BTW . . .

At the beginning of Lesson 6, it warns us that we'll be asked for our user name and password. I've been asked for them to access every resource I've used so far. Perhaps that is because I am working from my home computer?

Lesson 6, parts 1 and 2

Part 1

I searched for "Know-it-all", the title of a recent book by A.J. Jacobs. The book came up as the first of 61 records; 1144 libraries have it. The top library is Rapid City Public Library, my local library. The LC call number is AE5.E44; the Dewey call number is 031. In the record are the subject headings (including the geographic headings), ISBN, the responsibility statement, a link to other author information which leads to other searchable records of writings by A. J. Jacobs, and much other information.

When I have to create or correct records, I can see how using WorldCat would be very helpful.

I decided to search a few obscure books I know about, and I was surprised by the results. The least obscure one "Leftwich Turner Families of Virginia and Their Connections" did not get any records, although I know it is in a number of public libraries around the country. I tried several title variations and never got it. Next I tried a more obscure book, "Sketches and Recollections of Lynchburg" which has been published a few times with slight variations in the title. It came up right away in a number of libraries and editions. Lastly I tried an early work by the current author Pat Conroy which I know is held at Alderman Library at the University of Virginia, but I'm not sure of the title. I think it is "The Boo." I tried searching for author phrase and several title variations but could never get a record for it.

This is a great resource; it will take lots of work to get handy with it.

Part 2

I chose record 14, "Unidentified Woman and Infant." It was a black and white photograph of a Native American woman holding a baby. The source of this record and several others I scanned was the Amistad Research Center, which has a link going to Tulane University. I searched a few other non-Amistad records: it looks like OAIster is a recource for maps, photographs, charts, and other graphic images.

I decided to try to find photographs of or by Emma Borglum who came to South Dakota on her honeymoon in 1899 with her husband Solon Borglum, the younger brother of Gutzon Borglum. They spent several weeks at a pow-wow at Crow Creek where Solon, a sculptor, and Emma took many photographs that Solon planned to use in future sculpturing work. I tried searching all the names and subjects I could think of, but no luck. Here again, the resource is tantalizing, but figuring out how to use looks to take endless hours. Perhaps next the state library could consider offering in-depth courses on single resource links: I bet you could easily fill a 9-hour course on WorldCat alone.

Lesson 5

First, I searched Ross, Kathy and got several of her books. I was able to bring up several projects for spring, which teachers could project on screens for class craft time. I then searched for other children's authors with less luck: Henkes, Kevin and Seuss, Dr. and Bemelmans brought only scholarly works mentioning these authors. I was hoping to find children's books we could display for reading lessons, etc. I tried searching by title (Cat in the Hat; Madeline and the Bad Hat; Curious George) but did not get links to any children's books. Maybe I have to go somewhere else within the NetLibrary.

Searching "fitness", the very first book that came up seemed to me to be the option I would recommend to the exercise instructor. It was Your Best Body Ever by Anita Goa. The blurb indicated that it was aimed at people looking to reinvigorate their exercise routines; it offered a mix of yoga, strength training and aerobic exercises on each of three fitness levels; and it had some photographs and illustrations (though it was pretty weak in that area.) After flipping through a number of pages, I got a copyright warning box that instructed me to wait 5 seconds before going on. I did, and the ebook seemed to continue to work after the copyright warning as it had before.

I got 88 findings when I used Advanced Search and entered Nebraska in the Publisher box. Everything appeared to be published by some version of the University of Nebraska Press, but not everything was related to western history. So I went back to Advanced Search and entered "history" as a keyword AND Nebraska as Publisher. The hit list decreased to 37, but still not all of the books were about western history (e.g., Origins of the Final Solution which is about the holocaust but published by University of Nebraska Press.) I tried entering "western history" as the keyword AND Nebraska as Publisher. Too much: I got no results. So I would have to settle for letting the patron sort through the list of 37 on his or her own.

I have a few questions about this site: 1) Why does a person have to register a separate email account to use this resource? It bothers me because it seems like someone could track an individual's name with the resources they're reading. I think that violates a user's right to privacy. 2) Is there a section of NetLibrary that offers picture-book and easy nonfiction titles for download? 3) Can the ebooks from NetLibrary be downloaded (or checked out) to a reading device like iPad or Kindle?

Lesson 4

I chose to view Mathematics for Game Developers, hoping to find something that could encourage students to work hard in math and to keep taking math courses throughout high school. in the eTable of Contents, I went to chapter 4, Basic Geometric Elements. The writing was calm and friendly, and the math was very high level. I went back to the table of content and read the book's general introduction. It was quite readable and would be a good way for math teachers to help students understand how math might eventually lead them to their dream job.

In the Basic Search I entered "Perseus." I have about a dozen 4th and 5th graders every week who are looking for more information on Greek gods and heroes as they read the Percy Jackson series. U*X*L Encyclopedia of World Mythology will be a huge asset to them. Since I can't link them directly to it from my library's home page, I think I'll print strip-note instructions to hand out in class next week. They will love this resource! I'll probably reprint the instructions on their summer reading lists.

Lesson 3

I searched a few relatively narrow science topics (including sleeping beauty and gene knockout) and got nothing. I have searched these successfully on Google, so it was surprising to me that I got nothing from Proquest. Next I tried "University of Minnesota Twin Studies" and received many hits but of low relevance. I opened one that looked promising, then found a box labeled "Find more documents like this" on the right side of the screen, and chose "Twins." The articles switched to all being about the Minnesota Twins baseball team. I gave up.

I started over searching "daughters of the confederacy." I got 47 full-text results, all of which were relevant. I read several of them: they loaded easily and had few typographical problems. One disappointment was that the abstracts were consistently poor. They were often the first few lines of the article; occasionally they read like "teasers" to lure you into the article. An abstract used to be a carefully crafted synopsis of the most important information in the article; its purpose was to save a person from having to read an entire article just to discover it was not quite germaine to the topic one was researching. These abstracts did not serve that purpose.

Using the publications tab, I looked for current information regarding the CSPC finding of unsafe lead levels in ink in childrens' books published prior to 1985. I searched to no avail for: "library collection weeding", "toxic ink", and "MUSTY." Then I searched "library" and got links to 23 journals. I hghlighted one, then searched "weeding." I got nothing, and I could not find my way back to the results list. This went on for quite a while. I began using the "Narrow your results" box, and eventually stumbled into a few articles, but nothing very current.

I have a lot to learn about searching in Proquest. It appears that if you have a specific topic like "Thomas Jefferson" it works well. But if you have more obscure topics, indentifying search terms is difficult. A thorough patron interview about the topic that would bring up an array of possible search terms would seem to be essential to locating pertinent information.

Lesson 2

In SIRS Discoverer I searched for Apollo Ohno and got no hits. Then I tried Ohno, and got 19 hits, 18 of which were about the speedskater (who spells his first name with only one "l.") The summaries of each article were helpful, and the full text versions came up quickly. There were seven photographs, but only a few were of Ohno. All of the hits were at a moderate reading level, except for the one that was not about Apolo Ohno, which was ranked at a challenging level.

For younger students, I think this much information would be overwhelming. Report writers in grades 3-5 would spend all their time trying to figure out which article to use. Even middle-schoolers would be hard-pressed to sort through this much reading. As a librarian, I'll need to focus more on helping kids decide quickly what to toss out and what to save when researching online.

In the Database feature Country Facts, I chose Armenia, which I wasn't certain was still a country. It is -- again. I was very excited about the graphic organizers at three levels, and will probably use them in future lessons. One disappointment was that they print in extremely small scale, and faintly. I'll have to retype them to get something that can be reproduced. Still, they will be helpful to students and teachers alike. There was a good cross-section of information on Armenia, legibly arranged, and easier to read that the small print in an almanac. The "pictures" consisted of the aforementioned graphic organizers, a map, and the Armenian flag; no actual pictures of scenes in Armenia, which would be helpful to students.

As a map-lover, the huge range of maps available in Maps of the World thrilled me! I looked at Judaism 1492-1745 and found a clear depiction of the spread of Judaism across four continents. The map was quite large, and I'm not sure it would print well, but it could easily be projected on a screen for classroom discussion. Next I went to Chaco Canyon. Here, the color demarcation was too subtle and some words needed to be translated to give students a fighting chance to understand the map. In general, there is a motherlode of information in Maps of the World to support social studies and language arts standards.

I also explored Educational Resources in the Database Features section. Some items here bordered on advertisements for SIRS, but were useful nonetheless. For example, "SIRS v. Google" made a good case for the effectiveness of searching a controlled database, but it never recognized the any positive aspects of Google, and there are many. It was so one-sided that it put me off. However, the next item I checked out, "Checklist for Fair Use," I immediately printed off and will be using regularly. I plan to return to Educator's Resources (I actually put it in my Favorites) to explore the various tutorials. I feel there are lots of things for me to learn here -- far more than I can absorb in one setting.

In SIRS Issues Reseacher, I selected European Union as my leading issue. The pro/con question was "Is the EU deomcratic?" Two articles were linked on each side of the debate. Both seemed to be very high reading level to me. They might be helpful to high school juniors and seniors, but they'd be overwhelming for middle-schoolers. I felt that way about much of SIRS Issues Researcher. The Topic Overview and Terms to Know sections were written at a level I believe would be accessible to average high school students.

I am not entirely comfortable with students getting so much help to word topic questions. I fear this approach could have the unintended effect of reducing the ways in which students approach subjects. This site makes it possible for students to distill report-writing to a series of cut-and-paste actions, some quick rewriting to put things in their own words, and a final trip through the printer. When students research and wrestle to identify their own topics -- even if the topics are strange or immature -- it reflects the child's own interest in the topic. As a librarian, I would ask teachers first about whether they wanted students using SIRS Issue Researcher.

In Curriculum Pathfinders, I tried to choose 19th Century American Literature, but I'm not sure that's what I got. There were so many articles that their relevance to the topic was impossible to establish. Next I tried entering "Edgar Allan Poe" in the search window, but I still got articles of unclear relevance. Then I noticed an option for "Matching Subject" under "Narrow Your Results" and I chose that. Voila! I had a list of very usable articles for an essay on Poe. The articles all loaded quickly; photographs were clear; one link to a website for the Poe Museum consistently went nowhere, but everything else worked well.

Along the way, I explored the iThink tutor and was very impressed with it. I'm not sure how many students would have the patience to use, it, but it was like having a personal tutor sitting beside you. I think students would respond positively to avatar. For homeschool students, and for struggling writers, this feature could be a godsend.

WB French and Spanish Editions

Ways to use the visual dictionary feature of the French and Spanish WB editions might include meeting the Language Arts multicultural standard by comparing words. This feature could also be useful in the word study section of daily literacy. For example, the names of dog breeds in French and English are cognates with the exception of -- surprisingly -- the poodle. To have students sound out "bouledogue" would bring great delight to them. My students hunger for languages, but classroom instruction is not offered until ninth grade in our district. This would be a very fun way to give them a taste of world languages while emphasizing comparisons with English.

I do not see a visual dictionary feaure in the English version of WB Kids. I love the diagrams and the clarity of pictures in the French and Spanish visual dictionary features. Learning to decipher nonficiton text features (such as diagrams) and taxonomy are K-5 standards. I will be trying to introduce my teachers to the possibility of opening up the French WB's visual dictionary feature, going to alimentation, then fruits, then baies, then coupe d'un raisin (cutaway view of a grape), then letting the students roll their tongues around the labels for a moment, then switching the diagram to English. This can be projected on their Promethean Boards, then a clear layer screen can be opened over the WB projection so the teacher and students can write and draw on top of the WB diagram.

I think that in flipping quickly back and forth between languages; in using non-English languages in a casual and lighthearted manner, we can give our very landlocked students in western South Dakota a sense of how interconnected the world is. Students in cities -- even cities as small as Sioux Falls -- come into contact with other cultures and languages far more frequently than do our students here.

In the WB Spanish version I listened to an article on photography. Certainly this would be helpful to the rare Spanish speaking student, and for Spanish Club. I liked the fact that the section of words being read was highlighted so one could try to follow along. As an aside, I found it a little confusing that the example of an antique photograph was of American Civil War soldiers. I had expected it to be of Spanish or Mexican soldiers since they speak Spanish. It brought home to me that I am not reading a Spanish encyclopedia, but rather a Spanish language version of an American encyclopedia. I'm still getting my head around that.

Lastly, I wanted to see if there were Spanish songs with an audio component, which would be an interesting way to address the multicultural standard, and also help our students actually learn some Spanish. I found a terrific diagram of the layout of a symphony orchestra that would be lots of fun for our orchestra teacher, but if there were songs anywhere, I couldn't find them.

In sum, the French and Spanish language editions were a complete surprise to me: they are full of fun things for us to do, even in our all-English school.

WB Public Library Editions

I again searched for "wombat" in WB Online Kids. I was directed to the same general Australia link as I had been in WB Kids. I then clicked through the "Plants and Animals" link to "Animals" and then to the alphabetical list of animal topics. This list appeared to be shorter than the list in WB Kids: there were no entries for "W" at all, where WB Kids had offered links to wolves, wolverines, and wallabies. There was no listing for "mammal." Oddly, there was a link to "arthropods." Looking more deeply into the link list left me baffled. For instance, there was a link to giant tubeworm, but not to giraffe. I could not discern any controlling rationale for what had links and what was left off. In WB Kids, the links covered most common animals. For my students, I'd recommend WB Kids over the WB Online Kids at the public library, and I will be sure to caution them that although the sites look alike, there are some differences.

Using the WB Online Information Finder, I searched "wombat" and got ten hits. The first took me went directly to the same article as in WB Student with the same picture and supporting material. The other links only peripherally mentioned wombats. The Highlight Search Term feature at the top of the page made scanning these articles much faster and is somthing I would definitely recommend to my students.

In the WB Online Reference Center, I again searched for "Moldova" and came to the same article with the same information and number of links in the left- and right sidebars. This time, the voice reader option was working, though it was inconsistent in its pronounciation of "Moldova" and it consistently pronounced the word "save" as "sov." Still, it was clear enough to be helpful to students uncertain of the written words.

All in all, I preferred the school library editions of WB, though in truth there was little difference between the options, at least judging by the terms I chose to search.

World Books for students

In World Book Kids, I searched for "wombat" and received one link to Australia, but it had nothing to do with wombats. Next, I tried using the "Plants and Animals" icon, then searched "wombat." I landed at the same link to Australia. Back to the "Plants and Animals" icon, then I clicked "Animals," then "Mammals" (though I'm not certain a wombat is a mammal) scrolled through the aphabetical list of animals and found . . . no wombat listing.

On to World Book Student. I entered "wombat" and got a brief but very informative article on wombats, along with a photograph. I learned how large they are, where they live, what they eat, how the three species of wombats differ from one another, and that they are marsupials whose pouch (unlike the pouches of kangaroos and oppossums) faces to the back.

From this exercise, I learned that when teaching students to research for their own pleasure, I need to teach even very young students to head into World Book Student if what they're looking for isn't coming up easily in World Book Kids. Elementary-age students often look for the bizarre and unusual. I prefer the quicker search process of entering a term in a search box to clicking through a variety of icon links. I think by fourth grade most of my students would prefer the more direct searching and detail of World Book Student, even though the vocabulary of the articles might be a stretch for them.

In World Book Advanced, I searched for Moldova and was stunned at the amount of information available, especially the links to Presidential reports on the right hand side. For my students, the maps, pictures, and flags will be most interesting, but to even a slightly older student, I think the Presidential papers links, and the Back in Time link will be extremely useful. This is the first level where I can really see that the online edition of World Book offers an advantage over the print edition.

What I happened to look at in World Book Discover was disturbing. I'm hoping it was just bad luck. The read-aloud feature would be terrific for new readers, the visually impaired, and the elderly, but it did not work on my computer. I liked the picture by the "Government" link to allow people to search using visual clues. The basic article for "government" was passable, but when I clicked the link to "Democracy" I got a page that looked like a double exposure: two pages were superimposed on each other. Clicking to close one brought me to a "Not Found" error page; closing that shut me out of the internet so I had to log all the way back in again. Most of my students would give up at this point.

Next I tried the "Republic" link off the government page. The page loaded properly, but the writing was wierdly awkward, as though it had been translated from some other language: "A republic is a form of government in many countries. In a republic, leaders are elected, or chosen, by the vote of the people. They usually serve for a certain time." Granted, it is difficult to explain complex concepts in simple terms, but I expect better than this from World Book.