Lesson 4 SIRS

SIRS Discoverer
1. I looked up an article on Mountain Lions, titled, "Mountain Lion Facts and Fallacies."
It was listed as a Challenging read.

2. One might find the most useful feature in the SIRS Discoverer to be the ability to translate the document into many different foreign languages, there were also graphics, print, and listen to the article.
When I chose from "Country Facts," I noted that they had a lot of useful information such as;
The counties official name, the capital and the population.
The continent or region of the country, the government type/ officials.
It then listed the agricultural, climate, currency, languages, holidays/observances, and finally major events in history.
I then preceded to look at Maps of the World, there are over 3000 detailed printable maps. Maps range from the U. S., Canada, Nations, Regions, U. S. Historical, World Historical, and a outline.
Database Features has newspapers, magazines, reference material, graphics, and web sites it also has
reading levels, subjects , activities, fiction, and people.
I do not believe that SIRS Discoverer is useful in the college library I work in but I can see how others may find it very useful.


SIRS Issue Researcher

1. I chose the topic of Same Sex Marriage, at the top they had what exactly was the issue, the pros and cons of the topic. They also had Essential Questions an interactive may, research tools they offer a see also toolbar which may be used to limit research.

2. Under the Curriculum Pathfinders there were course subjects, my courses.
Under course subjects I chose Science, and to bring my wide topic down, I chose under tools, Research Guidance. I could narrow my results even finer by choosing between the source types but found a subject I found interesting. The title was "Scientific Inquiry and Technique," it told me where  the article came from and a summary of the article as well as subjects it touched on.
The SIRS Issue Researcher maybe a fairly useful databases for our freshman students, but other than that I don't think there will be much any other use. But it is good to know that it's their for situations when perhaps a student with a teenager comes in and asks for help for them.