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News* Click here to view the AVL Training Calendar * February 2010: At the AVL Executive Council meeting on Feb. 18th, the council voted to license the following databases for a limited time thru Sept. 30, 2010. Usage of the resources will be monitored, and although these databases have been restored for the remainder of the State of Alabama’s fiscal year, we cannot guarantee they will be available next year. To help secure their continued availability, please contact your State of Alabama elected officials (http://www.legislature.state.al.us/misc/zipsearch.html), and tell them how the AVL helps you!
September 2009: Due to funding shortages, the Alabama Virtual Library Executive Council was forced to make some very difficult decisions concerning the AVL databases. The Council has spent a considerable amount of time and discussion with the vendors to obtain the best pricing in order to retain as much content as possible. In addition to budgetary consideration, the Council examined annual usage as well as trends of usage over several years, full text content, the overlap of resources, and diversity of content in its decision along with an extensive analysis by the Database Review Committee. The AVL vendors agreed to reduce their pricing but even then there was not enough funding to retain all of the databases currently in the AVL. (click for additional information) December 2008: Effective December 19, 2008, Britannica's PlanetaSaber has been replaced with Enciclopedia Universal en Español. October 2008: Due to limited resources, the AVL Council did not renew EBSCO's Literary Reference Center. AVL's subscription to LRC will end on October 31, 2008. July 2008: AVL Card users now have the ability to change their usernames and passwords. Just login via Home Access with your AVL Card, and look for a Change Password icon at the top of the screen. Simply click on the Change Password icon, and follow the instructions. NOTE: Changing your password will require you to create a unique username, and your username can no longer be your last name. June 2008: Due to lack of funding, Europa World Year Book was discontinued May 31, 2008. May 2008: Literature Resource Center is now Literature Resources from Gale. This change provides a search environment, designed specifically for literature research, that searches several Gale Literature databases (Contemporary Authors, Contemporary Literary Criticism Select, Dictionary of Literary Biography, LitFinder, Merriam Webster Encyclopedia of Literature, Scribner Writer's Series, and Twayne's Authors) at the same time. Links for the individual literature databases from Gale will no longer be necessary. Additional information about Literature Resources from Gale is available at
May 2008: Britannica has upgraded its Spanish database offerings. Enciclopedia Universal en Español has been replaced with PlanetaSaber, which offers about 3 times as many encyclopedia articles. There is also a link for Britannica Spanish Reference Center, which provides links to both of Britannica's Spanish resources. May 2008: EBSCO has added GreenFILE to its list of databases. This resource offerswell-researched information covering all aspects of human impact to the environment. Its collection of scholarly, government and general-interest titles includes content on the environmental effects of individuals, corporations and local/national governments, and what can be done at each level to minimize these effects. Multidisciplinary by nature, GreenFILE draws on the connections between the environment and a variety of disciplines such as agriculture, education, law, health and technology. Topics covered include global climate change, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling, and more. The database provides indexing and abstracts for approximately 384,000 records, as well as Open Access full text for more than 4,700 records.
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