1. My biggest discovery is that I'm a lazy researcher! True story! Somehow, in the age of digital information, I've gotten accustomed to expecting the answers to just "be there" with little exertion on my part. As I did the exercises, it became apparent to me that my skills in searching have fallen by the wayside and I needed to hone them again. That's the nice thing about the lessons provided in the challenge. It motivated me to dig a little deeper, to check another link or tool provided in the databases. Jane's helpful guidance was also a great assist, when she commented on my blog entries. Maybe this isn't the kind of "big discovery" the ERC leaders were anticipating, but this is the biggest thing I learned.
In the ERC itself, I did discover how to navigate many of the databases more fluently, given the guidelines and lessons during the challenge. I've found that some of them are really a lot of fun to use, while there are a couple that nearly put me in a coma from boredom. That's okay, however, because all of the databases we covered in the challenge offered something valuable and not everything HAS to be fun all the time. I am very grateful to have these resources available in the SDSL system! Once I have had the opportunity to peruse the database further, I'm sure even the "boring" sites will prove less taxing on my patience. ;) All in all, I appreciate all I learned in this challenge and am so glad I participated!
2. The final query of the ERC asks me how I will promote or use the resources with patrons, colleagues or students. This is something I've been sharing since first introduced to the Electronics Resource Challenge and plan to continue for as long as I'm in a position to do so. Our library here in Clark, SD is a small public library. Since there aren't a lot of patrons who come in on a regular basis, I've taken to utilizing some of the social media (Facebook, for example) to remind patrons about the many databases the State Library system offers to patrons. If a patron does come in, searching for something in particular, I go straight to the Resources now, to attempt to find what they seek. When we get a new patron, I also tell them about the SDSL system, the E-card that they can get for free from the SDSL website and then about the resources available there. They know they can come in at any time & I am glad to assist them in their searches or if they need some guidance on using the system.
This is such an excellent tool, in the right hands, and is a very valuable gift which our library (or any other, for that matter) can offer the community. It's so nice to know there are helpful tools like these out there for anyone who wants to learn anything. Thank you, to the leaders of this ERC, for all of the great lessons & help they provided in the past few weeks. Thank you so very much!
So, now that it's over, I will still use it, keep digging deeper (and not so lazily) to see what other resources are there, so it will be easier to be a good librarian for my community. First though... finishing the challenge calls for a Recess break! Who's up for a game of tetherball?
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Lesson 9 -- History and Genealogy Resources—Ancestry Library, Heritage Quest and Sanborn Maps
1. At AncestryLibrary, I entered my name & birth year, as well as one of the many cities I have enjoyed living in... Bellingham, WA. When I hit the search button, the number of results really floored me! Over 6 million hits, from just that little bit of information. Bear in mind, the results were not for exact matches, but any & all that were similar enough by one or more factors (name, second initial, birth year, city of dwelling at any time) in the search. This database allows the user to alter the number of responses a query can receive on the page, once the results come up, from ten (10), twenty (20), or fifty (50). After I'd been given over 6 million responses, I thought it best to go for 50 hits per page. Forgive me, but I only went through the first few pages and then realized I'd be working on this exercise for days, if I were to go through every result of my query. Suffice it to say, there were a lot of women with the same name, all born in the same era, with my name. In my search of the first few pages, I didn't locate "me", but that's not to say I'm not listed. This librarian just could not find the time to peruse every one of the pages offered. This does not mean, however, that I shan't return and see if I do find myself listed, at a later date. :)
2. In exercise 2, I was instructed to search for either a grandparent or great grandparent, to see if I can locate them within any census. This search, for a grandparent, gave better, less frustrating results! I discovered my paternal grandparents in a 1930 census, simply by typing in one of their names and the location where one of them may have lived. The database gave 750 results for my query, many of which were for my grandparent(s) in the search. While there, I also discovered a couple of uncles and aunts, within the confines of this same search, no doubt due to the unusual last name and the location data I provided. Now that I've found these long, lost relatives, I shall attempt to contact them & see if we can reconnect. This is so cool! I'd thought my paternal side of the family was to forever elude me, but maybe not now. :)
3. The 3rd exercise instructs to search for South Dakota, then review the "pictures" option from the menu to the left of the screen. I entered the requested term and received 220,983,931 results. The first photo/image I looked at was of some Brooklyn baseball players. They wore some funny uniforms back then. The images on this photograph resembled those often seen on old-time baseball cards. Pretty cool, actually, to see the names and photos of these ball stars of way back when. The second image I viewed was... wait a second! I looked right at it, without actually seeing it, but once I got to the "pictures" point, where each individual image is listed, there is a new menu to the left of the listed images (where I'd clicked on "pictures" previously). This menu is an index of the various categories under which the photos/images are listed. So, instead of scrolling through every single baseball photo, then the individual school pictures, I can check the index to determine whether I want to look under a different category and avoid the snail's pace of scrolling one by one! Does that make sense? I sure hope so, for the reader's sake.
Anyhow, I checked over the index and saw there are images in categories like Library of Congress Photo Collection 1840 - 2000, U. S. Historical Postcards, U.S. Panoramic Photos 1851 -
1991, Professional Baseball Players 1876 - 2004, and more. Lots more! Each category also informs the user of how many listings are available per category, which is extremely helpful. :)
My second choice is for U.S. Civil War Photos 1860 - 1865. There are 6,846 results for this search. I looked at a couple of the photos, one of the Alexandria, VA Cooks in the kitchen of Soldier's Rest, taken July 1865. Nice open air kitchen, great for summer, but probably not so fun in winter. Another photo I examined from the same category was Yorktown, VA (vicinity). Topographical Engineers, Camp Winfield Scott from May, 1862. This photograph has the image duplicated on the same photo, as if viewed through one of those old "View-Finder" toys, or through binoculars. I like looking at old photos, so I could sit here for hours and peruse this alone! I really like this feature!
4. In HeritageQuest, there are over 28,000 family and local histories in their online historical books. Search for a place or browse the publications. Report back on something that interested you.
My search in the Heritage Quest database came up with several "No results found" messages, when I attempted to look up people and some places. So, I tried searching for an older town that I once lived near, back in Montana. Plains, MT is a lovely little town, set on Hwy 200, in the NW corner of the state. It's a very lovely, small town with some very warm-hearted locals. I thought it might be nice to find some information about this place where I once lived.
The ProQuest Site has been uncooperative, when I attempted to use the links provided on the http://sdlibrarychallenge.blogspot.com page. The handout link, the video links, and tutorial videos all gave me the same response, when I attempted to view them...
so, I gave up on trying to use them for help. Today, on a whim, I tried those links again, with the same results as previously attempted. So, I did my searching the best I could, with the tools at my disposal. :)
When I entered the search info, 58 results came up for the term, "Plains, MT". This database offers the ability to do a more refined search, if one chooses. Once the results come up, the user is then able to sort the results, according to Relevance, Date of publication (ascending or descending), Author, or Title. I discovered that many of the responses that came up from my search are only listed because the word "plains", "Montana" or a combination of both words are located within the text of the publication. A feature I really like here is the "hit" button, located at the bottom of the individual entry (choose a title and then see what opens up), where the user may click the button and be taken to the page where the "hit" is in the publication. This could save the reader a lot of time, with not having to scroll through several pages to find/determine the relevancy of a hit to the search. More on this feature later...
The first two results led to a Directory of churches in Montana, where I located some in Plains, Montana. The second book, "Society of Montana Pioneers" (1899) provides the Constitution, the list of State & County Societies, the Society of the Sons & Daughters of Montana Pioneers, a list of members, officers and more. There are maps and ports and even more info on the people listed in this book. The database offers the user a total sum of "hits" in the text of the book & this book has 68. The hits on this book, are all within the "membership" chapter of this book. Upon perusing the list of hits in this book, I learned the majority of those hits were related to the phrase, "traveled across the plains..." and "Montana".
Now back to the "hits" feature I spoke of earlier ~ Some of the other places I searched were cities/towns where I once lived, or am living now. Those other searches gave similar results, where the state name counts as a "hit", so any books with the state name show up in the relevancy of results. This can be rather frustrating, if one is trying to locate something quickly. Even with the relevancy option, combined with the "hits per search", I still had to scroll through the "hit pages" to see if the "match" was related to my query. *sigh* How much more helpful this database could be, if they enabled a more in depth search tools, or at the very least, to offer an "exact word(s)" option for the user, so they might avoid the challenge of perusing so many pages to find the one actual result the reader seeks.
My search in the Heritage Quest database came up with several "No results found" messages, when I attempted to look up people and some places. So, I tried searching for an older town that I once lived near, back in Montana. Plains, MT is a lovely little town, set on Hwy 200, in the NW corner of the state. It's a very lovely, small town with some very warm-hearted locals. I thought it might be nice to find some information about this place where I once lived.
The ProQuest Site has been uncooperative, when I attempted to use the links provided on the http://sdlibrarychallenge.blogspot.com page. The handout link, the video links, and tutorial videos all gave me the same response, when I attempted to view them...
Oops!
Something went wrong. Sorry, we couldn't find your page.
so, I gave up on trying to use them for help. Today, on a whim, I tried those links again, with the same results as previously attempted. So, I did my searching the best I could, with the tools at my disposal. :)
When I entered the search info, 58 results came up for the term, "Plains, MT". This database offers the ability to do a more refined search, if one chooses. Once the results come up, the user is then able to sort the results, according to Relevance, Date of publication (ascending or descending), Author, or Title. I discovered that many of the responses that came up from my search are only listed because the word "plains", "Montana" or a combination of both words are located within the text of the publication. A feature I really like here is the "hit" button, located at the bottom of the individual entry (choose a title and then see what opens up), where the user may click the button and be taken to the page where the "hit" is in the publication. This could save the reader a lot of time, with not having to scroll through several pages to find/determine the relevancy of a hit to the search. More on this feature later...
The first two results led to a Directory of churches in Montana, where I located some in Plains, Montana. The second book, "Society of Montana Pioneers" (1899) provides the Constitution, the list of State & County Societies, the Society of the Sons & Daughters of Montana Pioneers, a list of members, officers and more. There are maps and ports and even more info on the people listed in this book. The database offers the user a total sum of "hits" in the text of the book & this book has 68. The hits on this book, are all within the "membership" chapter of this book. Upon perusing the list of hits in this book, I learned the majority of those hits were related to the phrase, "traveled across the plains..." and "Montana".
Now back to the "hits" feature I spoke of earlier ~ Some of the other places I searched were cities/towns where I once lived, or am living now. Those other searches gave similar results, where the state name counts as a "hit", so any books with the state name show up in the relevancy of results. This can be rather frustrating, if one is trying to locate something quickly. Even with the relevancy option, combined with the "hits per search", I still had to scroll through the "hit pages" to see if the "match" was related to my query. *sigh* How much more helpful this database could be, if they enabled a more in depth search tools, or at the very least, to offer an "exact word(s)" option for the user, so they might avoid the challenge of perusing so many pages to find the one actual result the reader seeks.
Friday, March 7, 2014
Lesson 8 - WorldCat, CAMIO and More
1. Oh boy! This is one cool search tool! I had a lot of fun investigating the many options available to the user with the drop down menu under the "keywords" box. I was pleasantly surprised to see the headings, some with sub-headings, that help break down the search further. These include, but are not limited to: Access Method, Accession Number, Author (broken down to 5 sub-headings: Author Phrase, Corporate and Conference Name, Corporate and Conference Name Phrase, Personal Name & Personal Name Phrase), Language Phrase, Material Type, Material Type Phrase, Musical Composition, Musical Composition Phrase, Notes/Comments, Publisher, Publisher Location, Standard Number (breaks down to ISBN or ISSN), Subject (breaks down to: Subject Phrase, Descriptor, Genre/Form, Geographic Coverage, Named Corporation and Conference, and Named Person), and Title (breaks down to Title Phrase & Series Title ). Those are a lot of options, for keyword searching. When the user adds the the other search features offered, such as limiting the year, language & number of libraries, as well as the type limits one can choose (books, visual materials, archival materials, musical scores, maps, etc) and even more, they really help narrow the search down. I did a search for a title that one of my patrons is trying to find, but didn't find any titles of the same name, nor with the Author's name. I'll try with the other exercises.
2. The title I was searching for is, "Why Are You Here" by David Christenson. Following the exercise instructions, I was presented with 34 records that matched my query, The first record, while not the book I was looking for, is found in 527 worldwide libraries. The top library, for this result, is the Burlington Public Library in Iowa. This first title is not the book I am seeking, but that only means the book is not in this catalog system. It's sure to show up somewhere, so I'll continue searching for this book.
3. Per the instructions, I opened the first record that shows on my search for the book, "Why Are You Here?" by David Christenson. Bear in mind, the first record was not the book I am seeking for a patron, but another titled, "Preaching With Sacred Fire: An Anthology of African American Sermons, 1750 to the present" edited by Martha J. Simmons and Frank A. Thomas. The call number (class descriptor) for this book is LC: BV4241.5; Dewey: 252.0089/96073. When I clicked on the first author's name (Martha J. Simmons), I learned she has written &/or edited 12 books, most of which are on the subject of preaching. Clicking on Frank A. Thomas' name resulted in 17 titles authored &/edited/co-authored by him, again mostly based upon preaching. When I clicked on the subject button, the results gave 1,223 (1,216 are in English) total titles. When all was broken down into categories, the following results appeared: Sound 610, Books 403, Visual 123, Internet 62, Archival 20, Serials 3, Computer 1, and Articles 1. There are an amazing number of books on preaching! I discovered a book of old sermons by black women preachers from 1850 - 1979! For whatever reason, when I clicked on the subject and got this search result, the first title was related to the great Martin Luther King, Jr. and his preaching. Hence, the majority of the titles listed in this search resulted in the subject matter being on black preaching/preachers. That led me to finding some books I am interested in reading, that I had previously never heard of before!
Other FirstSearch Indexes
It was good to learn WorldCat offers the access to other databases. I really appreciate the "i" icon feature that opens a pop-up window which explains the primary function of the particular database. It was even more helpful to view the guide/chart for the RACE participants, created by the SDSL with Jane Healy & Julie Erickson! They did a phenomenal job on this asset! Hopefully, these two women understand how beneficial this is to librarians and how appreciated they are for creating it. I've printed up a copy, for reference & future use. :)
Discovery Exercise part 2
On the final exercise of this lesson, I did as instructed, by selecting "Subject Phrase" and typing South Dakota in the search window. This gave OAIster results - records found 1,152. My choice was # 71, "Log Shanty with Flag, Woman and Seven Boys". Upon clicking on the "access" hyperlink, a page opened, with a photograph and information related to the image. This was not a book, nor an article provided, but just a single photograph with tons of information/hyperlinks within the page. This is a lovely feature, which helps the user locate some pretty specific information, for the most part. There is a good history behind the photograph, so the user might locate the information they particularly need. I like that it includes photographs with history, as one of my passions is photography.
2. The title I was searching for is, "Why Are You Here" by David Christenson. Following the exercise instructions, I was presented with 34 records that matched my query, The first record, while not the book I was looking for, is found in 527 worldwide libraries. The top library, for this result, is the Burlington Public Library in Iowa. This first title is not the book I am seeking, but that only means the book is not in this catalog system. It's sure to show up somewhere, so I'll continue searching for this book.
3. Per the instructions, I opened the first record that shows on my search for the book, "Why Are You Here?" by David Christenson. Bear in mind, the first record was not the book I am seeking for a patron, but another titled, "Preaching With Sacred Fire: An Anthology of African American Sermons, 1750 to the present" edited by Martha J. Simmons and Frank A. Thomas. The call number (class descriptor) for this book is LC: BV4241.5; Dewey: 252.0089/96073. When I clicked on the first author's name (Martha J. Simmons), I learned she has written &/or edited 12 books, most of which are on the subject of preaching. Clicking on Frank A. Thomas' name resulted in 17 titles authored &/edited/co-authored by him, again mostly based upon preaching. When I clicked on the subject button, the results gave 1,223 (1,216 are in English) total titles. When all was broken down into categories, the following results appeared: Sound 610, Books 403, Visual 123, Internet 62, Archival 20, Serials 3, Computer 1, and Articles 1. There are an amazing number of books on preaching! I discovered a book of old sermons by black women preachers from 1850 - 1979! For whatever reason, when I clicked on the subject and got this search result, the first title was related to the great Martin Luther King, Jr. and his preaching. Hence, the majority of the titles listed in this search resulted in the subject matter being on black preaching/preachers. That led me to finding some books I am interested in reading, that I had previously never heard of before!
Other FirstSearch Indexes
It was good to learn WorldCat offers the access to other databases. I really appreciate the "i" icon feature that opens a pop-up window which explains the primary function of the particular database. It was even more helpful to view the guide/chart for the RACE participants, created by the SDSL with Jane Healy & Julie Erickson! They did a phenomenal job on this asset! Hopefully, these two women understand how beneficial this is to librarians and how appreciated they are for creating it. I've printed up a copy, for reference & future use. :)
Discovery Exercise part 2
On the final exercise of this lesson, I did as instructed, by selecting "Subject Phrase" and typing South Dakota in the search window. This gave OAIster results - records found 1,152. My choice was # 71, "Log Shanty with Flag, Woman and Seven Boys". Upon clicking on the "access" hyperlink, a page opened, with a photograph and information related to the image. This was not a book, nor an article provided, but just a single photograph with tons of information/hyperlinks within the page. This is a lovely feature, which helps the user locate some pretty specific information, for the most part. There is a good history behind the photograph, so the user might locate the information they particularly need. I like that it includes photographs with history, as one of my passions is photography.
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Lesson 7 - EBooks on EbscoHost
1. My search attempts were met with few results, when I used the default search feature. As a hobby quilter, I thought a search for fabric/fiber arts/quilting might lead to some interesting results. The results, using the "advanced search" feature, combined with the search terms I just mentioned, led to a big zero. Zip. Zilch. Uh oh. That's not good.
So, I decided to poke around on the site, to see if there was any sort of index of genres available. Once I discovered the "EBooks" button & clicked on it, it felt like hitting the lottery! On the left of the page, is that elusive index I was hoping to find earlier. That gave me a better understanding of the various genres of books within the EbscoHost system. As I have been learning, during the research on this and previous exercises, the search terms we use are highly important when it comes to achieving the results one might hope.
Hence, I switched my search to a different goal - this time I entered "cliff notes" in the search box. This produced a total of 158 titles, a much better result than my previous requests had given. The list of titles provide a variety of other information related to each result. Some include the "subject", while all offer the year, a Table of Contents and "most relevant pages" options.
This is a terrific tool for research, one that will come in quite handy for the patrons and for Librarians needing good information and fast. :)
2. This exercise requires finding appropriate titles to assist a few students with researching "Constitution Day". These titles include, but are not limited to:
"Our Elusive Constitution: Silences, Paradoxes and Priorities" by Daniel N. Hoffman
"Constitution of the Confederate States" - a Project Gutenberg eBook
The Constitution of the United States - a Project Gutenberg eBook.
"U.S. Government and Politics" by Pamela K. Lamb (eBook/study guide)
Out of the 174 possible appropriate titles, these, were on the first couple of pages. Any or all of these 4 titles would benefit the researcher (aka our students), with more options available, if the student is willing to dig through the many titles provided.
"Our Elusive Constitution: Silences, Paradoxes and Priorities" by Daniel N. Hoffman
"Constitution of the Confederate States" - a Project Gutenberg eBook
The Constitution of the United States - a Project Gutenberg eBook.
"U.S. Government and Politics" by Pamela K. Lamb (eBook/study guide)
Out of the 174 possible appropriate titles, these, were on the first couple of pages. Any or all of these 4 titles would benefit the researcher (aka our students), with more options available, if the student is willing to dig through the many titles provided.
3. This exercise gave me the option of choose Nebraska or Oklahoma, so I chose the state where I lived most of my teen years. Oklahoma is a beautiful state, rich with a history of adventure, tradition and Native American Legends. My search results, following the standard set within the exercise,
There were 80 results from my search and they subject matter varied from "Indians of North America" to "Sacred Language" The Nature of Supernatural Discourse in Lakota" to biographies of Great Native American warriors and Chiefs to "Documents of American Indian Diplomacy: Treaties, Agreements and Conventions 1775 -1979." The ebscohost site has a lot of really valuable titles that will aid the student in their research.
There were 80 results from my search and they subject matter varied from "Indians of North America" to "Sacred Language" The Nature of Supernatural Discourse in Lakota" to biographies of Great Native American warriors and Chiefs to "Documents of American Indian Diplomacy: Treaties, Agreements and Conventions 1775 -1979." The ebscohost site has a lot of really valuable titles that will aid the student in their research.
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