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.

ProQuest

To begin tracking down the "clues" in ProQuest, I searched for "school library standards." This brought up over 700 documents, so I clicked on Standards AND School Libraries in the Results box and narrowed it down to just 22 documents. The second title "Sticky Standards" caught my eye. At this point I had a plethora of options. I could translate the article to another language, print it, e-mail it, copy the link, cite it, or mark it. I could read just the abstract or go to the full text. Once in full text I could choose to follow the subject links, the author link, or even go to the complete issue of the publication. I selected mark it and then went to the folder entitled My Research which gave me another list of choices. The one I found most useful was Create Your Bibliography. Selecting MLA from the seven styles offered I next went to download which gave further directions and a list of instructions about MLA style in general. Both older students and adults will find this feature valuable and time-saving when working on research projects. You can e-mail up to 50 documents with a bibliography. Under My Research it even tracked all of my recent searches and offered the option to Set Up Alert and/or Create RSS Feed. But once you close out of ProQuest, My Research is cleared. I should be using this when I'm creating resource lists for trainings and conferences – it's elementary, my dear librarians!

On to searching by the title of a publication… using the keyword "school library" I found School Library Journal and School Library Monthly. Searching just the word "library" brought up 24 results. Selecting Library Media Connection I then searched the publication for "reading." Although this is a broad term it came up with just 253 documents. Full text is not offered for this publication, but an abstract is available and clicking on Find Text for the article "Free Reading is UTOPIA" took me to EBSCO sources that had full text and Holding Information for ILL use. I am definitely tracking down "Weed 'Em and Reap: the Art of Weeding to Avoid Criticism." I set up an alert for this topic in this magazine which will last for two months and then I'll be notified via e-mail if I'd like to continue the alert. It's interesting that the alert notes that this service is for individuals age 13 and older. Overall, ProQuest is a very serious looking resource – I think most kids under 13 wouldn't be interested in it – there's a wealth of information, but even SIRS is more fun to use.

SIRS continued…

Cyberbullying is one of the Top 10 Pro vs. Con Leading Issues in SIRS Issues Researcher found easily on the homepage. There are also many other features and search options. I especially like the Visual Browse which gives brief info about the topic and a link to the leading issue materials. Plus, RSS feeds are available. Once in the Cyberbullying section there are five major areas: a Topic Overview gives background information; Essential Questions offers pros and cons; Interactive links to the WiredKids site Stop Cyberbullying; Narrow Your Results reports sources found by type with the actual sources listed with Lexile score, summary, and subject links; Research Tools provides six options. The Note Organizer would be a great tool to use for beginning organization with students who are writing a persuasive speech or paper. The newly released Common Core Standards stress this type of writing. Standards Correlations are linked to both national (AASL is included) and state standards and I would predict that the Common Core info will appear soon. In addition to the summary when you click on "more" in Topic Overview or select it from the Research Tools, there are Terms to Know and Further Research suggestions which links to Primary Sources among other things. There is so much information the key would be to guide students to skim and use all of the options and not click through at the speed of light!

In Curriculum Pathfinders I explored Language Arts and ended up at Mythology with 365 matching subjects and 59 all source types in the Narrow Your Results box. I sorted the results by Lexile level low to high and the first thing that appeared was "The Lore of Harry Potter" from USA Today. Although the article is from 2001 with a Lexile score of 1060, I would use this as an intro to a project about the mythological allusions in the entire series in print and movie formats. In my former school we always offered a one semester English elective on mythology. This would give it a new twist and make a great connection between the "old school" stuff and popular culture – I'm sure even Twilight would lend itself to the same concept.

Again, much of the content in both SIRS resources is valuable to teachers as well as students. As a school librarian I would make sure I passed on a few links to these resources to staff when they ask "What does the library have on ________?"

SIRS Discoverer and SIRS Issues Researcher

Continuing my inquiry about prairie dogs from last week, I typed the term into the search box of SIRS Discoverer. My results came up with 175 items - newspapers, magazines, reference, and pictures, but no websites. In browsing the first 25 items, I noted various Lexiles levels, several activities, many photos and that a few items were fiction. The article "Dog Eat Dog" from Current Science caught my eye. It has a 1070 Lexile level and was marked as challenging, so I knew it was most likely for older students. I found three photos of prairie dogs, Internet links, a Critical Thinking activity, and a Multiple Choice quiz on the content. Priaire dogs are cannibals! Moms eat other mom's babies to give them protein to nurse their own babies - oh my. Speaking of baby prairie dogs, "Roadrunner Rescue" from Highlights for Children was one of the fiction items listed. It has a much lower Lexile at 560 and turned out to be a short story with illustrations about a roadrunner who saves a baby prairie dog from being eaten by a rattlesnake.

On to Database Features: Country Facts... no England, no Great Britain.. it's under United Kingdom! In addition to a map, there are three levels of graphic organizers for notetaking, major facts listed by categories, a timeline of events, contact info, a list of sources and links to related articles. When clicking on the map there is also a link to "show all articles related to this picture" which took me to an 2001 article about a new species of T-Rex.

Maps of the World allows searching by clicking on a category, typing in a search term or browsing by letter. Using the search term "United Kingdom" I found six different maps. The first was an outline map of the country and the surrounding area which could be printed for students to label or projected for a class activity. The second map listed was the answer key. Other maps are full color and all are printable in PDF.

Pathfinders contains four major sections: Born This Month, Holidays & Celebrations, Suggested Research Topics, and Challenge Quest. Born this Month lists famous people with links to a list of items about them. For example, selecting Beatrix Potter I discovered 15 websites which led me to an electronic copy of The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies with text and illustrations. Holidays & Celebrations lists links (Canada Day, Independence Day, and Bastille Day for July) under Subject Headings, Subject Tree Paths and Keywords. Suggested Research Topics is arranged in the same manner for major subjects of interest to kids and schools - Explorers, Dinosaurs, Global Warming, etc. Challenge Quest has a question of the month with the question, the answer and a pathfinder from the previous month.

Overall, I think SIRS Discoverer is an excellent resource for both students and teachers. It contains a wealth of sources and would be a valuable tool to use to teach beginning and intermediate research skills, to find articles on the same topic at different reading levels, to locate age appropriate websites, etc.

On to SIRS Issues Researcher tomorrow....