Websites I Can't Do Without!

Asking an internet thief (I steal all of my good ideas from the internet) to choose one or two good sites is like asking a monkey to eat just one banana!

http://pinterest.com/    I love it when a site us useful for both my work and personal life at the same time.  This site has wonderful ideas for library displays, crafts, songs, games, artwork etc. as well as ideas for my family and home life.  I don’t pin on my own boards a lot yet (just browsing), but I hope to start soon!

Because in a previous life I was a Head Start teacher, I enjoy using some of the same sites from my preschool days for inspiration at the library. http://drjean.org/ is a great literacy based site with lots of fun ideas, free pintable’s, and music, music, music to go along with them.  Her CD’s are wonderful!

Some of the other great kid sites include:

 http://childmade.com/

http://makinglearningfun.com/

http://atozteacherstuff.com/

http://www.hummingbirded.com/

Week 6 – Wrap Up: Library Institute Spring 2012

I think my biggest discovery this time around was that the slightest change in my descriptions, searches, limiters etc. made such a huge impact on how much I found and how useful it was for my purposes.  Several of my searches ended in frustration while other times I found exactly what I was looking for and more. 

I plan to promote these and the other resources in our weekly newspaper column, on Facebook, on our website, and in the library in various ways.  I think that these resources are great tools for our patrons and a great addition to our library.

Week 5 Lesson 9 -- History and Genealogy Resources - Ancestry Library, Heritage Quest and Sanborn Maps

I had a hard time finding the place in Ancestry Library to search for “Ship Pictures and Descriptions”.   I finally found it under the list of more databases and then by clicking “Immigration and Travel”.  I was then able to narrow down the timeframe and search for passenger ships by the first letter of the name of the ship.  By looking at the pictures of the Titanic, I was not able to see much about a sister ship, so I type in “Sisterships of the Titanic” and looked in the results for ones that was built in 1911 by the same shipping line as the Titanic and came up with a picture and description of the Olympic.

Once again it took a little looking to find the link to Ancestry Library’s “Newspapers & Publications”.  I am beginning to understand why knowing these websites inside and out is so important.  I went to the link to more collections, clicked on all databases, and off to the left hand side found a link to newspapers and publications.  I limited the search to just newspapers, clicked on the link to “Search Entire Newspapers Categories”, and then typed in Hindenburg in the keyword search box.  I could then sort the over 300 results by category or by relevance.  Noticing that Hindenburg was also a popular name, I limited the search further by adding the word dirigible, and I got over 400 results.  When I added the word explosion, I got over 11,000 results.  I obviously wasn’t doing something right, so I started over and tried the periodicals which only resulted in 3.  But none of these seemed to have much useful information so I went back to sort through the newspaper articles.  I may not have been using the right limiters, but I never did find a useful article about the history of the Hindenburg.

Using Heritage Quest, I first clicked on the link to “Search PERSI”, clicked places, and then typed in Brule County and chose South Dakota.  I was shown 50 results with several familiar options including titles with Bijou Hills, Peterson farm, Chamberlain Register and the Lyman County Argus Leader, the history, Chamberlain, Pukwana, Red Lake, people who owned land, the cemeteries, homesteads, townships and much more.  Some of the entries included local genealogy newsletters with several volumes available while others are from the South Dakota Historical Society.  There would be plenty of items for the townsfolk to digest, but it would take a bit of time to acquire all that you would need because the articles all said, “Copies of this article may be obtained by completing the request form.”    I wonder how extensive this process is and how long it takes?  Either way, there seemed to be a lot of information.

Week 4 Lesson 7 - - WorldCat and More FirstSearch Indexes

There are several options in the search boxes other than the usual keyword, author, title, subject and series.  Using any one of these would be helpful, but WorldCat breaks it down even further by including search criteria such as publisher, access method, ISBN, musical composition, and more.  You are also able to type in up to three search criteria at a time.  By searching the subject of Martin Luther, limiting the language to English, limiting the type of materials to books, and setting the subtype limits to nonfiction, I would have a better chance of finding more detailed information for my patron.   Even by using these limits, I came up with 36,911 results.  The site gave recommendations at the top on how to limit my search even further.  It gave more choices to limit by author, subject heading, year, document type, and number of libraries.  I chose to go back and search from the beginning with these limiters and included the keywords “juvenile” and “religion” since this search was for a 4^th and 5^th grade Sunday School teacher.  I would recommend the book “Martin Luther : The Great Reformer” by W Norman Pittenger, and “Matin Luther” by Samuel Willard Crompton. Although the book “Martin Luther:  The Great Reformter” quite a few less libraries to choose from, the nearest libraries for both books were in Minnesota.

By typing in Graphic Novels for a keyword search, you can get several different options including ones with just “graphic” in their description, so I added more limiters including juvenile under the subtype limits, books under the limit type to and English as the language.  I also included “Classic Literature” as part of the search.  I would add several of the classics as graphic novels, but the one that I chose was “The Hobbit : an illustrated edition of the fantasy classic.  The publisher is Ballentine Books out of New York, NY.

I typed in “My Fair Lady” and chose musical composition as the limiter and then under the section of limit type to I clicked on “musical scores”.   There were no records for this search, so I went back and typed My Fair Lady as the keyword and still used the “musical scores” as the limit type.  This time I was given 1,897 results, but the results included any that had the words my, fair, and lady in them because I forgot the quotation marks.  Finally I was able to find 866 results and the one that I chose had OCLC: 26429906 as the Accession number.

After checking out some of the other blogs, I noticed that there are no right answers.  Each person used different language, limiters, and search tools yet we all came up with useful information and found resources that we could use.

Week 3 Lesson 4 – Proquest

1.       Before limiting the search for “lunar eclipse” to the full text only, I was given 1221 results.  By limiting it to full text only, it was reduced to 881 results and finally by limiting the name and date range, I was better able to find the exact information (1 result) that I would need.  This would be very useful for patrons as well as for the library staff when looking for specific information.  If the patron is not exactly sure what they are looking for, the suggested subjects at the top is a good place to help narrow the search also. 

     

I really like visiting the other blogs.  Partly to see that I am not the only one that is behind, but mostly for the wonderful ideas, insights and (of course) pictures!  I looked at most of the blogs and they are all different and all have varying ideas.  Great to see!

2.       When first typing in lottery news, I was given 51,653 results.  This is way too many for our patrons to look through.  I limited the results by the last date range available, but it still only dropped it to 16,948 results, so I chose to search under the suggested subjects at the top of the results page.  I would suggest that he narrow his search by using these subjects and by narrowing the results by source type (on the right of the page) also.  Hopefully this would help him find more of what he was looking for. 

Week 2 Lesson 2 – Learning Express Library

1.       I would show my patron the section on GED Preparation where he would be able to take practice tests and improve on GED skills.  I would also show him the section on Skill Building for Adults that includes reading, math, science, speaking, and other skills that might assist him.  Lastly I would show him the section on Job Search and Workplace Skills where he would learn skills for resumes and interviewing.

2.      The patron that wants to improve her skills before applying for an office manager’s job would benefit from several of areas on the Learning Express Library including the sections on business writing and job search, resumes and interviewing in the Job Search and workplace skills area.    Another section that may be helpful to her is the Federal Clerical Worker Exam Preparation.  After typing “office manager” in the search box, several other choices were listed including courses on organization and succeeding on the job.

3.      For the students who wants to do research on being a nurse or a pharmacist, I would show him the section of Nursing and Allied Health under the heading  of Jobs and Careers.   Under the tab of Career Guidance, it has sections on pharmacy tech, becoming a nurse, becoming a health care professional, and becoming a caseworker.  These would all be helpful for him as well as the ebook that I found called PCAT, which is the Pharmacy college admission test, that includes practice test.

Lesson 1 -- World Book Online -- Encyclopedia and More

1.      While using the World Book Online Kids for grades K-5, I first chose the Games link.  I love the bright colors and eye-catching pictures on this site!  The games were on a spinning picture real with the title of the game.  By clicking on each game, it often gave choices for easy, medium, and hard levels or after a level was completed, you could stay at the same level or move to the next one.  This would be perfect for a wide variety of ages.  The audio instructions that went along with the written instructions would be great for children that are not yet able to read or for the ones that are just learning to read.  The puzzles, mazes, and the color by numbers were great fun and it was easy to move around in the site.  I’m hooked.

I went back to the home screen and chose the Activities link next.  The many activities were divided into the categories: think it, be it, make it, and teach it.  Just by looking at the titles, I can see several things that would be useful for our children’s programs.    Each activity has step by step instructions, a list of what you need for the activity, and pictures as well as the options to print, save, hear text read aloud, email, and translate the text into one of several different languages.  In the “teach it” section, it also lists the national standards for each activity

2.      While using the World Book Online InfoFinder for grades 5-9, I chose the “Interactive Earth” feature.  It gave me the choices of Interactive Maps, World Book Atlas, Explore USA, Explore Canada, Explore the World and Outline Maps and Flags.  After choosing to explore USA, a large map of the USA was shown with the outlines of the different states that then linked to a resource guide for each state.  I chose South Dakota  and was linked to a page with a beautiful image of the black hills and several choices for articles on South Dakota’s biographies, cities, Colleges and Universities, economy, history, land and climate, national park system, Native American groups, monuments and historic sites, plant and animal life, and other related articles.  It also gave a choice of viewing the curriculum correlations to the content standards for grades K-12 in the 4 main subject areas.  This would be very useful for teachers.  There were also several related books to read and study skills information.  Some of the articles included pictures, maps, tables, and videos.  Each article also featured specific information for how to cite the article if using it as a resource, as well as the options to print, e-mail, save, translate, and hear text read aloud.  These options would all be very useful for students both in and out of the classroom when doing research.  These would be a great help to our homeschooled students and families.  I would recommend this site to students who do not have computers or who are looking for a little bit more information than what they have gotten from the books on the shelf.  I also found some very useful tools to recommend on the homepage such as creating your own timelines and the citation builder.

3.     While using the World Book Online Reference Center for grade 9 through adults, I found many of the same wonderful tools that were included in the previous versions as well as quick links back to these sites.   Once I was on the eBooks Center page, I was given the choices of looking for ebooks by author’s last name, title, genre, language, and format or by simply typing in the search box.   Some shorter books are simply displayed for you while the longer ones such as “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” have the choices of downloading  the book in ePub or Mobi versions along with the usual printing, saving, emailing, translating and hearing options.  There are also  sections on how to cite the document, content standards, related encyclopedia articles, back in time articles(which showed 25 articles), and 6 related websites.  These tools would be helpful for patrons who are looking for more associated information.   The left side of the page shows the document contents by chapters also.  This would make it very easy for patrons to move around the books if needed. 

Lesson 10 – Wrap Up

I think my biggest discovery was realizing that there is so much information out there and it can be so easy to access if you know the right place to look.  I really enjoyed the whole experience and can’t wait to keep utilizing these resources for professional and personal use.

I plan to not only promote these resources verbally to our patrons, but also on our website, on Facebook, in our weekly newspaper column, with handouts, flyers, and with a digital picture frame that will show different slides of the features of these electronic resources.

Lesson 9 – History and Genealogy Resources – Ancestry Library, Heritage Quest and Sanborn Maps

I typed in my full name, year of birth, and South Dakota, USA as a place where I have lived and Ancestry Library listed 3 different results with my name and two of my old addresses and phone numbers.  The first result had me living there from 1935 (not born yet) until 1993.  I did not move there until 1997.  The second result had me living there from 1998 until 2001.  Although I owned the land there until much later, I actually moved away (and took the house with me) from there in 2000.  The third result had me at my current address since 2002 even though I had been there since 2000.  It was fun to look at and they all had my correct information for my addresses, phone numbers and the town I lived in. 

The categories off to the left hand side were fun to look through too.  I can see why this would get to be addicting.

I went back and typed in my maiden name, which is a lot more common than my married name and it came up with over 6 million results in South Dakota.  When I narrowed the towns that I lived in and was born in, the results went down a few but not by many.  What fun!

Using the census information, I was able to find the record of when my grandfather was 11 years old back in 1930.  I knew that my mother had been born in Britton SD, which was listed as his town, but it also listed Miller Township.  Because I was unaware of his exact birthdate, I found it by using my grandmother’s name and then matching records because I knew he had a sister named Alice.

By using the advanced search I typed in South Dakota and searched under photos and maps.  The results listed over 3 million different options so I narrowed it down by adding my grandfather’s name and home town.  I was given over 300 pictures, but they were listed as other people’s names and towns that I did not type in. 

While using HeritageQuest, I looked for my grandmother’s name under the 1930 census in South Dakota using her maiden name.  When it did not find any results, I tried my grandfather’s name and information again since I had found it on AncestryLibrary.  It too showed no results.    So I clicked on the search tips link.  It told me that the index captures the head of household only, so I went back and typed in my great-grandfather’s name and 1920 instead of 1930(which was only partially completed).  I found out that my grandfather also lived in Webster, SD when he was 1 year old.  This was also the last census record for his mother who passed away before the 1930 census took place.   I was interested in learning how to tell who his neighbors were because when his mother died, the neighbors took his infant brother in and later left town to raise him as their own.  My grandfather tracked down his little brother later in life and I wouldn’t be surprised if he used either ancestry or heritagequest to help find him. 

While using Sanborn Maps, I typed in South Dakota and Chamberlain for the last date possible (July 1928-Sept 1934).  I was interested in the first map with the index with the island that used to be in the middle of the river here called “American Island”.  On the map, it still shows the original bridge to the island that we still can see the pillars sticking out of the water today and a bridge for the railroad tracks that no longer exists or was moved to a new location.  It also shows more plots of land rather than buildings.  I looked for my parent’s home and was only able to see the plot of land.

 I tried one of the other maps and found the building that used to be where the library is located now and then I found the old court house where the library used to be that had burnt down.  The local post office, old city hall, and movie theater are still in the same places.  A lot of the lots were mapped out but had no buildings on them.   There were several residents on Main Street where businesses now sit. 

Lesson 8 – ArchiveGrid and CAMIO

After typing “Sitting Bull autograph card” the link was taking quite a while to load so I went back and tried it again.  The second time it came up right away.  I learned several different names for Sitting Bull and that he was a shaman and leader of the Hunpapa Sioux.  I also learned that after he was captured by US forces he toured with Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show.

Using parenthesis I typed in “Casey Tibbs” and was given 4 results.  The results were located at the Museum of the American West, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Wyoming, and the University of California, Los Angeles.   The first one was called Casey Tibbs photographs.  It gave descriptions of the different photos that were housed there.  The second one listed a 30 minute anthology series that ran on NBC from 1955 to 1956.  And although the third looked to be a basic article, the last one was a collection of motion picture lobby card from1912 to the present.  It was interesting to see the different types of information that was available.

Just by the description and the homepage, I can tell that CAMIO would have been well used during my high school art classes.  What a great resource!  When typing in “Paul Revere” I was reminded that he and his family made things from silver.  I just recently heard this thanks to the history channel and the show Pawn Stars.  They had someone bring in one of Paul Revere’s family’s pieces  - or they thought that it was anyway. 

When I typed in Sioux, I was given a wide variety of items (63 to be exact) such as clothing, prints, pipes, writing tables, bowls, pouches, and dolls.  Each item listed a picture, the title, the creator, the dates, type of art and the museum where it is kept.  There were several ways to refine my search along the left hand side such as by date , subject, creator or format.

I chose to search for the photographer Ansel Adams.  My sister has a collection of his prints and even though they are black and white, they are very powerful and I could look at them for hours and find or feel something different every time I look.  I was shocked to see that the photos were taken 60-80 years ago.  I thought they were newer than that. 

My community would use this resource for school classes and research as well as for personal research.  There are many local artists in the area and this would be a great tool for them.  I noticed that the top tool bar with the red line had Asian style writing on it and that there is a place for an advanced search.

I was disappointed that my search for one of my favorite artists “Grandma Moses” resulted in only one finding.  Maybe I just love the way her name sounds, but I remember doing a report on her when I was young.   I also chose Monet and added some to my favorites.  I love the slideshow idea.  This would be great for a presentation or to keep a collection of meaningful images.  It says that you can’t publish these pictures, but you are able to use them as a web page?  Still a great resource.

Lesson 7 – WorldCat and More FirstSearch Indexes

At first glance there is a lot on the advanced search page.  Which is good for narrowing down your search, but sometimes too much on a page can turn users off.  There were the basic searches such as title, author, ISBN, and subject.  These were often broken down further into other categories and there were some non- typical ways to search such as the musical comp and the notes.

I typed the name of the book “If You’re Happy and You Know It” - I think the song had been in my head all morning for some reason.  Anyway, it came up with 147 different result and 1086 different libraries for the #1 entry.    The top library was Aberdeen Distance Media Center.  I noticed that the next few libraries were also in SD.  This makes it nice to find the closest libraries to us.    When looking at the full record, the call number was LC:P28.3.0718.  There were several links for the authors, illustrators, and subjects.  I also noticed the general bibliographical information as well as the language of the book, searches for other versions by the same author, vendor information for ordering, and items about the author.

I did not see a drop down menu called “Search in Databases” but I did find links for : list all databases, list databases by topic, and suggest best databases once I clicked on the Databases link.  When I clicked the dropdown menu next to these, I was given the choice of searches.  In order to find the next options, I had to use the advanced search.  After I typed in South Dakota, I chose the title “Sweet Clover in Great Plains Farming” and clicked on the link next to access.  The basic information was listed as well as the table of contents and there was a link to each page in the article.  There was also a place to search this article and add to bookbag.

Lesson 6 - EBooks on Ebsco

Under the search option I typed “Curing cancer with your diet”.  It gave me 4 non-fiction ebooks to choose from that listed the basic bibliographical information, a picture of the book, a list of subjects in the book, an option to save it to a folder, a link to the full text, and a link to the table of contents.  I chose the most current one called “Handbook of Nutrition and Diet” and clicked on the title.  It gave more specific information about the book and brought me to specific pages in the book where my search words were discussed with the title, “Most Relevant Pages from this eBook”.  It also gave the options of the full ebook text, bookmarking the pages, printing, adding to a folder, e-mailing, saving and creating a note.

When I typed in “Constitution” it gave 166 different results, so I tried to narrow it a little bit by using “United States Constitution” and it narrowed it down to 5 ebooks:  Representing Popular Sovereignty:  The Constitution in American Political Culture, AP U.S. Government and Politics, Shaping the Eighteenth Amendment, The Right to Religious Liberty, and Capital Punishment.  The last book did not look as though it was going to be helpful, but when I opened it did have some relevant pages of information.

I typed in Nebraska into the advanced search and was given 56 results of books that were published in Nebraska.  I changed the field to subject and it listed one book about Omaha from 1945-1973.   Choosing the correct field to search in would be very important.  Even leaving the optional select a field blank would not be as productive as narrowing down the search by choosing either subject or title.

Lesson 5 - Gale Virtul Reference Library

Immediately the GVRL recognized that I was logging on at the “Cozard Memorial Library”.  The main page listed subjects down the left side that included:  Business, Education, Environment, History, Law, Literature, Medicine, Nation and World, Religion, Science, and Social Science.   Each of these subjects then showed the picture, title and date of each publication.  By scrolling over each, I was given a brief description also. 

By clicking on the “Titles List” I was given an alphabetical list of all of the publications.  I also had the option of listing them by the date of publication.  I chose “Literary Themes for Students:  The American Dream, 2007”.  This brought me to a table of contents, a search for specific topics, and a choice between the different volumes.  This particular publication contained only 2 volumes.  I used the table of contents to click on the “Major Works” which brought me to a list of separate literary themes and their corresponding page numbers.  I chose “House Made of Dawn” and was given links to its introduction, plot summary, themes, historical overview, critical overview, criticism, and sources.  It also gave pictures, excerpts from the book, and several sidebars that I could view or hide if desired.

I typed in the word bananas and it gave me 95 different articles on everything from bananas to Chiquita’s to folic acid and other articles about fruit in general.  Each article gave the basic bibliographical information plus a word count and brief description.    The article that I chose had bright pictures, lots of content, key terms, resources, and links to other similar articles.  The “listen” feature was nice and it highlighted the words as it read.  I was able to pause the reading and adjust the volume right on the page.

Lesson 4 - Proquest

While using Proquest, I chose to search for articles on young authors.  I clicked on the option of “Full text” as instructed, and when the results page came up, I could immediately tell that I had done something wrong.  All of the articles with the random words young and author in them appeared.  I simply went back to the search page and put the words “young author” in quotes.  Then the results page looked more like what I was looking for.

The tools that looked useful on this page included the “Create Alert” option that was mentioned in the instructions as well as the list of suggested subjects and the ways to narrow or sort my search results.  Because I was given several hundred search results, I chose to sort my results by publication date and narrowed the results by using only magazine articles.  Below the options for narrowing the search results was a graph that could be used to quickly view what time period most of the articles had come from and you could get more detailed information by gliding the cursor over each year.   You could also enter your own specific date range.  This would be very helpful for students who need to have extremely current information. 

The search results for each article included the basic bibliographical information:  title, name of magazine, date, page numbers, and author.   Each article on the results page also gave links to a short preview, the citation/abstract, full text, full text in PDF, and images when available.  The images where shown in a smaller version with each article.  This makes it easy to know if the picture will be of use to you before you open the link.  There is an icon before each article that stands for magazines, trade journals, newspapers, scholarly journals, and other sources.

The preview link gives several more link options for printing, saving, citing, exporting, emailing, subjects, author, magazine, different databases that it was found in, and people named in the article.  These options would be very helpful for learners looking for more detailed information.

Another View

I enjoyed looking at the other participant’s blogs because I had not had a chance look much before now and, I hate to admit it, I am a first time blogger.  I did discover two things right off the bat.  One, I am not as far behind as I thought I was, and two, I must go on, and on, and on, and on . . . either that or I use a way bigger fontJ.  Maybe that means my eyesight is fading as fast as my hearing!  I did decide that I do rather like the blogs that include cute pictures. What can I say, forever a kid at heart.

While using the publications feature, I simply typed in the word “Library” and narrowed the search by looking for it in the title only.  It brought up 20 different publications with the title, coverage, publisher, languages, ISSN, and place of publication.  Once I chose the title “The Electronic Library” I was able to browse specific issues, search within the publication, view the most recent issue, and set up an alert. 

Lesson 3 - - SIRS Issues Researcher and Discoverer

When opening the SIRS Discoverer for K-9, I found the homepage to be helpful but not too overwhelming.  It listed several browsing options under the Browse Subject Tree, an Almanac for kids, Current Events, Encyclopedia, Dictionaries, Activities, Biographies, Maps and more. 

Because we are coming up on Groundhog’s Day, I chose to search for the fuzzy little guy.  The search results page showed several tools at the top of the page including the total number of articles separated by newspaper, magazines, reference, graphics, and webfind sites.   There was also a color-coded reading – level key.  It showed a purple book for general, a green book for easy, a blue book for moderate, and a red book for challenging reading levels.  Each article began with the colored book that matched it’s reading level.  

Each article also showed several different icons next to the title.  The yellow apples allowed you to view the subjects that were found in the articles without opening up the entire article.  The camera icon previewed any graphics that were included with the article.  The lowercase letters “a” and “p” were not a linked to anything, but the “a” showed you that this article had an activity with it, and the lowercase “p” showed that the article contained some biographical information about a person.  Some articles came in PDF version and the symbol was also next to the articles name.  Each article also included a short description, the size of the article, the date and place where it was taken from, and the Lexile Score.  Although this page was informative, it might be a little much for young students without some adult guidance.

The “Country Facts” page listed the countries alphabetically and showed the yellow apple and camera icons once again for each country.  With the warm winter weather that we have been having lately, I have been dreaming of someplace warm and tropical.  So I chose to search for Jamaica.  Right away the option was given to have the article transmitted to my email.  There were several teacher resources with links given and then a ton of basic facts about Jamaica were listed including the population, geography and weather, economy and government, and important dates from it’s history.

Through the link for “Maps of the World” I was directed to a search of over 3000 detailed and printable maps that I could search for by clicking on one of the given options, typing in my own search request, or choosing from the alphabetical list.  I chose to type in the word Jamaica and it gave me 4 different map links to choose from.  The first map that I chose showed 15 different towns including the capital of Kingston, the Caribbean Sea around it, the flag, a mileage key, and a smaller map to show where it can be found on the earth.  It also stated where the map was copied from.  The second map that I chose included most of the same information but it also included geographical features and the lines of latitude and longitude.

The other database feature that I chose was the “Skills Discoverer”.  It included links for Art, Health, Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies.  Each one had subsections and each of those sections included a “Featured Interactive” with a game, activity, or video.

While searching the SIRS Issues Researcher, I noticed right away that some of the issues listed may be considered controversial and that some parents may not want their children to view this without their permission and guidance.  I have several families that homeschool their children that might feel this way. 

I chose to look up the topic of “Banned Books”.  The site opened up with a short summary of the topic , a Pros/Cons question and answer section, and a video.    The Research Tools gave links for a Topic Overview, a Timeline, Global Impact, Statistics, My Analysis, and Note Organizer.  The site then listed several articles and gave the option of narrowing the results by magazines, newspapers, viewpoints, reference, and graphics and media.  Each article gave a short description, a list of subjects, the Lexile Score, the size of the article, and the date and place where it was published.  It also gave a check box for each that said, “Add to My List” and some articles showed when PDF was available.

After choosing the “Curriculum Pathfinders” I found several subheadings and research ideas for the areas of Math, Science, Social Studies, Language Arts, Fine Arts, and Health.  There were also different interactive links on the right hand side for each. 

I chose the Fine Arts link and the subheading of art.  It listed several links for research ideas, notable people, questions, and a spotlight on outside art all followed by the corresponding articles.  The art subheading itself was also linked to many articles

Learning Express Library

Registering for the Learning Express Library was very easy and the site was very easy to navigate while just browsing the different levels and types of tests. The toolbar at the top was divided into the different sections: Elementary School, Middle School, High School, College Preparations, College Students, GED Preparation, Job Search and Workplace Skills, Jobs and Careers, Skill Building for Adults, US Citizenship, and Recursos para Hispanohblantes.

Each tab was divided into different sub-sections such as reading writing, math, social studies etc. and then each of those sub-sections had either individual tests or were broken into more sections of tests. Some were general tests, practice tests, or preparation tests while others were specific to states or were a specific test such as the COOP High School Entrance Exam. By clicking on the titles, it gives a brief description of the test, the number of questions, and the approximate test duration.

I chose to take the 4^th Grade Math Practice: Number Sense and Operations

1 test. I chose this one because I have played “Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?” and let’s just say that this seemed a more appropriate level for me to start on.

It took me a minute to realize that you had to “Add to my Center” in order to take the test. Once I got started, it was just like any other multiple choice exam. Even though I only answered 5 questions before I chose “Score My Test” it asked me several times if that is what I wanted to do and the consequences for doing so. It also was very positive even though I left 15 items blank. Based on my performance, it listed other tests and practices that would be beneficial to me. I was glad to see that it also gave me the correct answers and explained why it was correct and why the others were wrong. The site also kept this record in “My Center” for future reference.

As evident by my inability to spell giraffe correctly in the first lesson, I am a horrible speller, so I wisely chose the Vocabulary and Spelling Course 1. There was a long description, and then the topic was broken into different lessons. They listed the how’s and why’s and then listed tricks and tips such as using index cards, having a study buddy, and coming up with lists of words you want to know. Then there was a self-analysis and a 3 step list for learning and remembering words. This all was introduced before the course actually started. At the beginning of the course, it listed the course outline on the left side where you were able to move from section to section without completing each one in order to get to the next one. The course gave a lengthy explanation, strategies, lists of words, and you were able to check the words that you knew. Even though it was a lot of reading at times which might discourage some reluctant readers, the course was very thorough and covered a lot of material.

I had a hard time finding my way back to the home page without starting over. Once I did, I clicked the list of ebooks in the lower right hand corner. The list was divided up by the same 11 tabs from the beginning. Although some of them had several ebooks to choose from, the elementary only had one: Getting Ready for the 4^th Grade Assessment Test. It consisted 198 pages of sections

on Math Practice, Open-ended Math questions, English/Language Arts Practice, Short and Extended Responses for English/Language Arts, and Scores Studies, Lists and More. These ebooks would be very helpful, especially to homeschooling families and children who are looking for a little more practice with basic skills.

Lesson 1b - World Book Public Library Edition

1. The bright colors, large icons, and pictures on the World Book Online Kids (K-5) home page instantly caught my attention.  Any youngster would be immediately drawn in.  When I misspelled the word giraffe it recognized what I was looking for and brought me to the correct link anyway.  This would be very helpful for children (and someone who did not win the 3rd grade spelling bee – me!).

The information consisted of approximately one page of larger print at an elementary reading level and several pictures and videos.  The videos were very brief but informative, included sound, and were easy to access.  Although there was plenty of useful information, (did you know a giraffes tongue can be as long as 21 inches) there was only one short line about the giraffe's habitat "Giraffes live in Africa south of a large desert called the Sahara".  There was however, a little trivia question and link to more information about the Sahara off to the left side with more information.

2.  Once again I was intrigued by the bright and eye catching colors on the home page of the World Book Online Info Finder (5-9).   It was filled with many more options than the site for the younger children.  For some, it may have been a little too congested, but none the less it was very easy to navigate and full of the helpful information.  Once I typed in giraffe, (with the correct spelling this time) I was given several choices for finding information from encyclopedia articles, maps, back in time articles, dictionary entries, pictures, videos, tables, and special reports.  Choosing the first item on the encyclopedia articles page brought me to a similar version of the younger site only with much more information.  The page used much smaller text that would have covered about 2-3 pages and included the same pictures and videos from the previous site along with a map.  The information given went into much more detail and included a short outline of the article for quick reference.

3.  Even though the home page of The World Book Online Reference Center was not as eye catching as the others, it was clean and orderly with several options and links.  I chose to search for Bolivia, just because it sounded exotic and fun and because I still remember a little bit of Spanish from high school and college.  “Hola Senorita! Como te yamas?” 

Three columns appeared on the screen.  The column on the left was a quick reference to the two columns on the right and more.  It included the links to Encyclopedia Articles, US Presidential Papers, Maps, Tables, Dictionaries, Sound, Historical Maps, Pictures, Back in Time Articles, Special Reports, Web Sites and Research Guides.

When I clicked on the first encyclopedia article with the map and the word Bolivia, I was taken to an article that was about 8 pages long with several pictures, a sound bite, a map, and a table of brief information about Bolivia.  On the left, there was on outline of the article with links for quicker reference to the main topics.  On the right hand side near the top were links to related Encyclopedia Articles, Books to Read, Back in Time Articles, Web Sites, Magazine Articles, and an Interactive Map for Bolivia.

The quick links to other information was what I thought would be most valuable to my patrons.   The other thing that caught my attention was the tools at the top of the articles.  Later when I went back, I realized that they were also available on the World Book Online Kids (K-5), and the World Book Online Info Finder (5-9).  The cleverest of these tools included hearing the text aloud, translating the text (into 30 or more languages), being able to save to my research, and the definition finder for unknown words.  These would be very useful tools and very fun to use when exploring far-away exotic lands such at Bolivia!