Proquest Publications

I found this assignment( searching publications) to be much more rewarding than the other (basic search)--perhaps it was the fact that I was searching for a keyword in a publication, in this instance" school library" was the topic. I received two options--School Library Journal and School Library Monthly, both of which provided full text articles in previous issues. A search within School Library Journal led me to articles specifically on what I chose, "technology". I could see the advantage of this process in searching for articles in archives. If the researcher knew of a particular journal and wanted articles just from that, then this would be the way to go. If however a researcher wished to find articles from various journals the best way to go would be the previous way--Basic Search.

Proquest

I am reading a biography, Margaret Mitchell and John Marsh: the Love Story Behind Gone With the Wind so as I began to investigate Proquest I thought I would research what I could find on Margaret Mitchell. What I found after just a little research were all book reviews on books about Margaret Mitchell. This was somewhat disappointing. As I researched more I found an article about Gone With the Wind--"The Book Belongs to All of Us": Gone With the Wind as Postcultural Product. This was a little more to what I was expecting. Perhaps with time and practice Proquest would provide more. I have not had much luck with it in the past and like the students I get frustrated and revert back to google. This particular site would require patience and perseverance. I do like the way the site is organized with icons indicating trade journals, scholarly journals and even wire feeds. I think this site requires more time to learn but the results are more in line with what a scholarly researcher would need.

SIRS

As I looked over the SIRS Discoverer and the SIRS Researcher databases I began to think of the topics our students usually researched for their classes each year. The 7th graders do country reports for geography and their Spanish exploratory class. The Language Arts classes just finished a Vietnam War timeline. The science classes are beginning to talk about a Science Fair. I used these databases to research these topics to see how a student would use them. I shared this information with the Spanish teacher who will use the "graphic organizer" for his project.
For the answer to the questions on the challenge I used Armadillos for the subject and liked the way the articles were labeled (easy, moderate, challenge) At a glance a student can see which articles might be more difficult to read. The citation for each article is provided at the end. The only draw back to this database is that there are no pictures to go with the articles.
On SIRS Researcher I looked at the Curriculum Pathfinders--Fine Arts and had fun with the Artopia site. It provides interactive activities regarding painting, artists, and critiquing art. On this site you can even have fun with Math!
So often our students begin their research with a "google" search of a term or phrase. This works sometimes but too much time is spent going through the thousands of articles and pieces of information.
My goal is to share this site with our students and show them that others have taken the time to find articles and organized them here for us to use.

Learning Express Library!!

I put explanation points by this title because this is an awesome resource. I used it last year at a ministry center where adult learners were coming for help on studying for a GED. Our local tech school affiliated with the public school system has a great GED prep program but some of these people were so far from school that they did not know where to go first. They came to us each Tuesday night in a small group where they felt comfortable and were able to use this resource to assess their skill levels and determine where they needed to start studying. Many of these people had been out of school for 30 or more years and wanted a GED just for themselves and others wanted a GED as a step towards more education and job training.
This resource provided study materials, pre-tests and post-tests which allowed the student to see right away how much they knew. It was exciting for them to see that they knew more than they thought they did.
I noticed that Learning Express Library has changed some and now has e-books which would have been a great addition to the scenario above. The e-books can be printed (some libraries limit the number of pages printed per day) which is nice for those who find it difficult to read from a computer monitor and for math problems that need to be figured as well as tables, glossary of terms and formulas.
With all this resource has to offer, it will be a "go to" site for the students at my middle school as well as the adult learners I encounter.

World Book Discover

Although designed for the more visual learner, World Book Discover has features for all types of learners. The test to speech feature is appealing for the visually impaired or for those who are just learning the English language. Having articles which can be translated as well as read aloud in three languages is appealing for both the ESL student or those who are learning Spanish and French. The visual category format lends itself to the casual researcher who might be beginning to find a topic and needs a spark of inspiration or for someone who is just wishing to learn more at their leisure. As with the other World Book edition, World Book Discover offers a variety of links from reference materials like dictionaries and atlases to life skills and standards for educators. This is a site that should not be overlooked!

World Book Student Advanced

As the name implies this is World book taken to the next level. Upon opening the site you will find an abundance of information, organized neatly so the researcher can easily click the links. Depending on what the researcher wishes to do, there is access to dictionary, atlas, world newspapers, today in history etc. This home page is one that easily could be used daily. This site is valuable for topical research as well. For example, our language arts classes are reading a book about the Vietnam War. The students will be making timelines of certain events. On the left side of the home page is a timeline maker. After research, students simply insert dates and events and the timeline maker does the rest. If a student signs in to World Book (creates an account) these timelines can be saved. Our geography classes research various countries and the links on the left of a particular country provide information such as maps, primary sources, pictures, videos which all can be used to enhance a country report.
World Book Advanced provides so much information and "how-to's" that a researcher could visit this site often and not find it all. A great place to begin research.

World Book School Student

In researching the same mammal, Cheetah, that was researched with the World book Kids, I found more sophisticated information which included not only information about the animal but also the habitat and survival problems. Included as well is the scientific classification of the animal. Presented in a more sophisticated way (more words, less pictures) this edition will appeal to the more advanced researcher--upper elementary and middle school. As in the Kids edition the information is easy to find and the organization lends itself easily to the student researcher.

World Book School Kids

The way this reference site is organized is very helpful. A student can browse subjects, in this case, mammals, if they are not sure which animal to choose, or, they can search by name. They are then given an option of viewing the article which is written in paragraph form or view an "exhibit" which is helpful information in a list format. The appeal of this site is the visual content--pictures in the articles as well as videos. A great reference tool for students just beginning the research process.
There are options for sharing and printing the information found as well as translating the test to a different language and text to speech. At the end of the article is a section on how to cite the source and sites for further information. What a great place to start a research project!