Health Source
I didn't count the resources that Health Source accesses, but I was very impressed with the quantity and quality of them. They included periodicals as well as whole books. I noticed that I could determine the type publication by looking at the publishing date: books gave only one date like "full text 1/1/202" and periodicals offered a range such as "full text 7/1/1993 to present."
I researched leg cramps and found lots of good information. I read several articles and all of them were easily understandable. This is a great resource for the public as well as for students.
MedlinePlus
What's in the News offered articles on breast cancer disparities, the likely hood of hospital patients surviving a heart attacks and identifying genes that indicate a higher likely hood of Alzheimer's disease.
Some of the Top Searches were on Vitamin D, Cancer, Diabetes, Polio, and Malaria. I looked up Vitamin D under Drugs and Supplements and found good basic information on that vitamin, however I had to dig deeper to discover the daily recommended dose.
When searching for information under Health Topics for leg cramps, MedlinePlus offered an informational article much like an encyclopedia article. Below this article were links to articles from other sources. These were very readable. I would also recommend this resource to the public and to students.
I watched part of a video on anterior approach to total hip replacement. Wow, this was pretty scary. But, if I were having such an operation, I would want to know what they were going to do (I think) and this video really showed how it is done. This could be a great resource for many different types of inquiries.
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Friday, November 9, 2012
Business Resources
Business Source Complete
FM Radio was a tough topic for me to understand the results. I noticed academic journals, reports and periodicals as the types of sources. The visual search was "wicked cool." I used FM radio again, but then tried "green interior design" and the results made more sense to me. It didn't take long at all to see where the articles were located and how you could limit and adjust your search using "sort" "filter by date" and "display styles." Seeing this made me wish that all the databases offered a visual search (do they?). I'll have to take a look.... I just checked "Academic Search Complete" and it has a visual search - a whole new world has opened up for me.
Econ Lit
There were many results for "small business owners" most of them were academic journals but there was one icon I did not recognize, it had 3 overlapping images, the middle one being a book. From looking at the article, I think it means a chapter from a book. Since I liked the visual search, I tried to find "EPA" and "Small business" using that, but got zero results. I went back to the "advanced search" and had 3 hits with this search. Searching "Tax policies" and "small business" resulted in a number of
hits.
Regional Business News
National company: Follett Library Resources resulted in one hit, but it was in Chinese! So I looked up Amazon and most of the articles appeared to be about Google, no surprise. Regional company: I tried a couple of family businesses in Massachusetts, but found nothing. I looked for Hannaford and found some interesting articles about sustainable fish and their environmentally friendly store in Augusta. Locally, I struck out with a few tries, but found many articles on Cianbro.
Value Line
Guess I lucked out. Other than one of the links being blocked by our school filter, I navigated around with no problem. I explored all the links and it brought me to different sections of their newsletter - I think. Lots of information. I was able to look up one stock, but couldn't determine where the full record was.
Wall Street Journal
Small business and health care resulted in 19683 hits, but the offered keyword combinations suggested small business and health insurance which only resulted in 120 hits - much better. I was able to narrow my search by using "location" and other limiters.
FM Radio was a tough topic for me to understand the results. I noticed academic journals, reports and periodicals as the types of sources. The visual search was "wicked cool." I used FM radio again, but then tried "green interior design" and the results made more sense to me. It didn't take long at all to see where the articles were located and how you could limit and adjust your search using "sort" "filter by date" and "display styles." Seeing this made me wish that all the databases offered a visual search (do they?). I'll have to take a look.... I just checked "Academic Search Complete" and it has a visual search - a whole new world has opened up for me.
Econ Lit
There were many results for "small business owners" most of them were academic journals but there was one icon I did not recognize, it had 3 overlapping images, the middle one being a book. From looking at the article, I think it means a chapter from a book. Since I liked the visual search, I tried to find "EPA" and "Small business" using that, but got zero results. I went back to the "advanced search" and had 3 hits with this search. Searching "Tax policies" and "small business" resulted in a number of
hits.
Regional Business News
National company: Follett Library Resources resulted in one hit, but it was in Chinese! So I looked up Amazon and most of the articles appeared to be about Google, no surprise. Regional company: I tried a couple of family businesses in Massachusetts, but found nothing. I looked for Hannaford and found some interesting articles about sustainable fish and their environmentally friendly store in Augusta. Locally, I struck out with a few tries, but found many articles on Cianbro.
Value Line
Guess I lucked out. Other than one of the links being blocked by our school filter, I navigated around with no problem. I explored all the links and it brought me to different sections of their newsletter - I think. Lots of information. I was able to look up one stock, but couldn't determine where the full record was.
Wall Street Journal
Small business and health care resulted in 19683 hits, but the offered keyword combinations suggested small business and health insurance which only resulted in 120 hits - much better. I was able to narrow my search by using "location" and other limiters.
Friday, November 2, 2012
NoveList Plus
NoveList Plus is such a useful tool. I use it when ordering to check the different series for titles that are missing in my library. I also show students how to use NoveList Plus to see the sequence of books in a series. And now that I have explored more of this database, I'll use it for reader's advisory also.
Viewing the results of an author search for Sarah Dessen, I sorted by date to find her most recent book and also sorted by popularity to see which ones are the most popular. Both of these sorts would be useful for students seeking information as well as for librarians building a collection. The different views are cool. I like the grid and detailed views, probably because I am a visual learner, but think the images will also help students remember if they read a book or not.
I just looked at the read-alikes for this project. It was a huge help when a high school student came to me and said that she had read all of Sarah Dessen books and wanted other books like them. We brought Sarah Dessen up under "Author" and clicked on "Author read-alikes." Since she is an avid reader, she was familiar with some of the authors listed, but found a few new ones to explore. Success!
In addition to using NoveList for research, many of the lists from NoveList can be used for creating displays. Printouts of the grid view or series lists could be easily used to gather material for displays or become part of the display itself.
I love the menu on the left of the home page that lists genres and then expands into more specific genres. There are some very interesting categories such as "Canadian Fiction" and under "Murder" "Make Mine Hardboiled;" something for everyone.
Viewing the results of an author search for Sarah Dessen, I sorted by date to find her most recent book and also sorted by popularity to see which ones are the most popular. Both of these sorts would be useful for students seeking information as well as for librarians building a collection. The different views are cool. I like the grid and detailed views, probably because I am a visual learner, but think the images will also help students remember if they read a book or not.
I just looked at the read-alikes for this project. It was a huge help when a high school student came to me and said that she had read all of Sarah Dessen books and wanted other books like them. We brought Sarah Dessen up under "Author" and clicked on "Author read-alikes." Since she is an avid reader, she was familiar with some of the authors listed, but found a few new ones to explore. Success!
In addition to using NoveList for research, many of the lists from NoveList can be used for creating displays. Printouts of the grid view or series lists could be easily used to gather material for displays or become part of the display itself.
I love the menu on the left of the home page that lists genres and then expands into more specific genres. There are some very interesting categories such as "Canadian Fiction" and under "Murder" "Make Mine Hardboiled;" something for everyone.
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