Sunday, November 22, 2009

internet competency

Mightybook.com
http://www.mightybook.com/

This site is geared for helping children in the primary age group to enjoy reading.
There are different categories of activities, such as stories written by kids, art/music and puzzle page. To find this website, I type in library websites as my search query. Using Yahoo as my search engine, one of the results brought up was best websites for K-12. Since, I am a first grade teacher and I hope to be a primary level librarian someday, this caught my attention. This specific webpage listed different websites for math, reading and language arts, science and social studies. One of the topics under reading and language arts was Internet Public Library(Reading).
This listed different topic areas as well as resources. One of the resources listed was Mightybook.com. I feel that this could be a great resource for parents, grandparents and teachers. There were even activities for children as young as two.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Database evaluation-part 4

Part 4-Database Evaluation
Karla Phipps
LS 5013-21

Database-Book Index with reviews

Coverage-
My database covers books as well as the reviews of each book. The complete number of documents was not given. However, when I typed in the search statement, children’s literature, there were 3,124 hits. The database did have a timeline to limit search results, but each title had a date listed and each title was different in the time listing. Therefore, the dates were not uniform for every title.

Currency-
As I had stated before, the timeline allows the user to limit their search by a timeline. The specific timeline for this database was from 1922-2012. Using the same search statement, children’s literature, I was able to find books that were published in the 70’s and the 80’s, but I decided to narrow my search to the books published beginning in 1992. This is the year that I became a teacher. After narrowing my search by the timeline, children’s literature received 2488 hits.
I found it very interesting that several of the books that were not yet available for purchase were already on the index. These works in progress were already indexed.


Predictability-
I feel that this database did perform as expected. I completed several searches with the subject child and literature. I was not able to use the keywords because this database does not offer that as a field choice.
(su) child and literature-20,487 hits (basic search)
(su)child andliterature-11, 137 (advanced search)
These were both quite high and I feel that the predictability is high. After this, I tried a different field,
(rv) review and annotation.
(rv)child and literature-5030 hits
Most of the books listed in this group were geared for the upper elementary and middle school age group. These books seemed to deal with very mature topics.
I then tried the field choice of title(ti).
(ti)child and literature-1,446 hits
The majority in this group were books that would be read at the primary level or were educational texts for parents and educators.
Several of the book titles were duplicated throughout each search.


Retrievability-
Using the descriptor term, children’s literature, this database produced 3,616 hits. Using the subject field choice, the search statement produced 3,124 hits. Finally, the field of title was used and it received 1,145 hits. The number of relevant documents are not known for this system, however the results for each of the search statements have shown productive results.


Usability-This database is very user friendly and easy to use. The field choices are in a drop down format. Once the results are given, the user can sort by popularity, relevance, data descending and data ascending, just to name a few. At any point that a user needs to begin again, he or she can reset the searching options and begin again. The results can be narrowed by a timeline or by subject. A section of research starters is given to extend the search query .

research visual competency



I feel that this picture is a great example of why teachers, librarians and parents all work for the same goal- to instill the love of reading in a child. Each of us started out as this child and because someone took the time to work with us, we know want to share that with others.


Retrieved November 16,2009 from Free-clipart-pictures.net
http://www.free-clipart-pictures.net/child_clipart.html

Monday, November 9, 2009

Multimedia competency


I chose this specific image because it is my favorite children's book. I have read this book at least 25 times. Each time I read it, I am reminded why I love children's literature and I always try to instill that love in my students each year that I read it. I still cry each time I read the chapter when Charlotte dies and Wilbur takes the egg sac home so that he can take care of Charlotte's children.
Charlotte's Web,Spotlight on the popular children's book.(2007)
Retrieved on November 9, 2009 from InfoPlease Web site:
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/charlottes-web.html

After searching through many images from the book Charlotte's Web and reading the terms of use and copyright policies, this specific site allowed for a visitor to download one (1) single copy of the copyrighted material for the visitor's personal, non-commercial use only.