South Dakota State Library Electronic Challenge Lesson 1

1a

World Book Kids – I looked up the eagle – was disappointed that I couldn't compare one species of eagle to another, and then remembered that this was a lower grade level database. Sara and I had just been talking about how to tell an immature bald eagle from a golden eagle!  The tools are nice.  I think this database would be quite useful for young students.

World Book Student – I played around with several of the special feature sections – I looked up Alabama in the explore section (I am going there on vacation this year), then using some of the other tools,  looked at behind the headlines and took some of the trivia quizzes.  This looks like a good database for students to learn from, but also just to have some fun with.

World Book Advanced – I checked out The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This part really doesn't pertain to me as I have no students, but I think it would be a very useful for students to use the Back in Time feature to know what other things were happening and people were doing during that time period. 

World Book Discover – I don’t know what students would use, but I had fun playing around with the Timeline builder.  The How to Do Research section was quite thorough and I liked Visual Dictionary was really interesting.

1b

World Book Online (Public Libraries) for Kids – I went into Maps and more and since I am going to Alabama,  I wanted to see what I could find about certain areas. In Interactive maps I was able to pull up alabamatravel.org and find out more about the places I am going and places nearby that we might consider traveling to.

World Book Online Infofinder – Continuing on my travels to Alabama, I went into Interactive Earth and Explore the USA and checked out Alabama! I was able to find even more information, on monuments and historic sites, some of them even on the island I am going to be on, and plant and animal life, which since we are going to be birding should be helpful. I can imagine using this to plan many trips.

World Book Online Reference Center – I looked at The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn again and there was no difference between this one and 1a. We do not have students who come in and do research, but I can see where this might be helpful for students, especially as you can download to another device.

1c

World Book Foreign Language Edition – I  typed the word "bird" into the search box, and the only thing that came up was a paragraph on Jack Miner who was an activist who worked to protect the birds. I used the browse box and there was nothing under bird. I eventually found that the Spanish word for bird  is Ave. There was an article on how birds live, move, eat, etc. It seems to me that the browse button is better even though it wasn't quite what I was looking for.  After all of this, I went back to the home page and noticed a nice little icon on the side that said “mundo de animals”. When I clicked on this icon it was easy! You can choose a bird or animal you want and either listen, or read about it.  I don’t speak Spanish, but I am sure it would be very nice to listen to the spoken Spanish.

2. It would be better to use the search box if you know the Spanish term for what you are looking for. I am not seeing a translate button for the search box.

RSS feeds

This has been an interesting lesson. I've had fun setting up my google reader. I think it is something that I will have to get used to using though. It is so ingrained in me to just click around on the news, weather, etc. The google blogsearch was really easy to use. I also just checked to see if any of the standard sites I use were available for RSS. I think you have to be careful with some of them as they are not kept up. There were a couple of book review sites that looked good, but had not had messages for a year or more, and they still came up on the blogsearch. There were lots of librarian sites. I like the Librarians Index to the Internet. I did not connect to any of the mystery reading ones as I just didn't find a blog that looked very interesting. Let me know if you find a good one!

Creating my blog!

I don't think I am going to get very daring until I am more sure of myself here. The hardest part about creating this blog so far has been thinking of a name. I must have gone through 30 titles which had all been used. Just shows you how creative I am. Obviously not very, or maybe great minds think alike! I think I will choose to think the latter.

I wanted to use a title and URL that would tell a little about me. That meant something about my grandgirls, reading mysteries, doing research, or my big passion - bird watching. I tried something in each one of those, but they were all taken. Then lo and behold, right in the middle of my massage last night, I thought of this URL. And, I was lucky enough to remember it all the way to this morning!

So far, so good. Will anyone find this interesting? I don't know. I've read most of the others I envy the creativeness of y'all. It was a big deal to me just changing the font! Maybe I will get braver as the days go by.

Getting started

Well – okay. I’ve made it this far! Wow. Having watched the tutorial on the 7 ½ Habits, I think the hardest one for me will be Number 6: Use technology to your advantage. I may well be the only person left on earth who does not have a computer, cell phone or anything like that in my personal life. Even my 95 year old friend has e-mail at her home! I do use technology to my advantage in my work though. I try to take classes that will help me in my job, although I don’t always find the time to do it. The easiest would be the last. PLAY!! I like to play – at least to have fun and try to find humor in most everything I do. I think here at the library we all do that.