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.