Gale Virtual Reference Library

1. Wow, there a lot of different research sources on this site. I chose the Literature category and chose the "Literature and Its Time Supplement: Profiles of 300 Notable Literary Works and the Historical Events that Influenced Them." From here, I chose "My Last Duchess." I am really impressed. Anybody coming in needing a starting place to write a research paper on this poem would have a great starting point by using this source. The site gives a detailed summary of the themes addressed in the poem, and also lists references so that someone could look at other sources, as well as gives links to other articles in the site.

2. I typed in 'zinc' as a keyword, and 164 books came up listing zinc. I clicked on the first source which was The Gale Encyclopedia of Nursing and Allied Health because I figured that would probably answer the question about what foods had zinc in them, and it did! Oysters, whole grains, beans, nuts have zinc, but better sources are beef, chicken, turkey, milk, cheese, yogurt and even maple syrup. Interesting! I like how easy the information to read is, finding that information took me hardly any time, and people appreciate that because it's nice to find answers fast. The read-aloud feature was nice to and easy to understand and would probably be appreciated by anyone who finds it easier to listen to the information than to read it. Overall, I was impressed throughout, with how easy everything was to find and the amount of information available.

Proquest

1. I searched for "Black Hills." The results came up with 1924 documents. I decided to be more specific and searched for "Black Hills mining." With quotes around the words, I came up with no results and without quotes 39 results showed up, but of those only a few probably would have been helpful. I think the more search terms I had put in, using both specific and general terms, I probably could have found more terms. Some of the features that are nice about Proquest is that only articles that have the full text attached can be brought up if that option is selected. Also, by selecting the Abstract feature, a short description of the article is given so that you do not have to read the whole journal article. Someone can also easily print the article, email it or have the article cited. These are nice features for someone doing their research in a public place such as at their school or library.

2. Under the Publications tab, I searched for history and was surprised how many results came up. Many of the journals are still in print also. This is a great source for someone who does not want to buy these journals, but still wants to be up-to-date on the current research in their field. This would be helpful for teachers or any professional wanting to learn more.

Lesson 2b - SIRS Issues Researcher

1. Well, there are a lot of topics to choose from, but I finally picked 'International Adoption.' What is nice about the Topic Overview section as well as the Pros and Cons is that someone could come to the topic with very little knowledge on it and begin to learn more about it before they do further research. The Research Tools also gave great information. I liked the timeline feature plus the statistics tool was nice because it had charts describing what they were saying. With the articles section, I thought it was nice that they gave the first few sentences of the article so someone would know if that was a link they wanted. There is a lot of really well organized material and articles here that someone could do a lot of research with.

2. Under Curriculum Pathfinders, I chose Social Studies. One of the first things that I notice are the research ideas that they give. I clicked on "Korean War," and the amount of information is almost overwhelming. I think coming to this site with specific ideas of what you need would be easier because there is a lot of different information. I clicked on some of the links on the side such as the primary sources, timelines and world maps. Again, knowing what you want and being able to specifically search for it seems to be the easiest way to navigate this site, but having access to all those maps, diaries, letters, political cartoons, etc. makes this a great source.

Lesson 2a - SIRS Discoverer

1. I searched "armadillo" in the subject heading area and came up with 70 articles about the animal which would be a great start for a student. Most of the articles seemed to be at the moderate level, and most of the links had pictures attached to them. The first few articles that I clicked on had quite a bit of information, and it was arranged nicely so that someone could easily find the place they wanted. Another convenient feature was that citation information was very easy to find, so students would not have to search for it.

2. In "Country Facts," I searched for Madagascar. What came up was a list of the statistics about the country and a timeline of events. There was a picture of the country and its flag. At the very bottom was a link to an article about Madagascar, but I thought it could have been featured more prominently. Another thing that I am sure many teachers would like is the graphic organizers that were right at the top of the page. Next I searched for "Maps of the World." I was really impressed with the U.S. and World Historical maps. There were A LOT of them, and I always think seeing a map makes a topic easier to understand, so I could see social studies teachers getting a lot of use out of those. The other political and physical maps of the world were also nice for someone who needed to learn more about that area of the world. Next, I searched under "Photo Essays." After doing some searching, I was a bit unimpressed. I think there could have more topics as well as more pictures. For being a photo essay, there should be more pictures. However, they do give good information, and the pictures they do provide are helpful for understanding what they are explaining. Here is a picture of "Human Migration Across Eastern Continents."

Lesson 1B - World Book Public Library Edition

1. I searched for information on the elephant. World Book for Kids gave a brief, easy-to-read overview about how an elephant takes care of its young, what they eat, what they look like, the noises they make and also how they are endangered. There were also links to pictures and videos of the elephant, and on the side bar, there were trivia questions about the elephant that would link to more information such as about the ivory in their trunks.

2. World Book Online InfoFinder gave an amount of information that was more appropriate for someone who wanted to learn more in-depth about this animal. This site included everything that the Kids site did, but everything was explained much more thoroughly, and also went into a lot of the background, history and statistics of elephants. A convenient feature of the site was that on the left side someone could just find the specific information they wanted about elephants, and then go right there, and they could just print out one specific section. Also, for people wanting to do more research, there were links to where they could find more information.

3. I searched for information about Germany. The thing that I noticed right away that was nice is that someone could do a general search for "Germany" and many related topics came up also such as Hitler, Berlin, the Dawes plan and the Triple Alliance. There were also links to primary sources, so someone could have an idea of what they wanted to learn about, and end up with a lot of information on this one site. After clicking on the "Germany" link, there is even more information and links to primary sources, maps, books and magazine articles. Another nice thing is that there is the option to translate the text or have it read aloud for patrons who would find these options easier and more convenient.