Week 9: Learning Express

I found it very easy to set up an account in Learning Express.  There were several tabs down the left-hand column of the page with the following sections: Elementary, Middle School, High School, College, Popular Software Tutorials (which included Adobe, Microsoft and Windows based courses), GED Prep, Job Search, Job Careers, Skill Building for Adults (this included Math & Reasoning, Personal Finance Skills, Public Speaking, Reading, Science, Statistics, Trigonometry, Writing & Grammar Skills Improvement), and U.S Citizenship!

Not because it is a strength (because math is my weakness. . . I'm a literary girl), but knowing our students have a need to boost their test scores, I opted to check out the 4th-grade Assessments.  There were a wide range of skill assessments to choose from which all seem to be aligned with topics learned in forth-grade.  I opted to try the Math Diagnostic Geometry.  The test had 15 questions and included nice graphs.  Upon completion, I clicked "View Answers".  Much to my embarrassment, I discovered I need to refresh myself on the word 'perpendicular' and couldn't remember the method for reading the coordinate grid.  I found myself with a 50/50 shot at whether you start up and to the right, or vise versa.  Well sorry to say, I guessed wrong!  The good thing that came from my errors, was the opportunity to discover which questions you got wrong and each question came with a detailed explanation.  I think these tests would be very beneficial to our 4th and 5th grade students!!!!

When clicking on Job Search and Workplace Skills I noticed the topics to choose from were, Business Writing, Job Search, Resumes, and Interviewing, WorkKeys Preparation and TOEIC Preparation (the last two choices were practice tests for people taking TOEIC and WorkKeys Applied Math Assessments).  I chose Job Search, Resumes, and Interviewing.  I discovered  whole host of helpful information including conversations you might have in an interview, determining what you might want from your career, job search and networking skills, how to succeed in the workplace, and social networking.  Also, offered was how to create great resumes and cover letters.  I typed  marketing in the search box and found 12 test items, 1 course, and 16 eBooks.  I selected Search Smart and Get Ahead as my eBook.   My book had 20 chapters and 219 pages on business research.  Many of the chapters dealt with methods you might use to obtain information (phone interviews, Internet, library, etc) as well as what to do with data collected and how to give a presentation.

This was an informative assignment that I will sure to share with teachers at our school!!!

Week 8: Genealogy Resources - Ancestry Library

Between bronchitis, the holiday, and the fact I was relishing a five-day break, I must say, I became a bit disgruntled to discover I was unable to access the Ancestry site from home.  However, it all turned out for the best in the end (although I am now catching up on last week's assignment).  Yesterday, after school, I drove into Treat Memorial Library.  As I was parking, who came whizzing by me for a parking spot?  My cohort from the middle school.  We actually were seated at adjacent computers by the head librarian, who also happens to be taking this class!!!

When I typed in my name, birthday, etc., I found no results.  However, loving a mystery and thinking that perhaps my former married name might bring something.  Well, there I was in three listings.  One had me there at an address I had never lived, but the other two showed all three addresses I had lived in Wilton (I lived in the same house for 33 years and the address kept changing).  I'm thinking it is time for an update as I remarried 5 and a half years ago and have lived in my new home now for almost seven years!

I chose to insert the name of my paternal grandfather and discovered a 1940 United States Census record.  I quickly saw he was the second one listed by the name of his spouse, my grandmother.  I guess I didn't know they lived in New Vineyard back then (but I'll be sure to let my little brother know as he just happened to move there a few years ago).  I was a bit horrified to discover my grandfather was 38 and my grandmother 23, a 15 year difference in age.  More horrifying was the realization that she had given birth to 6 children (only five were listed, but I was recently made aware there had been a baby who died very young) and the oldest was nine.  One of the most dear people in my life had given birth at the age of 14.  The birthdays, years, ages, and names were all listed and you could actually click  to see who the neighbors were that lived in their neighborhood!  This was very cool and I got a bit side tracked and looked for my maternal grandparents as well.

When performing the search under the "Photos and Maps" tab and typing in Maine as the keyword, 212,144,029 results were found.  There were 17 links for Professional Baseball Players and School Yearbooks listed first.  In hopes of finding my my maternal grandparents in a Livermore Falls Banner, I found numerous volumes (several were the multiple copies of same years) but nothing before 1949.  The grab and zoom feature to view contents was cool. but it was through a great deal of trail and error to figure some of it out! 

I was very grateful to have my cohort beside me as we continued to bounce off each other, and together we did a very nice job learning to navigate and discover (and we didn't get kicked out for being too noisy :).

In closing, I am very glad we had this assignment and that I didn't opt out.  It was fun, and I was extremely impressed with Ancestry.com (and if I win the Power Ball tonight, I just might become a member)!!!

Week 7 Consumer Health Resources: Health Source Consumer Edition and Medline Plus

I must say I found this week’s assignment much more interesting!!!  Actually, I found myself exploring more than I needed too!!! 

In Health Source I discovered many, many magazines and journals that covered a wide array of health topics.  The interface was easy as it is the same as the other Ebsco databases we have been using.  I searched for high cholesterol.  When sorting for the most current publication, I located an article titled, The Stinking Rose, and was published November 2012, in Better Nutrition.  It was very easy to understand and discussed information that linked eating garlic or taking garlic supplements to reduce cholesterol levels.  It even included recipes (that I printed)!

From there I ventured to Medline Plus where I found myself absorbed in all it had to offer.  I loved the eye catching interface and found it very fun to use.  I particularly liked the fact you had the Senior, Men, Women, and Children tabs to quickly get to issues that were geared to you.  The Health News in the column to the right had three articles listed, For Cholesterol Tests, Fasting May Not Be Required (now wouldn’t THAT be a plus J), Scientists Find Gene Differences In Non-Smokers With Lung Cancer, and Spinal Steroid Shots May Have Little Effect on Sciatica. There was also a handy More Health News Link to continue searching for more current health news.  To the left was Medical Dictionary where you could simply type in the term for the definition and a Popular Search box which was done in the form of a Wordle included aspirin, asthma, diabetes, hypertension, multiple sclerosis, osteoporosis, pneumonia, prednisone, and shingles.

As you may have guessed, I suffer from having high cholesterol.  Two years ago, my results of a fasting blood work showed my cholesterol level at 307 and came with a prescription for Lipitor.  I learned it was a statin drug that is used, not only to decrease the amount of cholesterol found in your blood but also, to decrease the risk of heart attacks.  There was a whole host if information from how to use it, why it is used, precautions to follow and special dietary instructions, side effects, how to store it, what to do in the event of an overdose and other pertinent information related to its consumption.

This database seemed to have more to offer than Health Source.  I again plugged in high Cholesterol.  Not only was there the ability refine my search better, but the were great graphs and very informative videos to watch.  There were 1, 673 resources and 57 videos!  I am almost ashamed to say, I really did not understand the whole cholesterol issue well.  I chose the video Managing Cholesterol by X-Plain Patient Education. The material was very clear to help someone understand what cholesterol is and how to control levels.  There was audio which read the displayed text (which is perfect for all learning styles) and nice animated graphics.  The topics consisted of causes, diagnosis, treatment options, diets, medications, and other important information.  There were helpful hints to remember the difference between LDL and HDL and quizzes after each screen that forced you to return and review before you could proceed, to ensure you knew the material.  Then to be sure you got it, at the end was a Test You Knowledge test.

I have such a better understanding that I decided I’d better deal with the third friendly reminder that I had received from my doctor and have scheduled an appointment to get my fasting blood work on Tuesday!!!

Week 6 Business Resources: A.K.A. The "B" Word

@#3%! AAAHHHHGGGGG!!!!  I feel like the MARVELous Maine Invitational has pushed me off a cliff and I landed in a very unfamiliar territory!!!  My husband and I owned a restaurant and rental property. After several nightmares associated with the landlord role, I am happy to say, I can cross that off my bucket list.  I loved the people interaction associated with owning a restaurant and am not ashamed to admit my husband has the business brains in the family.  I remember one morning he asked me how many waffles we had in the freezer.  I proceeded to say it depended whether he wanted blueberry or plain.  He simply smiled and stated, “I want a number, and you want to tell a story!”  It was perfect affirmation, I was in the right job as a children’s librarian.  Then, this week, the ugly “B” word (business) reared its ugly head.  I do want to state I have loved the journey the MARVELous Maine Invitation has taken me.  Up until this week, I have found the assignments interesting and very useful with my students.  Being in a Pre-K through 5^th-grade school, I have never, and probably will ever, have a patron inquire for any these resources but do appreciate there are fellow public librarians here that this may be very useful to them and their patrons.

 

It was a very rough start to complete this week’s exercises.  I spent hours struggling with what seemed a disconnect from the piece stating Academic Search Complete will be covered in Lesson 10 and how to get to the Business and Resource Center.  It wasn’t until mid-week when I sought out a colleague who asked me if I had received the email stating it had been deleted from the server.  Unfortunately for me, I hadn’t checked my email since the homework was posted and I had been using the initial guide.

 

When searching FM radio using Business Source Complete.  There were several source types of available for a search. I found the visual search not only much more appealing to the naked eye, but the display options a nice feature.  You were able to change the display to a Columns or Block; I found the Block Style more to my liking as the blocks contained time-saving short blurbs.  You could quickly and easily scroll across and down to locate articles of interest.  If something caught your eye, by clicking, more information would appear in the Summary box.  The Filter by Date or Sort by Relevance options two other helpful features.

 

After typing Small Business in EconLit, I quickly discovered numerous resources pertaining to analyses, taxes and tax code information, owner sacrifice, financing and financial policies, risks, and investments.  When typing in EPA I found one article titled, Land Recycling, Community Revitalization, and Distributive Policies.  Interestingly, though, when I typed out the entire name Environmental Protection Agency, I noticed an alert that my ‘initial search query did not yield any results.  However, using SmartText searching results were found based on my key words’ and discovered two different articles Climate Policies in the United States and Japan and The Politics of Market-Based Environmental Regulation.  The options to save in HTLM or PDF was a nice addition. When completing the advanced search that pertained to tax policy , I noticed information was categorized into 10 sections from Business Taxes and Subsidies, Fiscal Policies, Taxation Subsidies and Review-General, State and Local Taxation, Personal Income and Other Non-Business Taxes and Subsidies Including Inheritance Tax, to name a few.  The site offered a box rating system and a space to save, print or email. 

When exploring what Regional Business News had to offer, I chose McDonald’s as my nationally known company.  Not surprisingly, I discovered there were 5,252 results.  When I narrowed my search by typing in Maine, I quickly spied an article titled Fast Food Deal Gives Maine Potato a Lift but found myself a bit disappointed that only an abridged abstract was offered and I was unable to view it in its entirety.  For the Maine Company, I chose one of the companies my husband is the Chief Financial Officer (or something like that), ME Energy Systems.  They sell wood pellet boilers and deliver pellets as well.  I was a bit disappointed to discover they were not listed, but with added exploration did discover several resources pertaining to devices for renewable and alternative energy and an article about pellets taking aim at fuel costs!

 

The description of Value Line offered a nice overview of what was behind ‘door #5’!  The Ratings and Reports section showed 133 companies listed alphabetically and gave the option of changing the view by Industry too!  It showed their Ticker, which for lack of a better explanation, is the abbreviation know by stock marketers.  The gave stock market closing averages, Portfolio offered information of stocks with above average year ahead price potential, Portfolio II offer information on Stocks for Income and Potential Price Potential, Portfolio III Stocks with long-term Growth Potential, Portfolio IV listed companies by stock with above-average dividend yields.  There were other listings of Information of Growth Stocks with Low Risk, Timely Sticks with Low Risk, Income Stocks with Good Total Return Potential, Stocks For Dividend Growth with Low Risk.  Also, included were great graphs of Select Yields, Federal Reserve Data, Tracking the Economy, Major Inside Transaction, market Monitor and Stock Market Averages.  Under Summary and Index Support there were Investment Surveys.  The Std R&R Cover Page consisted of Ratings and Reports and the Std. R&R Supplementary offered the most current and detailed performance reports of stock investment surveys.  When using the Value Line Tabs, I found many resources available but was unable to figure out how to locate a full research report from there.

 

Wall Street Journal I discovered numerous articles with my keywords highlighted in the description that might be of interest to the small businessperson.  Much pertained to insurance and health care laws which would be good information to be aware of.  The alert was very cool.  You are able to personally design and define the content as well as how often you like to receive the alerts and when you’d like to terminate.

 

In closing, I would like to add ultimate frustration when I had nearly half of this typed and after hitting ENTER, lost my entire post.  I recall mentioning this early on to another member who told me she types in Word and cuts and pastes (guess I learn the hard way).  The time I have spent with this particular assignment has been well over 8 hours.  Not only am I left with memories of really believing I could actually feel my hair turning gray and experienced a mild form of rigor mortis as I found the need to pry myself from my chair from sitting too long, I found it necessary to complete this in segments to keep myself from brain overload.  I don't think I am completely alone here because after searching through 27 blogs, on Thursday, I only found 3 who had done their homework.  Calgone take me awayyyyyyyy!!!!

Week 5: NoveList Plus

NoveList Plus was a wonderful discovery!!!  In my exploration, I quickly discovered how easy and user friendly this database was.  First, I searched by author, my personal favorite, James Patterson, who crafts extremely compelling psychological suspense novels.  I then decided to delve deeper and searched using the Alex Cross series.  I loved the fact, one could easily figure out the order each of the 28 books came in the series.  The opportunity to delve deeper by using tabs to read reviews, the More About This Book, Lists and Articles, were also very helpful and may be beneficial to someone who might be on the fence about a particular book.  The Read-a-like column was also a great feature and will ease the pain for that student (or anyone) who just can't seem to find what they want to read.  The experience created such excitement, I decided to show it to a few teachers and weaved it into the fifth-grade library classes this week!  Using a whole group approach, and our Tanberg unit, it was wonderful to see the exitment and the large number of students so eager to suggest authors and series for direction in their next choices.  They loved it!  A big thanks to our media specialist who put NoveList on our library main page for easy access.  I plan to give students time to use this independently at the computers in the library. 

Week 4: Hobbies and Crafts

Beading, Wreath Making, Photography, and Costumes, oh my!!!!  Yikes, the Hobbies and Crafts Reference Center could really get me in trouble and might create a need for a self help group!!!  The vast array of resourced should satisfy most anyone's creative needs.  Once again, I found the tutorial to be very clear.  I like the format and think it is setup very user friendly. 

I chose Arts and Crafts and then went to Creative Costumes & Halloween De'cor: 50 Projects to Sew and Craft.  I wished I'd have had this resource, one Halloween night a couple of years ago, when my husband chose out of the blue to attend a Halloween dance two hours before it started (he ended up being a broom)!  There was an option for Tabard style costumes.  Being unfamiliar with that term, it intrigued me enough to lead me in that direction and to a wonderful resource.  I discovered many designs available for costumes made consisting of back and front panels that are hung over the shoulders by straps that are attached leaving free movement of the arms and legs.  Regular clothing (which may be color coordinated) can be worn underneath.  This style is made for safety and comfort and the designs were cute as can be.  There were also suggestions of adding bling with the addition of battery operated lights and simple accessories.  There was a dragon, tin man, bumblebee, and a fairy on the site I first visited and many great ideas in other magazines offered as well!!  I particularly like the PDF sites as they come with great photos and directions.  This provides a great free resource for kids and parents to be creative and save money by making their own costumes.  I loved it and now am eager to check out possible Christmas craft ideas, but must find restraint for today!!!

My library did not have any of the magazines listed, but I think the fact we are not duplicating a good thing!!! I liked the fact when I clicked on the Help site, I discovered help was available 24-7!!!

Week 3 Newspapers and Newstand

First, I would like to apologize to anyone who might have stopped in and noticed, I didn't complete the homework.  I have a very set schedule at school and do not have the flexibility to easily teach anyone something other than what I need to do each week.  I have scheduled a common slot of time with a first-grade teacher to show her Marvel this Friday afternoon, so I will not be able to finish this week's Discover Exercise until the weekend!

I found the tutorial very informative and easy to use.  When thinking about searching for something of interest, I immediately recalled earlier that week half listening to the news my husband was watching as I was getting ready for work.  I somehow missed the beginning of a segment about a high-profile murder case of a 12-year-old girl, in Maine, that took place in 1988 (I'm not sure I feel comfortable putting names here, so I won't).  A man was convicted in 1989 and has been in prison ever since.  Catching only the tale end of the newscast,  I did hear enough about new DNA evidence that incrimated someone else.  The question of "What if this person has been wrongly imprisoned?" for 23 years nagged at me and left me a bit at odds, so when this opportunity arose, it was the first thing that popped into my head.  When I typed the convicted person's name in the keyword box, the list that came up seemed to have no rhyme or reason to the order articles were listed; the dates came up askew with different years (June, Sept, May, June), but I did find I could type in 2012 and easily found what I needed.  As it turns out the DNA does implicate someone else who was a suspect at the time, but there a few significant leads and very substancial evidence that pointed to the person now serving time.  When I tried to create the alert, I recieved a message stating a server error caused my requested action to fail.  Please try again and contact us if the problem exists.  After a couple other attempts, I gave up. 

The ability to check archived stories gave me the idea to check on a story that that I read several years ago that referenced a discovery I had made as a young girl, in Franklin Cemetary, in Vienna, Maine.  There a handful of very unique stump-shaped gravestones which have the words 'Cut Down' carved along with the personal information of those buried there; most have an arm coming out of the stump and there is one which has a flower!  The story told of some man's mission to find information.  I had intended to cut out the article but guess it slipped my mind and before I knew it I realized it was gone.  When I typed in stump-shaped gravestones, I was able to retrieve the article, but unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be anything more.  If anyone is ever in Vienna, Maine.  The cemetary is on Tower Road and they mentioned stones are really pretty cool to see!  I'll return over the weekend to try and blog the Snapshot and finsih this week's Crafts and Hobby search.  I am creative person and am chomping at the bit to explore what may be available to satisfy my creative mind (but am a bit anal and have to do things in the proper order. . . perhaps, that's why I am a librarian :)! 

It's Friday and I met with one of our school's top-notch first-grade teachers.  I showed her how to access Marvel and showed her how to navigate the many sources it has to offer.  I had searched through and found a few articles pertaining to Butterflies and Mexico that I thought she could use with her class (they have been studying Monarchs and are participating in a pseudo migration unit and have sent butterflies to Mexico).  She was as impressed as I was and loved it and said she'd take some time to play!!!