Week 1a South Dakota Library Challenge

World Book School Edition has four sections;  Kids, Student, Advanced and Discover.

1.  The challenge instructions were to search for a mammal of choice, find a picture and information on its habitat using "World Book Kids."  I chose to search for "monkey."   What is more fun than a monkey?    It brought up 35 articles related to "Monkeys" with very basic information such as type of monkey, a picture and where type each is native. "Monkeys are small mammals that often live in trees."  

2.  In order to evaluate the functioning of "World Book Kids" with "World Book Student" I did the same search to compare the findings.  In the student version my monkey search produced 157 articles as well as additional information such as web site links, research guides, tables and maps.  The information in the articles provides more details although were still quite basic.  I can see this version being a great fit for upper elementary and Jr. High students, but think many high school students would gravitate to the quick and easy functioning as well.

3.    The challenge instructions were to search for a county while using "World Book Advanced."  I chose to search for "Sweden" in honor of my Swedish ancestry.  In addition to the 318 articles it also gave many additional links to related information on the sides including a list of primary sources.   I have a person interest in Sweden and quickly was lost reading through the many articles.   In addition to the "Tools" such as allowing highlighting, printing, and emailing, I liked the link stating, "Facts in brief about Sweden" which was located front and center when I clicked on an article.  This information could be useful to a student who needed to complete an essay and needs expand research or even a patron looking for information before traveling.

4. Surprisingly, I was most interested in the "World Book Discover."  The last few years, we have seen more and more people in our community who have a language barrier and those numbers are expected to rise.   With the ability to browse by basic topics supported by visuals it will give those with a limited English vocabulary the ability to research and have access to information that other wise may not be available to them.   The translating tool will be very useful for them as well.   I like the way its set up for browsing by a basic topic leading into sub categories.