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.
Thanks for your comments, clueless. Some titles in GVRL are dated because the State Library purchased them some time ago and has not been able to purchase the new editions due to budget constraints. However, in the case of the College Blue Book, you can still get an overall feel for the colleges and can turn to the college's web sites for current info. Glad you found some good mission statement info. Best wishes in crafting one for your library!
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