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?
Friday, March 16, 2012
Lesson 10: Wrap Up
1. My biggest discovery was just how much I had missed out on by not knowing what the Electronic Resources on the State website offered. I'm relatively new at this job, and really only had a good handle on one resource -- Worldcat -- because I used it to place interlibrary loans. I just find it hard to believe all of the information/resources we can provide to our patrons.
Some of the lessons I enjoyed most were those on the Learning Express Library and SIRS Issues Researcher and SIRS Discoverer. I even used SIRS Discoverer just yesterday to look up information on St. Patrick's Day for today's Story-time theme. I found out information I had never known about St. Patrick and links to all kinds of St. Patrick's Day ideas.
The Learning Express Library is just amazing. I really hope I can get the word out about this tremendous resource. I just know students and their parents would appreciate having access to test preparation and practice tests for almost every test one could think of. I hope when my son is preparing for the ACT in a couple of years that he will take advantage of this free resource. Also the courses on this site are very helpful. A lot of the folks who are now looking for jobs are middle-aged and haven't had to write a resume or cover letter in a long time. Having access to these courses to walk them through the process will help them end up with a better end-product and a better chance of getting a job.
Another thing I like about many of the resources is that they provide guidance as to how to cite the source. I would have loved having all of these resources, plus information on how to cite the source back in the dark ages when I was in college. Heck, I would have loved to have just had the internet then. Students who need to write a persuasive essay on a controversial subject nowadays have it made. They can go to SIRS Issues Researcher, type in their subject, and have access to a variety of pro and con articles on the subject from a variety of source types. They don't even have to take notes, they can just print it off. To top it all off, they can just copy and paste the citation into their document. Half the battle taken care of just by using these electronic resources. They can devote their energy to writing a coherent paper. The research and figuring out how to cite it was always the most time consuming part "back in my day." Thank goodness for progress.
2. Obviously, when patrons ask us for help, we will be able to enlighten them to the potential information at their disposal through using the electronic resources available on the website. For example, we recently had a middle-aged student who is taking on-line courses and needed to write an essay on medical malpractice suits. We showed her several of the resources she could access from home and got her signed up for a State Library Card. She was so relieved to find out about these resources.
I have called the Counselor at the local high school to talk to her about making the students aware of the opportunity to practice for the ASVAB, ACT, and SAT tests through Learning Express Library. She said she had mentioned it to teachers before, but that she maybe needed to remind them to talk to the students about it. I think I need to just write an article every now and then on one of the electronic resources and sent it to the local paper. I would start with the Learning Express Library. The students probably wouldn't notice the article, but their parents would. They would encourage their kids to use it.
Personally, I will be able to use SIRS Discoverer and the World Book resources to prepare for Story-Time each week. I also will be able to show my mom how to use AncestryLibrary and Heritage Quest to keep her occupied during the day while my Dad helps thin trees in our woods when they visit this summer. She's a geneaologist, so she'll love playing with those sites.
I'm kind of afraid I won't remember which resource to use for what. If I hadn't looked through my blogs, I would have forgotten which source had the College Blue Book. It was Gale Virtual Reference Library. For some reason, that doesn't stick in my head too well. I had forgotten all about that site.
At least I'll have more opportunity to become familiar with the electronic resources through pre-work for the Library Institute and the actual Institute Session this summer. Hopefully, I'll have a good handle on it after a little more reinforcement.
Thanks for the opportunity to learn more about the electronic resources!
Some of the lessons I enjoyed most were those on the Learning Express Library and SIRS Issues Researcher and SIRS Discoverer. I even used SIRS Discoverer just yesterday to look up information on St. Patrick's Day for today's Story-time theme. I found out information I had never known about St. Patrick and links to all kinds of St. Patrick's Day ideas.
The Learning Express Library is just amazing. I really hope I can get the word out about this tremendous resource. I just know students and their parents would appreciate having access to test preparation and practice tests for almost every test one could think of. I hope when my son is preparing for the ACT in a couple of years that he will take advantage of this free resource. Also the courses on this site are very helpful. A lot of the folks who are now looking for jobs are middle-aged and haven't had to write a resume or cover letter in a long time. Having access to these courses to walk them through the process will help them end up with a better end-product and a better chance of getting a job.
Another thing I like about many of the resources is that they provide guidance as to how to cite the source. I would have loved having all of these resources, plus information on how to cite the source back in the dark ages when I was in college. Heck, I would have loved to have just had the internet then. Students who need to write a persuasive essay on a controversial subject nowadays have it made. They can go to SIRS Issues Researcher, type in their subject, and have access to a variety of pro and con articles on the subject from a variety of source types. They don't even have to take notes, they can just print it off. To top it all off, they can just copy and paste the citation into their document. Half the battle taken care of just by using these electronic resources. They can devote their energy to writing a coherent paper. The research and figuring out how to cite it was always the most time consuming part "back in my day." Thank goodness for progress.
2. Obviously, when patrons ask us for help, we will be able to enlighten them to the potential information at their disposal through using the electronic resources available on the website. For example, we recently had a middle-aged student who is taking on-line courses and needed to write an essay on medical malpractice suits. We showed her several of the resources she could access from home and got her signed up for a State Library Card. She was so relieved to find out about these resources.
I have called the Counselor at the local high school to talk to her about making the students aware of the opportunity to practice for the ASVAB, ACT, and SAT tests through Learning Express Library. She said she had mentioned it to teachers before, but that she maybe needed to remind them to talk to the students about it. I think I need to just write an article every now and then on one of the electronic resources and sent it to the local paper. I would start with the Learning Express Library. The students probably wouldn't notice the article, but their parents would. They would encourage their kids to use it.
Personally, I will be able to use SIRS Discoverer and the World Book resources to prepare for Story-Time each week. I also will be able to show my mom how to use AncestryLibrary and Heritage Quest to keep her occupied during the day while my Dad helps thin trees in our woods when they visit this summer. She's a geneaologist, so she'll love playing with those sites.
I'm kind of afraid I won't remember which resource to use for what. If I hadn't looked through my blogs, I would have forgotten which source had the College Blue Book. It was Gale Virtual Reference Library. For some reason, that doesn't stick in my head too well. I had forgotten all about that site.
At least I'll have more opportunity to become familiar with the electronic resources through pre-work for the Library Institute and the actual Institute Session this summer. Hopefully, I'll have a good handle on it after a little more reinforcement.
Thanks for the opportunity to learn more about the electronic resources!
Friday, March 9, 2012
Challenge #9: History & Genealogy Resources
1. I searched my name in AncestryLibrary and found two results that were actually me and a lot that just shared all or part of my name. One result was from the U. S. Public Records Index, Volume 1. It showed my married name and my maiden name and provided my birthdate (and a birthdate that was one day off from my husbands for some reason) and an address in Tennessee, which was where I lived when I obtained a marriage certificate. It also showed two later addresses in Tennessee, but no more addresses. Then, I revised my search for Kentucky and found U.S. Phone and Address Directories, 1993-2002 which provided my name, my spouse's name, and our address and phone number in 2002 when we lived in Mt. Sterling, KY. A neat thing provided on this was an opportunity to "view neighbors" which I clicked on and was rewarded with names (along with fond memories) of old neighbors. When I tried searching for my name in Williams, AZ and Custer, SD, I didn't find any results that were actually me.
2. I searched for Doris Green, my Mamaw (that's Hillbilly for Grandma), on AncestryLibrary. I found two results: 1. a Social Security Death Index showing her Social Security Number, last residence, date of birth, date of death and the year her SSN was issued. 2. a U. S. Public Records Index, Volume 1 showing her name, phone number, and address (pre and post 911).
3) I searched for South Dakota under Pictures with 3,615,253 results. The majority of these pictures were from U. S. School Yearbooks. I decided to look more closely at just pictures from the Library of Congress Photo Collection. I saw lots of old photos of Indians from the Dakotas, an old photo of the Corn Palace, several of the ship S. S. Dakota, and a lot more. I then refined my search to Custer, South Dakota. There were 78,569 pictures in the Library of Congress Photo Collection, many of which were of Custer State Park and Wind Cave National Park. I then searched for South Dakota under Maps, Atlases, and Gazateers with 842, 669 results. When I refined the search to just Custer, there were 4,951 results, many of which were from the Indexed County Land Ownership Maps. I wanted to see if there were some recent maps, so I refined the search by entering 2000 in the year. However, most of the results were from 1913 for some reason. Perhaps AncestryLibrary does not include recent maps. Maybe those should be searched for at another location.
4) In HeritageQuest I chose to look at Books and search the People section for Jehu Stokely, one of my ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War and also served on a ship with John Paul Jones (My Mom is a geneaologist, so I've read stuff she has written about him). Unfortunately, I also did a search in Revolutionary War and couldn't really find anything. Maybe he was not considered to actually serve in the military since what he was involved with was considered privateering. Anyway, when I looked in Books, I found one called A Burnett Family of the South, which had several hits for Jehu Stokely. However, this was a descendent of the Jehu I was researching because this Jehu was in records from the mid-1800s. Jehu was married to Jane Burnett, a daughter of a wealthy Burnett man, and was named executor of his father-in-law's last Will and Testament. Other hits on this name were actually of a grandson, who was also named Jehu. When I get more time, I'm going to go back into HeritageQuest and try to find out more. But, if I don't move on, I'll never get my homework and other duties done.
5) In the Sanborn Maps, I looked at Custer in 1891. I found the Courthouse, which still exists today as the 1881 Courthouse Museum. The present main street is called Mt. Rushmore Rd., but was called Custer Avenue in 1891. I also think that a bakery stood in the same place that Baker's Bakery occupies today. I wish the map would have been oriented with the north of town at the top of the screen instead of to the left. I had to read maps a lot in my previous career as a Forester, so I was used to north being the top of the map on quad maps. I plan to go back later and take time to look at Custer for all of the years offered. But now, I need to leave the fun stuff and get to work.
2. I searched for Doris Green, my Mamaw (that's Hillbilly for Grandma), on AncestryLibrary. I found two results: 1. a Social Security Death Index showing her Social Security Number, last residence, date of birth, date of death and the year her SSN was issued. 2. a U. S. Public Records Index, Volume 1 showing her name, phone number, and address (pre and post 911).
3) I searched for South Dakota under Pictures with 3,615,253 results. The majority of these pictures were from U. S. School Yearbooks. I decided to look more closely at just pictures from the Library of Congress Photo Collection. I saw lots of old photos of Indians from the Dakotas, an old photo of the Corn Palace, several of the ship S. S. Dakota, and a lot more. I then refined my search to Custer, South Dakota. There were 78,569 pictures in the Library of Congress Photo Collection, many of which were of Custer State Park and Wind Cave National Park. I then searched for South Dakota under Maps, Atlases, and Gazateers with 842, 669 results. When I refined the search to just Custer, there were 4,951 results, many of which were from the Indexed County Land Ownership Maps. I wanted to see if there were some recent maps, so I refined the search by entering 2000 in the year. However, most of the results were from 1913 for some reason. Perhaps AncestryLibrary does not include recent maps. Maybe those should be searched for at another location.
4) In HeritageQuest I chose to look at Books and search the People section for Jehu Stokely, one of my ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War and also served on a ship with John Paul Jones (My Mom is a geneaologist, so I've read stuff she has written about him). Unfortunately, I also did a search in Revolutionary War and couldn't really find anything. Maybe he was not considered to actually serve in the military since what he was involved with was considered privateering. Anyway, when I looked in Books, I found one called A Burnett Family of the South, which had several hits for Jehu Stokely. However, this was a descendent of the Jehu I was researching because this Jehu was in records from the mid-1800s. Jehu was married to Jane Burnett, a daughter of a wealthy Burnett man, and was named executor of his father-in-law's last Will and Testament. Other hits on this name were actually of a grandson, who was also named Jehu. When I get more time, I'm going to go back into HeritageQuest and try to find out more. But, if I don't move on, I'll never get my homework and other duties done.
5) In the Sanborn Maps, I looked at Custer in 1891. I found the Courthouse, which still exists today as the 1881 Courthouse Museum. The present main street is called Mt. Rushmore Rd., but was called Custer Avenue in 1891. I also think that a bakery stood in the same place that Baker's Bakery occupies today. I wish the map would have been oriented with the north of town at the top of the screen instead of to the left. I had to read maps a lot in my previous career as a Forester, so I was used to north being the top of the map on quad maps. I plan to go back later and take time to look at Custer for all of the years offered. But now, I need to leave the fun stuff and get to work.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Challenge #8: Archive Grid and CAMIO
Discover Exercise #1
1. When I typed in "Sitting Bull autograph card," I was able to read a short summary of the highlights of Sitting Bull's life, but did not notice access to any photos. I actually didn't really learn anything about Sitting Bull that I didn't already know from reading books and visiting the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody, Wyoming.
2. In keeping with the Buffalo Bill theme, I chose to search for Annie Oakley. The search revealed 32 results. Some were typescripts of screenplays, some were "papers," and some were photographs. The materials were owned by the Library of Congress, various universities, the New York Public Library, and some museums and historical societies.
Discovery Exercise #2:
1. A search of Paul Revere revealed engravings entitled "Bloody Massacre" and "Boston Massacre" and various silver items such as spoons, tea and sugar urns, tea service sets, coffee urns, teapots, and tankards.
2. Typing in Sioux resulted in a variety of search results -- 63 in all. The first couple were a pair of gloves and a shirt made by Sioux Natives over 100 years ago. The next two were pictures of Sioux Springs. The fifth was a writing table, and I can't figure out why it showed up in the results. There are other sculptures, clothing items, and drawings from books made by Sioux artists, and a lot of paintings by George Catlin with Sioux subjects.
3. I looked up Remington and found 13 results: 6 were sculptures and 6 were paintings/watercolors. I thought he had more sculptures than 6, so some of them must not show up in Camio. I think he was a better sculptor than he was a painter.
4. Users could develop slide shows displaying certain types of art if they were delivering a lecture/presentation. I'm not sure if I personally would use this resource often because I am not very knowledgeable about art. I don't have what it takes to appreciate Picasso and other famous artists. I'm too left-brained I think. Of course, I will still be happy to show patrons who are interested in art that Camio is at their disposal.
5. I chose to look at works of Monet. I added 10 of the works to My Favorites and viewed them in a slide show. I like this option because it makes it easier to flip through larger size pictures of the art work. Two of the 10 paintings I looked at were quite pretty -- "Spring Flowers" and "Garden at Sainte Adresse."
1. When I typed in "Sitting Bull autograph card," I was able to read a short summary of the highlights of Sitting Bull's life, but did not notice access to any photos. I actually didn't really learn anything about Sitting Bull that I didn't already know from reading books and visiting the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody, Wyoming.
2. In keeping with the Buffalo Bill theme, I chose to search for Annie Oakley. The search revealed 32 results. Some were typescripts of screenplays, some were "papers," and some were photographs. The materials were owned by the Library of Congress, various universities, the New York Public Library, and some museums and historical societies.
Discovery Exercise #2:
1. A search of Paul Revere revealed engravings entitled "Bloody Massacre" and "Boston Massacre" and various silver items such as spoons, tea and sugar urns, tea service sets, coffee urns, teapots, and tankards.
2. Typing in Sioux resulted in a variety of search results -- 63 in all. The first couple were a pair of gloves and a shirt made by Sioux Natives over 100 years ago. The next two were pictures of Sioux Springs. The fifth was a writing table, and I can't figure out why it showed up in the results. There are other sculptures, clothing items, and drawings from books made by Sioux artists, and a lot of paintings by George Catlin with Sioux subjects.
3. I looked up Remington and found 13 results: 6 were sculptures and 6 were paintings/watercolors. I thought he had more sculptures than 6, so some of them must not show up in Camio. I think he was a better sculptor than he was a painter.
4. Users could develop slide shows displaying certain types of art if they were delivering a lecture/presentation. I'm not sure if I personally would use this resource often because I am not very knowledgeable about art. I don't have what it takes to appreciate Picasso and other famous artists. I'm too left-brained I think. Of course, I will still be happy to show patrons who are interested in art that Camio is at their disposal.
5. I chose to look at works of Monet. I added 10 of the works to My Favorites and viewed them in a slide show. I like this option because it makes it easier to flip through larger size pictures of the art work. Two of the 10 paintings I looked at were quite pretty -- "Spring Flowers" and "Garden at Sainte Adresse."
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Challenge #7: Worldcat and More FirstSearch Indexes
Part 1
I have had experience using Worldcat to borrow Interlibrary Loan materials when I could not find the material in SDLN Libraries through Aleph. So, I was aware of some of the opportunities presented in this lesson, but no all of them.
1) Besides using the default search field of "Keyword," one may also search by Title, Author, Subject, Genre, Material Type, ISBN or any number of other terms.
2) I chose to search for Blind Your Ponies using the Title Phrase. Three of the results were books. Worldwide, there were 459 Libraries which held a copy of Item #1. The top library in the results list for this book was the Alexander Mitchell Library.
3) I looked at the full record for Blind Your Ponies, and saw that the Dewey Call Number was 813/.54, which basically means it is American Fiction. I clicked on the name of the author, Stanley Gordon West, and saw that 12 Books resulted. Some of these books were the same title, but probably just different versions, such as hardback and paperback. Then, I clicked on the subject of "basketball coaches -- fiction" with a result of 37 books, 7 internet sources, and 3 sound sources. I then narrowed the search by choosing "not juvenile" and the number of books dropped to 30.
Other FirstSearch Indexes
I looked briefly at other databases offered in FirstSearch and the information provided on several of these databases. For kicks, I looked for Bobby Knight in the World Almanac -- not because I'm a Bobby Knight fan, but my mind was on Basketball Coaches and his was the first that came to mind that I was sure I could spell right. The first result was a Basketball Hall of Fame Listing which showed what year various players and coaches were added to the Hall of Fame.
Part 2
I conducted a search on South Dakota in OAIster under "Subject Phrase." I decided to look into a dissertation entitled Dreams and Dust in the Black Hills: Race, Place, and National Identity in America's Land of Promise. When I clicked on the link next to Access, I was taken to the University of New Mexico's Lobo Vault. The link provided basic information on the dissertation, such as the author, the advisor, the committee members, the date, and the type of degree being pursued. However, I could not read the actual dissertation because when I tried to open it, I was asked to login to the Lobo Vault.
I have had experience using Worldcat to borrow Interlibrary Loan materials when I could not find the material in SDLN Libraries through Aleph. So, I was aware of some of the opportunities presented in this lesson, but no all of them.
1) Besides using the default search field of "Keyword," one may also search by Title, Author, Subject, Genre, Material Type, ISBN or any number of other terms.
2) I chose to search for Blind Your Ponies using the Title Phrase. Three of the results were books. Worldwide, there were 459 Libraries which held a copy of Item #1. The top library in the results list for this book was the Alexander Mitchell Library.
3) I looked at the full record for Blind Your Ponies, and saw that the Dewey Call Number was 813/.54, which basically means it is American Fiction. I clicked on the name of the author, Stanley Gordon West, and saw that 12 Books resulted. Some of these books were the same title, but probably just different versions, such as hardback and paperback. Then, I clicked on the subject of "basketball coaches -- fiction" with a result of 37 books, 7 internet sources, and 3 sound sources. I then narrowed the search by choosing "not juvenile" and the number of books dropped to 30.
Other FirstSearch Indexes
I looked briefly at other databases offered in FirstSearch and the information provided on several of these databases. For kicks, I looked for Bobby Knight in the World Almanac -- not because I'm a Bobby Knight fan, but my mind was on Basketball Coaches and his was the first that came to mind that I was sure I could spell right. The first result was a Basketball Hall of Fame Listing which showed what year various players and coaches were added to the Hall of Fame.
Part 2
I conducted a search on South Dakota in OAIster under "Subject Phrase." I decided to look into a dissertation entitled Dreams and Dust in the Black Hills: Race, Place, and National Identity in America's Land of Promise. When I clicked on the link next to Access, I was taken to the University of New Mexico's Lobo Vault. The link provided basic information on the dissertation, such as the author, the advisor, the committee members, the date, and the type of degree being pursued. However, I could not read the actual dissertation because when I tried to open it, I was asked to login to the Lobo Vault.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Challenge #6: Ebooks on EbscoHost
This week's challenge is proving to be very frustrating to me. I am not going to resume trying to finish the Discovery Exercise because my internet has locked up too many times, and I have needed to totally close the browser windows and start all over. I hope everyone else is having better luck. I will report on what I discovered before I gave up.
1) I chose to research "tax advice for rental properties" and various other terms along those lines, since I am trying to complete my taxes and this is the first year I have needed to deal with a rental property. (We couldn't sell our house in AZ before we moved to SD, so we have rented it out since July.) I chose to look at a couple of Idiot's Guides. One was for completing taxes using Turbo Tax (which is what I do); the other was an Idiot's Guide to Personal Finance. I would open the Table of Contents in order to skip to the subjects I was interested in, but my computer would quit responding when I tried to scroll down the page. So, I was only able to look at the first few lines on a page. Every single time I tried, things would work fine until I tried to scroll down the page -- then my computer would quit responding. I thought maybe there was a problem with the Idiot Guides, so I decided to move on to #2.
2) I looked up various terms such as "U. S. Constitution" and "history of the U. S. Constitution." I found a couple of books that looked promising: Our Elusive Constitution and Reader's Companion to American History. Unfortunately, I couldn't dig within the books, because once again the computer would quit responding when I tried to scroll down. Before I tried scrolling down on my last effort, I did use the tool that allows you to search within the book. I saw a lot of things that looked promising, but could not investigate them further without being able to scroll down the page.
3) At this point, I am too frustrated to waste any more time trying to get this to work, so I chose to not even attempt task 3.
It seems like it would be great to have access to ebooks such as those Idiot Guides, Blue Books, etc... I just would be afraid to recommend this particular site to a patron after all of the trouble I have had with it. Hopefully, my co-workers will not experience the same problems on their computers.
1) I chose to research "tax advice for rental properties" and various other terms along those lines, since I am trying to complete my taxes and this is the first year I have needed to deal with a rental property. (We couldn't sell our house in AZ before we moved to SD, so we have rented it out since July.) I chose to look at a couple of Idiot's Guides. One was for completing taxes using Turbo Tax (which is what I do); the other was an Idiot's Guide to Personal Finance. I would open the Table of Contents in order to skip to the subjects I was interested in, but my computer would quit responding when I tried to scroll down the page. So, I was only able to look at the first few lines on a page. Every single time I tried, things would work fine until I tried to scroll down the page -- then my computer would quit responding. I thought maybe there was a problem with the Idiot Guides, so I decided to move on to #2.
2) I looked up various terms such as "U. S. Constitution" and "history of the U. S. Constitution." I found a couple of books that looked promising: Our Elusive Constitution and Reader's Companion to American History. Unfortunately, I couldn't dig within the books, because once again the computer would quit responding when I tried to scroll down. Before I tried scrolling down on my last effort, I did use the tool that allows you to search within the book. I saw a lot of things that looked promising, but could not investigate them further without being able to scroll down the page.
3) At this point, I am too frustrated to waste any more time trying to get this to work, so I chose to not even attempt task 3.
It seems like it would be great to have access to ebooks such as those Idiot Guides, Blue Books, etc... I just would be afraid to recommend this particular site to a patron after all of the trouble I have had with it. Hopefully, my co-workers will not experience the same problems on their computers.
Monday, February 6, 2012
Challenge #5: Gale Virtual Reference Library
1) After viewing the "Title List," I chose to look at The College Blue Book. Once you open this reference, you choose a state and all colleges and universities in each state are listed along with lots of helpful information. This information includes the number of students enrolled, the student/faculty ratio, the academic areas with the most degrees conferred, entrance requirements, special programs, tuition costs, and room and board costs. This information would be very valuable for parents and students who are trying to select an institute of higher learning. This 34th edition of The College Blue Book was published in 2007, so the information is not exactly up-to-date. I'm sure tuition costs have risen a lot in the last 5 years. However, it would still be valuable to get an idea of the costs and benefits of each school. I would hope the next edition is scheduled for this year. Otherwise, I would think information of this nature would lose it's value after more than 5 years.
2) I chose to search for information related to "mission statements" to help me prepare for our upcoming work group to revamp the library's current Mission Statement. I found a couple of useful articles which I printed off to help in developing an introduction to the goals of our session. I might as well get something useful done while doing my homework, right?
I tested the "Listen" feature, which is pretty nifty and not as "computery" sounding as I thought it would be. However, I don't think I would be able to pay close attention to the information if I were only listening due to the lack of stress/inflection in the reading of the text. But, that's just me. I'm more of a visual learner.
3) I looked at a lot of comments on others blogs which helped me realize the wealth of information availabe at GVRL. I wish I would have had this resource in college when I had to write research or papers about literary works. Doing research for papers in college is one of my least favorite memories. Students today have access to so much information from the convenience of their PC or laptop. I hope they all know about these resources.
2) I chose to search for information related to "mission statements" to help me prepare for our upcoming work group to revamp the library's current Mission Statement. I found a couple of useful articles which I printed off to help in developing an introduction to the goals of our session. I might as well get something useful done while doing my homework, right?
I tested the "Listen" feature, which is pretty nifty and not as "computery" sounding as I thought it would be. However, I don't think I would be able to pay close attention to the information if I were only listening due to the lack of stress/inflection in the reading of the text. But, that's just me. I'm more of a visual learner.
3) I looked at a lot of comments on others blogs which helped me realize the wealth of information availabe at GVRL. I wish I would have had this resource in college when I had to write research or papers about literary works. Doing research for papers in college is one of my least favorite memories. Students today have access to so much information from the convenience of their PC or laptop. I hope they all know about these resources.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Challenge #4: Proquest
1) I decided to conduct a basic search on "introverts" since we are in the process of cataloging a new book by Susan Cain entitled Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking. I had taken the book home last night and read a few pages, so my curiosity was piqued.
The ProQuest search results were from a variety of sources. Among the top 5 results was an article regarding ITs as Introverts, a short review of the aforementioned book in The Booklist, an article from an issue of Parents magazine, an article from an issue of Air Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration News (of all things), and a transcript of an interview of author Susan Cain on NPRs All Things Considered. In each source, the search term "introvert" was highlighted. (This was helpful for this search, but not so helpful when my searchterm was "history of motocross" and every "of" was highlighted.) Some of the articles can be translated "on-the-fly" into other languages. Some articles did not have translation available.
Search results default to being organized by relevance, but may be reorganized according to publication date on a drop-down menu on the right side of the screen. I enjoyed reading the articles, which made it a little harder to get my assignment done in a timely manner.
2) I visited other blogs and made a comment or two. I learned quite a bit by visiting these other blogs. Then, I had to reinvestigate some of the Electronic Resource to find out more about what my Challenge cohorts had mentioned.
3) I was impressed with the number of periodicals offered under the Publications tab. I searched for the Journal of Forestry, which was the Journal for my former profession. Then, I searched for the Library Journal. Several periodicals resulted with both the word "Library" and "Journal." I chose the one I was looking for, then browsed the most recent articles on a couple of subjects I was interested in. This will be a handy resource for educating myself on issues within our field that I need to get more up-to-speed on.
The ProQuest search results were from a variety of sources. Among the top 5 results was an article regarding ITs as Introverts, a short review of the aforementioned book in The Booklist, an article from an issue of Parents magazine, an article from an issue of Air Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration News (of all things), and a transcript of an interview of author Susan Cain on NPRs All Things Considered. In each source, the search term "introvert" was highlighted. (This was helpful for this search, but not so helpful when my searchterm was "history of motocross" and every "of" was highlighted.) Some of the articles can be translated "on-the-fly" into other languages. Some articles did not have translation available.
Search results default to being organized by relevance, but may be reorganized according to publication date on a drop-down menu on the right side of the screen. I enjoyed reading the articles, which made it a little harder to get my assignment done in a timely manner.
2) I visited other blogs and made a comment or two. I learned quite a bit by visiting these other blogs. Then, I had to reinvestigate some of the Electronic Resource to find out more about what my Challenge cohorts had mentioned.
3) I was impressed with the number of periodicals offered under the Publications tab. I searched for the Journal of Forestry, which was the Journal for my former profession. Then, I searched for the Library Journal. Several periodicals resulted with both the word "Library" and "Journal." I chose the one I was looking for, then browsed the most recent articles on a couple of subjects I was interested in. This will be a handy resource for educating myself on issues within our field that I need to get more up-to-speed on.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Challenge #3: SIRS Issues Researcher and Discoverer
SD 1) I chose to look up groundhogs to find information to prepare for next week's story-time. I found lots of articles from sources such as Time for Kids, Wild, the Detroit Free Press, and even the Washington Post. All articles from kid-centered sources contained pictures. One even provided a really neat pdf file with photos of Puxsatawney Phil, puzzles, groundhog drawings, and fast facts. I tried numerous times to print it, but was never successful. I would receive a message saying "sirs.com is not responding." I even tried mailing it to my e-mail address, but it never showed up. I'm not sure what I did wrong.
I did notice all of the articles provided lexile scores. However, I am not sure how these scores correlate with the actual grade level of a reader. A number like Accelerated Reader uses would be more useful to me. If it said 5.0, I would know the reader would need to be able to comprehend at the level of a student beginning 5th grade. I'm sure lexile scores mean something to educators, I'm just not familiar with them.
SD 2) To explore "Database Features" in SIRS Discoverer I clicked on "Country Facts" and looked at information on the Dominican Republic. A lot of information was provided in text form. A map and flag of the Dominican Republic was provided. In my opinion, this section could benefit from more visuals such as graphs and charts.
Under "Maps of the World," I clicked on "Nations" and searched for a map on Germany. At first, I made the mistake of clicking on the "G" at the bottom of the page to find Germany faster. Unfortunately, I was taken to a list that did not just include nations, but also names of individuals. I had to go back to the original list and page over until I reached Germany. A pdf map of Germany was provided, which would be useful to print out and provide to patrons or students. However, if a patron actually wanted to explore a country in more depth, I would direct them to the Interactive Maps found at World Book Online Info Finder, which we looked at during Week 1. Those maps were a lot more fun. You could zoom in and out, then click on various cities and read articles about those cities.
The other feature I chose to check out was "Activities." From the list of Activities I chose "Editorial Cartoons." A whole list of articles was brought up. In order to view each cartoon, I had to click on the camera icon.
SIR 1) In the SIRS Issues Researcher, I chose to look at "Illegal Immigration" since it was a topic on my mind after last night's Republican debate. The Topic Overview provides a basic definition and introduction to the issue. In addition to the Topic Overview, the Research Tools provide a Timeline, Global Impact, Statistics, My Analysis, and a Note Organizer. The last two are useful tools for determining the purpose of one's paper/speech, etc... and an outline for getting there. Once the user has decided on the purpose, she can proceed to Statistics if she wants to provide facts to support the logical side of a particular position, or she can search for magazine articles with human interest perspectives to appeal to the emotional side of a position. I like the section in the center of the page, "Pro/Con Issues and Essential Questions" which presents articles reflecting the basic arguments on each side of the issue.
Various articles are presented and summarized below the search bar. A quick look at the icon preceding the title helps the user to identify if the article is originally from a websource, a newspaper, or a magazine. This would be helpful if the researcher needs to provide a certain number of certain types of sources for a research paper.
SIR 2) I browsed through the Course Subjects under "Curriculum Pathfinders" and chose to spend a little time on Math. Under the tools section, I chose "Calculators" and checked out a calculator that provides the Living Wage for any part of the country. I found out a family of four living in our area would need to make $21.95/hr. to meet the Living Wage. There was also a Budget Calculator that was helpful. I was surprised not to find a calculator to calculate how much home one could afford or how much house payments would be with various principal amounts and interest rates. Of course, those types of calculators are pretty plentiful on the web just by "googling." I also checked out some of the courses such as algebra and geometry and found there were some useful websites. However, if a student were needing help with math skills, I would steer him/her toward the Learning Express Library rather than SIRS. I think it's more user-friendly for a purpose such as improving one's algebra skills.
I did notice all of the articles provided lexile scores. However, I am not sure how these scores correlate with the actual grade level of a reader. A number like Accelerated Reader uses would be more useful to me. If it said 5.0, I would know the reader would need to be able to comprehend at the level of a student beginning 5th grade. I'm sure lexile scores mean something to educators, I'm just not familiar with them.
SD 2) To explore "Database Features" in SIRS Discoverer I clicked on "Country Facts" and looked at information on the Dominican Republic. A lot of information was provided in text form. A map and flag of the Dominican Republic was provided. In my opinion, this section could benefit from more visuals such as graphs and charts.
Under "Maps of the World," I clicked on "Nations" and searched for a map on Germany. At first, I made the mistake of clicking on the "G" at the bottom of the page to find Germany faster. Unfortunately, I was taken to a list that did not just include nations, but also names of individuals. I had to go back to the original list and page over until I reached Germany. A pdf map of Germany was provided, which would be useful to print out and provide to patrons or students. However, if a patron actually wanted to explore a country in more depth, I would direct them to the Interactive Maps found at World Book Online Info Finder, which we looked at during Week 1. Those maps were a lot more fun. You could zoom in and out, then click on various cities and read articles about those cities.
The other feature I chose to check out was "Activities." From the list of Activities I chose "Editorial Cartoons." A whole list of articles was brought up. In order to view each cartoon, I had to click on the camera icon.
SIR 1) In the SIRS Issues Researcher, I chose to look at "Illegal Immigration" since it was a topic on my mind after last night's Republican debate. The Topic Overview provides a basic definition and introduction to the issue. In addition to the Topic Overview, the Research Tools provide a Timeline, Global Impact, Statistics, My Analysis, and a Note Organizer. The last two are useful tools for determining the purpose of one's paper/speech, etc... and an outline for getting there. Once the user has decided on the purpose, she can proceed to Statistics if she wants to provide facts to support the logical side of a particular position, or she can search for magazine articles with human interest perspectives to appeal to the emotional side of a position. I like the section in the center of the page, "Pro/Con Issues and Essential Questions" which presents articles reflecting the basic arguments on each side of the issue.
Various articles are presented and summarized below the search bar. A quick look at the icon preceding the title helps the user to identify if the article is originally from a websource, a newspaper, or a magazine. This would be helpful if the researcher needs to provide a certain number of certain types of sources for a research paper.
SIR 2) I browsed through the Course Subjects under "Curriculum Pathfinders" and chose to spend a little time on Math. Under the tools section, I chose "Calculators" and checked out a calculator that provides the Living Wage for any part of the country. I found out a family of four living in our area would need to make $21.95/hr. to meet the Living Wage. There was also a Budget Calculator that was helpful. I was surprised not to find a calculator to calculate how much home one could afford or how much house payments would be with various principal amounts and interest rates. Of course, those types of calculators are pretty plentiful on the web just by "googling." I also checked out some of the courses such as algebra and geometry and found there were some useful websites. However, if a student were needing help with math skills, I would steer him/her toward the Learning Express Library rather than SIRS. I think it's more user-friendly for a purpose such as improving one's algebra skills.
Friday, January 20, 2012
Challenge #2: Learning Express Library
1) I set up an account in the Learning Express Library and looked at the available exams. Every practice exam I could think of was available. It took me a little while to find the ASVAB. It was under "Military" in the "Jobs and Careers" section. Later, I realized I could have just typed ASVAB in the search engine and found it sooner.
2) I chose to answer a few questions on the Math section of the ACT. I only answered about 10 questions before I scored my test. I liked being able to look at the diagnostic page which shows what subsection each question belonged to, such as algebra, geometry, probability, etc... A quick look at this page would reveal what your strengths and weaknesses are. For example, you may have aced the algebra, but struggled with the geometry. Then, if you wonder exactly what you did wrong, you can click on "View Answers" which shows each question, your answer, the correct answer, a detailed explanation of how to solve the problem, and what subsection the problem belongs to. A practice test that provides not just the final answer, but a detailed explanation and diagnostic breakdown would be very valuable for anyone needing to prepare for a test. I'm glad my kids can use this when they are preparing for the ACT.
3) Under the "Job Search and Workplace Skills" learning center, I chose to explore "Career Course: Creating Great Cover Letters" by adding it to "My Center." I explored the course, read the advice, completed the contact information, salutation, and closing, but just typed miscellaneous letters for the bodies of the paragraphs. I thought a lot of the advice was very good. However, I did notice that the sample cover letter correctly showed that you should enter the date between your contact information and the recipient's contact information. However, in the more detailed instructions, the date is listed and asked for following the recipient's contact information. One sentence says, "the recipient's contact information follows your contact information." The date should actually follow your contact information. I think this might cause a little confusion for users. Otherwise, I think this course had some great advice. I am glad I know about this resource. I plan to recommend it to patrons who come in and ask for help building resumes, etc... In the past, I have provided them with books, and helped them choose a Microsoft Word template for their resume. Now, I know how to provide them with more help than they ever realized they needed.
4) I chose to search for an e-book that would help with "persuasive speaking." There were 15 results from that search term, with the first being "Public Speaking Success in 20 Minutes a Day." The other 14 e-books, did not deal specifically with public speaking. Their primary topics were grammar improvement, writing improvement, and vocabulary improvement. I added the Public Speaking e-book to "My Center." Then, I downloaded the book. The e-book was 196 pages long and judging by the Table of Contents, it seemed to cover everything included in the public speaking course I had in college. Pages 40-43 dealt specifically with persuasive speaking -- my search term. I also took a quick look at the list of e-books on the bottom right of the home page. There are so many e-books on so many topics! I am amazed with the resources we can provide our patrons from this one website!
2) I chose to answer a few questions on the Math section of the ACT. I only answered about 10 questions before I scored my test. I liked being able to look at the diagnostic page which shows what subsection each question belonged to, such as algebra, geometry, probability, etc... A quick look at this page would reveal what your strengths and weaknesses are. For example, you may have aced the algebra, but struggled with the geometry. Then, if you wonder exactly what you did wrong, you can click on "View Answers" which shows each question, your answer, the correct answer, a detailed explanation of how to solve the problem, and what subsection the problem belongs to. A practice test that provides not just the final answer, but a detailed explanation and diagnostic breakdown would be very valuable for anyone needing to prepare for a test. I'm glad my kids can use this when they are preparing for the ACT.
3) Under the "Job Search and Workplace Skills" learning center, I chose to explore "Career Course: Creating Great Cover Letters" by adding it to "My Center." I explored the course, read the advice, completed the contact information, salutation, and closing, but just typed miscellaneous letters for the bodies of the paragraphs. I thought a lot of the advice was very good. However, I did notice that the sample cover letter correctly showed that you should enter the date between your contact information and the recipient's contact information. However, in the more detailed instructions, the date is listed and asked for following the recipient's contact information. One sentence says, "the recipient's contact information follows your contact information." The date should actually follow your contact information. I think this might cause a little confusion for users. Otherwise, I think this course had some great advice. I am glad I know about this resource. I plan to recommend it to patrons who come in and ask for help building resumes, etc... In the past, I have provided them with books, and helped them choose a Microsoft Word template for their resume. Now, I know how to provide them with more help than they ever realized they needed.
4) I chose to search for an e-book that would help with "persuasive speaking." There were 15 results from that search term, with the first being "Public Speaking Success in 20 Minutes a Day." The other 14 e-books, did not deal specifically with public speaking. Their primary topics were grammar improvement, writing improvement, and vocabulary improvement. I added the Public Speaking e-book to "My Center." Then, I downloaded the book. The e-book was 196 pages long and judging by the Table of Contents, it seemed to cover everything included in the public speaking course I had in college. Pages 40-43 dealt specifically with persuasive speaking -- my search term. I also took a quick look at the list of e-books on the bottom right of the home page. There are so many e-books on so many topics! I am amazed with the resources we can provide our patrons from this one website!
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Challenge #1: World Book
I chose to research the World Book Public Library edition. For the Discovery Exercise, I wanted to find information on river otters.
1. World Book Online Kids contained a cute picture of an otter, an 18 second video, and two sentences specific to the river otter:
1. World Book Online Kids contained a cute picture of an otter, an 18 second video, and two sentences specific to the river otter:
The river otter has a small, flat head and a thick tail. Its webbed feet help it swim. When it swims, the river otter can close its ears and nostrils tightly to keep the water out.
The information provided for habitats included all otters not just river otters. It stated, "Many otters live along rivers, streams, lakes, and coasts, or in marshes. Otters are found on every
continent except Australia and Antarctica."
continent except Australia and Antarctica."
Tools available in World Book Online Kids include the option to save, print, e-mail, translate to another language, or hear the text read aloud.
2) The World Book Online Info Finder provides more text information on otters. This information is specific to freshwater otters such as the river otter and provides a link to find out more information on sea otters. One video and one picture are still provided. Each subsection of information provides an option to print just that subsection. In addition to the tools found in Online Kids, users may "Highlight Search Terms," "Save information to My Research," and "Double-click a word to define it." The information is also more technical than Online Kids i.e. scientific names are provided. Guidance for citing sources is provided at the bottom of the article. Related information is provided in links to other websites and magazines in the upper right corner of the webpage.
3) I chose to search for information on New Zealand in the World Book Online Reference Center. On the first results screen, search results of all types are displayed on the left side bar, and the user must choose the results they would like to examine more closely, such as "Pictures," "Maps," or "E-books." The right side bar provides actual titles of "Primary Sources" and "E-books."
Clicking on the link for New Zealand found in the center "Encyclopedia" section reveals a wealth of information. The left side bar provides a listing of the topics in each section/subsection of the Encyclopedia article allowing the user to skip to the information they are most interested in obtaining. The right side bar provides links to related information and the titles of "Related Primary Source Information." The right side bar also provides information as to how the content aligns with South Dakota Content Standards. Having this information handy makes it easier for teachers and home school parents to develop their lesson plans.
I think my patrons will find the listing of the topics in each section/subsection very useful. If users just want to learn more about a certain topic in a country, they can skip to the particular section without wading through the rest of the information. However, those planning to travel to certain countries would certainly enjoy checking out the link to the "Interactive Map."
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