MARVEL Maine’s Virtual Library

For those who have not taken the time to peek at the MARVEL database provided by the Maine State Library, I would suggest you poke around a little here and there.  What an AmAzInG amount of information!

Today I will take a chance on American FactFinder – US Census.  Clicking on this link in MARVEL takes me to what appears to be a United States Census Bureau hosted website. Across the top of the page the tabs include Main, Community Facts, Guided Search, Advanced Search and Download Center.  As I am on the Main page, I see Community Search with a search box.

Since I’m in Gardiner, Maine, I enter the zip code.  This brings me to a page with a variety of information.  As it opens, I am given the population total from the 2010 census – 11,646.  This seems like a rather large number, but the 04345 zip code includes Pittston and West Gardiner as well as Gardiner, so I’m okay with the number. 

On this page, there are a variety of ways to look at the data :

Age – median age is 45.3

Education – 92.3 % are high school graduates or better

Veterans – 1,394

There are several other ways to look at the information, and the last one in the list is Show All.  This choice breaks some of the other options into different aspects – such as Race and Hispanic Origin.  What an interesting way to look at different demographics of the community.

Next, I try Guided Search.  More choices!  This time I click the radio box for I’m looking for information about businesses or industries followed by Next.  Again, choices! 

I click on the plus sign beside Employment.  And, once again, choices!  Clicking on Employees the term seems to fly across the page into a section called Your Selections.  In this box, I now see my selection and Tables matching your selections 2,056.  Okay, I click Next.  Hmmm . . . . now I’m asked to add geographic areas.  04345 goes into the appropriate box.  I click Next again and am asked about Industry Codes.  I have to tell you, I know NOTHING about what this means!  So, I select the All available codes box, followed by Next.  Finally, results! 

I click on ZIP Code Business Statistics : Total for Zip Code for most recent date – 2013.  The next page gives me my Geographic Area – Gardiner, ME ; Number of establishments – 220 ; Paid Employees for pay period including March 12 (number) – 2,453 ; First-quarter payroll ($1,000) – 21,259 and Annual payroll ($1,000) – 88,706.  These are all interesting numbers, fascinating to think that there are 220 “physical locations where business is conducted or services or industrial operations are performed.” I’m now rather curious about these establishments in the 04345 ZIP code area, though this is a search for a different time.

Time to see what other statistics I can find.

Back on the Main page, I scroll to see what other features are available.

Popular Tablesinclude clickable links to several interesting studies.  I click on Educational Attainment.  I see a variety of interesting data for the United States population broken apart by age ranges.  Since this is a prepared table, I am not given the opportunity to narrow by area or ZIP code. 

Looking over the information, it makes me extremely sad to see that almost 14% of the U.S. population have no high school diploma or equivalent.  The information shows that 28% of the population are high school graduates or the equivalent, and over 58% have some form of traditional higher education.  Yes, I know I work in a library and want everyone to have the chance and choice to continue their education, though there are many “non-traditional” forms of education that are not taken into account in the given information. Time to get off my soap box.

Again, I go back to the Main page. 

Seeing Address Search, I click Street Address and type in the address of the house I grew up in.  The next page gives me a large variety of information – nothing specific as to census numbers, but county information, Congressional District, Legislative District, Region of the United States, as well as a few other tidbits.  Again, interesting things to know, but not currently pertinent to me.

At this point, I’m not at all sure where, or how best to use this, but it is certainly an interesting amount of data!

 Ann Russell, Technology Librarian

This looks like a very interesting database to work with.  It is a collaboration of Maine Public Broadcasting, the University of Maine, the Maine State Museum, and others.  I like the sounds of that!

The home page has a click-able window What is Windows on Maine? Click to view.  I try this – it’s a very short video showing the variety of information available in this database.  There are streaming videos, maps, sound files, resources for teachers, and related databases to name a few.  More interesting with each click I take!

At the top of the screen there are two search buttons – Subject/Topic that has a drop down window with about thirty choices.  The other search button QuickSearch is the one I try first.  I type in “Gardiner”.  Three resources found – one Moving Image and two Artifacts. 

Hmmm . . . 

The Moving Image is titled The Frontier Wars.  It is an MPBN resource, and about twenty-seven minutes long.  There is a short description, as well as a list of subjects to search.  These subjects appear to come from the Subject/Topic drop down window.  The last place on the citation is Find Similar Resources.  Clicking here brings up fifty resources.  I’m not quite sure what this database uses for criteria to find similar resources.  There are many Moving Images, but also Artifacts, Text, Service, Map, and Still Image, but I don’t seem to see a clear relationship between my search, and the “similar resources”.  Next I click on the title itself The Frontier Wars.  I see that this is a downloadable media file.  The video has beautiful images, but for whatever reason, no sound – at least not on the computer I’m working on.  I’ll have to check this out on a different computer.

The two Artifacts  are Quill Box and Box, birchbark.  Each of these are Maine State Museum resources.  These each have the same type of information as the Moving Image.

Okay, time to click on one of the resources.  I choose to click on Quill Box.  This doesn’t really give me much more information. I am told where it “lives” – the Maine State Museum, that it is part of their collection, and they have the rights to it.  Again, I see Find Similar Resources, though I don’t click at this point.  I’m given the option to Download, which I do.  This is a very nice picture (.jpg) of the box.  It looks like it could be a great addition to a school report.

Back to the home page I go.  Next I check out the Advanced Search button on the left side of the page.  This time I type “Augusta” in the search box.  I opt to leave the Keyword box as Any, though the options include Title, Subject, Description and Transcript.  In the Year From and To boxes I put 1890 and 1900.  Leaving the other options as they are, I click the Find Itbutton.

Four resources appear, one Still Image and three Moving Images.  I don’t take the time to check each of these out, as my Gardiner search earlier showed similar results.

Back on the Advanced Search page, there is a spot to Find the history of town names in Maine.  This time I choose “Randolph” from the drop down menu.  The information given tells me that Randolph was incorporated from a portion of West Pittston in 1887 and has been Randolph since then.

The last thing I see on the Advanced Search page is Search with Maps.  There are two maps at the bottom of the page – State of Maine and Gulf of Maine. Clicking on either map makes it larger, then clicking on the map itself, a region or county pops into the search box.  Clicking the Find Itbutton brings me to similar results, as previous searches.

Back on the home page the last feature I check is FAQ for Teachers.  This page answers questions about web browsers, downloading videos and other resources, as well as lesson plans.

I still see lots of potential for this database but am not completely sure how I’ll use it.  There are pieces that will be helpful for reference questions about Maine, but it probably won’t be the first resource I use.