Doing the first search as instructed, I learned that whoever wrote the "Notes & Summaries" has a very limited view of Sitting Bull's life. The word "Sioux" was used instead of "Lakota," "Hunkpapa" was misspelled, the article makes it sound like he was the only leader at Little Big Horn (Crazy Horse & Gall were also major leaders of that battle), and the events surrounding his death were very inaccurate. I expected more from Cornell. So really, I didn't learn anything from this entry in particular.
Ansel Adams has been in the news lately due to the surfacing of some glass plate photos a man bought at a garage sale years ago. It hasn't yet been determined if they really were taken by Adams (last I heard) but they are still really cool photographs. So that's who I did my search on. There were 377 results which mostly seem to be bits and pieces of things he wrote, primarily correspondence. The gentleman who bought these photos should delve into this correspondence if he really wants to prove that the photos were taken by Adams - which he does because if they are Adams' work, they could be worth a pretty penny. One entry was actually for poetry written by Adams. I had no idea he wrote poetry. I wonder if it's any good...I'd had to go to Utah to figure that out though. Holdings were generally archives (both private and state) museums, the Smithsonian, and the Library of Congress.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Thursday, August 5, 2010
WorldCat, part Deux - OAIster
Since WorldCat pronounces OAIster like "oyster" I decided to use the LSU spelling of the French word "two" - as many vowels as possible with an "x" thrown on the end for good measure.
After following all the directions given in the lesson I ended up with 145 possible results. Since my husband is a hunter I thought I would click on the article entitled "Factors affecting road mortality of whitetailed deer in eastern South Dakota," because the more deer that get hit means the fewer there are to hunt. After clicking on the "Access" link, it took me to a digital commons site for the University of Nebraska Lincoln, which puzzled me a bit since this was a report on eastern South Dakota not Nebraska. Oh well. At first I thought only the abstract was available, but eventually I noticed a box on the side that said "Download." This did give me the entire PDF of the document, but that box wasn't immediately obvious as it was off to the side. However, that's UNL's issue not OAIster's.
My overall impression of OAIster is favorable compared to other databases, like ProQuest or EBSCO. I wouldn't necessarily say it's any easier to use, but it's not any harder to use. OAIster offers many of the same tools as they do - emailing the article, printing it, exporting it. The only thing I didn't see was a tool about source citing, but it caters to a different clientele.
As a side note, this picture was on the same page as the information about the article...it's rather humorous!
After following all the directions given in the lesson I ended up with 145 possible results. Since my husband is a hunter I thought I would click on the article entitled "Factors affecting road mortality of whitetailed deer in eastern South Dakota," because the more deer that get hit means the fewer there are to hunt. After clicking on the "Access" link, it took me to a digital commons site for the University of Nebraska Lincoln, which puzzled me a bit since this was a report on eastern South Dakota not Nebraska. Oh well. At first I thought only the abstract was available, but eventually I noticed a box on the side that said "Download." This did give me the entire PDF of the document, but that box wasn't immediately obvious as it was off to the side. However, that's UNL's issue not OAIster's.
My overall impression of OAIster is favorable compared to other databases, like ProQuest or EBSCO. I wouldn't necessarily say it's any easier to use, but it's not any harder to use. OAIster offers many of the same tools as they do - emailing the article, printing it, exporting it. The only thing I didn't see was a tool about source citing, but it caters to a different clientele.
As a side note, this picture was on the same page as the information about the article...it's rather humorous!
WorldCat, part Uno
Title search - Well the book I'm currently reading (The Not-So-Great Depression) yielded no results so I tried one of the last ones I read - Ninth Ward. Only 40 libraries have this book world wide. This actually didn't surprise me much because it's a fairly new, fits into a somewhat niche collection of middle grade fiction. The Alameda County Library in California was the top library in the list. The call number for this is pretty easy because it's fiction. The Alameda County Library has it listed as "J RHODES,J" because of author name and the juvenile fiction classification of the title.
Since it wasn't clear if we were supposed to see what else was available for that subject from WorldCat or the top listed library of that title, I did both, but only for one subject descriptor: Hurricane Katrina, 2005 --Juvenile Fiction. The Alameda County Library had 4 total titles for with the same subject descriptor, one being Ninth Ward. There were 22 titles in WorldCat with the same subject heading. Some of the titles in WorldCat were a little hokey (in my opinion), such as Jake and Friends Encounter Hurricane Katrina. I'm sorry, this makes it sound like they took a little road trip somewhere and happened upon a hurricane. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Maybe I'm judging a book by its title, but someone at that publishing company should have raised a little flag about that.
I have always liked using WorldCat and I think it is a very good interface - very user friendly and intuitive.
Since it wasn't clear if we were supposed to see what else was available for that subject from WorldCat or the top listed library of that title, I did both, but only for one subject descriptor: Hurricane Katrina, 2005 --Juvenile Fiction. The Alameda County Library had 4 total titles for with the same subject descriptor, one being Ninth Ward. There were 22 titles in WorldCat with the same subject heading. Some of the titles in WorldCat were a little hokey (in my opinion), such as Jake and Friends Encounter Hurricane Katrina. I'm sorry, this makes it sound like they took a little road trip somewhere and happened upon a hurricane. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Maybe I'm judging a book by its title, but someone at that publishing company should have raised a little flag about that.
I have always liked using WorldCat and I think it is a very good interface - very user friendly and intuitive.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Net Library
1. I did a search for "travel." My results included a title on Lewis & Clark, an etiquette book to use when traveling in Africa and the Middle East, a book on how to travel alone and not be lonely, and a slew of title on weekend excursions in the country (as opposed to big cities) of pretty much every state in the U.S. I assume every state has one of those books because I readily admit that I did not look through the entire list of titles and count to 50. The only title that I raised my eyebrows a little at was a guide to "e-travel," which was about how to find great deals on vacations online. The title was published in 2000 and I know that a lot has changed since then. It makes me wonder what Net Library's weeding policy is or if they have one. Certainly e-books have a longer "shelf" life than standard print because they are useful for researchers and in theory more accessible, but if this title were on my public library shelves physically I would weed it. I do like the related topics feature on the right side of the page.
2. Not knowing what "more material" means, what materials they already have, or what age group my "students" are, I'm going to recommend some books to my high school seniors that expand on the Constitution and delve into political interpretations. In no particular order, here is my list.
Our Elusive Constitution: Silences, Paradoxes, Priorities
SUNY Series in American Constitutionalism
Representing Popular Sovereignty: The Constitution in American Political Culture
SUNY Series in American Constitutionalism
2. Not knowing what "more material" means, what materials they already have, or what age group my "students" are, I'm going to recommend some books to my high school seniors that expand on the Constitution and delve into political interpretations. In no particular order, here is my list.
Our Elusive Constitution: Silences, Paradoxes, Priorities
SUNY Series in American Constitutionalism
by Hoffman, Daniel N.
Publication: Albany State University of New York Press, 1997.
Publication: Albany State University of New York Press, 1997.
Representing Popular Sovereignty: The Constitution in American Political Culture
SUNY Series in American Constitutionalism
by Levin, Daniel Lessard.
Publication: Albany State University of New York Press, 1999.
A Companion to the United States Constitution and Its Amendments
Publication: Albany State University of New York Press, 1999.
A Companion to the United States Constitution and Its Amendments
by Vile, John R.
Publication: Westport, Conn. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001.
3. As suggested, I searched for "Nebraska" in the publisher field. Results yielded titles with subjects that I expected to see, such as Lewis & Clark, various Native American leaders, places where history was written like Fort Laramie and Wounded Knee. Some surprises (pleasant ones, I might add) were titles such as: The American Indian Integration of Baseball, The Hoe and the Horse On the Plains: A Study of Cultural Development Among North American Indians, and Assimilation's Agent: My Life As a Superintendent in the Indian Boarding School System. I did not go through all 6 pages of results but from what I could tell most of the titles were published by Lincoln University of Nebraska Press. For the heck of it, I clicked on a few of the "related topics" ideas but didn't find anything as useful or pertinent as my original search.
Publication: Westport, Conn. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001.
3. As suggested, I searched for "Nebraska" in the publisher field. Results yielded titles with subjects that I expected to see, such as Lewis & Clark, various Native American leaders, places where history was written like Fort Laramie and Wounded Knee. Some surprises (pleasant ones, I might add) were titles such as: The American Indian Integration of Baseball, The Hoe and the Horse On the Plains: A Study of Cultural Development Among North American Indians, and Assimilation's Agent: My Life As a Superintendent in the Indian Boarding School System. I did not go through all 6 pages of results but from what I could tell most of the titles were published by Lincoln University of Nebraska Press. For the heck of it, I clicked on a few of the "related topics" ideas but didn't find anything as useful or pertinent as my original search.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Gale Virtual Reference Library
Just clicking around...
I'm something of a modern day hippy and decided to click into "Endangered Species" under the Environment section. This particular title has three volumes. Professionally I'm not sure how I would use this, because even though libraries have been drastically reducing staff numbers over the last year or so, I'm not sure we qualify as an endangered species. However, I did read an article this morning on CNN.com about giant catfish that could face extinction if the Mekong River is dammed as a power source. It seems that its habitat has been threatened in 2003 due to slated dynamited navigation channel improvements. Other than the standard habitat and life cycle information about the giant catfish, I learned that there are villagers in Northern Thailand who believe that catfish are sacred. Now they must be crazy because catfish are the most ugly fish I have every encountered in my life. I appreciated reading more about the giant catfish and I hope that there doesn't have to be an updated entry on them because they are even more endangered.
Basically Searching...
Since I don't know what foods have zinc in them, I thought I might start with searching for answers to that question. My search resulted in one useful article that told me that the best food to find zinc in are "lamb, beef, leafy grains, root vegetables such as potatoes and carrots, shellfish, and organ meats such as liver or kidneys."*
I then looked up an article on Hindu gods because while wracking my brain for a question, I realized I could remember how to spell Shiva (random, I know). The article I found told me all about Devi, the wife of Shiva. Devi has numerous other names and incarnations including Kali, which was familiar from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I tried the Read Speaker feature for this article....when it came to the pronunciations in parentheses I had to laugh. Half of the time the reader pronounced them differently than in the main article or spelled out part of the pronunciation. So I wouldn't say that was entirely helpful, but I wasn't expecting perfection.
*Brody, Tom, and Samuel Uretsky. "Minerals." The Gale Encyclopedia of Children's Health: Infancy through Adolescence. Ed. Kristine Krapp and Jeffrey Wilson. Vol. 3. Detroit: Gale, 2006. 1186-1188. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 28 July 2010.
I'm something of a modern day hippy and decided to click into "Endangered Species" under the Environment section. This particular title has three volumes. Professionally I'm not sure how I would use this, because even though libraries have been drastically reducing staff numbers over the last year or so, I'm not sure we qualify as an endangered species. However, I did read an article this morning on CNN.com about giant catfish that could face extinction if the Mekong River is dammed as a power source. It seems that its habitat has been threatened in 2003 due to slated dynamited navigation channel improvements. Other than the standard habitat and life cycle information about the giant catfish, I learned that there are villagers in Northern Thailand who believe that catfish are sacred. Now they must be crazy because catfish are the most ugly fish I have every encountered in my life. I appreciated reading more about the giant catfish and I hope that there doesn't have to be an updated entry on them because they are even more endangered.
Basically Searching...
Since I don't know what foods have zinc in them, I thought I might start with searching for answers to that question. My search resulted in one useful article that told me that the best food to find zinc in are "lamb, beef, leafy grains, root vegetables such as potatoes and carrots, shellfish, and organ meats such as liver or kidneys."*
I then looked up an article on Hindu gods because while wracking my brain for a question, I realized I could remember how to spell Shiva (random, I know). The article I found told me all about Devi, the wife of Shiva. Devi has numerous other names and incarnations including Kali, which was familiar from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I tried the Read Speaker feature for this article....when it came to the pronunciations in parentheses I had to laugh. Half of the time the reader pronounced them differently than in the main article or spelled out part of the pronunciation. So I wouldn't say that was entirely helpful, but I wasn't expecting perfection.
*Brody, Tom, and Samuel Uretsky. "Minerals." The Gale Encyclopedia of Children's Health: Infancy through Adolescence. Ed. Kristine Krapp and Jeffrey Wilson. Vol. 3. Detroit: Gale, 2006. 1186-1188. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 28 July 2010.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
ProQuest
My husband and I are in the process of purchasing our first house. So my first search was for "home ownership." I checked the "full text documents only" box to narrow my results. I was hoping for a few articles about tips about what kinds of inspections to have done, hidden costs to watch out for, etc. With the current state of our economy and the concurrent housing crisis, I should have known I wouldn't get anything useful. After 10 pages of nothing that I was looking for, I decided there wouldn't be much to blog about.
My next search was for "adolescent brain." This yielded much better results (in terms of usefulness). I just love everything about ProQuest: how it helps me expand or narrow my search (Suggested Topics About), how I can take my search results and save them for later by emailing them, the citation builder, etc. Though I've never used it, I appreciate the RSS feed and Alert features. I find ProQuest easy to navigate and well laid out. I've also used the Advanced search many times to look for book reviews. A shout out goes to Jean Peterson in Tech Services for showing me how to do that my second day on the job!
I've used the Publications tab many times to search for a specific article I've seen in a print version of a magazine. For the heck of it I tracked down the issue of American Libraries that came out right before the 2006 annual conference in New Orleans. My mom wrote a French Quarter restaurant guide for that issue and I always enjoy reading it. Maybe that's cheating, but I don't care :)
My next search was for "adolescent brain." This yielded much better results (in terms of usefulness). I just love everything about ProQuest: how it helps me expand or narrow my search (Suggested Topics About), how I can take my search results and save them for later by emailing them, the citation builder, etc. Though I've never used it, I appreciate the RSS feed and Alert features. I find ProQuest easy to navigate and well laid out. I've also used the Advanced search many times to look for book reviews. A shout out goes to Jean Peterson in Tech Services for showing me how to do that my second day on the job!
I've used the Publications tab many times to search for a specific article I've seen in a print version of a magazine. For the heck of it I tracked down the issue of American Libraries that came out right before the 2006 annual conference in New Orleans. My mom wrote a French Quarter restaurant guide for that issue and I always enjoy reading it. Maybe that's cheating, but I don't care :)
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
SIRS Issue Researcher
Leading Issues - "Drilling for Oil" caught my eye. My parents live in New Orleans, went through Katrina, and are now dealing with more crap from the BP fiasco. I went down to visit them last month and we drove out to where "land" ends and the marshes begin. We saw a group of people loading boom onto a fishing boat (pictures at the bottom). But I digress...
What I liked best about all the information and options under the topic was the fact that if a PDF of an article isn't available, SIRS has still provided a color copy of any accompanying graph, charts, or tables. I was also intrigued by the fact that they give a file size for each article. My computer doesn't play nicely with Quicktime so I didn't get to listen to the Audio MP3 of the article - bummer! The Timeline feature under Research Tools was very in depth. One of the features of Issue Researcher I find the most helpful is the Pro/Con box with pre-selected articles for both sides.
Curriculum Pathfinders - I chose Language Arts and what I liked right away was the tag cloud of possible/popular research topics. The Lord of the Flies interactive game was...different....I also like the list of related subject terms linked to each article description. Most of the articles were at a fairly high Lexile level.
All in all, I liked the experience of exploring Issues Researcher better than yesterday's experience of Discoverer.
What I liked best about all the information and options under the topic was the fact that if a PDF of an article isn't available, SIRS has still provided a color copy of any accompanying graph, charts, or tables. I was also intrigued by the fact that they give a file size for each article. My computer doesn't play nicely with Quicktime so I didn't get to listen to the Audio MP3 of the article - bummer! The Timeline feature under Research Tools was very in depth. One of the features of Issue Researcher I find the most helpful is the Pro/Con box with pre-selected articles for both sides.
Curriculum Pathfinders - I chose Language Arts and what I liked right away was the tag cloud of possible/popular research topics. The Lord of the Flies interactive game was...different....I also like the list of related subject terms linked to each article description. Most of the articles were at a fairly high Lexile level.
All in all, I liked the experience of exploring Issues Researcher better than yesterday's experience of Discoverer.
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