Lesson 10

Wrap Up

1. My biggest discovery was probably SIRS Discoverer and SIRS Researcher. I think these are both fantastic resources for students. Going into this challenge I was already pretty comfortable with AncestryLibrary, WorldCat, and Learning Express Library. However, I still learned things about each of those. Becoming more informed/comfortable with our online databases had been on my "to-do" list for quite some time, and I'm thankful for the push/direction this challenge gave me. I now feel much more comfortable directing patrons to these services. It feels great to be able to direct patrons (especially students) to these databases and be able to tell them specifically what they can do! I have already directed numerous patrons to these resources because of what I learned through this challenge. I WILL be revisiting what I did during this challenge to make sure I remember everything! :-)

2. I have already been promoting these resources to patrons coming into our library wanting information. What I really love about directing patrons (mainly students) to these resources is the fact that I am confident they are going to be able to find up-to-date information on the subject they are researching. I hate it when a patron comes in looking for information on a subject and the only information we have is outdated. These resources give patrons the ability to find information that is as up to date as Google/Wikipedia with the reliability of books. It also saves libraries money on books that become outdated almost as soon as we get them processed! I will definitely continue to direct patrons to our online resources.

Lesson 9

AncestryLibrary

1. I searched both my maiden and married names. The only thing that came up for me was my father's obituary.

2.All 4 of my grandparents were born after 1930. Since the 1940 census information is not yet available, I was unable to find any of them. I then searched for one of my great-grandfathers. I found him in the 1930 census. He was 27 at the time and married with 3 children. Also, his name was spelled wrong, so the result did not come up right away. I had to search for him, click on his marriage record, and then the 1930 census showed up on the right hand side.

3. I searched "South Dakota" as the keyword and restricted the results to "Photos and Maps". It came up with WWI soldier photos, baseball photos, and photos from the Library of Congress.

HeritageQuest

4.I searched "Aberdeen, South Dakota" and found a publication called "History of Dakota Territory". When I clicked on it, it shows images of the actual book page by page. It was from 1915 so it had a few interesting little tidbits in it. :-) It also had options to download, print, and make it appear negative.

Sanborn Maps

5.I chose Aberdeen- February 1904. I went to Main Street and found what is now called the Citizen's Building. I found out that it used to be the Ward Hotel. It now has a coffee shop in it!

Lesson 8

ArchiveGrid

1. I learned that Sitting Bull was also known as Tatanka Iyotake.

2. I searched "Yellowstone National Park. The first result was "Yellowstone Park Company records, 1866-1933". The Montana Historical Society in Helena has this material. This would be a great resource for someone looking for something specific outside of your area. Using this resource, you could direct them to the exact institution that has the materials they are looking for.

CAMIO

1. Items made by Paul Revere: a teaspoon, a sugar bowl & cover, and a federal style tea service.

2. My search for Sioux yielded a variety of results. It came up with photos, paintings, clothing & jewelry, sculptures and many other objects. I think this would be a great resource for teachers to use to show their students how the Native Americans lived!

3. I searched "van Gogh" and a ton of his paintings came up. You could click on the paintings to see larger images. It tells the year, size, & format of the painting. I think this would be a great resource for art teachers to familiarize their students with painting styles of famous artists.

4. I think this would be a great resource for students/patrons researching famous artists, or for art lovers in general to browse! Also, because it tells what museum each piece is in, it could be useful in vacation planning!

5. I searched "photography" and chose 4 images I thought were neat to add to my favorites. After clicking on "View Favorites", those 4 photos were there. I viewed them in a slideshow. Then, I compared images 1 and 3. This would be really neat if you're trying to decide which photo you like more/fits your needs best. I also made a webpage of the images. It showed the photos I had in my favorites. You could also click on them to view larger images.

Lesson 7

WorldCat
Part 1
I chose to search for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I searched "dragon tattoo". I got 4 results, none of which were The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. So, I went back and typed in the full title. This time I got 62 results. 2,497 libraries own the first result, including my library. The top library is mine, Alexander Mitchell Public Library.

The call number is LC: PT9876.22 A6933; Dewey: 839.738. I also notice you can click on the genre and see more books in that genre, a description of the book, and a link to cite the book.

*I actually already feel very comfortable using this part of WorldCat because this is what we use to request our ILLs. We've also used it here & there when ALEPH is down to see if we own an item!

Part 2
I searched "South Dakota" and clicked on the result Sweet Clover in Great Plains Farming. I clicked on the link next to "Access". This gave me a page by page listing for me to choose which page I wanted. I clicked on page 11 and page 11 came up, looking just as it does in the book. You can zoom in and out on the pages, and go to the next page. I think this is one more great resource for patrons doing research and will definitely keep this in mind!

Lesson 6

EBooks on EbscoHost

1. I searched "Hobbies and crafts". I got 3 pages of results with varying crafts/hobbies. There were books about sewing, quilting, woodworking, scrapbooking, etc. I looked through a J non-fiction book titled Crafts to Make in the Spring. This resource would be really handy. You get a book without ever leaving home!

2. I searched "United States Constitution" and got 5 pages of results. A couple appropriate titles would be: Companion to the United States Constitution and Its Amendments and Illustrated Dictionary of Constitutional Concepts.

3. I searched "Oklahoma" and got a ton of books on Native American life and history.

Lesson 5

Gale Virtual Reference Library

After clicking on "Title List" I noticed there are a lot of different titles on a variety of subjects- just like a reference section should be! I clicked on "Alternative Energy". I then chose "Solar Engery". This had information on every aspect of solar energy I could think of. I think this would be a great resource for a college student writing a paper on solar energy, or for a person just wanting to learn more about solar energy. This is a good place to get unbiased information!

My first question I wanted to answer was "What foods are high in antioxidants?" I entered "antioxidants" in the search bar, and found my answer in the second result. Just a few foods I found were high in antioxidants are: tomatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, peaches, spinach, and broccoli. --Yes, please!
My second task was to find literary criticism on Brave New World. I searched "Brave New World literary criticism". The second result was a "Work Overview" and had a ton of information on the book and the author. I clicked "Listen" and it read exactly what was on the page, highlighting the word it was on all through the article. I really like this resource. It's a nice, trustworthy alternative to Google & Wikipedia. :-)

Lesson 4

Proquest

1.I did a search for "Photography" and found the results weren't very current. So I narrowed it to only show from October 2011 to March 2012. I liked the fact that you can narrow it all the way down to a specific day. That could help if a patron knows the date an article was published but not the title. I then decided to narrow my search further to "Photography AND business". I then chose to only show trade journals and found a ton of great articles. This is something that could really be useful to a patron working on a business plan. This could also be very useful for college students because you can also narrow it to only show scholarly journals.

1.a. I commented on BookWorm's SIRS Discoverer & SIRS Researcher post.

2. I searched for "libraries" "In subject". It brought up 71 publications! I browsed the Nov/Dec 2011 "Public Libraries" magazine. I am really excited about this! This is a fantastic resource for everybody! What a great way for people to better themselves professionally. Knowledge is power! :-)