Searching #78: Video

I was watching the Ellen Degeneres Show on TV and then I went to work and read the assignment for this post and thought about searching for a video from the Let's Dance portion of her show that day. I used Blinkx and Truveo to try and find it but ended up going straight to Ellen's website, searched for it there and found it. Even after I had the name of the particular clip I couldn't find it using Blinkx but it came right up with Truveo. When I typed in Ellen Degeneres Show February 4 I got 4 results from Truveo whereas I got 47,000 results with Blinkx and in this case Truveo did not list the particular clip I was looking for, though it's from the show on February 4th. I don't know if is was among the 47,000 clips on Blinkx but then I wasn't going to look through that many. Suffice it to say it wasn't on the first page of results. If I were looking for a particular video I might not use a video search engine to find it and would probably go to a different, more direct source. However if your just browsing I'd use Truveo, Blinkx, YouTube or Hulu.

I've not only explored HCPL’s YouTube channel, I've uploaded videos to it. When I was at the Fairbanks branch I made some video (using the branch camera) of a Guitar Hero event we had at the branch during Teen Tech Week. If you want to check these out go to our channel and look for FB Celebrating Teen Tech Week.

Find more videos like this on www.truveo.com.

Video from The Ellen Degeneres Show
Image credit: http://www.medgear.org/entry/save-your-child-from-dvds-overuse/

Searching #77: Images

Using AllFreeClipArt was just an exercise in patience as far as I was concerned. I never found a color Santa that didn't look like a troll but I could have guessed this from the very first page. My father always said you get what you pay for. In this case if your not willing to pay for your santa it is going to look like a troll.

Now reading the article “10 Places to Find Free Images Online” was much more helpful. I especially liked the simply straight forward definitions for Public Domain images, Right Protected images, and Royalty free images. Two of the sites I checked out from his list of 10 were moregueFile (come on, just the name got my attention) and Flickr.com.

Flickr - I chose this one because I have a Flickr account that I haven't used in awhile so I wanted to familiarize myself with Flickr again as well as gain a better understanding about using others photos from this source and others potentially using my photos from Flickr (not that they'd really want to my pictures are just your run of the mill type stuff nothing like those raspberries on the the home page of morgueFile that currently have my stomach growling).

MorgueFile - Again I choose to explore this one because of the name and believe me none of these photos are ready for the grave. They are top quality, high resolution, digital photos. Again you must check out the incredible photo of raspberries at http://mrg.bz/A1d1uz

I have used the clip art program for HCPL use. The illustration I picked to use for this blog entry came from the HCPL subscription with clipart.com.

Image credit: item #33371746 from clipart.com school edition. http://downloads.clipart.com/33371746.jpg?t=1265828881&h=bc65729c8edefd45ea518a9647099fc8

Searching #76: Sound Effects

Ok, so when I think of animal sounds I think of the little people animal farm from when I was a kid and every time you opened the barn door a cow would say Moo!



Using FindSounds I found the following animal sounds:
A Dog Barking (a sound I actually am missing these days...)
A Whale
and A Dolphin

While in library school we made a presentation that had to have sounds effects in it and I remember searching for them and finding some really great ones but these two search engines for sounds would have made it easy work.
Using Simply the Best Sounds site, I found:
The sound of an airplane flying past (another sound I miss)
a sound from the "archive", a typewriter
and the ever popular drum roll...

There were some really great sounds that weren't in the public domain, actually the copyright said "unknown" but you might want to go listen. Search pacman and McEnroe.

Searching #75: Google and Beyond

Searching with Blindsearch: My first of the three queries in Blindsearch I searched for strong female characters in literature and Yahoo got my vote. My second query in Blindsearch I searched for jobs for teenagers in Houston and Google got my vote. My final query in Blindsearch I searched for the school code for FAFSA for Lonestar college and once again Google got my vote though Bing also had the same webpage listed as its first return Google's looked like this:

How To Apply
http://www.lonestar.edu/financial-aid-steps.htm
Note: The following school code is required for the FAFSA and LSCS financial ... Your financial aid award is valid at any Lone Star College System college.

and Bing's looked like this

How To Apply
http://www.lonestar.edu/financial-aid-steps.htm
Lone Star College System consists of five colleges, including ... If this is your first time completing a FAFSA, start by getting your PIN. Note: The following school code is ...

I would say Google's description of the result was clearer. The first thing listed is the information about the school code. With Bing, you had to read the entire description and the information about the school code was the very last thing in the description.

So Google got my vote 2 out of 3 times and Google is the search engine I use most often. Though it was interesting to see the similarities and difference between the search engines, it will probably not affect the why I search in the future.

Google was the #1 search engine on Hitwise this week. Below are the top ten according to Hitwise this week. The usage statistics do match my personal choice of a favorite for Google as a search engine.

Top Search Engine - Volume
1. www.google.com 71.61%
2. search.yahoo.com 14.76%
3. www.bing.com 9.13%
4. www.ask.com 2.66%
5. www.aolsearch.com 1.04%

Top Search Engines - Visits
1. Google 63.57%
2. Yahoo! Search 10.77%
3. Bing 9.28%
4. Google images 4.17%
5. Ask 2.39%
6. AOL Search 1.00%
7. Yahoo! Image Search 0.50%
8. Dogpile 0.47%
9. Sphere 0.40%
10. Bing Video Search 0.39%

I recently took a webinar called Google's Hidden Libraries which was very informative. So much so I've signed up for More of Google's Hidden Libraries which will be on 1/27. One of the best things about Google's book search is that it uses OCR (Optical Character Recognition) which makes the content of the scanned page searchable. Google is so much more than just a search engine. I use it regularly as a calculator, a dictionary, a thesaurus, to check the flight status for arriving and departing U.S. flights, and check movie times.

Genealogy #70: Genealogy 2.0

No I have never wondered which celebrities I most resemble and I don't really needthe Look-alike Meter to find out whose looks I favor but I created myheritage account anyway and used the look-alike meter to find out who my daughter most resembled although I can tell you, she most resembles me. I couldn't find a widget to add the results to your iHCPL blog so I am just loading the results as an image.
I went to Footnote and browsed the Member Discoveries. I really enjoyed what Clio puts on Footnote but then she's the resident historian so of course it's good stuff. There was a post asking for more information about photographs that someone had but they didn't know alot about where they were taken and though it's not a sure thing it could be possible that someone might recognize something in them and be able to help this person out, the ultimate in social networking. Not so helpful are the pages that have been created just to remember someone. The best and the worst of social networking.

Genealogy #69: Database Researching

Since I have an Ancestry account I already know what I'll find there so I conducted a Heritage Quest search instead. I spent quite some time searching around Heritage Quests' Search Books feature and found two wonderful books on a branch of my family's very distant history. I also was able to view the book of Salem county New Jersey Marriage records and found a surname listed in the book several times from another branch of my family. One of the nicest features of Heritage Quest was when I found something I wanted to keep, I put it in my notebook, and then was able to email the contents of my notebook to myself. This was a very nice feature. One of the jobs I'd like to do one day is be someone who scans in these documents for publishing on the web. I think that would be a very neat job.

Genealogy # 68: Detective Work

I have never pursued an oral history project except to try and pry information from my father about his mother but he was very tight lipped. His father died in WWII when my dad was 5 years old so he remembers nothing about his father. His mother was left to raise he and his sister alone. From what I can gather she had great difficulty dealing with the lose of her husband, being a a single mom in the 1940's and 1950's, and being the sole financial provider for the family. Apparently my father didn't think he had much to say about her that would be very nice so he decided it was better to not say anything at all. She died when he was 17 in a car accident. As far as doing one now there's really no one to really interview. All my relatives on my dad's side are deceased. My mom's father is deceased and her mother can not be easily understood nor can she write. We don't have an oral history however we do have all the letters that my mothers parents exchanged while he was serving in WWII. My mother and my Aunt have preserved these letters for future generations to read and enjoy. Even better than an oral history - a primary source! My mom is also an active genealogist so she is documenting more than most people do for the sake of family history. Thanks mom! If I knew then what I know now I'd have forced my father to talk and recorded it or transcribed what he said. I did make a cold call once out of the blue. I called a lady who was the witness at my father's parents marriage. She was living in California and she was probably in her 80's when I called. I explained I found her name on the marriage license and I was wondering if she could tell me anything about my grandmother or grandfather. She said that the four of them had traveled to Indiana for the weekend to see a Notre Dame football game and while there they decided to get married. So they went to the justice of the peace and were married. That's about all I got really but it was good information.

Using the Find-A-Grave site I searched West Virginia cemeteries. For the oldest grave listing I found two from the same date, 10/10/1774.
One for Croley (Crowley), Samuel b. 1750 d. October 10, 1774. He was the first american killed in the Revolutionary War. He died in the first battle of the Revolution. The monument which carries the Crowley name is located at the Battleground at the place where the Great Kanawha River flows into the Ohio. That is called Point Pleasant and is now a park, site of a battle on 10 Oct 1774 between a coalition of 800 Shawnee, Mingo & Delaware against Virginia forces under Colonel Andrew Lewis. About 51 Virginians were killed that day. Point Pleasant Cemetery, Point Pleasant, Mason County, West Virginia, USA

The other for Lewis, Charles b. March 11, 1736 d. October 10, 1774
Colonial Militia Officer. Born at Lewis Fort, near present day Staunton, Virginia, he was a prominent Virginia planter and a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses from 1773 to 1774. A Colonel in the Virginia Militia, he led the forces of the Augusta County Regiment at Point Pleasant, Virginia (which is now West Virginia) during Lord Dunmore's War. On the morning of October 10, 1774 he led the attack of 150 officers and men, in the Battle of Point Pleasant, and engagement that pitted his Virginians against the famous Indian Chief Cornstalk and the Confederacy Indian Nations. Colonel Lewis was mortally wounded and died a short time later. He was buried with his fellow slain officers in the magazine on October 10, 1774. A large monument in memory of Colonel Lewis stands in the Tu Eudie Wie State Park in Point Pleasant. He is remember today for leading the fight in what many consider to be the first battle of the American Revolution. His brother, Andrew Lewis, would go on to become a General in the Continental Army. Battle Monument State Park, Point Pleasant, Mason County, West Virginia, USA

IMHO, this type of website is practically pointless. Unless you are related to a famous person you will probably never find one of your ancestors on this type of website.

Genealogy #67: Genealogy Genesis

I have been researching my family for many years off and on. I had always hoped I'd find a living relative from my father's branch of the family. I have never been able to accomplish this. I know the names of everyone in this picture except the infant yet I still cannot find a living relative from this family. Pictured in this photo from the far left; Grace (my great grandmother) Grace's daughter Marie, Marie's daughter Betty and Betty's daughter Rickey. I am guessing Rickey is holding her daughter but I don't have her name. I don't have a date on this photo but Grace died in 1972 so it's sometime before that. I am a member of ancestry.com and it has been helpful but not sure it's worth the annual fee. I signed up one year I was really into family history and because I didn't cancel it - you guessed it it automatically renewed itself and charged itself to me credit card I used to pay with the first time. Well see if I let that happen again?

Advice for those new to genealogical research? Don't spend alot of money on anything because most legitimate information is nominal. If you find a source of information that you think is too good to be true, it probably is. Start by using the free resources available through your library and ancestry.com is one of those free resources. Also Houston Public Library’s Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research is the first place I would visit. I used to use Family Tree Maker software to organize my information but after the latest computer failure I never reinstalled it on our newest computer and now it's several versions old and I'm just not spending money on hobbies right now. It is helpful to have when you are computing relationships and you have alot of people but if you are just starting out it's not necessary.

Remember: There are only 933 days remaining until Sunday, April 1, 2012! (that's when the 1940 census will be released)

In Memory of Marshall the Duke of Texas

May 5, 2000 - September 5, 2009

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.

Crafts & Hobbies #66: Knitting and Crocheting

I have always wanted to learn how to knit. I can do some (little) crochet. I used to make these little socks for babies all white ones for baptisms, red and green for Christmas, red, white and blue for 4th of July, etc. But now most of the people I know are sending their kids to homecoming and prom instead of having babies so I don't get the occassion to make the socks much any more.

1. The knitting and crocheting websites included in this iHCPL module were very good but one of my favorites is Lion Brand Yarn. If I had time to crochet for a purpose it would be to make blankets for nursing home patients.

2. Our branch has a sit and stitch group where you can bring any kind of knitting, crocheting, embroidery, cross stitch, etc, that you like. It is run by a patron volunteer.