It is really hard to pinpoint the best sites! I learned quite a bit of information that I did not know that was available through the South Dakota State Library! I personally liked the The World book Online & The Learning Express. Of course, I love learning about animals so the World Book was very interesting to me!
The Learning Express seems to be such a helpful site that anyone can use and benefit from!
 Now that I have the knowledge that there is useful information located in the South Dakota State Library, I will have another way to give patrons more researching options. Many times there are patrons looking for information that lies in a book and unfortunately we don't always have the certain book they are looking for. Thanks to the South Dakota State Library for making this valuable information available, I will now have more ideas for them!

It was quite interesting looking up my own name under the AncestryLibrary site. I actually found my name listed in there! Basically it listed where I lived with addresses that were very close to my own. I also did a little more searching and found pictures of me in yearbooks in school! It is crazy that all of this information can be located in the site! I had forgotten just how much I looked like a "boy" in school after seeing those "lovely" pictures!!
Next, I looked up my grandfather on my father's side, George Folkert Schriever in the census. Upon looking up this information, I realized how much I did not know about him. All I could list was his full name and the day he died. I didn't even know the year he was born!  The amazing thing was that even though that was all I knew, he still came up under my search! It also listed his parents and his siblings. What an awesome site! I hope to research this site more when time allows!
There were 3,615,253 listings of pictures available. There were pictures of baseball teams, soldiers, even of historical buildings and towns in South Dakota. What a great assortment of pictures throughout South Dakota. Someone doing a report or simply just showing their children the history of South Dakota would definitely benefit from this!
HeritageQuest is another great site to use for searching history. You would definitely need some useful information to get started. I would like to take more time to research within this site. I like that there is such a variety of things you can learn within.
Sanborn Maps is such a neat site! I love the fact you have so many town maps available to pick from when researching. The town map I chose was Parker,SD where I live. I found The First Presbyterian Church, 
where I currently am a member, located in the map. We are very fortunate today that people from many years ago kept good records. It is also great that all of these maps were put into a State site for all to enjoy!

In the ArchiveGrid I looked up Sitting Bull and found he was a Native American shaman or medicine man. He led the Cheyenne Warriors against the United States at the Battle of Bighorn. Sitting Bull toured with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show. He was eventually shot and killed while resisting arrest for his beliefs in the ritual Ghost Dance! I typed in Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show in the search box and came up with 46 different forms of information. When I changed my search to add quotation marks to my search, I found that only 2 forms of information came up. The institutions that had materials for use were Cornell University Library and Smithonian Institution.  Just changing how you search for information can determine what you will find!

I was not aware that Paul Revere did anything like this. He was a man that made silver tea, coffee sets, etc.
It was nice to actually see the pictures, instead of just reading about them. The Sioux Indians utilized so much of their land and surroundings to create so many different items.  They made such a vast variety of useful things for their families!

To be honest, I don't really have a favorite artist. I chose to research Albert Bierstadt. 
At our small town library, we applied for a grant to receive the beautiful pictures  in the Picturing America program. What a great way to add art to the library! Thus the reason, I picked the artist Albert Bierstadt for the beautiful picture of the Grand Canyon that hangs upon the upstairs library balcony .
He has painted so many wonderful paintings! Besides having the pictures to view, it also lists what museum that it calls home. Anyone in our town & surrounding communities would be pleased to find the many wonderful art pieces that can be accessed through CAMIO.

I went through some of the paintings listed on this site. There was such a great assortment of different paintings by so many well known artists and actually some I had not heard of before. I added 4 paintings to my favorites list. It was nice to have the option on how to view them and also to edit them if needed.

I am amazed how many different ways there are to look up a book in the Worldcat resource! I chose to research the book Holes by Louis Sachar. When I looked under Title Phrase search, I came up with 280 records found. There were 3,963 libraries worldwide that carry some type of record of it. Black Hills State University was the top library on the list. The call number listed is PZ7.S1185 and the Dewey is listed as fiction. This way of cataloging is different then I am used to. We usually go by AF, JF, TF EF, etc. I  also found that by clicking on the author's name, I found all of the other books he had written. He has been very busy!
As I scrolled down to the subjects that are in this book I clicked on a certain subject and it brought different book titles that had these similar ideas in them. A person could go on & on to find out more information and books. So much information right at my fingertips!

Next, I did the research on the OAIster program by typing in South Dakota. I selected Sylvan Lake, B. & M.R.R. I was pleasantly surprised to see it was a picture of Sylvan Lake Hotel. How beautiful it must have been in the 1800's!! Whenever I go to the Hills, I try to see this lake and I can't imagine there ever being anything there. The picture is located in Colorado listed with information about it as well as that it can be purchased. There is so much history out there if we really want it! The research tools are endless in the South Dakota State Library!!

I researched the T-rex dinosaur that was found in South Dakota that was given the name Sue. I found one book on the fight over who owns her. She now resides in Chicago at their museum. When I first tried to access the book, I kept coming up with the book already being in use. It took me awhile to figure it out.I must have been doing something totally wrong at first!

I have 3 titles I will list for the Constitution Day. I did not see anywhere that said which books are for certain ages. I am not sure if I missed that information.
Letters by Jefferson, Thomas
The Constitution, the Law and Freedom of Expression, 1787-1987 by Stewart, James Brewer
Burger, Warren. E
Constitution of the Confederate States

I looked up Oklahoma. My first thought when the books came up was that they were all about different subjects. That really threw me off until I realized why I put in pb publisher. I was looking up a publisher and not a specific subject!! Funny how some days everything comes so easily and the next not so much!!

I chose to look into the book title "Endangered Species". Inside this book was a section on the American Bison. There was just enough information located in it to do a small report on how the numbers of the bison have changed over the years. There was even a map to find where they are located in the world. I really like the fact you could change the format to full text or pdf. The other feature that I found great was the opportunity to switch reading between a single page or two pages to view it.

I looked up the subject Multiple Sclerosis. First it listed what it was, then symptoms, causes, etc. I found there was helpful information in the articles. My mother passed away at the age of 43 of Multiple Sclerosis when I was only ten years old. It was interesting to read all of the information.

I am going to check out some of the other blogs and see what I missed!

I researched the lives of women in prison in the proquest site. The information given was so extensive that I had a difficult time in walking away from the computer. I found myself reading on and on. It was great to find that the information was listed in a summary or full text form!  It even had search tips if you became stumped! Proquest was listed as a resource for k-12, but I would have to disagree. The information is definitely above the minds of the younger children.
I took the time to read through some of the other blog's. It was nice to get another perspective on different ways to interpret the same information.
I looked up the magazine "Ranger Rick". My kids used to get it in the mail when they were little. They were so excited to look at them! The information is so detailed in this site, when, where, date, etc. I do think it would take me more time to reasearch proquest to get better aquainted.

I used the animal the snow leopard to research for the SIRS Discoverer.  There were so many articles to pick from that anyone would have adequate information to choose from. The part I thought was great was that they were labeled with easy to moderate reading levels. It saves kids that extra time involved in going through so many articles.

When I searched through the Data Base Features I went into the country facts, maps of the world, and biographies. I looked at Eygpyt and the facts it had listed for the country. Wow having all the information in one article would just be time saved!
  The map of Hawaii was very detailed, listing national parks, etc. This would enhance any report or power point presentation! It even listed articles to read about that particular state.
   I also looked up biographies in the Data Base. Abraham Lincoln was the person I chose to research.  It makes doing reports that much easier to do if the web sites are user friendly. My boys really like to read history of any kind so this would be fun for them to check into!

I looked up using cellphones in school, the pros and cons of it. This listed the articles that you could research and make your own choice of which way to lean. I think the world has changed so much over the years, for the good and bad! Personally, I am not sold on letting kids have their phones in school. I would need to do more research. The pathfinders section was also very informative. I think its great that whatever one would be looking for they not have any problems finding it.

The test experience went very well on the Learning Express once I figured out what I was doing. I am not very computer savy so sometimes it goes a little slower than I like!  I really liked how the correct answers were given after the test was scored. I could review what I had done and see how well I did or did not do.
The nice thing about taking the courses on The Learning Express that I could study at my leisure, which makes life a little easier to juggle with all that is going on in the world today.

When I was attending school as a child the only way I could get any information for a report was to get it from an encyclopedia. Sometimes in class I was given the opportunity to send a letter to that certain place I needed information from and hope I would get any response by mail! Things have changed so much since then.
I picked New Zealand as the country to read about on the World Book Online Reference Center. It is amazing how much information is really on this site. It covers so many different things! I would hope that anyone that would use this site would have all their questions answered and they would leave it satisfied with all the information.

I researched the panda in the two different sites. There are two different pandas, the giant panda and the red panda. I never knew there was a red panda that resembles a raccoon! Unfortunately they are both are in danger of dying out.

The nice part about the world book for kids was great for just needing a small amount of information, but yet enough information to learn a few facts about Pandas. The world book info finder held a great deal of more detailed information including the appoximate weights, size and foods they enjoy. I would find either site helpful!

I have never blogged a day in my life so this should be interesting! I am a library aide at a small library but find that working here for the last ten years, I am still learning. I really like the World Book and the Learning Express sites, they are so full of information. I have learned alot and look forward to the next lesson!