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.

SIRS

SIRS Discoverer First Task- look up armadillos. It was easy to search and I clicked on the first option. I picked the first option because I thought that may be the first reaction of an elementary student. It was a good selection: an article on “Awesome Armadillos” by Diane Thuna that appeared in Wild magazine…in 2003. I’m sure information on Armadillos hasn’t changed much over time, but in some cases 10 year old research can be outdated. I liked the access to information, but I think that it is going to be hard for students, especially younger ones to get their heads around the idea that this was in a magazine. They’d like to see it. (I would have settled for just seeing the cover of the magazine.) But this magazine is designed for kids. I’m sure that it was full of pictures and text boxes with little bits of information to make it appealing to young students. Now, when I need it for research I am forced to look at just the text. To me, this tells young students that research is the boring part of reading. With the technology of tablets, we should be able to see the magazine article. That way we show students that they can be entertained and interested while doing their research. Next task: database features. Country Facts. I had options of Country Facts, State Facts, and Canada Facts. This was very straight-forward. I was able to click on a country and find the basic facts and see a map and their flag. It’s useful information, but I do not think that this beats the CIA World Factbook. Maps of the World. I could find almost any map here. I looked at the Historical Maps. There were so many maps. And they had printable versions! This is an excellent resource for teachers to find maps for their classes. Historical maps are a great resource to illustrate change over time. Skills Discoverer. I selected Social Studies for a topic and then selected maps. This led me to a list of areas that I could find maps for. Which led me to the CIA website. It seemed a long way around to get to a site I already use. SIRS Issues Researcher: I like that the SIRS Researcher gives “leading issues,” this is perfect for students who “have no idea what to do.” I looked at the top ten and most of the topics made sense to me. They seemed to be the same controversial issues that were discussed when I was in high school: gun control, abortion, marijuana use. Among these issues was cheerleading. I was curious as to what the “issue” was with cheerleading. I was interested in the debate over whether or not cheerleading was a sport. I liked that the pros and cons were laid right out for me when I was looking. Research Tools. The note organizer was amazing! I could easily see using this with students. It would help them to keep their paper balanced. And they are right where the research is so they would easily be able to see if one side was stronger than the other, then they could even it out. Articles. There were a ton of articles out there on a topic that I didn’t even realize was being debated. This is where I learned the most: if student comes to me with a topic in mind ask for them to show me that there is research available. If someone would have come to me wanting to discuss the topic of cheerleading being a sport I would have wondered where they would get their information. Now, I’m wondering what else is out there. ~Common Core~ 11-12.RH.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole. SIRS Issues Researcher could be used when a student is writing their research paper to ensure that the research is balanced. The cheerleading articles were a good combination of primary and secondary sources. And with so many to choose from students will be able to find proof to make their argument easily. (I was not impressed with the Educator’s Resources.)

Learning Express Library

There are so many (free!) practice tests here. I went to the US Citizenship test. I liked the test because you write in your own answers; it is not multiple choice. I think that I could use this in my government and civics classes. After about ten questions it showed the answers I had that were correct and incorrect and what a good answer would be. Under Job Search and Workplace Skills I found WorkKeys Reading for Information Practice Test. These are great for Common Core. I like that they are full length practice tests and that they are timed- like the ACT. I think this could be very helpful to prepare. When I used the search box to look for e-books I was surprised with the variety that turned up. I searched for “government.” The topics that came up were the citizenship exam, civil service exam, geography review, and vocabulary. I selected “Becoming a Homeland Security Professional.” This seems like a topic lots of people would be interested in based on the numbers of people that are entering into criminal justice educational programs. The book itself seemed OK. I like that it’s available for people, for free, on their computers, but I also am wondering how easy we need to make this for people. (Then again, maybe if they’re just gathering information.) ~Common Core~ Standard 11-12.RH.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole. I like the Reading Comprehension Skills Improvement section for meeting this standard. If I was going to use the e-books from the Learning Express Library I could have students look up the topic that we are studying. We could use the table of contents (I noticed most of the e-books had them) to look for the chapter or section that may tie in the best with our current lesson. From then we could scan the chapter for a phrase that we think best relates to our topic.

World Book- Foreign Language Edition(s)

World Book Foreign Language Edition (French) I looked up elephants (again). I took a gamble by assuming that in French the word is spelled similarly. It turns out elephant is not just similar, in French and English, it’s exactly the same! But I also had the pictures to help me. And the arrows above “suivant” which I assume means “next” were also helpful. I didn’t realize how much I relied on pictures. I’m not really sure where I could use this in class, unless I had a student who read in another language. Or (here’s an idea!) I could use it to have students try to figure out how they would navigate the website when they don’t speak the language. I think they could learn how much they are able to do with out the language and they may also take away the idea that just because you do not know another language that does not mean you don’t know anything. World Book Foreign Language Edition (Spanish) I looked up “historia” and had the article read aloud to me. Again, I was grateful for the sound image that showed me what I could click on to have it read to me. Again, I think this could be useful for students that speak mostly Spanish. And some students need things read to them, this would include ELL students. ~Common Core~ Key Ideas and Details: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. In social studies I could see using the foreign language world books to see the similarities in different languages. I think students would be surprised to see how similar some words are (or even that they are the same) and that they can figure it out.

World Book Public Library Edition

I tried the World Book Online Kids (grades K-5). This World Book looked a lot more fun than the others. It was very colorful and had games. I do wonder if that would be distracting for a student though. The games would be useful if you went there with that purpose (to play the games). But if you sent your student there to do research maybe they would get off task. But you deal with this in all grades and students need to learn to resist the temptations on the Internet and do their work. I really liked the link to other elephant information. (I looked up elephants again; I wanted to be able to compare to the other World Books.) The websites looked good: PBS and zoo websites. World Book Online Info Finder Right away when I opened the Info Finder I liked that they had a box with options like “How to do research” and “Citation Builder.” Then I started my search for elephants. The article had a lot of good information. Here’s what I like about the World Book: the “Hear text read aloud” option under “tools.” This is great for a lot of students. The “tools” section also has an option that students can easily save articles. On the left side were the main sections of the article, this is good for scanning the article for what you are looking for. World Book Online Reference Center Here, I searched for the United Kingdom. There was a typo and I ended up searching for “Unites Kingdon” and I was disappointed that there was no information. Am I just too used to spell check pulling up the answer for me? Or, am I used to Google asking me if this is what I meant, and supplying me with the alternative? Either way, I didn’t like this. Students frequently misspell things. Well, I found my mistake and fixed it. (Maybe that is better for students, what if they had been spelling this wrong their whole lives and now because it wasn’t “auto-corrected” for them they’ve learned how to spell it correctly.) What I like best about the World Book overall (so far) is that they give you the citation. So many students make mistakes with their citation and World Book is just saying, “Here it is, take it!” ~Common Core~ Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism. Using World Book Online Reference Center I looked up the Dust Bowl. I was surprised to see a video clip along with the text and pictures. I liked it because it was short (19 seconds) with narration. Students would be able to use the video clips and pictures to describe (in writing) what they are seeing.

Common Core with World Book Advanced

An important part of my US History class is working with primary sources. Once I convince students (and the occasional parent) that there is a difference in primary and secondary sources the problem becomes where a student can find reliable primary sources. World Book Advanced weeds those primary sources out so a student can easily find them- I love that they are separated from the rest of the research. How can I weave this in with my Common Core Standards? I’m trying to figure it out one standard at a time. Today I’m looking at: 11-12.RH.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole. My lessons in US History are focused on the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Today, we read and discussed a letter written by a woman in the midst of the Dust Bowl. Using World Book Advanced, I can have students research the Dust Bowl. The goal is to find another primary source confirming her experience. What in your primary source was like this lady’s experience? What was different?

World Book- Student Edition

Today, I looked at World Book Kids. I teach high school students so I kept that in mind as I looked through the site for K-5 students. The first task, search for information on a mammal of my own choosing. First I typed “elephant” into the search box. It pulled up a page of elephant information that included pictures and videos. The videos were the best part! I went back to the beginning of the World Book Kids site and searched using the buttons “Plants and Animals,” “Animals,” Mammals” and finally looking through the list for elephant. I thought that a young student would find this way of searching easy. (Not too easy, just easy.) Here’s what I didn’t like about World Book Kids: Why wasn’t the elephant page divided with headings like “food” or the question “What do elephants eat?” I think I expected there to be buttons on the side that I could click to find out these things about the elephant. I would have also included topics like “Dangers to Elephants” and “Habitat.” Next, I checked World Book Student (grades 5-9). I typed elephant into the search box and was given several results in addition to elephant (elephant seal, elephant shrew, etc.). When I looked at the elephant information I saw this edition has more information on the elephant and it is divided in to sections with headings, making it easy to find specific information. I also noticed there were fewer pictures, but I think it just seemed this way when compared to the amount of written information on the page. World Book Advanced- I researched France. The best part of this- for me (I teach social studies)- was the primary sources. Sometimes just trying to get students to understand the difference between primary and secondary sources is hard. I like that World Book Advanced has the primary sources separated for students. World Book Discover- Here I looked up the subject American Government. This World Book looks like it would be good for ELL students or foreign exchange students (or anyone who may be looking for information in a language other than English). This World Book is featured in two other languages (French and Spanish) and also has a drop down box that you can select another language to have the page translated in to.