This week's exploration of Ancestry Library will be done early. Hurray!!! 

I was so excited to see that Ancestry was this week's database to explore. It just so happens, I've done two workshops on Ancestry Library Edition in our library in the last couple months -  one for our local historical society and another for the public.

 Both times, I had the participants view the 3 short tutorials at the Maine State Library. They are excellent and a great place to start. Plus it good, anyone can view them even before coming to the library to try Ancestry. Once the participants viewed the tutorials, they explored their ancestors. So I felt right at home looking up myself and my grandfather.

I only found one correct listing on myself - in U.S. Public Records Vol. 1 - Schools, Directories & Churches.  There was one other listing but the address was incorrect. No marriage record, which was interesting. Thought I'd try my maiden name but no results.

In searching for my grandfather on my dad's side, I found him listed in MA Vital records 1620-1988, as well as my father in the search results. I also found my grandfather in the Social Security Death Index; and the U.S. Federal Census of 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940. Each census was interesting to look at, particularly the household members.

As far as the exercise to search for Maine under "Photos and Maps" that was more challenging. The "Photos and Maps" heading is found by clicking on the Search tab, but I couldn't figure out where to put Maine as a keyword. Instead I clicked on Maine within the United States Maine, which resulted in an extensive list of data to search such as Maine Military men, Maine naturalization records, Genealogical advisor (with tab noting it had been "updated" which I think is helpful) plus much more.

My trip down Ancestry lane was very interesting, as I found in our workshops. Excited to discover more about my family.

Happy Thanksgiving!!! Til next time.

Cheryl
          So many "resources, so little time!

Where has the time gone.... late again. Oh well! couldn't be helped.  On to discovering the consumer health resources.

I was very impressed with the wide selection of publications in Health Source: Consumer Edition ranging from health reports, letters, magazine, books - lots of resources to tap into - many offering full text. I decided to search Diabetes which my husband has in hopes of sharing new information with him. I sorted my results date descending and narrowed it to 2010 - 2012 dates with 1082 results. I read the article "Go Nuts for Health!"   Authors: Palmer, Sharon  Source: Environmental Nutrition; Nov2012, Vol. 35 Issue 11, p1-6, 2p.
It was a very interesting article, written in layman's terms. I was excited to share the information discovered with my husband - learned about the healthy benefits of tree nuts - eating nuts can help manage and prevent type 2 diabetes - new studies found a protective link between nut consumption and cognitive health.

Medline Plus is another great resource. The What's in the News for today were: Cartoons may ease anxiety for kids facing surgery; Hearing loss tied to diabetes in study; Smoking in pregnancy tied to lower reading scores. Some of the top searches are Aspirin, Diabetes, hypertension.

Under Drugs and Supplements, I wanted to check out Vitamin D,  I was recently told to increase my intact of this. Unfortunately it was not listed - surprising? So I then chose Glipizide, a medication my husband takes. A great deal of information is included such as Why medication is subscribed; How medicine is to be used; precautions; Special dietary instructions; Side effects; Brand names plus much more.

When I searched for diabetes under "Health Topics"  found an extensive amount of information, a medical encyclopedia in comparison to Health Source which presents current findings, studies, etc. Under diabetes there was an introduction (overview), guide to type 1 & 2 as well as latest news, diagnosis/symptoms, treatment prevention, alternative therapy, nutrition, coping, etc. Very impressive. This is a great database to direct our patrons to for accurate information on health topics.

The videos are a great asset, clearly presenting information visually for the visual learner. I watched the video on Macular Degeneration and found it very clear, informative, helped me better understand the condition my mother deals with.

Again, great databases to explore and share with our patrons - really impressed with MedlinePlus. That's all for now, till next time digging through my ancestry .....what will I discover?
Happy Thanksgiving!
Cheryl
         So many resources, so little time!

I'm back - time for Value Line - very overwhelming but here goes. I really like the "Description" - impressive, great point to direct people to first. The various reports offered contain a lot of information: "Ratings and Reports" list company, ticker, industry and timeliness with options to view information in PDF or HTML form (good options) ; "Selection and Opinion" provides economic and stock market commentary, recent developments and stock selection (ex Co Star group) ; and Summary and Index provide broad information - analysis of industries and index to stocks. Lots to take in, really need more time to explore. I picked Starbucks to research. I searched for it within the Lookup Company feature under investment surevey which resulted in 1 result of a pdf file on Starbuck Corp report date 8/31/2012.  Confused about the various tabs at the top of the report and where is "full research report." I seem to be lost??? Need to move on down the street to Wall Street Journal.

In Wall Street Journal in searching for health care and small business, I decided to also use as well full text and date limits of "last 12 months" to be as pertinent as possible. My search resulted in 1756, which surprised me, didn't think there would be so many hits. I did notice some of the hits don't necessarily relate health care to small business, just those terms are in the article (ex. The Readers Weigh In
Anonymous. Wall Street Journal [New York, N.Y] 12 Nov 2012: R.2.). The "Suggested subjects"  is a valuable feature - very useful to anyone struggling with just the right word combinations, or  to get a person closer to what information they really want. As in other databases we've explored I'm impressed with the create alert and email options. Create alert could be very helpful to be notified of any new articles on health care and small business.

The Business databases are informative resources, but I need to get a better handle on them - definitely more hands-on searching.....but for now
I must bid goodbye to the Business Databases!  Time for our next adventure in the land of "Health". 
 Cheryl
          So many "resources", so little time!

First, I must confess the Business Databases were not my favorite because I felt very ignorant when doing the exercises. Good thing - exercises opened my eyes to the fact I need to expand and improve my knowledge of these business-related databases. Plan to check into EBSCO for some on-line tutorials.

I need to learn so much more, so I can share these resources with our small business owners, etc. So thank you for these exercises, even though my experiences was a challenge!

Now to the exercises:

Searching for "FM radio" within Business Source Complete resulted in 844 possible sources ranging from academic journals, periodicals, reports, product reviews, trade publications - quite a selection. I found it interesting that if I searched without the two words in " " I got the following message: Note: Your initial search query did not yield any results. However, using SmartText Searching, results were found based on your keywords.
I looked at the visual search option and found it more challenging - wonder if it would really appeal to our patrons. You have to go through "layers" to get to say an article you'd like to read. Why is this option offered I wonder?

Within EconLit I searched for small business loans - interested to see only 4 results that could possibly be helpful but dated 2011, not as current as I thought they should be. Searching for EPA and small business seemed a little more challenging. I tried searching small business and EPA (spelled out) with no results, but if I used the abbreviation EPA got 1 result - "Land Recycling, Community Revitalization, and Distributive Politics: An Analysis of EPA Brownfields Program Support". In general, it's challenging to know how to enter the search words, their form, etc. patrons could become very frustrated.

I decided to search Best Buy in the Regional Business News - with 2938 results, would definitely need to narrow down the search. So I tried "Best Buy" & Maine narrowing to years 2011-2012 and full text which resulted in 79 resources many from By: CashStar, Inc.. Business Wire (English).  For a Maine company, I searched Tom's of Maine with 28 results all coming from newspapers, covering such things as their new recycling iniative, new toothpaste.

Value Line Investment Survey for Public Libraries- oh my goodness! most of the information looks like Greek to me. I can see where this would be a valuable resource for business-minded people who are into stocks - unfortunately that's not me. 
Need to stop for a few, will be back shortly to continue my "adventure" in the land of business....
Cheryl
          So many "resources", so little time

A little late, but here goes. First I LOVE using Novelist Plus.

For my series, I thought I'd look up the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, a favorite of many of our patrons. Excited to help them with the order of the series and to recommend other authors to try.  I'm always referring to Novelist to get the order of a particular series. So many of our patrons want to read all the books by a certain author, say James Patterson, in the order of publication and series. Novelist is great for this, plus using the "view" function I'm able to print off a brief or detailed list for our patron to have and refer to. I don't usually use the "grid" option under view. The lists also help me build our collection, adding titles we are missing of a particular authors series. Can you tell I like Novelist!

I refer our patrons to this database for their personal use too, especially if they'd like to learn about other authors who they may enjoy. This brings up the "author read-alike" feature, another great tool I'm always accessing and telling our patrons about. Recently I had a patron who loves Anne Perry's William Monk mysteries so I checked out Novelist Plus to see what other authors she might enjoy. She was thrilled!!! We have books by Tasha Alexander and Val McDermid she can check out.

I'm always learning more about Novelist Plus too each time I use it, never realized the magnifying glass within the author read-alikes brings up a pop-up window with a brief description and reason for author being listed. This is great! I'll be sure to use it more.

In summary, Novelist  Plus is a great reader's advisory for author read-alike, series order, author descriptions, and so much more. Good research tool for creating booklists, bookmarks, setting up genre displays. It's use is endless... Love their e-newsletter too.

Until next time. So long for now.
Cheryl
            So many resources, so little time.