Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Lesson 1a

Lesson #1, World Book

Observations:  very long list of ways to get into the database, not sure if it is clear what avenue I can use as an academic librarian.  My steps through the lessons below:

Lesson 1a - World Book School Edition.
World Book Kids
  As requested I searched a mammal,  I chose the Giraffe because I love giraffe's but don't know a whole lot about their habitat.  Love the graphics and imagine that kids will really like the embedded videos.  Not much here I didn't know but was fun to visit.


World Book Student
  Comparing amounts of information from link to link.  Much more detail in Student edition about giraffe's including the fact that a giraffe can close its nostrils completely to keep out sand and dust.  Interesting.  More pictures and videos as well as some geographic information including maps.  Easy to see the progression of the audience doing things this way.  Gives the scientific classification indicating that it is more technical than the earlier section.  Contributor tot he article is a Ph.D. giving more weight to the accuracy of the information.


World Book Advanced
  Text got a little smaller and denser to put more information on the page.  Many things are the same but there are more links to other resources.  Also gives the scientific classification with the same author as the student edition.

As you move through the sections you go from very graphic intensive to less graphic help and more text-based assistance.  Colors also tone down from the very bright and primary colors to start to the two-toned black/blue of the advanced search.

Looking at the timelines is fun, being a history nut I went there, specifically to WWII, Holocaust.  It is scary to see how much damage the Nazis did in just 11 years, millions dead, entire families wiped off the face of the earth. 

Duties call, I'll do the rest of this lesson later.

1 comment:

  1. Excellent compare/contrast, bookswoman. Thanks for your comments!

    ReplyDelete