1. I was very excited about the "Visual Search" feature on Ebooks on EbscoHost, but after playing around with it I lost my enthusiasm. I searched "dust bowl". The subject break down on the left hand side of the page was helpful in narrowing the results. It was a little confusing once I clicked on the result box to see the book but nothing happened. I learned I had to go over to the right hand side of the page, scroll down and click "more" in order to see the book. In addition, the information about the book that was in the green box, would have led me to believe that only an abstract of the book existed because it said "detailed record only". But after clicking on "more" I found that the entire book was there to see. Some of my patrons might like this feature, but the basic and advanced searches are better.
2. I searched "fairy tales" in the basic search box and found the Violet, Blue Yellow and Red books. Interestingly, the fairy color didn't always match the book. The Violet Fairy Book was orange! There were 25 titles by the author, Andrew Lange, in the Ebook collection. All his books except for the fairy books where in the public domain and part of Project Gutenburg. It looks like the fairy books are in the public domain, but the University of Virginia Library also has some rights to them.
Common Core Connections:
CC11-12WH/SS/S/TS4 - Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose and audience.
Students will research hiking trails in the United States. Specifically they will find out the history about the trail; who "discovered" it, when did it become a public resources? They will also find out the natural history of the trail; what are it's natural features (flora, fauna, geology, steep, rocky, sandy, etc.) Then the student will create a tourism pamphlet "selling" the trail as a great spot to visit.
This assignment can be done with the hiking books on E-books at Ebsco that are specific to a state. Hiking Georgia, Hiking Wisconsin, Hiking, Hiking Neveda, etc are some of the titles in Ebsco. The publication date on these books are a little old, but the information in them should be general enough to overlook that.
The publication dates of many of the books are troublesome. A book on technology from 2000 is unacceptable. Can they be weeded out?
Annie, you've done another great job here! You are in the majority opinion on the visual search option, with most people thinking a basic or advanced search finds what you want faster. I LOVE your Common Core connection here! (I like the one about hiking in the Black Hills.) This is a resource that the State Library purchased titles and has not been able to add to them. You are so right--topics such as technology or medicine are too old! We have asked about weeding them. Thanks for your good work!
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