Thing 17 - ELM Productivity Tools

ELM really has a lot of powerful tools, but I finished this Thing with a bad experience with NetLibrary--while logged in, at the end of my search, looking at my eContent book, I kept getting booted to a Log In screen. A few times I managed to look at pages within the book, but I was never able to add notes. So, I give a "thumbs down" to NetLibrary. Which is really too bad, because it looks very helpful.

1. Create a Search Alert. This activity was easy to do, now that the bugs had been worked out in the process of capturing the RSS feed. Thank you to all of you early finishers! I created an EBSCO search on (okay, this may sound boring)...the Old Testament, choosing only peer-reviewed journals that were available in full-text. I also wanted only English articles, so I limited it to keyword=English (I couldn't figure out any other way to do it). I successfully added my search alert to my Bloglines account.

2. EBSCO Page Composer. This was kind of fun. I can see a use for this (as I stated in my web page) as a place to keep notes and links about searching in EBSCO, for sharing or just for record-keeping.

I read in the comments for this Thing that it really isn't necessary to "save the webpage." The page is assigned space inside my account. So I didn't attempt that. I did confirm that the webpage stuck around, did not vanish into thin air.

3. ProQuest - Create a web page. This was easy; I emailed the html file to myself and my husband (since I'm working these Things on my own). I also downloaded the file to my computer. There was a handy help function on the screen that helped me a lot.

I can see a real use for this product in helping develop a reading list for a research project. It could be very handy for students and other patrons.

I, too, had a terrible time trying to look at the videos. I'm still clocking on one of them! Well, I guess I kept hitting the link, trying to bring it up. I only attempted the first video.

4. NetLibrary. Grrr! I followed the instructions to the letter (I think) but still kept getting the Log In screen (even though my name appeared at the top of the screen as being logged in, and NetLibrary knew what book I was looking at. Maybe they were doing maintenance to the thing at the time I was trying to work? (it was kind of late at night). I might add a note to follow up on this Thing after the 23 Things on a Stick is done.

Yikes! Six Things left to do!

Thing 16 -- Student 2.0 Tools

The Assignment Calculator and Research Project Calculator (RPC) are very cool! I wish they'd been around when I was in high school, or that I had known about them in my college years.

I browsed through them both (although the RPC seems to have a lot more to offer, in terms of support materials and links). The Assignment Calculator provides a lot of great practical hints for the U of M student. It is geared to a research paper format, providing a 12-step research guide and timeline for the project. It recommends resources and strategies for completion of the paper.

The RPC offers guidelines for two other project types -- slideshow, and video. I don't know how often those types of projects are done in the secondary environment, but the availability allows for "compare and contrast" activity. The RPC site had some great support materials. The Glossary of Terms would be helpful to a student struggling with concepts, and the teacher or librarian trying to assist her. The MEMO Standards for Information and Technology Literacy are linked to, as well as the Metronet Information Literacy Initiative (MILI) "dribbling exercises."

I added links on my blog to many of these things -- they are so valuable! I've always thought that information literacy is of utmost importance to the student, the school, and the library, and there is so much here that is helpful.

I would love to have a chance to show the RPC to a secondary student. I think that they would appreciate the automation idea, the way that the tool helps them organize and to plan their time to accomplish the goal. The RPC is really easy to use -- I entered a "calculation" for the remainder of Things that I need to complete for this project, and emailed the overview to myself.

In the same way that I linked to these tools on my blog, I think that libraries could link to them on their webpages, on the first page of a separate youth page, or even on the main page. So much great work has been done already, and the library (school or public) should take advantage of it.

It would be great to have school and public libraries work together when research projects are assigned, focusing on these tools. Kids often come to the public library, looking for books on a topic, but if the librarian had a "heads up" on the assignment, the end result would be better. If the teacher, the school library, and the public library were all using the same tools, no doubt, the student would benefit.