Monday, April 26, 2010
Wrap-up
I have really enjoyed this class! I had taken classes on one or two of these before, but you always learn something new, like that there are several databases in Worldcat! This has been a great refresher and has inspired me to keep pushing the databases at our library. Thank you!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Genealogy Resources
I have spent a lot of time on Ancestry doing my own family research, it is amazing on what little nuggets of information you can find on Ancestry. When I try my name the only thing that I can find is my phone #. But I love to go through the census to see what kind of information they asked, like do you own a radio? I also like to learn what their occupation was. One thing that I have learned through my own experience is to keep coming back and checking for new information. It is amazing how much information is added to this site. Also, if you cannot find a name in a census in Ancestry then try Heritage Quest. They have different indexes and sometimes they will spell things a little differently, giving you the ability to find what you are looking for.
When I tried the Photos and maps using the keyword South Dakota, I found a lot of interesting items, like baseball players? Didn't know we had any from SD. It was fun to snoop around, although there were a lot of hits either on South or North, so the use of quotes would help.
Heritage Quest
For family research, I haven't had much luck with this program, although if you are doing research on a famous person or event, this would give you great references of where to find information.
Sanborn Maps
I enjoyed looking at the Sanborn maps of my home town of Parker, to see what is different and what is still the same. I never knew that at one time there was a Presbyterian Church on Main Street that was heated by coal and had gas lights! If you would be doing any sort of research on a town's history, these maps would be a wonderful asset!
When I tried the Photos and maps using the keyword South Dakota, I found a lot of interesting items, like baseball players? Didn't know we had any from SD. It was fun to snoop around, although there were a lot of hits either on South or North, so the use of quotes would help.
Heritage Quest
For family research, I haven't had much luck with this program, although if you are doing research on a famous person or event, this would give you great references of where to find information.
Sanborn Maps
I enjoyed looking at the Sanborn maps of my home town of Parker, to see what is different and what is still the same. I never knew that at one time there was a Presbyterian Church on Main Street that was heated by coal and had gas lights! If you would be doing any sort of research on a town's history, these maps would be a wonderful asset!
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Learning Express
I love Learning Express! It has so many useful exams and lessons available. I also like that you can access this from home. The testing format is easy and you get feedback immediately. I like that it also explains why you got a problem wrong, so you can learn from your mistakes. I neve saw that ebooks were available! How cool is that, to be able to have study help available on the same site! There are so many ebooks, it's a wonderful tool for anybody who needs to take an exam!
Monday, April 5, 2010
CAMIO
Under my search for Paul Revere I found that he was an excellent craftsman in Silver. He made bowls, spoons, sugar bowls, urns, platters, teapots, etc...
I never knew that he was such a craftsman. Neat!
When I searched Sioux I found a lot of artifacts from the Sioux and some recent art pieces by the Sioux. I was able to narrow my search by time period, which would help if I was looking for a specific era. The photographs were a good quality and you can get a lot of details.
I first did a search on Renoir and found lots of wonderful paintings, then I narrowed my search by typing Renoir bather and it did narrow the search to those that had bather in the title. I saw you could also narrow the search by format, date and subject. Pretty neat.
As far as how my committe could use this, at this point I am not sure how I would use this. I think it would be great for research, especially in the art field.
The favorites part is pretty cool, would be great for a presentation. I really liked the compare feature, so you could examine two works side by side. Pretty Cool!
I never knew that he was such a craftsman. Neat!
When I searched Sioux I found a lot of artifacts from the Sioux and some recent art pieces by the Sioux. I was able to narrow my search by time period, which would help if I was looking for a specific era. The photographs were a good quality and you can get a lot of details.
I first did a search on Renoir and found lots of wonderful paintings, then I narrowed my search by typing Renoir bather and it did narrow the search to those that had bather in the title. I saw you could also narrow the search by format, date and subject. Pretty neat.
As far as how my committe could use this, at this point I am not sure how I would use this. I think it would be great for research, especially in the art field.
The favorites part is pretty cool, would be great for a presentation. I really liked the compare feature, so you could examine two works side by side. Pretty Cool!
ArchiveGrid
After putting in my search for Sitting bull I came up with 1 record that was located at Cornell University. The search also gave a brief summary of the life of Sitting Bull.
On the second search I typed Thomas Edison and had 232 hits. I tried Thomas A Edison Manuscript: Story of a great American. Which is housed at Harvard University. It gave a brief discription of the manuscript (length, date, etc..)
On the second search I typed Thomas Edison and had 232 hits. I tried Thomas A Edison Manuscript: Story of a great American. Which is housed at Harvard University. It gave a brief discription of the manuscript (length, date, etc..)
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Net Library
This was a fun search to do, spent way to much time on it! The first search I did was on Mount Everest. I just did a keyword search and got a lot of results that had the word Mount Everest in it but didn't deal with Mount Everest. I did find some books that looked very interesting and upon inspection, loved the pictures and information I was able to find. 2. the fitness search I cam across a book called ultimate new York Body Plan by David Kirsch, which was a good book it had exercises with pictures and descriptions. 3. My last search I found a lot of books of western history I found a lot of books on the indians, Lewis and Clark and general history books. Very facinating! This would be great for research papers, and reports. Also I had a patron in mind who loves history who has trouble reading because of failing eyesight. This probably would work for him, because he can enlarge the print, since it is web based, to a size that he is able to read. I plan on mentioning this to him next time I see him!
WorldCat
I have skipped the Netlibrary chapter because I am having some technical difficulties, but will return as soon as it is up and running. I have used WorldCat in the past for ordering books and obtaining MARC records, but I never realized that there were other databases that you could search through!I also never saw before that you could cite your book through WorldCat. It will give you 5 versions of citations. I appreciate that when you search the SD libraries come up first and then the neighboring ones. That really helps in trying to keep material as close to in-state as possible without extra searching.Also having some full text articles in OAIster was nice, although I tried a couple of searches and had trouble getting exactly what I was looking for.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Gale Virtual Reference
I selected the Gale encyclopedia of Medicine and searched for Polycythemia. I found the information in here much easier to understand for a non-professional than the search I did in ProQuest. It was very easy to use and I can see the medical books being used a lot. Also kids needing to do papers would have a great resource here.
I used the same search term, Polcythemia, and had a few more options than I did in the first search. It was very nice to see the listen feature for non-readers, although I wouldn't want to listen to that voice very long!
There is a lot of neat stuff in Gale, if a person would just take the time to investigate it a little.
I used the same search term, Polcythemia, and had a few more options than I did in the first search. It was very nice to see the listen feature for non-readers, although I wouldn't want to listen to that voice very long!
There is a lot of neat stuff in Gale, if a person would just take the time to investigate it a little.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Proquest
I actually did two searches, one was on polycythemia, which is a blood disorder, and I found the articles on that were all way over my head! I didn't know a lot of the medical terminology so I switched and did a search on wind generators, There were 89 articles and they ranged anywhere from policy, types of generators, new designs, and practicality. I found these articles much more user friendly. When I did a search through publication, I tried librarian and found 4 publications, mostly related to schools, I then tried public libraries, and found 1 publication. They all were interesting reading. I am really glad they have the full article button or you could really waste some time going through articles. I was really amazed at how many periodicals are in proquest, you could have a lot of fun browsing through some of those periodicals!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
SIRS Discoverer and Researcher
When I looked up Lindsy Vonn on SIRS Discoverer, I found 6 articles, 3 had pictures, and they all had a moderate reading level. Discoverer was easy to navigate. I liked that from a glance you could see if there were pictures, activites and reading levels in the article before you even opened it. The articles were recent and relevant.
When I looked in Country facts for Bahamas. I found a map and picture of the flag. They also offered teacher resources, facts, population, geography and weather, economy, government, and history. The database features are nice, they have lots of information and can help with reports and research, or even some fun fictional articles!
On SIRS Researcher I picked abortion for the leading issue. It had a lot of good information and artlicles, along with timelines, charts, statistics, and pros and cons.
Under the curriculum pathfinders, each heading had a wide variety of sub headings to narrow your seach. There was a lot of information under each sub heading and there were some interactive articles that were fun!
When I looked in Country facts for Bahamas. I found a map and picture of the flag. They also offered teacher resources, facts, population, geography and weather, economy, government, and history. The database features are nice, they have lots of information and can help with reports and research, or even some fun fictional articles!
On SIRS Researcher I picked abortion for the leading issue. It had a lot of good information and artlicles, along with timelines, charts, statistics, and pros and cons.
Under the curriculum pathfinders, each heading had a wide variety of sub headings to narrow your seach. There was a lot of information under each sub heading and there were some interactive articles that were fun!
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
World Book
School Edition
I found that World Book Kids is a very simplistic easy to understand description, geared to the younger audience. Pictures are readily available. Student version is similar but the information is more in depth.
Advanced has the left and right columns broken down into subcategories for quick and easy access to the information you are looking for. I think users will like the ease in finding exactly what they are looking for without having to read the whole article.
World Book Discover will help those who have trouble reading or reading English with the read aloud toolbar. Again this is very easy to navigate.
Public Library Edition
I found that the Kids,Info Finder, and Reference is very similar to the school edition kids,Student, and Advanced version. The kids edition if very bright and appealing. I like that you can double click on a word and the definition comes up. Also it can read the text to them. The Info Finder is more in depth. The Reference edition has a nice feature on the right hand side where it will point you to more information on the subject, such as other books, web sites, magazine articles, and interactive maps.
Foreign Language Edition
Since we do have a small Spanish speaking section, this edition would be of great assistance to them. It can even be of benefit to those trying to learn Spanish. The picture dictionary had each word printed although no sound to help in pronunciation.
I found that World Book Kids is a very simplistic easy to understand description, geared to the younger audience. Pictures are readily available. Student version is similar but the information is more in depth.
Advanced has the left and right columns broken down into subcategories for quick and easy access to the information you are looking for. I think users will like the ease in finding exactly what they are looking for without having to read the whole article.
World Book Discover will help those who have trouble reading or reading English with the read aloud toolbar. Again this is very easy to navigate.
Public Library Edition
I found that the Kids,Info Finder, and Reference is very similar to the school edition kids,Student, and Advanced version. The kids edition if very bright and appealing. I like that you can double click on a word and the definition comes up. Also it can read the text to them. The Info Finder is more in depth. The Reference edition has a nice feature on the right hand side where it will point you to more information on the subject, such as other books, web sites, magazine articles, and interactive maps.
Foreign Language Edition
Since we do have a small Spanish speaking section, this edition would be of great assistance to them. It can even be of benefit to those trying to learn Spanish. The picture dictionary had each word printed although no sound to help in pronunciation.
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