Lesson 10 Wrap Up

It is time to wrap up this course. It has been a great learning experience. The availability of so many good resources was the biggest discovery I have made. Now I feel much more comfortable in suggesting that the state library web site be used because I have taken the time to look at all the resources that are available.
I am already looking forward to our teacher in-services next fall when electronic resources will be a featured topic. We are looking forward to Jane instructing us. After the in-service I hope to discuss with each individual teacher how we can work together to utilize these resources during the school year.
I have a ring binder that contains many of the things I have printed off from these sessions. With a bit more organization it will also be a very helpful tool!
I have urged parents to get their own family state library card in our weekly announcements and will be sending a letter home in the report cards with some final instructions and encouragement for our students to use the state library web site this summer.
Thanks for making this course available. I really appreciated it!

Between lessons

I am very appreciative of this online course. It has given me the confidence that I need to tell our teachers that we need to be using more reliable electronic resources. I have given the junior high classes a lesson for using the World Book Student. I made a work sheet using the information that was in this resource on the Berlin Wall. This included a video which of course attracts the attention of even the poor students.
I did some more studying about SIRS and there are many educational helps. I have printed off quite a bit of material and am almost at the point of information overload!!!
During the last two weeks of school the students do not check out books so I am making plans that they visit the South Dakota State Library web site! I would have never done this if I had not taken this course!

Lesson 9 History & Genealogy Resources

These are resources that could get me in trouble!! I love to work on genealogies and family history but soon realize that so much time is needed. I am attending two family reunions this summer. One is the family of my great-great grandparents. So when school is over I may return to these sites again! Perhaps it is a good thing that I can only access Ancestry Library at school!
Ancestry Library
-1 I looked up my name and much to my surprise they had my birth date wrong! The year was correct but the month and day were incorrect. I searched my husband's name and he was born on the incorrect birthday they had given me!! Several years ago I traced my husband's family back to the 1600's but realized how important birthdates were because first names were often given to sons and grandsons. So I was disappointed that my birthday was incorrect!
-2 I searched for one of my grandparents and found his draft registration and printed that.
-3 Oops....I just see that I didn't do number three! I will have to return to the site at school next week.
I do believe I get emails concerning Ancestry Library but you have to pay for a subscription. I may have to do that.
Heritage Quest
This does not seem as user friendly to me as Ancestry Library. I did type two of my grandparents names and found them in census records. The frustrating thing is that some of the handwriting is so poor that is it is hard to read. I tried to use the "Search Books" but I was not successful with that part. I started paging through two books but had no clue how I was going to find what the information that I wanted. I was tempted to open my file cabinet and pull out lots of information that I have on my family history but I need to clean my house for company!! :)
Sanborn Maps
The disappointing thing about Sanborn Maps is that Platte, my hometown, was not listed and neither were any of the small towns close to Platte. The closest town was Armour but I am not very familiar with the town. I had hoped this would have allowed me to look at towns in Iowa where I grew up.
I am thinking of how these resources could be used at school. Some teachers have students make a personal history book and research family history. My children had to do that some years ago but I am not aware that our social studies teachers are requiring that informaton recently. I will have to ask.

Lesson 8 Learning Express Library

A few years ago our school received information about this resource. I did send the book marks we received home with students but I think this resource should be emphasized again. There is so much valuable information for any student who would like to take the time to use it.
#1 & 2 I took a 4th Grade Reading Test, a Middle school test and a word analogy test on the high school level. These would be great practice tests for any student! Using this resource would be so much better than playing on a computer during spare time!! The answers given later are good for making you think in a different way and for learning some new information.
#3 The ebooks look like they would be very valuable if you like to read from the computer. It was interesting at the wide range of sources that are available for students and even some items for parents. The ebooks appeared to have practical information. I opened up a Reading Comprehension Success book. There were 20 lessons. The book had 208 pages. If a student had enough self disciple to stick with these lessons, there would be a great deal of information that could help a person take tests and become prepared for a job and/or a career.
I am planning to go to our high school counselor and show her about this resource. Our students should be made aware of this resource. I feel test scores could be improved with the use of the Learning Express Library. Often a test score determines the amount of scholarship money that a student receives. We need to take advantage of this resource.

Lesson 7 ArchiveGrid and CAMIO

Archive Grid I was really looking forward to this lesson but found it hard to do it at school! Constant interruptions! :) I am not 100% sure I understand this resource. If you went to Cornell University you could read the autograph card of Sitting Bull? I have always known information about Sitting Bull but did not realize his death was the result of a Ghost Dance.

Lewis and Clark was the other topic that I researched. There were 20 entries and many of them can be found at the Montana Historical Society. There are several sources of contact information.

CAMIO
In researching Paul Revere it was interesting to see the detail on the silver items, the bowls, and teapots. It was amazing to see the items were so refined for the period of history.
The entries under Sioux were many. Clothing, pipes, drawings, dolls, and blankets make it easier to picture how these people lived.
Vincent Van Gogh was the artist that I chose. I teach art and the junior high students have been studying him. This site had 45 works listed. I attempted to make a slide show of Van Gogh's works.

I believe CAMIO could be used with many units in different areas if educators were made aware of this resource. It would be a great way to introduce units. Art teachers could show artists paintings. Social study teachers could show items that were made during certain eras. I ran short of time for this lesson but am eager to get back to it. I think CAMIO has endless opportunities if a person takes the time to explore this resource.

World Cat Part 2

The exercise using OAIster was totally surprising to me. I had to follow directions carefully to figure out what I was doing! Since my mother's name was Ada I clicked on the entry "Ada schoolhouse and congregation." I didn't know what I would find on the access link. I was totally surprised to see an old picture from 1923. The comment with the picture was "65 miles from Railroad."
I then clicked on Cattle on Western Farm. Again there was a picture with the comment, "They pay the bills."
I did some more searching and found a pamphlet. I could probably spend more time and am curious just what a person could find for historical documents. I grew up in Iowa and would like to see if I could find any old interesting documents.

Lesson 6 World Cat & More

Exercise Part 1
I have never used this resource and so am learning quite a bit about it. To start out I tried just searching for the book, The Mitten by Jan Brett. That was interesting because in the search I discovered there is a guide for using "The Mitten."
The next thing I did was practical. We have a teacher who would like to find a few extra copies of "Stone Fox" by Gardiner. I searched for this book and discovered that 11 libraries in South Dakota have this book, including the Mitchell Public Library so I will give her that information.
#2 I decided to go to the subject of the Holocaust again. I have been using this subject in the other electronic resources and wanted to see how this resource would be helpful. The subject Holocaust yielded 65,724 book results with 8125 visual results. What I also found interesting was that there is a video called Paper Clips. One of our teachers has recently showed me the book with the same title.
The first book listed was Hitler Youth. There are 3784 books world wide and the first library listed is the Alexander Mitchell Library.
#3 The call number of Hitler Youth was LC DD253.5. It is described as juvenile literature with no specific age level mentioned. The abstract gave a short summary of the book. It has an index, 176 pages, is illustrated, and contains maps. It was published in 2005 and there was a picture of the cover of the book.
I think World Cat could be very useful for a teacher researching a topic to find books and visuals for units. Perhaps the teacher could find several fiction books relating to the topic as well as nonfiction books with more detailed facts.
I do not know if I am really following directions as well as I should on this lesson!! I will try to do better on part 2!

Lesson 5 Net Library

I fell behind because of a reading contest that our school participates in and a Fine Arts Celebration. I find this Net Library very interesting as you can see all the aspects of the book from the cover to the index! I am assuming that high school students and college students would benefit the most.
#1 I looked up two things. An art class is making a mural and drawing sea creatures. I did find a couple of books that had some pictures that would have some photos. The Oceans and Adventure Guide Florida were two that I searched. It was fun to turn the pages on the computer!
I also love flowers and looked up "wild flowers." There was a book that had colored pictures on every page along with a description.
Net Library would be great for a research paper.
#2 The fitness search I got caught up with a book called Fat Flush Fitness Plan by Ann Gittleman. It was interesting and I probably could have read the whole book online. It gave some practical points on how fat is stored in our bodies and gave a plan on how to reduce and "flush" fat. What I liked most is that it recommended 20 minute baths three times a week!
I can see how this resource would be helpful if you were going to buy a nonfiction book and wanted to see if it would meet your needs. You could scan the book online first. Which brings me to a question. If you press the print button. Does it print just the page that you are viewing?
#3 I typed in Nebraska in the Publisher box when searching Western history. There were many books about the history of the Midwest. Several books dealt with the history of the Native Americans, there were books about Lewis and Clark and even a book about the orphan trains.
I can see this resource as being very helpful for research and maybe even for relaxation. I am eager to present this information to our staff and students. I may also recommend this to our daughter because her son has allergies and she might find information about that using this resource.

My Inspirations

The 3rd and 4th grades in our school were given some lessons the past few

weeks on how to use our automated system to find resources in our library.

They are quite excited about finding answers to the questions on a

worksheet and eventually going to the shelves and finding books

from the information that they see on the screen.

Lesson 4 Gale Virtual Reference Library

I feel almost embarrassed that I am not acquainted with the Gale Virtual Reference Library but until recently I have only been an elementary school librarian. This resource is geared for high school and college level research.
#1 Under the Literature section of the reference collection I clicked on Literature and It's Times: Profiles of 300 Notable Literary Works and the Historical Events that Influenced Them.
I had recently read My Antonia by Willa Cather and looked for information about the novel. The "literary work", "events in history at the time the novel takes place", "events in history at the time the novel was written", "the novel in focus" and "more information" are all part of the information on the side bar. I could find a large amount of information about this novel.
#2 Since I have done some research on the other resources about the holocaust, I decided to
see what the Gale Virtual Reference Library would say about Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. The side bar information included this parts: Introduction, Plot Summary, Themes, Historical Overview, Critical Overview, and Critical Sources.
I also typed in "holocaust". There were 100 references under that subject. Several books were in that list. One reference was not exclusively about the holocaust but the word holocaust was in the article twice marked in red. That feature is a great help in knowing if the article is beneficial in the research you are looking for.
I decided to do something entirely different for another search. I typed in glucosamine because I have heard that it is a good mineral to use for human joints. There were 9 entries from different sources, most relating to scientific and medical resources. The basic search and advanced search came up with the same results.
How can the Gale Virtual Reference Library be used in our school?
#1 Our high school students participate in a science fair and do research for those projects. This could be a resource that would be helpful. Students doing research papers could use this resource.
#2 If the students were doing research on novels or certain aspects of literature this would also be another great source of information.
I did click on the audio "read to me" feature. This could be helpful to a slow reader but the voice is a computerized voice which is very dull and monotonous. I would rather read the article than hear it being read.
Gale Virtual Reference is relatively easy to use. It is easy to sit for several minutes and click away to a wealth of information.
As I continue with this course my biggest challenge is how I can effectively relay this information to the staff and students at our school. We have a staff meeting tomorrow after school. I might take a survey to first determine if our staff used the electronic resources that are presented in this course.

Lesson 3 Proquest
I began this lesson yesterday and was totally frustrated. I could never get to articles that I wanted to research. I printed the SD Libraries Guide for Proquest and the Quick Reference Guide. It was getting late and I think my mind was on overload. This evening I started out and believe my biggest mistake was not clicking the full text document box. I was only getting abstracts and links to resources that were not available.
This evening I put Ben Carson in the search box and came up with many articles. I had clicked the full text documentation box!!! I admire Ben Carson for the person he has become and perhaps his mother even more as she was the one who demanded that he read two library books every week when he was growing up. Ben improved in school and became a famous brain surgeon. There is a new movie out about him called "Gifted Hands." One magazine article reviewed that movie. I finally felt I had learned how to use Proquest! This would make a great resource for current articles about a subject.
I went to Publications tab and typed in librarian. I printed the article that was in the December 2009 Teacher Librarian. Dave Loetscher writes the article, "Does Technology Really Make a Difference?" This article and others might help if a staff was trying to defend the use of technology.
I am hoping if I have some spare time this week to review each of the lessons this week as when I read other blogs I learn things that I have missed.

Lesson 2 SIRS

PART I SIRS Discoverer
I had never gone to this site online and am amazed at all the resources I discovered! I could easily spend a day looking at all the features!
#1 I looked up Shaun White and did not put quotation marks around his name. Without the quotation marks there were articles that were not related but contained the word "white." The quotation marks did help narrow the search. The reading levels of easy, challenging and regular will also narrow the choices. This is a great resource for current information.
#2 The Database Features are wonderful! I researched the country of Mali. The key information of government, history, weather and current facts such as population are all included in a very short and condensed form. A flag and map were included.
The Maps of the World has so many resources. I found maps of several countries and then noticed that there were map activities. I noticed a map for the 2006 Iditarod trail race. That would be a helpful tool if you had a unit on Alaska or the Iditarod Race.
I then decided to look at the Educator's Resources. I would definitely like to print the guide to online research that is provided. What a great source for a teacher to use to help a student discover how to do research with the SIRS Discoverer. I would like to introduce this resource to our staff and find out if they are familiar with SIRS.
The other Database Feature that I chose was the fiction section. I have some ideas of how the teachers could use this or maybe even our students. They come to the libray to check out books but having them read a story on line might be fun for them to do once in awhile.
PART II SIRS Issues Researcher
#1 I chose the topic "Holocaust Denial." It was encouraging to see lists of topics. Some students get bogged down when choosing a topic for a report or paper. The list could be very beneficial.
The question posed for this topic was "Should holocaust denial be punishable by law?" There were several topics under the Yes section as well as several topics under the No section. This would make the researcher look at both sides of the issue. There were 18 articles listed that could be used for information. There were links under the articles. A majority of the articles were written in 2009 and the oldest was 2007. The SIRS Issue Researcher just seems to be a very valuable help that is very conclusive and easy to manage. I would like to suggest this to our high school students.
#2 The Curricululm Pathfinders had so many things that seemed beneficial for educators. The subjects included math, science, social studies, language arts, fine arts, and health. I took a quick look at each of them but took more time with the language arts section. I came across a short video of how to chose a book for a report or research project. This was an excellent resource. A teacher could prepare the same resource but I often think students prefer to see the power point presentations. The biggest problem I see is that you might find something you thought useful but need to organize a method in how to retrieve what you find so you can use it in the future..

Lesson 1c Foreign Language Edition

This was the hardest assignment. It has been a long time since I had Spanish classes. I plan to ask our Spanish teachers if they are aware of this site and tell them that perhaps they could use it. Listening to the reports spoken in Spanish would be valuable in hearing the correct pronunciations of the language. I liked the fact that you could choose the speed of the speaker!
It was frustrating to see only the Spanish language but this is the best way to learn!
I mentioned this before but we have a new student in our school from Honduras. I will inform her of this web page.

1b World Book Online Reference Center

Papua New Guinea is a country that interests me because I know a family who lives there.
There are many sources of information that can be found, everything from current events that are found in newspapers to maps that show locations in the country. Students or tourists could find information on the history, climate, people, economy and government of Papua New Guinea. A convenient aspect of this reference center is the ability to have pages of information printed. If a student's time at the computer was limited the student could print the information he wanted and finish reading the articles at a later time.

It is also interesting how the South Dakota Content Standards are part of this reference center. A teacher could use the suggestions that are found when you see that link.

The information was comprehensive. This definitely would be used by junior high students and older students.

1b World Book Online Info Finder

This site is very informational. The article on rabbits has 173 items, 3 videos, and 11 pictures. Some of the articles include dogs who hunt rabbits and books about rabbits. The vocabulary is definitely geared to adults instead of young children. The amount of information is at least three times as much as the information in the Kids Edition of World Book. I think this link would be frustrating for younger children so it is great to have the different levels of information I was just thinking of how having another level of World Book online has improved research for younger children.
My goal is to take this information to the classroom teachers and ask them to look at these different online references.

1b World Book Public Library Edition

I looked up rabbits and was successful in pasting the picture to this blog . (I hope!) Rabbits live in most parts of the world except the Antarctica. We have numerous rabbits on our farm and during the winter they eat many young trees and bushes.
The article continued with a good description of rabbits and how rabbits are often used for research.

There is also a video with this article which I think young children would enjoy.

Lesson 1a World Book Online

I researched the giraffe using World Book Kids. The giraffe lives in the Sahara Desert in Africa. A video is included with this article along with several pictures and basic information about giraffe.

The World Book Student includes more detailed information about the giraffe along with a map of Africa and more pictures. Citation information is also given. The vocabulary is for a more advanced reader compared to the World Book Kids.

Kenya was the country that I researched. The information about the government, people, land and climate, economy and history would be very useful for students wanting to learn more about that country.

The World Book Discover would help anyone who would like to read articles in Spanish or French. Also articles can be translated into many other languages. A student from South American who has just enrolled in our school. This feature might help her understand things if she could read it in her native language.

Check It Out!

Day 1 I have created a blog for this class. I am eager to learn about electronic resources. I think I have neglected this area too long!