Lesson 10

                I enjoyed most of the lessons.  My favorite was the study of genealogy which has always been an interest of mine.  I hadn’t used these before but will use them now.

                I have already used some of the sites with patrons and will continue to spread the word.

                Thank you so much for all the wonderful tools at my fingertips.

Lesson 9

                This is my cup of tea!!  I have been studying my family since I can remember. 

                I looked myself up and found myself seven times.  I found they have me one day older, but only a day not a year.  I am not listed at all by my maiden name. 

                I was able to get back to my Great-great-great grandmother.  However they have my great grandmother as an unmarried man.  I have found many others that are correct.  Pear Davis McCall has made this easy because she had a book published years ago.  That is why I looked her book up last week.  This part of my family has been traced to the 1700’s but I still like to look into things.

                I will have many hours of fun to come because of this lesson.        

                We have been using these for some of our patrons that have been looking for information and each time I learn more about using these tools.

Lesson 8

                WorldCat is wonderful.  I decided to use a cousin for the author.  I typed “Pearl Davis McCall” in as the author. It listed eight entries of which four of them were right on target.  The Holland – Jackson book is my genealogy.  There are 44 listings in 16 states.  I used this because I didn’t think I would find it but wow.  The book is in the Library of Congress.  One entry is an audio book.  I tried out other searches as well and found that WorldCat is very easy to use.

                CAMIO was fun to investigate.  When I typed in Sioux I went to beads and found 272 and spent most of the day just enjoying the pictures.

Lesson 7

                I did a search of e-books on EbscoHost using the topic of sinusitis.  I found 17 e-books of which I found several very interesting. However when I did a search using the topic of the Constitution, the outcome was not what I wanted.  Maybe I did it wrong so I tried different approaches for the topic.  I don’t really know what I did wrong.

                When I did a search of western history – Oklahoma, I found many useful e-books on different levels.  I really find EbscoHost interesting and with practice I should get better at finding information.

Lesson 6

                As usual before I start with the work at hand, I go exploring.  This time I started with Colonial America because of my ancestry.   I like that there is a timeline to speed me up to my destination. 

                When looking up zinc, I tried to narrow the field too fast and couldn’t find what I wanted so I just entered zinc.   I then found my way rather quickly.

                When looking up Huck Finn I like how it is divided into sections by a few chapters.  Most things I was checking into had some type of divisions instead of putting the subject into one large section.

It is nice to have audio and translation for individuals that need help.

 We have a patron from South Africa that is doing on line classes.  I thought of her last week and when she came in I was showing her what I had found and she now has her own South Dakota Library e-card.  Then less than an hour later I was showing another patron the maps from SIRS for her research.  I have even had to use the Chilton Library for someone.  Wow this is wonderful.

Lesson 5

                I started off by searching about sinus infections which gave me a result of 12,417.  After experimenting for a time I was able to narrow the field down.  I found that this was not as user friendly as some other things we have done.  As an older person I am more intimidated by new technology therefore I lose my way but enjoy the challenge. 

                One of the patrons of the library is doing online research for classes she is taking and I thought of her right off.  I think she could make use of Proquest.

                I have studied the blogs every week because I enjoy the different points each of them have given.  I have learned much from them.

                I am new to working in a public library so these publications can help me in the future.

Lesson 4

                I choose to look up the okapi because my daughter had to do a paper on them a few years ago and we had a hard time finding any information.  We found one paragraph for her.  On SIRS I found 19 articles, and several good pictures.  The only picture she had was one that I had taken at a zoo. 

                I keep choosing South Africa because I have contact with many people from different parts of that country.   Not long ago I needed to find a map for someone but it wasn’t as nice. 

                SIRS Issues Researcher will help students with many classes such as debate and speech.   It can be used to find information on both side of an issue and different points to study. 

After setting up and account with Learning Express I browsed to find out what areas were there and worked with the fourth grade math.  I could see this would be helpful to the classroom teachers.  As a former gifted and Chapter I teacher it would be great in both areas as well. 

I checked out the job search and resume areas which would be a great help for individuals that use our public library.  We just need to get the word out so people could use this service.

I choose to look into the high school equivalency because without some form of high school young people have difficulty getting ahead.  I choose math and writing to look into and found them easy to deal with.  The practice tests show the kinds of things the will be studied. 

Overall Learning Express is a value to many areas of the community.

Lesson 2

     For people that work on vehicles, the Chilton Library will be very useful when needing information on repairs for a vehicle.  This will helpful for basic maintenance even though I couldn't do repairs I would be better prepared when going into a repair shop.
    When I looked up my SUV it only had some bulletins but nothing more. I next looked up another car and then was when I was impressed.
     I looked up a 2002 Toyota and found that at 30,000 miles all filters should be changed, also change break linings and drums and the drive shaft boots.
     The most recent bulletin was a notice was November 20, 2007 about replacement certification which I didn't understand.
     On the repair tab I found information on bleeding the ABS breaks.


    I wish I would have had Mango 40+ years ago.  At that time we just learned to repeat but there wasn't the understanding that you get with Mango.  With the mixing of cultures this is great.  Even in our small town we are coming in contact with more languages. In the library this will be wonderful.  The way the words are broken down makes it easy to learn and not so intimidating.

Lesson 1

The mammal of my choice is the black bear.  World Book Kids gives basic information on a level that young children will understand.  With World Book Student I found much more information on their life, habitat, body build, and behaviors.

I decided to look up South Africa.  I spent much time using most of the tool provided.  I feel the students and adults that visit our library could find most any information that they would need.  We have many patrons from South Africa and I can use this to find out more about their way of life and they could use World Book to find out about us.  Also being able to translate would be very useful to them.

World Book Discover will be useful with our patrons because they would be able to study our country in English or their own language. Two years ago I was working with two men from South Africa and this would have been so helpful. If only I would have known this kind of World Book was available.