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.