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.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Friday, February 22, 2013
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!).
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!).
Friday, February 15, 2013
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.
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.
Friday, February 8, 2013
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.
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.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
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.
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.
Monday, January 28, 2013
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.
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.
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.
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