): http://diseasemaps.usgs.gov/wnv_us_human.html

One way to stay abreast of related news is to create alerts from various databases.

• Google Alerts will send you news stories relating to various searches. Go to Google Alerts and enter your search terms, an email address, and how often you'd like to receive emailed alerts.
• The National Library of Medicine's Medline Plus also has a news alert option. Go the West Nile Virus page and scroll down to the box labeled "Get West NileVirus updates by email." Simply enter your email address and press the "Go" button.

Computing resources for RLC community users

Alternate places to find public-access computers

Sometimes members of the Richland College service area come to our library to use our computers and printing services. Unfortunately, computer access will be severely limited from June 29 until further notice, and Richland students with current student I.D. will have priority access to the library's computers. 

There are many libraries and other places that offer computer and Internet services to the public. Here are links to a few places where community members can get computer access for personal use and job searching.

The Dallas Public Library

The Garland Public Library

The Richardson Public Library

Texas Workforce Commission

The Urban League of Dallas and North Central Texas

Please see the above websites for telephone numbers, computer use policy and availability, and business hours.

Thanks!
The Richland College Library Staff

Computing changes in the library

The Richland College librarians love to give instruction and database demos in our library classroom. However, a different kind of demo will be happening in the next few weeks: Demolition. This means that some of our computer room services will have temporary changes.

There will be construction in the Bonham Hall hallway, which is adjacent to our library classroom. Because of construction, the classroom will be closed on Friday, June 29. A limited number of computers will be available until further notice.

Students may use computer labs in Del Rio 257 or Wichita 159. Students should have a photo I.D. available for computer use; student I.D.s are available in the Office of Student Life.

Community users should check with their neighborhood libraries for computer access and services.

Thank you!
The Richland College Library Staff

Interesting source for health information online

Medstory calls itself the "Intelligent Search for Health & Medicine."
It is a search engine which provides precise, in-depth, quality results.  
Check it out if you are looking for information on any health-related
condition and see how Medstory breaks the results into categories like
drugs & substances, complementary medicine, related conditions, procedures,
clinical studies & trials, and more.

The New Internet Public Library

Two of the most trusted sources for locating credible websites have merged. The Internet Public Library (IPL) and the Librarians’ Internet Index (LII) have joined together to form ipl2: information you can trust. Maintained by a consortium of colleges and universities, ipl2 only lists websites that meet very strict criteria.

A new type of research engine: WolframAlpha

In May 2009, the new computational search engine called WolframAlpha went live. This is not your average and typical search engine. It is called a computational search engine because of what it does best: computing from its own knowledge base. It aims to return an answer to your query rather than millions of web page results. Click on the examples page to see just some of what it can do related to science, math, geography, weather, and more.