Lesson 7 ArchiveGrid and CAMIO

I thought ArchiveGrid was interesting--I am not sure how I will use it yet, but it is definitely worth looking at. The Sitting Bull information was pretty basic but I looked at other results for Sioux Indians, Sioux Uprising. I think there are some possibilities for history classes. I did some family research and although I did not find a lot, it might be worth it to look at it more and even contact a couple of libraries. We are currently doing a "People of the Past" project with 6th graders and I did find some worthwhile information for a few projects.

CAMIO was pretty cool. I had never tried this before and I plan on sharing this with art teachers and other teachers as well. I tried different features such as the favorites, slide shows, and create web pages. I hope our teachers will make use of this!

Net Library

I've used Net Library a little more this year with classes. I found a couple of titles that I can show our history teacher on the Lakota Sioux. It's very easy to navigate through the books. I will be showing this next week to several English classes who are doing some research. Again, for me it's a matter of remembering to point it out to students. I did spend some time looking at Fitness books and found quite a few that would be helpful.

I do have a question about the audiobooks and media center. Is this something that we have access to? I noticed the instructions on how to install but I was not able to find the eaudiobook page in order to do that.

Otherwise, I do like Net Library and will plan on using that more frequently for myself and with research with classes.

Gale Virtual Ref. Library

I mostly started using this product just this year with classes. I had used it previously but always seemed to forget about it with classes. Now that I have been seeing more of upper level classes in English I have begun using it more. For example we had a research project with specific authors and their works and I found that we could find most of the authors using this product. We are fortunate in that we also have access to Gale Literature Resource Center which has been very useful with English classes and Global Resource Center which is great with issues and current events. I find the Gale products very easy to use; they all have the read aloud feature and with Global Issues you can set up RSS feeds which I like for certain newspapers.

For this assignment I looked up several authors that I know will be coming up in classes and was able to find them as well as some of their works and topics and themes. I was also curious about the zinc found in foods and was easily able to find that: best foods for zinc are lamb, beef, leafy grains, root vegetables such as potatoes and carrots, shellfish, and organ meats such as liver or kidneys found in Brody, Tom, and Samuel Uretsky. "Minerals." The Gale Encyclopedia of Children's Health: Infancy through Adolescence. Ed. Kristine Krapp and Jeffrey Wilson. Vol. 3. Detroit: Gale, 2006. 1186-1188. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 15 Mar. 2010.

I do like the download and email feature. I know when I am helping students I will often email them an article that I think might help them.

Lesson 3: Proquest

I have used Proquest before for research. I researched different current issues, recipes for soups, etc. I also searched by different publications. The RSS feeds are good if you follow a certain issue or journal and want updates. It's very easy to use; I like the subjects or topics they give you at the top to help your search.

Sirs: Lesson 2

I like the different features in Discoverer. I find them very useful.  I also like how they have the reading levels color-coded. It is easy to use and follow. We use Researcher a lot with classes and their research papers. It is very helpful in giving students topics and viewpoints and ideas on how to write the paper. I had never tried the curriculum pathfinders before so I will try using those.