Time has passed quickly for this invitational! Here we are, half way through the 10 weeks, which felt a little daunting in the beginning!
NovelList Plus is the feature being explored this week. While I have managed to keep fairly up to date with NovelList Plus, and taken webinars offered by ebsco, I am, in good faith, completing the assignment for this week in its entirety. I am sure I can learn new things and refresh the old!
I watched the NovelList Plus tutorial featured on the Maine State Library page. I had forgotten that the difference between NovelList and NovelList Plus, is that the Plus includes non-fiction, where the NovelList is for fiction only. I am accustomed to using NovelList Plus exclusively.
Discovery Exercises:
1. I chose Debbie Macomber's Blossom Street Series. The view options enable the patron to see a 'detailed' view, which gives a brief summary. This is my personal favorite. The 'brief' view is condensed, yet allows the viewer to hover over the magnifying glass to see the details of the book. The 'brief' view is useful for printing a list of title for the patron who would like to keep track of the titles they have read, and what comes next. The 'grid' view might be useful for the patron who is very visual, and may remember the book cover but not the title. They may be able to pick out the ones they have already read, and know what title they would like next. I also find the Read-a-like Print list to be helpful. I can pass it to a patron so they can explore other authors.
2. I see that I jumped the gun on this question! I do love the way that NovelList Plus offers suggestions as I type a name in the search box . . . as my spelling may not always be accurate. As I type in David Bald . . . I quickly find his name in the suggestions list. It is always interesting to learn a bit about author writing styles, which is nicely displayed in the author Description section. As I mentioned above, the Read-a-Like Print list is a great way to quickly give patrons a list of similar authors to explore. Even better is showing them how to obtain the list on their own. For some patrons, it might be overwhelming, but for others it is very empowering and they love it!
3. Having patrons who enjoy the Amish stories, I searched using 'Amish' for my term. I limited my results to 'forthcoming' and 'adult'. I found a couple of titles I would enjoy reading, so I saved them to my folder for future reference.
4. I have viewed over 28 blogs from fellow participants. I have posted a couple of comments. That was a little tricky to do if they were not of the same blog site as I use. I chose to use Blogger, as I already have an email account with Gmail. It took me a bit to be able to post to a Word Press blog.
As this is only my 5th blog post ever, I am still on a huge learning curve. I appreciate this opportunity to start blogging, and look to the future in serving our patrons in the best way possible. I am looking for my blog posts to improve as I take part in this opportunity! Today, I added a label to my blog post. As time allows, I may go back and edit some of my previous posts.
Onward to week #6 . . .
Monday, October 29, 2012
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
MARVELous Maine Invitational - Week 4
This week we explore the Hobbies and Crafts data base in MARVEL. I agree, this could be weakness for me! I have dabbled in many types of crafts. Although I have not created anything elaborate, it is fun!
I watched the informational video.
I then chose the outdoor category where hiking captured my interest. Having done a fair amount of hiking and some backpacking in my younger years, it is an area of interest which will always remain dear to my heart.
Thinking it would be fun to have some related crafts, I clicked on the 'projects' tab in the top bar. I was delighted to find some whittling projects, including a fun back scratcher, and a stick figure which can balance on a tightrope! I downloaded these for future backpacking trips, or even back yard adventures!
Next I explored the periodicals and was pleased to locate Backpacker Magazine by using the 'narrow results by publication' option. Backpacker is one of the periodicals we offer in our collection. I also explored the Periodicals and Reference tabs.
Seeing as we have a large number of knitters who use our library, including a group who meets twice a month, I visited the Needlecrafts & Textiles section, where I located the knitting link. I watched a couple of the videos on choosing yarn, and knitting the garter stitch, which I though was well done, and easy to follow. I also checked out a few projects.
I clicked on the 'Help' tab and scanned the options on the right. I clicked on Visual Search, however there was not a tab on the Needlecrafts & Textiles page as illustrated in the sample. The text did say," If a Visual Search tab appears, you can also search Hobbies & Crafts Reference Center and have your results presented in an interactive, visual map." I will have to explore that option in a different category, which actually has the visual search option.
Checking out the popular links at the bottom of the Needlecrafts & Textiles page, I found a Beading magazine with several projects. I downloaded a Beaded Flip Flops tutorial for my friend who loves flip flops!
Exploring the Hobbies and Crafts data base reminds me a little of Pinterest! One can get lost for lots of time and not even realize it!
Thus concludes my assignment for week 4 in MARVELous Maine Invitational!
I watched the informational video.
I then chose the outdoor category where hiking captured my interest. Having done a fair amount of hiking and some backpacking in my younger years, it is an area of interest which will always remain dear to my heart.
Thinking it would be fun to have some related crafts, I clicked on the 'projects' tab in the top bar. I was delighted to find some whittling projects, including a fun back scratcher, and a stick figure which can balance on a tightrope! I downloaded these for future backpacking trips, or even back yard adventures!
Next I explored the periodicals and was pleased to locate Backpacker Magazine by using the 'narrow results by publication' option. Backpacker is one of the periodicals we offer in our collection. I also explored the Periodicals and Reference tabs.
Seeing as we have a large number of knitters who use our library, including a group who meets twice a month, I visited the Needlecrafts & Textiles section, where I located the knitting link. I watched a couple of the videos on choosing yarn, and knitting the garter stitch, which I though was well done, and easy to follow. I also checked out a few projects.
I clicked on the 'Help' tab and scanned the options on the right. I clicked on Visual Search, however there was not a tab on the Needlecrafts & Textiles page as illustrated in the sample. The text did say," If a Visual Search tab appears, you can also search Hobbies & Crafts Reference Center and have your results presented in an interactive, visual map." I will have to explore that option in a different category, which actually has the visual search option.
Checking out the popular links at the bottom of the Needlecrafts & Textiles page, I found a Beading magazine with several projects. I downloaded a Beaded Flip Flops tutorial for my friend who loves flip flops!
Exploring the Hobbies and Crafts data base reminds me a little of Pinterest! One can get lost for lots of time and not even realize it!
Thus concludes my assignment for week 4 in MARVELous Maine Invitational!
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
MARVELous Maine Invitational - Week 3
Wow! 123 participants in the MARVELous Maine Invitational! That is a lot of reference work happening among our Maine librarians! Way to go Maine!
This week, the feature to research is Newspapers and Maine Newsstand. Both of these resources are supplied by Proquest, a database supplier. From national favorites to Maine favorites, this is sure to be useful to our patrons.
While our focus is on Maine Newsstand, I enjoyed learning about the Maine Memory Network and Windows on Maine as I watched the opening video. I look forward to exploring those resources at a later time.
I did a basic search for 'Donn Fendler'. Many of the results were more like calendar events than articles about Donn. I limited the search to the past two years. When I tried to create an alert to receive notification of more events posted, I found that once again, I had to set up an account with a new username and password. Being someone who likes to keep things simple, I find it frustrating to have to set up new accounts within MARVEL. I could see where it might be very frustrating to patrons, especially if they are not of the Generation X or Y vintage. It feels like I am accumulating more usernames and passwords for MARVEL than all of my other accounts combined!
I did use the translation tool to view a short article in French. That was fun trying to recall my two years of high school French! Yet a useful tool for our bilingual patrons.
I also searched for Ryan Cook, as he filmed a documentary about obtaining the rights to Donn Fendler's life story. I found a couple of nice articles in the Kennebec Journal.
I also used the obituary feature, which lead me to the obituary of a friend who lived in the southern part of the state, so her obit was not in local papers here. It was nice to be able to read about her in that way.
I have read several blogs from others participating in this invitational. I noticed that there are eight people with more than one participant entry. Perhaps they are representing their library and their personal interest. I did comment on one blog. This has been my first attempt at creating a personal blog even though I have read other blogs and subscribe to a couple favorites.
I use MARVEL as a resource for patrons as much as possible. The most common applications I have used are directing patrons to back issues of Consumer Reports, using Novelist Plus to find good books and read-a-likes, and showing them how to access Learning Express to reinforce math skills.
Last week I had a patron doing research on a very specific health condition. I directed her to the Health subject where she found what she needed in Nursing and Allied Health Collection. She was going to search a couple of the other health data bases on her own at home.
Onward to Week #4 . . . .
This week, the feature to research is Newspapers and Maine Newsstand. Both of these resources are supplied by Proquest, a database supplier. From national favorites to Maine favorites, this is sure to be useful to our patrons.
While our focus is on Maine Newsstand, I enjoyed learning about the Maine Memory Network and Windows on Maine as I watched the opening video. I look forward to exploring those resources at a later time.
I did a basic search for 'Donn Fendler'. Many of the results were more like calendar events than articles about Donn. I limited the search to the past two years. When I tried to create an alert to receive notification of more events posted, I found that once again, I had to set up an account with a new username and password. Being someone who likes to keep things simple, I find it frustrating to have to set up new accounts within MARVEL. I could see where it might be very frustrating to patrons, especially if they are not of the Generation X or Y vintage. It feels like I am accumulating more usernames and passwords for MARVEL than all of my other accounts combined!
I did use the translation tool to view a short article in French. That was fun trying to recall my two years of high school French! Yet a useful tool for our bilingual patrons.
I also searched for Ryan Cook, as he filmed a documentary about obtaining the rights to Donn Fendler's life story. I found a couple of nice articles in the Kennebec Journal.
I also used the obituary feature, which lead me to the obituary of a friend who lived in the southern part of the state, so her obit was not in local papers here. It was nice to be able to read about her in that way.
I have read several blogs from others participating in this invitational. I noticed that there are eight people with more than one participant entry. Perhaps they are representing their library and their personal interest. I did comment on one blog. This has been my first attempt at creating a personal blog even though I have read other blogs and subscribe to a couple favorites.
I use MARVEL as a resource for patrons as much as possible. The most common applications I have used are directing patrons to back issues of Consumer Reports, using Novelist Plus to find good books and read-a-likes, and showing them how to access Learning Express to reinforce math skills.
Last week I had a patron doing research on a very specific health condition. I directed her to the Health subject where she found what she needed in Nursing and Allied Health Collection. She was going to search a couple of the other health data bases on her own at home.
Onward to Week #4 . . . .
Sunday, October 14, 2012
MARVELous Maine Invitational - Week 2
Week 2
This week we explore the resource Britannica Online, in MARVEL, Maine's virtual library. While I work in a public library, I am a kid at heart, and have two grandchildren, with whom I always try to share some knowledge each time we visit. With that being said, I took a detour to the Britannica school edition (K-12). The grandchildren are currently on a trip to Arizona, and will visit some National Parks. I typed that term in the search box to see what I would find. The results were similar to a book I had purchased for them prior to their departure. I located the link for Acadia National Park, and explored. The audio option was interesting, but a little disappointing. The pronunciation was off on some words, and the voice more mechanical than I had expected. My initial thought was that it might be helpful to less skilled readers. My verdict is still out.
Finished playing, now on to my assignment for this week.
I chose lesson 2b, the Britannica Public Library edition. I began by watching the suggested video on the Maine State Library page. What an impressive bit of information! I had no idea that "work spaces" were available, and that the information was stored online with Britannica for a year! If you change and 'save' any information in your project, it will be saved roughly a year form the date of the changes. I almost skipped the link encouraging exploration of the online guide, as I assumed that it would all be covered in the video. I was pleasantly pleased to learn even more about about the geography tools! Now that I have the initial guides under my belt, I am ready to proceed with the assignment.
Using the suggested search term 'Arab Spring', I began exploring the results. How nice to have not only the Spanish translator available, but also the option to choose alternate languages, via the Google translator at the bottom of the article. Interestingly, we have had a few inquiries about alternate languages in our library.
Wanting to get the most out of this experience, I saved an article, thus requiring me to set up a 'workspace' and 'project'. That process went smoothly, at least initially.
While I have not had the occasion to write a research paper requiring citations for over 40 years, it was nice to notice the four common styles of citation located at the bottom of the article, which will come in handy when assisting students needing to make use of citations.
I have included a link to share my article. <a href="http://library.eb.com.ursus-proxy-9.ursus.maine.edu/eb/article-9570981"> Arab Spring</a> When I clicked on 'test this link', it could not be accessed . . . not sure what is up with that. It appears I have more work to do on this feature.
It took me a minute to locate my 'Workspace' after I created it, but all is well, I found it on the right hand side of article under the "Workspace Projects" column.
The atlas was my next area of interest. The more I zoomed in on the map, the more information it showed about local areas, such as birth and death places of famous people. Digging a little deeper, I discovered the settlement patterns of the area. The Atlas is a fun feature to explore new places.
The timeline of medicine was very interesting. Reading about the early Hippocratic writings was a nice review. I had no idea that there were hospitals in Sri Lanka as early as 400 B.C.
I also checked out a video in the American History section, Native Americans and Frontiersmen Series; it is nice to know that we have access to that information.
This Day in History, is a fun way to learn a little daily trivia!
Clicking on the 'Primary Sources and eBooks' tab, lead me to Project Gutenberg's A Child's Garden of Verses, by Robert Louis Stevenson, which was a book I had owned and loved as a child. It was fun going down memory lane with some familiar verses. My parents would be so proud of me!
Country Comparison was also very interesting. My only regret with that was that the information for comparison did not always line up to be side by side, which sometimes made it difficult to compare.
I tried to save other articles in my 'Workspace', but was unable to do that. I think might have had a typo in my original set up of my 'workspace', thus when I went to log in again, it did not recognize me. I created a new workspace, and all seems well.
Like any exploration on the internet, exploring Encyclopedia Britannica Online can be a fascinating adventure which leads one from one topic to another! I really DO have to get some other work done today!
Awaiting week #3 . . .
This week we explore the resource Britannica Online, in MARVEL, Maine's virtual library. While I work in a public library, I am a kid at heart, and have two grandchildren, with whom I always try to share some knowledge each time we visit. With that being said, I took a detour to the Britannica school edition (K-12). The grandchildren are currently on a trip to Arizona, and will visit some National Parks. I typed that term in the search box to see what I would find. The results were similar to a book I had purchased for them prior to their departure. I located the link for Acadia National Park, and explored. The audio option was interesting, but a little disappointing. The pronunciation was off on some words, and the voice more mechanical than I had expected. My initial thought was that it might be helpful to less skilled readers. My verdict is still out.
Finished playing, now on to my assignment for this week.
I chose lesson 2b, the Britannica Public Library edition. I began by watching the suggested video on the Maine State Library page. What an impressive bit of information! I had no idea that "work spaces" were available, and that the information was stored online with Britannica for a year! If you change and 'save' any information in your project, it will be saved roughly a year form the date of the changes. I almost skipped the link encouraging exploration of the online guide, as I assumed that it would all be covered in the video. I was pleasantly pleased to learn even more about about the geography tools! Now that I have the initial guides under my belt, I am ready to proceed with the assignment.
Using the suggested search term 'Arab Spring', I began exploring the results. How nice to have not only the Spanish translator available, but also the option to choose alternate languages, via the Google translator at the bottom of the article. Interestingly, we have had a few inquiries about alternate languages in our library.
Wanting to get the most out of this experience, I saved an article, thus requiring me to set up a 'workspace' and 'project'. That process went smoothly, at least initially.
While I have not had the occasion to write a research paper requiring citations for over 40 years, it was nice to notice the four common styles of citation located at the bottom of the article, which will come in handy when assisting students needing to make use of citations.
I have included a link to share my article. <a href="http://library.eb.com.ursus-proxy-9.ursus.maine.edu/eb/article-9570981"> Arab Spring</a> When I clicked on 'test this link', it could not be accessed . . . not sure what is up with that. It appears I have more work to do on this feature.
It took me a minute to locate my 'Workspace' after I created it, but all is well, I found it on the right hand side of article under the "Workspace Projects" column.
The atlas was my next area of interest. The more I zoomed in on the map, the more information it showed about local areas, such as birth and death places of famous people. Digging a little deeper, I discovered the settlement patterns of the area. The Atlas is a fun feature to explore new places.
The timeline of medicine was very interesting. Reading about the early Hippocratic writings was a nice review. I had no idea that there were hospitals in Sri Lanka as early as 400 B.C.
I also checked out a video in the American History section, Native Americans and Frontiersmen Series; it is nice to know that we have access to that information.
This Day in History, is a fun way to learn a little daily trivia!
Clicking on the 'Primary Sources and eBooks' tab, lead me to Project Gutenberg's A Child's Garden of Verses, by Robert Louis Stevenson, which was a book I had owned and loved as a child. It was fun going down memory lane with some familiar verses. My parents would be so proud of me!
Country Comparison was also very interesting. My only regret with that was that the information for comparison did not always line up to be side by side, which sometimes made it difficult to compare.
I tried to save other articles in my 'Workspace', but was unable to do that. I think might have had a typo in my original set up of my 'workspace', thus when I went to log in again, it did not recognize me. I created a new workspace, and all seems well.
Like any exploration on the internet, exploring Encyclopedia Britannica Online can be a fascinating adventure which leads one from one topic to another! I really DO have to get some other work done today!
Awaiting week #3 . . .
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
MARVELous Maine Invitational - Week 1
Week 1
While I have read many blogs, and subscribe to a couple, this is my first experience with creating blogs. I am creating this in response to the MARVELous Maine Invitational, an opportunity to explore Maine's Virtual Library. While I am somewhat familiar with MARVEL, I would like to be more proficient with this resource so that I can better assist our patrons.
I watched the video, Blogs in Plain English, provided by Common Craft. While I do use social media, such as Face Book, Twitter and Linked In, I tend to be a private person, and have never felt the need to have news from my personal life reach a large audience. While I love to learn, blogging about my experience will be a challenge for me during this ten week opportunity!
I chose to set up my blog using Blogger instead of Word Press. I already have an active Google account, and use the Google Mail and Calendar. I have experimented with Google Groups, so it seemed like a logical progression to create a blog using Google's Blogger.
I have watched the Blogger Tour provided by Blogger/Google. I may need to go go back and review the mobile applications. I have limited experience with mobile devices.
I watched the Introduction to MARVEL!, Navigating in MARVEL!, and Searching MARVEL! tutorials.
Introduction to MARVEL! contains useful information to assist patrons in setting up an account for MARVEL. Not only is this resource free for all people in Maine, but there are clear concise instructions for creating an account. I especially enjoyed the text which accompanied slide number four. It really lets patrons know what to expect when setting up an account, and puts their mind at ease as to why vendors require certain information, and that they can be confident that their personal information will not be shared with others.
I also learned that some data bases, like “Learning Express” are limited to public library users thus showing the value of obtaining a library card from your local library.
Navigating in MARVEL! briefly reviews the Introduction to MARVEL,then goes on to explain the
useful tools available on the MARVEL home page. While I am familiar with most of these features, I was reminded to use the 'About' feature in front of each data base. I also learned that the 'One Search' feature not only includes MARVEL resources, but those of 100 Maine Library catalogs, and the Maine Memory Network! This is amazing to have all of these resources right at our finger tips!
Searching MARVEL! shows how to select a broad topic on the left of the home page, then using the 'About' tab, determine which data base is most appropriate for the age level or area of expertise you are seeking. The 'OneSearch' option is likened to the Google search engine, only it is specific to MARVEL data only. You will get multiple results, which you may need to limit with advanced searching tools. There is a link to a 'OneSearch' video, directly under the 'OneSearch' box. I could not get the video link to work properly, but the Video Transcript seems to work just fine.
I entered the search term 'Maine Tourism' as suggested in the Video Transcript. I limited the 'content type' to 'image' and discovered a delightful array of vintage postcards on the Maine Memory Network. Thus showing one way that resource ties in with MARVEL! One of the cards was of the Kittery Toll Booth. I learned that after Pennsylvania, Maine had the second toll highway in the country, and it was the first to be paved with asphalt, not concrete. It was called the 'Mile a Minute' highway, as most drivers had not driven 60 miles an hour before! Now I have a piece of trivia . . . not sure when I will use it though!
I placed this item in my 'suitcase' file and emailed it to myself. I have never done that before.
I do believe I have completed my first week assignment. The rest of the week I will drop in and visit other blogs.
While I have read many blogs, and subscribe to a couple, this is my first experience with creating blogs. I am creating this in response to the MARVELous Maine Invitational, an opportunity to explore Maine's Virtual Library. While I am somewhat familiar with MARVEL, I would like to be more proficient with this resource so that I can better assist our patrons.
I watched the video, Blogs in Plain English, provided by Common Craft. While I do use social media, such as Face Book, Twitter and Linked In, I tend to be a private person, and have never felt the need to have news from my personal life reach a large audience. While I love to learn, blogging about my experience will be a challenge for me during this ten week opportunity!
I chose to set up my blog using Blogger instead of Word Press. I already have an active Google account, and use the Google Mail and Calendar. I have experimented with Google Groups, so it seemed like a logical progression to create a blog using Google's Blogger.
I have watched the Blogger Tour provided by Blogger/Google. I may need to go go back and review the mobile applications. I have limited experience with mobile devices.
I watched the Introduction to MARVEL!, Navigating in MARVEL!, and Searching MARVEL! tutorials.
Introduction to MARVEL! contains useful information to assist patrons in setting up an account for MARVEL. Not only is this resource free for all people in Maine, but there are clear concise instructions for creating an account. I especially enjoyed the text which accompanied slide number four. It really lets patrons know what to expect when setting up an account, and puts their mind at ease as to why vendors require certain information, and that they can be confident that their personal information will not be shared with others.
I also learned that some data bases, like “Learning Express” are limited to public library users thus showing the value of obtaining a library card from your local library.
Navigating in MARVEL! briefly reviews the Introduction to MARVEL,then goes on to explain the
useful tools available on the MARVEL home page. While I am familiar with most of these features, I was reminded to use the 'About' feature in front of each data base. I also learned that the 'One Search' feature not only includes MARVEL resources, but those of 100 Maine Library catalogs, and the Maine Memory Network! This is amazing to have all of these resources right at our finger tips!
Searching MARVEL! shows how to select a broad topic on the left of the home page, then using the 'About' tab, determine which data base is most appropriate for the age level or area of expertise you are seeking. The 'OneSearch' option is likened to the Google search engine, only it is specific to MARVEL data only. You will get multiple results, which you may need to limit with advanced searching tools. There is a link to a 'OneSearch' video, directly under the 'OneSearch' box. I could not get the video link to work properly, but the Video Transcript seems to work just fine.
I entered the search term 'Maine Tourism' as suggested in the Video Transcript. I limited the 'content type' to 'image' and discovered a delightful array of vintage postcards on the Maine Memory Network. Thus showing one way that resource ties in with MARVEL! One of the cards was of the Kittery Toll Booth. I learned that after Pennsylvania, Maine had the second toll highway in the country, and it was the first to be paved with asphalt, not concrete. It was called the 'Mile a Minute' highway, as most drivers had not driven 60 miles an hour before! Now I have a piece of trivia . . . not sure when I will use it though!
I placed this item in my 'suitcase' file and emailed it to myself. I have never done that before.
I do believe I have completed my first week assignment. The rest of the week I will drop in and visit other blogs.
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