Lesson 7 South Dakota Library Challenge

Books on EbscoHost

Basic Discovery Exercise:

1. Do a search for a topic that interests you. Note the default search is "Find all my search terms." You may want to change the search to one of the other options. Review your findings and observations.

With the beautiful weather this week feeling like Spring is here, baseball was the topic of interest for me.   Specifically I chose to search for Minnesota Twins baseball.  As I typed in the search box, I noticed as you type a drop down appeared with search options. I think the search options available allowing more options to expand or narrow the search is especially beneficial.   My Minneosta Twins baseball search brought up 242 options.   Not all were baseball Twins...it also showed birth twins, etc.  As I scrolled I noticed a book,  "The Baseball Maniac's Almanac."  Sounded like my kind of book so I selected it.  I especially liked the "table of contests" located to the left side of the screen.  By clicking on part 2 I was able to get quickly to the section giving team by team histories.  After skipping to the central division I was able to find the Minnesota Twins section which included years, stadium, as well as both team and individual records.  A fan such as myself was got stuck reading about the greats such as Harman Killebrew, Tony Olivia, Rod Carew, and Kirby Picket who have been leaders in the Twins franchise for many years.  

 2. Constitution Day is looming and several students need more material. Search EBooks on EbscoHost and recommend some appropriate titles.

Because Constitution Day celebrated the signing of the Constitution in 1787 I would recommend the following books which were included in the 37 results when searched with the "find all my search term" option;  "AP U.S History," "A Dictionary of American History" or "The Illustrated Dictionary of Constitutional concepts." 

 3. A class is doing projects on Western history. They have exhausted the library's print collection. In EBooks on EbscoHost, click "Advanced Search." In the "Select a Field" box, choose "PB Publisher." In the search box, type "Nebraska" or "Oklahoma." Report your findings.

For this final part of this weeks challenge, I did as was instructed and entered "Nebraska" under "Advanced Search" narrowed to a "PB Publisher."   I had 88 source listed to choose from.   I can see that this would be a useful took when doing research and the flexible research options make it very user friendly.