Journal -- Week 3

Part 1. Reflections on Course Content
Organizing information assignment was very helpful because I never thought to organize my music until this assignment. Organizing is one thing that I really need help with because it makes my life easier. The database assignment was interesting and helpful and I learned a lot from this assignment. I used the Seattle Community College library catalog to do the assignment for the database and also went to ProQuest Periodical Database. The library catalog assignment was very helpful and easy to use. To complete this assignment I went online to WVC's library catalog to find books on my topic. I learned on the database assignment that when using the advanced search in the library catalog it was helpful to change the dropdown menu to title to narrow down my results. In ProQuest when you were searching it was nice when they gave you suggested topics because it narrowed down your results.

Part 2. Applications to your Life
I enjoyed all of the assignments this week. I am still having problems with making my topic global but hopefully I will have that fixed by the weekend. The problems that I am still having is how many words I am using in my searches. It is not working out for me but I am paying attention to the Search Tips that they have on each site so hopefully week 4 assignments will be easier when I am searching. I also was not able to find the subject encyclopedias to complete my field trip assignment but I plan on going back there because I want to see if this will help me with my topic. I felt very comfortable with the assignments this weeks. I was able to move around on all the sites and eventually find what I was looking for, it took me a little bit before I was able to find my community college library catalog but I accomplished this task. I kept up with my calendar, daily planner and schedule all week and it worked out well for me.

Journal - Week 2

Part 1. Reflections on Course Content
For my assignments this week I used the web links that were in our readings this week. I also used Seattle Central Community College Library system, the Internet Public Library, the Librarian's Internet Index, Britannica Online and ProQuest. All of these sites were very helpful in completing my assignments. These web sites were very easy to move around in and very easy to find what I was looking for about my topic. You definitely have to use specific terms to get better results in your searches. When you use too many terms in your searches you get a bunch of results that don't have anything to do with your search. You spend a bunch of time reading the title and some of the article realizing that it has nothing to do with your search. I need to work on the specific terms so that I can narrow my searches to get the information I need and not make it so time consuming.

Part 2. Applications to you Life
I especially enjoyed the Academic Library Service for Distance Learners and the Web for Research assignments. These assignments made it very helpful to me for finding information, I am so glad we had to complete these assignments because it is going to help me out a lot this quarter. The Global Research Topics assignment was very helpful because this helped me to complete my Topic Proposal Assignment. I also enjoyed setting up a blog. It was very easy to do and interesting. The only problem that I ran into was getting on the Britannica Online at the Seattle Central Community College Library system. I tried and tried for days and finally accomplished it today. I found so much information on my topic, I was very pleased with Britannica Online. My personal learning and time and stress management went well for this week. I did homework during my quiet times of the day and at night, I also got online every evening and if possible during the day. I followed my planner, calendars and schedule and they really do help out with managing my time and stress. Thank you for the information on time management because I really needed it.

Setting Up My Blog

It was actually very simple to do even with my children constantly interrupting me. I think the hardest thing was coming up with a Blog Title, so I chose what my cousins, nieces, and nephews call me because they could not say Virginia when they were learning how to talk. I always wondered how to set up a blog and now I am glad I learned. It was a lot of fun without any catastrophes.