My biggest discovery is that these resources are underused. There were so many that I could use on a personal basis in helping my kids, all at different ages, with school work, getting ready for college, as a girl scout and boy scout leader; it was phenominal. as I use these resources more I would like to offer workshops to people who I know will also use them. I am currently gearing up for the summer with my kids and want them to retain as much knowledge as possible. For my son, who will be a junior, we will start with Learning Express to get him ready for taking the ACT. I also would like him to use this resource for narrowing down career choices to help him in making a better informed decision in which college would best fit his intended career. I know many families who could benefit from thse services.
My other children, jr high and elementary can use the World Book Encyclopedia for games and project ideas to keep them occupied as well as learn at the same time. I would like to direct my frequent computer users to those sights as well along with some of the non-education games they prefer.
As I get more and more comfortable with the role of head librarian I would love to hold on going education for the members of my community and show them all the wonderful resources at their fingertips.
Monday, May 14, 2012
LI Lesson 5 Ancestry Library South Dakota
There were over 5,000 listing for pictures in south Dakota. As I started looking through the pages I noticed there were many yearbooks listed so pulled up one from the Black Hills University in Spearfish from 1916. There was a little writeup from the yearbook along with what looked like a class picture. There were 63 other pages in this document alone. I sounds like this group went on an outing in a horse drawn cart and ran into some trouble.Quite interesting as well as the language used almost 100 years ago.
Then I refined my search to family photos 1850-2000. Looking through the old photos it looked like any other family from that era. I liked the candid shots more than the posed ones because it shows so much more personality. The farms in the background look similar in every picture as well and is interesting that even when people weren't as "linked" together as we are now they still lead pretty similar lives. Also it's interesting to note that good looks come through no matter what the hairstyle or clothes.
I also looked around the Sears Catalogs. Kind of interesting the products they had for sale and the prices. This would be helpful for someone doing a display of historical items and they needed a description and information. Also if someone was recreating an authentic piece for a prop in a play or movie, this gives a timely information about things that may or may not be around anymore or has adapted so much to our technology its unrecognizable.
Then I refined my search to family photos 1850-2000. Looking through the old photos it looked like any other family from that era. I liked the candid shots more than the posed ones because it shows so much more personality. The farms in the background look similar in every picture as well and is interesting that even when people weren't as "linked" together as we are now they still lead pretty similar lives. Also it's interesting to note that good looks come through no matter what the hairstyle or clothes.
I also looked around the Sears Catalogs. Kind of interesting the products they had for sale and the prices. This would be helpful for someone doing a display of historical items and they needed a description and information. Also if someone was recreating an authentic piece for a prop in a play or movie, this gives a timely information about things that may or may not be around anymore or has adapted so much to our technology its unrecognizable.
Friday, May 11, 2012
LI History and Geneology
1. I looked up myself and it was neat to see information, such as some of the places I have lived and my birth date and location. I couldn't find much else, like my marriage date and baptism date etc. I also looked up my brother who had passed away in 99 and it was nice to see some things about him as well.
2. I looked up my Grandfather HM Paul Palmer because he and my son share the same birthday so it would be easier to know if I was searching the right guy. I found him and started looking up his information. He was enlisted into the Navy in May of 1942, making him barely 18. He enlisted from Oklahoma City, OK, which surprised me because I just assumed he had always lived in Kansas. Even more surprising was his ship, BB-42, was stationed in New York. His first journey started in October of that same year. I want to learn more, which is frustrating that you have to do it from the library or school. I will have to come back to this assignment.
2. I looked up my Grandfather HM Paul Palmer because he and my son share the same birthday so it would be easier to know if I was searching the right guy. I found him and started looking up his information. He was enlisted into the Navy in May of 1942, making him barely 18. He enlisted from Oklahoma City, OK, which surprised me because I just assumed he had always lived in Kansas. Even more surprising was his ship, BB-42, was stationed in New York. His first journey started in October of that same year. I want to learn more, which is frustrating that you have to do it from the library or school. I will have to come back to this assignment.
LI Sanborn Maps
Didn't find my town so I looked at Rapid City since that is where I do most of my shopping. I chose the selection November 1915. I thought the map was very hard to navigate. I kept wanting to move it over with the cursor and that just changed the magnification. I was just getting frustrated and ready to quit when I finally recognized some streets and looked for the Elke's Theatre. It was there! As I looked through the maps I saw one for a hotel and it was interesting to see the layout of the building, with certain shops and services. It even listed where there was furniture and posts. Good to know if you are going into a fire and can't see.
LI Lesson 9 Heritage
I am not sure if I am looking for places or people that are too recent but I am finding no results. I have tried Bison, SD in PERSI as well as Perkins County. There is some listing of cemeteries but that is it. I also thought it would be interresting to learn the History of the town of Bixby, SD which is now just a road to travel on from Highway 20 to Highway 212 but it was built to sustain the railroad that never went through. I also tried my great grandpa with no luck.
Monday, May 7, 2012
LI WorldCat Lesson 4
It is amazing how much easier technology has made finding things. In the advanced search of World Cat one can not only narrow a search by the traditional author, subject and title, but narrow each of these listings as well. I am not sure what all the possibilities are like Language phrase, access number and accession number but there are still many other ways to look without knowing these.
For the first exercise I typed in a book by Chris VanAllsburg, The Widow's Broom, one of my favorite illustrators. The result was 2,758 libraries worldwide carry this great book. There were seven libraries in South Dakota that carried it, the closest being Black Hills State University. The call number is PZ7.V266 Wi 1992 175142. By clicking on the name of the author I see there are 13 other of his books in that collection although I know he has written and illustrated more.
One of the subject choices was brooms and brushes and their was only 1 other book in that collection that included that subject. I also tried magic-fiction that listed 50 books other than The Widow's Broom.
This link also offers the titles of other books in that subject area along with their publish dates, location in the Black Hills State Library and how many copies are available. For instance there is 1 available copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which was published in 2003.
Using OAIster I looked at a dissertation titled Dreams and Dust in the Black Hills: Race, Place, and National Identity in America's "Land of Promise" It is an internet resource and is only listed to the state library. When I went to the access link nothing appeared so I am going to try a different item. Oh I was wrong, just didn't give it enough time to load. This dissertation came from a student from the University of New Mexico. I find it interesting to be able to see other works from students other places. A masters or doctorate candidate could use this search tool to find out what has already been covered in dissertation work and maybe find a different angle from what has already been done.
I can see where World Cat is an amazing tool for cities with multiple library branches. Unfortunately in South Dakota it is not a matter of driving 15 minutes to check out a book at another location and with the now limited use of ILLs, it seems that the actual use of items in other libraries is becoming impractical for our region.
For the first exercise I typed in a book by Chris VanAllsburg, The Widow's Broom, one of my favorite illustrators. The result was 2,758 libraries worldwide carry this great book. There were seven libraries in South Dakota that carried it, the closest being Black Hills State University. The call number is PZ7.V266 Wi 1992 175142. By clicking on the name of the author I see there are 13 other of his books in that collection although I know he has written and illustrated more.
One of the subject choices was brooms and brushes and their was only 1 other book in that collection that included that subject. I also tried magic-fiction that listed 50 books other than The Widow's Broom.
This link also offers the titles of other books in that subject area along with their publish dates, location in the Black Hills State Library and how many copies are available. For instance there is 1 available copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which was published in 2003.
Using OAIster I looked at a dissertation titled Dreams and Dust in the Black Hills: Race, Place, and National Identity in America's "Land of Promise" It is an internet resource and is only listed to the state library. When I went to the access link nothing appeared so I am going to try a different item. Oh I was wrong, just didn't give it enough time to load. This dissertation came from a student from the University of New Mexico. I find it interesting to be able to see other works from students other places. A masters or doctorate candidate could use this search tool to find out what has already been covered in dissertation work and maybe find a different angle from what has already been done.
I can see where World Cat is an amazing tool for cities with multiple library branches. Unfortunately in South Dakota it is not a matter of driving 15 minutes to check out a book at another location and with the now limited use of ILLs, it seems that the actual use of items in other libraries is becoming impractical for our region.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Proquest
Lunar Eclipse
What started out as a result of 20 sources, narrowed down to four when I picked Christopher Columbus, then narrowed even further when I selected publication in the last 10 years. Before I used the "limiters" I scrolled over the choices to see what was available. Patrons researching a particular subject can also limit their sources by location, the type of source, by type of document, wether it's a review or an article or a feature, etc. This make the search for information so much easier. It was always this part that took the longest in research back in the day. . .You would gather up many sources only to find the informtion irrelevent or outdated. At the touch of your fingertips you can limit a resource list to exactly what you need wether the list be 20 or 200.
I wanted to try a search on my own so I typed in a headline I saw on yahoo news about facebook. I limited the date to only the current year, then what type of document. I settled on article and ended up with thirty sources. Scrolling down the page I found the information I was looking for by the third source. Not too shabby.
Lottery Winner
I would search first for lottery winners, then I would ask the patron if they wanted to limit the search to a certain year or time period, if they had perticular states in mind and only US states or provinces as well. This will get them narrowed down pretty well. Also if they had seen a news report sparking their interest, maybe the subject matter as well.
What started out as a result of 20 sources, narrowed down to four when I picked Christopher Columbus, then narrowed even further when I selected publication in the last 10 years. Before I used the "limiters" I scrolled over the choices to see what was available. Patrons researching a particular subject can also limit their sources by location, the type of source, by type of document, wether it's a review or an article or a feature, etc. This make the search for information so much easier. It was always this part that took the longest in research back in the day. . .You would gather up many sources only to find the informtion irrelevent or outdated. At the touch of your fingertips you can limit a resource list to exactly what you need wether the list be 20 or 200.
I wanted to try a search on my own so I typed in a headline I saw on yahoo news about facebook. I limited the date to only the current year, then what type of document. I settled on article and ended up with thirty sources. Scrolling down the page I found the information I was looking for by the third source. Not too shabby.
Lottery Winner
I would search first for lottery winners, then I would ask the patron if they wanted to limit the search to a certain year or time period, if they had perticular states in mind and only US states or provinces as well. This will get them narrowed down pretty well. Also if they had seen a news report sparking their interest, maybe the subject matter as well.
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