World cat

I've used World Cat numerous times and have always found it helpful, particularly when Aleph is down.  We can still find out if we own a title and what the call number is which is very helpful.

I searched for Floor of the Sky by Joern.  We own it along with 896 others, and of course we're listed first. The call number for us is FIC.  For the rest of the world it's 813.6.  Other info includes a summary of the plot, subject headings which can be used for "read alikes", and publisher info.

I did a search in ArticleFinder for Personnel performance reviews and found 45 articles, most of which seemed relevant (better than NetLibrary!), many of which were available in SD.

I did the OAIster search, clicking on the article beginning "Hardwood tree decline . . "  I was able to took at the citation and the first page of the article from JSTOR.  This is definitely for research and as a last place to look for articles.  I thought ArticleFinder easier to use.

I also noticed the clock was ticking when I did the OAIster search.  Must get only15 minutes.
On the whole the First Search databases are good to know about and I hope I remember their availability when those really indepth research questions happen--which I might add are becoming more rare in the past five years.

NetLibrary

I did several searches in both key word and full text to find info on the Olympic games (Olympics).  Mostly found info on the mountains in Washington State or a few references to the olympics.  Must not have any books on this topic.

Then decided to brush up on performance reviews since I have a couple scheduled.  I figured by searching for keyword or subject I would be able to limit my search to a managable list.  Mostly didn't get any results, or very minimal, so I tried an advanced search of personnel, reviews, and performance and got 243 hits.  Some of the books look really good, such as Action tools for effective managers.  However, I likely will never read a book online because it really bothers my eyes, I'll have to look for this on ILL.

My fitness person deals with older people so I recommended the book Staying fit over 50. Although it didn't have alot of new exercises, it had some interesting info on stretching, running, and motivating us older exercisers.  I also suggested Exercise for older adults by Cotton as another possibility.  It also had motivational info and lots of suggested routines.  The book is also aimed at trainers which is what she wanted.

My publisher search using Nebraska came up with 56 books, many of them native american history.  Although nothing is newer than 2002, there may be some titles that this patron hasn't read.

I don't find ebooks particularly appealing due to my tendency for eye strain.  We do assist people who find these titles in SDLN with getting signed up for NetLibrary.

Gale Virtual Reference

I chose Literature as my area of interest and looked at the book "Literature and Its Times: Profiles of 300 Notable Literary Works and the Historical Events that Influenced Them."  I had to tear myself away from a great article on the Hobbit to complete this assignment!

This is a five volume set which I didn't notice right at first, until I wondered where the rest of the 300 books were.  Each essay appears to be well written, although I found the one on the Chocolate War a bit preachy.  Many links to other supporting articles in the index.

This would be a good source for literature students doing a paper or for people like me who are curious about a book they might never get around to reading.

I also looked at World War I Reference Library and learned to my surprise from the timetable available that the US didn't officially end WW I until 1921, two years after the Treaty of Versailles was signed by other combatants. 

The second part of the assignment:  When I typed in zinc I got a whole list of possibilities so decided to limit my search to zinc in foods which brought up 5 citiations.  The first one gave me the answers I needed.  I like the fact that it highlights your search terms.

The MP3 download might be helpful to some; I prefer reading text.  If I have to take notes I'd rather do it from text than listening.  I listened to info on 3M from a business source and Germany from the Cold War Reference Library.  It did take me awhile to find the link since it's not prominent.

Gale Virtual Reference is a good collection of reference materials and could be of great value in finding info for people.

More ProQuest

The second part of the assignment was to do a search in the area of your profession.  I typed in "library" and was pleased to see that Library Technology Reports was indexed.  I've been wondering if our wireless could be improved and found that the January 2009 issue had a number of articles on wireless.  It also had a very interesting one on "Doing more with less; maximizing your hardware and your budget" which was very interesting.

I don't always remember to use ProQuest when looking for professional info, but will try to remember it as a great source.

Proquest

I've become a "Dancing with the Stars" junkie since Evan Lysacek has been on this season, so did a DWTS search, not expecting to find much. I was pleasantly surprised to find April 19 info.  Most of the articles were related to Kate Gosselin and Pamela Anderson because they're such divas.  Citation #31 talks about black holes dancing in pairs which, of course, has nothing to do with DWTS--or maybe it does since most of the DWTS articles were devoid of intellectual value.

I also did a more serious search (since I'm on library time) with the subject of carpal tunnel.  The newest article is dated May 1, 2010 which is really new!  Of the first 20, 18 were fairly technical, but later articles were more understandable.  I did change the results to magazines and got more readable info.

Sometimes Proquest works well for me and sometimes it doesn't.  Couldn't find much on rototillers a few days ago for a patron.

Have to go.  Back later.

SIRS Researcher

This is an exciting, and easy, way to write a paper.  I selected Privacy in the Workplace as my current topic and found all kinds of interesting articles, many of them from current newspapers.  The timeline was interesting in that privacy issues significantly escalated in the last 20 years.  The note taker would really help someone who needed guidance in organizing their thoughts.  Global impacts and statistics can give addition pazzaz to a report.

The curriculum pathfinders made good browsing for topics.  There were very interesting weblinks that showed me how to improve my math skills (probably a lost cause), and interesting info about famous mathematicians and other math stuff.  A person could get lost in enjoyment, wandering around there.

I definitely liked researcher better than discoverer, perhaps because it's harder to "dumb" things down for younger readers.  This is a great database for paper writers.

Sirs Discoverer

The 2010 Winter Olympics were in February, that's more than two months ago, so I was disappointed not to find any 2010 results listed.  Under the topic of Winter Olympics there were no 2010 listings.  Under a keyword search for Evan Lysacek, men's figure skating gold medalist, there was one "watch for these athletes" article.  Shaun White's info was from 2009.  The article was entitled "King of snowboarding", but the picture was of him skateboarding.  Frankly, I was disappointed.

So I went on to the database features.  I didn't find as many low lexile levels for the subjects I picked, nor did I find many pictures.  The maps were pretty good.  The option of having the country info in all reading levels was a good option.

Discoverer would be a good tool for young people to use, likely with assistance as I don't think a 2-3 grader could sit down and be completely successful