Discoveries during the Electronic Challenge

I found with any resource and database you must spend some time exploring the different functions and tools.  I think it is also useful to allow students time to fumble around with a database so they can discover as well as provide them with guided lessons connected to the resources.   Each database is unique and suits different needs.  This electronic challenge guided me through the databases that are helpful to the various students and teachers I work with on a daily basis. Many teachers I work with are very busy and have little time to “explore”.  I find that this is where a librarian comes in handy.  I can then collaborate with a variety of teachers on various subjects to provide informational literacy skills for the students.  As I went through this challenge I thought of certain teachers and “sold” this educational product to them.  Once they saw the useful information that tied in with their lessons they also became excited over the databases.  I continually ask the teachers what they are covering in class and try to connect them with the database that will match the subject.  I think it will be helpful for me to revisit the databases on a regular basis so the information will stay fresh and I can discover additional items.

History and Genealogy Resources

It is a little weird finding a multitude of other people with the same first and last name.  I found a record of my birth through the Minnesota Birth Index but could not find anything connected to my marriage license.  I tried refining the search using both my maiden and married name.  I did find my former addresses from Ohio and North Carolina!  I used the hot keys and a more advanced search.  Even checking female, I still came across records for males.

I then searched for my paternal grandmother.  My siblings and I know very little about that side of the family.  I found a 1940 census and opened the scanned document.  An interesting item I found when I looked at this closely is that the highest education attained for both my grandparents was 6^th grade.  I followed one of my dad’s sibling’s birth record and discovered my grandmother’s maiden name is Bundeman.  It is very easy to get lost in this database.  I also found that the paternal last name of Wiese has also at times been spelled, Weise.  It is amazing how common a particular name (first and last) is in a region.

I typed in South Dakota in the location box and then selected pictures.  The first results were of professional baseball players which was followed by U.S. School Yearbooks.  These yearbooks did not have pictures but often had quotes or short pieces of conversation.  I read that some of these, though not linked to ancestry give a glimpse into life at that time.  There were 212,157,910 results.  Wow!  I did like the left side bar that would allow me to narrow into further categories.  It could be fun to show a class the historic catalogs of Sears, Roebuck and Co.  I especially like the catalog page that advertised a set of Encyclopedia Britannica for 19.95.  The historical postcards would also be fun for teachers in social studies and history.  I have an old postcard for 1976 of the Cosmos (which between Rapid City and Hill City), it is hilarious.  I did refine the search for Rapid City as still had many postcards for this region.

In Heritage Quest, I tried a lot of different searches but probably didn’t have the correct search terms.  I did a search of Mahnomen, Minnesota and found articles from the Mahnomen County Historical Society Newletter.  The oldest article they had was from 1987.  Technology in some cases only reach so far back.  I then checked out some of the other blogs who had completed this lesson and was able expand my ideas for search terms.  Coming back on a different day, I did a search of Rapid City and found many items (424) however I was unable to read any of these but I could request a copy of the article.  When I searched Mahnomen this time , I had 91 results.  There was a variety of topics such as discontinue the sale of Oleo in 1930, lists of women employed in stores and government offices.  I had a teacher telling me about the Minnesota Massacre this week so I decided to look this up too.  I had grown up in Minnesota and had never learned or heard of this event.  I was rewarded with 19 results that I will be requesting copies of to share with this teacher.  History books don’t necessarily tell us all about the little nasty parts of history, but it doesn’t mean they didn’t happen.  The more I searched, the more ideas I had for further searches.  It was easy to get sucked into this database.

In Sanborn Maps, I searched the small towns that my husband’s family is from and found Eureka but nothing for Long Lake.  Maybe Long Lake was too small to include or these are lost maps.  Having spent time in Eureka is last summer, I noticed that one of the Lutheran Churches seemed to be in the same location.  Not originally from South Dakota I found the maps interesting but do not really know enough of the history in many of the small towns.  Many of the maps are from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s when looking at the smaller towns. Even Rapid City’s maps only went to 1948 and Sioux Falls went to 1950.  I checked out other towns and found maps for 1960’s Aberdeen.   It would be nice if maps of these towns from each decade were included for comparisons.  I did like that you could print and download the maps.  I could see pairing the historical picture component  from Heritage Quest to Sanborn Maps.  Idea for a great historical mashup?

ArchiveGrid and CAMIO

ArchiveGrid

The moment I saw the directions stating to use quotation marks, I just had to do some searches with and without the quotation marks. The left side panel under the archives and locations of the results was a section for search tips which can be quite helpful if read carefully.  I almost think the search tips should be visible immediately and maybe on the right as a panel. The results in this database vary depending on how you use the quotation marks.  Without the quotation marks I had 18 results with the card being the first result.   Many of the results in this search had very little connection to Sitting Bull.  In this case of the “Sitting Bull autograph card”, the quotation marks allowed me to quickly find the exact item needed for the lesson search.  Sitting Bull was a shaman and the leader of the Hunpapa Sioux.  I guess I had forgotten the reason he was killed was for devotion to his Native American traditions rather than for the battles he had fought.  I did an additional search on the Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show, without quotations and came up with 46 results.  As I scanned through the results I found the Sitting Bull autograph Card as number 15 in the list.  Many of the institutions listed in the results were spread out but seemed to be sites with specialized or large collections such as Princeton, Yale, Brigham Young and Texas A&M.  I did like that all the results had contact information available for the institution.  Each result had an abbreviated description.  Once selected, I was presented with the institution’s description which gave more detail but not full text.  I could see teachers of history and social studies utilizing this database.

CAMIO

I did the Paul Revere search and had 35 works for results.  Paul Revere was a silversmith, a skill he possibly learned from his father.  I did not see any items created by his father.  I had already knew this before the search as I had seen an episode of Pawn Stars and a potential seller was trying to verify if he had Revere silver.  This is where I first learned of his father.  I did find that the first result listed Paul Revere Jr. who was born in 1734 and the other Paul Revere works has his birth listed as 1735.  Being familiar with the famous person may be beneficial to some.  The first work however was not silver but a print.  Revere was also the subject of several other results but not the creator.  Most of his works were silver such as spoons, tea urns, platters and bowls.  I did find another painting by him.

The search term “Sioux” resulted in 63 works.  As I scrolled through these I find many of these items to be from books/paintings, bead work on clothing or other items and carvings.  I really like the heading above the items such as image, title, creator, date, type and museum.  By looking under creator, I was able to sort which items were depicting the Sioux and which were actually created by the Sioux.  The left side bar allows a person to refine their search by format, creator, date and subject and the number of items connected to each subcategory.  I decided to select Sioux, North American, Native American, and narrowed down my results to 37 items. 

I have to admit I know very little about artists, so when asked to search for one I didn’t know who to select.  So I used the home page of CAMIO which had searches for paintings, photographs, prints, sculpture, decorative arts & utilitarian objects, drawings and watercolors, costume & jewelry, textiles, architecture and more.  I selected paintings and then used the left side to further narrow to something I was interested in exploring.  I chose George Catlin who was an American artist and lived from 1796-1872 as he had the top number of results under paintings (oil on canvas), then creator.  Catlin created many, many portraits of Native Americans, as well as other portraits and a few landscapes.  There were 444 items for Catlin under this format.

I am excited to show this database to our school art teacher.  She currently brings in some of her art students once a month to show how the students can explore art within the library walls and beyond on the internet.  This will be a great database to share with them.  The social studies/history teachers may also find items in CAMIO as an extension of their studies. 

The ability to personalize and present items is amazing.  I searched Greek and selected an item under each format.  Then I went to view favorites and was able to look at the items I had selected.  The sidebar was fun to play with as it would let me compare two items I had selected side by side.  Other options included viewing as a slideshow, moving the works around (reordering for presentation), removal of items from favorites and saving the selection as a web page.  I think the saving as a web page could be useful as many teachers now have their own teacher webpage or website and could link this information for students to access on their own.  I just wish I knew more about art to do a better organized search. 

WorldCat & OAIster

I started looking at WorldCat at school and of course had to pause to help some patrons.  When I went back, my session had expired.  In order to get back in I had to enter the school’s barcode and password to open WorldCat again.  I’ve never had that issue before.  Once I was back in, I decided to look up a book that I could not find a marc record for.  This will help me create the record for Destiny so this very excited student can get her hands on the book.  The book I searched for was Lullaby by Amanda Hocking.  The first result is in 472 libraries worldwide.  When I click on the link for worldwide libraries I find that Alexander Mitchell Library is at the top, followed by Siouxland Library.  I like how the libraries are organized by those of the surrounding states; Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota and Wyoming.  The class descriptors are LC: PZ7.H65828; Dewey: [Fic]   .  Amanda Hocking has written the series called The Trylle Series and Lullaby is the second book in the Watersong Novel series.  I selected sirens from the subjects and was shown a result list with 35 book results and 15 each of sound and internet links.  Finding books with a related subject is something I show my students in our own library system.  I like to use this in WorldCat to search out books on subjects that either my teachers or students are heavily using.  There are the usual useful tools such as sorting, related subjects, limit results, related authors, email bibliography, print, export and help.  It is always very helpful to be able to limit/focus my searches.  I found the WorldCat Hot Topics fun to explore as well.

I used OAIster to search South Dakota and selected “Letter from Sinclair Lewis to Marcella Powers, May 15, 1942” because it sounded intriguing.  Selecting the access link under the title brought me to the Minnesota Digital Library.  This was a typed letter that was fun to read, understanding that people communicated differently in 1942.  The letter is copyrighted and permission is not given for reproduction.  Lower down on the page there is a transcript of the letter for easier reading.  I could get lost searching items in OAIster.

EBooks on EbscoHost

I searched for ebooks on mythology as I have a staff member teaching this class.  There were many useful ebooks for this search term that the students could reference as well.  I tried the same search term with all the search modes and basically received the same results.  I did like the hint for the SmartText Searching that allowed you to search a phrase, paragraph and even whole pages.  I had 106 results for mythology but when I typed in Greek mythology, 16 results were presented.  I have always liked the option of previewing the table of contents to decide if the book will be useful for my projects.  There are many tools with ebooks that I personally like such as dictionary, search within the ebook and the bookmark and annotate (which I would think teachers would find extremely useful).  Citation is available again.  I also liked how you could add your article findings into a folder.  I had to create an account.  I thought maybe my World Book or Learning Express accounts would work here but they didn’t.

Looking for items for Constitution Day lead me to multiple items I am sure a particular social studies teacher will find useful.

Foner, Eric, and John Arthur Garraty. Reader's Companion To American History. n.p.: Houghton-Mifflin, 1991. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 4 Mar. 2013.

Stewart, James Brewer, and Warren E. Burger. The Constitution, The Law, And Freedom Of Expression, 1787-1987. n.p.: Southern Illinois University Press, 1987. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 4 Mar. 2013.

The Articles Of Confederation. n.p.: BiblioBytes, n.d. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 4 Mar. 2013.

Hough, Franklin Benjamin. The Articles Of Confederation. n.p.: Project Gutenberg, n.d. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 4 Mar. 2013.

I did note that the last book I listed is from Project Gutenberg.  And Constitution Day is September 17, 2013.

The advanced search, selecting PB (publisher) and then Nebraska brought me many (56) results in which was published by the University of Nebraska.  This makes sense that local state publishers would focus on their own state “western” history.  I did like the breakdown of my search in the left sidebar under subject and category.  I find relevance in my searches important but found some different and interesting findings by going to the last page of results.  I get why the search was for Nebraska or Oklahoma.  There was nothing when I searched South Dakota but there were results that covered our state with the searches given.

Gale Virtual Reference Library

I was a bit overwhelmed at first when viewing all the titles in the Gale Virtual Reference Library.  It really helped to think of specific topics in the middle school curriculum.  I did find the UXL Encyclopedia of World Mythology, 2009.  There is a teacher at my school that does an 8^th grade mythology class.  I do like that though the reference is on world mythology, I can look at the table of contents by culture.  I selected Greek and Roman mythology and then Aphrodite.  I liked that there were also great tools available such as printing, email, download, citation tools, listen, download MP3, and download PDF to eReader.  The information on Aphrodite was excellent and at the end of the section were links to other articles with that index term.  I really liked the “Read, Write, Think, Discuss” sections which give the article additional depth.

I searched propaganda once again as the 7^th grade English teachers are still working on this writing activity.  I sent the link to the results page to those teachers to allow them to select what article they thought would be most useful.  I chose an article titled Propaganda from the Dictionary of American History.  It was nice to be able to search other articles through the hyper-links related to the term.  I listened to the article and found under the settings I could change the speed at which the article was read.  Medium was the default setting and was the easiest for me to listen to the article, despite the voice being a bit mechanical.  There were other options for listening such as word and sentence, sentence only, word only and no highlighting.  I tend to like the highlighting which could aid students in following along. 

I did some other exploring which allowed me to identify subject areas useful to the curriculum areas in middle school.  I agree that taking the time to become familiar with this resource is the same as getting to know my own physical library collection.

Proquest

I recently held library classes to discuss the different types of propaganda for 7^th grade English, so this became my search topic.  As I typed in propaganda, other relevant search terms were listed below.  The term I ended up selecting was tv propaganda.  Proquest  presented 9784 results for my search.  This result page also included a box with suggested subjects related to my search.  Various tools are available such as email, print, cite, export/save and save to my research which are very useful for someone doing in depth research.  Each result showed the source (magazine or other) in bold print.  What I really liked was the ability to sort/narrow my results in the right side bar.  The basic sort was available by relevance and publication date (oldest first or recent first).  This side bar also allows me to narrow my results by; full text, peer reviewed, source type, publication title, document type, subject, classification, company/organization, location, person, tags, language, database, and publication date.  These fields have many subfields to select from.  I chose source type and selected magazines which then narrowed down the results to 3327.  I explored a few in the side bar and found I could easily narrow the results to publications/magazines that I was more familiar with as well as some from other countries.  I really liked narrowing the results by persons.  I have read Breaking Stalin’s Nose by Eugene Yelchin (a quick read but very captivating), a book I heavily recommend.  Stalin was a heavy user of propaganda and I was able to find 3 magazine results.  What a great tie in for the book! I strongly believe that students should be asked to explore/research subject matters beyond the book which can create a deeper understanding.

I found visiting other blogs helpful and an excellent way to find discoveries that I had missed!

I looked at all the publications that are available in Proquest and was amazed at the number.  I searched “library” and had 26 publication results.  Many of these I had never heard of before.  The School Library Journal is available in full text from Jan. 1996 up to the present issue. The journal is also available in other formats as early at Jan. 1988 to the present.   Looking at this list I see a couple of other journals I am interested in and may create an alert for those journals new to me.  I sent an article to my fellow middle school librarians about trends in the 21^st Century Library.  I set up an alert but first had to set up an account under My Research.  Once I did that, then creating an alert was very fast and easy.

SIRS Discover/Issues Researcher

I decided to search gorillas again as I did in the previous lesson.  I received a total of 288 results (all articles) which broke down into 56 newspapers, 152 magazines, 29 reference, 37 graphics and 7 webfind sites.  I really liked the legend header on reading levels/source & summary.  The icons allowed me to filter through the results looking for various reading levels, graphics, activities, pdf, etc.  I was able to sort my results by relevance, date and lexile.  I did sort the results with lexile which is useful however it seemed to then affect the relevancy of the search (which I understand but feel it is important to be aware of). Our district does not use lexile levels as elementary tends to use Fountas & Pinell and middle school uses F&P and AR leveling.  I do keep a lexile conversion chart as well as an AR & guided reading chart for any teachers and teachers with questions.  It is just a helpful guide/tool to have available.   I was somewhat confused by a couple of results (second and third one).  The second result had the blue book icon which in the header labels it as moderate and the lexile score is 1000.  The third result has a green book icon which labels it as easy, yet the lexile level is 1090 which is higher than the second result.  I did appreciate that I could see which periodicals, references the article came from.  The periodicals I am familiar with are Scholastic, Muse, Weekly, and Highlights for Children, which are all wonderful magazines for children.  Many of these periodicals are no longer budgeted for, so this is a great find and should be shown to classroom teachers.  I have seen many teachers hold on to old ratty copies of periodicals because of various articles that they link to their lessons.

I decided to open the Gorillas in Danger article and found a good article along with a map and graphic as well as vocabulary definitions, background information, critical thinking, resources as well as a multiple choice and fact and opinion questions.  The resources contained two web addresses for further research.  The citation information is given at the end in MLA format and permission to copy and paste this information into your documents. Awesome!

In SIRS Discoverer I selected “Country Facts” in the “Database Features” section.  This brought me to a screen which is divided into three sections: country facts, state facts & Canada facts.  Under each section they were then grouped into regions with an expandable list.  I chose Canada and selected Manitoba under the Provinces list.  There was a section with quick read information such as the abbreviation, capital, population, motto, etc. which is similar to what many children have been exposed to when doing state research.  Also included on the page are the major events in history, National Parks and historical sites which have internal and external links.   At the bottom of the page is a list of additional resources with links.  Citation information is once again available.  A lot of information in a small space.

After going back to the homepage I then selected “Maps of the World” under the “Database Features”.  Maps were available for the United States, Canada, Nations, Regions, U.S. Historical, World Historical and outline maps.  The “Picture for the article” link took me back to the Country Facts section related to the map.  After looking through the various groupings, I found that they all seemed to have a printable PDFs available as well as a link to “all articles” related to that particular map.  The “outline maps”  could be a great reproducible for teachers to utilize with various studies.  The last section under “Database Features” I selected was activities.  The activities are organized into 22 categories (alphabetical listed), beginning with art projects and ending with social issues projects.  When I selected a category I was brought back to the articles in SIRS that type of category.  I think it would be handy to be able to do a subject search under each category in activities.

In SIRS Issue Researcher, I selected Cheerleading from the top 10 because my daughter did competitive cheerleading for the first time this year and I had a hard time thinking there was an issue with this sport.  The other top 10 issues are in the news frequently and made sense to me.  Before I selected the issue, I notice the column to the right.  I had the opportunity to vote in a poll on athletes using performance drugs.  Once I voted I was able to view the stats and a disclaimer stating it was not a scientific and advised the user not to use the statistics for papers.  Below the poll were links/issues on: Common Core Writing Guide, Election 2012, Today’s News, Focus on Terrorism, Natural Disasters, Spotlight on…, Curriculum Pathfinders, World Almanac & Maps and Browse Topics.  I did get side tracked and “lost” looking through these and found a mountain of information.  Once I selected Cheerleading, the page presented me with an overview of the issue, articles for pro and con and essential question(s).  In this case the issue is whether cheerleading should be considered a sport.  There is also a research tool box available to aid students as they explore this issue.  I selected statistics and was shown a page on sports statistics but could not find statistics on cheerleading.  There was also an Interactive to the right which was a video on promoting healthy athletes but not a focus on cheerleading itself.  When I scrolled down, I found the result box that showed sources in newspapers, magazines, viewpoints, reference and graphics.  To the right of the results box was the list of the available articles written on the issue.  I then went back to the top of the page and clicked on “At Issue” for another page which gave a fuller overview of the topic, the pro/con and essential questions and articles links which supports both sides of the debate.  What I liked on this page was the “Perspectives” section, which gives both sides of the debate weighted thought.  There is also a section on Critical Thinking & Analysis which could guide students in developing their personal opinion on the issue while understanding the other side.  Additional Resources are available and include writing a mini-research paper, research guide and a debate guide, among others.   Citation information is provided again.  Also on this page is a translate selector and an mp3 audio of the issue.  Twice on this page is the ability to add the information to my list, email, and print option.  A share “button” is provided that will allow the user to share this issue through other networking like blogger, delicious, facebook, etc.  Many, many, many potentially useful tools and information again.  And yes, I believe cheerleading is a sport as my daughter used her gymnastics tumbling and lifted and caught the stunting cheerleaders.   Many athletic skills were required of her.

I was delighted to go back to the curriculum pathfinders.  I have put together a couple of pathfinders and find this as an exciting find.  There are 6 major subject headings. I selected Science as I have a science teacher with whom I pass along web links I think she’ll be able to use.  She will find this very valuable.  Once I selected Science, I found the subject to be divided by biology, chemistry, earth science, human Anatomy & Physiology and Physics.  There is further divisions with science & society, history and tools relevant to science (periodic table, research guidance and scientific method).  I then selected space exploration and a page with the leading issue on this topic.  This page was similar to the cheerleading issue page I had looked at earlier with all the same useful functions.

Learning Express Library

 

                I was very impressed with the large collection of various tests at different levels.  I selected a middle school reading exam.  I completed 10 questions and scored my test.  What I liked was the opportunity to finish later.   Since there were 40 questions a student may need to come back to the exam if time did not allow the student to finish.  The separate windows that opened for instructions and questions are useful.  The question window is great as a guide that helps you keep track of the answered and unanswered questions.  The diagnostics page is very detailed and allows students to view the skills they may need additional practice.  As I was looking at the results a 6^th grade reading teacher came into the library and I showed her the page.  In a short time she was hooked and wanted to look the site over.  I have already sent her the email reminder on how to get there.   I am concerned with the possible “requirement” of students completing these exams and see it as a better resource for those students who desire improvement (that self motivation) in their skills.  I could see some students viewing it as boring as it is not presented in an “edutainment” format.  

                 Under the Job Skills and Workshop Skills, there were exams, courses and eBooks.   What I would hope students would see from this section is that many of those skills taught in school will be a valuable commodity in the job market.  I looked at an eBook, a grammar skills quiz, Workkeys applied Mathematics test and a course.  I started the “Determining What You Want From Your Career” which led me carefully through the steps.  In this course I could print or save my work that was typed into the forms.  The steps in this course seemed very thorough as all the areas I explored.  What a great help for students and anyone to have this resource when trying to create cover letters and resumes.  It really is about how well one presents themselves to the potential employer.

                I conducted a search on the homepage with the single word, dental.  There were four results in which two dental assisting practice exams and two eBooks ( Dental Assisting Exam and Becoming a Healthcare Professional).  The first eBook opened in PDF format in Adobe Reader.  I went back to the homepage and selected the complete list of eBooks and liked that they were organized according to the groups at the top.  Very handy.

World Book Foreign Language Edition

1.  In the Foreign Language Edition, it is very easy to move back and forth between Spanish and English in the visual dictionary.  This easy movement could easily be used to help with matching vocabulary whether learning English or Spanish.  The visual component allows students still learning language to locate items in the visual dictionary.

2.  When preparing to listen to the article, I found that I could choose the speed at which the article is read.  I could see older students taking Spanish as a languae using this function to practice speaking for practice and understanding.  Also students new to the country would be able to have the information read to them while keeping up with their English counterparts reading the same article in English.

World Book Public Library Edition

Lesson 1b

1.       I first searched gorilla as I did with World Book School Edition and found the resulting article to be the same.  I then switched to the mammal giraffe.  The World Book Online Kids offers similar to the same information with the articles including the lexile and a link to Info Finder which at this point I assume is the next step up from Kids.

The giraffe lives south of the Sahara Desert in Africa.

"Giraffe." World Book Online For Kids. World Book, 2013. Web. 28 Jan. 2013.

 

2.        I used the shortcut link at the bottom of the Kids edition to jump to the results page in the World Book Online Info Finder.  The results page for the search giraffe seems to be the same as the World Book Student School Edition.  The information is again more lengthy and specific than Kids edition and with a higher lexile level.  This time the addition of open woodlands is included in the description of habitat.   An articles content outline is again in the left side bar.  To the right of the screen is the related information and South Dakota content standards links.

      Dagg, Anne Innis. "Giraffe." World Book Online InfoFinder. World Book, 2013. Web. 28 Jan. 2013.

 

3.        When searching a country in World Book Online Reference Center the set up was familiar to the World Book Advanced School Edition.  This time I selected Nigeria as there are gorillas in this country.  (Still think everyone should read the book The One and Only Ivan!)  Once I selected the first article listed for Nigeria, I found the article content outline to the left.  I think the outline is very useful to patrons in allowing them to target specific information without reading the entire article as well as being able to print subsections.  To the right of the article is the related information and SD content standard links and at the top is the very useful tool box.  I hope to eventually help my patrons to use the tool “Save to My Research” as they become more familiar with using these databases.

      Onwudiwe, Ebere. "Nigeria." World Book Online Reference Center. World Book, 2013. Web. 28 Jan. 2013.

Lesson 1a - Electronic Challenge

World Book Student Edition

1.                       I chose to look up gorilla because I have currently finished reading The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate.  This book is a Newbery nominee for 2013 and I highly recommend reading this book.  In World Book Kids, I searched gorillas and came up with 13 items.  In the left tool bar labeled More Information, the list included articles (13), pictures (3) and videos (4).  These where all the resources that where tagged with gorilla.  Only one article was titled gorilla.  Once I clicked on the title, gorilla, I was able to view the article which included information on the lexile level, two photos, three videos and one sound bite, along with four paragraphs.  The gorilla’s habitat is the rain forests of Africa where they live in groups, foraging for food and sleeping on the ground or trees.

A tool box was above the article and gave the options to print, save, email and translate this article.  There is also an option to have the article read aloud.  Additionally, citation information is included as well as  related information/articles.  The related article was on Diane Fossey. 

 

"Gorilla." World Book Kids World Book, 2013. Web. 24 Jan. 2013.

 

               

               

2.        I used the link at the bottom of the first article to jump to World Book Student.  Instead of going to the home page, the link took me directly to the search results for “gorilla” in Student.  In World Book Student, there were 35 articles tagged with gorilla.  The left side bar for the search results gave many more items beyond what Kids gave.  Additional results for Student included dictionary (1), maps (1), tables (3), pictures (9), videos (4), back in time articles (72), special reports (5) and a website.  This makes it very easy to explore my topic more in depth.  Once I selected the article titled gorilla, I am rewarded with a much longer article at a lexile level of 1120 (7.4 grade level).  There is more detail given in the description of the habitat.  The article describes two different gorillas and the locations they live.  The option I really like is the ability to print a subsection instead of the whole article.  This recently helped with a 6^th grade class doing Ancient Egypt research as they were looking for very detailed information and only printed the specific information relevant to their project.

Susman, Randall L."Gorilla." World Book Student. World Book, 2013. Web. 28 Jan. 2013.

 

3.        In World Book Advanced, I searched the country of Peru.  The first results screen offered a variety of information.  In the middle of the screen are the articles in which the world “Peru” appears.  The right side bar contains primary sources and ebooks linked to my search term.  The left side bar contains results much like that in World Book Student but with additional sources such as ebooks, US supreme court Cases, maps, historical maps, special reports, web sites and a research guide.  In the article on the country of Peru the left side bar contains the content outline of the article.  Clicking on the content areas on the left will jump you to that section in the article.  The tool box is also in this Advanced edition as it was in the Student edition. The right side of the screen has three boxes with related information, primary source information and content standards.  The article outline will appeal to middle school students who are looking for more detailed information.  The teachers which I consider valuable patrons will be able to explore lesson plans and the content standards as they apply to the article, grade level and subject taught.  Something for everyone.

León, Miguel A."Peru." World Book Advanced. World Book, 2013.

 

4.        In World Book Discoverer, I selected the History and Government under the topics heading on the right of the screen.  The next screen gave me two choices which were basically the definitions/explanations of history and government.  However on the left side bar, it allowed me to “dig deeper” and I selected government.  The next page gave me many result articles, a least eight pages but I did not see a total to the number of articles.  To the left again was the opportunity to “dig deeper”, with choices including American, Australian, Canadian and European governments, other governments and organizations.  Once I selected American government, I was presented with a more specific list of articles.  The left side bar once again gave the opportunity to “dig deeper”, including documents, organizations, and people.  In this list of American government I chose “The Pledge of Alligiance”.   The left side bar with the article gives the patron the choice to translate the article into another language.  This is a useful tool for those still learning English as they can translate the article to help them understand the information and nothing is lost in translation.

"Pledge of Allegiance." World Book Discover. World Book, 2013. Web. 28 Jan. 2013.