Lesson 7a : Discovery Exercizes and Personal Thoughts

Auto Repair Reference Center

1. I chose to search for my dream car:

I quickly found a whole slew of information on the 1971 models. 89 returns on 'General Information and Maintainance', 37 on 'Body and Trim', 38 on 'Breaks', 53 on 'Chassis and Electrical', 41 on the 'Drive Train', 74 for 'Emission Controls', 99 for 'Engine and Engine Overhaul', 30 for 'Engine Performance and Tuneup', 132 for the 'Fuel System', and 47 for 'Suspension and Steering'. Guess my dream car is pretty popular with people who are fixing up older vehicles.

2. Sadly, my current ride is just a plain old 1998 Ford Escort. Looking at the Service Bulletins and Recalls page brings up 68 results! The El Camino is looking better and better all the time. Given that my car is, shall we say, pre-owned, looks like just about everything needs to be inspected. Never thought that my digital resources class would be reminding me to change my engine coolant. One thing I wish was explained on the maintanance page is the difference between 'normal' and 'severe' service charts. Is this referring to the weather and general wear and tear that the car is subjected to? Its not explained on the maintainance page.

The auto repair center is one of our most used resources at the library. In fact, we have set up an extra link on our public use internet computers for it! So this was a great refresher course on how to navigate through the maze of different car repair manuals.

Lesson 6 : Discovery Exercizes and Thoughts

Its Mango time!

I am particularly excited to use this resource because it is something we have been actively promoting at the library, and this is the first chance I've had to really play around with it. I chose to try the Italian "2.0" class to start, mostly because it is a language that I've been taught in a traditional classroom, and I thought it might be nice to compare and contrast the differences in approach.

I'd heard that people have had problems setting up an account, but the whole process was quick and painless for me (using gmail). I did have some problems getting the first lesson to load, and had to refresh several times, but it ran smoothly after that. My first impressions were that, yes, the lessons are very basic. They seem to rely a lot on repetition of words, with very little of the 'conceptual' language stuff you would get in a traditional class. For example, they don't talk about the differences between feminine and masculine nouns in the first lesson, but set up scenarios where you learn several of them. You learn about the verb 'stare', which literally means 'to feel', and how it is used in Italian greetings. One thing I liked is the small cultural asides that were given throughout the lesson, such as the body language involved in a traditional Italian greeting (kissing the cheeks, of course). From a technical standpoint, I like that all of the lessons have voice over as well as text, which helps people who have visual disabilities, and people who are auditory learners.

After getting through the first two lessons, I think I have a better understanding of what Mango is for. I think that it is helpful for people who are looking for a basic understanding of a language, perhaps as a prep tool for a traditional class, or as a way to keep your existing language skills sharp. I don't think that it could replace a traditional classroom learning experience though.

Working at a public library, I think that the best use of Mango might be for people who are learning English as a second language. This is especially relevant because there are not a large number of resources readily available for people who might want to take English classes. We sometimes get questions from people who are interested in finding a tutor or learning English, and this could be an excellent resource for them, one that I will continue to reccommend.

Lesson 5 : Discovery Exercizes & Thoughts

Welcome back to my blog! I'm sorry for the hiatus. Here are the discovery exercizes for Lesson #5:

1. There are 6 dictionaries with 'habeas corpus' entries.

2. The purpose of the 'Links for this subject' seems to be a catchall reference index for English language resources. Its incredibly varied in scope, but grammar, writing, slang, and major publications in English seem to be a focus. The popular song used to illustrate nouns on the 'Guide to Grammar and Writing' site is My Favorite Things from The Sound of Music.

3. There are 14 examples of boats and ships in the Visual English Dictionary link. Although, if you look up 'ancient ships' you can find even more than that!

4. There are 18 English Language Reference titles offered.

5. Options available to process results using bilingual dictionaries: print search results, email search results, widen your search, search tips, results per page, and reorder results alphabetically.

6. The quote from John Locke is as follows: "The end of law is, not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom." If you browse for the word 'abolish' instead of doing a general search, you get much more detailed results, with many different catagories or meanings of the word listed, allowing you to narrow down your search to the correct intent.

7. Types of maps available when searching for 'Syria': world flags, map of the country, map of the continent.

8. The World Encyclopedia seems to be a reference for basic facts, with an emphasis on geography and history. A Guide to Countries of the World seems to focus more on economy, modern politics, and current events. According to the source itself, the focus seems to be on outlining "contemporary social, economic, political and religious issues." http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/BOOK_SEARCH.html?book=t42

9. I get 252 search results for 'recycling' from the homepage quick search. I am not actually seeing the 'refine by book' option from this page though, only 'refine by subject'.

10. See above!


Thoughts:
This was a great lesson, and there is a lot I can apply here to my work at a public library! I think that this is especially good for parents and children who might come into the library looking for book report information, or sources to cite for a child's project. The collection as a whole is very easy to navigate, but has a great depth to it, especially with all of the outside links. I also love the bibliographical citations that you can see at the bottom of all the entries!

Lesson #3 : Discovery Exercizes & Personal Thoughts

Lesson #3 : NoveList, aka the Librarian’s Best Friend

NoveList has quickly become my go-to site when I receive questions about books. It has actually become so useful that I can hardly imagine life without it! Although there are plenty of other sites that offer similar services and lists, it is useful to have all that information in one spot, easily accessible (I have a link on my desktop that goes directly to it). My other favorites are GoodReads and Shelfari, although I don't use those much at work because NoveList has almost everything I need for the projects and common questions I get. GoodReads is something I would recommend to patrons who are interested in browsing titles, and Shelfari is something I might use myself for inspiration (I love book collections, especially obscure ones!) However, these don't fit in as well in our small public library system if people are looking for something to read right now.

1. Here at the Wasilla Library we’re coming up with titles for our adult reading programs, with books based in the future being one of the themes. As such, I’ve had science fiction on the brain recently, so I looked up one of my favorite futurist authors, Cory Doctorow. First author read-alikes pulled up were Connie Willis, Suzanne Collins, and Margaret Peterson Haddix. This makes sense, as Cory Doctorow has written a mix of adult and young adult novels, but it would have been nice to see a few more adult fiction writers listed, especially since Haddix has written a lot of grade-school level fiction as well. Still, fairly accurate to the author (plus, I’m extra picky about what I read, which doesn’t help).
Looking at series reccomendations, I used the Hunger Games Trilogy, since Doctorow doesn't have any series written, and its one of our most popular titles at the moment. This list will be extremely useful after the movie comes out and people are interested in reading more things like it!

2. I like the idea of setting up different sub-folders within your account for different projects. Its something I'll have to work on when I get the time!

3. I pulled up a series search for The Warriors by Erin Hunter basically because it is the bane of my existence, and seeks to confuse me at every turn. Nothing in the way they are catagorized or labled makes sense to me, and it doesn't help that there are 3 seperate series of books that fall under the same series name. If someone says they want book 3 of the Warriors, are they talking about Warriors - New Prophecy : Book 3 Dawn? Or are they referring to Warriors - The Original Series : Book 3 Forest of Secrets? Or maybe they were talking about the Warriors manga series, which is another different set of books. In this case NoveList is more than useful, it is a lifesaver for sorting out a long and confusing book series.

4. I just want to say how nice the Reader's Advisory Toolbox is for a librarian, especially the training and articles. This really is a resource that seems like it was built with us in mind, although I think a resourceful patron/book enthusiast would get a lot of mileage out of it as well. I think the most brilliant parts of this tool is that it allows the librarian to really zone in on the common questions a patron might have about what they want to read; genre, series, and theme made into catagories that are understandable yet varied. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this resource to patrons, but I feel its more useful as a tool that librarians and patrons can use together.

Lesson #2

Ivory’s adventures in census records, otherwise known as lesson #2.

I started off by looking up something I thought would be easy to locate, information on my great-grandfather Ray Rebarchek. One of the original 1935 colonists in Palmer, he wrote his own autobiography, and is easy to locate in the colony records. I have his birthdate, the information on the town and state he resided in before he moved to Alaska, and his spouse. Should be a cinch to locate his census data, or so I thought.
Turns out, I was wrong. Searching for ’Rebarchek, Raymond’ in the census data gets no results. Searching for ‘Rebarchek’ gets several results, but none for Raymond. Some of them are the right age range to be his father however, so I search for his father, ‘Rebarchek, Leonard’, using those results to see if I can find a Raymond listed as a child. I hit paydirt with ‘L.W. Rebarchek’, who has a son named Raymond listed in the 1910 census in Wisconsin (not a stretch, since Raymond was a Minnesota resident before he moved to Alaska).

I was curious about the lack of census records for Ray during the 1920 and 1930 census though. Asking my mother about it, she told me that sometime between 1920 and 1930, Ray drove a motorcycle over to the west coast to log trees with his brother, and that could explain why there is no census data for him during that period. Family history aside, it is interesting to note how many gaps there are in the official data, even during later census periods.

Speaking of lost data, the 1890 census gaps with the fire in Washington sparks some interesting questions of how much can be lost when we lose that information. These days, I don’t think there is as much to lose as there was when it was only one paper copy. With the internet, we live in a world of data redundancy, and things like cloud networks and filesharing mean that even if one copy is lost, as long as someone else had the information, you can start over. The danger is, of course, when there is only one copy of something (whether it is a physical copy or a digital one) there is always a possibility that you will lose it. But I do think that archivists and librarians are getting smarter about archiving things both digitally and physically. I think that often those actions are seen as a budget waste, since it takes twice as long to have physical and digital backups, but with important information, it is definitely worth it.

Looking at the first Alaska census in 1900, its interesting to see that there were only 3 areas listed. I wonder what the 1900 census in Alaska was like. It must have been extremely difficult to get information with communities so scattered.

Lesson #1 : Discovery Exercizes

You can follow along here, if you're curious. These are just my answers, but stay tuned for my thoughts on the subjects covered!

1.) The Chief Financial Officer of Microsoft is Peter Klein. He's been with Microsoft since 2002, but before that spent time in corporate finance in the Seattle area, working for a variety of companies and startups.

2.) Here are some relevant articles & chapters I pulled up on the Small Business Reference Center involving selling crafts:
Selling Handmade Crafts Online
Is Selling Online Right for your Business?
The Business and the Internet page also has a lot of valuable information.
And here is a great article about starting a business in Alaska:
Small Business Start-Up Guide : Alaska
Unfortunately, I ran into a bit of a brick wall when it came to finding out places to sell crafts locally, at least using the SBRC. However, a simple Google search for 'selling crafts in alaska' pulled up a few good resources.
Unfortunately, we don't get to work with a lot of small businesses, so I used general terms when searching. I think that the usefulness of the database depends on the information that the person is looking for. For general information, the database is quite helpful. For local information, it might be better to look elsewhere.

3.) The first thing I noticed when browsing 'Popular Sources' was the NOLO book Tax Savvy for Small Business. We get a fair amount of patrons who have their own businesses and have tax questions, or are just looking for specific forms (like sample rental agreements). This could be an excellent resource for those who aren't able to get a physical copy of our books, or are looking for a book that we do not carry. When browsing by catagory, the sample business plans look like they could be of interest to some of our patrons.

4.) Here is a quote from Sec. 34.03.100 of the Alaska Uniform Residential
Landlord & Tenant Act, found here, which states the landlord's responsibilities for a rental property:
a.The landlord shall
1.make all repairs and do whatever is necessary to put and keep the premises in a fit and habitable condition;
2.keep all common areas of the premises in a clean and safe condition;
3.maintain in good and safe working order and condition all electrical, plumbing, sanitary, heating, ventilating, air-conditioning, kitchen, and other facilities and appliances, including elevators, supplied or required to be supplied by the landlord;
4.provide and maintain appropriate receptacles and conveniences for the removal of ashes, garbage, rubbish, and other waste incidental to the occupancy of the dwelling unit and arrange for their removal;
5.supply running water and reasonable amounts of hot water and heat at all times, insofar as energy conditions permit, except where the building that includes the dwelling unit is so constructed that heat or hot water is generated by an installation within the exclusive control of the tenant and supplied by a direct public utility connection;
6.if requested by the tenant, provide and maintain locks and furnish keys reasonably adequate to ensure safety to the tenant's person and property; and
7.provide smoke detection devices and carbon monoxide detection devices as required under AS 18.70.095.
For the sake of brevity, I have not included the rest! You can find it at the link above.
Here are some recent frauds and scams from the Alaska Dept of Law Consumer Protection Unit.
You can get a Consumer Complaint form, with info on how to file it here.

5.) According to Alaska Local and Regional Information, there are 1,601 female workers in the city of Wasilla, and the top employer is the Mat Su Borough Schools.

6.) The stages of a small business cycle are Think, Launch, Grow, Reinvent, and Exit. You can find a checklist for starting a small business here.

7.) Here are two publications on broadband internet in Alaska.
There have been studies
done on small scale modular nuclear power, although it does not appear to be as popular of an option as wind and solar generation.
This site seems to be geared more towards academic research, which is something that most of our patrons do not seek help with. However, if there are students who are looking for sources for a paper on economic and social projects in Alaska, I will gladly send them to the site. Its an excellent resource that I wasn't aware of before I started this course!

8.) As a worker at a small public library, not all of the business information is geared towards a 'typical' patron. A lot of the more academic and corporate info is something that our library would only rarely utilize. However, that info could be valuable to the right patron! We recieve all kinds of questions, including some that are fairly obscure. I do see a need in our community for providing resources for start-up businesses, especially small ones. We also get a lot of questions relating to Alaska consumer laws and tax regulations from business owners. Some of these resources could be of great value! The hard part, of course, is letting people know that these resources exist, and figuring out ways to advertise them to people who need them. I'll cover more of this in my next blog post, which will go over my personal thoughts on this week's lesson.

Lesson #0 : Welcome!

Welcome to my blog!
My name is Ivory, and I work at the Wasilla Public Library. This will be my blog for cataloging my adventures with our online research systems, and musing about how we can use those systems in our busy (but small!) public library. Posts will be about once a week.
This blog is part of the Introduction to Alaska Digital Resources Class

Stay tuned!