Lesson 7 EBooks on EbscoHost

I never found the Visual Search box, though I looked in EBSCO Webhost, Student Research Center, Searchasaurus, and Kids Search. I did try several graphics search box options in Searchasaurus and Kids Search, and they were attractive and worked quickly, but I didn’t find what I wanted. I was looking for information on growing kitchen herbs. I would like to start some indoors now, and move them outside in a few months. I found dozens of articles on medicinal uses for herbs, but nothing on growing them came from searching “herbs,” “garden herbs,” or “growing herbs.”

While searching in Kids Search, the second hit I got for “growing herbs” was titled, “Long-term ecological and biodiversity monitoring in the western Himalaya using satellite remote sensing.” Here are the first two sentences of the abstract: “The IPCC in its Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) described the Himalayan Region as data-deficient in terms of climate monitoring. This is a serious impediment to global research initiatives and thus necessitates long-term ecological monitoring (LTEM) across the Himalaya.” This is confusing to me: the colorful graphics and the designation of “Middle School and Elementary” on the homepage made me think I’d get articles suitable for middle school students. Perhaps, the sites vary by appearance only, but all tap into the same article database.

Here is a quotation from an article I got when I searched “South Dakota” in Kids Search:  “Paying farmers to quit plowing marginal, erodible lands was a strategy conceived under the Reagan administration mostly as a means of stalling overproduction.” There were some articles that would fit my students’ reading levels, but it’s too much to sort through. I can see that there are lots of good resources at EBSCO, but I’ll stick with SIRS Discoverer and the Discovering Collection for research in my building. This is too frustrating to use with students.

For the second question, I went to EBSCO Webhost and clicked until I got a search box. I entered “fairy tales” and scrolled through the results list until I came to The Violet Fairy by Andrew Lang. The copyright date seems reasonable for my grandmother to have enjoyed it, and the cover of the book is one color (though not violet.) Next I checked The Blue Fairy, also by Andrew Lang, but the cover had a picture on it. I took the question to mean that every book cover was a different color, but maybe it means each book was about a differently colored fairy. If that’s the case, I think I’ve found the correct series. I also found The Yellow Fairy and The Red Fairy, all by Andrew Lang. I searched for “Andrew Lang” to confirm I had found all the colored fairy titles, and I had.

I went back to search for the Kathy Ross books. I loved these books, and found them to be as charming and encouraging as I remembered them. I’m thrilled that we have free access to them, and now that my schools are encouraging ebook use, I think I will be better able to blend using the SDSL Online books into students’ and teachers’ minds as a reasonable option. We can barely afford a basic collection of craft books, but making crafts is a tremendous learning experience for children.

With ebooks, marketing and promoting titles is developing into our biggest challenge. If I can get people into a database, then they’ll nose around and find what they need in it plus discover things they didn’t know they wanted. I’m envisioning a floor-to-ceiling list of selected SDSL resources with some cover picture prints and pictures of what kinds of information kids can access at the site – a Chilton cover for 1996 Mustangs; some words written in Arabic, Japanese, and Italian by the Mango site; the cover for Crafts to Make in the Spring by the EBSCO site; a portrait of William Shakespeare next to the WB Student edition, etc. Does the SDSL have any promotional materials or ideas about how we can advertise the online resources?

Lesson 6 Gale Virtual Reference Library

I first tried searching for “spring festivals” under Multicultural Studies and got 20 hits, mostly about Asian cultures that celebrate the Chinese New Year. That occurs between January 21 and February 20, so I didn’t think that would be what this patron wanted. I did find some information on the Powhatan tribe, but the celebration described was distinctly 20^th-21^st Century and seemed rather generic.

Next I searched for “spring and summer” in the Religion section and got 9 hits. Neo-Paganism was by far the most interesting. On May 1, Neo-Pagans celebrate Beltane to honor spring flowerings and birth, and on the spring equinox, they celebrate Ostara. Ostara is the goddess of fertility. A variation of her name is Eostre which has been corrupted into the word “Easter.” Her symbols include the egg and hare. Once I lived with a flock of geese that laid huge green eggs underneath plants and behind fences for 10 days each spring, and that’s where I thought our custom of gathering eggs at Easter came from. Wrong again!

I also discovered that Black Elk associated the direction east with green and spring. Searching under Nations, I found that Poland has a multitude of spring celebrations centered on Easter including fairs, pysanky or painting eggs, housecleaning rituals, and decorating pussy willow branches with ribbons.

The patron is asking for “spring” celebrations, and I kept finding Easter celebrations, but the Neo-Pagan article makes me think the connection between spring and Easter is pretty strong albeit subtle. So I stayed under Nations and clicked on Easter on the left menu. That brought up specific articles including recipes from such countries as Spain, Poland, Greece, the Ukraine, and Australia. In these articles, I discovered that spring housecleaning is a multinational activity, and that spring is also a good time to whitewash your windmills.

Several countries mark the coming of spring with something like an Advent calendar. In this case, it is a cardboard cutout of a woman or an animal with seven legs, one for each week of Lent. As each week is completed, a leg is torn off the calendar, and the calendar is burned during Holy Week. In Spain, bullfighting season commences around Easter. Perhaps most curious and disturbing is a photograph I found in the Spain article of people taking part in religious parade dressed in costumes reminiscent of those made notorious in the United States by the Ku Klux Klan. Next time I’m in Ancestry, I will be looking to see if Nathan Bedford Forrest has a Spanish ancestor.

In Advanced Search, I found that GVRL has added dozens of cultural heritage books since 2011 including many on individual Native American tribes. These resources are far more detailed than anything I could keep in our library. I also found a number of business books on topics ranging from Market Behavior to Rossignol to Offshore Agricultural Production in Saudi Arabia.

Lesson 5: ProQuest

Question 1

I entered “Les Miserables” in the search box and got 6,243 results. I reentered “Les Miserables novel” in the search box and narrowed the results to 1808. By choosing the Document Type “Article” the results decreased to 906. Under Subjects I chose “Literary Criticism” and got down to 140. I checked various articles. They loaded quickly, and the search terms were highlighted. The articles were very scholarly. The reading level of the articles available on this site would be too difficult for middle schoolers, but very helpful for teachers doing continuing education coursework.

 

Question 2

First I tried searching “Hurricane Sandy AND libraries” and got 971 results. I narrowed the Document Type to Reports, and started by choosing the Subject of Damage, since some of the impact will be damage, though that is certainly not the only kind of impact. In reviewing the results, I found that libraries were being used as supply collection sites and as places to  hold press conferences. I can infer some impact from this information: communities are recognizing their library buildings as stable, easily located, versatile public centers. The library buildings are being instantly repurposed to provide shelter, aid, and information to the public. This will create lasting good will toward the libraries, and instill in the public a visceral memory of the library as something they are grateful their town has; an important place in times of need.

 

I also found articles on specific aid for libraries such as this press release from New Jersey        Representative Frank Pallone (“. . .  the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded the New Jersey Council for the Humanities an Emergency Chairman's Grant of $30,000. The grant will go towards repairing New Jersey's cultural infrastructure and historic institutions . . . In addition, many humanities organizations, like libraries, served as shelters, emergency supply distribution centers and charging stations during the storm. The funding may also go to these organizations to defray hurricane-related costs.”) and this note from the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Hearing: “The Louisiana Office of Facility Planning and Control (FP&C) is responsible for $1.4 billion repairs or replacements of thousands of disaster-damaged facilities including hospitals, libraries and college campuses in Louisiana.”

 

I learned about an entirely new kind of library: “The USGS has helped develop a new tool using information from stream gauges called a flood inundation map library to assist first responders and the general public in knowing what areas will be flooded and how deep those flood waters will be for a given storm based on the NWS flood forecast. Real-time flood inundation map applications run flood simulations and create maps "on the fly" during a flood, using real-time data. The maps are freely available to anyone at any time.”

 

Next I searched for “Hurricane Sandy AND impact on libraries” and got 116 results. I was interested in this article on how libraries were immediately curating information about the storm’s impact on their communities. (Not surprisingly, they are focusing on virtual content which cannot be damaged by storms.)

 

'Hurricane Sandy: Record, Remember, Rebuild' Project

Targeted News Service [Washington, D.C] 29 May 2013.

According to Jon Voss, Historypin Strategic Partnerships Director, "At Historypin, where we seek to build community around local history, we hope to contribute in some small way to Hurricane Sandy recovery by providing a place online to share photos and recollections of how things were before, during, and after the storm. We know that archives, libraries, and museums play a critical role in preserving cultural and community memory, and we're delighted that SAA is joining us in this effort . . . Historypin invites individuals, communities, and local archives to share photographs, videos, and memories, with the goal of creating a rich record of life in communities and neighborhoods affected by the storm, a space to share memories, and a place to chronicle the re-building efforts. “

The article I was most interested in pertained to Hurricane Katrina, not Sandy. It seemed to come up in my results because it contained the word “Hurricane” even though I had specified “Hurricane Sandy” in my search. Regardless, it is clear from this introductory paragraph that with a little serious forethought, libraries can be the vanguard of information and organization in  disaster response. Although the research focused on medical libraries, the roles and skills fit all kinds of librarians. The article makes me wonder if the Rapid City Public Library is included in FEMA or other local disaster preparedness plans.

Library roles in disaster response: an oral history project by the National Library of Medicine*[dagger]false

. Journal of the Medical Library Association96.4 (Oct 2008): 343-50.

Through the process of conducting the oral history, an understanding of multiple roles for libraries in disaster response emerged. The roles fit into eight categories: institutional supporters, collection managers, information disseminators, internal planners, community supporters, government partners, educators and trainers, and information community builders.

Lesson 4: SIRS Discoverer and SIRS Issues Researcher

SIRS Discoverer 

First, this is my go-to research resource for middle school students: I love it! But based on this exercise, I wouldn’t use SIRS Discoverer with lower elementary students, especially not low-readers. I found no articles on the solar system or on planets with Lexile levels below 330, which is the bottom level for a 3^rd grader. Educators are told that a child doing research should be working towards the bottom of their leisure reading range. I was able to sort articles on the results page, but Advanced Search did not return any results in less than 3 minutes from my home computer, and then the results were only for the key search term; there was nothing “Advanced” about the search.  

When I sorted by Lexile Level on the results page, it trumped the Relevancy search. One of the first hits was for an article on lungs that contained a “what if” reference to the “Planet Sklunk.” Fortunately I don’t see these problems in my library classes. We love SIRS because of the accuracy on the topics we need, the descriptors, the summaries, and the pre-made MLA citations at the bottom of each article.

I would use World Book Kids with lower readers. The page layout at SIRS Discoverer has too many links; too much information; too many options for a young researcher to sort through on their own. A grown-up sitting behind the keyboard could find what the student needs, but I don’t think an elementary student would stick with it long enough to get decent results.

I was disappointed to find 10- and even 20-year-old results on a topic like the solar system. SIRS needs to clean out inaccurate and outdated material. Both of these articles had information that has changed since they were published. Students don’t know inaccurate information when they stumble on it. It’s another reason I would go with World Book Kids in this situation.

I the end, I found no articles I would consider worthwhile for this student. They were too specific, or too high a reading level, or no longer accurate.

 

2.  I tried Advanced Search for Volcanoes AND maps but got nothing that made sense.

Because Advanced Search still wasn’t performing well, I searched Volcanoes as a keyword and got 141 graphics hits. Clicking on the Graphics tab brought up only the graphic images, and I could see several maps on each of the 25 pages. I like that feature for helping students quickly find a usable image for their assignment. I tried a variety of other things, but never did find a way to only look for maps.

 

SIRS Issues Researcher

Let me  start by saying I was surprised at your introductory remarks about this resource. I question the description of SIRS Issues Researcher as being the middle- to high-school version of Discoverer. It really does an entirely different thing, and if students want a single-topic-oriented search experience like they get at Discoverer, they are going to be frustrated with Issues Researcher. You can get to the articles, but this site is really about pro/con, compare-and-contrast research. I send students to the Discovering Collection from Gale to continue single-topic-oriented research. I really think it is a more accurate example of the next-step-higher research site from SIRS Discoverer.

To answer question 1., I simply searched Suicide Prevention in the homepage search box of Issues Researcher and got hundreds of articles including both general information on teen suicide, but also things on specific prevention programs and strategies. Because the articles are vetted, it is a far faster way of searching for reliable information than is Google. I have used a similar “race” when I introduce research for classes but I don’t really need to do it anymore after the middle of 7^th grade. They pretty much know if they’re in the library they have to use reliable sites and Google is too slow.

 

2. I searched Water Use to start, and got a variety of hits about issues around the globe. I especially liked the Subject links at the bottom of each article for ideas about more specific search terms. Here is the list from an article about water use in Colorado:

Subjects:  Arid regions, Conservation of natural resources, Environmental impact analysis, Environmentalism, Irrigation, Irrigation farming, Natural resources, Reservoirs, Water conservation, Water use, Water-supply, West (U.S.), Colorado River Watershed (Colo.-Mexico), Irrigation water

There were many articles about towns all around the planet which were facing water conservation needs, and the solutions they were coming up with. I think these positive perspectives on water use might be very helpful at a town meeting where tempers can become heated. To be able to say, “Lots of people around the world are facing similar problems. Here’s what they’re trying” and give some accurate examples could move the discussion in a productive way.

Lesson 3 Learning Express

I found Learning Express to be more cumbersome to navigate and less helpful than I remembered it from a few years ago.

My main concern is about privacy: I don't like having to register, sign in, or have my movements tracked by any site, but this is especially concerning for people who might be exploring new job options. I emailed Learning Express to ask if there was a way to use their site without registering. If I hear back, I will add it to the bottom of this post. For this lesson, I created a fake ID and was able to register without giving an email address.

Still, I think as librarians we need to be aware of privacy issues. If a user wants to create an account that's one thing, but to require an account to access the site content I think is unnecessary and unfair. I don't know if this is something SDSL discusses when they contract with a site to offer it through the state library, but I think it should be going forward. I don't see any reassurances on the Learning Express site that they won't be using or releasing information they have collected from users.

1. For the 4th grader, I found Reading Comprehension exercises available for 5 different kinds of reading: Informational, Narrative, Persuasive, Poetry, and General Reading. I will be showing this to the Reading Specialist in our building.

2. For the woman seeking an office manager job, I first went to the Career Center and searched "office manager" but got no hits. Then I noticed the left and right arrowheads in the middle of the page and moved through options to Job Search and Workplace Skills and chose Build Your Workplace Skills from the menu on the left. There were four lessons on writing skills available, but nothing on what I think of as "management" skills: organizational skills, motivating and directing workers, basic accounting, corporate flow charts and position expectations, basic legal issues in Human Resources (taxes, insurance and benefits, harassment, etc.) I searched these topics individually without much success. 

Next I went to Prepare for an Occupation Exam and searched for "business", "office manager", "clerical", "administrative", and "human resources." No hits for any of these. I guess the only thing Learning Express can offer at this time is the writing lessons.

I will be checking other people's blogs on this question to see what else they find. "Office manager" is a pretty basic, common request and I hope there is more on Learning Express than I was able to find.

3. For the student interested in nursing or pharmacy, I went to the Career Center and chose Allied Health first. In one of the articles, there was a brief definition of what a pharmacist does, but not much else. Under the Occupational Exams center I found some tests for Pharmacy Technician Certification, but that is not the same thing as a pharmacist.

Back at the Career Center, I found a section on Becoming a Nurse, but I could not access it and the site froze three times in a row when I tried to open the document.

Here again, I am hoping others had better luck. When I used the site a few years ago, I thought it was a gold mine.

I also explored the College Prep Center and went into the AP exams. There are a number of curious 8th graders who would enjoy trying their hand at these tests, so I will be showing these to students soon. To see the exams, I did have to register, but the tests loaded smoothly and offered several different ways to take them and to use them as study aids.

Lesson 2

I decided to time myself on this lesson. Even signing in from home, the whole thing took 7 minutes. I love that South Dakotans have so much information at their fingertips.

Chilton
1. I entered the year, make, and model at the home page and clicked "Enter." Next I chose Steering Wheel Removal and Installation on the left menu. There were three videos available, and I played the third, which sounded most pertinent. It loaded quickly, the video quality was excellent, camera angles were helpful, and I especially appreciated the voiceover. It was not automated; there was no accent; and the script was in short clear sentences.

2. I had a little trouble with this one because I don't now anything about transmissions. However, I have used Chilton with several students this year, and they always know what options to choose for what they want. I just let them know the site exists and get them into the right year, make, and model. I think the Transmission Identification number is A131L. That's the number related to the Geo Prizm 3 speed transaxle . . . whatever that is. I have no question that if I had a living patron asking for this information we could work together to find it.

I am so glad that Chilton has gone online. It saves a ton of paper, shelf space, and continuous update costs, but mostly it gives me a site I can introduce to students that some non-readers will absolutely love. Plus the videos give a much clearer explanation of which bolt to tighten than a schematic drawing ever could. Thanks for offering this site!

Mango
I clicked "Start Learning", chose "English Courses", then hovered over each language offering to see which one was Vietnamese. I clicked into the one beginning "Tieng Anh Cho" and was on my way.

What a great resource! I hope you are in contact with agencies and congregations that are resettling immigrants and refugees to let them know about this resource. What an asset!