Marvelous Maine Invitational Week 8 - Genealogy

I was excited to see what this week's assignment was and then disappointed to learn I could not access it, except in the public library. I did not make it to the library, but am interested in the two week trial offer through my school library. I would love to explore this resource! I did check out the videos/tutorials provided which made me even more anxious to explore the resource! In watching these it made me realize just how much information is out there to find and that it can be very easy to do. I look forward to more exploration of this topic.

Marvelous Maine Invitational Week 7

I used Health Source to search for the condition Tempromandibular Joint Disorder, more commonly known as TMJ. This is a condition of the jaw where there is much pain, clicking and grinding of the jaw. This condition sometimes results in partial locking of the jaw, and can cause frequent and severe headaches and ear pain and discomfort. I have this condition and have recently taken steps to treat it. I was relieved to read in the articles I found that the treatments that were outlined matched very well to the course of treatment outlined by the orthodontist I have seen. Information was very simple to access, user friendly and easy to understand. A resource I would use again for sure. Medline Plus was even better! I found it to also be extremely user friendly, but with many more articles and sources of information. Some of the top searches listed were for asthma, autism, diabetes, shingles and breast cancer.
      The only medication I take is a daily allergy medicine, Claritin. I found it interesting to find the actual name of the effective drug in Claritin is called Loratedine. There was information about why this drug would be prescribed, some possible side effects, how the drug is taken, and some dietary and other precautions while taking it. Under the Videos and Cool Tools I chose a video on Invasive Total Knee Arthroplasty. It was very detailed and a real life operating room surgery that was filmed. Too real for me actually as I found it difficult to watch. I found both of these areas extremely interesting, easy to use and full of beneficial information.

Marvelous Maine Invitational Week 6

This was an assignment that has been the least useful for me so far. I am not business minded and am not a librarian, so do not think this would be something I would use much at all.  First using the Business Source Complete I was successful at completing the exercise as assigned. When searching information for FM radio I was able to find information on Digital Signal, FM Radio Amplifiers and Simulcasting, to name a few. Using the Visual Search option I observed that this narrows the search results to sort in many ways, such as subject, publication, date and relevance. This feature seemed to be very useful. The EconLit  exercise I didn't have much luck with. I found it unclear and difficult to use. Using Regional Business News I was much more successful. I researched one of my favorite stores, Christopher and Banks. There was a lot of information about this nationwide company based in Minnesota, such as the fact that as of October 29, 2012 they had named a new president. Using Value Line I was not extremely clear on the meaning of much of the content, but did observe that the periodical issues were organized by date and subject and did seem to be quite easy to navigate. The Wall Street Journal resource was extremely easy to use. When looking for articles on small business and health care I found articles on health care laws and small business, wellness screening programs and health care benefits for small businesses on a budget. Even though this is not a subject I am very well educated in, I did find most of the resources easy to use, while at the same time not fully understanding some of the content.

Marvelous Maine Invitational Week 5 NoveList

This has been my favorite feature so far in the 5 weeks. There are so many possibilities with this feature. It is incredible. I started by searching The Hunger Games series. I loved the Sort by feature which allows you to narrow the search more specifically by author, popularity, or by dates, ascending and descending.Also very useful was the Read-alike choices feature which gave 9 additional Read-alike titles for The Hunger Games series.  This was excellent. Under the 9-12 age group I specifically searched Historical Fiction which I love to use in my middle school social studies classes. This also allows searching by award winning authors in this genre. I have used historical fiction books by Anna Myers before and was able to find a fairly new book she has written for the age group 9-12. Awesome! Next I searched by authors for those that I enjoy and found titles I didn't realize existed, specifically a novel titled Blockade Billy by Stephen King, that I know my husband would love. Although I spent a lot of time searching through NoveList Plus, I feel there is so much more to explore! I anticipate using this a great deal both personally and professionally.