A Lack of Color

    The village of  Hobbies and Crafts was not at all what Little l.a. expected. In fact Little l.a. was disappointed in the smallness of the village. The village wasn't vibrant like the other parts of the Land of Marvel. Little l.a. explored the village and found some information from the villagers but no one in the land was excited or full of energy. The village felt old and board. Little l.a. was eager to keep moving so she left the village of Hobbies and Crafts. Hopefully the next destination of her journey will be more exciting...
     I was really excited to learn about the Hobbies and Crafts Reference database but was somewhat disappointed after exploring it. I did a search of "painting" under the subject of "Arts and Crafts". I was surprise how few results came up and that most of the results were from the same book or author. The results of my search was not very diverse or very recent in date. Much of my results were dated a couple of years ago which is fine with most hobbies and crafts but is not helpful in the case of electronics and gaming. The information on technology and gaming is changing so fast that information from a couple of years of ago is considered ancient.
     I did find the database easy to use and I liked the fact that you could save, send, and print any information or projects that you found. The library I worke at did not have any of the magazines listed in the database but I was also was unfamiliar with all of the magazines. After searching the "Help" link I was interested in learning that the some of the databases include the Lexile Reading Levels which would be very helpful for us when we have students  who need to read a certain Lexile Level for a school project.
    My book recommendation this week is "The Kissed that Missed" by David Melling.
I this is cute story about a runaway kiss that is retrieved by a Noble knight! I just read it at a Fairytale story time and the children loved it.

Meeting the Great Winslow Homer

              Little l.a. was wandering along in the Land of Marvel when she spotted the sign for the City of Maine Newstand. Having always been interested in news she started toward the city when she was waylaid by the nasty book virus. The virus forced her to delay her journey for a couple of days. After a speedy recovery she entered the City of Maine Newstand. At first she was overwhelmed by all the information that she felt she would never make it through this land. That’s when she decided to look for the Great “Winslow Homer”; he would show her the way. Winslow was such an interesting fellow and he made the City of Maine Newstand such a wonderful place to visit that in no time Little l.a. felt she had lived there all her life. Little l.a. enjoyed her time in the city but knew it was time to move on and explore more of the Land of Marvel. She heard of a marvelous village that was all about arts and crafts so she can hardly wait for what was to come…
             I found searching in Marvel’s Newspapers and Maine’s Newstand quite easy and user friendly. I did a basic search about “Winslow Homer” and found many fascinating articles about him. I then did an advanced search with “Winslow Homer” and added “Prouts Neck”. This narrowed my search down to articles about Winslow Homer’s studio located in Prouts Neck, Maine.   I was pleasantly surprised on how I could further narrow down the articles with the options on the right side bar. You can further narrow down articles to particular newspaper journals, a set time or location. 

            Creating a “My Research” account was easy and I liked how you could personalize your preferences on how to search and how your results were displayed. I did have a problem creating a search alert. Every time I tried I got the following error “A server error caused your requested action to fail. Please try again. Contact Us if the problem persists” Other things I liked about the database were you could share your article through twitter, email and Facebook. I also liked that you can get a full citation of your article which I feel would be helpful for many of our students.
    I explained Marvel this week to a mother and her son who was doing research on a particular American Indian tribe for school. They were excited to know that they had this resource available to them at home to use at their own time.
     My book recommendation for the week is The Duckling Gets a Cookie!?  by Mo Willems. This funny and zany book is a favorite to read at storytime and it also tells of the importance of asking for things politely.

Land of Britannica

        After conquering her initial fear Little l.a. ventured into the Land of Britannica where she was in search of the Great Brown Bear. The Land of Britannica was quite visitor friendly. In fact as soon as she entered, the towns folk warmly greeted her and gave her a map that allowed her to easily navigate the land. Following the map Little l.a. found the Great Brown Bear who agreed to take a picture with her and then encouraged her to visit the neighborhood of Egypt. Upon entering the neighborhood of Egypt Little l.a. was astounded at its size and wealth of knowledge but in order to take that knowledge with her she had to get past the Workspace Gatekeeper. The Gatekeeper was a nice enough fellow but would constantly forget who she was so she had to remind he every time who she was in order to gain knowledge. Being satisfied with what she learned Little l.a. ventured out of the Land of Britannica to see what else she could find in the land of Marvel...

What I liked about this lesson is that I got to see the differences of what each grade level had to offer for a subject in the Britannica School Edition. I did a search at the elementary and middle school level for "brown bears" and at the elementary school level the information was more broadly about "bears" than "brown bears". When I searched at the middle school level I was able to find more specific information on "brown bears" and more pictures.

I did a subject search of "Egypt" at the high school level and found that this would be perfect for several of our students when they are doing reports. The right side bar made it easier in finding exactly what information you need whether that be facts, maps, pictures or flags. There is also links to related resources.

The workspace I found helpful for managing your information. I like that you can email your information to yourself or someone. I also liked that you can save your information and come back to it later without having to re look for it. The only thing I didn't like was that every time you wanted to save something to your workstation you had to relogin. Other wise Britannica is a great resource.

The book of today is Binky the Space Cat by Ashley Spires

Binky is very cute and funny but he also reminds me of my own kitty.

Have a Great Week!

Creating the Land of Blog

     Once upon a time a Children's Librarian Assistant (Little l.a.)  created her first blog so she could continue her exciting adventure in to the land of Marvel. Creating a blog was so new and exciting that she couldn't believe she hadn't thought of it before. Little l.a. ventured toward the great land of Marvel and was overwhelmed by it's vastness but she was a determined girl and nothing was going to stop her.
So her adventure begins...
     Having used Marvel for work I am very comfortable doing a basic searches.  I have use Novelist quite a ot in reader advisory and researching titles. Ancestry is a favorite of mine since I like finding information about my family tree. I am very interested in learning about what more Marvel has to offer. The only problem I had this week was that I was not able to get the video about One Search to work but I was able to read the transcript.
      My book recommendation of the week is:
Grumpy Bird by Jeremy Tankard

(I have been very grumpy about all this rain we have been having.)