Well, of course, all of the resources are so information-rich, reliable, and easy to use. There's just nothing to criticize among any of them. Even though I was fairly familiar with most of them, still, I don't think there was one week/lesson where I didn't uncover something previously unseen or not fully understood. Frequently, those happy discoveries were new enhancements and improvements offered by the vendors since I'd last worked with a particular resource. That vendors continue to develop their products, often in response to public demand and perceived trends, is such a testament to the validity and value of these resources.
All in all, though, and perhaps this is because I'd not used this one much yet, I found Ancestry Library to be really interesting, fun, and--yes, addictive. That's the one where, after using it the day I started the lesson and not finding what I thought should be there, that evening (while away from the computer) a thought about an alternative search technique popped into my brain. And when I tried that the next day--success in finding what I'd looked for before, and some more piqued curiosity and possible conclusions as to a spelling discrepancy in 10-years-apart census records. How effective this would be for getting students to think and draw conclusions! I'm going to show Ancestry Library to my mom, who has mucho time on her hands and really would be interested in this stuff. Perhaps it will inspire her to get a RCPL borrower's card--can't be a bad thing in her world.
So, thanks, Julie and Jane, for this effort. Your time and, especially, the preparation that went into making these lessons easy and worthwhile for participants--just so commendable.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
ER Challenge: Week 9: Ancestry, et. al.
1. Searched my name, found me and my address in the US Public Records index, v.1. Didn't find any more info about me; perhaps I wasn't looking deeply enough. However, when I clicked on the Stories & Publications tab, I discovered I'm not the only Lee Crary, even Lee Ann Crary, out there. Nor, apparently, was I ever, as some names have dates going back to the 1800's. There's a Lee Crary in Everett, WA; one of the publications noted was located in Australia, one in Colorado, several titles of publications were in French, with one noting Montreal in the title--Candian, perhaps?
2.I searched for my paternal grandfather (whom I never knew and don't know much about), Lawrence Landwehr, found him in the 1900 and 1920 census, born and living where I had thought. Found his birthdate, names of his parents, and that they were both born in Germany--none of which I knew. Also found in Social Security (I think) records that he died in 1940. A search for his name spelled as noted did not bring up any records from the 1930 census, by which time he'd have been married and had a child, my dad, and I thought that was odd. So I did a search for Dad, found him in the 1930 census and discovered his dad's name was spelled in the 1930 records as Laurence, no W in there. And there was his wife's name, that he was head of the household and had a child, Wilfred. Would you guess the census records from 1930 were incorrect in the spelling of his name, or, perhaps, the 1900 and 1920 records were wrong. Interesting. Also interesting: Lawrence's occupation in the 1920 census was "hired hand," and others in the household (several people) all had the same last name, but not Landwehr. I'm thinking he was living with that family, working as their hired man, and was counted so. That kindof adds up because one of the few things I know about my dad's parents is that they were not well off. This stuff is addictive, far too interesting.
3. Yearbooks, yearbooks, old yearbooks from SD schools--USD, SD State College (Brookings), Sioux Falls College, Washington Senior HS in SF, Yankton, even some little places like Freeman and Emery.
Historical-type photos of SD in the Library of Congress collection. I like to see the dates with the photos, always interesting to compare, like a picture of Deadwood from 1876 and one from 1900 (I think)--some changes there.
County land ownership maps from 1860 to 1918; the counties I saw listed were all East River--Turner, Minnehaha, but I didn't go through all 139,000+ files. Seeing people's names in the township maps is cool, would be especially fun to look at a county where one grew up and knew some of the old (and current!) landowners' names.
4. I searched the publications in Heritage Quest and found H.P. Hall's observations : being more or less a history of political contests in Minnesota from 1849 to 1904, published in 1904. Chapters (the author's "observations") looked intriguing--apparently political turmoil with a little ugliness thrown in was not unheard of in Minnesota's early years, including 3 governors at one time at one point. Having resources like this so accessible--someone interested in local history with time on their hands could be deeply occupied as long as he wanted. Great way to bring history home to students who tend to think of it as removed from their lives, to show that history is populated by ordinary people not unlike themselves who just happened to write it all down.
5. Bison wasn't in there, nor was Claremont, so the next most likely place for me to find familiar locations is Deadwood; I chose the maps from April, 1923-August, 1948. Read somewhere that when multiple years are given that means that as sheets were updated they were meant to literally be pasted over the old sheets. Located on the map St. Joseph's Hospital, which is still there, but now is the Northern Hills branch of Rapid City Regional. Also located the place where Dem's family's house is now, but not on these maps as it wasn't built 'til '59 or '60. St. Joseph's also appears in the same location in the 1903 maps. Looking at a couple maps of Main Street, most of the buildings shown then are still there. The oldest set of maps for Deadwood is dated 1885; wouldn't it be interesting to see a map of Main Street from prior to 1879 and one soon after that, since a fire took out basically all of Main Street in 1879.
2.I searched for my paternal grandfather (whom I never knew and don't know much about), Lawrence Landwehr, found him in the 1900 and 1920 census, born and living where I had thought. Found his birthdate, names of his parents, and that they were both born in Germany--none of which I knew. Also found in Social Security (I think) records that he died in 1940. A search for his name spelled as noted did not bring up any records from the 1930 census, by which time he'd have been married and had a child, my dad, and I thought that was odd. So I did a search for Dad, found him in the 1930 census and discovered his dad's name was spelled in the 1930 records as Laurence, no W in there. And there was his wife's name, that he was head of the household and had a child, Wilfred. Would you guess the census records from 1930 were incorrect in the spelling of his name, or, perhaps, the 1900 and 1920 records were wrong. Interesting. Also interesting: Lawrence's occupation in the 1920 census was "hired hand," and others in the household (several people) all had the same last name, but not Landwehr. I'm thinking he was living with that family, working as their hired man, and was counted so. That kindof adds up because one of the few things I know about my dad's parents is that they were not well off. This stuff is addictive, far too interesting.
3. Yearbooks, yearbooks, old yearbooks from SD schools--USD, SD State College (Brookings), Sioux Falls College, Washington Senior HS in SF, Yankton, even some little places like Freeman and Emery.
Historical-type photos of SD in the Library of Congress collection. I like to see the dates with the photos, always interesting to compare, like a picture of Deadwood from 1876 and one from 1900 (I think)--some changes there.
County land ownership maps from 1860 to 1918; the counties I saw listed were all East River--Turner, Minnehaha, but I didn't go through all 139,000+ files. Seeing people's names in the township maps is cool, would be especially fun to look at a county where one grew up and knew some of the old (and current!) landowners' names.
4. I searched the publications in Heritage Quest and found H.P. Hall's observations : being more or less a history of political contests in Minnesota from 1849 to 1904, published in 1904. Chapters (the author's "observations") looked intriguing--apparently political turmoil with a little ugliness thrown in was not unheard of in Minnesota's early years, including 3 governors at one time at one point. Having resources like this so accessible--someone interested in local history with time on their hands could be deeply occupied as long as he wanted. Great way to bring history home to students who tend to think of it as removed from their lives, to show that history is populated by ordinary people not unlike themselves who just happened to write it all down.
5. Bison wasn't in there, nor was Claremont, so the next most likely place for me to find familiar locations is Deadwood; I chose the maps from April, 1923-August, 1948. Read somewhere that when multiple years are given that means that as sheets were updated they were meant to literally be pasted over the old sheets. Located on the map St. Joseph's Hospital, which is still there, but now is the Northern Hills branch of Rapid City Regional. Also located the place where Dem's family's house is now, but not on these maps as it wasn't built 'til '59 or '60. St. Joseph's also appears in the same location in the 1903 maps. Looking at a couple maps of Main Street, most of the buildings shown then are still there. The oldest set of maps for Deadwood is dated 1885; wouldn't it be interesting to see a map of Main Street from prior to 1879 and one soon after that, since a fire took out basically all of Main Street in 1879.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
ER Challenge: Week 8 Learning Express
1. Easy-peasy to set up the account, pick up and take a test, score it, and view results. I liked the explanations of incorrect answers--stated in clear language and non-condescending manner.
2. Looked at Business Writing 5, Grammar/Spelling--whoa! Talk about Grammar 101. Completing the course would take some time, but the basics of common problems with parts of speech, sentence fragments & run-ons are all there. Then, out of curiosity, I also looked at the Job Search, Resumes, & Interviewing, Success on the Job course. The 4 segments, I think, should be looked at by everyone, I mean every single person, who thinks he/she is ready to go out into the work force. Colleges and vo-techs should be using this, perhaps even hs guidance counselors working with students determined they're ready to get jobs without benefit of more education of any sort.
3.Typed in "resumes" and results listed two appropriate at the top: Resumes That Get You Hired (2006) and Goof-Proof Resumes & Cover Letters (2003). Both looked helpful, contained graphic illustrations and examples accompanied by textual hints and suggestions. Another title a little farther down the list that looked interesting was Teacher Career Starter (2002). Although much of the info could be useful, such as a checklist in an early chapter meant to assist in determing whether one is suited to the teaching profession, because of the 2002 cr date, I'm thinking some of the statistical stuff, like average teacher salaries, is likely outdated by now. Some of the advice as to obtaining loans/scholarships and so on might no longer be helpful as well.
I believe all 3 of the books I looked at were published by Learning Express.
Appreciated that the tables of contents in all 3 books were active, allowing for the reader to skip around--s'pose that's true of most if not all ebooks now?
2. Looked at Business Writing 5, Grammar/Spelling--whoa! Talk about Grammar 101. Completing the course would take some time, but the basics of common problems with parts of speech, sentence fragments & run-ons are all there. Then, out of curiosity, I also looked at the Job Search, Resumes, & Interviewing, Success on the Job course. The 4 segments, I think, should be looked at by everyone, I mean every single person, who thinks he/she is ready to go out into the work force. Colleges and vo-techs should be using this, perhaps even hs guidance counselors working with students determined they're ready to get jobs without benefit of more education of any sort.
3.Typed in "resumes" and results listed two appropriate at the top: Resumes That Get You Hired (2006) and Goof-Proof Resumes & Cover Letters (2003). Both looked helpful, contained graphic illustrations and examples accompanied by textual hints and suggestions. Another title a little farther down the list that looked interesting was Teacher Career Starter (2002). Although much of the info could be useful, such as a checklist in an early chapter meant to assist in determing whether one is suited to the teaching profession, because of the 2002 cr date, I'm thinking some of the statistical stuff, like average teacher salaries, is likely outdated by now. Some of the advice as to obtaining loans/scholarships and so on might no longer be helpful as well.
I believe all 3 of the books I looked at were published by Learning Express.
Appreciated that the tables of contents in all 3 books were active, allowing for the reader to skip around--s'pose that's true of most if not all ebooks now?
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
ER Challenge: Week 7 ArchiveGrid and CAMIO
1.Useful hint about using the tilde and a number for a proximity search.
There are 2 items at Cornell University Library, the card and an envelope. Location details within the library are given.
Sitting Bull's native names were new to me. Interesting that, although he obviously was a warrior and opposed the white encroachment upon Indian civilization, he toured with Buffalo Bill's Wild West show before he was killed.
Typed in "Hugh Glass" and received 7 results, 3 of whom I'd have expected as all wrote of the man and the legend. The Neihardt collection is housed at University of Nebraska-Lincoln; McClung and Manfred collections are at the Andersen Library, Uof M-Twin Cities. Couldn't get the Neihardt collection to open; perhaps it would have if I'd waited long enough, but was really slow so gave up. The McClung collection contains the author's manuscript for Hugh Glass, Mountain Man (winner of the Pasque award back in the 90's).
2.CAMIO
a. Paul Revere was, of course, a noted silversmith, so there are lots of pictures of silver items he crafted: sugar bowls and urns, teapots, saucers, a salver (can't recall exactly what that is at the moment), a goblet (one of two), teaspoon, tankard--the man was busy, and good.
b.63 images of Sioux clothing, bags, pipe bowls, dolls, even a war club--yikes--and works of art produced by and about the Sioux. Clicking on each image brings up a description, title, subject and holding institution. Interesting that none of these is housed in SD, many in Detroit, Minneapolis, a few in Boston. Apparently, SD museums with Sioux artifacts don't have holdings listed in CAMIO?
c. Don't really have a favorite artist, but I always enjoyed the pictures Norman Rockwell so I searched for him and found 6 results. All but the first are housed in a gallery in Buffalo, NY; that first one listed is in Indianapolis. These are not the paintings I recalled from my "youth," and, indeed, all are dated from 1920-1930, mostly the 20's. The 6th work in the list is dated 1930 and has a lighter tone both in the actual color and the emotional tone of the image. Hmmmm, perhaps his style was changing--
d. Stating the obvious here, but it certainly could be a great resource for art and history classes, perhaps even composition. A boon for rural and remote places like Bison where students rarely if ever have access to works of art and materials with historical value.
e. I used the Sioux search, then chose 3 images classified as costume and jewely, a scalp shirt, gauntlets, and a pouch. The options to create a slide show with the favorite images, use the move function to arrange them as one wished (chronological, perhaps), and even compare one to another make CAMIO a real plus in a presentation. Zooming in on the images is cool. Then thought it might be cool to look at some of the silver pieces done by Revere so chose four items spanning from 1761 to 1795. Might be interesting to show to students, pointing to style changes over the years.
There are 2 items at Cornell University Library, the card and an envelope. Location details within the library are given.
Sitting Bull's native names were new to me. Interesting that, although he obviously was a warrior and opposed the white encroachment upon Indian civilization, he toured with Buffalo Bill's Wild West show before he was killed.
Typed in "Hugh Glass" and received 7 results, 3 of whom I'd have expected as all wrote of the man and the legend. The Neihardt collection is housed at University of Nebraska-Lincoln; McClung and Manfred collections are at the Andersen Library, Uof M-Twin Cities. Couldn't get the Neihardt collection to open; perhaps it would have if I'd waited long enough, but was really slow so gave up. The McClung collection contains the author's manuscript for Hugh Glass, Mountain Man (winner of the Pasque award back in the 90's).
2.CAMIO
a. Paul Revere was, of course, a noted silversmith, so there are lots of pictures of silver items he crafted: sugar bowls and urns, teapots, saucers, a salver (can't recall exactly what that is at the moment), a goblet (one of two), teaspoon, tankard--the man was busy, and good.
b.63 images of Sioux clothing, bags, pipe bowls, dolls, even a war club--yikes--and works of art produced by and about the Sioux. Clicking on each image brings up a description, title, subject and holding institution. Interesting that none of these is housed in SD, many in Detroit, Minneapolis, a few in Boston. Apparently, SD museums with Sioux artifacts don't have holdings listed in CAMIO?
c. Don't really have a favorite artist, but I always enjoyed the pictures Norman Rockwell so I searched for him and found 6 results. All but the first are housed in a gallery in Buffalo, NY; that first one listed is in Indianapolis. These are not the paintings I recalled from my "youth," and, indeed, all are dated from 1920-1930, mostly the 20's. The 6th work in the list is dated 1930 and has a lighter tone both in the actual color and the emotional tone of the image. Hmmmm, perhaps his style was changing--
d. Stating the obvious here, but it certainly could be a great resource for art and history classes, perhaps even composition. A boon for rural and remote places like Bison where students rarely if ever have access to works of art and materials with historical value.
e. I used the Sioux search, then chose 3 images classified as costume and jewely, a scalp shirt, gauntlets, and a pouch. The options to create a slide show with the favorite images, use the move function to arrange them as one wished (chronological, perhaps), and even compare one to another make CAMIO a real plus in a presentation. Zooming in on the images is cool. Then thought it might be cool to look at some of the silver pieces done by Revere so chose four items spanning from 1761 to 1795. Might be interesting to show to students, pointing to style changes over the years.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
ER Challenge: Week 6 WorldCat et. al.
1. Well, didn't this work out nicely? I've had on order through SDLN ILL for several weeks now a copy of Pigs Make Me Sneeze by Mo Willems, and just decided today that I'd better try to get it through WorldCat instead. Apparently, getting a copy through SDLN is a no-go.
I'm glad to read in the WorldCat tutorial the hint about using title and author phrase as search options because title and author just use one word for each. Didn't know that before and it surely does explain some odd search results I've come up with in the past. :) We live and learn, don't we? It's also good to get the reminder that WorldCat means "world," not just US, so the user should be sure to use that language limiter, if necessary, which brings up the thought that this could be a good supplementary tool for teachers of foreign languages. Have Spanish students search for books in Spanish, for example, and try to borrow a few. Could be a broadening experience for them.
I used both title and author phrase as search options, limited the search to books (in English only) and received 2 results:
title published by Hyperion = 1190
Paw Prints edition = 1
South Dakota-owned titles floated to the top of the worldwide holdings (as they should), and the first library listed as owning the book is Brookings Public.
LC class descriptor = PZ7.W65535; Dewey class = [E]
Mr. Willems is a pretty prolific fella with 227 total other items listed under his name as an author (166 books, 28 visual [ vt's, etc.], 25 sound, 7 internet, 1 computer program [a cd].
Other books he's written include the wildly successful Knuffle Bunny tales and the Pigeon books (Pigeon Wants a Puppy, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, and more), among others.
Clicking in Pigs--Fiction brought up 3170 other items under that subject heading, 2635 in English.
Other info:
Intended audience (ages 4-8, in this case)
Vendor info (Baker & Taylor here)
ISBN #'s
Print option toward top of page is one I always employ when I use WorldCat to borrow, reminds me of where I tried to get the book (and when).
As an aside, several school librarians have appreciated this tool as an authoritative resource for Dewey numbers of books they were trying to catalog.
Clicking on the Almanacs db showed me which 4 almanacs are indexed along with the Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia. On to OAIster.
2. I selected an article titled "Factors Affecting Mortality of Whitetailed Deer in Eastern SD," written by some SDSU professors and published in 2008. This particular article was published in volume 2 of Human-Wildlife Conflicts. An abstract is available on the screen; clicking the "download" button on the right brought up the full-text article of 13 pp.
which could be printed or saved electronically.
I'm glad to read in the WorldCat tutorial the hint about using title and author phrase as search options because title and author just use one word for each. Didn't know that before and it surely does explain some odd search results I've come up with in the past. :) We live and learn, don't we? It's also good to get the reminder that WorldCat means "world," not just US, so the user should be sure to use that language limiter, if necessary, which brings up the thought that this could be a good supplementary tool for teachers of foreign languages. Have Spanish students search for books in Spanish, for example, and try to borrow a few. Could be a broadening experience for them.
I used both title and author phrase as search options, limited the search to books (in English only) and received 2 results:
title published by Hyperion = 1190
Paw Prints edition = 1
South Dakota-owned titles floated to the top of the worldwide holdings (as they should), and the first library listed as owning the book is Brookings Public.
LC class descriptor = PZ7.W65535; Dewey class = [E]
Mr. Willems is a pretty prolific fella with 227 total other items listed under his name as an author (166 books, 28 visual [ vt's, etc.], 25 sound, 7 internet, 1 computer program [a cd].
Other books he's written include the wildly successful Knuffle Bunny tales and the Pigeon books (Pigeon Wants a Puppy, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, and more), among others.
Clicking in Pigs--Fiction brought up 3170 other items under that subject heading, 2635 in English.
Other info:
Intended audience (ages 4-8, in this case)
Vendor info (Baker & Taylor here)
ISBN #'s
Print option toward top of page is one I always employ when I use WorldCat to borrow, reminds me of where I tried to get the book (and when).
As an aside, several school librarians have appreciated this tool as an authoritative resource for Dewey numbers of books they were trying to catalog.
Clicking on the Almanacs db showed me which 4 almanacs are indexed along with the Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia. On to OAIster.
2. I selected an article titled "Factors Affecting Mortality of Whitetailed Deer in Eastern SD," written by some SDSU professors and published in 2008. This particular article was published in volume 2 of Human-Wildlife Conflicts. An abstract is available on the screen; clicking the "download" button on the right brought up the full-text article of 13 pp.
which could be printed or saved electronically.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
ER Challenge: Week 5 netLibrary
1. You said something I'm interested in so00000--since I saw somewhere in a description of netLibrary that there are craft books, I looked for something on embroidery. Typing in "embroidery" in the full-text box pulled up about 850 books, most of which mentioned embroidery in the description of the book, none in the titles (as far as I searched). Inclusion of embroidery in book descriptions usually indicated the book was about a country, or the art work/crafts of particular countries, or even about marketing of businesses that might include embroidery. Interesting, but not what I was actually looking for--embroidery patterns on fabrics, how-to illustrations of different stitches, etc. So, back to the drawing board, tried a keyword search on embroidery and, aha, no results. No wonder I didn't find what I was looking for in the full-text results. However, since I'm pretty easily distracted and somewhat interested in quilting, I spent some time perusing the ebook The Complete Idiot's Guide to Quilting (c1998) that popped up during my original search. And this is cool, seeing the whole book on my computer screen, hopping around through the table of contents, seeing the quilting illustrations really clearly. In the lower left corner there was even a link offering the option to search the contents of the ebook for "embroidery" within the content of ths book. Did that and found 2 pages containing suggestions for using embroidery in quilting projects. To this quilting pre-novice's eyes, this looked like a great beginner's guide to quilting. Had something comparable been available on embroidery, I'd likely have been just as impressed.
2. Ooh, here's a good one: Please Don't Wish Me a Merry Christmas: a Critical History of the Separation of Church & State by Stephen Feldman
another: Letters, by Thomas Jefferson (primary source-type stuff, good for History Day projects)
and: Our Elusive Constitution: Silences, Paradoxes, Priorities, by Daniel N. Hoffman
and: The Illustrated Dictionary of Consitutional Concepts, by Robert Maddex
and: A Companion to the U.S. Constitution and Its Amendments, by John R. Vile
3. 83 books on western history published by University of Oklahoma Press. Not all about Oklahoma by any means, many included about SD--for example, #41 in list: Rapid City Indian School 1898-1933. I'd forgotten that there was an Indian school in RC at one time. Published in 1999. Students would appreciate clicking on the colored numbers to bring up the footnote citations. I flipped through and read a few pp of Chapter 2 which discussed nutrition issues at the school and referred to a complaint from a Lower Brule parent whose daughter was attending the school. The parent suggested that his daughter, who'd complained of being underfed, could come home and be educated at the local public school.
Students would use netLibrary and like it if instructors who'd done a little pre-planning referred them to the resource. Much of value to be found with minimal digging--and reliable, too.
2. Ooh, here's a good one: Please Don't Wish Me a Merry Christmas: a Critical History of the Separation of Church & State by Stephen Feldman
another: Letters, by Thomas Jefferson (primary source-type stuff, good for History Day projects)
and: Our Elusive Constitution: Silences, Paradoxes, Priorities, by Daniel N. Hoffman
and: The Illustrated Dictionary of Consitutional Concepts, by Robert Maddex
and: A Companion to the U.S. Constitution and Its Amendments, by John R. Vile
3. 83 books on western history published by University of Oklahoma Press. Not all about Oklahoma by any means, many included about SD--for example, #41 in list: Rapid City Indian School 1898-1933. I'd forgotten that there was an Indian school in RC at one time. Published in 1999. Students would appreciate clicking on the colored numbers to bring up the footnote citations. I flipped through and read a few pp of Chapter 2 which discussed nutrition issues at the school and referred to a complaint from a Lower Brule parent whose daughter was attending the school. The parent suggested that his daughter, who'd complained of being underfed, could come home and be educated at the local public school.
Students would use netLibrary and like it if instructors who'd done a little pre-planning referred them to the resource. Much of value to be found with minimal digging--and reliable, too.
Monday, July 19, 2010
ER Challenge: Week 4 GVRL
1. UXL Encyclopedia of Mythology - would've been so nice to have had this as a resource in the library days. The library owned a one-volume mythology encyclopedia, heavily used by students, to the point that the binding gave out. Such an expensive tool to replace that I had it rebound, resulting in an unsatisfactory product because text closest to the spine "got lost" in the new binding. Another + with the UXL product is the copyright date, 2009, far more recent than what I had on the shelf. I looked up Zeus, found an excellent, clearly-written discussion with at least one illustration of a seated Zeus in vol. 5 of the 5-volume set. My library could've never afforded a 5-volume set on mythology.
The read-aloud capability is particularly nice in this resource because mythology research was usually a required topic for 9-grade English, also required. Some grade 9 research students would definitely derive more from the text if it were read aloud to them.
Access to Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World would've been helpful during the post-9/11/01 reaction when students were curious about the religion, but adult patrons (including some school board members) didn't want anything that had to do with Islam and Muslims on the library shelves. Copyright date of 2004 isn't too bad. This is a 2-volume set; most school libraries couldn't justify the cost and would have to rely upon the discussion of Islam in sources that discussed it as one of many religions (as we did).
Also appreciated the 2006 cr date of Extremist Groups: Information for Students. Always a topic of high interest to students, hard to keep current info on the shelves, and we all know kids prefer to find this kind of info electronically anyway. Better this kind of resource than a Google search.
2. Found the answer to the zinc question (lamb, beef, leafy grains, root veggies . . .) in the discussion of Minerals in Gale Encyclopedia of Children's Health. Highlighted just that paragraph, clicked ReadSpeak and heard just that paragraph read aloud, clearly and at a good rate for listening. Five articles came up as a result of my basic search, but just this one yielded the info I'd requested--perhaps I didn't dig deeply enough in the others. Three of the others were in Gale Enc. of Medicine, one in Gale Enc. of Cancer.
Found critical discussions of Huck Finn in a couple places, Literary Themes for Students: Race & Prejudice, and Literature and Its Times: 300 Notable Literary Works . . . These were results from a basic search of the title plus the term "literary criticism" and then use of the ebook index for each book. There were 3 discussions of the book in Literary Themes . . ., with the first listed in the index being the most complete discussion and containing links to both "Critical Overview" and "Criticism" sections. Voila--literary criticism on the fly for the procrastinating student and many thanks to the savvy librarian, no doubt.
The read-aloud capability is particularly nice in this resource because mythology research was usually a required topic for 9-grade English, also required. Some grade 9 research students would definitely derive more from the text if it were read aloud to them.
Access to Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World would've been helpful during the post-9/11/01 reaction when students were curious about the religion, but adult patrons (including some school board members) didn't want anything that had to do with Islam and Muslims on the library shelves. Copyright date of 2004 isn't too bad. This is a 2-volume set; most school libraries couldn't justify the cost and would have to rely upon the discussion of Islam in sources that discussed it as one of many religions (as we did).
Also appreciated the 2006 cr date of Extremist Groups: Information for Students. Always a topic of high interest to students, hard to keep current info on the shelves, and we all know kids prefer to find this kind of info electronically anyway. Better this kind of resource than a Google search.
2. Found the answer to the zinc question (lamb, beef, leafy grains, root veggies . . .) in the discussion of Minerals in Gale Encyclopedia of Children's Health. Highlighted just that paragraph, clicked ReadSpeak and heard just that paragraph read aloud, clearly and at a good rate for listening. Five articles came up as a result of my basic search, but just this one yielded the info I'd requested--perhaps I didn't dig deeply enough in the others. Three of the others were in Gale Enc. of Medicine, one in Gale Enc. of Cancer.
Found critical discussions of Huck Finn in a couple places, Literary Themes for Students: Race & Prejudice, and Literature and Its Times: 300 Notable Literary Works . . . These were results from a basic search of the title plus the term "literary criticism" and then use of the ebook index for each book. There were 3 discussions of the book in Literary Themes . . ., with the first listed in the index being the most complete discussion and containing links to both "Critical Overview" and "Criticism" sections. Voila--literary criticism on the fly for the procrastinating student and many thanks to the savvy librarian, no doubt.
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