Week 4: Gale Virtual Reference Library

1-2. I overlooked the "Show all" option previously. It's interesting to see what publications are available in each field. Some of the reference books listed were outdated. For example, I searched for wind energy and GVRL came up with 15 matches. Only 4 of them were less than 4 years old. However, although the type of sort defaults to "relevance", it can be changed to publication date. Students at our school would need to be careful about which which reference books they'd use, as our English teachers don't encourage articles more than 4 years old.

I went into an article on wind energy in Alternative Energy. I liked the related subjects list that came up off to the left side: wind power, windmills, turbines, electric measurement, etc.

Wow! I wish that last spring I'd known what I know now about GVRL. One of the suggested research paper topics our Senior English teacher gave her students was on alternative energy. I brushed over GVRL with our seniors, but wasn't really impressed/informed about it, and I'm sure that showed to the students. I'll be more positive about its potential this year.

I went into the article about Wind Energy, and it was incredibly thorough. It explained what wind energy was, the history of windmills in Europe and North America, and the decline and revival of windmills. It also went into the environmental, societal, and economical impacts of windmills, and then highlighted those impacts for wind turbines as well. It discussed the benefits and drawbacks of both windmills and wind turbines. I enjoyed scrolling through the pictures before sinking my teeth into the article.

It appears that one can have the text read aloud and follow along below. Articles can be translated into 11 different languages, but I couldn't find a way for them to be read outloud.

I was the least informed about this online database. Once again, I appreciate this class being offered in the summer when there is a little more time to explore.