Week 9 Learning Express

Week 9 LearningExpress

Posted November 25, 2012 by marvelousmaine
Categories: Learning Express

 Written! Sunday November 25, 2012

Discovery Exercise:
1.  Set-up an account in LearningExpress and browse through the available exams.

It took no time al all to set up an LearningExpress account and browse through the available exams. I was amazed at how easy it was to set up an account. I watched the tutorial and thought it was going to take a lot of time to get it up and going! I was wrong it was very easy!

The first tutorial that was listed I was unable to watch and came up with a whole page of random letters. 

I took one of the elementary exams on 6^th grade math. It was pretty cool, I can see where this would be good practice on especially test taking.

2.  Choose one and answer a few questions.

I liked the experience and the immediate feedback. I like how they set up the your answers and the correct answers. I must admit I got tired of taking the math test and always wanted to see how the test would come out if I just picked an answer at random. I am glad I have never done this to a real life test because I would have failed.

3.  I liked the software tutorial and I will be back again to check these out!

I chose business Writing Clear And Simple this would be a great resource when writing grant proposals. It is written clear and simple and has lots of good advise and quotes.

I wonder how to download these on to a kindle account on an ipad to read on the go.

4. I chose to click the link for eBooks. I wanted to look up Art Education. I got a ton of ebooks that had nothing to do with what I was studying. 

I did look at an ebook The Military advantage. It was okay and had some information that was interesting. I was looking for my sister that is retired military, I will let her know about the ebook,but I do not think it will have any new information for her.

I think this is a great site for someone looking for very specific information. It would be great for GED information, English as a second language, or someone getting back into the workforce. The information on resume writing is great. If you were looking for information on how to be a border patrol agent it would be helpful for me I found most of the information not broad enough.

Week 8 Week 8 Genealogy Resources—Ancestry Library

Finally, I got to my local Library. And what a wonderous surprise!

Week 8 Genealogy Resources—Ancestry Library

Sunday November 18, 2012

Discovery Exercise:

1. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to be dead to be listed in Ancestry Library and can frequently find useful information in the U.S. Phone and Address Directories, 1993-2002. You may even find your marriage license. Search for your own name in Ancestry Library and report the results.

I found some correct information as to a past address I used to live at. I was surprised that some of the information was incorrect as to the street I lived on and my birthdate. I was also surprised at the number of women with my same name.

2.  In Ancestry Library, search for a grandparent or great-grandparent and see if you can locate them in the census.  Report your findings.

I search for my great grandfather that was a Sgt. in the Civil War. It was interesting the database even had the date he was exchange as a prisoner. He was exchanged on April 1865 when he was in the Andersonville Prison.

I have his pension papers and the paper that gave him some land in Augusta, Maine. I was impressed how much information was out there for records. It is wonderful actually to see his signature.

3.  In Ancestry Library, perform a search under the “Photos and Maps” tab for “Maine” as the keyword.  Report your findings.

I had a difficult time finding any maps and photos. They must be there however; I think my search was too general. It brought up all maps even in catalogs!

I can see spending several days searching this marvelous resource. I downloaded the templates and I am going to rough out what genology I know. This is the beginning of a quest for family history

Week 7 Consumer Health Resources: Health Source Consumer Edition and MedlinePlus

Week 7 Consumer Health Resources: Health Source Consumer Edition and MedlinePlus

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Discovery Exercise: Create a blog posting discussing the following questions and other observations you have about Health Source – Consumer Edition. All resources can be accessed via this alphabetical list. 
 1.In Health Source – Consumer Edition, click on the Publications link at the top of the page and explore the types of magazines and journals indexed in the database. 


 I was surprised that the Ladies Home Journal was one of the periodicals listed in the Health Source.

I looked up Athletic Training, which my daughter is majoring in at UMPI. I was intrigued at the number of specific articles on Athletic Training. One title I checked out an article on EXERCISE Programming for Previously Inactive Middle-Aged ADULTS. The article gave some great strengthen tips.

One thing I like about the Marvel system is how you can select an article and save it in a file for reading later. I also find reading the abstracts of the articles very helpful and after reading several abstracts I would decide to read the full article based on the information given in the abstract.

2. Search for a disease or condition, such as diabetes. I chose to research Lyme disease. I am amazed at the number of articles. There are hundreds of them. I found this was easy to get lost in the reading of the articles. I read several current articles about Lyme disease and its treament. I never realized it was a bacterial infection by Borrelia burgdorferi, a bacterium spread by deer ticks. I was interested in Lyme disease due to the fact that in our neighborhood there have been a couple of cases of Lyme meningitis diagnosed in neighborhood children.

I also found out the Lyme disease is the most common insect infection in the Untied States.

3. Pick one of the articles you found and read through the full text. I read several articles on Lyme disease. I found many of the articles fairly easy to read. A couple of the articles had medical jargon that I did use a dictionary to find out what it was about.

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Discovery Exercise: 
1. Go to Medline Plus (http://www.medlineplus.gov)
2. Look at a few of the links on the main page. What’s in the news column on the right side? The top searches on Medline plus are: high blood pressure and any of the drugs used to treat high blood pressure, heart disease and high cholesterol are among the top searches.           


3. Click on tab “Drugs and Supplements” and search for a medication you take or you have seen ads about recently such as Prilosec or Cymbalta. Note the kind of information available. 


I looked up Vitamin C and it’s effects on colds. I found out it does not protect against the common cold but may help once you get the cold if I was low in vitamin C to start with. Vitamin C may help with the absorption of iron. Perhaps if I ate more things with iron I may be healthier and not get a cold to begin with. The type of information available seems to be the general “google “ search information.

4. Click on “Health Topics” and search for the same disease or condition you looked at in Health Source. How does the information in Medline Plus differ from that in Health Source? 


The information differed as it was not as medical or stated any medical research. It was information I had read before and was mostly from the CDC and the government.  It did talk about the neurological complications of Lyme disease in both the medical and veterinary field.

5. Look at the list of videos available by clicking on “Videos and Cool Tools” tab. The videos are well done. These would be great for people with a low reading level or just wanted to get the information without reading.

Marvel week # 6 The long confusing assignment.

Discovery Exercise: 
In your blog, post your findings and observations regarding the following:


1. Do a search for available information on FM radio. Pay attention to the types of sources found.


I did a search for FM radio on Ebsco Host. I got information about multiple output receivers and microstructures. I have no idea what this is or how to use the information.

I  searched the options and I found that I could set preference on how I wanted to search.

I search via images and got totally different set of information. I got 29 pages of photos of radio host personalities from Kathy Hart to  Howard Stern!

2. Look for the visual search option and try it. Does it make searching easier or harder?

As a visual learner I think I would like this option.

EconLit contains economic literature including accounting, capital markets, econometrics, economic forecasting, government regulations, labor economics, monetary theory, and urban economics.

Discovery Exercise:
In your blog post your findings and observations regarding the following:
1. Complete a search to find resources for small business owners.


I did a search of small business owners in Maine . I got 77 articles about all sorts of business and the economic climate in Maine.

2. Complete a search for items that pertain to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and small businesses.


I was able to listen to and article on Business Survival In Rural American- A three State Study. It was really interesting and it was neat to be able to listen to it. I wonder if I could download the audio of an article to listen on an Ipod . I can see if someone was doing research that at times it would be helpful to listen to an article. I also like the all the different option that are available to search by.

3.Complete a search for items that pertain to tax policy and small businesses.

I looked at an article on V.A.T. tax and how would small business owners fare. It was actually a bunch of graphs. I thought is would have more information on how the V.A.T. tax would work like it does in Ireland.

Regional Business News is a collection of news information from all over the world. Information provided by these sources covers business, political, economic and other diverse, international news events. This resource contains the most recent 30 days of information from each of these wire sources. Several hundred articles are added to the Regional Business News database each day.

Since one of the reasons that I had a tough time with this blog post is that on Wednesday  I found out that my son was shipping out to the Persian Gulf to work on a Maersk oil tanker.

I did a search of the International Company Maersk. I found tons of information on the huge company and their oil findings. It was interesting that  could choose what language I wanted to read the article in.

Discovery Exercise: 
In your blog, post your findings and observations regarding the following:


1. Pick a nationally known company. Search under the company’s name and look at the results.

Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream is the company I chose to search. I found out that  they were bought by the Target Corp and they were going to try some new flavors to upscale their premium ice cream flavors.


2. Narrow the regional search to something more appropriate for this area of the country.
3. Choose a Maine company to see what information is available about either the company or its industry.

The Maine Wild Blueberry Company is what I chose to search. I did not find a lot of information here,I am wondering if I was looking in the right place as I think there should be a considerable amount of information on this company. I did find that owner of the Maine Wild Blueberry was born in Cario Egypt. I also found out that there a quite a bit of restrictions  on the article due to it orgionating from the New York Times.

There are two Value Line formats available through MARVEL. Value Line Investment Survey for public libraries provides independent investment information, analyzing over 1,700 stocks. The Rating & Reports section details the history, current status, and projected performance of individual stocks. It covers the current three months, updated weekly on Friday afternoons. (Note: Many of Value Line’s products are listed on their site, but not accessible under this license. They are indicated by a gray lock.) The number of users at a time is 6 for the entire state so you may have to try several times to access this resource.  If you have no luck after a couple of attempts, just indicated that in your blog.

Unless you have a good background in business or stocks, much of the information contained in Value Line may look like Greek to you. The goal of this exercise is not to understand the information contained in the reports, but to be able to navigate through the database to help a patron find the information they are looking for.

Value Line Research Center for academic libraries covers stocks, mutual funds, options and convertible securities as well as special situation stocks. This is available only to academic libraries and is also restricted to 6 concurrent users.

Discovery Exercise: 
In your blog, post your findings and observations regarding the following:
1. Look at the current issue of Value Line. Explore the various links for the “Investment Survey,” which is the primary tool available to public library users. Start with “Description,” which gives a good description of the site.
2. Look at the various reports offered: Ratings and Reports, Selection and Opinion, Summary and Index, etc. Familiarize yourself with the information contained in each report and how they differ.


3. Pick a well-known stock such as Starbucks, General Motors, Apple, etc., and do a company search using either the general search box at the top of the page or “company look up.” Familiarize yourself with the type of information provided by linking to the various tabs at the top of the report.

The stock I will research is Maersk. I could not figure out how to get to the Value Line to begin my search. I did find out some other information about the company.

I do want to be able to do this search , I think it would be valuable to have an understanding of how to do this. I will ask our school Librarian to help me figure this out.

This was a crazy week for me as our oldest son just took off for his first job! He is working on an oil tanker in the Persian Gulf for the next three months! SO off to Dubai he went.!

Novel List ...gotta love the pun and this list is Fantastic!

Week 5

Discovery Exercise: 
Create a blog posting discussing the following questions and observations you have about NoveList Plus.

1. I am not a librarian, however, I loved searching for books this way. I found it very easy and straightforward to figure out. I also loved how they had current books up “for display” and that you could search and read a bit about a particular book. I like how easy it is to read and how to find similar books or genres of books.

I also found the popular award book list for Adults and children. I searched for books in several categories and by author. My son is reading The Willows in Winter by William Horwood. I searched for other titles by the same author and books that were similar. It was interesting. I thought that books would be listed by what library had them and whether or not it was available digitally as an eBook, but I could not figure that out.

2. In your blog, tell us
how using this tool could make your job easier and promote better customer service in your library.

 If you do not mind I am thinking this feature will help me find books and artists to read to make my knowledge of art history more interesting and exciting for my students by enriching my art lesson.

3. Take some time to explore this robust database. How can using NoveList Plus help you to increase awareness of the collection you have worked so hard to build, for both new and older items? Share what you take away from this exercise on your blog.

Using the Novel List Plus ( by the way I love the pun!) would help me as an art teacher find great interesting books to read. I am always at a lost of what books to find for my son who is an avid reader. Now I know where to go to find just the right book and how to search for it too!

I need to get my hand on the Art Forger by Barbara Shapiro. I have been to the Gardner Museum and found her collection inspiring.

4. Take a few minutes to read what your fellow participants have said about the previous question on their blog.