Thing 17 of 23 Things on a Stick discusses ELM Productivity Tools. ELM, which stands for Electronic Library for Minnesota, is an online virtual library that is intended to provide access to several online resources for all Minnesota residents. The resources include Gale/Cengage Learning databases, EBSCO databases, ProQuest Newsstand Complete, World Cat via OCLC First Search and E-Books via NetLibrary. I had been fortunate to attend two separate CMLE (Central Minnesota Library Exchange) workshops that covered some of these databases last year and a few years earlier so was already familiar with some of the aspects of this Thing. Working in the field of history, we are always looking for resources that will help us with research and various other projects, especially those that are quick and easy to use and are accessible without having to leave the building. For this Thing, I chose to work with ProQuest Newsstand Complete, a database I had not yet used. This database was easy to navigate and the results from the search appeared fairly quickly, even with our phoneline access. While we have already been using these online tools on occasion, particulary when stuck with a thorny topic that we can not resolve via the abundant primary resources found onsite, the one thought I did have on completing this Thing is that it might be helpful to some of the various researchers who visit our site, particularly students and professional historians. Who knows, maybe one of them will not have heard of this tool and will thank us for opening up a new world of resources for them.
On to Thing 18!