Ebsco Host - Net Library E-books

1. The first task is to find something of interest found on Ebsco Host(formerly net library e-books. Our book fair is going to be in March and the theme is Fiesta so I'm looking for references and ideas. One of the resources that I chose was titled Mexico by Shirley M. Gray.  This book has colored pictures and info about the Spanish-Mexican Culture.  I was really surprised about the colored picture and was not anticipating that these e-books would have them.  There is a map on Mexico that easily read on page 5 of the book. A picture of the traffic in Mexico City and info of the rural life in Mexico.  This book was very informative.

2. Finding info for Constitution Day outcome was 21 resources to choose from.  I would ask the patron to be more specific, like which title would work for the research needed.  Some of the titles that were shown: AP US History, The Criminal Law Handbook, The Complete Idiot's Guide to the American Presidents and Econo Guide '00 London.  This topic is too broad.

3. The next task was to find info on Western History in the Advanced Search.  We were to select PB publisher in the drop down box by the select a field option and type one of the states.  I choose Nebraska and found 56 results. Turtle Lung's Granddaughter was the first title listed.  What I found was that all these books was published by the University of Nebraska.  Again, this is a great place to share with everyone taking history class. 

I intend on writing an article for our local paper about these great websites and offer a class for patrons to visit the library and take a look at these unique data bases that were are researching for this class.  This will be accomplished when I finish this class.

Gale Virtual Reference

This week, we are to explore Gale Virtual Reference Library. This resource offers e-books. I clicked on Title List and found a list of books of nonfiction info. Crime and Punishment in American Reference Library. The copy write is 2005 and info that includes past information on colonial period and current info such as cyber crimes. This info could be used in a classroom to discuss how cyber bullying crime and its effects on society. I can share this information with our history teacher. Students can expand their ideas on why/effects and have a discussion. I have in the past, gone in the history room and showed the students how to use sites/databases such as Gale Virtual Reference to find info for their research. The next research question is find info on something specific, I look up zinc and found 820 ebooks. The most difficult task is to narrow your topic. Next, I searched - "zinc in food" and found eight resources. Then I used the listen feature which is unique for anyone needing extra help in pronouncing the words and reading the information. Some of the information in these references in at a higher level which means much of the vocabulary will be at a higher level as well. This listening feature also highlights the text as it reads to you, so you can follow along. I responded to Mrs. Kafka's blog on oysters being a great source for zinc. I looked at Mike from Deadwood's blog and the information that was researched - news from the Middle East. No one else has finished this week's question. I have to stay ahead of the game because I'm busy refereeing games.

ProQuest

I like ProQuest. This is a great resource site to find valid, current and reliable info at your finger tips. I think that the biggest problem when researching info for anyone is to get your topic narrowed down to find exactly what you're looking for. I like the subject areas below and clicked on Humanities and the Arts. I looked up info on architecture and homes - victorian style homes (which I had to keep narrowing down my research topic) and still found many article that did not quite match what I was looking for. Just scrolling and scan till I found the article I was interested in. So I clicked on citation and did a copy/paste and this is the info: The Perfect English Country Inn; How a free-spirited art dealer and his artist wife brought a Victorian-style inn back to life falseKonig, Rita. WSJ : the Magazine from the Wall Street Journal (May 2012): n/a The next question to research was to see someone else's blog and this is what I found: Mrs. Kafka - looked at Common Core Standards on Proquest. She found many articles that were current and reliable. It did take me about 7 blogs to find someone that is researching ProQuest. Some people must make time to do their homework during the evening or on the weekend. In which, I do not have the time or capabilities because I referee basketball. The last question was to click on publications and find text in alphabetical order, then type in the search box our career which is librarian and I found two publications. Both publications are not very current - 2009 and 1996. So going back to my first statement - sometimes info is not current. What is nice about ProQuest is that I don't have to have an inventory of all different magazines and archive in my library. I certainly don't have the space and finding information electronically is faster and may be more accurate. Unless you have time to spare, would you share some with me?

SIRS Issues Researcher

At this databases, we are to look up a leading issue and research the tools at this site. The issue I looked up was Bullying. There were pros and cons to having anti-bullying strategies in schools; bullying definition, and much more. I noticed in the research tools that there is help for those working on research papers such as overview topic (narrows topic to specifics), note organizer, statistics (tool to make tables and comparisons for activities such as presentations); my analysis - which is a tool to with starting a research project. This is great for anyone needing additional help. Curriculum Pathfinders was not found. Core Curriculum Standards is a new tab that can provide resources for correlating information to a specific standard. A teacher can find articles, websites or topics that can match a specific standard. The databases found at the South Dakota State Library Website are specific and standards based. A great place to start researching for anyone - from looking a current events, to practicing for tests, looking up family members and more.

SIRS Researcher

I have always liked this resource and have my students in library skills classes use this to find current events and other information. For the class, that I'm currently taking; we are to look up an animal in SIRS Researcher. The info that I found was information about Dogs. There were many articles found so I decided that I needed to be more specific so I chose a specific breed: Border Collie. That topic still gave me plenty of articles to read. The second question that we are to answer is: Country Facts, Maps of the World and Database Features which are tools found on this database. The Country Facts is spilt into three categories: 1.By Country; 2. By State & 3. Canada Facts. When I click on Maps of the World, there are over 3000 maps that are detailed, can be printed and used like an almanac. What I feel is really great about SIRS Researcher is that I don't have to spend extra funds for our library to have current info for everyone to use and inventory it. This database has it all!