Christmas Webquest

The holidays are here and it's time to have fun as well as develop our Internet skills. Let's take this adventure Webquest and explore some Internet resources.

So, our task in this Webquest is simple — find out where we should look for Santa. [All clipart from http://www.webweaver.nu/clipart/christmas-santa.shtml]

What are we going to do? Well, follow the clues in the Webquest. To do this, you'll need to:

1. Read instructions and follow them carefully.
2. Visit each of the Websites, navigate them, and find the answer to a question or problem, whichever is required with each instruction.
3. Learn what types of information you find in biographies and geographical resources.
   
4. Take notes carefully, so you write down the full information required for each step of the instructions.
   
5. Compile all of your information by following the instructions in the "solve the problem" section of the Webquest.
   
6. Use your critical thinking skills to put together all of the clues and come up with the right answer!
   

Gather the CLUES:
So here are your resources. At each Website you visit along the way you're going to get a clue while you're carrying out whatever task is involved. Let's go!

• CLUE #1: A biography is the story of a life. Read the biography at: http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=38 and write down the date (month and day) of the feast day when much of Europe celebrates this saint's life.
  


• CLUE #2: Watch the following video and write down the two words that appear on the screen for the last few seconds.

• CLUE #3: Who does this Web site provide a brief biography of? http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/santa.asp



• CLUE #4: Use this map to identify and write down the name of the location situated at latitude 90 degrees North and longitude 0 degrees West. http://www.athropolis.com/map2.htm

SOLVE THE PROBLEM
So now, let's solve the problem, where should we look for Santa?
The sentence below is the answer, so you're going to use the clues you uncovered to fill in the blanks:

Every _____________, at __________________, you'll find

___________ __________ at the ____________ ___________.


This is how you'll put in the clues:

Every (use the first word of the two words that solved clue #1 above), at (use the second word of the two words that solves clue #2 above), you'll find (use both words of the name that solves clue #3 above), at the (use both words of the clue that solves #4 above).

So, if you were resourceful at finding all the clues, this is what you'll see at your house sometime late at night on Christmas Eve!



Learn with Linda: Library Training Certificate or Introduction to Internet Writing Markets

RFID Changing Libraries

In the last two decades libraries have changed dramatically due to technology and the Internet.

Here's a great May, 2008 video detailing the changes in technology in one library and how the use of technology can help keep libraries important in the future.



RFID or Radio Frequency Identification has revolutionized library circulation duties. While not every library can afford RFID technology, it's certainly something to explore.

Let's watch some YouTube videos to learn more about library circulation and RFID.

This video was a student project from some students at UBC and explains how the technology works.



Now that you understand how RFID works, let's see it in action in an actual library. This one is from the Warren Newport Library.



Wouldn't you love to work at the new Rochester Library new book drop off that has automatic sorting? Watch this You Tube video for a preview.



This video is a humorous look at security gates and how they work!



Learn with Linda: Library Training Certificate or Introduction to Internet Writing Markets

Tricks Searching With Google

Google is the first choice search engine for many Net surfers. So, let's do some learning activities using some of Google's great search features.

First, you'll want to watch this excellent YouTube video from PCWizKid on how to search using Google:



1. Let's try the Google search within a single domain using the command site:domain.com [the www. is not part of the domain name and this search is usually most effective without www]

For example, imagine a search for horses in that domain and this is what you'd type into Google:
horses site:domain.com



Let's look in the Government of Canada Career Handbook for information about becoming a library technician. The handbook at http://www23.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/ch/e/docs/ch_welcome.asp doesn't have a search engine, so the site command will mean you don't have to search through individual sections to find your information.

Tip: You'll have more success if you search a domain, rather than a sub-domain, because you won't know the actual Web address for the content of the Handbook. So, you need to use the Google search only on the actual domain name here, which is: hrdc-drhc.gc.ca

Tip: You can use quotation marks with the site search, so you can use "library technician" as your search phrase, so that the words library and technician must be side by side in the returned results.

Did you find it? If so, count how many different job titles are usually associated with this area!

2. Imagine you were looking for information about the movie, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, that you saw when you were in high school (imagine that was in the 1980s!), rather than the newer versions that have been released. All you'd do would be to use the Google number search query that would look like this: Hitchhikers Guide 1980..1990



Now use the Google number search to find out what mountain peaks in Montana are between 6000 and 7000 elevation for the Scouts trip you're going on, where you want a challenge but not too great of one!

Find a few? If so, name one of Montana's mountain peaks between 6000 and 7000 elevation.

3. Sometimes you want to find an article you remember reading online and just can't remember what query you used to get there. You can use a few different commands to help you.

If you remember the title, say, Interview methods in online research, you can use the intitle or allintitle commands in Google to locate the article by specifically searching just for titles of articles. If you use allintitle: Interview Methods in Online Research — all of the words will be used in the title search, so you'll only get an exact match.



If you use the intitle command, you can use it with each word to have the same effect as the allintitle, but it would have to look like — intitle: Interview intitle: Methods intitle: Online intitle: Research. If you use just — intitle: Interview Methods in Online Research — you'll get results that use the first word, Interview, in the title (since it's the word directly after the command intitle), and all the other words somewhere else in the body of the document (or possibly in the title, but that's not guaranteed).

So, to practice, imagine you've quoted the Internet article, Building Earth's Largest Library, but didn't write down the author for it. Find the article using one of the title commands and find the author.

Who wrote Building Earth's Largest Library?

For more tips check Google's tips at: http://www.google.com/help/operators.html
and http://www.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=searchguides.html&ctx=advanced&hl=en

Learn with Linda: Library Training Certificate or Introduction to Internet Writing Markets