Lesson8--WorldCat, CAMIO and More

 

 

     I was excited to dig into this week's lesson. I envisioned the challenge to search worldwide for something when I'm sitting here in smalltown South Dakota to be a herculean task.  Much to my surprise, WorldCat seemed familiar after previous lessons in this Library Challenge.  The book I chose to search for was One Minute to Midnight.  Apparently, worldwide, there are 2142 libraries with this book.  Conveniently, the list of those libraries started with one close to me, Augustana College Library.  After I clicked on the book title, I was able to see a great deal of information about the book, including the call numbers, which were LC: E841 and Dewey: 973.922.  Clicking on the name of the author, Michael Dobbs, I found 184 results, 120 of them being books and many of those being different versions of the same book.  There were large print versions and audiobook versions as well as foreign language versions.  I then changed my search to a subject phrase and looked for other books on the Cuban missile crisis. Twenty-three books came up.  I was kind of surprised that there weren't more, to be honest!  Then again, as my blog name confesses, I am a novice at this stuff!

 

     My look into databases had my head swimming!  I had no idea there was so much available in a one-stop search area!  Kudos to Jane and Julie for their guide to searching the thirteen databases.  It looks like a helpful tool to those in need.  Under OAIster, in the South Dakota subject search, I chose to look further into one called "Retirement Planning Information."  Since it was available online, I was able to read some tips and a timeline for retirement in the South Dakota Retirement System right there.  There were options there for sharing the information on Facebook, etc.  Instead, I used the option to e-mail the information to myself.  I'll keep that handy for future reference!