Lesson 7: EbscoHost Ebooks

1. I tried out the advanced search feature first using South Dakota as a seaerch and browsing through books on hiking and Native Americans. Then I put in "Literature" as my search and then narrowed it down by subject such as African American authors, Race Relations, and Class in Literature. This source is helpful for my English Lit courses when they do their research papers. I did notice the "Most relevant pages" feature which I believe is new. That is helpful to look at those first.

I also played around with searches putting in Literature and 18th Century, etc. Limiting by category is helpful: "biographies, literary criticism," etc.  Or, Literature and Surrealism; any of these will work for our research.

2. Fairy tale series:  For this search, I put in Fairy Tales as a subject search in the advanced search and had 16 results. The author of the series is Andrew Lang and titles are Violet, Yellow, Blue, Red.

Lesson 6: Gale Virtual Reference Library

Question 1: Spring Holidays Around the World

a. Spring festival traditions in different countries:

I searched for "holidays" and then used the limiters on the left side such as cultural overviews, recipes, etc.  I also tried selecting by publication title; choice included Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Junior Worldmark Ecyclopedia of Nations, and Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of Holidays. And just searching for Holidays and then searching within for spring was effective.

The Encyclopedia of Islam had the following:

NAWRUZ

Nawruz, literally "new day," is the Iranian holiday that celebrates the beginning of spring

 

I was also able to use the subject limiter and limit my search to holidays.

 

Another finding:

Rose Monday Parade in Cologne

The highlight of Karneval in Cologne, Dusseldorf, and Mainz, Germany, is the Rose Monday Parade. The parade in Cologne is the largest in Europe. It starts at 11:11 A.M. on the Monday before Ash Wednesday and features floats, bands, and groups of people masquerading as fools. More than seven thousand people and three hundred horses participate in this procession. Those riding on floats throw candy into the crowd lined up along the streets to watch the parade.

And the Ukraine:

Introduction

Easter, called Velykden (pronounced vuh-LICK-den; Great Day), is the Ukrainian Orthodox Church's most important holiday. The celebrations combine modern innovations with ancient traditions to render the holiday one of the most enjoyable of the year. Ukraine is famous for its elaborately decorated Easter eggs.

b. Traditional Foods and their recipes: 

 I did my search much the same as for the above question. I used some of the same titles but also found the Worldmark Encyclopedia of Food & Recipes. I browsed through the titles quite a bit longer than I planned. Very interesting. I also tried searching under spring festivals and then limiting to food and recipes. The following for Ching Ming festival:

Foods, Recipes

Cooked meals are most often offered to the dead on Ching Ming, but some families keep an old custom called the Cold Food Feast. This custom comes from an ancient story that restricts the making of all household fires on the day before Ching Ming (see "Legend of Cold Food Day" under "Folklore, Legends, Stories"). Because people could not cook any food, they prepared cold meals that did not require cooking. This feast once lasted for three days. Today, people place foods such as uncooked rice and noodles and unpeeled fruit and vegetables on the graves.

I also found the Easter holiday in Greece and a recipe for Easter honey pie or Melopitta.

c. Spring festival games: 

By this time, it was easy to find the information. Diwali is a spring festival in India:
 Because it is believed to be a time of good luck, playing games of chance involving dice is popular among Indian men on Diwali. The goddess Parvati is said to bless those who gamble on this day with prosperity throughout the year.

It was very easy to get distracted and read and browse more than I should have, but well worth it!

Lesson 5: Proquest

This search was very helpful since we are about to embark on our literary research in a few weeks. I must admit I don't use all of the limiters other than a few basic things. This particular search on Les Miserables took me a little trial and error. I started by just typing in Les Meserables and then trying out some of the limiters, but I found that I still had a ton of results with many still coming up with the Broadway play or musical. So I then typed in "Les Meserables novel" and that helped quite a lot. I still excluded many of the same things such as television show, movies, etc. and I also simply selected the tab for literary criticism which narrowed it down to about 117 articles and just looked at those. Anyway it helped to be able to eliminate those articles. I will definitely use this a lot in the coming weeks.


For the second question, I searched for "Hurricane Sandy" AND librar* and retrieved 480 results. I sorted the search by most recent date which were February 2014. I looked through a few of those and then I chose the subject limiters and included storm damage and chose reports for a source type.

I found articles that included how libraries and information centers are used as responses to extreme weather. Below is an excerpt:
The model pian, a one-page Library Service Continuity Plan, was adapted from the Councii of State Archivists' Pocket Response Plan (PReP) to be specific to libraries and information centers. The plan îs a template that contains space for everything a library needs to respond to a disaster. Libraries that complete 1he plan possess a very valuable response tool.

Another article discussed how thousands of books had to be discovered that were wet or moldy and it was cheaper to replace than try to preserve. With rarer books, money was needed to decontaminate them. Some libraries lost 80% of their collection. The insurance money could not even replace many of the books. Authors like Walter Dean Myers were making donations toward replacing books.

Another article mentioned how libraries were used as shelters in areas. And one where urban librarians were creating mini libraries:
Urban Librarians Unite (ULU) collected more than 20,000 children's books to help replace library collections damaged by Hurricane Sandy. The library advocacy and support group, founded by 2012 LJ Mover & Shaker Christian Zabriskie, also placed Mini Libraries in front of libraries that were closed by storm damage in Queens and Brooklyn.

I was interested in this topic as I had visited NYC shortly after Sandy and saw some of the devastation.

Lesson 4: Sirs Discoverer, Sirs Researcher

Sirs Discoverer:  This has been my favorite database this year.  I like the new features with the non-fiction books, current events, activities, etc. I have been using this with both elementary and middle-school students.  For the third grader I would use the advanced search and search by Lexile levels. I also checked the easy level so the easiest articles would be returned with Lexiles from lowest to highest. With the search of the solar system I received some very easy basic articles and gradually rose in lexile level.  There were reading comprehension questions and activities or lessons with most of the articles.

I also just noticed the export to Easy Bib feature.  Although our kids usually use Word to create their bibliographies I like the feature.

When searching for maps and images of volcanoes, I entered volcanoes as my search term and then clicked on the graphics tab; I had 141 images containing pictures, maps, charts and so on.

I also tried clicking on pictures in the database tab and then typing in my search. I received 109 results this way. I'm not sure why the difference but both bring a lot of relevant results.

Sirs Researcher:

When I use Sirs Researcher I usually look at the leading issues to determine if I can find my topic there. I think this is a good beginning point and gives me an overview of what the database has on the topic.  I then read the overview or At Issue summary, then the perspective or pro & con perspectives.  Then I look for relevant articles on the topic.

For the suicide topic I also noticed an interactive link in the corner and I clicked on that. There were all kinds of links and resources for both teens and parents. There was also an interactive flash titled Why Me? available.

I've always liked the SIRS products and encourage my students to use them. I do use google for quick overviews of things, but when I'm conducting research I usually go to the databases. When I googled teen suicide prevention I had to wade through a few sites before getting to the same information that I found on Sirs Researcher.  Much of the time with google, there are so many yahoo or ask.com sites that are just not releable. I'm glad we have so many resources at our fingertips.

In the case of the drought and water issue I found the leading issue of Water Use. I read through the summary and the pro/con feature articles, plus the articles found below.  Many of those articles could be used. I also searched for water use, drought, and water prevention. I always make sure I notice the subject descriptors under the articles. That way I found water policy, water conservation, water pollution law and legislation, etc.

Lesson 3 Learning Express

In using Learning Express for the fourth grader I found many reading comprehension practice skills.  There were different types of reading such as poetry, informational, persuasive, general, following directions, etc.  I think these practice exercises would be helpful for reading teachers or special ed teachers that are working with students in small groups or one to one.

For the recent HS grad interested in an office manager job and how to improve their skills, I would show the Adult Learning Center and the section on Improving your writing, speaking, and grammar.  There is a section on Building Your Workplace Skills, tutorials, practice writing exercises. There were even several ebooks that could be used. The tutorials included lessons on writing various business documents, getting organized, writing without mistakes, etc. 



For the student needing help with careers I went to the career center and there was a section under Learning About Careers.  There was a section on nursing and two ebooks: one on Becoming a Nurse and the other on Spanish/English terms. The latter had sections on how to communicate with patients, basic Spanish words, phrases, and grammar.  I didn't find a lot on the Pharmacy career, only a little in the Allied Health area. However, for both careers the students could look at the entrance exams.

Overall, I think this program is a nice companion to our careers library. The careers section, ebooks, and college prep sections will be very useful.