FIND A POEM September 25, 2008
Posted by Ms. Klemundt in Help with Assignments.add a comment
For students in Mrs. Martin’s English I classes, here are some suggestions about how to find a poem for your assignment.
You can find poems in anthologies (collections of poems by many different authors) or books of poetry by just one poet. If you want to browse the shelves of the Res Library (or another library), look under these call numbers:
- 808 (collections of poetry)
- 811 (American poetry)
- 821 (English poetry)
- 841 (French poetry)
- 861 (Spanish poetry)
Remember to look at all of the 811s for American poetry: 811.3, 811.54, etc. The same is true for the other call numbers as well. If you want to search a library’s catalog, try doing a Subject Search for “Poetry” or “American poetry” or “Lyric Poetry,” “Haiku,” or other styles of poetry.
Here are some books from the Res Library you might want to look at:
- The Norton Anthology of Poetry, shorter 5th ed. (821.008 NOR)
- The Oxford Book of American Poetry (811.008 OXF)
- Columbia Anthology of American Poetry; edited by Jay Parini (811.008 COL)
- The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry (821.008 NOR)
- A Treasury of Great Poems, English and American; selected by Louis Untermeyer (811 TRE)
- Good Poems; selected by Garrison Keillor (811.008 GOO)
- 100 Great Poems of the 20th Century; edited by Mark Strand (821.9 ONE)
- Poetry 180; edited by Billy Collins (811.6 POE)
- 180 More; edited by Billy Collins (811.6 ONE)
- Cool Salsa : Bilingual Poems on Growing Up Latino in the United States; edited by Lori M. Carlson (811.008 COO)
- Peeling the Onion : An Anthology of Poems; selected by Ruth Gordon (808.81 PEE)
- The Sonnets : Poems of Love; by William Shakespeare (822.32 SHA)
- The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg (811.54 SAN)
- A Maze Me : Poems for Girls; by Naomi Shihab Nye (811.54 NYE)
- The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (811.4 DIC)
- Leaves of Grass; by Walt Whitman (811.3 WHI)
Here are some web sites with poetry. These are the links to the sites listed on your handout:
- Poetry 180 (http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180)
- Representative Poetry Online (http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca)
- American Verse Project (http://quod.lib.umich.edu/a/amverse/)
- American Academy of Poets (http://www.poets.org)
- Fooling with Words with Bill Moyers (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/foolingwithwords/)
- Poetry Archives (http://www.emule.com/poetry/)
- Poetry Daily (http://www.poetrydaily.org)
- Bartleby Verse : American and English Poetry, 1250-1920 (http://www.bartleby.com/verse/)
- Famous Poets and Poems (but beware the annoying pop-ups on this site) (http://www.famouspoetsandpoems.com)
- Sonnet Central (http://www.sonnets.org)
- The Walt Whitman Archive (http://www.whitmanarchive.org)
- Internet Poetry Archive (http://www.ibiblio.org/ipa/)
- Canadian Poetry Archive (http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/canvers/)
- Poets’ Corner (http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/)
- Cowboy Poetry at the Bar-D Ranch (http://www.cowboypoetry.com)
- The Swinburne Archive (http://swinburnearchive.indiana.edu/swinburne/www/swinburne/)
- Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org)
NEW BOOKS September 19, 2008
Posted by Mrs. Roy in New books in the Library, Reading Recommendations.add a comment
There are a number of new books in your school’s library waiting for you to check out.
Are you waiting to read the next Stephenie Meyer book? We have it! Bella’s love for a vampire is both fantasy and nightmare. Stephenie Meyer’s vampire love saga can be found in the fiction section of the library. A review said this series “is a love story with a bite.”
Twilight is book #1, New Moon is book #2, Eclipse is book #3 and
Breaking Dawn is book #4. call number FIC MEY
Are you looking for a good book but find you are too busy? Let us suggest some newly arrived short stories.
Such A Pretty Face: amusing tales of our relationship with beauty. call number SC SUC
Who Am I Without Him?: “Hilarious and anguished, these twelve short stories speak with rare truth”. call number FIC FLA
Red Spikes: “…the remarkable, luminous, mysterious short stories of Margo Lanagan.”
call number FIC LAN
What They Found: Love On 145th Street:”…love can be found, and can thrive in unlikely places.” call number FIC MYE
All the short story titles above are shelved in the fiction area of the library.
Does your taste run to history? We have a great book describing the American Dust Bowl of the 1930’s. The Worst Hard Times: The Untold Story Of Those Who Survived The Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan call number 973.917 GA
ECOLOGY PROJECT FOR BIOLOGY September 11, 2008
Posted by Ms. Klemundt in Help with Assignments.add a comment
Here are some ways to get started with your research.
Search for books in library catalogs. If you’re searching your public library catalog, search for the animal’s name but also do a Subject Browse for “Endangered species.” You will find books that contain information about many different endangered species and there should be a chapter or an entry about your particular species. If you only search by the animal’s name you may miss some good sources. A Subject Browse in the Niles Public Library catalog for Endangered species netted 154 hits, so there are lots of good books out there.
If your project is on a biome, use the name of the biome or “biomes” as a Keyword search. You can also use “Biotic communities” in a Subject search and get good results.
The Res Library has a number of books on animals, including a set we just purchased last spring. See my April 17 blog post for more information. You may also want to look at the 3-volume set, Endangered Species by Sonia Benson and Rob Nagel (on our shelves at REF 333.9542 BEN) and Endangered : Wildlife on the Brink of Extinction by George McGavin (on our shelves at REF 333.952 MCG). Search the Res Library catalog for more books.
We also recently purchased a set on individual biomes. They are listed in the June 4 blog post. And you might want to browse the 570s in the Res Library on both the Reference and the circulating sides for more good books.
There are 4 electronic databases we subscribe to that you might want to search. The links are listed below. You will need a blue sheet from the Res Library with the usernames and passwords in order to access these databases.
- Britannica Online (http://www.school.eb.com) Start here for good basic information on your animal (including its taxonomic name) or your biome. This database has 3 separate encyclopedias covering grades K-12 so make sure you choose “Encyclopedia Britannica” for material at your level before you start searching.
- EBSCO Science Reference Center (http://search.ebscohost.com) Once you login, choose the ”EBSCOhost Research Databases” link to get to the Science Reference Center. If you use the Advanced Search screen you can limit your search by date so you get only recent material. Check the left-side menu on your Results List to help you narrow your search by Subject.
- Reader’s Guide Full Text Select (http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/hww/) This is a general database and you may end up with many hits. If you are researching an animal, try searching for your animal along with the word “endangered.” For example, enter “ostrich AND endangered” (without quotation marks) in the search box. Use the left-side menu to help you narrow your results by Subject. You might also want to click the “Feature articles” checkbox so you retrieve articles that are at least a couple of pages long.
- FACTS.com Today’s Science (http://www.2facts.com) There are a couple of good, but perhaps dated, overviews of biomes here. Search under both “biome” and “biomes” because you get slightly different results for each search. Try searching for animals but I don’t think this database is your best bet for that.
Some websites that might be useful:
- BBC Science & Nature, Animals (http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals) The “Wildfacts” and “Conservation” sections will be the most helpful.
- The World’s Biomes (http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/exhibits/biomes/) An excellent introduction from the University of California Museum of Paleontology.
- Wildlife Conservation Society (http://www.wcs.org) You can use the Search box or you can click on “Global Conservation” and then click on either “Places We Save” or “Priority Species” for more information.
- The National Zoo (http://nationalzoo.si.edu) The “Animals, etc.” and “Conservation & Science” tabs are both good entry points for the information on this site.
- WorldBiomes.com (http://www.worldbiomes.com) Provides an overview of the various biomes. The left-side frame highlights good print resources and the right-side frame highlights interesting web resources.
- Encyclopedia of Life (http://www.eol.org) This site is a work in progress. If your animal is included it’s a terrific source of information. If your animal isn’t on there yet, well, I guess you need to try somewhere else! If you do find your animal, look at the left-side Table of Contents for an outline of all of the information that is available.
- Major Biomes of the World (http://www.runet.edu/~swoodwar/CLASSES/GEOG235/biomes/main.html) This module is geared for college students and might be a bit dated, but it still has good basic information.
- Macaulay Library Sound & Video Library (http://animalbehaviorarchive.org) This site is sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology but it contains sound and video for all kinds of animals, not just birds. Although you won’t be able to import sound or video into your paper (darn!), these clips might help you understand the adaptation mechanisms of your animal a little bit better.
- Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History (http://cbc.amnh.org/center/programs/wwd.html) Click on “Research (place-based)” if you’re studying a biome or “Research (species-based)” if you’re studying an animal.
- World Wildlife Fund (http://www.worldwildlife.org) The “Places” and “Species” tabs will be the most helpful. If you click the “Climate” tab and then look on the left-side menu, click on the “Publications” link to get some excellent reports.
You will, no doubt, find other good websites. But make sure you know who is authoring the site. It will be really embarrassing if you use a website that turns out to be the work of a 5th-grader in Idaho!
Don’t forget to check the bibliographies at the end of books, articles, and websites. They can often lead you to more sources. Take advantage of the research that has been done by others.
And come and talk to one of us in the Libray if you need help with your research.
PLOT SUMMARIES September 8, 2008
Posted by Ms. Klemundt in Help with Assignments.add a comment
For students in Mrs. Martin’s American Lit classes, here are a couple of places to look for plot summaries:
- Gale Literature Resource Center (http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/reshs) This is one of our subscription databases so you will need our password which is on the blue sheets available in the library. If you didn’t get one when we worked together in the computer lab this week, stop by the library. Once you’ve logged in, type the title of the book you are searching and make sure the radio button next to “Name of Work” is checked. Then scroll down to the “by content type” table. For targeted searches, make sure that ONLY the “Topic & Work Overviews” box is checked. Check your Results List for articles published in Novels for Students; these articles provide excellent plot summaries.
- Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com) Search by title and try to pick a book rather than a movie from the Results List. Then scroll down to “Editorial Reviews” and click on “See all Editorial Reviews.” Some place in one of the reviews you will get a pretty good plot summary.
As always, let us know if you are having trouble finding what you need. And we look forward to seeing you once you start researching!
PROJECT RESEARCH September 3, 2008
Posted by Ms. Klemundt in Science Fair.add a comment
[I've edited this post and added some of the points I covered in my presentations. Hopefully, this will make it more useful.]
Background reading on your topic is crucial! You need to invest the time and read good articles, chapters of books, etc. even if you can’t cite them in your bibliography. Background reading will help you gain a solid understanding of the various aspects of your project and of the issues and questions surrounding your topic or experiment. It is also an important way to gather search terms and expand your search vocabulary. The better your understanding of terms and concepts, the better able you will be to modify your searches in order to gather the most and the best of the available materials.
When you search library catalogs you will probably not find whole books on your specific project. Therefore, you will have to broaden your search terms. For example, if you are studying the reactions of a specific acid, you might have to search for books about acids and bases and use the Table of Contents or index to find specific information about your acid.
Here are the links from the presentation on starting your Science Fair Project research. Some of these links are to Res subscription databases, so if you did not get a blue sheet with the usernames and passwords, stop by the library and pick one up.
Some databases to use:
- EBSCO Science Reference Center (http://search.epnet.com) Don’t forget to use the Advanced Search screen. Then you can set your Date of Publication range, choose a Publication Type (use Control-click to select more than one Publication Type to search), search only peer-reviewed journals, retrieve articles that are cover stories (for greater depth of content), and search within the entire text of the article in order to retrieve more sources.
- FirstSearch (http://firstsearch.oclc.org) Once you’re logged in, choose “List All Databases” to select the databases you wish to search. You can search up to 3 databases at a time. The best ones to start with are ArticleFirst, ECO, and WilsonSelectPlus. If you are doing something that relates to education or psychology, try ERIC. If are doing some related to health or medicine, chooose Medline. Again, use the Advanced Search screen to limit the dates of publication and to rank your results by date, with the most recent coming first in the list.
- Public Library of Science (http://www.plos.org) There are 7 online journals which are listed along the right side. Try searching more than one journal. All of the articles in all of the journals are peer-reviewed. This is pretty advanced stuff but if you persevere, you will be rewarded!
- Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com) Use this as a discovery tool and remember to use the Advanced Search screen so you can limit by date. You will not find full text, but if you find good articles or chapters from books, we can try and get them for you through interlibrary loan. If the source of the article is JSTOR, you can go to a Chicago Public Library branch and access that database from there in order to find the article.
- FACTS.com Today’s Science (http://www.2facts.com) This is good for background reading and overviews.
- Readers’ Guide Full Text Select (http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/hww/) This database is geared for the general reader so you will not find peer-reviewed articles, but you may still find useful articles.
- Current Issues : Health (http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/hww/) This database is geared for students.
- And don’t forget the electronic databases available through your local public library.
If you find a citation to an article in any of these databases, but not the full text, print out the citation and bring it to the library and we will try and get it for you through interlibrary loan. Just remember to allow enough time for this. Don’t forget to look at the bibliographies at the end of articles, books, and websites. These lists can lead you to more good resources.
Citation/Bibliography Help:
- Oregon School Library Information System (http://www.oslis.org/resources/cm/apacitations) There is an online citation maker but see the caution below. Scroll down to “Citation Resources” along the right side for “APA Citation Examples.” This is an excellent resource to help you correctly format your citations. We have a copy in the library if you’d like to look at it.
- Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (we have the latest print edition in the library)
- Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University, APA Formatting and Style Guide (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01) In addition to help with formatting your bibliography, the OWL site has excellent help with learning how to cite a source within the text of your paper.
Always double-check any online citation maker, including MicroSoft Word. They don’t always format the citation correctly, especially if it deviates from the typical citation for that format. Bring your bibliography to the library (or even e-mail it to us) and we will be happy to look it over and make corrections. But, dear Procrastinators, please don’t bring it or e-mail it 10 minutes before you have to hand it in!
If you decide you want to try using a social bookmarking site to help you keep track of Science Fair websites, articles, and citations, here’s the home page for Delicious (http://delicious.com/). If you’re not sure or want some help putting this tool to work for you, stop by and see me.
Come see us to discuss your research and we will be happy to help. If you didn’t receive a presentation handout or you were absent or, heaven forfend, you lost yours, we have extras in the library.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE CLASS September 1, 2008
Posted by Ms. Klemundt in Help with Assignments, Web Resources.add a comment
Here are the links to the websites listed on your handout. Don’t forget to stop in the library on a regular basis and browse our print magazines for appropriate articles. And let us know if you find other good websites for finding articles.
Res Subscription Databases. You will need the proper username and password from the blue sheets available in the Library. Consult the handout for tips on how to efficiently search these databases.
- EBSCO Science Reference Center (http://search.epnet.com)
- Reader’s Guide Full Text Select (http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/hww/)
Newspapers, Magazines, and Online Databases.
- Christian Science Monitor (http://www.csmonitor.com)
- Chicago Tribune (http://www.chicagotribune.com)
- Chicago Sun-Times (http://www.chicagosuntimes.com)
- New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com)
- Public Library of Science (http://www.plos.org)
- Chicago Wilderness magazine (http://www.chicagowildernessmag.org)
- Audubon Society magazine (http://www.audubonmagazine.org)
- Nature Conservancy magazine (http://www.nature.org/magazine/)
