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!
Friday, March 16, 2012
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.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)