WorldCat/FirstSearch

WorldCat- I recently ILL a book titled The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. When I searched this title I found that 729 libraries worldwide had this title.  The top library listed was Brookings Public Library. I clicked into the record for this book to find that the call number is 833.9. This was a convenient assignment to do today because the patron that I ILL the book for wanted to know what other books were out there by Thomas Mann. I clicked on the authors name and found lots of records that were related to him in some way. From my finding he is listed in over 19,000 records. This author had such a wide variety of works from short stories to novels that were turned into movies well after he had passed away. This search was very useful in finding a list of books, short stories etc. that my patron interested in this author may want to read. I found much more relevant information by clicking on his name in WorldCat than if I had done a Google search for a list of his works.

FirstSearch Indexs- I found the “i” icon helpful in explaining the types of information that can be found in each database and who the information is geared towards. I played around looking at some of the other databases and did some searching in ERIC – a database for journal articles and reports in education. FYI there is some interesting articles there!

OAIster - I searched South Dakota (with selecting Subject Phrase.) I clicked into something with the title Wounded Knee Massacre in South Dakota, January 1, 1891.  I clicked on the Access tab and it led me to a very very disturbing photo of America soldiers gathering up dead Sioux Indians after the Wounded Knee Massacre. I looked at a few of the other records that came up and clicked on the Access tab, some of those also led me to historical pictures.  This is a way to find historical pictures, or pictures of historical documents that have been scanned into the databases.