Wrapping up

I think my biggest revelation was Value Line. The information available is so timely and in depth. I can’t think of any better place to get up-to-date information on investments.

Ancestry.com was also a new resource for me to explore. I now feel I can help patrons who are doing genealogical research with an excellent online source.

I’ll be using all the Marvel resources with patrons. And now that our staff has had this training, I know they will doing so, too. I hope this course will remain online for a while. We will be hiring a new staff member soon and I’d like to have them work through the lessons. This is the best staff development tool ever!

Week 10 – EbscoHOST and Ebsco eBooks

I chose to explore MasterFILE Premier. I looked for the magazines Fine Cooking and Cook’s Illustrated but they are not in the list. Bon Apetit is.
I did the zinc question. The articles were all brief so I read several. The information was interesting and geared for the public, not very in-depth.

Ebsco eBooks
I looked for books on beginning computer skills. The results were not very helpful. I did find on the second page of results The Complete Idiots Guide to the Internet – but it had a 1999 copyright! Then I noticed most of the copyright dates for the books listed were 1999 and 2000. I even tried adjusting the publication date under refine your search on the left menu – but each time I set the end date to 2012 the dates reverted back to an end date of 2000 when I performed the search. So apparently there are no books on computers more recent than 2000? I tried a few more search terms and gave up – nothing newer than 2000. I wondered if it was just a problem with the subject I was searching, so I searched for books on parenting – and again, there was nothing newer than 2000! I think this collection is pretty useless for any topics that need current information.

Constitution Day
I searched for “constitution of the united states” – the results were not entirely on target, with many irrelevant hits. And again, nothing more recent than 2000. Then I used the left menu bar to refine the subject by choosing the listed subject “constitutional history – united states.” This brought up a list of 2 relevant books: Constitution in Congress: The Federalist Period 1789-1801 and Abraham Lincoln, Constitutionalism, and Equal Rights During the Civil War Era.

Western History
A search for Nebraska brought up many irrelevant hits – this advanced search is just a key word search , and I couldn’t find any way perform a subject search. I even tried the visual search in desperation – this actually gave some subjects to choose from. I had best luck under the category choice in the visual search where I chose the category History/U.S./state & local/west/ (ak, ca, co,….)
I am completely unimpressed with Ebsco Ebooks. It’s an old collection and very hard to search.

Learning Express – week 9

I finished about half of the Culinary Arts Practice Exam.  It was very helpful to see the  answers I gave compared to the correct answers,  in addition to the score.   The test was pretty straightforward, I thought.  But apparently I don’t know as much about cooking as I believed – very humbling!  It’s very helpful to have the scores given on categories of questions so you can see what you are weak in and what you are strong in – in order to study efficiently for the real test.

I chose the Career Course Succeeding on the Job.  The advice given was practical and thought-provoking.  I looked closely at the Time Management and Fostering Strong Professional Relationships sections and found the self-assessments helpful

Under eBooks the Jobs and Careers list is enormous.  Under Skill Building for Adults I looked at the book Goof Proof Personal Finance, but was disappointed that the copyright date is 2004.  There is good basic advice here and many helpful worksheets for analyzing and organizing your finances, but I really don’t trust any chapter titled “Don’t Be Afraid of the Stock Market” published before 2008.

The practice tests, courses, and eBooks in Learning Express are a fabulous resource!  What library can afford to purchase up-to-date books of practice tests for all of the tests here?  How wonderful to point patrons to one place to find all this essential information!

Ancestry.com

1.  I couldn’t find a record of my marriage – I hope we’re legally married!!  But after 40 years, does it matter??  I did find many entries for myself in voter and census records.

2.  I found my paternal grandmother in the 1940 and 1925 censuses.  I discovered that she was one year older than my grandfather – never new that.  She loved to travel – and I also found her name on a 1955 passenger list for a flight from Bermuda to New York.

3.  It was hard to find the photos and maps tab, but finally did find it under advanced search as a drop-down menu choice.  Searching Maine as a keyword brought up over one million images, but no maps.  Did I miss something?

 

Health Resources

Health Source Consumer Edition

I am surprised that Diabetes Today is not indexed here and that the only publication on Tourette’s Syndrome is a book with a 2002 copyright date

I did a search for Tourette’s Syndrome and read an article that was easy to understand but superficial.  I must say I’m not all that impressed with this resource.

Medline Plus

Under the News heading: 60% of America’s Biggest Cities are Now Smoke-Free; Alcohlolic Drinks Add 100 Calories a Day to Average Adult’s Diet; U. S. Diabetes Rate Soaring.

Top Searches:  Autism; Diabetes; Hypertension; Vitamin D

I searched for the drug Simvastatin and found information on reasons for prescription, how to use, precautions, side effects, storage…

I am a big fan of MedlinePlus and always look up any medications my family members or I are taking.  A few years ago I found a warning about a medication that our doctor had missed and that could have had serious consequences for a family member – he was embarrassed and also impressed with Medline Plus.

I looked up the health topic Tourette’s Syndrome.  There is much more comprehensive information here than in Health Source.  The resources listed are not journals and books, but quality web sites.

Videos and Cool Tools:  The videos are incredible!!  I watched a video of robotic surgery – a surgery I underwent many years ago -but which was not robotic.  The videos I looked at are geared for medical professionals, but easily understood by lay people.  They are just amazing.  My daughter is applying for surgical residencies this fall – and now when she talks about her work I can see what she’s doing.  (Uh, oh – is this helicopter parenting?)

Week 6 Business Resources

Business Source Complete

I found the articles on FM radio pretty technical and the periodicals very specialized –  for industry members.  The sort function for Visual Search is unusual – I’ve never seen anything quite like it before – I like the way it narrows the topic visually, but it was a little hard to navigate.

Econlit

I was surprised by how many articles are about business and economics in other countries.  The tax policy and small business search was difficult.  Even adding U.S to the advanced search turned up few articles.  This database is geared for those interested in international economics.

Regional Business News

I searched for Eddie Bauer, then J.Jill, and finally Jill McGowan for a Maine clothing business.  I was surprised there were no results for this  last business.  So I switched to Linda Bean’s Lobster Rolls (pretty clothes and lobsters are two things that make me smile)  and found only a few results, not much of it in depth.

Value Line

I found this database very readable and interesting.  And very timely – the reports were dated Nov. 16 and I was reading them on Nov. 12.  I can see someone who is handling their own investments, or who is a professional financial advisor finding this invaluable.   Much helpful info about the resource is available, too, including tutorials, a glossary, etc.
Wall Street Journal

After doing a basic search for small businesses and health care with iffy results, the suggested subjects were most helpful.  Very interesting that you can set up an RSS fees as well as an alert for your research topic.

Week 5 Novelist Plus

I viewed the Novelist Plus tutorials by Ebsco.  They were a bit hard to find (the link in our blog didn’t work) – but at the Ebsco support site there is a Novelist Support Center – and that’s where the tutorials are.  I want to look into linking to them from our new library web site – they are very helpful.

I could not find the No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency under series at first – had to search by the author’s name – then found that I had spelled out the first two words instead of using the abbreviation and numeral.  I’m a little surprised there is no suggestion or link for the alternately spelled title to the correct spelling.  This could be a stumbling block for some patrons.  sorting options give a visually appealing result with the grid view – good for browsing – and an easy to print and take away or e-mailable view with the title only sort.
The read-alikes feature is perfect to use when patrons ask for book recommendations.  We can ask what authors they like, then show them the read-alikes.  I’m often stumped when a patron is choosy and doesn’t care for any of my recommendations – this will be the next step to take.  Hopefully this feature will enable us to always have patrons leave with something they are enthusiastic about reading next.

Novelist is useful for collection development as well as readers’ advisory.  The recommended reads list provides lists of pretty narrow genres, like Christian Romance that will be helpful in choosing new books.  The reviews from professional journals are a valuable feature, too.  I’ll use this to winnow through donated books that I need more information about before we decide to add them to the collection – or not.  The book discussion guides are invaluable for using with our book discussion group.

I used Novelist K-8 Plus a lot as a school librarian.  It will be just a useful, maybe more so, in the public library setting.

Marvelous Maine Week 4 Hobbies and Crafts

I chose the category Arts & Crafts and the subcategory Floral Arranging – I always do my own arrangements for our holiday meals, but they are never quite as lovely as I’d like – often put together in haste while cooking a huge meal.  I was hoping for some ideas and directions for simple arrangements.

I looked at lots of projects.  Unfortunately it took a long time to load the pdf files – which is a little frustrating.  I found good basic directions for preparing a container and saved them.  Also a way to keep fresh flowers fresh on a wall wreath that I’d never seen before.  Going to try that for sure. But I thought many of the projects were, well, to be honest, weird. The journals seem geared toward professional florists who might be competing in floral shows or exhibits.

Under Help I chose Publications.  Advanced Search gives the complete list of journals and books indexed in the database. You can choose a title and get the complete list of articles for that journal issue or the complete list of chapters for a book.  This could be helpful in some circumstances.

Browsing the Home Page of Hobbies and Crafts was fun.  There’s a nice book on Halloween costumes and decorations with some great ideas.  Oh, for some grandchildren to sew for!

Week 3 Newspapers and Maine Newstand

Here goes my 4th try at creating a new post.  For some reason they keep deleting just as I am about to finish and save.  Drat!

I searched for public libraries in Maine Newstand.  I was surprised by how old the Relevance sorted results were.  Sorting by Most Recent First brought up very recent articles.  I tried to create an alert but kept getting a server error message – too bad.  The alerts are a terrific feature to show people who are doing long-term research projects – folks doing graduate degrees or taking college courses are thrilled when shown this.  I continued on and created an account and saved the search – this is a helpful feature, too.

I had trouble commenting on another’s blog because I wasn’t logged into my blog account yet.  Lost a long comment – I’ll know better next time.  And will go back and try again now that I’m logged in.
I’m sorry to say I did not show any patrons how to use Marvel this week – bogged down in my office writing the annual report for the town annual report.

Week 2 Britannica Online Public Library

I have used Britannica k-12 for  many years as a school librarian.  I was surprised to learn that there is a public library edition –  amazing how we see just what we need to see.  So now that I’m working in a public library this is a great  opportunity to explore MARVEL  resources for adults.  The current event I researched is the European economic crisis.  I found a very clearly explained  summary of the topic – not an in-depth article, but a good brief introduction to a complex topic.  I was disappointed that the translator only translated the menus, not the article itself.   This is disappointing – since this feature could be helpful to some patrons.

The research tools offer lots of quick-to-access short bits of information , but not much is in depth.  (With the exception of a lengthy article on Shakespeare, that is linked to literature resources,  which is impressive.)  It was fun and interesting to browse.
Exploring the resources in the right menu was also interesting – Biography of the Day, This Day in History, and even a blog.
And translate did work on the Biography of the Day!
Britannica is still not my favorite MARVEL resource – but I’m glad it’s available for when quick bits of information are needed.