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.