The End

The South Dakota Library Challenge is over! The thing that I am the most excited about is that I went through all of these research tools. I never would have gone through them on my own. I’m very pleased with the World Books. In my classroom I spend a lot of time discussing primary sources. With World Book, students can easily find primary sources because they are displayed in their own section. (This will help a lot with the Common Core standards as well.) My goal is to use these in the classroom on a regular basis. I think that if I can train my students to use these for their searches, the same way they use Google, maybe they would learn to expect more reliable information. I have also been thinking that at the beginning of the year they could do a webquest of these online tools. I think it would be a scaled down version of what I have just completed.

AncestryLibrary

SD Library Research Blog Ancestry.com I searched for my name and my maiden name: nothing. I searched my husbands name and was able to find previous addresses, it said this came from school records or church directories, but when I looked into the articles I couldn’t get a definite artifact. I tried to look up my great grandmother and grandparents, I couldn’t find information on any of them. My grandfather was in the military, so I really thought I would find something on him. When I searched “South Dakota,” I looked for pictures and saw pictures of baseball teams. And then I saw pictures that were labeled “yearbook” but they seemed to be written documents. Heritage Quest I looked at HeritageQuest and found it very hard to use. I wasn’t sure what I was searching for, but I selected Revolutionary War and searched “Virginia.” There was a list of names and I could click on the name to see the document right away. I liked seeing the document, but the ones I looked at were not clearly labeled. I saw a piece of paper with a name written on it. I had no idea what the name was for. Sanborn Maps I looked up Brookings, SD, February 1928. I was able to find the “State College and Agricultural School.” This was not at all a surprise. I also looked at Vermillion and was able to find the HUGE post office downtown. ~Common Core~ 11-12.RH.9 Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources. Looking up census data and military data from AncestryLibrary would be helpful in the social studies classroom. We would be able to use these databases to compare names and dates.

Archives

ArchiveGrid I was really excited about this assignment! I use the National Archives website and the Library of Congress website all of the time in class. My history classes compete in the National History Day competition and the projects are based on primary sources so archive sites are great for doing this kind of research. So, what did I find out about Sitting Bull: not much. It was pretty basic information. And I was more stuck on the fact that ArchiveGrid had misspelled Sitting Bull’s band name. Why can’t I see a picture of this autograph card? (The page does say that the card is digitized.) Why doesn’t it tell me what an autograph card is? Why is it that if I search so specifically for an “autograph card” I, instead, get a brief biography on Sitting Bull? On my own search, I looked up Sitting Bull. I wanted to see what would come up when I wasn’t searching so specifically. I was pleased to learn that the second thing to come up was that Sitting Bull Autograph card. I found a letter to Harold G. Rugg that mentions Sitting Bull and the Indian Wars. When I clicked on the Dartmouth link I was told I did not have access to the page. I don’t think this proved as useful as I was hoping. CAMIO In my search of “Paul Revere” I was surprised to find so many things created by him. There were paintings, a teaspoon, and a sugar bowl. Next I searched the term “Sioux.” I really liked the variety of artifacts that were turned up. There was a lot of clothing, drawings, and pipes. I liked that the museum where the artwork is displayed was listed. I also thought there was a good number (63 results!) of artifacts turned up in this search. Then, I searched for “Van Gogh.” I clicked on a painting and was given a lot of good information. I noticed that the words I searched by were highlighted in red. (Even the “van” in Pennsylvania was highlighted red.) When you click on the portrait you get the medium, the location of the painting (you could also see this on the first page), and you may even see the location where it was painted. One thing that I did notice was that there are no foreign museums on this list. While I did have over 40 artworks to choose from I did not have some of his most famous works on the list that are in foreign museums. I think I would use this in my class to research artists or to show how available these works are. The things I have looked up on CAMIO are available to see in cities they may visit in the future. It’s nice that you could make a slideshow right on the CAMIO website. ~Common Core~ 11-12.RH.6 Evaluate authors’ differing points of view on the same historical event or issue by assessing the authors’ claims, reasoning, and evidence. I think that I would use this in my US history classroom to compare written primary sources and visual primary sources. When I searched “Gettysburg” I turned up several paintings and even photographs. I think that I would have students search CAMIO for an image that proves and/or is contrary to the image that was projected from our readings.

WorldCat

I looked for To Kill A Mockingbird (using “title phrase”). Almost 3000 libraries worldwide have this book. The top library is Black Hills State College. I’m not sure how I would use this database. Obviously, I can find To Kill A Mockingbird closer than 300 miles away. Harper Lee has written no other books, but I could still click on her name. I expected there to be one entry, but there were over 1300 results and they were all for the same title. I don’t see how this is helpful. I thought the abstract was good. It was short and to the point. And the search results showed that the book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. That’s good information to have. When I switched to OAIster I was surprised to see that my previous search of “Harper Lee” had transferred over. I think that is really convenient. I searched “South Dakota” under “subject phrase.” I found a varied list of topics. I selected: Effect of Different Methods of Grazing on Native Vegetation and Gains of Steers in Northern Great Plains. When I clicked “Access,” it gave me some good information. It was easy to find the author. It gave me a list of the different topics addressed in the article. I liked the way the information was divided for me. ~Common Core~ When searching for “state common core standards” I think I got some pretty good results. And books that were located at South Dakota State Library were bold and highlighted, which I liked. This would be helpful with common core because of the wide variety of topics that came up under this search. There were books that would direct you in modifying your current curriculum to fit in with the common core, common core maps for different subject areas, and books that focused on the individual needs of the students. I liked the idea that common core in the classroom can be tailored to individual students.

E-Books on EBSCOhost

I searched “France during World War II.” The books that came up were American Soldiers Overseas: The Global Military Presence and The Idiot’s Guide to American History. After these books were several random options, like Exploring New Orleans: A Family Guide and Junior Genreflecting: A Guide to Good Reads and Series Fiction for Children. I was disappointed with the options that were related to my search. When I saw all of the books that weren’t even a little bit connected to World War II or France I was ANNOYED. Still, I continued on, selecting American Soldiers Overseas, I opened the full ebook. The print was small. I clicked on the magnifying glass and the print did not get any larger. The one thing that I did like was that I could view the books table of contents without opening the whole book. Then again, opening the whole book didn’t take long. Next, I searched “constitution.” Since I was looking for information for students I went into the advanced search; this did not help me at all. On the side it said there were 185 books on the subject. Many were law books; not helpful in the classroom. Then I saw the constitution of the countries and the constitution of the Confederate States. This was a huge disappointment, I was not able to find any useful books. Also, if the books are only available to one person at a time, how many would I have to pick out for suggested student use? There are not enough options. Next, I went to the required advanced search: Nebraska. And the results were divided by publisher. As part of my research I am supposed to be looking as though students are doing a project on the west. Here are the first search results (THIS IS THE WORST): 1. Upside Down: Seasons Among the Nunamiut (this is a book about a tribe in Alaska, NOT THE WEST!); 2. Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy September 1939-March 1942 (What? I don’t know if this could be any more off topic.) 3. Playing for Their Nation: Baseball and the American Military During World War II (Baseball? Really?) ~Common Core~ I would use this site in class to teach students to eliminate all of the things that do not apply to our topic. Looking at the first descriptive words, what tells you that this can be eliminated as a possibility because it does not apply to our topic? I will not use this.

Gale Virtual Reference Library

Title List>Political Theories for Students>Comparison Table of Political Theories I like this table comparing different political theories. I could easily use this in my government class. The chart itself was easy to understand and gave good information that was easy to find. Search I searched for World War II. This was a very general topic, but I think this is how students usually search. Under World War II, I found a variety of things: WWII Nurses, National War Labor Board, and other more general World War II information. The nurses topic gave me interesting information that I may not have looked for or even known about. When I clicked on the article I found PRIMARY SOURCES (!): pictures and eyewitness accounts. The National War Labor Board topic gave a short article (the perfect size for high school students). I liked that the MLA citation was displayed at the bottom of the article for easy student use. Under the general World War II topic, I looked at the Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History. This is where I “listened.” I liked that it highlighted the words as it read. I also liked the option to Download MP3 and Download PDF to eReader. When I looked into my colleagues’ blogs, I saw that they enjoyed the listening function too. One pointed out, however that the voice was a little robotic. This is true, but if a student needs it read to them I think the voice is fine. ~Common Core~ Under education, I searched Critical Thinking. (I noticed, and liked, that as I was typing this in it started pulling up related ideas like “critical thinking skills” and “thinking critically.” I came upon an article about “Classroom Questions.” In the article, they discussed they types of questions that can be asked and the purpose of asking questions in the classroom. Common Core Standard 11-12.RH.5 Analyze in detail how a complex primary source is structured, including how key sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text contribute to the whole. When looking at a primary source, students need to have the right questions. They need to look at the source and answer the basic questions and then think more deeply on the material and get some kind of connection to what they are supposed to be getting out of this.

Proquest

I looked up “Normandy” and then “common core.” I wasn’t overly impressed with either of the results. I feel like I could have done as well with Google. I did like that the results were recent, from 2013. I liked that on the side I could divide my search result by the type of article I was looking for. Even when I clicked on newspapers, in my “common core” search, I was still overwhelmed with options. The suggested subjects box was of no help. Their suggestions were in no way related to what I was looking for when I searched “common core.” The suggestion box when I searched “Normandy” was more helpful. Publications- When I looked at the publications tab I had no idea where to begin. If you don’t know what to search for (when you are looking up the title of something) how do you know what to search for? I scrolled through the first couple of pages of periodical titles. I decided to type in “history.” This brought up several good magazines, all fairly recent. But I think that it would be hard to search a specific topic here unless there is an entire magazine dedicated to that topic. ~Common Core~ This could be easily linked to common core reading standards. Students could use this to find an article relating to the classroom topic. Journal articles could be used to “cite specific evidence.” This is a repeating theme in the common core standards.