Wrap-Up

Wrap-Up

1.       I believe my biggest discovery was Learning Express Library.  I liked that there was something for everyone on this site.  The test practices would be helpful for all who are getting ready for testing.  I shared the information about this site with the counselors in our high school and hope that they too will be excited about the wealth of information on this site.  Over all, there are so many helpful things on this site.  One other discovery that I made that I think is especially helpful to educators is the handout that is provided for the different databases.  These handouts can be used to help introduce teachers to the various sites at the state library.

2.       One thing that I could do to let teachers know about the different data bases at the state library is to use the handouts to introduce teachers to the data bases.  I could ask the principal if I could have a few minutes during a staff meeting to introduce one of the data bases.  Or I could e-mail one of the handouts to teachers each week to showcase the data bases that are available through the state library. 

Ancestry

Ancestry.Com

I actually spent more time looking at my dad’s information than my own.  Once I got started, I just kept finding more things to look at.  I was able to look at the marriage certificate for my grandfather, discovered the burial information for my grandmother, and viewed a military document for my grandfather.  I discovered that one can learn find out a lot about herself and family while looking at this site.

I enjoyed looking at the information on my grandparent.  What I discovered when I searched my grandmother’s name was that her father was born in Wisconsin and her mother in Iowa.  I continued to look back and discovered that my grandmother’s paternal grandparents both emigrated from England.  I would enjoy spending more time looking into my ancestry.  I believe that one could spend hours upon hours looking at this website. 

Heritage Quest

I tried to search for information about Valley Springs, where I live, and Brandon, where I work, but was unsuccessful with this search.  So I tried Sioux Falls.  I had a little better luck here but did not find anything that I felt was helpful.  I believe that I would need to have a more specific search in mind in order to be more successful.  Or maybe I just didn’t know what I was doing.

Sanborn Maps

I searched for Sioux Falls in Sanborn Maps.  Several different maps came up from this search.  As I looked at these maps, I kept wondering how I could recommend the use of this site with teachers.  I think that geography teachers might be able to compare maps to show growth of a city throughout time.  It would be a good way to show human-environment interaction. 

WorldCat

PART 1:

1. I decided to start with a basic search to see how this type of search worked.  I searched for the author Caron Levis.  When I typed in her name, nothing came up.  So I clicked on the question mark next to the search bar.  Here I was given the suggestion to put the author’s name in quotation marks.  When I did that, the book I was looking for by Caron Levis came up.  Actually, five records for this book exist.  I was given the option of finding libraries that own this book.  When I clicked on this feature, local libraries popped up first.  I discovered that I could get this book through the Siouxland Library system in Sioux Falls.

 
After doing the basic search, I decided to try the advanced search.  I loved all the options for narrowing down the search.  I knew that the 8^th grade teachers are currently studying westward expansion.  So I did a search on westward expansion and narrowed down the search to United States.  I also wanted to find books that would be useful for 8^th grade, so I clicked on juvenile literature and just books.  This was such a good way to find books that I can suggest for the 8^th grade teachers.  I could have kept looking for a long time at all the choices that popped up!  Loved this!

2. Book Search:          

            - Spring is Here

            - 59 Records

            - Libraries Worldwide – 1093

            - Top Library – Madison Public Library

3. Call # - E Hillenbrand

    When clicking on the author’s name, I found several titles available by this author.

    When clicking on subject, I found several titles related to the topic of “spring”.   Just recently I was looking for books about spring for my elementary students and feel that this link would have been helpful in assisting me in my search. 

PART 2:

The first document that I looked at on OAIster was a document about Indian Education.  It was a scanned document about Indian Education in South Dakota.  It was only four pages long.  I looked at a second document called “Housing: What you Need to Know”.  This document was printed from the Department of Labor and Regulations.  This feature gives a lot of information, but I think I would need to work with it more to get comfortable using it. 

EBooks on EbscoHost

1. This is my first time at this site so I wanted to just get comfortable using it.  I liked how I could choose to “read on line”.  I was able to start reading the book right away without waiting to download.  I also liked having the option of viewing the book as a “full page”.  It makes it easier to read.  There are many good features, and I think I will need more practice with this site.

2. I searched “U.S. Constitution” and received several books.  Two that I thought would be helpful were A Comparison to the United States Constitution and its Amendments by John Vile and The Bill of Rights by Thomas Lewis.  In looking at the table of contents the Comparison book looks like it would be a good resource for finding information on the Constitution.  I clicked on “The Most Relevant” pages to find out what this option did.  I liked that it chose pages from the book that related to my search.  This feature will be very helpful to narrow down the search.

3. In doing this search, I discovered several useful titles that would be helpful.  On title was The Frontier Army in the Settlement of the West by Michael L. Norman Tate.  I clicked on “detailed record” and found information about the book and also the most relevant pages.  I like the “detailed record” feature and think it is a useful tool for finding out specific information about the books as well as the “relevant pages”. 

After looking at the detailed record, I clicked on a link that said “Find Similar Results”.  This took me to me really good titles.  I found this to be an especially helpful link.  One of the titles was Old Deadwood Days by Estelline Bennett.  Looking at the Table of Contents revealed a list of characters that would be in the book.  This book is one in which each chapter focuses on a particular character from the West. 

I think that in order for EBooks from EbscoHost to be useful to a teacher, he/she would really need to spend a bit of time practicing how to use this site.  Once done, it can be a really useful tool for teachers to use in the classroom. 

Gale

1. The name of the book that I chose was Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of the World Cultures, 2012.  I then chose the chapter on Australia.  Junior Worldmark would be a helpful source for our geography teachers.  Each year they participate in a World's Fair in which students research on a country and put together a project about that country.  This source would give the students good information on countries.

At the end of the information, there is a section that shows additional books that can be read as well as websites for further research on the topic.  On the left hand side, I was able to click on related subjects to find other readings.

2.  I typed in a search for "endangered animals".  Many articles came up.  I selected one on the giant panda.  I listened to the article as it was read.  I think this feature would be helpful for a struggling reader.  I selected the option to view as text and pdf.  I like being able to view the document with 2 pages in the pdf file.  It is more like the actual book.  A person is able to print the article, e-mail it to self, or download it to the computer.  I really like the citation tool.  This feature is really helpful to students who are doing research.

When using this type of source, you would have to be pretty specific about the search.  There is so much information available so it would be important to know how to narrow down the search.  It would take some practice using this type of tool.  A teacher who wants to share this source with his students would want to be prepared by trying it out and directing the students with their search.

ProQuest

1. I did a search on Olympic Host Cities.  Over 10,000 results came up.  So I did an advanced search to narrow down the number of results.  For each result, you have an option of  "previewing" the article.  This is a nice feature.  One can get an idea of what is contained within the article by looking at the preview.  Once you click on the article, you can read it but also find other articles that are similar by viewing "Similar Documents" on the right hand side.  I used the sorting feature and really liked that I could read articles about the current Olympic host city and upcoming cities that will be hosting the Olympics.  It is nice to have the option to "sort" the results.  Another nice feature is that a citation is given for each article.  Students and their teachers will appreciate this feature when doing research.  Students who are doing research, also have the option to "save" the article to "My Research".  This feature is nice for those doing extensive research and wanting to save articles for viewing later.

I did email an article to my own email address.  When I went to that email, the article was right there.  This might be a useful tool for students doing research.

1a.  I viewed Mark Kenefick's blog on ProQuest.  I found that I agree with him when he says that ProQuest is geared towards higher level learning.  I have shown this site to our high school students and feel that they can handle ProQuest.  But younger students would struggle with getting through this data base.


2. Publications:  I was surprised at the number of journals available through ProQuest.  I did a search found the magazine "Voices from the Middle" a journal for middle school teachers.  Journals from 1997 were available for viewing.  One can also view issues that are from the most recent journals.  I clicked on this and found 14 items from the December 2013 issue of "Voices from the Middle".  I also looked for journals that were available for librarians.  Several library journals were available.  It will be a good place to look back to in the future. 

SIRS

SIRS provides a wide range of options for searching – actually, it is pretty easy to get caught up in all the information and topics in SIRS.  The two minute video was helpful at introducing the data base.  I would recommend this video to those just beginning the use of SIRS.

SIRS Discoverer – the first thing that comes to mind with SIRS Discoverer is the fact that the subjects are listed with a graphic.  This is appealing and easy to read.  I think students would find that the graphics make their use of SIRS easier to navigate.

1. When searching for armadillos, I liked that there were options for narrowing down the search.  One can sort through the information by relevance, date, or Lexile.  Using the Lexile ranges would be helpful for a teacher who would like an article that is readable for the students.
2. The Country Facts section is a great section for a geography teacher.  There is a plethora of information provided on countries.  A student can find information for every country in the world. 
3. I selected several maps to look at in the “Maps of the World” section.  One that would be useful in geography is finding a time zone map when teaching about different time zones.  Other options in the map section would be using the earthquake hazards map of the U.S. and the Tsunami in the South Pacific map when discussing hazards that occur in the world.
4. I couldn’t select just one other area in the “Database Features” sections.  There were too many of interest.  The first one I looked at was the one on the Olympics.  This section gives current information and articles on the Olympics in Sochi.  It would be a great source for helping students find current information about what is going on in Sochi.  I also liked the Biography link.  This source would be helpful to our 6^th grade teachers who put on a Wax Museum event in which student research a person from history and then portray that person at the wax museum.  These teachers would find this site helpful.  They could use the Lexile readings to help students find articles that are appropriate for them.  I also like the “Science Fair Explorer” section and would love to share this with one of our teachers who helps with the elementary science fair.  She could share this site with parents as they try to find science fair projects for their child.  These extra features are a great help to teachers and parents alike.

 

SIRS Issues Researcher

1. I searched “Afghanistan” and found a great deal of information on this topic.  The topic overview provided a map of conflicts throughout the world – Afghanistan was included on this map.  There was a link to a political cartoon as well as a link to the pros and cons related to this issue.  This particular link gave information on both sides of the issue.  When you search for a topic, there is box that lets you know the number of articles on your topic.  This is helpful as one can search by type of source.  If you only want to search magazine articles, you can narrow the search to just find that.

2. Curriculum Pathfinders – My favorite subject is social studies and under social studies, I especially enjoy “geography”.  This was my chosen topic.  Searching in geography brings up 284 results.  But the search can be narrowed down by choosing “matching subjects”.  Under each course subject there were video links to help with a particular topic. 

I enjoyed looking through SIRS.  It was hard to stop searching and looking through this data base as there was so much to see.  I think if a person has a particular topic to research that this site would give them a lot of help.