One resource I use quite a bit is www.findagrave.com. It comes in extremely handy when doing research, especially family histories. I have saved myself a lot of time by searching on findagrave and discovering that someones great grandfather isn't actually buried where they say they were.
I also use www.goodreads.com quite a bit as well. It's fun and it is also great for browsing and finding new titles. It also will give you pretty accurate recommendations if you rate enough books.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Wrap-up
In the end, I feel like I learned some information and refreshed some previous knowledge. My biggest discovery was probably World Cat and learning how to use it, along with learning how to search for photos in ancestry library. I already use ancestry and the sanborns quite often, and I really believe I will use the learning library for helping our job seeking patrons. I think world book will also come in handy with kids trying to do reports as well. It was fun, sorry I'm such a procrastinator, and I look foward to seeing everyone at institue.
Ancestry and Sanborn.
Out of all the challenges, this was my favorite. I use ancestrylibrary quite often for research purporses. We get alot of patrons or out of towners contacting us about relatives that used to live in Lead, so I find ancestry very helpful and easy to use, and also highly successful. Even though I use it alot, I have never looked for myself, so that was fun. Unfortunately, I found no information on myself, I guess I'm living off the grid. The issue is that I'm only 24 and the only census I've ever taken on my own was 2010. The phone directories only went to 2002, and I was still living with my parents then. I couldn't even find a birth certificate! I had more luck with my grandmother however. I actually have researched my ancestors before so that came in handy. I researched my grandmother Dolores Thomas, but I couldn't find any census records. I did find her obiturary and her name in the Social Security Death index. It's always a little strange finding information about personal events that you remember clearly. On a side note, my grandfather worked for Homestake briefly, and my grandmother apparently used our library in the 1950's, because I found her in our old patron registration books. All in all, I find ancestry a very useful tool and use it as much as I possibly can.
Heritage quest on the other hand I have never used. I browsed through some of the books, and searched for any books on Lead, SD. The only results were some family histories in which some of the relatives must have lived in Lead at some point. I almost feel that heritage quest is too exclusive, and that not many people trying to do research on families are going to have need of it. The Sanborn maps on the other hand I also have used often for research purposes. I looked up Lead, SD in Oct. 1915. Lead is always a nightmare when looking at old maps, because the town has changed so much from the Open Cut and half the city is gone. I did however look up the old West Lead Cemetary, which is the cemetary for free masons here in Lead. I'm not sure if it is still in use or not, but the maps actually helped because I knew the general location of it today, but not exactly where, which I found on the old map. I've looked before and found where our building is now, and the year in which I was looking it was simply an empty plot between the Opera House and Post Office.
I did learn a new trick with ancestry in the searching for pictures, which I never knew one could do. When I searched South Dakota I found a bunch of old baseball photos:
After the baseball photos were old yearbooks from BHSU (my alma mater) from 1916, when I believe it was still the old Spearfish Normal.
Heritage quest on the other hand I have never used. I browsed through some of the books, and searched for any books on Lead, SD. The only results were some family histories in which some of the relatives must have lived in Lead at some point. I almost feel that heritage quest is too exclusive, and that not many people trying to do research on families are going to have need of it. The Sanborn maps on the other hand I also have used often for research purposes. I looked up Lead, SD in Oct. 1915. Lead is always a nightmare when looking at old maps, because the town has changed so much from the Open Cut and half the city is gone. I did however look up the old West Lead Cemetary, which is the cemetary for free masons here in Lead. I'm not sure if it is still in use or not, but the maps actually helped because I knew the general location of it today, but not exactly where, which I found on the old map. I've looked before and found where our building is now, and the year in which I was looking it was simply an empty plot between the Opera House and Post Office.
I did learn a new trick with ancestry in the searching for pictures, which I never knew one could do. When I searched South Dakota I found a bunch of old baseball photos:
World Cat
I was excited to use World Cat because I've never actually used it before. I found it very handy, but not very user friendly. It was almost information overload, and too many different options. I will have to continue to play with it to become more familiar, although I started to get the hang of it after awhile. As far as searching for a book, I ended up lookin up Ernie Pyle's "Brave Men". I choose this book because I had an old copy sitting in my office that needs replaced, so I figured I would learn more about the book while I'm at it. There was a total of 69 results for Brave Men, and the number of libraries that possessed it were 1, 436. The Dewey number was 940.542, which was nice to know because our copy was only 940.5. I also found the list of other works by Pyle which included Here is your war and and a collection of his WWII dispatches. I believe he was killed in the Pacific Theater towards the end of the war, making his works all the more valuable. From the Ernie Pyle page I had links to books on World War 2, the Pacific, and numerous other topics, but I choose to look at the war correspondents page. Pyle was on the list with several others such as Andrew Rooney and Philip Caputo.
With OAIster I searched South Dakota and for some unexplained reason came up with several links to articles about the Minnesota State Legislature. However, I eventually found a link to a photograph entitled:
" Indian shooting a steer for a beef issue at the Sioux Indian Agency at Pine Ridge."
With OAIster I searched South Dakota and for some unexplained reason came up with several links to articles about the Minnesota State Legislature. However, I eventually found a link to a photograph entitled:
" Indian shooting a steer for a beef issue at the Sioux Indian Agency at Pine Ridge."
There wasn't much background information about the photograph, although I know that the agency's allowed the Indians to "hunt" game in a locked pen in order to try to recreate the old lifestyle.
All in all I found World Cat to be helpful but a little to confusing right off the bat. With practice though I should be able to learn it better, and when I do I think it will become a very useful tool.
Proquest
I was already fairly familiar with Proquest prior to the challenge because I used it quite a bit in college. However, a refresher is always nice. Being the history buff that I am, I went to the history section and decided to research the Spanish Civil War. I got thousands of results, and all very enticing. They ranged from essays about Canadians volunteering in the civil war to war photography to Francoism versus Communism. Speaking of photography here is Robert Capa's famous photo from the Spanish Civil War:
Sadly, I recently read that this photo was most likely staged and is a fraud. Nonetheless, I settled on reading an article entitled FDR and the Spanish Civil War: Neutrality and Commitment in the Struggle That Divided America published in 2008 in the Journal of American History.
It was hard for me to review what my peers were doing, because I'm about three weeks behind and everyone but me is already finished. Alas, I did look at my coworker's blog, and it appears she spent alot of time researching Edith Wharton. Lastly, I reviewed the journals of the library world, and ended up reading from the Huntington Library Quarterly, volume 74 published in 2011, which apparently is a scholarly literature magazine.
Sadly, I recently read that this photo was most likely staged and is a fraud. Nonetheless, I settled on reading an article entitled FDR and the Spanish Civil War: Neutrality and Commitment in the Struggle That Divided America published in 2008 in the Journal of American History.
It was hard for me to review what my peers were doing, because I'm about three weeks behind and everyone but me is already finished. Alas, I did look at my coworker's blog, and it appears she spent alot of time researching Edith Wharton. Lastly, I reviewed the journals of the library world, and ended up reading from the Huntington Library Quarterly, volume 74 published in 2011, which apparently is a scholarly literature magazine.
Friday, May 11, 2012
Learning Library
I reviewed the learning library for lesson two, and feel like I learned some valuable information. For the practice test, I looked at a reading comprehension test, figuring since I work in a library I better have good reading comprehension skills ( which I do). I took the test for awhile and figured I better get on with the lesson and stopped. I failed miserably. That's ok though, I learned how the actual process works.
I actually found the job search and workplace skills course the most helpful, not neccesarily for me but for our patrons. We get alot of patrons who come in to use the computers for job searches, and they often possess little to no computer skills. Sadly, alot of employers post jobs online to try and weed out people with no computer skills. So it is often a painful and time consuming process to try and help jobseekers. The information I found in the job searching course will actually come in handy next time someone needs help with job seeking. The interview tips, the online links to job websites and other tips related to online job seeking was all nicely displayed and user friendly. I'm glad I found this section.
Lastly, I searched through all the databases and found other resources for reading comprehension and downloaded an ebook. I thought that these tests and the whole learning library site will be helpful to our homeschool patrons, whom we have alot of. They use the library often with their parents, and this site is a new resource for them to learn from.
I actually found the job search and workplace skills course the most helpful, not neccesarily for me but for our patrons. We get alot of patrons who come in to use the computers for job searches, and they often possess little to no computer skills. Sadly, alot of employers post jobs online to try and weed out people with no computer skills. So it is often a painful and time consuming process to try and help jobseekers. The information I found in the job searching course will actually come in handy next time someone needs help with job seeking. The interview tips, the online links to job websites and other tips related to online job seeking was all nicely displayed and user friendly. I'm glad I found this section.
Lastly, I searched through all the databases and found other resources for reading comprehension and downloaded an ebook. I thought that these tests and the whole learning library site will be helpful to our homeschool patrons, whom we have alot of. They use the library often with their parents, and this site is a new resource for them to learn from.
Lesson 1b
I enjoyed looking around at the different versions of World Book, which I have never used before. I found myself wishing that I had used it in college, for the access to primary sources would have been very helpful as a history major. I also thought there was alot of useful informationg for children. It's always hard finding good, reliable informationg for kids on the internet. As far as the lessons went, I decided to research the armadillo, because I've always had a strange fascination with them going back to childhood. On a side note, there is a great ice cream shop in Rapid City called Armadillos. Here is a picture of an armadillo, they aren't the prettiest mammal on earth.
They lived in both North and South America, typcially located in the dryer climates of the Southwest and Mexico. Different species of armadillos also possess different bands of armor, ranging from 6 to 9 bands of armor. On infor finder, I found much more information about the armadillo, including the different species of armadillos and their scientific names. I also found out that they are the only mammals known to carry the bacterium that causes leprosy. That ice cream doesn't sound so good now.
On the online reference center, I researched the country of Romania, because I also have a strange fascination with it. Most people don't know that the infamous Translyvania is a region in Romania and was the home of Vlad the Impaler, who was the inspiration for Dracula. But I digress. When I went to research Romania, I found alot of useful information on the left hand side of the screen. There were links to maps, articles, and general information, while the right hand side had links to primary sources. As far as are patrons in Lead go, the left side information would most likely be more relevant to what were looking for. And the information on the left on the actual country page would also be more valuable, because it gives basic information about said country such as type of government, history, culture, climate, population, etc. All in all, i found World Book to be very helpful and user friendly, which is always a plus when dealing with the internet and computers and patrons. I will be mindful to use World Book in the future when it is helpful.
I enjoyed looking around at the different versions of World Book, which I have never used before. I found myself wishing that I had used it in college, for the access to primary sources would have been very helpful as a history major. I also thought there was alot of useful informationg for children. It's always hard finding good, reliable informationg for kids on the internet. As far as the lessons went, I decided to research the armadillo, because I've always had a strange fascination with them going back to childhood. On a side note, there is a great ice cream shop in Rapid City called Armadillos. Here is a picture of an armadillo, they aren't the prettiest mammal on earth.
They lived in both North and South America, typcially located in the dryer climates of the Southwest and Mexico. Different species of armadillos also possess different bands of armor, ranging from 6 to 9 bands of armor. On infor finder, I found much more information about the armadillo, including the different species of armadillos and their scientific names. I also found out that they are the only mammals known to carry the bacterium that causes leprosy. That ice cream doesn't sound so good now.
On the online reference center, I researched the country of Romania, because I also have a strange fascination with it. Most people don't know that the infamous Translyvania is a region in Romania and was the home of Vlad the Impaler, who was the inspiration for Dracula. But I digress. When I went to research Romania, I found alot of useful information on the left hand side of the screen. There were links to maps, articles, and general information, while the right hand side had links to primary sources. As far as are patrons in Lead go, the left side information would most likely be more relevant to what were looking for. And the information on the left on the actual country page would also be more valuable, because it gives basic information about said country such as type of government, history, culture, climate, population, etc. All in all, i found World Book to be very helpful and user friendly, which is always a plus when dealing with the internet and computers and patrons. I will be mindful to use World Book in the future when it is helpful.
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