Lesson 10 / Wrap-up

I don't know that I had any really big "discoveries" with the Electronics Challenge this time since it was more of a review after doing the Basic Challenge last year.  (I think my favorite database to "play with" is the World Book Encyclopedia.)    Although my position at work is not one where I have a lot of direct contact with the public, hopefully I will be able to direct people who do ask for help to the usefulness of these databases and resources.

Lesson 9

1.  In Ancestry, I went to the Search drop-down list and then to the "Immigration and Travel" section to find the "Ship Pictures and Descriptions" collection.  From there I went to the "Passenger Ships and Images" section.  I typed Titanic and "sister ship" in the keyword search and got back 7 results.  The Titanic is one of those listed.  The information regarding the Titanic states that the Olympic was a sister ship.  Four of the six others are from the White Star Lines (the company that owned the Titanic).  In looking at the information for each of those four, I found information and a photo of the Olympic.  (The Britannic is described as "Quite similar to the Olympic and Titanic."  I cannot find that Ancestry says the Britannic is a sister ship to them; however, Wikipedia does make that statement.)

2.  I did a keyword search for Hindenburg dirigible in the Newspapers & Publications collection and got back 545 results, of which 539 are newspaper articles and 6 are in periodicals and magazines.  The majority of the newspapers articles are from various editions of the "Stars and Stripes."  The magazine articles did not appear to be very helpful, and 539 newspaper articles is a lot to go through, so I added 1937 to my keyword search terms, thinking this would narrow my results.  Instead, however, it increased the number to 293,616 results.  I do not understand why adding terms increases the results, so I tried decreasing my search terms and just looking for the term "Hindenburg."  That search yielded 363 results with the first several being obituaries.  I can sort the results by category, but I still have over 300 in the various editions of the "Stars and Stripes" newspapers.  I looked at a few of these articles, but I didn't really find much that I felt would be of help to a student doing a report.  I think he would be better off using a different database.

3.  To find historical county information, I looked in the "Search Books" section of HeritageQuest.  From there I went to "Places" and put "Brown County" "South Dakota" in the search terms.  Several of the 30 results in the list dealt with genealogical information. I found only a couple which might be helpful.  They are A brief history of South Dakota by Doane Robinson and History of Dakota Territory by George W. Kingsbury.

Lesson 8

1.  I typed in the terms Nobel prize South Dakota Theodore Schultz and got one result.  This man's papers are held in the archives at Iowa State University in Ames.  I learned that Mr. Schultz received degrees from South Dakota State College and the University of Wisconsin.  He was on the faculty at Iowa State University for thirteen years before resigning "in protest" over the "oleomargarine controversy" and going on to the University of Chicago.  He received the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1979.

2.  I had a bit of trouble finding much to answer this question.  I tried general search terms such as Victorian fashion, England fashion, Victorian dress fashion clothing, etc. but either got no results or no results for the correct time period.  When I searched English clothing, I found pictures of one dress from 1875.  So I tried the terms English fashion.  I got the picture of the same dress I found earlier plus one other dress (from 1867-1870) as well as some other items that are not clothing.  I then did a search on the terms English dress and got one more result for that time period (in addition to the two mentioned above).  I did a search on Charles Dickens and found a couple portraits of him which show the type of clothing he wore.  It seems like I should be finding more results, but I have been unsuccessful at doing so.

After discussing this issue with a co-worker, she tried searching by just the term fashion.  That gives me 317 results.  Scrolling through the list, I found that there are some drawings of fashions from the correct time period.  I guess I don't understand the option to refine my results by date, because scrolling through the results I find ones that have dates of 1849, 1858, 1862, etc., but these dates do not show up in the refine section in the left column.  So, I guess I just have to look through all 317 records.

Lesson 7

1.  I did an advanced search using Martin Luther as as "named person," limiting the "type" to "books," and setting the "subtype" limits to "Juvenile" and "not fiction."  This gave me 932 results, but the first several were referring to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  So, I added the term "reformation" as a subject search.  This reduced the number of results to 57.  I think a good book to recommend would be "Martin Luther : father of the Reformation" Author: Somervill, Barbara A Accession Number: 61499876 which is owned by the Watertown Public Library. 

2.  I used the terms "graphic novel" as a subject phrase search along with the keyword "classic*" and  limited my search to English language books.  This gave me 16 results, which doesn't seem like very many.  I thought I would get more results.   Of those, I would probably choose to add "The Hobbit" published by Ballantine Books. [Addendum:  After finishing my post, I looked at a couple other people's posts and saw that they had many more results than what I got for my search.  I realize now that I should have used the terms "graphic novels" (not "graphic novel") and that gives many more results.]

3.  I did a Title Phrase search for "my fair lady" and limited the search to "musical scores."  I had 500 results,  which is a lot, but the first page of results had some good options.  I chose the second in the list, which is vocal score.  The accession number is: OCLC: 26429906

Lesson 6

1.  The first visual search I did was for South Dakota.  I had 116 results which could be conveniently sorted, grouped, or displayed in different ways.  I think the "column" display is helpful because you can choose a different path at the various points of your results.  I also did a search on Crafts and then looked at some of the books in the juvenile literature section.  The display is clear and fairly easy to maneuver.  One thing I found frustrating, however, is that I had to constantly scroll down to get to the tools to turn to the next page.  Once I turned to the next page, the toolbar was again down below the bottom of my screen and I had to scroll down again.  Maybe I am not doing something right here, but I did find this frustrating.

2.  First I tried a basic search using the terms "fairy tales colors" (without quotes).  I got back 5 results, but none of these were what I was looking for.  Next I tried an advanced search and put "fairy tales" (without quotes) in the search term under the "subject" heading.  This gave me 19 results.  Scrolling through the list, I found "The Blue Fairy Book,  "The Red Fairy Book," "The Violet Fairy Book," and "The Yellow Fairy Book" all by Andrew Lang.  In order to double check that those were all, I then did another advanced search using Andrew Lang as the author and "fairy" for any term.  This brought 7 results:  the four listed above, one which was a repeat of the "Blue Fairy Book," and the other two of which were not part of this set.  So it appears that there are four books in this set that are in EbscoHost.

Lesson 5

1.  To help the organization which is sponsoring an event with the theme, "Spring Holidays Around the World," I first went to the subject area of "Multicultural Studies."  Here I typed in the search terms "spring festivals" and then went to the publication titled, "Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of World Cultures."  I found 55 results pertaining to different peoples of the world.  Clicking on each result takes you to the article which tells about the holidays, foods, games and pastimes, and traditions of each people group.  Then I tried the subject area of "Nation and World" and found that there is the "Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of Foods and Recipes of the World" which appears to have a section for each country concerning their "Food for Religious and Holiday Celebrations."  There is also the "Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of World Holidays."  Both of these would be good sources of information for this organization to peruse.

2.  In the Advanced Search section I selected the button for "within" and then chose the year of 2012.  This gave me 28,952 results.  Then I sorted these by publication date, but I can't tell whether the newest is first or the oldest of 2012. It appears that these 28,000+ results are individual articles, not publication titles.  So, I tried a different approach and clicked on the "Title List" tab and then displayed them by "Publication Date (descending)."   This appears to be more of the type of listing I wanted, with the 2012 publications listed first.  I looked at the "U*X*L American Decades" book (for 2000-2009) and perused the chronology of the 2000s a bit.  I also browsed quickly through a couple of the volumes of the "Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of Foods and Recipes of the World" (since I'm always interested in finding good recipes!).

Lesson 4

1.  I typed "Les Miserables" (without quotes) in the search box and had 5352 results.  When I used the Document Type limiters and excluded the areas of review, transcript, obituary, and market research, the number of results was cut down to 4653 results.  Then I excluded the Subject areas of:  theater, musical theater, motion pictures, actors, ticket sales, musicians & conductors, opera, motion picture directors & producers, musical performances, drama, musical recordings, television programs, awards & honors, music, theaters & cinemas, motion picture industry, performing arts, composers, motion picture criticism, aesthetics, popular music, entertainment technology & design, singers, art history, entertainment industry, theater directors & producers, visual artists, competition, set design, and musicology.  The results list was then reduced to 3718.  Then I clicked on just the "literary criticism" subject area and had 248 results.  It looks like these don't all pertain to Hugo's work, however, so I started the search over, including the terms Victor Hugo along with the title in the search (without quotations).  This resulted in 583 hits.  I then limited the search by the same types Document and Subject areas as my first search, and the results was 385 hits.  Limiting this field to just the "literary criticism" subject area gives 33 results.  Hopefully that would be a much more manageable number and would give the appropriate types of articles to satisfy the patron's needs.

2.  First I did a full text search on "hurricane sandy impact libraries" (without quotes).  This gave me 264 results.  Then I narrowed this group by selecting to include according to publication titles.  The ones I chose to include were:  Library Journal, School Library Journal, Teacher Librarian, and Journal of the Medical Library Association.  This narrowed the results to just 16.  These I sorted by Publication Date (most recent first), and the newest article displayed was from Library Journal (Jan. 1, 2013 issue).  The article deals with the effects the hurricane had on the NYU Medical Library.  The second article in the list is from the same issue of Library Journal, but it really doesn't have much to do with Hurricane Sandy, other than stating that the effects of the hurricane on libraries' budgets are yet unknown.  The third article in the list is again from Library Journal, this time the Dec. 1, 2012, issue.  Again, it doesn't deal with the impact the hurricane had on libraries.  It came up because of a story about a raccoon that was found in a library atrium after the hurricane.  I tried a new search using the same terms, but this time putting "hurricane sandy" within quotation marks.  This resulted in 40 hits, which I then sorted by publication date, listing the newest article first.  The top result in thee list is from the Federal Register, dated Feb. 7, 2013, but it has nothing to do with the impact of the hurricane on libraries.  The only reference I saw to the hurricane was in dealing with the transit system.  (I am really glad that the terms I searched are highlighted in the text, as that makes it much easier to find them in lengthy articles such as this one.)  In fact, the first six hits did not seem to have anything to do with the impact of the hurricane on libraries.  Hits 7 & 8 were the same ones that came up in my earlier search (as the first and second hits).  Article 13 touched a bit on some libraries that benefited from a book donation made by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt after the hurricane.  So perhaps my first search with the limitations by document type was the better way to go.

Lesson 3

SIRS Discoverer

1.  In SIRS Discoverer, you could show the third grader how to do the advanced search.  I put "solar system" in the Full Text field and then limited it to articles with the Reading Level of "Easy."  This resulted in 44 hits, 28 of which are magazine articles.  Several of the magazine articles contain pictures, which would probably be a good aid for this student who has difficulty reading. The student may want to take advantage of some of the activities included in some of the articles.

2.  To find maps and/or images of volcanoes, you could first try a Keyword search of the word "volcano" and then go to the tab labeled "Graphics."  I had 137 hits by using this method.  By scanning through the list, you can see the ones that have "Maps" listed as part of the descriptor fields.  A second method is to click on the "Maps of the World" link on the lower right and then do a search for the term "volcano."  This resulted in 21 hits of graphics of volcanoes, some of which are pictures and some of which are maps.

SIRS Issues Researcher

1.  I did a subject search  for the words "suicide prevention" and got 971 results.  Of those, 7 are WebSelect sites.  The rest are hits from newspapers, magazines, reference and graphics/media.  The WebSelect sites would likely be a much more pertinent search than what you would get by going through Google, since searching those terms on Google resulted in well over 8 million hits--and who knows what information or misinformation they might include, or what topic they may even be covering.  It would be a bit tedious to sort through them!  According to the SIRS Help section, "SIRS editors evaluate sites originating from around the globe for credibility and relevance to researchers' needs. WebSelect is continually updated to include new sites and dynamically changing data."  

2.  I searched for the term "drought" and got well over 1000 results.  Then I looked up "water restrictions" and again had over 1000 results.  Those are large numbers to sort through, although they can be sorted by date to bring up the most recent articles first.  Then I put all three terms in the search field (water restrictions drought) and the number dropped to 135.  Although some probably would not pertain to the issue of a town considering water restrictions (such as the article entitled, "Water, War and Peace in the Middle East"), this is a much more manageable number to peruse; and the summaries give a pretty good idea of whether or not the article would be pertinent to the issue at hand.

Lesson 2

1.  For the fourth-grader who needs help with reading comprehension, he could be directed to the Elementary School section of the Learning Express Library.  From there, he could go into the section on Reading Skills Improvement, and then to the Fourth Grade Reading Practice.  I think it would be good for him to do any number of the reading exercises in this section and then take the quizzes to see how well he understood what he read. He should also be shown that after he scores a test, he can go back and see the answers, so he can see exactly where he might have made any mistakes and see the correct answers.  It would also be useful to point out that when taking a quiz, rather than scrolling back up to the top for the text, he could open a "New Window" to display the reading section.

2. Where I would direct her would depend upon what skills it is she feels she needs to improve. She might want to look at the sections of Job Search and Workplace Skills, Jobs & Careers, and Skill Building for Adults.  There are areas in these sections she could get help doing her resume, preparing for an interview, and improving skills such as math, reading, speaking, finance, etc.  If she is looking for a job in one of the fields listed in the Jobs & Careers section, she may want to look at the ebooks listed there and/or take some of the practice exams in that field.  The Job Search and Workplace Skills tab includes a section on Success on the Job.  Here she will find some ebooks that cover topics such as team-building, professional relationships, etc., which will be important skills for her to develop to be an effective office manager.

3.  If the high school student would like help with the actual writing of his report, he could be directed to the Writing and Grammar Skills Improvement and/or the Vocabulary and Spelling Skills Improvement sections under the High School section.  Next he could be directed to the Nursing and Allied Health section under the Jobs & Careers tab.  There he will find ebooks about these careers as well as test preparation areas and practice tests.  He could also be shown that the College Preparation tab has practice tests covering several areas.  This information might be good to add to his report to show where students can help prepare themselves for college directed towards such careers.

Lesson 1c

1.  I'm not sure if I did this correctly, but here goes.  I typed the work "house" in the search term on the Spanish edition.  That resulted in eight hits of articles which appear to be mostly biographical.  The only information it appears to give in the sidebar is the citation information (when I click on an individual article).   When I went to what I think is the browse feature, I clicked on the "A-Z" link and then clicked on the "H" to try to get the the term "house."  But that term is not in the list, so I'm not sure where I'm supposed to find it.  Perhaps I was supposed to be searching for the term "casa"??  That brings up a totally different article that is apparently about different types of houses, as well as links in the sidebar to related articles on such topics as architecture, construction, etc.

2.  The search box would probably work better if you knew a specific term you wanted to search.  The browse feature would be good to use if you didn't want to search a specific term or if you didn't know the exact spelling of a person's name but knew the first few letters and could recognize it if you saw it.

Lesson 1b

1.  In World Book Online Kids (Public Library Ed.), I looked at the Games & Activities.  We have a lot of kids who come to play computer games at our library, and there are some educational but fun games in this section.  If we could make parents and kids aware of these, perhaps they would be challenged to play them.

2.  In the Online InfoFinder, I first looked at the "Interactive Earth" feature.  I was glad to see that you can zoom in with the maps and switch to the satellite view.  This feature doesn't have nearly as many fancy viewing features as GoogleEarth, but it would probably suffice for someone wanting basic knowledge about an area or a student doing a report.

3.  In the Online Reference Center, I looked at the ebook of "Emma" by Jane Austen.  It appears that the same features are here as are in the World Book Advanced E-Book Center.  Based on what I found out concerning the Korean translation in that section, I suspect that the same problems would exist when using the translate feature in this Reference Center. Being able to hear the text read aloud would be useful for someone who had vision problems or who perhaps just wonders how a particular word is pronounced.

Lesson 1a

1.  In World Book Kids, I looked at the "Science Projects."  This section has some good experiment ideas.  Some are quite simple and basic (seeing how the amount of sunlight differs between the equator and the polar regions), while others are a little more involved (testing how yeast works or growing crystals).  These ideas could be useful for elementary teachers or home school parents to get their students interested in science and how things work.

2.  In the Student edition, I looked at "Quizzes and Activities" and went into the "Trivia Quizzes" section.  I tried a couple of the quizzes there--did well on some and not so well on others.  These quizzes might be really useful for students to try after studying different units of history, science, etc.  There is a lot there that I didn't know!

3.  In the E-book Center of World Book Advanced, I looked up "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."  At first, I thought the tool to be able to translate to another language would be really useful for a student whose first language is not English but who needs to read a book for say, a literature class, or for someone who is trying to learn another language.  However, I can't verify the accuracy/readability of any of these languages because I don't know any other language well. So, I printed off "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" in both English and Korean and asked some Korean friends about the translation.   The Korean friends I checked with agreed that the Korean translation of the story is "bad."  One said it would be very confusing to a person whose native language is Korean and who is trying to learn English.  The sentence structure is incorrect (they use a different word order than English) and some of the words are translated oddly.  Apparently the translation is just a literal word translation which does not adjust for context, sentence structure, etc.  I cannot verify the correctness of any of the other languages in the translate feature, but I would be suspect of their accuracy as well. On another note, being able to click into other articles via the Related Information would also be helpful, as is the "How to cite this article" note at the bottom of the page.  All of this information would be useful to students doing papers, projects, etc.

4.  Regarding the World Book Discover assignment, I work at a library and am not a teacher, so I don't have students to be able to say which features would suit them best.  However, using the Dictionary, I tried looking up a word that I didn't know how to spell (onomatopoeia).  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to guess correctly and it doesn't give you "Did you mean ....?" with the correct spelling.  So, I went into Dictionary.com and was given some alternatives and was able to find the correct spelling.  (I really wasn't too far off in my attempts.)  Even more unfortunately, when I copied and pasted the correct spelling into the World Book dictionary, it said there were no matching entries.  I also tried out the Atlas feature.  It gives maps according to country, and on some it has additional features (population density, rainfall averages, etc.) for the continents.  These would be useful for students doing reports or studying particular parts of the world.