1. I found the lessons on Ancestry.com and the information found in WorldCat to be the most interesting to me, however, I plan to use many of the resources we learned about in this class.
2. I recently surveyed my staff, and I am offering workshops for graduate credit based on their needs.
I already have 2 classes lined up for this Spring, however, I plan to offer a course this summer titled "Research Made Easy" for our teachers. In this class, I plan to use many of the resources we covered in this class as well as others located within the South Dakota State Library. These are great ways to get our teachers involved and more educated about the SDSL and comfortable with using them in their classes.
Thursday, March 20, 2014
SD Library Challenge - Lesson 9 - Ancestry Library, Heritage Quest, and more
Ancestry.com
1. When I searched for my name, it brought goosebumps to me to find several people with the exact same name as I have. I was actually the third one listed. When I clicked on my name, I found this site has me listed with an old address. There were two links that said there was more information, so I clicked on them. What I found was one led to my maiden name with the address I grew up at, and the address of my sorority in college. The other link gave my married name with the address of the first house my husband and I bought. I found it interesting that it didn't list the first address I had after college, nor did it have our most recent address - which we've had for 5 years.
2. I searched for all of my grandparents, but didn't have much luck. One set of grandparents came up on a general search at this site, but they didn't show up in the census. The other grandparents I looked up, I didn't have enough information to narrow it down and find them. I find this to be sort of addicting, as I want to keep searching. This also really makes me interested in working to help others who are searching for birth parents or adopted children.
3. When searching for "South Dakota" in the location box, it turned up over 9 million results.When I click to choose the "Pictures", the search increases to over 220 million. I assume this means there could be several pictures for the same person in the registry.
Heritage Quest
4. I had a lot of trouble getting in to this site. None of the links on the class page work for me. I tried to do a search for the Heritage Quest site, and it took me to the state website. From there, it took a few clicks to get me in to a place I assume was the site I was supposed to be at. When searching for "Wagner, SD" it turned up over 1200 results. The page will only list 1000 at a time, so I needed to refine my search. I didn't know how to refine it more, so I changed my search and tried a location where I thought I could find some family from the early 1900s. Again...no luck.
I changed my search to look for a book, and searched for "Wagner, SD". Nothing came up, so I broadened my search to "South Dakota". Finally, I got over 2,400 results, mostly history of the counties. I clicked on The History of Charles Mix County and found an interesting book with 185 pages. I look forward to glimpsing through this book to see if I can find anything more local to the Wagner area. At first glance, I did notice there is information about the Yankton Sioux Indian Reservation, so I will begin reading there.
Sanborn Maps
5. I was disappointed to find that Wagner wasn't listed on this site, but there were a few towns nearby. I chose Armour, since it was the closest. I found that the map shows different city limits than what there is today, and even some of the streets have changed. In addition, the courthouse is still there, and it is still in use today.
1. When I searched for my name, it brought goosebumps to me to find several people with the exact same name as I have. I was actually the third one listed. When I clicked on my name, I found this site has me listed with an old address. There were two links that said there was more information, so I clicked on them. What I found was one led to my maiden name with the address I grew up at, and the address of my sorority in college. The other link gave my married name with the address of the first house my husband and I bought. I found it interesting that it didn't list the first address I had after college, nor did it have our most recent address - which we've had for 5 years.
2. I searched for all of my grandparents, but didn't have much luck. One set of grandparents came up on a general search at this site, but they didn't show up in the census. The other grandparents I looked up, I didn't have enough information to narrow it down and find them. I find this to be sort of addicting, as I want to keep searching. This also really makes me interested in working to help others who are searching for birth parents or adopted children.
3. When searching for "South Dakota" in the location box, it turned up over 9 million results.When I click to choose the "Pictures", the search increases to over 220 million. I assume this means there could be several pictures for the same person in the registry.
Heritage Quest
4. I had a lot of trouble getting in to this site. None of the links on the class page work for me. I tried to do a search for the Heritage Quest site, and it took me to the state website. From there, it took a few clicks to get me in to a place I assume was the site I was supposed to be at. When searching for "Wagner, SD" it turned up over 1200 results. The page will only list 1000 at a time, so I needed to refine my search. I didn't know how to refine it more, so I changed my search and tried a location where I thought I could find some family from the early 1900s. Again...no luck.
I changed my search to look for a book, and searched for "Wagner, SD". Nothing came up, so I broadened my search to "South Dakota". Finally, I got over 2,400 results, mostly history of the counties. I clicked on The History of Charles Mix County and found an interesting book with 185 pages. I look forward to glimpsing through this book to see if I can find anything more local to the Wagner area. At first glance, I did notice there is information about the Yankton Sioux Indian Reservation, so I will begin reading there.
Sanborn Maps
5. I was disappointed to find that Wagner wasn't listed on this site, but there were a few towns nearby. I chose Armour, since it was the closest. I found that the map shows different city limits than what there is today, and even some of the streets have changed. In addition, the courthouse is still there, and it is still in use today.
SD Library Challenge - Lesson 8 - WorldCat
1. Other than searching this database by keyword, you can search by some of the better known fields such as title, publisher, subject, or author. However, you can also search for other fields such as musical composition, language phrase, and material type.
2. I searched for the book Divergent since it is popular with my middle school girls, and it is coming out in the theaters. The first result turned up in 874 libraries worldwide. However, I noticed that looking down the list of search results, it is also available in other languages, which may change the spelling of the title to be appropriate for thier language. All results are by the same author, so I'm confident they are the same book - just published in another language.
When clicking on the #1 result, I found the list of libraries appeared to be in order closest to my location. However, when I clicked on the first one, it said "Page no longer available", and the second one said "This item is no longer in this database". My third result, the Mitchell Public Library, came up to be a positive search, and I could locate the book there. I'm sure this book is in many, many more libraries in South Dakota, but I find it interesting that the libraries aren't updating their inventories on this database. However, many public libraries may not check out books and mail them to people requesting to loan copies. That would explain why many school and public libraries are not listed.
3. The class descriptor for Divergent is LC: PZ7.R7375; Dewey: [Fic]. Clicking on the author, Veronica Roth, the database says she has 255 publications - 165 books, 47 internet publications, 37 sound publications, 3 visual publications, 2 serial publications, and 1 computer publication. By looking over the titles, it seems that these are a lot of the same title repeated or offered in a different format. I noticed that many of the descriptors or subjects for this title are either Identity (Psychology), Family, Courage, or Social Classes. I clicked on the first one - Identity - and found a list of books on this similar subject. I was really excited about this, because I have read this series, and wondered if there are other books similar to this one that I would really enjoy reading as well. I will definitely use this feature of WorldCat!
2. I searched for the book Divergent since it is popular with my middle school girls, and it is coming out in the theaters. The first result turned up in 874 libraries worldwide. However, I noticed that looking down the list of search results, it is also available in other languages, which may change the spelling of the title to be appropriate for thier language. All results are by the same author, so I'm confident they are the same book - just published in another language.
When clicking on the #1 result, I found the list of libraries appeared to be in order closest to my location. However, when I clicked on the first one, it said "Page no longer available", and the second one said "This item is no longer in this database". My third result, the Mitchell Public Library, came up to be a positive search, and I could locate the book there. I'm sure this book is in many, many more libraries in South Dakota, but I find it interesting that the libraries aren't updating their inventories on this database. However, many public libraries may not check out books and mail them to people requesting to loan copies. That would explain why many school and public libraries are not listed.
3. The class descriptor for Divergent is LC: PZ7.R7375; Dewey: [Fic]. Clicking on the author, Veronica Roth, the database says she has 255 publications - 165 books, 47 internet publications, 37 sound publications, 3 visual publications, 2 serial publications, and 1 computer publication. By looking over the titles, it seems that these are a lot of the same title repeated or offered in a different format. I noticed that many of the descriptors or subjects for this title are either Identity (Psychology), Family, Courage, or Social Classes. I clicked on the first one - Identity - and found a list of books on this similar subject. I was really excited about this, because I have read this series, and wondered if there are other books similar to this one that I would really enjoy reading as well. I will definitely use this feature of WorldCat!
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
SD Library Challenge - Lesson 7 - EBooks on EbscoHost
1.
The first topic I searched was “Scholarships”.
On the first screen, the book Free Stuff
for Busy Moms caught my eye so I clicked on that one. I found it
interesting that when it took me to the page with information about that book,
it also used my search term and gave me a list of relevant pages to look for
that topic in this book. This is very helpful because it saves the reader time
by not having to search through the entire book for the information they are
looking for.
I found it a little tricky to do
searches for subjects with more than one word. After trying several different
searches, I believe it is easier to search with the general search feature,
instead of using the Advanced tab.
2.
There are several recommendations for books and
materials on the Constitution. Here are a few I found interesting:
·
Foner, E., Garraty, J., & Society of American, H.
(1991). The Reader's Companion to American History. Boston:
Houghton-Mifflin.
·
Bergman, P., & Berman-Barrett, S. J. (2000). The
Criminal Law Handbook : Know Your Rights, Survive the System. Berkeley,
Calif: Nolo Press.
·
Stewart, J., Burger, W. E., & Macalester, C. (1987). The
Constitution, the Law, and Freedom of Expression, 1787-1987. Carbondale: Southern
Illinois University Press.
·
The Constitution of the United States of America. (n.d). Champaign, Ill. [P.O. Box 2782,
Champaign 61825]: Project Gutenberg.
3.
When I did an advanced search for a Publisher
with “Nebraska”, I got several results from the University of Nebraska. Many of
the texts that appeared in my list were on the topic of Native Americans and
their history. I could really use this for helping teachers integrate the Oceti
Sakowin standards in their classes. When I searched for a Publisher with “Oklahoma”,
I got a lot more results, but of similar content. The most interesting text I
found was called Nothing But Prairie and
Sky: Life on the Dakota Range in the Early Days. I have never liked history
classes, but this book is told in more of a storybook format, and looks like I would
really enjoy reading it.
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