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.