1. I looked at the Title List in the Gale Virtual Reference Library and took a look at the "Encyclopedia of Science." Then I used the search box to look up the "echidna" since I had looked at this critter in the World Book section of this Challenge. The information given in the Gale encyclopedia is more detailed than what is in World Book, so this could be another avenue of reference for a student doing a report. A bonus is that at the bottom of the article is a section titled, "View other articles linked to these index terms" which directs one to even more information. I also looked at the "Worldmark Encyclopedia of the States" and looked up South Dakota. There is a great deal of information in this publication. Unfortunately, it has a copyright date of 2007, so some sections are a bit out of date.
2. I looked up the search terms "foods containing zinc" (without the apostrophes). My search yielded several articles in about five different publications. I also looked at articles regarding the Huckleberry Finn. The "Listen" feature is similar to the one in World Book and would be helpful for those whose native language is not English. The "Related Subjects" column on the left is another source for linking to additional information, and being able to look up words in the Dictionary link at the top is also a helpful tool. In addition, I tried the "Translate" option for a few different languages. (There aren't as many language options as in WB.) It worked for French, Russian, Spanish, etc. and seemed to work partly for Arabic and Japanese. However, for Chinese and Korean, the characters displayed only as little boxes. I thought perhaps there was a problem with the settings on my computer, but I checked in World Book Reference, and articles do translate there with the Chinese and Korean characters.
3. I looked at the blog posted by "Electronic Resource Challenge 2012." I'm glad she pointed out the ability to download articles to an MP3 player or eReader. I had totally missed those tabs when looking at the "Listen" and "Translate" options.
Thanks for your comments, nilyni. Good work! Worldmark Encyclopedia has tons of great info, but, as you noted is dated. The State Library purchased these books several years ago and has not had the budget to purchase the newer editions. This is still a good resource; just be aware of things that may have changed.
ReplyDelete