NetLibrary

I am on a roll today. The librarian stops by a few minutes each hour while I am playing around with all the lessons, the library is a busy place today. She thinks some of the resources will take a little time to be comfortable with but likes World Book.
I am now at NetLibrary and researching "quilting". Of the 152 results, the first item was on quilting, the others had the word quilting in the text. I had to narrow down the search with the advanced options and had a smaller number. You could read the pages of the book right then to see if the selection would be of any help.
Constitution Day is the next search, wow 1067 results! To get the American constitution day I had to go through some titles. What amazed me is Japan was the third on the list and at the end of page one. The book I picked had information more fitting for high school or college research.
Western history became a dead end for me until I used the advanced setting and then I only had a two matches with Oklahoma. I then tried gold mining in black hills and found 44 items, again only with advanced search. Using advanced search gets you closer to the actual information a lot faster. I can be time consuming going through 502 matches found with a general search. I am also realizing why I really did not like term papers in school.

Gale Virtual

Gale virtual reference library has not been used in the library until today. I chose medicine which led me to the Gale Encyclopedia of Cancer and the subject anemia. At the subject guide search and typed in gluten and found one result, Celiac Disease by Amy Vance. As that is my life style now, I found the information current and accurate. The links and tools are very helpful. Listening to the information helps me retain it and the voices used are easy to understand. The option of reading a PDF of the subject made it seem more like a book page. I like this electronic resource.

Proquest

Because it took so long for me to get going I am doing a few lessons at once-an afternoon off from work helps. My subject is volcanic eruptions which led me to 105 documents with 7 more suggested topics. I emailed one article home and tagged another article, easy. Volcano found even more documents, especially about Iceland's eruptions.
At publications I went down the alphabet and picked Canadian Public Policy in the Chicago Review and found a book review in the spring volume. Good Housekeeping's July edition led me to "15 Ways to use Balsamic Vinegar". The School Library Journal of New York gave me an article about the new cell phone apps and the author's opinion of the phone may replace the computer. I need a little more practice on Proquest to get my information.

SIRS

I looked up kangaroo again on SIRS. The key lets me know the reading level and the top tab bar took me to an Australian newspaper about farmers raising kangaroos. Having the page read to you is a bonus. Sometimes hearing the words makes the learning stick to your memory better.
My country was Ukraine, picked because our past exchange daughter is from there. Finding easy, moderate, and challenging info for teachers is neat and fun to play with. It is an easy way to work up to lots of knowledge.
I went to "Maps of the World" and picked US Historical. There are 1000 pictures starting at the year 1000. I went to the 1775 map of Boston and the battle lines of the British and Americans were marked so you could easily follow the old battles. I then tried "Current Events" and read about the egg recall with links to related sites. Research could get extensive.
SIRS Researcher had a top 10 list and I chose oil well drilling. Wow, articles with the pros and cons are in the center (without having to look up each magazine), old video of news stories and overview with the research tools on the left. I had to quit reading both sides to continue with the lesson. But...I had the most fun on basketmath interactive! No matter what type of math problem you pick, your right answer is two baskets. Again I had to quit playing to go on to lesson 3.

Still on the challenge

Well, I am getting back to blogging. Due to technical difficulities with technology, it has been too long getting back to this. The IT support person, me, hooked up the new router, wifi printer, and laptop at the library and encountered problems-I could not get the static IP address to work! The Internet would work but when I went to the SD Library page and tried to use World Book...nothing unless I had a card. After two weeks of redong the router and calling two 1-800 numbers I have everything hooked up correctly! Another day goes by and I can now play with the electronic resosurces and blog.
World Book Online Kids, Info Center, and Reference Center are a fun site after I played around with the different windows. Info center gives more details than Kids but all good. The Reference center led me to Canada. I found the center panel is the most helpfun unless I want lots of details. Patrons can navigate easily on all the World Book Centers.
The World Book School Edition seems to be the same as the public edition info (ie. kangaroo). Canada info had even more on the left side bar for research. The Discover goes to American Government and has good articles. A foriegn exchange student who is having difficulty understanding a subject can change the text to their language and really understand it.
World Book Forign language is great. I looked up squirrel on the French page by the picture, could not read a word but I had the info. The Spanish page brought up squirrel and I listened to the narration. Having the linese highlighted made it easy to follow along and I could even understand some of the words-I hear Spanish more than French. School language students need this. Once again, exchange students can also find this useful.