Gale Virtural Refrence Library

When looking through the options on the Gale Virtual Reference Library, I decided to check out the Gale Encyclopedia of Nursing and Allied Health under the Medicine Section.  There was an abundant amount of information.  I decided to check out acute kidney failure. The Related Subject suggestion within the search box was very helpful too.  It directed me to more specific areas within the subject.

For my basic search, I chose the holocaust.  I have a close friend in PA who has incorporated this powerful

subject into her 8th grade English class with amazing outcomes year after year.  Anyways, there was so much information available, with even more suggestions for more information and Further Reading.  I finally had to just stop looking and reading. :)   

      

ProQuest Challenge

The topic of interest I searched for on Proquest was Organic Food, which was a very general topic - 4063 documents.  Narrowing down the search by using the “Results” box and choosing Organic Farming from the suggested topics cut the results in half.  I continued to use the “Results” box until I found an area that I wanted to research more.  What a helpful tool when you have an idea in mind, but not sure in which direction you’d like to go. 

CHS Read – Your search for information on medical marijuana, and the importance of using different search terms or phases until you find the information you want is a great suggestion. 

For the Publications portion of this challenge, I was amazed at the amount of magazines available.  After reading the “Search Tip” section, finding a specific magazine was easy.  Just needed to use quotation marks to specify it was a title I was looking for.  I wanted to see if Consumer Reports was available, and it was, but was a little disappointed that there were only “abstracts” and no “Full Text” articles.  I also found that some of the publications were pretty current while others were delayed by years.  On a personal note, I realized that I prefer the PDF version of the full text article more than just the full text. The format reminded me more of a magazine and included pictures when I searched things like ceramics.

SIRS Discoverer and SIRS Issues Resarcher

SIRS Discoverer

Since I knew I wouldn’t be using SIRS Discoverer, I didn’t spend much time exploring its features, but does appear to be easy to find information.  I did however check out the new feature under database features called Science Fair Explorer.  What a fun tool.  It had many ideas for science projects using things around the home.  

SIRS Issues Researcher

When looking through the Leading Issues section I found many subjects that interested me.  I ended up choosing several subjects to investigate more.  The Overview Tool section was an excellent starting point and was very easy to navigate, from the pro/con section, which I personally find very interesting, to terms to be familiar with and additional resources.  I also liked the Timeline tool which seems to give a good, quick history of each issue I choose.  The tool that I thought could be very helpful in organizing ones thoughts when putting a paper or argument together was the Note Organizer Tool.    The “Find Similar” button on the right side of the Topic Overview area also directed me to what seemed like endless information.  Wow, what a valuable resource SIRS is.

For my search on Curriculum Pathfinders, I decided to pick “Health” as my course subject, and from there choose Environmental Health.  There was a large variety of information to choose from.  Instructors and students alike could benefit from this site.  I also liked the Graphic/Media button in the Narrow Your Search Area.  It brought up numerous pictures pertaining to the subject I was looking at, and could be an easy way to find pictures when creating power points. 

Learning Express Library

After browsing though the Learning Express Library, I found an abundant amount of resources to help students of all ages improve their skills in all areas and with practice testing.  I focused mostly on high school and college bound areas to do a more in depth exploration.  The resources for test prep were numerous.  I did not, however, see test preps for TABE, Compass or Kaplan, which are tests sometimes used for entrance into various departments at the technical school I work at.  I'm new at this job, so I don't know if any of those exams would even be available on this format.  I would think though, that any of the upper level practice tests would be helpful.  After taking part of an exam myself, and getting the results, I thought the suggestions made for "additional help" was very beneficial and easy to access.  

I choose "Job Interviews That Get You Hired" for my Job Search and Workplace Skills Challenge.  The information I found on the eBook was easy to read with a lot of information, covering everything from writing resumes, questions that are asked during an interview, and questions that one should asked when being interviewed.  A good "all in one " resource that could be suggested for graduating students.

For the career topic I typed in Physical Therapist Assistant. The results showed several practice test exams along with several eBook exams.  I'm not quite sure why Cosmetology & Nursing showed up when I entered PTA, but since those programs are also available though our school, I will definitely pass on this information about this site to those instructors. 

Lesson One of the SD Library Electronic Resouse Challenge

For Lesson 1 of the SD Library Challenge, the mammal I chose to do research on was the dolphin.  I was surprised to find out that there are two types of dolphins, salt water, which most of us are familiar with, and river dolphins. River dolphins live in fresh or slightly salty rivers and lakes in Asia and South America.  Dolphins have a highly developed sense of hearing, along with good vision and a keen sense of touch.  What I didn’t know is that they have no sense of smell.

The information found on World Book Online Kids was simple, with basic information in comparison to World Book Online Info Finder, which had an expanded amount of information.  Both sites were easy to navigate and appear to be a great source of information for the targeted age level. 

I work at a post secondary tech school, so for the third exercise using the World Book Online Reference Center, I was unsure how the information of a country would be valuable to our students.  I decided to look for information that might pertain to them, and I was able to find some information for each subject that I searched for, (ex:  wind power, medical terms, etc.) and I believe this could be a good starting point for research.

I really like the “Hear text read aloud”, “Translate this text” and “How to cite this article” tools on each site, and believe they are valuable learning tools.