Thanks!

Wrapping up the case of the eResources Challenge I'd first like to say thank you so much for this opportunity and the weekly comments. The personal touch and the ability to follow other bloggers kept me motivated and interested in discovering new ideas. I'd say my biggest discovery was the wealth of information one can find in ArchiveGrid. I had never given much time to exploring this one and was thrilled to see that my investigating ended up at actual exhibits that are still available online. Just using this resource alone as a focus for a research project would be a great experience for older students.

As I visit schools and talk with school librarians or participate in presenting the eResources at inservices and conferences, I will now make sure I include something intriguing from ArchiveGrid. I always advise people to start with just one of the resources, develop a project that integrates it and then move on to the next one rather than try to become an expert in all of them at the same time. The structure of looking at one resource per week allowed me the time to follow my own advice!

Thank you!

AncestryLibrary, HeritageQuest, Sanborn Maps

Investigating my past through AncestryLibrary
led me to some surprising information. The U.S. Public Records Index Volume 1 revealed my last three addresses before I moved from Chicago to South Dakota and a very old phone number. Volume 2
listed an even older address. The U.S. Phone and Address Directories, 1993-2002 even let me click on info related to my neighbors. There are many Upells listed and most I have never located in real life. I found my twin sister's marriage license, but not my own!

When searching the Census I used the last name of Upell, born in Canada and died in USA. This came up with relatives from 1850 and on. I found my grandfather, Richard Upell, who was age 40 in 1920. In addition to my grandmother and my two older aunts, it lists my Great-Aunt Nora as age 28 and living in the same residence. I'm going to have to call my mom about that one… so when did she marry Uncle Charlie?

In Photos & Maps from among the "South Dakota" results I decided to look into the U.S. Indexed County Land Ownership Maps, 1860-1918. To refine my search I entered "Dewey" under county and came up with no matches. OK, when did Dewey County become a county? Wikipedia says 1893… Potter County is in there, oh well. Backing up I took at look at the Library of Congress Photo Collection, 1840-2000. First image was interesting – "Free homes, government lands, and cheap deeded lands in South Dakota" appears to be an ad from 1890. With over 900 photos the ability to refine the search was useful. Tons of other fun info to look at here – the Rapid City High School yearbook from 1938 says "Don't groan when I mention Algebra. Really, it isn't so bad. Miss Krieger can fill you up with equations faster than any other teacher on earth."

In HeritageQuest I searched for Eagle Butte, South Dakota under Books and found four results. One is the 1925 title Doane Robinson's Encyclopedia of South Dakota. I discovered Eldon Clark who came to Eagle Butte from Michigan in 1910. He was a lawyer and represented Dewey County in the legislature in 1913. Found Frederick Upell who was my great-uncle in Michigan Volunteers of '98: a Complete Photographic Record of Michigan's Part in the Spanish-American War of 1898. He was listed in the muster roll for the 34^th Michigan Volunteers. This type of research takes time and so much patience – imagine tracking this info down before the world of digital!

Sanborn Maps didn't have a thing for north-central South Dakota, so I took a look at Fort Pierre in 1903. Looks like things were going on in Fort Pierre back then – an opera house, lumber yard, school, churches, boarding houses, etc. The population is listed at 500. This resource was easy to navigate and the key was helpful. I also found the PDF download easy to read.

 

Learning Express Library

For my personal testing experience in Learning Express Library I selected the GED Social Studies Practice Exam. I received a phone call while I was testing so the Finish Later feature was very handy. I also like that it showed me exactly what was unanswered when I clicked on Continue and went back to testing. After scoring my test the first screen broke my results into sub-categories such as geography, world history, etc. This would be helpful to focus review and instruction for individual students. Also, "based on my performance" I was given several options for further preparation. I only answered the first 12 questions yet I was able to view the correct answers for all 50 questions. The explanations for each correct answer are fantastic, but from past experience once students figured this out they would write down the correct answers and try to scam the test. So, I went back and added the test to My Center and tried it again – questions were identical! Well… let's hope "real" users are more motivated.

Under the Job Search & Workplace Skills I added the Career Course: Succeeding on the Job. The course outline is listed on the left and items that will be saved once you submit them are labeled as such. Content seems to be very practical with good everyday-type advice. Where's the Finish Later option? I just closed out and when I went back in the program was right where I had stopped.

In the ebooks section I took a look at vocabulary as this is an area where many of my former students struggled. Just in Time Vocabulary looked interesting so I took a look at the table of contents. $5 words began on p. 175 and I was able to click right to it. Needed paper and pencil from that point, but it contained good, basic content that a teacher might use or direct students to for practice. I was able to save the PDF file of 222 pages. What about copyright?

ArchiveGrid & CAMIO

Using ArchiveGrid I learned that whoever wrote the Notes and Summaries for the Sitting Bull autograph card needs to do a little more research about Sitting Bull. Shaman is an unusual term to use to refer to him and the info never uses the work Lakota. There is also a misspelling of the word Hunkpapa. Nevertheless, I found it interesting that this item is at Cornell University and also that it has been digitized. So, I clicked on the Cornell link and went to the link for past exhibitions and found "Vanishing Worlds, Enduring People" was on exhibit at the library in 2005-2006. The Native American collection was purchased from the Huntington Free Library in the Bronx, New York in 2004. The online version of the exhibit is still available and you can actually see the autograph card under the subheading Sideshow to Powwow – Sitting Bull.

For a search of my own I tried Sherlock Holmes and came up with 449 items. Browsing through I found things located in the U.S. and around the world. At the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities there is an intriguing article from the Sherlock Holmes Journal. Many other items are programs and related materials from productions of various Sherlock Holmes plays. I found this resource very easy to use and the "Contact an archivist to learn more about access to materials in this collection" box useful. The link to the University of Minnesota led me to info about two current Sherlock Holmes exhibits there – who knew they had a special collection? What a great connection for a field trip!

My Paul Revere search in CAMIO found a spoon, a sugar bowl and cover, several teapots, bowls, etc. But what is a salver? Looks like a tray and after looking it up – it is a tray for serving foods or beverages – use around 1661, derived from both French and Spanish. The results from the term Sioux included clothing, books, jewelry, artifacts such as pipes, drawings, etc. as well as photographs of Sioux Springs in Nevada. Using the term Lakota I found a painting entitled "Custer's War" by One Bull among other things. Clicking on rights gives you the info "Licensed for non-commercial, educational use" and a link to the holding institution for more info. I can see teachers and students using this resource for visuals in units and projects. For example, a history teacher might use the One Bull painting as a way to introduce the Native American point of view about the Battle of the Little Bighorn. For my favorite artist I tried Joanne Bird – nothing; Oscar Howe – nothing; Terry Redlin – nothing; Paul Goble – nothing; Edward Curtis – 161 items! Most are held by the Minneapolis Museum of Art and all are photographs, of course. Advanced Search allows you to select which collection/s to search which is a nice feature. So, how does CAMIO decide what is included? About CAMIO explains that "premier museums worldwide contribute…" Searching the artist Monet resulted in 111 works and I added four of them to my Favorites. In View Favorites all of the features are intuitive and would be useful in teaching and presenting. What a cool thing to do if you had a white board!

WorldCat, etc.

In working with the NEA's Big Read titles I was surprised to find The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick listed as one of their great classics. So, that title came to mind when searching WorldCat. The first item that came up was The Best American Short Stories of the Century owned by 2,307 libraries. In the full record I found the title listed in the contents; it's really more of a novella and again I was surprised to see it included in a short story collection. The first library listed was Augustana College in Sioux Falls, followed by other SD locations then those from Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota and Wyoming. Is there a pattern there? The record gives the LC and Dewey call numbers, plus the Fic designation for fiction. When clicking on the editor of the collection, John Updike, I found 4,795 items! Back in the results list I went to item five which lists the title as a separate volume. It lists the title as including both a short story and a novella – mystery solved! Ozick has 536 items of which 48 are sound. And one is the NEA recording "An Introduction to the Shawl" by Cynthia Ozick. Clicking on the subject Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Fiction and browsing through I discovered Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli – need to add this title to my "want to read" list. The investigation could go on and on – what an easy way to discover what exists out there and who owns it – all in one stop searching!

OAIster (still picturing the cat in pearls from your previous webinar) found a little gem from 1931 entitled Occurrence of the alligatoroid genus Allognathosuchus in the Lower Oligocene. This immediately caught my eye as I was browsing the results list because I have found pieces of prehistoric alligator when out on a dig with the Timber Lake Museum! It was published by the Field Museum in Chicago and digitized by the University of Illinois. Wow – you can read online, Kindle, PDF, etc. A little obscure topic, I know, but when you can't find it anywhere else, look here, plus it had already been downloaded 144 times.

NetLibrary

To get started with NetLibrary I searched for the classic author John Steinbeck. After browsing the first page of the 279 items found, I discovered an interesting title, Americans View Their Dust Bowl Experience. I then was able to search the content and go directly to pages where my search term appeared – very cool. Some info was bibliographic and some discussed The Grapes of Wrath. It was easy to navigate within the eBook and the Knowledge Tools would be helpful for all kinds of student projects. I can see both students and teachers using this for background information and research, but it's definitely not a first choice for pleasure reading!

Constitution Day is here and they needed materials yesterday is the more likely scenario! So, oops, just noticed that I went back to Basic Search but never closed out of my first title. OK, in English students may want to try a few of the 2,635 items located. How about Our Elusive Constitution: Silences, Paradoxes, Priorities or The Illustrated Dictionary of Constitutional Concepts? Found a few things in Spanish and French too.

Entering Oklahoma in the Advanced Search under subject, publication year 2000, language English and format eBooks resulted in zip. So, leaving publication year blank I tried again. The 82 items that came up were a nice mix of biography, travel, Native American, history, etc. A Boyhood in the Dust Bowl, 1926-1934 would tie in with my earlier search for Steinbeck and The Grapes of Wrath. First chapter is intriguing… "Not the Worst of Times." This resource adds a wealth of research possibilities to any library collection!

Gale Virtual Reference Library

In getting to know the titles in GVRL I selected Literature and Its Times to look for some background information on Big Read classics for a new webinar I am working on with Jasmine about book clubs. Browsing the table of contents was too slow, so I used the search box. I found great info on the Maltese Falcon, Grapes of Wrath, Joy Luck Club, My Antonia, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, A Lesson Before Dying, and The Death of Ivan Ilyich. I selected the e-mail option for each and sent them to myself to read fully later. In addition to plot info, etc. the articles also give historical background about the time of the novel. This will help me brainstorm some themes readers might explore, other titles, etc. The Shawl and Housekeeping were not in this reference title so I went back to the home page and did an author search for anything related to these titles anywhere in GVRL. I found a few references but nothing as concise as the other articles.

For the Basic Search I typed in impetigo as it is currently spreading among my hunka grandchildren. The search brought up articles from nine different titles. I took a look at the article in the Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine. Yuck, it is so contagious although easy to treat, which I knew, but left untreated it can be very serious – kidney disease, sepsis, bone and joint infection, pneumonia. The photo was helpful and the read aloud feature was easy to listen to. Key Terms gave some basic definitions, but it would be helpful if the other articles linked to the term had hyperlinks.