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 The great liner was withdrawn from service in March 1935 and sold to British shipbreakers later in the year.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!