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.
Monday, April 23, 2012
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?
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