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MARVELous Blog The Final Chapter (Plus Week 8)

May 31, 2017December 15, 2012 by Gardiner Public Library

The week of Thanksgiving I was given a choice of blogging or not blogging. At the time, not blogging seemed to work better for me, but now I plan to do the week 8 blog about Ancestry Library Edition and the final few questions of the blog exercise – Blog 11.

Ancestry Library Edition looks very similar to the paid for version of Ancestry.com. This is a site that I am rather familiar with, so I may jump around a bit more than I have when learning the other databases. Please accept my apologies up front on this! Ancestry Library Edition is available free of charge to Maine library users, but you must be in the library to access the site.

The home page of Ancestry Library Edition looks pretty straight forward – a place to search for an individual using first, middle and last name as well as where a person may have lived and their estimated birth year. You are also given links to several census collections as well as other pertinent collection databases.

The first piece of this exercise is to look up my own name. I do this, first just my name – 781,379 results. I add Maine as a place I have lived and narrow my search to 588,906 individuals. I add my birth year and narrow the results further to 215,247. By adding my middle initial I am again up to 249,256 results. Scanning the page results, I pick myself out on the first page (I DO know who I am!). The U.S. Public Records Index, Volume 1shows several places that I have lived – interesting. I narrow my search by clicking one Birth, Marriage & Death.

The second piece of this exercise is to search for a grandparent in the U.S. Census. I type in my grandfather’s name, year of birth, and Maine – 51,342 results. I Narrow by Category using Census & Voter Lists. My results are now 5,475. I find my grandparents listed on the first page – 1940 and 1930 United Sates Federal Census. I find my grandfather in the 1910 United States Federal Census. I click View Image for the 1910 census. A window pops up letting me know how to move around the census page. This is a nice, helpful thing for new users to this site. The image of the census is extremely small, but with the help of both the Zoom and Magnify buttons I am able to move around the page and find my grandfather, his parents and siblings listed in the 1910 census. On this page there is a listing for the Source Citation, Source Information and Source Description– all of these are very important and helpful to anyone doing a family history search.

The last piece of this exercise is to look at Photos and Maps for photos of Maine. This isn’t quite as intuitive as it could have been. From the home page, I click on the Search tab; this brings me to a new page, filled with a variety of Special Collections which include Photos and Maps. After clicking on Pictures I do a keyword search for Maine. 1,190,449 results – YIKES! I take a few minutes and scroll through some of these images – yearbook images, Library of Congress photo collections, baseball players, passenger ship images, and many more that I will explore another day.

The final post – Number 11 – wonders what my biggest discovery was? I think the biggest discovery was how little I know about what is available through the MARVEL databases! I am in awe of how much is available for anyone with a valid Maine library card! We are incredibly lucky to have this resource.

I don’t know about my fellow bloggers, but I have been using the databases that we have explored more than I expected. It has been interesting to notice that I have used whichever experience I have blogged about within a few days of my research. I am so glad I took part in this exercise, and I intend to continue with my research, so stay tuned!

MARVEL Blog – Week 10

May 31, 2017December 8, 2012 by Gardiner Public Library

Back to the MARVELous Blog assignments, what will we discover this week? It looks like a have a choice. My options are Academic Search Complete ; Masterfile Premier ; MiddleSearch Plus or Primary Search. I’m sure that I will look at ALL of these, but for now, I look at Masterfile Premier.

First I take a few minutes to glance through and see what publications are available as resources. At this point, all I can say is “WOW”! Truly an amazing and broad range of resources in this database. There are both PDF and HTML formats of complete articles.

I stumble on a transcription of Ulysses S. Grant’s second inaugural address! Hmmm… I type Inaugural in the search bar. There are at least five pages of articles ranging from Jefferson Davis’ Inaugural Addressto Traces of Inaugural Life. I narrow my search using Primary Search Documents. Now my results are mostly United States Presidential Inaugural Addresses. A nice resource for the history buff in each of us!

Next, I move to EBSCO’s eBook Collection. Here I can browse by Category, view Highlighted books or investigate Featured eBooks. In the search bar I type in the word Hypnosis. There are 16 eBooks in my results. Clicking on several, I see information about each title, and “Most Relevant Pages From This eBook”. I find this helpful as a way to decide which books I want to look at further. Not quite as familiar as looking at the index when I hold a print book in my hand, but very helpful in this instance. I put a couple of eBooks in my folder, open my folder, and look at one as eBook Full Text. Opening one of these items, I am pleased to discover how user friendly the eBooks are. Using the Arrow I can flip through the pages, I am also able to type in a page number and jump directly to that page. Very nice!

The Blog directions tell me to search Constitution Day. This brings 16 results. Changing my search by adding quotation marks, I now have one result – Historical Dictionary of Taiwan (Republic of China). I’m guessing that this isn’t what the Blog Discovery is all about. I double check that I haven’t refined my search more than necessary, no, all is open and clear of restrictions. I’m not sure what I missed, but this didn’t seem to work as expected for this search.

Next I am told to use the Advanced Search feature and search for items about Western history. I type Nebraska in the search bar – at least five pages of results. On the Right side of the results page, I open the Category window. Here I narrow my search a bit – opting for only categories using the word History, Biography and Genealogy. Updating the search my results screen is down to only four items. This is much easier to scroll through, and use as recommendations for folks interested in Western history.

This is certainly another great resource, and I have only explored the tip of it!!!

Now I take a few minutes to see what others have discovered throughout our MARVELous blogging experience. It is certainly interesting to read other posts on the various discoveries we have all made. This has been a MARVEL-ous experience for sure!

LearningExpress Library – MARVELous Blog 9

May 31, 2017December 1, 2012 by Gardiner Public Library

What piece of the MARVEL resources are we learning about next? Hmmm . . . LearningExpress Library for Public Libraries – this looks to be a very interesting part of MARVEL.

To begin this lesson, I register with LearningExpress Library. This is a quick and simple process – just a user name and a password.

Now to play with some of the features. Along the left side of the page are the Learning Centers. These range from Elementary, Middle and High School through College information. Also available in this column are Software Tutorials, Skill Building information, information about gaining U.S. Citizenship and something in Spanish that I’m sorry to say, I cannot read. The center column has the usual Welcome information as well as places to “click and browse” areas of this site. The right hand column has recent news about LearningExpress and a couple of What Do I Do Now? options.

Next I decide to see what the tests are like. Since I don’t want to feel intimidated, I opt for a 4^th Grade Practice Math Test. I “add” the test to my “Center”, and proceed to work my way through several examples. I seem to remember my 4^th grade numbers much better than I expected! “Viewing” my results shows a breakdown of where I need help and where I seem to understand the concepts. At this point I am also given suggestions for further preparation. I’m not ready to check into anything more heavy duty, but I can certainly see where these tests will be helpful!

What should I look into next? With employment opportunities at a premium, I think I’ll look at Job Search & Workplace Skills. Recently, we have had several folks in working on their resumes and cover letters. Four choices on this page – all with more information once I click on the link. I open the Job Search, Resumes, and Interviewing section – more choices! Here I opt for Creating Great Resumes and Cover Letters. Four choices here as well, two are e-books and two are e-courses. Hoping that a “course” will walk me through the writing process, I add the Creating a Great Resume e-course to my center. A few quick questions later, I know what type of format I should use for my resume; I have been given suggestions/recommendations for font style and size, as well as line spacing and margin size. Continuing with this course, I am shown sample templates, reminded about things like ~~spllenig, pellsing, speinllg~~SPELLING, proper grammar and being truthful. This is a great refresher of the various items we should all have in our resumes.

Next I take a few minutes and download an e-book. These are in PDF format, and are fairly easy to navigate. There are many Many MANY available to search through and read. Definitely lots of great information FREE to any and all with a valid Maine library card!