After reading an article in School Library Journal, "The End of Nonfiction" by Christopher Harris (March 2012), I decided to give our library a facelift. First of all I thought of the students who come to the library looking for nonfiction books. I point them to the "nonfiction" section with numbers on the spines. Often they would ask about a mythology book being nonfiction or an anthology of poetry or stories. I realized how confusing it was for them. They were looking for an informational text for a class assignment and to point them to "nonfiction" did not work for some. This was my primary motivation in giving the library a facelift. As I began to sort and rearrange, I found other areas that I could change. There were books in the sociology section about teens from other countries. When a student comes in to do a report on a country they will look in the geography section and stop there. It has been a bit challenging to find a place for all of the books and stay loyal to Dewey but I think I have a fairly good start. I made a Language Arts section which includes short story collections like Chicken Soup for the Soul, mythology, poetry, language and literature analysis. Students recognize the division as all the things they learn in Language Arts class. Next is Social Sciences--sociology, psychology, economics, crime, etc. Anything doing with our society lands here--the 300's of the Dewey Decimal system. Also here are inventions, and inventors (economics). Next comes Science--earth, space, biology which includes animals, disease and health. This leads to fitness, sports, games, hobbies, then art and because of shelf space the Guiness World Record books. Biographies were in their own section as was all of the religion books so not much changed there. I grouped all of the books about geography together by region staying fairly close to Dewey on these. Last is history--ancient to modern all grouped together. General timelines and sets of books are grouped separately. i had books from sets scattered all over and now they are together.
This is a modified Dewey, somewhat like a bookstore but mostly a way for our students to find what they need and perhaps find something else on the subject they are looking for. It has been a lot of work but the shelves look so nice. I am looking forward to sharing this facelift with our students!
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Friday, March 23, 2012
CAMIO
After much persistence on the part of the South Dakota State Library I am happy to report that CAMIO is accessible at my school library. What an awesome resource. I am glad we were able to get it all worked out.
I searched for Paul Revere and Sioux and found many paintings and artifacts related to both. We have some art prints that our Social Studies teachers use to display in the classroom when they are discussing certain time periods, but how much more they could do with this database! As they study each time period, photographs, paintings and artifacts are readily available.
This is an excellent way to enhance stories read in Language Arts, historical discussions in Social Studies classes or view various artists in Art class.
I am looking forward to sharing this information with our teachers as most of the classrooms have projectors which would make this a great visual display. A teacher could add a set of images to favorites and have easy access for a presentation.
This is an excellent resource for both the classroom and individuals.
I searched for Paul Revere and Sioux and found many paintings and artifacts related to both. We have some art prints that our Social Studies teachers use to display in the classroom when they are discussing certain time periods, but how much more they could do with this database! As they study each time period, photographs, paintings and artifacts are readily available.
This is an excellent way to enhance stories read in Language Arts, historical discussions in Social Studies classes or view various artists in Art class.
I am looking forward to sharing this information with our teachers as most of the classrooms have projectors which would make this a great visual display. A teacher could add a set of images to favorites and have easy access for a presentation.
This is an excellent resource for both the classroom and individuals.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Final
This challenge has been great. The databases provide so much information and this week by week approach motivated me to investigate each one--something I might not have done on my own. I have already begun to promote these resources to our students and teachers. I feel more confident in recommending these databases since I have actually used them and know how they work. I have only scratched the surface of what is available but will continue to work with them as need arises. I appreciate the work that went into this challenge and look forward to sharing the information.
AncestryLibrary/HeritageQuest/ Sanborn
All three of these databases serve to paint a picture of our past.
With Ancestry Library many documents can be found to fill out a family tree and also data about people living today. It is awesome that these records can be found to help with geneology, but also a little scary to think that I can access so much data from a computer in the library.
In searching for myself I was able to come up with addresses both current and past--the address I lived in when I was in high school.
With further searching I found information about my maternal grandfather--from a census report I found out he lived in New York when he was 3 years old, with a father, mother, brother and his maternal grandfather. His mother and grandfather immigrated to America in 1884 from England. Their neighbors were from Spain, Ireland and England. All of this info was gleaned from one census report. From there I was able to search for my great-grandmother (his mother) and found that after they moved to North Carolina she died of Typhoid fever at the age of 33. It has been fascinating following these trails of information, all so readily available.
One document I found that was particularly interesting was a census of my father whose mother died when he was an infant. He and his father and 10 siblings went to live with his cousin who had two children. All of this information was in a census report, listing all of the people living in the house. What was interesting was that his name was spelled wrong, possibly the census taker heard something different. I imagine that happened a lot in census and immigration records over the years making some research very tricky.
HeritageQuestprovided some of the same information as Ancestry library but also historical documents about places. I looked up Sioux Falls and found several histories of the area which would be quite beneficial to a researcher or someone curious about the area.
Sandborn Mapsprovides the last piece to a puzzle of our past. With this resource, maps can be found to see how a town looked in the past and how it developed over the years.
All of these resources provide a picture of the people and places of our past.
With Ancestry Library many documents can be found to fill out a family tree and also data about people living today. It is awesome that these records can be found to help with geneology, but also a little scary to think that I can access so much data from a computer in the library.
In searching for myself I was able to come up with addresses both current and past--the address I lived in when I was in high school.
With further searching I found information about my maternal grandfather--from a census report I found out he lived in New York when he was 3 years old, with a father, mother, brother and his maternal grandfather. His mother and grandfather immigrated to America in 1884 from England. Their neighbors were from Spain, Ireland and England. All of this info was gleaned from one census report. From there I was able to search for my great-grandmother (his mother) and found that after they moved to North Carolina she died of Typhoid fever at the age of 33. It has been fascinating following these trails of information, all so readily available.
One document I found that was particularly interesting was a census of my father whose mother died when he was an infant. He and his father and 10 siblings went to live with his cousin who had two children. All of this information was in a census report, listing all of the people living in the house. What was interesting was that his name was spelled wrong, possibly the census taker heard something different. I imagine that happened a lot in census and immigration records over the years making some research very tricky.
HeritageQuestprovided some of the same information as Ancestry library but also historical documents about places. I looked up Sioux Falls and found several histories of the area which would be quite beneficial to a researcher or someone curious about the area.
Sandborn Mapsprovides the last piece to a puzzle of our past. With this resource, maps can be found to see how a town looked in the past and how it developed over the years.
All of these resources provide a picture of the people and places of our past.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Archive Grid/Camio
I found these resources to be for the serious researcher. The ArchiveGrid gives information about collections and where they are housed. I found this to be quite interesting, finding collections at various Universities. I also found information about archives--how to handle the archives, how they are arranged. For example the Hemingway collection at Princeton University has an index of items and is arranged by box and folder. For the serious researcher this database would provide very helpful information from what is available to where a researcher would have to travel to find it.
CAMIO looks like it would be awesome but unfortunately I was unable to access it from our school. I will have to look into how this is accessed to further complete this challenge.
CAMIO looks like it would be awesome but unfortunately I was unable to access it from our school. I will have to look into how this is accessed to further complete this challenge.
WorldCat
This database was overwhelming to me, although I have to say I found a use for it. As a middle school librarian I would have very little need for this database on a daily basis. I can look for the books needed by our students at our district libraries and at the public library and that is sufficient. My husband is working on a Doctorate in Adult Education at USD. I was telling him about these challenges and we played with this one a little and found a book he wanted at the USD library. I typed in Ivan Illich Deschooling Society and found there are 1582 libraries that have this one, 9 in South Dakota (Universities). I found the call number, LA210, 370.19 and its location at various libraries. Also, there are several other books by the same author as well as books about this book.
Although I would not use this database very often I could see the advantages for academics and higher education. It was so convenient to be able to find this book so quickly. What used to take numerous phone calls now can be done with just a few clicks.
The OAIster database gives access to digital items which I could see being more useful for my purposes. As a researcher this database would provide so much information and primary source documents. I searched "South Dakota" and came across articles, letters and photographs. I have to admit I was hooked then and got sidetracked looking at pictures, on entitled "Log Shanty with flag woman and seven boys possible SD". There were photographs of landmarks, people, schools and homes which could provide an added dimension to students and teachers research.
I began this session with hesitancy and hours later finished the blog entry but just began scratching the surface of this database.
Although I would not use this database very often I could see the advantages for academics and higher education. It was so convenient to be able to find this book so quickly. What used to take numerous phone calls now can be done with just a few clicks.
The OAIster database gives access to digital items which I could see being more useful for my purposes. As a researcher this database would provide so much information and primary source documents. I searched "South Dakota" and came across articles, letters and photographs. I have to admit I was hooked then and got sidetracked looking at pictures, on entitled "Log Shanty with flag woman and seven boys possible SD". There were photographs of landmarks, people, schools and homes which could provide an added dimension to students and teachers research.
I began this session with hesitancy and hours later finished the blog entry but just began scratching the surface of this database.
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