Wrap Up

These weeks of the MARVELous Maine Invitational really flew by.  I enjoyed taking the time to get to know some of the many resources available through MARVEL.  I think one of my biggest discoveries was that MARVEL has such great access to investment information - unfortunately that's also one of the resources I and my patrons are likely to use the least!!  I knew about NoveList and the Hobbies and Crafts Reference Center and the encyclopedia and some of the other resources before but feel more comfortable with them now and much more likely to mention them to patrons.

As a result of this exercise, I will definitely be using MARVEL more and telling more of my patrons about it.  I am in hopes of putting together a little brochure about the library to give to people when they get a library card and a mention of Marvel will be a must to include in it.  I also plan to mention the various resources on the library's Facebook page and on our webpage.  If I can find the time, I would also love to do short newspaper articles occasionally as well to highlight different areas of MARVEL.  If only it was possible to add a few extra hours to each day!!!!!  It's easy to have the "want to" but much more difficult to have the "time to."

Thank you Mamie, Stephanie, and Valerie for putting this together.  I enjoyed the experience and learned a lot in the process.  Now if I could just win the iPad it would be the icing on the cake!!

EbscoHost Family of Databases and Ebsco eBooks

I'm glad we have a week to make up missed assignments.  I did this assignment over a week ago and brought my notes to the library to type up my blog entry.  I then ended up taking 3 days off and being so busy doing catchup on the day I was here that I never got the entry done!!

I looked at a couple of the databases included in EbscoHost.  In MasterFile Premier, I was amazed at the number of publications that were listed.  I searched for and found Sports Illustrated for Kids, National Geographic, and National Geographic for Kids, among the other popular and also very obscure publications listed.  We subscribe to National Geographic for the library but I could still picture this additional source being useful for patrons who are working at home or need to be able to easily cite a reference.   I tried listening to a few of the articles in National Geographic for kids but the sound kept freezing.

In the basic search box I searched for Cushing's Disease because it was referenced in a book I am editing.  One of the articles that came up was a very nice brief explanation that I found helpful.  I also did the search for foods with zinc in them and was able to find some sources that listed foods that contained zinc although none of them were specific to just that topic.  One of the other bloggers did a search for digital literacy and I think I'll check that out later since I missed the meeting in Ellsworth today and will have to wait for the webinar in January.

I was surprised to find eBooks in the Marvel database.  I searched a couple of different topics.  Under Psychology I picked a book on Depression and under Fiction I ended up reading all of "Pigeonholed in the Land of Penguins: A Tale of Seeing Beyond Stereotypes" which was great!  What I didn't like was the layout of either book and the fact that the zoom feature didn't hold from page to page.  I did get a kick out of the fact that I was reading the pigeonholed book so fast that I got the following message "Your usage pattern is consistent with a robot or automated tool designed to navigate through a book completely, and is inconsistent with a typical human reader."  I had to complete a CAPTCHA in order to continue with the book.

I found two books that might be appropriate for a Constitution Day related search
"Abraham Lincoln, Constitutionalism, and Equal Rights During the Civil War Era" and
"Constitution in Congress: The Federalist Period 1789-1801

When I did the Western history search I found a couple of resources:
under the detailed subject index "West (U.S.) - description and travel" I found "Overland Journey from New York to San Francisco in the Summer of 1859" and
under the detailed subject index "Overland journeys to the Pacific" I found "Mountains we Have Crossed: Diaries and Letters of the Oregon Mission, 1838.
I really like the detailed subject index when it comes to narrowing down selections.

I find the EbscoHost databases to be one of the more potentially confusing places to search for information - there is so much there that it is sometimes difficult to know where to start.  It's definitely a place where practice can help a lot to improve searching skills.  I was very impressed by the number of popular publications included and the fact that eBooks can also be found there.  I will definitely be mentioning that to patrons in further discussions of Marvel.

Learning Express

I already had an account with Learning Express so in my case I only had to find where I wrote down the password so I could get into the account!!  Over the years, I occasionally thought about taking the postal exam so I decided to try part one.  I was going great until I got to the last section where you had to memorize information and then answer questions.  At that point it was just dumb luck that I only got 9 wrong since I couldn't remember most of what I memorized after seeing a handful of questions with different addresses in them.  If I was really planning to take the test I would definitely do all the prep work in order to develop the memorizing skills.  It is very helpful that you can go back and look at the answers and see which ones you got wrong and why the correct answer is correct.

I think these tests and study preps are great for anyone interested in one of the fields included.  To be able to study and practice the tests for free is something I know I would appreciate.

Under "Job Search and Workplace Skills" I took a look at the Career Course: Creating a Great Resume.  Nice introduction to the types and parts of a resume and then has a step by step section where you can enter your information and create a resume.  I'm hoping that I never have to do a resume again since I can't remember the years I worked anywhere but I would definitely recommend it to anyone coming into the library looking for help in creating one.

I tried entering several terms in the search box but didn't have any luck with the ones I chose.  Since my degree is in accounting I tried that and got several hits but none of them had anything to do with accounting.. Tried several more with either wrong hits or no hits at all.  Entering secretary did finally bring up a few hits that were somewhat relevant but they were all for Federal Clerical tests.  Just for fun I took the first clerical test which was really easy - I scored 100 on it but the instructions said that the real test would only allow you 15 minutes to answer the 120 questions.  I think I finished it in somewhere between 20-25 minutes and I'm a really fast reader so I'm not sure if I could actually take it fast enough!  I think I'll have my daughter try it - if anyone could take the test in 15 minutes she could!!

I took a look at the ebook "Think You Know Your Vocabulary."  In this case, I would rather have the book in print since it has a lot of activities in it.  If I had the time I would enjoy being able to work through the book - I have a tendency to use certain words too often and wouldn't mind expanding my vocabulary.

Love this resource!!!

Ancestry Library

The most frustrating thing about this lesson was that we couldn't work on it at home.  It was a busy week at the library and it was tough to find time to spend on the site.  I did do a search for my name, trying several versions of it.   I was born in Canada and don't use my given name anymore.  I reversed my real name - Viola Jean - when I started college  - also changed the spelling of Jean and started using Jeanne Viola.  Really had fun with that when I went to renew my driver's license the last time - the time when I had to bring all the proof that I was a citizen - had to take my birth certificate, my mother's birth certificate, and a copy of my parent's marriage license - 45 minutes and a phone call to Augusta later, I finally got my driver's license renewed.

When I searched for my name I didn't get any hits until I used Jeanne V. Benedict. It had the right address but had my husband's birth date.  It also brought up Jean V. Benedict which had the correct birth date but the wrong address and another hit with an address in Steuben I've never heard of.  Couldn't seem to find anything else easily - will have to try again at some point.

A search for my grandfather took several tries as well - I did finally find him and his family in the 1910 census which was cool.  I found it a little frustrating that it took so many tries with combinations of his name and would come up with so many hits that didn't match the full information given - by adding Steuben to his name info, it would have been nice if it only showed people that also had Steuben in their info instead of every person with the same first and last name and even different middle initials no matter where they lived.

I wasn't able to find a Photos and Maps tab to try the third exercise - if it's easy to find I must have been having a bad day cause I looked everywhere I could find to look!  I was reading someone else's blog at home after trying and she mentioned having trouble but said where she found it so I will try and get a chance to go back and follow what she said.

I do think it's wonderful that people can access this site for free at the library.  If I had more time, I would probably enjoy doing some more research - although I usually avoid getting involved in genealogy because I really don't need one more thing in my life to be addicted to!

Consumer Health Resources

Health Source - Consumer Edition
I was amazed at all the publications available under this resource - was not expecting to see that many.  Recognized a few like AARP but many seemed like very specific publications and a lot of them seemed relatively outdated-several on the first few pages were dated around 1997.  When I did searches for specific diseases, I used the Relevance Sort to show the newer articles first and also tried narrowing the dates using the bar on the left so that it only looked at 2010-2012. There were a  lot of choices of subject that could be used to narrow down the choices as well along with picking specific source types.
I looked at the full text on a couple of academic journal articles and would definitely have a difficult time following them.  The periodical articles I looked at were very easy to read and the electronic resources hits were mostly descriptions of medicines, how to take them, side effects, etc and were easy to read and seemed quite comprehensive.  You could also have some of the articles read to you if desired!
This site had more of an academic feel to me - a place I might go if I was doing research for a paper but not the first place I'd want to look for general information.

Medline Plus
Didn't find a link for this on Marvel so got to it through the link provided in the instructions. (When I looked over the instructions again for this exercise I realized that it had been explained that it was the National Library of Medicine's consumer database!) At first glance, it definitely looks more like a place I'd go to look for information about a disease or problem I might have or just want to find out more about.  The top searches on the left side included diabetes, hypertension, and metroprolol - all things I would be interested in researching further.  The news column included "Does Black Tea Reduce Diabetes Risk?" "Common Antidepressants Tied to Higher Bleeding Risks in Warfarin Users" and "HPB Vaccine May Benefit HIV-Infected Women"  Easy to look back and see previous day's top news articles as well.
In the "Drugs and Supplement" section, I searched for metroprolol and found a very comprehensive summary of the medicine, how to take it, side effects, what not to take it with, etc.
When I searched for high blood pressure on this site, the results came back in a more appealing format and the top hits seemed more relevant to general non-academic searches.  Lots of keyword choices for refining the data as well as type of material.  Just felt easier to search and not as intimidating as the Health Source site.
Clicked on a few of the videos - the first one I tried required Quick time which I did not have on my computer and a lot of other people probably wouldn't have it either.  The other videos all loaded quickly and easily and there are a lot of choices of surgeries to watch among other things.  Also checked out the games but the few I looked at did not seem that appealing - one just seemed like a series of facts - couldn't see any game to it.
The "Understanding Medical Words" and "Evaluating Health Information" tutorials both looked very helpful and informative - I think I'll go back to both of them for sure and would definitely recommend them.
Definitely like the Medline Plus site more than the Health Source one!

Business Resources

I did the Hobbies and Crafts blog on the Sunday it was assigned because I knew it would be fun.  I'm doing this blog on a Sunday because I want to get it over with.  I may have a degree in Accounting but all this business stuff is not my thing!!

To explore the Business and Company Resource Center I first had to realize it's called Business Insights: Essentials!  I looked up Ellsworth Builders Supply since I was the Controller at the company many years ago.  The information on the site was 10 years old so it would only have limited value for someone researching the company - did provide the basics of address and phone number along with the outdated information about company sales and number of employees.  The only article hit was for the death of the owner Austin Goodyear.  Competitors names didn't show any of the local companies in Maine that would actually be competitors but the search of the industry code for other building materials dealers showed some of the big national companies like Lowes and Home Depot.

A Business Source Complete search for FM radio brought up a wide variety of hits in trade publications, newspapers, academic journals, trade reports and magazines.  Putting the search in quotes narrowed the field by almost half.  The visual search could possibly be helpful if what you were looking for could be found easily by the choices offered to keep narrowing the field.  There was such a wide variety of hits that a person would have to be good at search terms, etc. to easily find what they were looking for.

When looking at EconLit I did the search for resources for small business owners. The subject section had a lot of choices for narrowing the field which could potentially be quite helpful and the visual search might work as well.  What seemed to be missing was any way to narrow by location so that would probably have to be added to an advanced search.  When I did the search for EPA and small businesses I got 31 articles but when I added Maine as a subject there were 0 hits.  This type of search might also be helped by changing the publication date range if only current information is needed.

I searched for Wal-Mart in Regional Business News and got 8936 hits.  If I narrowed it by location to the United States and the New York Times it went down to 320.  For that company I couldn't find a way to narrow it to anything specifically in Maine.  I did get a kick out of the fact that you can listen to the Radio and TV news transcripts in either an American accent, British accent, or Australian accent and you can change the language you read them in.  It even highlights each word as it's read so that feature could actually be helpful for someone struggling with reading or learning English!
I tried a couple of Maine companies with very little luck - did manage to get a few newspaper hits for Jackson Laboratory - had to add a NOT to the advanced search to eliminate obituaries!
Nice tool bar on the right hand side for printing, emailing, saving, etc.

Value Line Investment Survey certainly has a lot of information available for anyone who wants to keep an eye on their stocks or learn about investing.  The Investment Education section has some great lessons and explanations of how the site works, what the numbers on the stock reports mean, etc. A person would definitely have to spend some time in this site to really understand it or at least know a whole lot more about investing than I do. But it is good to have looked it over and have an idea of what is available.

On the Wall Street Journal site, a search for small business and health care brought back 19638 results.  Using the suggested limiters I chose small business again and it narrowed it to 493 results.  Going back to the original results and limiting it to Maine, there were only 10 hits.  There were a lot of choices  for the limiters, subject, location, company, time frame, etc. that should help anyone narrow their choices down to a reasonable number to search through.   The only thing that I found a bit frustrating in the limiters section is that they sort by number of hits for the subject or by publication date so you have to look through them all to find something specific like "Maine" Alert and save features were easy to find -I didn't set up an alert but did click on the link and the form looked pretty easy to fill out.

Working in a small rural library I have had pretty much no one ask for the type of information that was covered in this exercise but at least now if they come I'll be a little more prepared to help them!!  Unlike some of the other parts of Marvel that we've explored, these resources don't seem quite as intuitive to use and are definitely more intimidating!!

NoveList Plus

The more I explore NoveList, the more I realize there is to find there.  I must admit that it took me a long time to start using it.  And I still don't think to use it as much as I should.  Because the lesson is on NoveList this week, I did remember to use it when a patron was looking for another author similar to one she liked.  We found several and she picked a few to try.  I have used it a lot for series information so that I can tell patrons which book comes next or use it to fill in gaps in my collection.

I like that the "view" component has several choices.  If you're a really visual person, the grid view is nice because it shows the covers.  Title and Brief view are very similar and are great for when you just want to see the titles in order and maybe print them out without having to waste a lot of paper.  Finally, the detailed view gives a brief description of each title so would be helpful for someone trying to remember if they read the book or decide if it looks appealing.

Doing the searches based on David Baldacci  brought out just how much is available through NoveList.  The magnifying glass is great because it saves you having to click to a new page to see the info about a possible read alike author.  The Print All list would be great to pass to a patron for them to use in exploring new authors and it would be easy to highlight which authors the library has and let them know that if other authors interest them, that we can use Interlibrary Loan to get books.

Sticking with Baldacci, I tried picking different items on the right handside to see  how the recommendations would change.  Different choices in Storyline, Tone, and Subject would bring different author recommendations.  Each title also shows underneath it Title Read Alikes, Author Read Alikes and Series Read Alikes.

You could explore forever in the Recommended Reads List section on the left side of the home page.  I checked out Mysteries for fun and discovered 22 sub categories several of which I'd like to explore further.

Back on the right side of the home page I checked out the Featured Articles section briefly, found a copy of an article on Canadian Mystery Writers and saved it to a folder and then emailed it to myself - very quick and easy to do.  Signed up for the RA Newsletters and checked out the rest of the great features in the Readers Advisory Toolbox.   The Award Winners section is a quick place to check out a lot of different awards and see what they are based on and get a list of award winners by year.

Could go on and on - there is so much to explore here - doing this lesson has helped me to feel a little more comfortable with using NoveList with my patrons and for help with collection development.  I just wish there were more hours in the day!!!