Thursday, September 16, 2010
Library Challenge-Ancestry Library
After some problems with Ancestry Library connecting at our Library, everything if working again. So I went to finish my final assignment for the Library Challenge. I took a class a few years ago, and did some researching on AncestryLibrary. I remember finding my grandmother's marriage and death certificate at that time. Now, I was quit frustrated. I tried to research my own name, looking for our marriage license. I found a record through the US Records Index stating my birthdate and current residence. Although, I moved across the street about 8 years ago from 441 5th Street to 420 5th Street, and my old address was still listed. My mailing address is POBox 390, which was listed, but POBox 71 was also listed. That was a mailbox that we had some years ago, probably at least 25 years ago. Then when I tried to research our marriage license, I had problems. I also put in my maiden name, which was Eidem. I received information on names from Adams to Eatons, with a few Eidem's mixed in. They were my cousins, so I guess I was a little related to my research. I did find some information when researching my husband's name (Greg Gemar) and got a little info. but not our marriage license. I'm wondering if it's all legal?! I did find a couple of my husband's brothers' marriage to their wives. When I marked the box for "exact" it jumped me to JoAnn Efta's obituary. She was my neighbor years ago, so I felt a little "related" to that search also. But I was very frustrated after an hour of searching. Was I doing something wrong? Are we still having problems with our AncestryLibrary at our library? This is one database that I would love to be familiar enough with that we could offer a hands-on class at the library. We have a part-time staff of 3, and if we could all be familiar with it, we could give some explanations for searching, and then just all be there to assist as people gave this a try, so I was disappointed since I couldn't find what I was looking for at all. I would like more help, or some explanations of why I had so many problems. I hope everyong else had more success than I did. But as I expressed in more summary, I was pleased for the most part with the class, and I am glad I took it. But, I need a lot more work on AncestryLibrary.
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LovesLibraries, thanks for giving this a whirl and sticking with it through your connection problems! Ancestry can be tricky and takes practice. As you found out, though, one search may not get you what you wanted, but may lead you to other related information--a genealogist's dream. I recommend the Ancestry webinar that the vendor gives. It is offered fairly often--just check the State Library training calendar at http://library.sd.gov/forlibrarians/calendar/index.htm . Thanks for your comments, and call or email anytime you have questions.
ReplyDelete2014 Advanced Library Challenge
ReplyDeleteStarting out with World Book searches. As assignment asks, I looked up an mammal. I chose an alpaca, since I crocheted by daughter a scarf from alpaca wool and was very impressed with how soft and warm it was. An interested fact was that alpacas are found in South America (most in Bolivia). They live were there is a low concentration of oxygen and are adapted to this living condition by the fact that their blood holds a high amount of oxygen in it. In World Book Student I learned that alpacas descended from vicunas and are also related to llamas and guanacos. (Llamas being well known at our Libraries due to popular children's books such as Llama, Llama, Mad at Mama!!) In World Book Advanced I searched for a country. I chose Nepal since my son has helped many people from Nepal settle in Sioux Falls through his job at the Center for New Americans. I have met many refugees from Nepal and get to hear some facts regarding life in Nepal. Nepal is also known by it's greatest "tourist" attraction, Mt. Everest. The site gives much information between the links on the left and the right (President Papers, topics, and location articles are a few that I searched. It's hard to select what would be the most valuable to patrons, because of course that would depend on their point of interest. May final project was in World Book Discovery. We were to look up American Government. There are a lot of links to encyclopedia articles, videos, and websites. I think patrons will really like that they can save their research and return to it for continuation.
2015 Advanced Library Challenge
ReplyDeleteStarting with WorldBook Kids I made the choice of Maps from choices of World of Animals/ Science/ or Maps. I am a visual learner so Maps was a great selection for me. Ranging from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Israel, Lebanon, Iraq, and Ukraine, I could closely view the borders and cities that we hear about every evening on the news. With the curser and the zoom features you can quickly locate areas you are interested in. Such compact areas on a large map, can be viewed in detail. A friend of ours served in the Peace Corp in Azerbaizan, and I could find see it's close proximity to George, Russia, Armenia, and Iran. It made his stories come alive again for me. This would also be great as you prepared for a trip to anywhere in the world. My second assignment involved using World Book InfoFinder. Between WorldBook Explorer/ Interactive/ or Research tool I selected Interactive. I spent a little time looking at finding about South Dakota just to remind myself of the wonderful places in SD. The information would be great for planning in either business or programs, using demographics and knowledge available. It was fun viewing the variety of land and climates of SD or any state. Then I spent some time looking at Manova-Gounda St. Floris National Park in Central Africa Savanna. World Book explorer also gave me an opportunity to do a little research on Alcatraz Island. We traveled to San Francisco this summer but weren't able to tour Alcatraz. We were there in August, 2014 and the tickets were sold out well into March, 2015. WOW!! A lot of people were interested in Alcatraz. Since I missed the tour I could view artifacts on this site. I also learned besides being a Federal Prison from 1934-1963, it had also had a Military presence, as well as some years as an Indian occupation. You can see how when people get started researching, they can easily go from one topic to another and loose track of time. We just need to get them started! The final piece of my research for today, took me to World Book Online Reference looking for the assigned e-books. I found several ways to search for Emma by Jane Austen, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. I checked the special tools on the left and looked at Related Information. Through this link there were other articles regarding these authors. I read an article written by Mark Twain for Harper's Magazine entitles Body of the Nation about the Mississippi. These sites have so much information and I feel it is in a very friendly, hands-on format. For the most part, pictures are appealing and everything is very up to date.