Week 11 Wrap Up

Biggest Discovery

I have learned to blog,  I was reminded how much I dislike having to do assignments, I am amazed how much I learned by having to spend time in the different databases,  I acquired an interest in genealogy,  and now I am proud of myself for sticking to it and finishing.  I have used the data bases in the past.  I have taken workshops on Learning Express, Britannica, and NoveList.  I made a point of doing some of the research at home to get a better understanding of the patron's point of view.  I think the biggest discovery that I made was the Hobbies and Crafts Reference Center.  We have a couple of craft groups that meet here and this is a wonderful resource that none of us had explored before.

Promotion

As a staff we have talked a great deal about MARVEL.  I have shared interesting facts and discoveries with the staff.  We all spent some time in Ancestry Library, sharing what we found and helping each other find family information.  Learning Express will take the staff some time to explore.  We are all going to take the U.S. Citizenship test after the first of the year, not only to see how the site works but to make us all better informed. 
A weekly link to a different database on our facebook page is one idea that we will explore.
We have had some genealogy classes in the past and we hope that they will start up again in the new year.  Ancestry Library has been a part of that class.
I think that as the staff becomes more familiar with Marvel and Learning Express we will all be better able to serve our patrons and promote these resources.

Week 10 EbscoHost Family of Databases and Ebsco eBooks

I went to Masterfile Premier and searched for Good Housekeeping.   There is a Publication Detail that provides ISSN, publisher, address, subjects covered, URL, frequency, bibliographic records ( 01/01/1984 -present ) and full text ( 01/01/1996 to present. )  I searched for a coulple of craft weaving magazines that were not listed.  When I searched by subject for crafts I found 27 magazines.

Using Masterfile Premier basic search I entered " zinc food sources.  I got 14 results then refined my search to full text articles.  The first of 5 articles, Don't Forget the Zinc from the Saturday Evening Post listed good sources of zinc as mest, fortified cereals, and beans.  I searched for Harlem Renaissance and got 662 hits.  Having no knowledge of this subject I limited by search to reference books.  Harlem Renaissance by Keira Stevenson was a wonderful overview of this topic and gave me enough information to start my research. 

Ebsco eBooks
Digital Literacy is on my mind so I searched for an e-book.  The first title, a 92 page book by James Paul Gee was very interesting.  I read from the "most relevant pages from this eBook" and think that when I find time I will come back and read the entire book.  I am intrigued by the phrase  " literacy practices embedded in contemporay popular culture."

Constitution Day.   I did not found anything that I thought would be a good match.  The history books
are long and more scholarly than needed for this topic.

Oklahoma in the publisher box gives you 105 results all published by the University of Oklahoma Press.  I narrowed my search by putting history in the search box.  There were many books about history  published by the university that were not about Oklahoms so I narrowed my search again and got 19 books, most of them were about Oklahoma history. 

I liked the home page of the ebook collection.  I did quite a bit of browsing and will come back to spend more time looking around.

Week 9 Learning Express

Learning Express is an amazing resource.  I  took a BTOP training course so I have some knowledge of what is available.  I set-up an account and started to browse the available learning centers.  I started in the Skill Building for Adults and went to Personal Finance Skills Improvement.  I found some very basic information in an e-book "Goof-proof Personal Finance" from 2004.  Next I went to Reading Skills Improvement.  I opened the Reading Comprehension Practice and spent some time.  I was always a very poor test taker and was interested to see what I could learn.  The seven strategies for success were very helpful and I think if someone took the time to do some of the 501 questions they would learn a great deal.  With my new strategies in hand I went to College Students and took a Reading Comprehension test.  I did very well, but only did a few question and forgot to check my time.  I think I may have run out of time if I did the entire test.  If someone takes the time to use these resources they should have no problem preparing for an exam.

Job Search & Workplace Skills.  I decided to see what they had about interviewing.  I have hired all of the staff here at the library and I find the interview to be the msot important part of the process.  Looking at these resources was very interesting.  The first resource is a Career Course: Interview to Get the Job You Want.  I went through most of this information and thought that it was very informative and helpful.  I will be a better interviewer in the future.

I searched for "travel agent" and got 18 e-books.  The e-books were about real estate, becoming a border patrol agent and law enforcement.  Not what I was looking for, but I opened the book "Becoming a Border Patrol Agent."  This is a 176 page "indispensible career guide" and I found it very interesting.  I learned rigth off that I was too old to consider this career chioce.

This is a wonderful resource, but it does take some time to introduce to patrons.  I would like to see the tutorial available on the home page.  Many of our patrons who need these skills have a hard time finding what they want ( not Learning Express' fault, they just do not have the skills to search .)  Several times I have taken a patron to the Jobs and Careers section and then together we have searched for the rigth information and then left them to read or study what we have found.