South Dakota Library Challenge: Electronic Resource Edition
Lesson 10 | Wrap-Up | March 30, 2015
*The South Dakota Library Challenge: Electronic Resources Edition was developed by the South Dakota State Library staff to introduce you to the statewide subscription electronic resources. The Electronic Resources Challenge encourages library staff to learn more about the resources that provide expanded access to information and research tools to all schools, libraries and citizens of South Dakota.
Week 10 of the SDSL Electronic Resource Challenge has arrived! This has been a great challenge, and I have definitely learned a lot; however, I am also not completely sad that it is coming to an end. And, really, the only reason I say that is because this is such a busy time of year! I look back at the last ten weeks, and I am surprised that I was able to get each week's lesson completed with everything else that I had going on. I am glad that I took part in this challenge, though, for a number of reasons.
First of all, I am much more comfortable now with the SDSL on-line resources. I know which resources to recommend for which school project, and I have also been recommending them to friends and family members. I taught a couple of lessons at the beginning of the year in which I incorporated the SDSL databases, and then I taught a few more lessons during this challenge. There was no guesswork with the lessons I taught this winter/spring...I actually knew what I was talking about!
Secondly, I have now become a resource for some of the other teachers, particularly at the middle school that I work at. They know that I took part in this challenge and will now come to me with their questions about finding on-line resources for their students.
And, finally, any time that I can expand my knowledge base, I jump at the opportunity. Now, I feel like I just have more tools in my librarian tool belt.
I know that there are several of these resources that I need to go back to and explore in more depth; however, through this challenge, I feel like I have a very strong foundation.
Showing posts with label Databases. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Databases. Show all posts
Monday, March 30, 2015
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
South Dakota Library Challenge: Electronic Resource Edition
Lesson 9 | Ancestry Library, Heritage Quest, Sanborn Maps | March 16, 2015
*The South Dakota Library Challenge: Electronic Resources Edition was developed by the South Dakota State Library staff to introduce you to the statewide subscription electronic resources. The Electronic Resources Challenge encourages library staff to learn more about the resources that provide expanded access to information and research tools to all schools, libraries and citizens of South Dakota.
Week 9 of the SDSL Challenge has us exploring history and genealogy resources such as Ancestry Library, Heritage Quest, and Sanborn Maps. Ancestry Library contains over 4000 different searchable databases and indexes. In addition to census information, it offers historical maps, yearbooks, and indexes, including the continuous index. Heritage Quest provides access to census information plus full text historical books, Freedman's Bank records, and more. Sanborn Maps offers historical fire insurance maps for 82 SD communities and includes details such as street names, house numbers, and building use.
I began exploring in Ancestry Library by doing a search for my name. Apparently, you don't have to be dead to be listed in this resource. When I searched using my married name, there was a result with an old address and telephone number. When I searched using my maiden name, I was given my marriage license information from 2000. Next, I searched my grandfather on my mother's side. He died when I was in 6th grade. This search resulted in a SS Death Index, several census listings, a grave index, and an army enlistment. Finally, using this resource, I typed "South Dakota" in to the location search bar. This brought up almost 500 million results including census and voter lists, birth, marriage, and death certificates, military listings, immigration and travel documents, newspapers and publications, pictures, and much, much more. I opened the link for pictures and looked a few. These were great historical pictures with a caption, location, source information, and description. You can also click on the picture to get a nice close-up where you can zoom in. Very cool!
For the second part of this Challenge, I explored Heritage Quest. This resource has over 28,000 family and local histories in their online historical books. I began by clicking on the link to the Family History Books and Directories and then searched for Sturgis, SD, in the location search bar. The first thing that I noticed is that it seemed like many of the results had nothing to do with Sturgis, SD! So, I used the search filter option in the left sidebar to make my search more exact. When I narrowed my search to the "state" level, I got a hit for "A Brief History of South Dakota." This was of interest to me, so I clicked on the link and was taken to another page that had 224 results. At this point, I was just pretty confused as to what I was looking at and what I was looking for. I tried to make sense of it, but finally gave up until a new day.
Finally, for the last part of this Challenge, I explored Sanborn Maps. I started by searching for Sturgis, SD, with the date January 1931. There was an index page and then several pages of maps that I could look at. After looking at several of the maps, I found the church that my husband and I were married in! It is a very old chapel that is being restored by my husband's family. There were other buildings on the maps from 1931 that still exist today, as well. Most of these are on our Main Street. This would be an interesting resource for a history class.
Overall, three really good resources...even though I couldn't quite get into Heritage Quest.
Lesson 9 | Ancestry Library, Heritage Quest, Sanborn Maps | March 16, 2015
*The South Dakota Library Challenge: Electronic Resources Edition was developed by the South Dakota State Library staff to introduce you to the statewide subscription electronic resources. The Electronic Resources Challenge encourages library staff to learn more about the resources that provide expanded access to information and research tools to all schools, libraries and citizens of South Dakota.
Week 9 of the SDSL Challenge has us exploring history and genealogy resources such as Ancestry Library, Heritage Quest, and Sanborn Maps. Ancestry Library contains over 4000 different searchable databases and indexes. In addition to census information, it offers historical maps, yearbooks, and indexes, including the continuous index. Heritage Quest provides access to census information plus full text historical books, Freedman's Bank records, and more. Sanborn Maps offers historical fire insurance maps for 82 SD communities and includes details such as street names, house numbers, and building use.
I began exploring in Ancestry Library by doing a search for my name. Apparently, you don't have to be dead to be listed in this resource. When I searched using my married name, there was a result with an old address and telephone number. When I searched using my maiden name, I was given my marriage license information from 2000. Next, I searched my grandfather on my mother's side. He died when I was in 6th grade. This search resulted in a SS Death Index, several census listings, a grave index, and an army enlistment. Finally, using this resource, I typed "South Dakota" in to the location search bar. This brought up almost 500 million results including census and voter lists, birth, marriage, and death certificates, military listings, immigration and travel documents, newspapers and publications, pictures, and much, much more. I opened the link for pictures and looked a few. These were great historical pictures with a caption, location, source information, and description. You can also click on the picture to get a nice close-up where you can zoom in. Very cool!
For the second part of this Challenge, I explored Heritage Quest. This resource has over 28,000 family and local histories in their online historical books. I began by clicking on the link to the Family History Books and Directories and then searched for Sturgis, SD, in the location search bar. The first thing that I noticed is that it seemed like many of the results had nothing to do with Sturgis, SD! So, I used the search filter option in the left sidebar to make my search more exact. When I narrowed my search to the "state" level, I got a hit for "A Brief History of South Dakota." This was of interest to me, so I clicked on the link and was taken to another page that had 224 results. At this point, I was just pretty confused as to what I was looking at and what I was looking for. I tried to make sense of it, but finally gave up until a new day.
Finally, for the last part of this Challenge, I explored Sanborn Maps. I started by searching for Sturgis, SD, with the date January 1931. There was an index page and then several pages of maps that I could look at. After looking at several of the maps, I found the church that my husband and I were married in! It is a very old chapel that is being restored by my husband's family. There were other buildings on the maps from 1931 that still exist today, as well. Most of these are on our Main Street. This would be an interesting resource for a history class.
Overall, three really good resources...even though I couldn't quite get into Heritage Quest.
Thursday, March 19, 2015
South Dakota Library Challenge: Electronic Resource Edition
Lesson 8 | WorldCat, CAMIO, and OAIster | March 16, 2015
*The South Dakota Library Challenge: Electronic Resources Edition was developed by the South Dakota State Library staff to introduce you to the statewide subscription electronic resources. The Electronic Resources Challenge encourages library staff to learn more about the resources that provide expanded access to information and research tools to all schools, libraries and citizens of South Dakota.
For Lesson 8 of this Challenge, we were asked to learn more about electronic resources that can help you find materials internationally, find full-text material on a variety of subjects, and do art and image searching. The Challenge was broken into three parts, one section for WorldCat, one for OAIster, and one for CAMIO.
WorldCat is an international catalog of member library materials. It contains over 179,000,000 records found in 72,000+ libraries, including the SDSL and 25+ SD libraries. Records in WorldCat include a variety of formats from before 1000 BC to the present, and libraries add a new record every 10 seconds. This lets users know what materials are where and helps other librarians find call numbers for books they are adding to their collections.
OAIster is a mostly full-text database within WorldCat. It was originally built by the University of Michigan, and it contains collections of digital libraries made available to the general public. It is composed of older archives made available electronically and of digitally-born items. Over 1000 institutions participate in the OAIster database, and it is useful for general reference, for looking up archival and historical content, and for finding images and other media.
CAMIO stands for "Catalog of Art Museum Images Online." It is a growing online collection containing works of art from museum collections around the world, including the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Walker Art Center, the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress, and the Albert and Victoria Museum. It does not, however, contain images by prominent SD artists because the owning institutes are not participating. CAMIO covers cultures around the world from 3000 BC to today. It includes art in the broadest sense from photos to sculpture to textile to wood and silver and more. Researches can start with a general search and then refine it by using CAMIOs specialized tools.
WorldCat Exercise Part 1
To explore WorldCat, I first did an advanced book search for "Life of Pi." This resulted in 354 records. The top result was the Harcourt 2001 edition of the book, which is owned by 2909 libraries worldwide. When I clicked on the "Libraries Worldwide" link, the first library listed was the Alexander Mitchell Library. Looking at the full record for the book, I was able to see that the Class Descriptors for the book are as follows: LC: PR9199.3.M3855; Dewey: 813/.54; and NLC: PS8576. I could also click on the author's name and see that he has written a couple other books, including "Self." The record listed many subjects for the book, and when I clicked on the first one--"shipwreck survival"--I was given another list of 1947 results; 1423 of those being books. Other available information includes publication information, availability, physical description, ISBN numbers, an abstract, genre information, geographic information, and more. I am fairly familiar with WorldCat as I used it often as the assistant director at the public library in Sturgis.
WorldCat Exercise Part 2
The OAIster (pronounced "oyster") database is one of the few mostly full-text databases in WorldCat. I did a keyword search in OAIster for South Dakota and came up with over 13,000 results. After scrolling through a few pages of results, I opened the link to the article, "The history of the Homesake Opera House, 1912-1937." When I then clicked on "Access," I was taken to the full-text thesis from the University of Arizona. Maybe it's just the day or the week, but I definitely wasn't really into this resource today. I know that it will be a resource that will be good for my high school students, but I may need to come back to visit it on a day that I can get into it so that it doesn't seem over my head!
CAMIO Exercise
I had never used CAMIO before this Challenge, so I was excited to give it a try. To start exploring, I typed the word "Sioux" into the search box. This resulted in a "list" of many images and their descriptions. I clicked on an image of a Scalp Shirt and was brought to a page that had the image, title, description, creator information, and much, much more. On the image, I could zoom in and out, and I was also given the option to download it or print it.
This would be a very cool visual resource for my students at both the middle school and high school levels. These days, projects incorporate many more visuals in mediums such as PowerPoint, Prezi, iMovie, and more. This in in contrast to the research papers of old with no graphics. I really liked how it was like a virtual museum.
Next, in CAMIO, I did a search for "Denmark" since I will be traveling there this summer. I got several results, and I saved four of those images to Favorites. When I then opened up my Favorites folder, those four images were there, and I could open them in a PowerPoint or a Zip Archive File. I opened them in a PowerPoint. This was so cool! And easy! I would love to share this with the art classes at my schools!
Overall, this was a long Challenge for me this week. I learned about some good new resources, but I definitely feel like I will need to revisit OAIster.
Lesson 8 | WorldCat, CAMIO, and OAIster | March 16, 2015
*The South Dakota Library Challenge: Electronic Resources Edition was developed by the South Dakota State Library staff to introduce you to the statewide subscription electronic resources. The Electronic Resources Challenge encourages library staff to learn more about the resources that provide expanded access to information and research tools to all schools, libraries and citizens of South Dakota.
For Lesson 8 of this Challenge, we were asked to learn more about electronic resources that can help you find materials internationally, find full-text material on a variety of subjects, and do art and image searching. The Challenge was broken into three parts, one section for WorldCat, one for OAIster, and one for CAMIO.
WorldCat is an international catalog of member library materials. It contains over 179,000,000 records found in 72,000+ libraries, including the SDSL and 25+ SD libraries. Records in WorldCat include a variety of formats from before 1000 BC to the present, and libraries add a new record every 10 seconds. This lets users know what materials are where and helps other librarians find call numbers for books they are adding to their collections.
OAIster is a mostly full-text database within WorldCat. It was originally built by the University of Michigan, and it contains collections of digital libraries made available to the general public. It is composed of older archives made available electronically and of digitally-born items. Over 1000 institutions participate in the OAIster database, and it is useful for general reference, for looking up archival and historical content, and for finding images and other media.
CAMIO stands for "Catalog of Art Museum Images Online." It is a growing online collection containing works of art from museum collections around the world, including the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Walker Art Center, the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress, and the Albert and Victoria Museum. It does not, however, contain images by prominent SD artists because the owning institutes are not participating. CAMIO covers cultures around the world from 3000 BC to today. It includes art in the broadest sense from photos to sculpture to textile to wood and silver and more. Researches can start with a general search and then refine it by using CAMIOs specialized tools.
WorldCat Exercise Part 1
To explore WorldCat, I first did an advanced book search for "Life of Pi." This resulted in 354 records. The top result was the Harcourt 2001 edition of the book, which is owned by 2909 libraries worldwide. When I clicked on the "Libraries Worldwide" link, the first library listed was the Alexander Mitchell Library. Looking at the full record for the book, I was able to see that the Class Descriptors for the book are as follows: LC: PR9199.3.M3855; Dewey: 813/.54; and NLC: PS8576. I could also click on the author's name and see that he has written a couple other books, including "Self." The record listed many subjects for the book, and when I clicked on the first one--"shipwreck survival"--I was given another list of 1947 results; 1423 of those being books. Other available information includes publication information, availability, physical description, ISBN numbers, an abstract, genre information, geographic information, and more. I am fairly familiar with WorldCat as I used it often as the assistant director at the public library in Sturgis.
WorldCat Exercise Part 2
The OAIster (pronounced "oyster") database is one of the few mostly full-text databases in WorldCat. I did a keyword search in OAIster for South Dakota and came up with over 13,000 results. After scrolling through a few pages of results, I opened the link to the article, "The history of the Homesake Opera House, 1912-1937." When I then clicked on "Access," I was taken to the full-text thesis from the University of Arizona. Maybe it's just the day or the week, but I definitely wasn't really into this resource today. I know that it will be a resource that will be good for my high school students, but I may need to come back to visit it on a day that I can get into it so that it doesn't seem over my head!
CAMIO Exercise
I had never used CAMIO before this Challenge, so I was excited to give it a try. To start exploring, I typed the word "Sioux" into the search box. This resulted in a "list" of many images and their descriptions. I clicked on an image of a Scalp Shirt and was brought to a page that had the image, title, description, creator information, and much, much more. On the image, I could zoom in and out, and I was also given the option to download it or print it.
This would be a very cool visual resource for my students at both the middle school and high school levels. These days, projects incorporate many more visuals in mediums such as PowerPoint, Prezi, iMovie, and more. This in in contrast to the research papers of old with no graphics. I really liked how it was like a virtual museum.
Next, in CAMIO, I did a search for "Denmark" since I will be traveling there this summer. I got several results, and I saved four of those images to Favorites. When I then opened up my Favorites folder, those four images were there, and I could open them in a PowerPoint or a Zip Archive File. I opened them in a PowerPoint. This was so cool! And easy! I would love to share this with the art classes at my schools!
Overall, this was a long Challenge for me this week. I learned about some good new resources, but I definitely feel like I will need to revisit OAIster.
Monday, March 9, 2015
South Dakota Library Challenge: Electronic Resource Edition
Lesson 7 | EBooks on EbscoHost | March 9, 2015
*The South Dakota Library Challenge: Electronic Resources Edition was developed by the South Dakota State Library staff to introduce you to the statewide subscription electronic resources. The Electronic Resources Challenge encourages library staff to learn more about the resources that provide expanded access to information and research tools to all schools, libraries and citizens of South Dakota.
For Week 7 of the SDSL Electronic Resource Edition Challenge, my task was to explore Ebooks on EbscoHost. This resource provides all South Dakota libraries with an expansive nonfiction collection containing books on topics ranging from Kathy Ross's craft books to resume books to historical information about South Dakota. Other books include many classic novels, "Idiot's Guides," Cliff's Notes, and more. The books are limited to one user per book, and books are released after 15 minutes of inactivity. The newest titles available in the SDSL subscription are copyright 2006 and are not downloadable.
To get to know this resource better, I first did a search on "endangered species." This is a topic of interest to me right now because I am helping the 7th grade teachers and students at my school with their endangered species research paper project. This search brought up 33 results. I noticed that within those results, I could sort by relevance, date newest, date oldest, author, title, and date added. Another feature would allow me to limit my results to full text, download available, publication date, and more. I opened the first eBook, which was "Endangered Species: A Reference Handbook." At the top of the page, I was given the basic information about the eBook including authors, publication information, description, subjects, categories, and more. Below that, it showed me the "Most Relevant Pages from this eBook" with the option to view those pages. This was an interested feature and one that I have not seen in any of the other resources that we have explored in this Challenge. There was also a Table of Contents with clickable links. On the right side of the page, there was a tool bar with the following options: search within, create note, dictionary, save pages, email pages, add to folder, cite, export, permalink, and share. Overall, I found this resource to be user-friendly and easy to navigate with good, relevant information.
For the second part of this Challenge, I was asked to find information about the Constitution of the United States of America for students needing more materials for a Constitution Day project. I searched for the term "Constitution of the United States of America" and was given 30 results. From these results, I would recommend these titles: "AP U.S. Government and Politics, "The Constitution of the United States of America," "The Reader's Companion to American History." I chose these titles based off of the link for the most relevant pages from the books. I also tried a few different search terms, but I didn't have much luck finding relevant eBooks with my other searches.
Finally, I was given the following task: "A class is doing projects on Western history. They have exhausted the library's print collection. In eBooks on EbscoHost, click 'Advanced Search.' In the 'Select a Field' box, choose 'PB Publisher.' In the search box, type 'Nebraska' or 'Oklahoma.' Report your findings." So, in the search box, I typed in "Nebraska." From this search, I was given 56 eBook results all from the University of Nebraska Press. This seems like a great alternative method for looking up information of this type and in this format.
I still feel like I have some exploring to do with this resource so that I can discover all of its options, but it certainly seems to be a useful research companion.
Lesson 7 | EBooks on EbscoHost | March 9, 2015
*The South Dakota Library Challenge: Electronic Resources Edition was developed by the South Dakota State Library staff to introduce you to the statewide subscription electronic resources. The Electronic Resources Challenge encourages library staff to learn more about the resources that provide expanded access to information and research tools to all schools, libraries and citizens of South Dakota.
For Week 7 of the SDSL Electronic Resource Edition Challenge, my task was to explore Ebooks on EbscoHost. This resource provides all South Dakota libraries with an expansive nonfiction collection containing books on topics ranging from Kathy Ross's craft books to resume books to historical information about South Dakota. Other books include many classic novels, "Idiot's Guides," Cliff's Notes, and more. The books are limited to one user per book, and books are released after 15 minutes of inactivity. The newest titles available in the SDSL subscription are copyright 2006 and are not downloadable.
To get to know this resource better, I first did a search on "endangered species." This is a topic of interest to me right now because I am helping the 7th grade teachers and students at my school with their endangered species research paper project. This search brought up 33 results. I noticed that within those results, I could sort by relevance, date newest, date oldest, author, title, and date added. Another feature would allow me to limit my results to full text, download available, publication date, and more. I opened the first eBook, which was "Endangered Species: A Reference Handbook." At the top of the page, I was given the basic information about the eBook including authors, publication information, description, subjects, categories, and more. Below that, it showed me the "Most Relevant Pages from this eBook" with the option to view those pages. This was an interested feature and one that I have not seen in any of the other resources that we have explored in this Challenge. There was also a Table of Contents with clickable links. On the right side of the page, there was a tool bar with the following options: search within, create note, dictionary, save pages, email pages, add to folder, cite, export, permalink, and share. Overall, I found this resource to be user-friendly and easy to navigate with good, relevant information.
For the second part of this Challenge, I was asked to find information about the Constitution of the United States of America for students needing more materials for a Constitution Day project. I searched for the term "Constitution of the United States of America" and was given 30 results. From these results, I would recommend these titles: "AP U.S. Government and Politics, "The Constitution of the United States of America," "The Reader's Companion to American History." I chose these titles based off of the link for the most relevant pages from the books. I also tried a few different search terms, but I didn't have much luck finding relevant eBooks with my other searches.
Finally, I was given the following task: "A class is doing projects on Western history. They have exhausted the library's print collection. In eBooks on EbscoHost, click 'Advanced Search.' In the 'Select a Field' box, choose 'PB Publisher.' In the search box, type 'Nebraska' or 'Oklahoma.' Report your findings." So, in the search box, I typed in "Nebraska." From this search, I was given 56 eBook results all from the University of Nebraska Press. This seems like a great alternative method for looking up information of this type and in this format.
I still feel like I have some exploring to do with this resource so that I can discover all of its options, but it certainly seems to be a useful research companion.
Friday, March 6, 2015
South Dakota Library Challenge: Electronic Resource Edition
Lesson 6 | Gale Virtual Reference Library | March 5, 2015
*The South Dakota Library Challenge: Electronic Resources Edition was developed by the South Dakota State Library staff to introduce you to the statewide subscription electronic resources. The Electronic Resources Challenge encourages library staff to learn more about the resources that provide expanded access to information and research tools to all schools, libraries and citizens of South Dakota.
For Lesson 6 of this Challenge, my task was to explore Gale Virtual Reference Library. GVRL provides all South Dakota libraries and schools with a core reference collection that's accessible 24/7 to an unlimited number of users. It contains selected multi-volume reference titles in many subject areas, including medicine, education, history, science, and literature. Users can also search across the entire collection at once, frequently finding information in areas one wouldn't look. GVRL articles have "read speaker" technology, which allows every article to be read aloud or downloaded in MP3 format.
To better get to know the titles in GVRL, I performed a few searches. It was very similar to exploring the titles of any library's reference collection. I first clicked on "Title List, which pulled up a list of all available titles in the collection. I noticed that there were some sorting options and that I could also access the list as CSV, XLS, or KBART. There were many titles on this list on a variety of topics. I chose to look at Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of World Holidays because there is a 6th grade teacher that I work closely with that does a cultural unit every year. GVRL has 4 volumes of this encyclopedia, which is dated back to 2000. I viewed the table of contents, and I also looked through each volume. Because Easter is approaching, I clicked on the article about Easter traditions around the world. The article provided a wealth of information and pictures, and just based on the one article, I discovered that this resources would be very beneficial to students studying world cultures and holidays, and that I could bring the students into the library to show them how to use GVRL as a research tool. I am going to do some more exploring to see if I can find information about endangered species in GVRL because I am helping out in an upcoming 8th grade endangered species research paper project.
So next, I went back to the GVRL homepage and typed "endangered species" into the search box. This gave me 1253 results, which I know that I would want to narrow down if I was doing a search on a specific endangered animal; however, I thought it was so great to get so many results! I quickly scrolled through the results and found that for each result, I could see the name of the article, the name of the encyclopedia, the number of pages of the article and the word count, the citation information, and a short overview. GVRL also gives the option to view the article as text or as PDF or to save the article. I clicked on an article for the Puerto Rican Boa. The article provided basic information, maps, pictures, more in-depth information, source citation, and links to other articles about this topic. At the top of the article, I was given options to e-mail, download, or print the article. I could also download it as an MP3, download a PDF to an eReader, or listen to the article. I tried the "listen" feature and was impressed that the reading wasn't choppy or robotic sounding. There is also a feature that allows readers to translate the article to different languages. This will be a great resource two weeks from now when I am teaching the 8th graders how to research endangered species!
To finish off this week's challenge, I viewed a few blogs from other librarians and teachers who are also doing this challenge. One challengee researched Forensic Science, Cancer, and Zinc. Another looked up World War II and Transvaginal Mesh Implants, while yet a third explored Terror Attacks, Zinc. It was fun to see the different searches and to know that there is so much information available in this resource!
Lesson 6 | Gale Virtual Reference Library | March 5, 2015
*The South Dakota Library Challenge: Electronic Resources Edition was developed by the South Dakota State Library staff to introduce you to the statewide subscription electronic resources. The Electronic Resources Challenge encourages library staff to learn more about the resources that provide expanded access to information and research tools to all schools, libraries and citizens of South Dakota.
For Lesson 6 of this Challenge, my task was to explore Gale Virtual Reference Library. GVRL provides all South Dakota libraries and schools with a core reference collection that's accessible 24/7 to an unlimited number of users. It contains selected multi-volume reference titles in many subject areas, including medicine, education, history, science, and literature. Users can also search across the entire collection at once, frequently finding information in areas one wouldn't look. GVRL articles have "read speaker" technology, which allows every article to be read aloud or downloaded in MP3 format.
To better get to know the titles in GVRL, I performed a few searches. It was very similar to exploring the titles of any library's reference collection. I first clicked on "Title List, which pulled up a list of all available titles in the collection. I noticed that there were some sorting options and that I could also access the list as CSV, XLS, or KBART. There were many titles on this list on a variety of topics. I chose to look at Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of World Holidays because there is a 6th grade teacher that I work closely with that does a cultural unit every year. GVRL has 4 volumes of this encyclopedia, which is dated back to 2000. I viewed the table of contents, and I also looked through each volume. Because Easter is approaching, I clicked on the article about Easter traditions around the world. The article provided a wealth of information and pictures, and just based on the one article, I discovered that this resources would be very beneficial to students studying world cultures and holidays, and that I could bring the students into the library to show them how to use GVRL as a research tool. I am going to do some more exploring to see if I can find information about endangered species in GVRL because I am helping out in an upcoming 8th grade endangered species research paper project.
So next, I went back to the GVRL homepage and typed "endangered species" into the search box. This gave me 1253 results, which I know that I would want to narrow down if I was doing a search on a specific endangered animal; however, I thought it was so great to get so many results! I quickly scrolled through the results and found that for each result, I could see the name of the article, the name of the encyclopedia, the number of pages of the article and the word count, the citation information, and a short overview. GVRL also gives the option to view the article as text or as PDF or to save the article. I clicked on an article for the Puerto Rican Boa. The article provided basic information, maps, pictures, more in-depth information, source citation, and links to other articles about this topic. At the top of the article, I was given options to e-mail, download, or print the article. I could also download it as an MP3, download a PDF to an eReader, or listen to the article. I tried the "listen" feature and was impressed that the reading wasn't choppy or robotic sounding. There is also a feature that allows readers to translate the article to different languages. This will be a great resource two weeks from now when I am teaching the 8th graders how to research endangered species!
To finish off this week's challenge, I viewed a few blogs from other librarians and teachers who are also doing this challenge. One challengee researched Forensic Science, Cancer, and Zinc. Another looked up World War II and Transvaginal Mesh Implants, while yet a third explored Terror Attacks, Zinc. It was fun to see the different searches and to know that there is so much information available in this resource!
Thursday, February 26, 2015
South Dakota Library Challenge: Electronic Resource Edition
Lesson 5 | Proquest | February 23, 2015
*The South Dakota Library Challenge: Electronic Resources Edition was developed by the South Dakota State Library staff to introduce you to the statewide subscription electronic resources. The Electronic Resources Challenge encourages library staff to learn more about the resources that provide expanded access to information and research tools to all schools, libraries and citizens of South Dakota.
For Lesson 5 of the SDSL Electronic Resource Challenge, we were to explore Proquest. Proquest Research and Discovery Library delivers full-text journal articles from scholarly publications and popular magazines. Titles range from Agriculture Research to Reading Research Quarterly to Good Housekeeping to Newsweek. Proquest brings you feature articles, book and movie reviews, editorials, and more. The State Library's subscription also provides newspaper indexes to three national newspapers.
I began my Proquest search by clicking the "Full Text" box under the search bar. The instructions told me that this would result in full text in html, pdf, or both. I could also use the "Create Alert" feature to have Proquest run searches for me and inform me when something new on my topic is added.
On my first attempt, I searched a very general term "yoga" and received almost 44,000 results. Next, I narrowed my search to "yoga in schools" and got almost 15,000 results. Finally, I narrowed it to "yoga in public schools" and received fewer results...still many (8,000), but more manageable. I noticed that my results came in different forms, noted by different symbols: trade journals, scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers, and other sources. Each result also provided a citation/abstract, full text html and/or full text pdf. At the top of the page, I was also given an option to see related searches, and in the right sidebar, I could choose to narrow my search with a variety of options. A few other options I noticed were "Save to My Research," "Email," "Print," "Cite," "Export/Save," "Create Alert," "Create RSS Feed," and "Save Search." I am confident that if I were really researching this topic, Proquest would be a valuable tool for me to access.
For the second part of this challenge, I was to go out to the blogs of my cohort to see what they are searching on Proquest. This, in itself, was a bit of a challenge, but I did find one by kelcy 25, and this was my reply to her post:
"Hello! I came across your post as I was working on the second part of this week's challenge. I also recognized that it was hard to find many of the bloggers that were this far in the challenge. So, I was happy when I came across your blog not too far down the list! I found your search topic of dwarfism very interesting, and I appreciated your in-depth post about your search. I also had to keep narrowing down my topic as I initially received about 45,000 results! I did find some very good articles on my topic, though, and I know that Proquest is a great resource for our students. Keep up the good work in the Challenge!"
For the last part of this week's challenge, I clicked the Publications tab at the top of the page. Upon doing so, I got an alphabetical list of the periodicals indexed in Proquest and the years included. I did a search for a journal in my profession by typing "school library" in the search box. I received two results: School Library Journal and School Library Monthly. School Library Journal has full-text coverage from January 1996 to present and coverage in any format from January 1988 to present. School Library Monthly has full-text coverage from October 2002 to May/June 2014, and coverage in any format from January 1996 to May/June 2014. When I clicked on School Library Journal, I was then given the option to search within the publication or to browse specific issues.
Proquest is definitely a resource that I will be recommending to my students for their research projects.
Lesson 5 | Proquest | February 23, 2015
*The South Dakota Library Challenge: Electronic Resources Edition was developed by the South Dakota State Library staff to introduce you to the statewide subscription electronic resources. The Electronic Resources Challenge encourages library staff to learn more about the resources that provide expanded access to information and research tools to all schools, libraries and citizens of South Dakota.
For Lesson 5 of the SDSL Electronic Resource Challenge, we were to explore Proquest. Proquest Research and Discovery Library delivers full-text journal articles from scholarly publications and popular magazines. Titles range from Agriculture Research to Reading Research Quarterly to Good Housekeeping to Newsweek. Proquest brings you feature articles, book and movie reviews, editorials, and more. The State Library's subscription also provides newspaper indexes to three national newspapers.
I began my Proquest search by clicking the "Full Text" box under the search bar. The instructions told me that this would result in full text in html, pdf, or both. I could also use the "Create Alert" feature to have Proquest run searches for me and inform me when something new on my topic is added.
On my first attempt, I searched a very general term "yoga" and received almost 44,000 results. Next, I narrowed my search to "yoga in schools" and got almost 15,000 results. Finally, I narrowed it to "yoga in public schools" and received fewer results...still many (8,000), but more manageable. I noticed that my results came in different forms, noted by different symbols: trade journals, scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers, and other sources. Each result also provided a citation/abstract, full text html and/or full text pdf. At the top of the page, I was also given an option to see related searches, and in the right sidebar, I could choose to narrow my search with a variety of options. A few other options I noticed were "Save to My Research," "Email," "Print," "Cite," "Export/Save," "Create Alert," "Create RSS Feed," and "Save Search." I am confident that if I were really researching this topic, Proquest would be a valuable tool for me to access.
For the second part of this challenge, I was to go out to the blogs of my cohort to see what they are searching on Proquest. This, in itself, was a bit of a challenge, but I did find one by kelcy 25, and this was my reply to her post:
"Hello! I came across your post as I was working on the second part of this week's challenge. I also recognized that it was hard to find many of the bloggers that were this far in the challenge. So, I was happy when I came across your blog not too far down the list! I found your search topic of dwarfism very interesting, and I appreciated your in-depth post about your search. I also had to keep narrowing down my topic as I initially received about 45,000 results! I did find some very good articles on my topic, though, and I know that Proquest is a great resource for our students. Keep up the good work in the Challenge!"
For the last part of this week's challenge, I clicked the Publications tab at the top of the page. Upon doing so, I got an alphabetical list of the periodicals indexed in Proquest and the years included. I did a search for a journal in my profession by typing "school library" in the search box. I received two results: School Library Journal and School Library Monthly. School Library Journal has full-text coverage from January 1996 to present and coverage in any format from January 1988 to present. School Library Monthly has full-text coverage from October 2002 to May/June 2014, and coverage in any format from January 1996 to May/June 2014. When I clicked on School Library Journal, I was then given the option to search within the publication or to browse specific issues.
Proquest is definitely a resource that I will be recommending to my students for their research projects.
Monday, February 16, 2015
South Dakota Library Challenge: Electronic Resource Edition
Lesson 4 | SIRS Issues Researcher and Discoverer | February 16, 2015
*The South Dakota Library Challenge: Electronic Resources Edition was developed by the South Dakota State Library staff to introduce you to the statewide subscription electronic resources. The Electronic Resources Challenge encourages library staff to learn more about the resources that provide expanded access to information and research tools to all schools, libraries and citizens of South Dakota.
For Lesson 4 of the SD Library Challenge, we were asked to explore SIRS Issues Researcher and Discoverer. SIRS Discoverer is designed for grades K-9 and contains selected full-text magazine and newspaper articles that meet today's curriculum needs. It has pictures, maps, current events, biographies, and more. SIRS Issues Researcher is designed for grades 6-12. It also offers full-text magazine and newspaper articles and other similar features to Discoverer. In addition, Issues Researcher offers "Leading Issues," which are articles, information, and more on more than 300 research topics. Both resources show readability levels and both link to web sites that are search-related, safe, trustworthy, and non-commercial.
To begin this lesson, I watched the 2-minute videos on both SIRS Discoverer and SIRS Issues Researcher. These were very informative short clips that really helped me understand what these two resources are, what they offer, and how they differ. These would be great videos to share with my staff at both the middle school and high school.
Next, in SIRS Discoverer, I did a search for giraffes, which is my youngest son's favorite animal. The results were 42 newspaper articles, 198 magazine articles, 63 reference articles, 31 graphics, and 2 WebFind Sites. I experimented with modifying the search parameters to only "Easy" reading level, and then I was given only 113 overall articles. I also noticed that I could sort the results by relevance, date, or Lexile. The graphics next to each article was helpful so that I knew what each article had to offer, as well.
On the homepage of SIRS Discoverer, there is a sidebar called "Database Features." The options on this sidebar are Activities, Animal Facts, Biographies, Country Facts, Leading Issues, Maps of the World, and Science Fair Explorer, among others. I clicked on Country Facts and then chose to research Kenya. The reference page about Kenya gave me some of the basic facts about the country, including its official name, capital, population, size, government, agricultural resources, climate, currency, and more. It also provided information about the major events in Kenya's history, a map, a picture of Kenya's flag, and links to additional resources about Kenya. This would be a really great resource for a geography class. I also explored Maps of the World. These maps would be useful when doing country projects, discussing current events, researching historical events, and so much more. The last resource I explored in the Database Features was the Science Fair Explorer. Our 7th graders are currently getting ready for their science fair, so this was of interest to me. I really liked the engaging and inviting interface and all of the great experiment ideas this resource had to offer. I will definitely be sharing this with our middle school science teachers.
Moving on to SIRS Issues Researcher, I browsed through the list of Leading Issues on the homepage of the resource. I chose to explore the topic of Food and Nutrition in more depth. Upon clicking on this topic, I was given a Topic Overview, Pros and Cons, Essential Questions, and Research Tools, including Topic Overview, Timeline, Global Impact, Statistics, My Analysis, and a Note Organizer. I appreciated that the Essential Questions would help me narrow down my topic if I was going to be doing research on food and nutrition. I could also sort my results by date, relevance, or Lexile score, and I was given the opportunity to narrow my results by type (newspaper, magazine, viewpoints, reference, or graphics/multimedia). Each article also listed the date, Lexile score, size, subjects, and summary. Such a great resource! So much more relevant and user-friendly than Google and other Internet search engines.
On the right-hand sidebar of SIRS Issues Researcher, there is a feature called "Curriculum Pathfinders." There are many course subjects offered here and many that I was interested in, but I chose to research physical fitness. Most of the resources that came up in the results were the same types of resources that came up when I searched food and nutrition; however, this time there were also some government documents and primary sources included.
Both SIRS Discoverer and SIRS Issues Researcher are useful resources for the students that I work with.
Lesson 4 | SIRS Issues Researcher and Discoverer | February 16, 2015
*The South Dakota Library Challenge: Electronic Resources Edition was developed by the South Dakota State Library staff to introduce you to the statewide subscription electronic resources. The Electronic Resources Challenge encourages library staff to learn more about the resources that provide expanded access to information and research tools to all schools, libraries and citizens of South Dakota.
For Lesson 4 of the SD Library Challenge, we were asked to explore SIRS Issues Researcher and Discoverer. SIRS Discoverer is designed for grades K-9 and contains selected full-text magazine and newspaper articles that meet today's curriculum needs. It has pictures, maps, current events, biographies, and more. SIRS Issues Researcher is designed for grades 6-12. It also offers full-text magazine and newspaper articles and other similar features to Discoverer. In addition, Issues Researcher offers "Leading Issues," which are articles, information, and more on more than 300 research topics. Both resources show readability levels and both link to web sites that are search-related, safe, trustworthy, and non-commercial.
To begin this lesson, I watched the 2-minute videos on both SIRS Discoverer and SIRS Issues Researcher. These were very informative short clips that really helped me understand what these two resources are, what they offer, and how they differ. These would be great videos to share with my staff at both the middle school and high school.
Next, in SIRS Discoverer, I did a search for giraffes, which is my youngest son's favorite animal. The results were 42 newspaper articles, 198 magazine articles, 63 reference articles, 31 graphics, and 2 WebFind Sites. I experimented with modifying the search parameters to only "Easy" reading level, and then I was given only 113 overall articles. I also noticed that I could sort the results by relevance, date, or Lexile. The graphics next to each article was helpful so that I knew what each article had to offer, as well.
On the homepage of SIRS Discoverer, there is a sidebar called "Database Features." The options on this sidebar are Activities, Animal Facts, Biographies, Country Facts, Leading Issues, Maps of the World, and Science Fair Explorer, among others. I clicked on Country Facts and then chose to research Kenya. The reference page about Kenya gave me some of the basic facts about the country, including its official name, capital, population, size, government, agricultural resources, climate, currency, and more. It also provided information about the major events in Kenya's history, a map, a picture of Kenya's flag, and links to additional resources about Kenya. This would be a really great resource for a geography class. I also explored Maps of the World. These maps would be useful when doing country projects, discussing current events, researching historical events, and so much more. The last resource I explored in the Database Features was the Science Fair Explorer. Our 7th graders are currently getting ready for their science fair, so this was of interest to me. I really liked the engaging and inviting interface and all of the great experiment ideas this resource had to offer. I will definitely be sharing this with our middle school science teachers.
Moving on to SIRS Issues Researcher, I browsed through the list of Leading Issues on the homepage of the resource. I chose to explore the topic of Food and Nutrition in more depth. Upon clicking on this topic, I was given a Topic Overview, Pros and Cons, Essential Questions, and Research Tools, including Topic Overview, Timeline, Global Impact, Statistics, My Analysis, and a Note Organizer. I appreciated that the Essential Questions would help me narrow down my topic if I was going to be doing research on food and nutrition. I could also sort my results by date, relevance, or Lexile score, and I was given the opportunity to narrow my results by type (newspaper, magazine, viewpoints, reference, or graphics/multimedia). Each article also listed the date, Lexile score, size, subjects, and summary. Such a great resource! So much more relevant and user-friendly than Google and other Internet search engines.
On the right-hand sidebar of SIRS Issues Researcher, there is a feature called "Curriculum Pathfinders." There are many course subjects offered here and many that I was interested in, but I chose to research physical fitness. Most of the resources that came up in the results were the same types of resources that came up when I searched food and nutrition; however, this time there were also some government documents and primary sources included.
Both SIRS Discoverer and SIRS Issues Researcher are useful resources for the students that I work with.
South Dakota Library Challenge: Electronic Resource Edition
Lesson 3 | Learning Express Library | February 13, 2015
*The South Dakota Library Challenge: Electronic Resources Edition was developed by the South Dakota State Library staff to introduce you to the statewide subscription electronic resources. The Electronic Resources Challenge encourages library staff to learn more about the resources that provide expanded access to information and research tools to all schools, libraries and citizens of South Dakota.
For Lesson 3 of the SD Library Challenge, we were asked to explore Learning Express Library. This resource provides access to current practice exams, self-paced courses and e-books for grades four through adult. To this lesson, I first took a short quiz to see how much I knew about Learning Express. Although I answered all of the questions correctly, I mostly felt like I was guessing instead of actually knowing all of the answers! However, I learned that Learning Express Library is a subscription resource that provides practice exams, self-paced courses, and ebooks to South Dakota citizens and that it can be accessed form home, schools, or libraries. I also learned that Learning Express contains practice exams for everything from 4th grade skills improvement to licensing exams for careers.
To become more familiar with this resource, I created an account in Learning Express. I browsed the available middle school and high school exams, and I chose to sample a Grade 6 Expressions and Equations Test. The test questions that I answered seemed to be great practice for an actual test, and I liked that I could "Score my Test" to see how I was doing. I also thought that the diagnostic page was helpful. Being able to view my answers, though, was the most beneficial part of the test experience. I liked how I could go back to see what I had answered correctly and incorrectly and get an explanation for why it was right or wrong.
For the second part of this lesson, I located the Career Center within Learning Express. The instructions were to add one of the courses in the career resources and add it to my center. I was unable to locate courses to add to my center, so I guess I didn't exactly know where to look. I did find some ebooks about careers, and I did download one about "Becoming a Culinary Arts Professional." I don't think that this is what I was asked to do, but I did find the ebook very informative and it certainly seemed to be a self-paced resource, as well.
For the last part of this lesson, I typed some search terms in the search box. I tried several different terms related to skills improvement and careers that interested me, and I was surprised at the lack of results that I was offered with most of these searches. However, when I did hit on a topic that had results, I did like how the results showed me what types of resources were offered. When I typed in "writing skills," I got three pages of ebooks, tests, and tutorials. I opened an ebook titled, "Writing Skills Success in 20 Minutes a Day." It was formatted nicely, had a good practice test, and each short chapter focused on a different skill.
Overall, Learning Express Library will be a great resource to share with my middle schoolers and high schoolers, but I definitely feel that I need some more practice first!
Lesson 3 | Learning Express Library | February 13, 2015
*The South Dakota Library Challenge: Electronic Resources Edition was developed by the South Dakota State Library staff to introduce you to the statewide subscription electronic resources. The Electronic Resources Challenge encourages library staff to learn more about the resources that provide expanded access to information and research tools to all schools, libraries and citizens of South Dakota.
For Lesson 3 of the SD Library Challenge, we were asked to explore Learning Express Library. This resource provides access to current practice exams, self-paced courses and e-books for grades four through adult. To this lesson, I first took a short quiz to see how much I knew about Learning Express. Although I answered all of the questions correctly, I mostly felt like I was guessing instead of actually knowing all of the answers! However, I learned that Learning Express Library is a subscription resource that provides practice exams, self-paced courses, and ebooks to South Dakota citizens and that it can be accessed form home, schools, or libraries. I also learned that Learning Express contains practice exams for everything from 4th grade skills improvement to licensing exams for careers.
To become more familiar with this resource, I created an account in Learning Express. I browsed the available middle school and high school exams, and I chose to sample a Grade 6 Expressions and Equations Test. The test questions that I answered seemed to be great practice for an actual test, and I liked that I could "Score my Test" to see how I was doing. I also thought that the diagnostic page was helpful. Being able to view my answers, though, was the most beneficial part of the test experience. I liked how I could go back to see what I had answered correctly and incorrectly and get an explanation for why it was right or wrong.
For the second part of this lesson, I located the Career Center within Learning Express. The instructions were to add one of the courses in the career resources and add it to my center. I was unable to locate courses to add to my center, so I guess I didn't exactly know where to look. I did find some ebooks about careers, and I did download one about "Becoming a Culinary Arts Professional." I don't think that this is what I was asked to do, but I did find the ebook very informative and it certainly seemed to be a self-paced resource, as well.
For the last part of this lesson, I typed some search terms in the search box. I tried several different terms related to skills improvement and careers that interested me, and I was surprised at the lack of results that I was offered with most of these searches. However, when I did hit on a topic that had results, I did like how the results showed me what types of resources were offered. When I typed in "writing skills," I got three pages of ebooks, tests, and tutorials. I opened an ebook titled, "Writing Skills Success in 20 Minutes a Day." It was formatted nicely, had a good practice test, and each short chapter focused on a different skill.
Overall, Learning Express Library will be a great resource to share with my middle schoolers and high schoolers, but I definitely feel that I need some more practice first!
Saturday, February 7, 2015
South Dakota Library Challenge: Electronic Resource Edition
Lesson 2 | Chilton Library, Mango Languages, and Tumblebook Library | February 5, 2015
*The South Dakota Library Challenge: Electronic Resources Edition was developed by the South Dakota State Library staff to introduce you to the statewide subscription electronic resources. The Electronic Resources Challenge encourages library staff to learn more about the resources that provide expanded access to information and research tools to all schools, libraries and citizens of South Dakota.
For Lesson 2 of the SD Library Challenge, we were asked to explore Chilton Library, Mango Languages, and Tumblebook Library. For this Basic Challenge, I explored all three: one of which I was familiar with and two of which I was not.
ChiltonLibrary:
ChiltonLibrary offers the authoritative Chilton's Auto Repair Manuals on-line with monthly updates. It contains thousands of domestic and imported car, truck, van, and SUV models from 1940-present and includes repair, maintenance, and specification tables, diagrams, and recall notes.
I first viewed the maintenance schedule for my vehicle--a 2013 Toyota Highlander. It is not yet at 30,000 miles, so I looked at the whole chart of maintenance tasks for each targeted mileage point and was impressed by the amount of detail provided. When my Highlander does reach 30,000 miles, there is an extensive list of maintenance tasks that should be completed; three of those being to replace the air conditioner filter, service or inspect the axle shaft bolts, and replace the brake fluid.
The most recent Technical Service Bulletin for my Highlander was posted in January of 2013. It was for the Display Audio HDD of all applicable '12-'13 Toyota Models. It was interesting and helpful to go through the list of Recalls/Service Bulletins, and I was glad that my vehicle didn't seem to have too many problems!
I was even more impressed by ChiltonLibrary when I clicked on the Repair tab. There was information there for every part of my vehicle. When I looked up information about the brakes of my vehicle, I found diagrams, charts, repair instructions, and so much more!
ChiltonLibrary would be of great service in an Auto or Mechanics class in high school, and it would also be useful to anyone who owns a car.
Mango Languages:
Mango Languages offers courses in more than 60 languages. It allows users to learn, listen, and speak their chosen languages. The courses focus on four key areas of language learning: vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and culture. Courses for English learners begin in the student's native language and teach English.
I am familiar with Mango Languages because I have created accounts for my 6-year-old and my 10-year-old. My youngest son is learning Spanish, and my oldest son is learning French. Both of my boys really enjoy the program and are learning a lot.
Mango is impressive for the wide variety of languages that it offers. I was surprised to see Cherokee, Punjabi, Azerbaijani, and Tamil, among others on the list. I really like how Mango teaches languages by repeating, repeating, and repeating common words and phrases and by having the learner repeat, repeat, repeat those common words and phrases. The voice comparison is also a great tool, as is the fact that you can replay lessons and parts of lessons as many times as necessary. One thing I found a bit difficult (even though it was also one of the things I like about the program) was that the learner has to speak aloud back to the computer. This is a necessary component for learning a language; however, it was difficult for me to do this in my library to test it out because I always had students around. I could see the same potential problem for students trying to learn languages around their peers. This is obviously not a problem, though, in a one-on-one setting or at home.
The English lessons were a part of Mango that I had not noticed in the past. What a great program to offer for learners of English! If I had a Vietnamese (or other) student that needed to improve her English, this would be of great service, especially since I don't speak many other languages. When teaching English, the Mango courses begin in the student's native language. Everything is written and spoken in that language, but the rest of what Mango offers is exactly what it offers in teaching other languages to English speakers.
I really hope that I get the chance to recommend this program to students and possibly find a way to tie it into my curriculum or into the curriculum of the middle school and high school teachers that I work with.
TumblebookLibrary:
Tumblebook Library contains animated talking picture books, short videos, and chapter books, fiction and non-fiction, for grades K-3. Lexile and AR reading levels and grade levels are provided, as well as books in several non-English languages. Puzzles and games enrich some of the books.
I was unfamiliar with TumblebookLibrary before this challenge. What a shame! I wish I would have known about it when my children were younger.
I chose several story books, chapter books, non-fiction books, and other material to read. I was impressed by what this program had to offer. I loved that some of the stories could be read aloud and that several had other materials connected to them like games and puzzles and more. The set-up of the website was helpful as well, telling the books' reading level, common core connections, book information, and TumbleTime. I thought that, overall, it was a really easy to use and fun resource.
The videos, games, and puzzles were also stimulating, educational, and fun. I like how they promote reading and learning and how there are so many different options.
This resource would be great for elementary school teachers, but I would also promote it to our reading resource teachers, special education teachers, and reading teachers at the middle school level. There are so many parts of this program that could be beneficial for students even at this higher level.
Lesson 2 | Chilton Library, Mango Languages, and Tumblebook Library | February 5, 2015
*The South Dakota Library Challenge: Electronic Resources Edition was developed by the South Dakota State Library staff to introduce you to the statewide subscription electronic resources. The Electronic Resources Challenge encourages library staff to learn more about the resources that provide expanded access to information and research tools to all schools, libraries and citizens of South Dakota.
For Lesson 2 of the SD Library Challenge, we were asked to explore Chilton Library, Mango Languages, and Tumblebook Library. For this Basic Challenge, I explored all three: one of which I was familiar with and two of which I was not.
ChiltonLibrary:
ChiltonLibrary offers the authoritative Chilton's Auto Repair Manuals on-line with monthly updates. It contains thousands of domestic and imported car, truck, van, and SUV models from 1940-present and includes repair, maintenance, and specification tables, diagrams, and recall notes.
I first viewed the maintenance schedule for my vehicle--a 2013 Toyota Highlander. It is not yet at 30,000 miles, so I looked at the whole chart of maintenance tasks for each targeted mileage point and was impressed by the amount of detail provided. When my Highlander does reach 30,000 miles, there is an extensive list of maintenance tasks that should be completed; three of those being to replace the air conditioner filter, service or inspect the axle shaft bolts, and replace the brake fluid.
The most recent Technical Service Bulletin for my Highlander was posted in January of 2013. It was for the Display Audio HDD of all applicable '12-'13 Toyota Models. It was interesting and helpful to go through the list of Recalls/Service Bulletins, and I was glad that my vehicle didn't seem to have too many problems!
I was even more impressed by ChiltonLibrary when I clicked on the Repair tab. There was information there for every part of my vehicle. When I looked up information about the brakes of my vehicle, I found diagrams, charts, repair instructions, and so much more!
ChiltonLibrary would be of great service in an Auto or Mechanics class in high school, and it would also be useful to anyone who owns a car.
Mango Languages:
Mango Languages offers courses in more than 60 languages. It allows users to learn, listen, and speak their chosen languages. The courses focus on four key areas of language learning: vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and culture. Courses for English learners begin in the student's native language and teach English.
I am familiar with Mango Languages because I have created accounts for my 6-year-old and my 10-year-old. My youngest son is learning Spanish, and my oldest son is learning French. Both of my boys really enjoy the program and are learning a lot.
Mango is impressive for the wide variety of languages that it offers. I was surprised to see Cherokee, Punjabi, Azerbaijani, and Tamil, among others on the list. I really like how Mango teaches languages by repeating, repeating, and repeating common words and phrases and by having the learner repeat, repeat, repeat those common words and phrases. The voice comparison is also a great tool, as is the fact that you can replay lessons and parts of lessons as many times as necessary. One thing I found a bit difficult (even though it was also one of the things I like about the program) was that the learner has to speak aloud back to the computer. This is a necessary component for learning a language; however, it was difficult for me to do this in my library to test it out because I always had students around. I could see the same potential problem for students trying to learn languages around their peers. This is obviously not a problem, though, in a one-on-one setting or at home.
The English lessons were a part of Mango that I had not noticed in the past. What a great program to offer for learners of English! If I had a Vietnamese (or other) student that needed to improve her English, this would be of great service, especially since I don't speak many other languages. When teaching English, the Mango courses begin in the student's native language. Everything is written and spoken in that language, but the rest of what Mango offers is exactly what it offers in teaching other languages to English speakers.
I really hope that I get the chance to recommend this program to students and possibly find a way to tie it into my curriculum or into the curriculum of the middle school and high school teachers that I work with.
TumblebookLibrary:
Tumblebook Library contains animated talking picture books, short videos, and chapter books, fiction and non-fiction, for grades K-3. Lexile and AR reading levels and grade levels are provided, as well as books in several non-English languages. Puzzles and games enrich some of the books.
I was unfamiliar with TumblebookLibrary before this challenge. What a shame! I wish I would have known about it when my children were younger.
I chose several story books, chapter books, non-fiction books, and other material to read. I was impressed by what this program had to offer. I loved that some of the stories could be read aloud and that several had other materials connected to them like games and puzzles and more. The set-up of the website was helpful as well, telling the books' reading level, common core connections, book information, and TumbleTime. I thought that, overall, it was a really easy to use and fun resource.
The videos, games, and puzzles were also stimulating, educational, and fun. I like how they promote reading and learning and how there are so many different options.
This resource would be great for elementary school teachers, but I would also promote it to our reading resource teachers, special education teachers, and reading teachers at the middle school level. There are so many parts of this program that could be beneficial for students even at this higher level.
Monday, January 26, 2015
South Dakota Library Challenge: Electronic Resource Edition
Lesson 1 | World Book Online | January 26, 2015
*The South Dakota Library Challenge: Electronic Resources Edition was developed by the South Dakota State Library staff to introduce you to the statewide subscription electronic resources. The Electronic Resources Challenge encourages library staff to learn more about the resources that provide expanded access to information and research tools to all schools, libraries and citizens of South Dakota.
For Lesson 1 of the SD Library Challenge, we were asked to explore World Book Online which provides online encyclopedia access and much more for both children and adults. For this Basic Challenge, I played around in each of the three online editions--school, public library, and foreign language.
Lesson 1a: World Book School Edition
There are four sections of World Book School Edition: Kids (grades K-5), Student (grades 5-9), Advanced (grades 9-12+), and Discover (grades 4-adult).
World Book Kids:
In this section of the online encyclopedia, I used the search box to find information about giraffes. The search results gave me 7 videos, 15 articles, and 4 pictures. The information was very basic and easy to read. The videos were short and to-the-point. Of the 15 articles, I only found one to be very useful and to share the most information about the giraffe and it's habitat. I liked that the information was easy to print and that there was a useful toolbar at the top of the article.
World Book Students:
This section of the online encyclopedia is for students in middle grades, and the difference between the Kids "home page" and the Students "home page" was evident right way. When I searched for giraffes in this version of the encyclopedia, I was given more information and more in-depth information. The search results gave me 33 articles, 4 tables, 1 dictionary entry, 1 map, 9 pictures, and 7 videos. Again, the information was easy to disseminate and easy to print, and there was a useful toolbar at the top of the article. The 7 videos were the same videos that World Book Kids offered, but the other articles and resources had much more to offer than the Kids section.
World Book Advanced:
In this section of World Book, which is for students in upper grades, I used the search box to find information about the country of Kenya. Of the three sections, World Book Advanced definitely provided the most information about my search term. I was actually quite surprised by what it had to offer! In the left sidebar of the screen, I was given a list of resources about Kenya, including: 92 articles, 35 presidential papers, 10 maps, 25 tables, 2 sound items, 19 pictures, 257 back in time pieces, 13 special reports, 5 websites, and 1 research guide. I checked out several of these resources and was the most impressed with the research guide. It is essentially a one-stop shop for finding information about a topic, providing information, a list of books to read, magazine articles, websites, and much more. In the right sidebar, I was provided with a list of primary sources on Kenya. I clicked on this and read one of these sources, which was a speech by President Clinton. What a great resource for high school students. When I opened an article about Kenya, I was given a plethora of information about the country's history, government, people, economy, land and climate, and more. All of this information would be valuable to a student who was doing research on this country. I liked how I was given the option to print the entire article or its subsections, and again, I found the toolbar at the top to be very useful.
World Book Discover:
This section of World Book is aimed at differentiated learners (those with reading difficulties for various reasons). When I did a search about American government, I found a few options that would make this version of the encyclopedia valuable for students who are not good readers of English. First, for students who have English as their first language but have difficulties reading, there is a read-aloud option in the toolbar. Second, for students who do not have English as their primary language, there is an option to translate the text into many different languages. What a fantastic option! I did try to click on a few of the different language options; however, my school district has WorldLingo blocked. I will have to submit the site for review to have it un-blocked. In this version, I liked the visual dictionary and the videos.
Lesson 1b: World Book Public Library Edition
World Book offers a Public Library Edition, and I was curious to see how it differs from the School Edition, so I performed the same set of searches that I did in the School Edition versions in World Book Online for Kids (grades k-5), World Book Online Info Finder (grades 5-9), and World Book Online Reference Center (grades 9-adult). I found that all of my searches in the Public Library Edition offered the same results as my searches in the School Edition, which makes me wonder why there are two different versions.
Lesson 1c: World Book Foreign Language Edition
This edition of World Book consists of a Spanish language version and a French language version. Both versions are based on World Book's Student Discovery Encyclopedia. I explored both of these versions and can see how they can be beneficial to both students who are native speakers of these languages and for students who are studying these languages as courses in school.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)