Thing #1 Access Information

1. Text
Since my project focus is a book trailer using a specific title, I did a title search in Aquabrowser using “Surfer of the Century.” The resulting word cloud gave me other keyword, subject, tag possibilities for this book such as surfing, Olympics, swimming, Duke Kahanamoku, and Hawaii. I like the fact you can easily refine the search by topical subject, personal subject (biography), genre subject (fiction, non-fiction) and series in the event one wanted to create a unit of study around a particular book or topic. Searching the SBISD subscription databases is as easy as clicking on “Log in to search article databases.” I like the way it seamlessly searches all the databases without having to go to each one individually. The only drawback is having to log in to each one if one is not conducting the search on a district networked computer.

2. Search Engines
Bing
I found better images here (than at Google or Flickr) and some obscure information about Duke Kahanamoku using this Microsoft supported search engine. Students will like the ease of using “Related Searches” and viewing the “Search History,” which are both prominently displayed in the left-hand margin. It also pinpoints and displays the location from where one is searching in the top right-hand corner. A tab for Wikipedia is notably displayed and useful for those seeking quick information from that source as well.
Clusty
This metasearch engine gives the user the ability to narrow a search by the type of extension: .com, .gov, .org, etc…, which is a tool used when evaluating websites. Give this search engine a round of applause! It also gives a summary of other search engines used for its results, and since Bing and Ask were included in the keyword search for Duke Kahanamoku, I might just skip the other two and use Clusty. I like the cloud of related topics and the ability to “remix” the cloud and find other combinations of associated terms. Finally, the ability to preview an article instead of having to click on the link and lose the search results page is an added bonus.
Wolfram-Alpha
This site is mostly about computation related topics, so when I used Duke Kahanamoku as the topic the results displayed a table of all of his Olympic events, medals and time results. Neat! A box of suggested uses for the site includes an “enter any date” search that when I entered by birth date found mathematical expressions for my age, events, anniversaries, observances, and daylight/nighttime/moon cycle information. Students and science, music, and math teachers will love this site. I noticed on an advertisement for the Wolfram-Alpha app for the iPad that is interactive, engaging, and is bound to be a winner with all.

3. Databases
Aquabrowser
The database search I conducted through Aquabrowser combed through the SBISD subscription databases for information about Duke Kahanamoku with good results.
The Library of Congress American Memory
This site was new to me. It has some archived images of Duke Kahanamoku taken by the Chicago Daily News in the early 1900s. All images are available for educational use with proper citation.

4. Social Networking Sites
YouTube
This site has good video sources of actual footage of Duke Kahanamoku surfing and an interview about with him about his accomplishments.
delicious
This bookmarking site listed many of the sites I had seen about Duke Kahanamoku when I searched the search engines and databases. This is a great site for bookmarking sites the librarian compiles for grade level or individual classroom use.

5. Visuals
Copyright-friendly Wiki
I will be linking the copyright-friendly wiki to my library site for easy use by students and teachers. It has a good variety of sites from which to choose. I like the Navigation bar on the left-hand side with links to everything from copyright-friendly music and sound to sound effects and a MLA style sheet.