Proquest

Searching Les Miserables, the basic search in full text gave me 6244 results which is a lot to sort through.  When looking at the limiters on the right, I can narrow my results through a variety of combinations under document type and subject.  Just looking at documents after the first basic full text search there were:  articles 2717, feature 2105, general information 934, review 698 and news 640.  When I selected more options, I then found how to exclude reviews but include the other limiters.  I was then able to exclude document types that would contain reviews.  There were many document types , such as: article, feature, general information, review, news, undefined, commentary, interview, transcript, report, fiction, front page/cover story, blog, obituary, correspondence, editorial, biography, case study, poem, statistics/data report, speech/lecture, conference, correction/retraction, directory, instructional material/guideline and market research.  By expanding the subject limiter, the results showed: theater 344, literary criticism 316, nonfiction 305, history 301, and musical theater 281.  By selecting the more options the list was expanded to include many more subject limiters, too numerous to list here.   This option also allowed me to include and exclude subjects to the researcher’s parameters.  Using the limiters, I selected literary criticism, novels, studies, books, and literature under subject.  I selected article, feature, general information and biography under the limiter, document type.  I still had 454 results.  I then used only literary criticism under subject and excluded anything that had an entertainment aspect and came down to 211 results.  Looking at the results I started over and put Les Miserables in quotations marks and then chose the limiters again and was able to narrow my results to 23.  This would be a great topic for older students and adults but the articles were probably too difficult for my middle school students on average.

 

For the next question, I used the advanced search for Hurricane Sandy and libraries.  This first search resulted in 1001 results. When I looked to the document type limiter, I noticed that there were 88 results under reports and selected this.  This number of results was still a lot to go through, so I then looked under subjects and found disasters and damage.  Under damage there were 5 results and started looking through those.  I did like that throughout the articles I looked at, my search terms were highlighted.  Hurricane Sandy was easy to find and I found that libraries were not highlighted as often.  So far the results are thin.  When libraries were mentioned it was often in conjunction with hospitals, museums, and college campuses and trying to provide funding to rebuild them.  I did find one article where the library was a collection point for donations in the community.  I did notice there was an indexing details at the bottom of the article with other subjects descriptors that I could explore.

I then tried a different document type, articles rather than reports and kept the subject of disasters.  I did find an interesting article that wrote of the libraries roles in disasters, but it contained an older publication date.

Featherstone, R. M., M.L.S., Lyon, B. J., M.L.S., & Ruffin, A. B. (2008). Library roles in disaster response: An oral history project by the national library of Medicine*dagger]. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 96(4), 343-50. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/203478503?accountid=45583

I then tried Libraries and Hurricance Sandy and used the limiters articles and libraries.  This seemed to have had the best results when focusing on impact.  Though damage was mentioned many spoke to the importance of an operational library to a community.  I became a bit frustrated in my search and will be checking other blogs to see what they found.  Most articles I found focused on the aspect of the hurricane (and some mention Katrina) and others focused on libraries with little mention to the hurricane.  I found articles published in 2013 but were not focused on the impact of the subjects searched.

 

SIRS

I use SIRS often with my students.  The lexile sort for the articles is helpful with students and teachers.  I began my search like a student and used the science tile (764 articles) and then astronomy and space (197 articles) from the right side bar.  After that I sorted by the lexile.  This was still a lot of articles to look through.

I then went back to the homepage to conduct the advanced search.  I used the search term solar system and selected easy for the reading level.  The result was 45 articles. However there was a huge range in lexile (510 to 1290). The then searched solar system and put in a range of 400 to 700, which resulted in 4 articles.  I am not sure what the parameters are for considering if an article is easy, moderate or challenging.  I guess I would need to be aware if the student would be able to handle material above their grade level.

 

In searching volcanoes, I did a basic search and found 141 results in the graphics tab.  However many of these results were pictures, charts and diagrams of volcanoes.  I had to go farther into the pages of the results to find maps with volcanoes.  The diagrams will be of particular to my 8^th grade science teachers.  As I went through the pages of results I did find a couple of maps.  One was of the active volcanoes in Hawaii.  There was a map of Indonesia but when I took a closer look I did not see any volcanoes marked on the map.  Deciding if there was a better way I searched volcanoes: maps and 224 results with 14 of those in the graphics tab.  As I looked at the articles, I found many with the camera icon.  The few I checked did not appear under the graphics tab.

I have used SIRS Issue Researcher with both my 7^th and 8^th graders and from their responses this is their favorite database so far.  I think they enjoyed looking at currents issues and liked that I asked their opinion on the issues I had them look at for the lesson.  I would definitely prefer SIRS Issue over Google for the topic of suicide.  SIRS seeks out these articles on the issues, where as Google still has too much of a mix of information, good and bad.  The other plus for SIRS is that it is very easy to sort the articles by newspaper, magazines, viewpoints, reference, and graphics. There was also a link to matching subjects which help fill out the results.  I understand you can search Google more effectively but I have found very few adults know how to do this focused search.

When searching the last topic, I used the quick topic list on the left and went down to water.  The essential question for this issue was, “Should mandatory restrictions be implemented to conserve water?”  As I looked at the numerous articles (116 source types) listed below, I found the articles also listed related subjects links below the summary of each article.  Some of the related subject terms are: conservation of natural resources, environmentalism, water conservation, water-supply, sustainable development, global impact, ground water, hydrogeology, and runoff.  It is obvious that this issue is not unique to any one area and having multiple examples could be very useful in a civic discussion.

LearningExpress Library

The LearningExpress Library has a very different set up from last year.  I did have to create a new account with the updated version.  There was also the option to create an account without using an email which would be very handy for the elementary and middle school students without an email.  I do not remember to user guides from last year but thought there were many useful guides including how to search LearningExpress Library.

I was able to easily find the school center and select elementary, from there I then selected Reading Comprehension Skills Practice. There are reading practice for informational, narrative, persuasive, poetry and general reading.  Informational had the most reading practice section at 9.  The sections are set up to allow you to test by seeing the answers at the end or viewing the answers as you go through the practice as a study guide.  I only see reading practice for grade 4 at the elementary level.  I am curious as to why only 4^th grade was chosen for these practice areas.

Looking for Office Manger provided much more difficult.  I searched with the general search box and looked throughout the Career Center section.  I used various search terms including office manager, managerial, and office without success.  I did find under the Job Search and Workplace Skills, how to improve the job search and networking skills and building your workplace skills which would be useful to many serious in finding a job.   Through my searches I discovered a lot of help for the health care field.  I back tracked to the school center and looked under high school.  Possible sections that could help with the job training could include logic and reasoning, math, statistics, vocabulary and spelling and writing and grammar skills.  By not finding the specific office I manager search I did “stumble”  across a lot of other areas that could help a wide variety of possible careers.

I went straight to the Career Center for the student with the nurse and pharmacist report.  Nursing had an ebook that detailed the profession.  Looking at the table of contents each chapter listed a variety of information on nursing. This would be an excellent resource for a report with the option of emailing the PDF to your personal email. When I first selected Learn More about a Career, there was an eBook on Becoming a Healthcare Professional.  When looking through this resource there was mention of becoming a nursing assistant technology and no mention of pharmacy.  I know I had seen an exam for a pharmacist technician but when I went back the next day I could not find it again.  It happened to be under the Allied health section.  What I found was pharmacy exams but little information about the actual career.  I had hoped for more information.  Looking at the types of resources given under health care, I could only wonder if there was more focus on these particular professions because of a perceived shortage or need in these areas.

When at home, every time I selected Allied Health under prepare for an occupation exam, I got a pop up on finding a dentist by searching by my zip code.  This was a bit annoying.