6.
 I am trying to beat the deadline and get all my lessons done before I get overwhelmed, with that in mind I m happy that I am on Lesson 6. Using the EBSCHost I looked up Grant Writing for Dummies and The Idiot's complete guide to Grant Writing since I am supposed to have a copy of a reference book for Library Institute this summer. I didn't find either of those reference books but I did see a few on Gant Writing. While scrolling through the list I also noticed some titles I will be glad to view in the near future like guides to Scholarships, I have a sophomore and guides for writing, hoping to write a book someday and how to start a small business among many other titles.

I settled on How to Write A Grant Proposal. It was very easy to read and very imformative discussing step by step what other terminology was used in different proposals as well as the best way to approach it. There was very specific advice on doing the right things to get your proposal looked at. This waould make a great reference to groups needing to find funding through grants.

Yay Constitution Day! First I had to look up the definition on Wickipedia just to make sure I was thinking on the right track. It seems that educational institutions receiving federal funding are required to do activities teaching about the constitution and this was mandated I think in 2004 or so, which is why some of us, cough cough older generation would not have known about it. Looking on EBSCOHost some titles of interest would be Our Elusive Constitution : Silences, Paradoxes, Priorities, Great American History Fact-finder : The Who, What, Where, When, and Why of American History,

Colonies and Revolution, a juvenile nonfiction book,

Representing Popular Sovereignty : The Constitution in American Political Culture.

 

There was a wide variety of subjects when I typed in Oklahoma and PB publisher so I imagine that had to do more with who published the book rather than the subject of Oklahoma since all items were published by the University of Oklahoma Press.

Lesson 5 Gale Virtual Reference Library

Whew! I was afraid after Lesson 4 that maybe I was not techy enough for this challenge but Gale was kind to me. Using the GVRL I looked in the Encyclopedia of Medicine and looked at the article on Menopause. It was very informative on the symptoms and general age in which women can experience this change in life. It also discussed the benefits and drawbacks to the types of Hormone Replacement therepies available. It was easy to read and understand and very easy to access. It also offered searches on related issues such as herbal treatment and a closer look at Hormone replacement therepy. I really liked the format of this site and the ease of navigating through it.

I first started a search on Harry Potter. Articles on mythological creatures from Harry Potter were listed and from there I read about Fenrir, the evil werewolf in the series. It was very interesting to find out wolves were very popular in English literature because wolves presented a real threat at one time. Which is why they show up in so many children's stories. The article did reference Harry Potter at the end but not really what I was looking for. I tried typing in the title of the book along with good vs. evil and the title with protagonist. Didn't get much results for that, so I fell back on the suggested subject of Zinc.

Again I was directed to the encyclopedia of medicine and settled on the article discussing mineral deficiency. I found that zinc deficiencies are not common in Americans except in cases of alcoholism, Croan's disease and celiac disease which is becoming a relatively well known condition. Even though I was a little disappointed in my Harry Potter search I still think this is an easy tool for the lay person.

4. Proquest
I'll admit, I am not a reasearch fanatic. I think proquest would be very helpful to someone needing information but it was a little overwhelming to me. There was much information on the medical topic I chose and it was time consuming to narrow down my search. If I had a life threatening health problem I would find this site very helpful, wanting to know everything I could about the topic.

Looking through my cohorts' blogs I find that many of them are procrastinators like myself or as I like to say just busy with life. It seems that everyone is equally impressed with resources available through the state library.

I was very frustrated using proquest publications. I even pulled up the 2 page list of directions and could still only get the cite page and summary even after created an account for my research. After 20 minutes I decided I will have to come back to this challenge when I am not pressed for time and read through it more slowly evn looking through some of my cohorts notes. I guess I shouldn't expect everything to be super easy. :(