Addendum

I would have to agree with another blogger who felt that the statement that this challenge would take about an hour per lesson was not enough time.  I spent considerably more time than that some weeks, and yet I felt like I've only skimmed the resources.  Thank you for the Challenge and the opportunity to better learn what is available!

Lesson 10

Probably the biggest "discovery" for me was SIRS.  While I had previously used several of the other databases, I was not familiar with this one.  It has a great deal of useful information and tools for all ages.

In the past I have had opportunities to show others where they can find information using Proquest,  Infotrac, Ancestry, etc. Of course since we use WorldCat here for our interlibrary loan services, I've used that in the past and have shown others how to do so.  I plan to continue to promote these services with those who come into the library as well as those with whom I speak in other venues when these resources would be helpful and appropriate.  

Lesson 9

I searched for myself in Ancestry and did find my name and address listed for both my current address and the address where I lived 20+ years ago.  It appears this information came from voter registration records.  I also found my marriage record and some other listings (probably again from voter records) when I searched under my maiden name.

I found my paternal grandparents listed in the 1910, 1920, and 1930 censuses.  I found my maternal grandparents in the 1920 and 1930 censuses.  I had searched for them a few years ago but had difficulty finding them in the 1920 census, even though they were married in 1918.  At that time I was finally able to locate them by going through township pages.  Even though they were married, Grandma's name was listed under her maiden name (they did live in the same home with her parents), and Grandpa's name was listed below the other siblings.  Plus, the last name had been transcribed incorrectly.  (I reported it to Ancestry at that time, and they have since added the corrected spelling to the record.)  And, even though Grandpa's first name was Anton, the 1920 census listed him as Anthony.  Grandpa immigrated to the U.S. in 1913, so I know he won't be in the 1910 census.

A search for South Dakota that is limited to photos and maps brings up more than three million results--a few too many to browse through at this time!  I found it interesting that a picture of the 1909 Corn Palace in Mitchell shows  the emblem of a swastika in the decorations!  (I digressed to do a little research and learned that the emblem is an ancient Eastern religion symbol, and I'm sure that in 1909 it did not have the same connotations we associate with it today.)

In HeritageQuest books, I searched for my hometown of Highland, Wisconsin.  I had 26 hits, but nothing that seemed of interest or pertained to my hometown.  (Some hits were for other towns in Wisconsin with streets named Highland.)  So, I tried a search for Aberdeen, South Dakota and looked at some of the pages of the book, "History of Dakota Territory" by George W. Kingsbury.  I didn't feel like this resource would be very helpful for my personal genealogical research, but perhaps it would be for others.

In Sanborn Maps, I looked at maps for Aberdeen.  Even though our house was built in 1911, I could not find it until the map for 1923.  It looks like our house was on the edge of town back then . . . which is far from the case now!  I also looked at the 1908 map and found what was then the Alexander Mitchell Library (a different location from where it is now).  That building no longer exists.

Lesson 8

I learned that Sitting Bull lived from around 1834 until 1890.  His autograph card and its envelope are housed at the Cornell University Library Archives, and one would need to contact them to find out about access to it.

I did a search for Highland Wisconsin (my hometown) and came up with some interesting finds.  There are 248 hits for such things as school records, business records, church records, cemetery records, a letter from President Harrison, personal histories (including one of a family I remember), tax rolls, etc., etc.  It looks like the bulk of them are held by the Wisconsin Historical Society, with some being held by the University of Wisconsin and other universities.  These types of items would be useful for serious historical researchers or genealogy researchers (especially church records of baptisms, births, etc.)

In CAMIO, a search for Paul Revere shows several items made by him, including prints, spoons, tea and coffee urns, sugar bowls, tea service, teapots, etc.   A search for the term "Sioux" yields 63 results including photographs, clothing, pipes and pipe bowls, books, paintings, dolls, etc.  Norman Rockwell is one of my favorite artists, so I searched his name and got 6 results.  Five of these paintings are held at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, with the sixth item at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.  I found it interesting that the five paintings at the Buffalo Gallery were gifts to the Gallery by the Management, Associates and Shareholders of Pratt & Lambert United.  Four of those five paintings depict a can of  "Pratt-Lambert Floor Vanish" in them.  I searched for Wisconsin and got 49 results, most of which were photographs.  I added some of these to my favorites and was able to move them around, remove some from my choices, etc.  I really don't see our general patrons using CAMIO a lot, but it could probably be useful to history or art teachers.

Lesson 7

I am quite familiar with WorldCat since I used it regularly to do interlibrary loans for several years.  For this lesson I looked up the book, "Cuddly Crochet" by Stacey Trock.  There are 191 libraries that own this, with Anchorage Public Library in Alaska being the first listed.  The LC number given is TT825, and the Dewey numbers are 746.43/4041 or 746.43.  I found two other records in WorldCat linked to this author (although I believe they are the same book with different publication years).  When I clicked on the subject heading "soft toy making", I got 1234 results in various formats.  When I tried the subject heading, "crocheting -- patterns" the result was 4076 total hits.  These results can be limited by format using the tabs at the top.

In the OAIster database (something I have not used before), I had 764 results for my subject search of  "South Dakota".  I clicked on the link for "Flax Cropping in Mixture With Wheat, Oats, and Barley."  When I then clicked on the "Access" link, I could further click to view each page of this 47 page document.  This would be something for serious researchers to use.  We don't get a lot of requests for the type of information that seems to be in OAIster, but it is good to know it is available.

When looking at other participants' blogs. I noticed that some had difficulty accessing articles on OAIster either because the article just didn't open or else you had to log in to get access to it.  I looked at a couple documents they had also looked at and got the same results.  I guess I just happened to pick one of the right ones initially.  I think everyone at our library is pretty familiar with how to search and use WorldCat since we submit our interlibrary loan requests through it.

Lesson 6

In the EBooks on EbscoHost, I typed in the term "cooking."  There were 121 hits.  I scrolled through the list and looked at one called, "Cooking the Australian Way."  There is a handy Table of Contents listing to the left of the screen.  I tried to email or print a page from this, but the publisher had blocked access to doing so.  So, I scrolled further through the list of 121 hits, and found one titled "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Sewing."  It doesn't really have anything to do with cooking, but since the term "cooking" was used a couple times in the text, it was in my results list.  I looked at this book and found I was able to both email and print a couple pages from the text.  There is a limit of 60 pages, but this would be a handy tool for someone doing research and wanting to be able to reference some specific pages later.

When I searched "constitution and United States," these are some of the results I had:

     Companion to the United States Constitution and Its Amendments Vile, John R. 3rd ed. Greenwood Publishing Group. 2001. eBook. 326p.
     Representing Popular Sovereignty : The Constitution in American Political Culture Levin, Daniel Lessard. In: SUNY Series, American Constitutionalism. State University of New York Press. 1999. eBook. 289p. 
     Illustrated Dictionary of Constitutional Concepts  Maddex, Robert L. Congressional Quarterly Press. 1996. eBook. 349p. 
     Our Elusive Constitution : Silences, Paradoxes, Priorities  Hoffman, Daniel N. In: SUNY Series in American Constitutionalism. State University of New York Press. 1997. eBook. 299p.

A quick browsing of the results list impresses me with the thought that these resources would be appropriate for upper-level students, but certainly not for elementary age students.

As I expected, searching for the term "Oklahoma" in the Publisher field of the Advanced search yielded results with the term "Oklahoma" somewhere in the Publisher name information. A quick spot-check of the results list makes it appear they are all from the University of Oklahoma Press.

Lesson 5

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.

Lesson 4

I have used Proquest in the past (mostly doing advanced searches) to find information for library patrons.  Today I did a basic search for the terms "healthy dieting" and had 4601 hits.  I sorted them according to date, and found there were articles posted that were from as recent as yesterday.  The search yielded results on a very wide variety of information about the subject--everything from the cardiovascular risks of consuming high fructose syrup to how Kate and Pippa Middleton stay slim and trim to how to look "7 years younger"--and those were just from the first couple of pages in my list of hits.  Obviously, I could narrow the search by narrowing my search terms.  I also could narrow the results list by choosing to view articles from particular types of publications (scholarly journals, magazines, etc.) or by time frame or by looking only at a particular publication's articles, etc.  I think the "Preview" feature is very beneficial if you just want a quick glance of what an article is about.

I commented on Librarian 2's post about bonds.

Under the Publications tab, I typed in the term "Library" to come up with all the journals that have "Library" in the title.  It showed 20 titles.  I scrolled through the list and read an interesting article in the Jan. 2012 issue of "School Library Journal."  It's great having these articles in full-text since our library has canceled several periodical subscriptions over the recent years because of rising costs.  I also took a quick look through some of the other publications listed (even though they are not in my "profession").  I was impressed by the number and variety of publications with full-text articles available.  I just wish there were more pictures!

Lesson 3

I looked up the armadillo in SIRS Discoverer and was pretty impressed with the icons showing what the reading level of the articles is as well as whether the article contains pictures/graphics.  The first article I clicked on was the one titled, "BOINNGG! HERE COME THE ARMADILLOS" which was taken from an issue of "Ranger Rick" magazine.  The article itself does not display any graphics but has a footnote stating, "Pictures referred to in this article are not available in this format but can be found in the original publication."  Not seeing the pictures in the actual article was a bit disappointing.

I again chose the country of Myanmar when looking at "Country Facts."  There is quite a wealth of information in this article which could be very useful for students doing reports, etc.  It would be a nice addition or alternative to World Book information.

The "Maps of the World" are a nice feature in that they are printable PDFs so could be used in reports.

I looked at the "Activities" in the "Database Features."  There are a lot of really cool ideas for experiments, puzzles, projects, etc.  These could be used in schools, home-school activities, or just done for fun.  In addition, the "Current Events" link gives kid-friendly articles about current world events.  These articles are tagged with icons to show reading levels, graphics, etc.

There is a wide variety of topics to choose from in the SIRS Researcher, and the Pros/Cons and Essential Questions give food for thought about the issues.  Helpful articles are linked below.  These would be helpful resources for someone doing a report or perhaps a persuasive speech.  Under the Curriculum Pathfinders, I chose "English as a Second Language" and found some very useful tools, quizzes, activities, etc. for students  learning English.  There are several languages available on the activities, and these are also quizzes that would be helpful for English speakers who are trying to learn vocabulary of another language.

Lesson 2

I did the test for Culinary Arts and then went back to see the correct/incorrect answers.  I like that the program tells what the correct answer is.  It also gave a section name and a subsection name for where the answer/information would be found.  However, I was not able to figure out where that "section" and "subsection" are--I did not find them in the e-book that is part of the Culinary Arts "course" in the Learning Express Library.

Under the "Job Search and Workplace Skills" learning center, I looked at the course titled, "Interview Tips to Get the Job You Want."  There are some very helpful hints, suggestions, and practice exercises in this course.

I looked at the e-book, "Word Power in 15 Minutes a Day."  This looks like a very useful tool for anyone wishing to increase his vocabulary.  I should try to go through it myself!

The Learning Express Library has a lot of very helpful resources for a wide range of users!

Lesson 1c

For this exercise we are to use the Spanish or French language versions to look up information on an animal.  I have to admit I know very little of either of these languages, so it's a good thing there are pictures!  For someone who is learning either of these languages, the picture/word combinations would be helpful in learning vocabulary.  After looking at this site, I can understand the frustration one who knew very little English would have if trying to research in the Kids World Book English version.  This would be of help in finding it in your language (provided that was Spanish or French) and then being able to translate it into English.  I found it interesting that the French Visual Dictionary gives the option to translate words into both Spanish and English, but the Spanish Visual Dictionary gives the option to translate only into English (not French).  The option of having an article read aloud in Spanish could be a great asset to those whose native language is Spanish.

Lesson 1b

When using the Online Kids section of the Public Library Edition, I clicked to enter the "World of Animals" section.  A number of pages of animal pictures are available to choose from to look up information about those animals.  I  looked at the echidna and brought up the "exhibit" page.

Then I wanted to compare the echidna to the porcupine, so I clicked on the "Compare" button below the picture of the echidna.  A display came up on the right saying "Choose an animal 2" but there was nowhere for me to click to choose the second animal.  Through trial and error I found that I needed to first close the "exhibit" page, and that would take me back to the pages with the animal pictures to choose from.  It was frustrating that the "Compare" option was displayed but there was no indication given that I needed to close out of the exhibit to get back to be able to choose my second animal.

When I finally did figure out how to do a comparison, I learned that the echidna is considerably smaller and lives longer than the porcupine and is a carnivore (as opposed to the porcupine being a herbivore).  The echidna, like the platypus, is a mammal that lays eggs.   I also looked up the platypus on this edition, and the article appears to be identical with that on the "Kid's Page."

After looking at the Info Finder article about porcupines,  it became obvious that the Kids' version information is done in a "generally speaking" sort of style.  Some of the information differs a good bit between the two regarding specifics about porcupines (different species, where they live, their sizes, etc.).

It appears that the Online Reference Center article on Myanmar is identical to the one in World Book Advanced.  The breakdown of article sections on the left would make it easy for someone to quickly go to the specific information.  The "Related Information" section on the right would be a good source of additional information for doing a report, etc.  Helpful "Study Skills Information" could be a great asset to someone preparing a report as well.

Lesson 1a

This is my first time to do any sort of blogging, so it's been a learning experience.  We'll see how it goes!

I love the Kid's Page and could easily spend too much time playing there!  For the first lesson, I looked up the platypus.  Although this critter does lay eggs, it is a mammal because the young are fed milk from the mother.  I liked the links on the Kid's page that take you to associated articles.  I also like the video clips available on some articles and the simple sentences and paragraphs in larger fonts.  It was very easy to switch between different editions using the links at the bottom.  The Student edition gives much more detail and has a better picture of the platypus (as opposed to a drawing on the Kid's page).  For the search for a country, I chose Myanmar.  I didn't realize that the US and UK still refer to this country as Burma in opposition to the regime which instituted the name switch. (Englehart, Neil A. "Myanmar." World Book Advanced. World Book, 2012. Web.  12 Jan. 2012.)   I thought there was a nice variety of links on the left that would be very helpful for students doing reports and papers.  The "Read Aloud" feature would be very helpful for students with visual disabilities as well as just learning how to pronounce words.  However, the voice does seem a bit "canned."  On the Discover page, the ability to translate to other languages would be very helpful for non-English speakers.  A nice feature is that the translation opens in a separate window, so it can easily be compared to the English (a helpful tool for those who are learning another language).