One of the websites I use most is www.amazon.com because I can quickly look up a book to find the formats available, when it was published, a summary, and many reviews. I use it several times each day.
I also use www.arbookfind.com to find the book level and interest level of books when I am trying to determine which section of the library it belongs in, such as juvenile vs. young adult.
I sometimes use Zip Skinny to get a quick summary of the latest census data (which comes in handy for grant applications). You can look information up by zip code or choose a state and community. The information is in an easy to use format that allows you to compare the community with other communities. http://www.zipskinny.com/state.php?state=SD.
If I am looking up information on communities in the Black Hills, I usually look around at http://blackhillsknowledgenetwork.org/ to see information they have posted. Some communities have more posted than others, but there's usually something new there.
http://www.safetravelusa.com/ is a good site to consult for road conditions anywhere in the U.S.A. It's very useful for those who are traveling to consult this site to see what construction sites, road closures, road conditions, etc... to expect. Incidents and accidents are also posted. If you click on a road construction sign, you can find out exactly what type of construction is going on and how long you should expect to be delayed.
I use www.mapquest.com to help folks who want to get directions or mileage estimates to/from various areas. It also comes in handy when completing mileage reimbursement claim forms, because I never remember to set my tripometer.
Some folks have already mentioned some of my favorite resources for Story-time. I also like http://www.first-school.ws/. I like the fact I can click on a month to find out the holidays, etc... and recommended activities. http://www.crayola.com/ is another handy site for Story-time planning. I've also started using my pinterest account to look for good craft ideas for Story-time. I just follow some of the folks who I think post good activities/crafts and look at their boards occasionally. You can also do searches. If you enter the word "Lorax," you will see all crafts related to the Lorax, not just those on the boards you follow. It's nice to see photos of the crafts quickly, then click on the ones that interest you. Pinterest is free and is found at http://pinterest.com/, but you have to request to sign up and wait until they respond that you have been accepted.
I use http://www.bookfinder.com/ to search for rare and out-of-print books.
We use www.inciweb.org to look up the latest information on fires in the U.S.
I think that's about it. If I think of some more I'll add them later.
Friday, May 18, 2012
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Wrap-UP
I did the Electric Resources Challenge earlier this year and have reviewed several of the resources during this Institute version. I would have to say that my favorite resource is still the Learning Express Library. I was able to spread the word about it a little at a Career Fair at the local high school last month. I hope to make our community more aware of it in the future by writing an article for the local paper and by promoting its many offerings to those who come in requesting help with resumes, test preparation, etc... in the future. I really think folks will be impressed with what we have to offer at Learning Express.
I know this is a minor thing, but I really did enjoy playing around on the interactive maps in the World Book lesson. I recently joined the local Search and Rescue and have been brushing up on my map reading skills and learning to use the GPS. So, it was fun to use the interactive maps and not just view the area from above, but also be able to view panoramic shots of certain areas along the main roads.
I have been a little disappointed to discover that I can't find information on AncestryLibrary as easily as I would hope to. Today, I was trying to assist someone who sent a research request from the website with information about her great-grandfather. Even when I would enter the exact date of birth and death and location where he had lived, my top results would still be for a different Thomas Callahan with a different date of birth/death and a different state than I had mentioned. I cannot figure out why it doesn't limit the results more efficiently. I know I must be doing something wrong, but I can't figure it out.
I plan to use information from World Book and SIRS Discoverer when planning for Storytime. I can also direct students to these resources when they are conducting research for papers. If the students are older, I will also direct them to ProQuest. I think they will be impressed to see that these resources not only provide information, but also provide citation guidance.
I hope to broaden my experience with the Electronic Resources as time goes on. I'm excited to learn how to use them more effectively in our class this summer in order to help fill the information needs of our patrons/guests.
I know this is a minor thing, but I really did enjoy playing around on the interactive maps in the World Book lesson. I recently joined the local Search and Rescue and have been brushing up on my map reading skills and learning to use the GPS. So, it was fun to use the interactive maps and not just view the area from above, but also be able to view panoramic shots of certain areas along the main roads.
I have been a little disappointed to discover that I can't find information on AncestryLibrary as easily as I would hope to. Today, I was trying to assist someone who sent a research request from the website with information about her great-grandfather. Even when I would enter the exact date of birth and death and location where he had lived, my top results would still be for a different Thomas Callahan with a different date of birth/death and a different state than I had mentioned. I cannot figure out why it doesn't limit the results more efficiently. I know I must be doing something wrong, but I can't figure it out.
I plan to use information from World Book and SIRS Discoverer when planning for Storytime. I can also direct students to these resources when they are conducting research for papers. If the students are older, I will also direct them to ProQuest. I think they will be impressed to see that these resources not only provide information, but also provide citation guidance.
I hope to broaden my experience with the Electronic Resources as time goes on. I'm excited to learn how to use them more effectively in our class this summer in order to help fill the information needs of our patrons/guests.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
AncestryLibrary and HeritageQuest
1. My patron has asked for help finding information and pictures of possible sister ships of the Titanic. I take him to the AncestryLibrary and choose "Immigration & Travel" from the pull-down menu on the "Search" tab. Then, I narrow the search by "Ship Pictures & Descriptions" and the years 1900-1999. I then check out the "Passenger Ships and Images." On the advanced search screen, I enter "sister ship of the Titanic" under history and 1912 +/- 5 years under the date. There are over 3,000 results. The first 3 results are Majestic, Olympic, and Titanic. Since the Olympic was made the same year, I check it out and find this image and information:
"Laid down on December 16, 1908. Launched, October 20, 1910. Note: From keel to top of funnels 175 feet. Navigating bridge was 104 feet above keel. Displacement of 60,000 tons. Draft of 34 1/2 feet. The promenade deck had an extreme breadth of 94 feet. The bower anchors weighed 7 3/4 tons each. The centre anchor weighed 15 1/2 tons. Cost $7,500,000 to build. Passengers: 1,054 first, 510 second, 1,020 third. The crew numbered 860. Maiden voyage: Southampton-New York, June 14, 1911. Rammed and holed by the British cruiser Hawke, September 20, 1911, but was not seriously damaged. After the sinking of the Titanic, her construction was altered. The changes increased her tonnage to 46,439. Served as a troopship in World War I. Thoroughly reconditioned in 1921, including conversion to burning oil fuel. She rammed and sunk the well-known lightship Nantucket off the New England coast, May 16, 1934, during a thick fog. The seven members of the lightship crew were lost. The great liner was withdrawn from service in March 1935 and sold to British shipbreakers later in the year. The scrapped hulk was finally dismantled in 1937.
Sister ship: Titanic."
I checked out the Majestic as well, but its sister ship is called the Teutonic. When I check out the Titanic's information, the only sister ship listed is the Olympic. I decide to refind my search by including the term "White Star" on the keyword screen because that is the shipping line for the Olympic and Titanic. There are still a lot of results, but I just look at ones with the closest maiden voyage dates. I check out the Britannic which has no picture, but includes a note saying that it is "quite similar" to the Olympic and Titanic.
Since neither the Olympic or the Titanic show the name of other sister ships, I am going to assume they are the only two which are considered actual "sister ships," though other ships of that era are similar.
2. A student came to the library seeking help with finding information on the Hindenburg. I take him to the AncestryLibrary to search the "Newspapers & Publications" collection. We enter the term "Hindenburg airship crash" in the keyword field. I also entered the year 1937 after checking Wikipedia (I know -- sin, sin) to see the year of the crash. The articles that come up on the first page are all from the Stars and Stripes Newspaper....1942-1964. The first article looks like it would be helpful. It is entitled, "Will Dirigibles Make a Comeback?" However, some of the other articles really don't have a lot of information on the Hindenburg. I try adjusting my search terms in various ways, but I still end up with the same results. So, I think the first article is helpful, the others...not so much. I guess we will try some different sources than AncestryLibrary at this point.
I'm sure I was supposed to have better results, but I am just not that familiar with searching the newspapers in AncestryLibrary. I'll check out my fellow bloggers comments once they are posted and see what steps I'm missing.
3. To help the townsfolk find information on Custer County's history for our anniversary celebration, we visit HeritageQuest and search PERSI. Within PERSI, we search "places" and under the "United States" tab, we enter "South Dakota" from the pull-down menu, we enter "Custer" as the County, and we select "History" from the pull-down menu under "Record Type." The 51 articles that result seem to be just the type we're looking for. There are articles on the hanging of "Fly Speck Billy," the gold in French Creek, Peter Norbeck, Wind Cave National Park, Custer State Park, the early fur trade, the Black Hills in the 1880s, and lots of other interesting stuff. It looks like the townsfolk struck it rich with HeritageQuest on historical information on Custer County!
Sister ship: Titanic."
I checked out the Majestic as well, but its sister ship is called the Teutonic. When I check out the Titanic's information, the only sister ship listed is the Olympic. I decide to refind my search by including the term "White Star" on the keyword screen because that is the shipping line for the Olympic and Titanic. There are still a lot of results, but I just look at ones with the closest maiden voyage dates. I check out the Britannic which has no picture, but includes a note saying that it is "quite similar" to the Olympic and Titanic.
Since neither the Olympic or the Titanic show the name of other sister ships, I am going to assume they are the only two which are considered actual "sister ships," though other ships of that era are similar.
2. A student came to the library seeking help with finding information on the Hindenburg. I take him to the AncestryLibrary to search the "Newspapers & Publications" collection. We enter the term "Hindenburg airship crash" in the keyword field. I also entered the year 1937 after checking Wikipedia (I know -- sin, sin) to see the year of the crash. The articles that come up on the first page are all from the Stars and Stripes Newspaper....1942-1964. The first article looks like it would be helpful. It is entitled, "Will Dirigibles Make a Comeback?" However, some of the other articles really don't have a lot of information on the Hindenburg. I try adjusting my search terms in various ways, but I still end up with the same results. So, I think the first article is helpful, the others...not so much. I guess we will try some different sources than AncestryLibrary at this point.
I'm sure I was supposed to have better results, but I am just not that familiar with searching the newspapers in AncestryLibrary. I'll check out my fellow bloggers comments once they are posted and see what steps I'm missing.
3. To help the townsfolk find information on Custer County's history for our anniversary celebration, we visit HeritageQuest and search PERSI. Within PERSI, we search "places" and under the "United States" tab, we enter "South Dakota" from the pull-down menu, we enter "Custer" as the County, and we select "History" from the pull-down menu under "Record Type." The 51 articles that result seem to be just the type we're looking for. There are articles on the hanging of "Fly Speck Billy," the gold in French Creek, Peter Norbeck, Wind Cave National Park, Custer State Park, the early fur trade, the Black Hills in the 1880s, and lots of other interesting stuff. It looks like the townsfolk struck it rich with HeritageQuest on historical information on Custer County!
Monday, April 23, 2012
Lesson 7: Worldcat and More FirstSearch Databases
1. I used the Advanced Search and entered Martin Luther as a "Named Person" and limited the type to "Books" and the Subtype Limits as "Juvenile" audience and "not fiction" content. The results showed 861 books, many of which were about Martin Luther King Jr., so I decided to make some additional limits. I used the Subject Heading and limited it to "Luther, Martin" and used the Languae Heading to limit it to "English." Now, I have it narrowed down to 125 results. I normally would look at some reviews to make a recommendation to the patron. However, I don't have a lot of time for that right now, so I am going to recommend a newer book (from 2006) called Martin Luther: Father of the Reformation by Barbara A. Somervill.
2. I started by using the Advanced Search and entering "classics" as a keyword and "illustrated" as a keyword. I limited the type to "books" and the subtype to a "juvenile" audience. I checked out The Invisible Man, which was one of my top results. I saw it was from a series called "Classics Illustrated" So, I went back to the search screen and entered that as a Series Title and entered "graphic novel" as a keyword. I had 51 results, which I narrowed to 46 by limiting the Subject Heading to "graphic novel." A couple of series looked pretty promising. There was an older series (1990s) by Acclaim Books called "Classics Illustrated" and a newer series (2000+) by Papercutz which was also called "Classics Illustrated." I would probably lean toward adding the newer series because it looks a little hipper and current. Students tend to veer toward current looking materials. However, I like the titles in the Acclaim series better. So, I could actually choose a title by each publisher and order it through interlibrary loan in order to research the pros and cons before I actually choose a series. I'm going to choose Frankenstien from the series by Papercutz (because it will probably have some cool and creepy illustrations). I'm also going to choose Uncle Tom's Cabin by Acclaim Books because I think it's a very moving story and I'm interested in seeing an illustrated version of this classsic.
3. Using the Advanced Search, I entered My Fair Lady as a Title Phrase and limited the Type to "Musical Scores." I had 441 results, so I limited it to English to narrow the results to 257, then limited it to "musical revues and comedies" to further narrow to 102. I chose the second result, which was the first one with My Fair Lady as the title. The first result was a complilation of many scores by Lerner and Loewe. The Accession number of the item I chose was OCLC #26429906.
I checked out some other blogs. It looks we have different ways to go about finding our answers. Most of us seemed to come up with a different accession number for My Fair Lady, so I'm not really sure if I did it right or not.
2. I started by using the Advanced Search and entering "classics" as a keyword and "illustrated" as a keyword. I limited the type to "books" and the subtype to a "juvenile" audience. I checked out The Invisible Man, which was one of my top results. I saw it was from a series called "Classics Illustrated" So, I went back to the search screen and entered that as a Series Title and entered "graphic novel" as a keyword. I had 51 results, which I narrowed to 46 by limiting the Subject Heading to "graphic novel." A couple of series looked pretty promising. There was an older series (1990s) by Acclaim Books called "Classics Illustrated" and a newer series (2000+) by Papercutz which was also called "Classics Illustrated." I would probably lean toward adding the newer series because it looks a little hipper and current. Students tend to veer toward current looking materials. However, I like the titles in the Acclaim series better. So, I could actually choose a title by each publisher and order it through interlibrary loan in order to research the pros and cons before I actually choose a series. I'm going to choose Frankenstien from the series by Papercutz (because it will probably have some cool and creepy illustrations). I'm also going to choose Uncle Tom's Cabin by Acclaim Books because I think it's a very moving story and I'm interested in seeing an illustrated version of this classsic.
3. Using the Advanced Search, I entered My Fair Lady as a Title Phrase and limited the Type to "Musical Scores." I had 441 results, so I limited it to English to narrow the results to 257, then limited it to "musical revues and comedies" to further narrow to 102. I chose the second result, which was the first one with My Fair Lady as the title. The first result was a complilation of many scores by Lerner and Loewe. The Accession number of the item I chose was OCLC #26429906.
I checked out some other blogs. It looks we have different ways to go about finding our answers. Most of us seemed to come up with a different accession number for My Fair Lady, so I'm not really sure if I did it right or not.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Lesson 4: Proquest
1. I searched "lunar eclipse" with 2,475 results. Then, I limited to full text which narrowed it down to 1,675 results. I chose to look at results with Aristotle mentioned. There were only 2. When I narrowed that down by the date range 2002-2007, there was only 1 article. Just for kicks, I clicked on Kate Moss in the person limiter to see what article talked about her and a lunar eclipse. It turned out to just be a horoscope which mentioned her.
The limiters would be very useful for helping patrons. They would be especially useful when you have situations where a patron may say something along the lines of, "Sometime within the last few years I read an article about how Christopher Columbus impressed the natives by predicting a lunar eclipse, but now I can't remember where I read it. Can you help me?" Then, you can help with the search by entering "lunar eclipse" and narrowing down the results by the time frame and the person.
2. I tried to find the blogs of challenge cohorts who had taken the Electronic Resources Challenge previously, so I could compare our discoveries. I think I found about 3 different ones who are answering the same questions I am. There may be more, but those are all I checked out. I look forward to looking at those particular blogs as we go along.
I did look at a few other blogs, and it just reinforced the fact that we are all so different. Proquest seems to invoke the same excitement in some that I felt when I first was exposed to the Learning Express Library. We all have different preferences. I was rather surprised when I read Librarianne's profile and discovered she was a children's librarian. I was expecting her to be a reference librarian or something else, not a children's librarian. You just never can tell. It's fun to be surprised.
3. I would direct my patron to the Advanced Search option in ProQuest. Then, I would help him figure out how to limit his search according to the specifics he gives me. If he wanted information on specific states, we could enter those in the search field. If not, we'll just enter "lotteries" and "states" in the search field and click on full text. More than likely, he would be interested in fairly recent information, so I would help limit the Date Range to "last 12 months." We could eliminate more possibilities by limiting the document type to "article," and the language to "English." Hopefully, he could look through the results and find something to help him. If he doesn't, I would probably go back and changed the date to the last 3 years, and take "states" out of the search field. However, I would click on "United States - US" under location since he is not interested in lotteries in other countries. At this point, I hope I have given him enough guidance that he can find something on his own because I've got to get back to work.
The limiters would be very useful for helping patrons. They would be especially useful when you have situations where a patron may say something along the lines of, "Sometime within the last few years I read an article about how Christopher Columbus impressed the natives by predicting a lunar eclipse, but now I can't remember where I read it. Can you help me?" Then, you can help with the search by entering "lunar eclipse" and narrowing down the results by the time frame and the person.
2. I tried to find the blogs of challenge cohorts who had taken the Electronic Resources Challenge previously, so I could compare our discoveries. I think I found about 3 different ones who are answering the same questions I am. There may be more, but those are all I checked out. I look forward to looking at those particular blogs as we go along.
I did look at a few other blogs, and it just reinforced the fact that we are all so different. Proquest seems to invoke the same excitement in some that I felt when I first was exposed to the Learning Express Library. We all have different preferences. I was rather surprised when I read Librarianne's profile and discovered she was a children's librarian. I was expecting her to be a reference librarian or something else, not a children's librarian. You just never can tell. It's fun to be surprised.
3. I would direct my patron to the Advanced Search option in ProQuest. Then, I would help him figure out how to limit his search according to the specifics he gives me. If he wanted information on specific states, we could enter those in the search field. If not, we'll just enter "lotteries" and "states" in the search field and click on full text. More than likely, he would be interested in fairly recent information, so I would help limit the Date Range to "last 12 months." We could eliminate more possibilities by limiting the document type to "article," and the language to "English." Hopefully, he could look through the results and find something to help him. If he doesn't, I would probably go back and changed the date to the last 3 years, and take "states" out of the search field. However, I would click on "United States - US" under location since he is not interested in lotteries in other countries. At this point, I hope I have given him enough guidance that he can find something on his own because I've got to get back to work.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Lesson 2: Learning Express Library
1. The first thing I would show the 27-year-old patron who does not have a high school diploma is the GED Preparation portion of the Learning Express Library. This section would provide GED Preparation Courses and Guides, GED Skills Improvement, and GED Practice Exams. Then, I would talk to the patron to see if he already had a career goal in mind. Hopefully, he would give me an idea of what he is interested in becoming. If he mentions the military, I would direct him to the ASVAB preparation section. If he mentions becoming a truck driver, I would direct him to the CDL preparation section. My recommendations would depend on any interests he might express.
I would also direct him to the "Job Search, Resumes, and Interviewing" section under "Job Search & Workplace Skills." This section would help him out if he is interested in applying for jobs currently advertised and needs to prepare a resume and cover letter and work on his interviewing skills. It would also help him even if he needs to first work on becoming licensed in a certain field and apply for jobs later on. Everyone needs a little direction when it comes to writing a great resume. I could not find a generic career aptitude test on the site. If he doesn't have a clue what he would like to do, he probably would benefit from taking such a test to give him a little direction.
2. I would direct the patron with her eye on an office manager job to the "Business Writing" section under "Job Search & Workplace Skills." There are several courses and ebooks in this section which would be beneficial to an office manager. A particularly promising ebook to start her quest might be The Complete Professional which gives guidance on writing better for business, getting organized, working effectively as a team, handling office politics, building a network, communicating effectively, and understanding technology trends. Any of the courses or ebooks which improve grammar, business writing, vocabulary, and spelling would be good for most office managers.
The courses are valuable because they don't just allow you to read information like the ebooks, but you are actually expected to type and save information after each segment based on what you have learned. The writing courses walk you through the whole process. Your work is saved, you just keep on adding to it and improving it as you go along.
Of course, anyone who is thinking of applying for a promotion or new job should also check out the courses on writing resumes and cover letters and improving interviewing skills.
3. To assist the high school student with his career report, I just typed "nurse" in the search bar on Learning Express Library and came up with a very promising ebook on Becoming a Nurse, which seems like it would be a great source for his report. I couldn't find a similar ebook about Becoming a Pharmacist, but I found an ebook entitled Pharmacy Technician Career Starter which states "In addition to excellent job prospects, a career as a pharmacy technician can lead to an exciting future as a registered pharmacist." It seems like a pretty good place to find information on the pharmacy field.
Learning Express Library also contains practice tests for Nursing Assistants, Nursing School Entrance Exams, the Pharmacy Technician Exam, and the Pharmacy College Admission Test. These would be beneficial if the student did decide to pursue one of these careers, but would not really help the student in developing his school report.
I would also direct him to the "Job Search, Resumes, and Interviewing" section under "Job Search & Workplace Skills." This section would help him out if he is interested in applying for jobs currently advertised and needs to prepare a resume and cover letter and work on his interviewing skills. It would also help him even if he needs to first work on becoming licensed in a certain field and apply for jobs later on. Everyone needs a little direction when it comes to writing a great resume. I could not find a generic career aptitude test on the site. If he doesn't have a clue what he would like to do, he probably would benefit from taking such a test to give him a little direction.
2. I would direct the patron with her eye on an office manager job to the "Business Writing" section under "Job Search & Workplace Skills." There are several courses and ebooks in this section which would be beneficial to an office manager. A particularly promising ebook to start her quest might be The Complete Professional which gives guidance on writing better for business, getting organized, working effectively as a team, handling office politics, building a network, communicating effectively, and understanding technology trends. Any of the courses or ebooks which improve grammar, business writing, vocabulary, and spelling would be good for most office managers.
The courses are valuable because they don't just allow you to read information like the ebooks, but you are actually expected to type and save information after each segment based on what you have learned. The writing courses walk you through the whole process. Your work is saved, you just keep on adding to it and improving it as you go along.
Of course, anyone who is thinking of applying for a promotion or new job should also check out the courses on writing resumes and cover letters and improving interviewing skills.
3. To assist the high school student with his career report, I just typed "nurse" in the search bar on Learning Express Library and came up with a very promising ebook on Becoming a Nurse, which seems like it would be a great source for his report. I couldn't find a similar ebook about Becoming a Pharmacist, but I found an ebook entitled Pharmacy Technician Career Starter which states "In addition to excellent job prospects, a career as a pharmacy technician can lead to an exciting future as a registered pharmacist." It seems like a pretty good place to find information on the pharmacy field.
Learning Express Library also contains practice tests for Nursing Assistants, Nursing School Entrance Exams, the Pharmacy Technician Exam, and the Pharmacy College Admission Test. These would be beneficial if the student did decide to pursue one of these careers, but would not really help the student in developing his school report.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Lesson 1: World Book Online
1. I checked out some features of World Book Online for Kids such as "Science Projects," "Games," "Activities," and "Maps & More." I played a few of the games which you can choose from a rotating menu or scroll down and choose from a list. There are puzzles, mazes, color by number, and matching games among others. These games are very easy since the target age for this version of World Book is K-5. At least with the puzzles, I could choose if I wanted easy, medium, or hard. I actually kind of enjoyed the puzzle. I really couldn't find where to "Compare Places," though I did find in the "World of Animals" that I could compare two different animals as to characteristics such as weight, length, number of newbown, and life span.
2. I visited World Book Online InfoFinder and got a little carried away playing with "Interactive Earth." At first, I was just moving around and looking at the the different sections of town, but once I discovered I could click on the little man and move him to any part of the map highlighted in blue and see actual panoramic pictures, I was hooked. I zoomed in on our library and traveled down the street a little ways. Then, I went to Custer State Park with my little man and traveled down highway 16A. I would just highlight a circle ahead of me on the road and I would be zoomed to that spot. Then, I could look around 360 degrees from any location on the road that I choose. This feature is really cool!
I also looked at a couple of videos about the Titanic on "World Book Explores Virtual Tours." I tried to look at "National Parks" under "Historical Sites" which gave me access to all of the National Park webpages, but I didn't notice the video content like the Titanic virtual tour offered. The Virtual Tours section is pretty nifty, but didn't keep my attention as long as the Interactive Map feature. This feature can also be accessed from the World Book Online for Kids (where I originally discovered it). I just chose to write about it in this section since we were asked to visit this feature specifically in InfoFinder.
3. I used the World Book Online Reference Center to go to the E-Book Center and look up Andersen's Fairy Tales since I am a fan of Hans Christian Andersen and have my own collection at home. The special tools are pretty cool, you can have the text read aloud and you can have it translated into many different languages. You can print, e-mail, or save a section, you can download the e-book, and you can save information to My Research if you have created a My Research account. I like the fact that you are also provided Related Encyclopedia Content, such as an article on Hans Christian Andersen or an article on Fairies. Just for kicks, I clicked on "Download Ebook" to see what would happen. After choosing open, the book downloaded in a matter of seconds and appeared on my Adobe Digital Editions program which I had previously downloaded on my PC in order to use Overdrive. Pretty cool, huh?
2. I visited World Book Online InfoFinder and got a little carried away playing with "Interactive Earth." At first, I was just moving around and looking at the the different sections of town, but once I discovered I could click on the little man and move him to any part of the map highlighted in blue and see actual panoramic pictures, I was hooked. I zoomed in on our library and traveled down the street a little ways. Then, I went to Custer State Park with my little man and traveled down highway 16A. I would just highlight a circle ahead of me on the road and I would be zoomed to that spot. Then, I could look around 360 degrees from any location on the road that I choose. This feature is really cool!
I also looked at a couple of videos about the Titanic on "World Book Explores Virtual Tours." I tried to look at "National Parks" under "Historical Sites" which gave me access to all of the National Park webpages, but I didn't notice the video content like the Titanic virtual tour offered. The Virtual Tours section is pretty nifty, but didn't keep my attention as long as the Interactive Map feature. This feature can also be accessed from the World Book Online for Kids (where I originally discovered it). I just chose to write about it in this section since we were asked to visit this feature specifically in InfoFinder.
3. I used the World Book Online Reference Center to go to the E-Book Center and look up Andersen's Fairy Tales since I am a fan of Hans Christian Andersen and have my own collection at home. The special tools are pretty cool, you can have the text read aloud and you can have it translated into many different languages. You can print, e-mail, or save a section, you can download the e-book, and you can save information to My Research if you have created a My Research account. I like the fact that you are also provided Related Encyclopedia Content, such as an article on Hans Christian Andersen or an article on Fairies. Just for kicks, I clicked on "Download Ebook" to see what would happen. After choosing open, the book downloaded in a matter of seconds and appeared on my Adobe Digital Editions program which I had previously downloaded on my PC in order to use Overdrive. Pretty cool, huh?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)