Lesson 6--Gale Virtual Reference Library

 

 

    1.   In the blizzard of information available to students online today,  it's refreshing to find dependable reference materials within.  The Encyclopedia of World Biography was my choice.  There I found 23 volumes covering human notables worldwide and historically deep.  Heaven!  I went to the table of contents and chose a volume to get me to information about Meriwether Lewis.  I chose to view it as a PDF because I like the look of a real book rather than a computer screen, but I quickly went to the text version because it was much easier to navigate, I found.  The end of the article had a list of books for further reading on Meriwether Lewis as well as other articles within the Encyclopedia of  World Biography that are linked to Lewis.  Being somewhat of a skeptic, I tried the e-mail function to see whether it was actually that easy to just send the entire article to my school e-mail.  Sure enough--there was the article along with all the necessary citation information.  When I clicked the citation tab back  in the encyclopedia, I was given the citation and the option to export the citation to EasyBib, EndNote, etc.  Students really have it made with resources like this literally at their fingertips! I can't wait to tell mine that very good news!

 

     2.   My search for zinc in foods was as simple as typing those exact words into the search bar on the GVRL homepage.  That took me to several publications, some of which were not focused on the foods as much as health, so I narrowed my search by using the list on the left side that offered me the option of using a "Zinc (Nutrient)" link.  Now, I was in business!  My resource list was whittled down to two, both editions of the Gale Encyclopedia of Nursing and Allied Health.  I chose the later edition and skimmed the article for the highlighted search terms I had used.  It was simple and quick.  I found that oysters, beef, chicken, turkey, milk, cheese, yogurt, and pure maple syrup are not only good sources of zinc, but allow it to be used by the body more readily than some other sources.

 

I liked the listen feature and the settings it offered, such as whether to use highlighting and what color I would like it to be, the speed of the reading, and automatic scrolling.  I also liked that when I went back to the article, it picked up from where we left off instead of starting over.  One thing I didn't care for was that it didn't read the words that were hyperlinked to another article.  There was probably a way around that, but I didn't find it.  Nevertheless, many of my students would benefit from this listen feature, and they all have their earbuds handy at any given moment these days!

 

     3.  Faith Library's blog reminded me of how current some of the information is in the GVRL.  Students no longer have to used the outdated set of encyclopedias in my classroom closet.  Yea!

 

     Matt's Blog mentioned the Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of World Cultures 2012.  I'm going to put that one to use this week in my own geography class!