Montessori Storytime: Monsters

The theme for this week's story time comes from The Big Book of Stories, Songs, and Sing-Alongs: Programs for Babies, Toddlers, and Families by Maddigan & Drennan. As my group is very diverse I selected the Monster Mash theme (p 223- 227) from the Family Fun Section.

The kids were really riled up from their play period, so instead of starting out with the story, I jumped into:

Song/ Body Activity - Monsters Stomp (Clap, Growl, Sneak) Around the House sung to the tune of Camptown Races from The Big Book of Stories... And they sneak to their sitting spots.

Opening Song: "We Are Here For Storytime" sung to the tune of  London Bridge from
Although I'd already started storytime with the song, for continuity's sake, we did this one before reading:

Book: The Monster Who Ate My Peas by Schnitzlein

Craft: Build a Monster- provide lots of different parts of the monsters - arms and legs made from different animals and vegetables or have stencils the kids could draw from to build their own monsters. (I didn't have crafts prepared this time, so instead I had the kids direct me on drawing a monster.) Need paper, stencils, crayons. If pasting, need glue and plenty of monster parts.

Book: There Are Monsters Everywhere by Mayer, Mercer. I introduced this book by talking about how the boy was scared of monsters, but he decided to do something that would make it all better. Because the main character takes up karate, I had the kids pretend to be karate choppers with me. This riled them all up again, but, haha, not my problem because it was the end of storytime.

Closing Song: "The More We Get Together" by Raffi

InfoPeople Core2: Genealogy

So the business section of the Core2 Reference Mini-Course took me forever, rather than the two weeks I imagined it would take to read it off the computer and take notes. Paper saves the day by printing out the section, underlining and then coming back here to blog my notes. I'm going to try putting all the pieces in one post as well, as I have a feeling it won't be as hard as the business section.

Overview
People are interested in genealogy for their own varied reasons, whether out of curiosity, research into family stories, for medical reasons or to prove heritage. They are looking for "life stories and interesting details," and they'll need "corroborating documents." Types of tasks patrons are looking to do are to assemble a family tree or lineage, find specific documents, such as marriage licenses, prove their ethnic and racial heritage, or tie an ancestor to an historic event.

Getting Started
This kind of research takes a lot of work! It is time consuming. As a librarian, I shouldn't be made to feel like I have to do the work for the patron. Instead it is my job to guide them through the process and direct them to appropriate resources. (Just like everything else.) I should be aware of the following:

• Good Self Help Guides such as bibliographies, how-to manuals, and (online) instructional videos
• Logical Approaches - during the reference interview, think about what the patron is asking for and then tie it to the forms of data that would support it. For instance, in my patron's request about looking for documentation about her grandfather donating land to Fort Hood, looking at property related resources would be helpful.)
• Know how to locate local sources of help whether a historical society or (history/genealogy) department that has expertise.
• Assist with ILL and referrals to other libraries, ie. consult WorldCat.
• subject headings for genealogy research
• when looking for info on the genealogy process trying "Genealogy" will produce subheadings like "Genealogy--Library resources--Handbooks, manuals, etc"
• when looking for research resources for a geographic location or time, try the format "Geographic place--Genealogy--

Recommended handbooks for beginning research - General Handbooks:

• Handybook for Genealogists by Everton (929.1 HAN 1999) Probably the book the Red Book (below) is based on, this one lists the institutions to consult when tracking down records at the Federal, State and County levels of the US. It also includes an European section, that while not as detailed, will give researchers a starting point for tracing family across the Atlantic (Spain is not included. How can Spain not be included?!?) Migration routes and county maps included.
• Unpuzzling Your Past: The Best-Selling Basic Guide to Genealogy by Croom (929.1 CRO 2001) - the "hold your hand" book when you don't have a person to tell you how to get started. I find it at just 230 pages still a little wordy, but if comes full of examples to illustrate the point. Filled with lots of charts to make organizing easy, including space to note the sources of the information. Because this is a beginner guide, it is filled with general statements like, "consult county records." I'd like to see it point to a source such as Ancestry's Red Book (below) as a resource to tell beginners where county records are held (surprisingly, not all county records are maintained within the county).
• The Everything Guide to Online Genealogy: A Complete Resource For Using the Web to Trace Your Family History by Powell (929.1028 POW 2011) - another hold your hand type book, with emphasis on research online (versus microfilm?). No forms are included as the book assumes you are using software to track your lineage, but it does talk about how to document your process.
• The Researcher's Guide American Genealogy by Greenwood (929.1 GRE 2000 SGB)
• Evidence! [does this not beg to be highlighted?] Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian by Mills
• The BCG (Board for Certification of Genealogists) Genealogical Standards Manual by the BCG
• Ancestry's Red Book: American State, County & Town Sources edited by Eichholz (929.1072 RED 2004) - describes the type of resources collected by each U.S. state, who collected them during which time periods and where those resources are currently located. For instance, in my example about the woman who wanted to know about her great grandfather's land that was donated to Fort Hood, The Red Book says that property tax records are kept at the Texas State Library for the dates 1836-1976 and are available on microfilm. This book is an amazing resource. I will definitely be consulting it in the future!

Books My Current System Owns That I Want to Review

• The Source : a Guidebook to American Genealogy - Szucs, Loretto Dennis (929.107 SOU 2006) - seems to detail how records were created to build an understanding of the type of information you'll find in the various offices, agencies and institutions. I didn't find the Land Records section helpful, not even the detailing of it for Texas as it focused on the land owned by the state and how it was granted out to private individuals, but didn't include how to find ownership after deeding to private parties. There is a great section on understand how to research majority-minority ethnic groups in the U.S. to include African American, colonial Spanish, Hispanic, Jewish, and Native American peoples. This is a good book for understanding the why military records could be of importance, etc.
• International vital records handbook - Kemp, Thomas Jay (929.1 KEM 2009) - picks up where the out of date Handybook (see above) leaves off, though perhaps not as in-depth for U.S. state and county offices, this resource adds copies of application forms for the various types of records, giving the researcher an idea of what they'll need to supply in order to obtain records. The international section is worldwide, which is a nice acknowledgement that we live in a global community.
• Genealogist's Address Book : State and Local Resources: With Special Resources Including Religious Organizations - Bentley, Elizabeth Petty (929.1025 BEN) - similar to the Red Book (see above) in geographical scope, but more a directory of organizations to contact. This is the source to consult when a web search doesn't reveal anything regarding a historical society for a small town.
• Locating Lost Family Members & Friends : modern genealogical research techniques for locating the people of your past and present - Hinckley, Kathleen W., 1948-(929.1 HIN) - introduces the same types of resources such as vital records, military records, etc, however it gives good descriptions on those types of records with examples. Not overly detailed and not a directory though.

Specific Handbooks:

• Finding Answers in U.S. Census Records by Szucs & Wright
• A Genealogist's Guide to Discovering Your Female Ancestors by Carmack (929.1082 CAR 1998 - GENR)
• Land and Property Research in the United States by Hone
• They Came in Ships: Finding Your Immigrant Ancestor's Arrival Record by Colletta (929.1072 COL 1989 - GENF) 

There's a youtube video about the US Census: youtu.be/yl54NX_H1ko

For beginners looking for direction on where to start, best place is with the fam. Sit down, have coffee or tea and a light snack, perhaps have a tape recorder or notepad handy and begin asking all they remember. Then do the same with other family members. Corroborate facts. Get dates and locations and spellings of legal names.

There do already exist compiled genealogies of families. (W.O.W!) But libraries don't readily lend these puppies out, so researchers may have to make a trip or purchase the published list.  You could consult the Genealogies in the Library of Congress bibliography, which is actually a book edited by Kaminkow (2001) and not a bib list online.

Local resources: Academic Libraries' history departments, or that of a larger institution, public or private. Or a genealogy department of a library; History/ Genealogical societies; the local Latter Day Saints Family History Centers which are mini centers of the Utah resource.

Finally, the most important thing for beginners to remember is to document their sources and keep the train of knowledge written down, so that you don't have to retrace your steps.. That book Evidence! is probably a good place to learn how.

Internet Resources

Online is a good place to go for assistance with specialized tasks such as tracking down "specific nationalities, countries and ethnic groups", especially if you know of good starting points. The two that the mini-course emphasize is the Library of Congress's Local History and Genealogy Reading Room and Cindi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Web. The first is the authoritative source of all things library. The second is a specialized directory to point researchers in the direction they need to go online.

Other Websites

• Family Search - familysearch.org
• Family History Library - https://familysearch.org/locations/saltlakecity-library
• National Genealogical Society - ngsgenealogy.org
• Ancestors: Glossary of Terms - byub.org/ancestors/records/glossary
• U.S. National Archives and Records Administration's Resources for Genealogists - http://www.archives.gov/research/genealogy/index.html
• Rootsweb - rootsweb.com
• USGenWeb - usgenweb.com
• California Genealogy - cagenweb.com
• Specialized Sites:
• Jewish Gen - jewishgen.org
• AfriGeneas - afrigeneas.com
• Ellis Island - ellisisland.org
• Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System - www.itd.nps.gov/cwss - because everybody's family must have fought at one point, ya know? Except those of us whose lineage comes from other countries.

Records & Lineage
Looking for official records can vary from state to state. The Family Tree Magazine has a 2011 article title Best State Websites with listings included for their ability to search by name, browse indexes, and even view digitized documents. Family Tree Magazine also provides a list of states and the years they officially began keeping vital records (birth, death, marriage, etc).

"Real" Obits are written by news staff. Most obits of regular people are death notices placed by the family in the newspaper. Important: these may appear days after the person's actual death. Tracking down these articles may require referral to larger library, contacting a newspaper's archives (& paying a fee) or request the microfilm.

Death Index(es)
Typically you search by name and can retrieve SSN, Surname, Given name, DOD, DOB, Last known residence, date & place of issuance, birthplace, death place, age and mother's maiden name. The SSDI (SS Death Index) is a commercial product and requires a subscription (see your local library!). Be aware that the death index only includes those whose death was reported to the Social Security Administration. So older deaths may not be included. (My grandma is listed!) Look to see if other countries have similar death indexes.

Military Records
Official repository for discharged military records is the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)'s Veteran's Service Records.

Lineages
Search WorldCat to see if a family history has been published. An example is "Family history. Kentucky genealogies #1, 1700s-1800s" which has the following subject headings: Registers of births, etc. -- Kentucky. Kentucky -- Genealogy -- Sources. See also

• National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution - dar.org
• General Society of Mayflower Descendants - www.themayflowersociety.com
• Jamestowne Society - jamestowne.org

For Native American Lineage try the National Archive's Archival Research Catalog (ARC) Online Public Access. The notes said that the ARC provided indexes and census rolls, but I have no idea how to browse this sort of info on the OPA, because they are not under the Advanced Search. For ex.:

• Final Rolls of Citizens and Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory
• Index to the Applications Submitted for the Eastern Cherokee Roll of 1909 (Guion Miller Roll) - this is currently at http://research.archives.gov/description/300330; Great, but once I have this info, how and for what do I use it?

Unrelated to OPA, but related to Native American Resources is the Bibliographies of Northern and Central California Indians compiled by Berkeley's Museum Informatics Project- the thing to note about this resource is that if there is a compiled Bib for California, look to see if other organizations of other states have their own compiled bib lists.

Heraldry & Coat of Arms
Is there royalty in the family? How many times removed are you? Search subject headings for "heraldry." See also:

• Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage 2007 by Kidd & Williamson
  We don't have this title, but we do have Debrett's Texas Peerage by Best, Hugh. (920 BES 1983 GEN)
• Debrett's Guide to Heraldry and Regalia by Williamson & Cole
• Heraldry: For the Local Historian and Genealogist by Friar
• Introduction to Heraldry by Oliver
• Heraldry on the Internet - www.digiserve.com/heraldry
• College of Arms - college-of-arms.gov.uk
• Medieval English Genealogy: Links and Bibliography for Heraldry - http://medievalgenealogy.org.uk/links/herrefs.shtml

Montessori Storytime: If you don't care, then they won't either

Finally, a successful volunteer storytime at my son's school since my first one. In my previous ones I had a touch too much planned and another time I had really low energy resulting from an awesome road trip. This time around I had just two books, one craft, a "get your wiggles out" body moment song and a partridge in a pear tree.

My program:

Opening Song: "We are here for storytime." *from Simply Super Storytimes (JR 372.4 CAS)

Book: Someone Bigger by  Jonathan Emmett. I introduced this book by first asking the kids if they had any favorite stories at home. I then shared that I picked this book because it was one of my favorites to read to Zane. I love that it has big colorful pictures and that a silly story takes place where little guy Sam is denied getting to hold onto a kite because he's not "big enough", yet with the whole town and even some zoo animals pulled into the air by the kite, it remains for Sam to be the one who rescues everyone. Sound effects, performing the actions of the characters, and inviting the kids to shout out the last word of the line "this kite needs someone BIGGER!" kept the older kids engaged. Did I mention my group is made up of 4-10 year olds?

Craft: That book transitioned us to our craft, which is my way to break up storytime a little bit, especially as the older kids often share how "bored" they are. Personally, I'm like, "listen, kid, you can sit for an hour watching Ninja Turtles, you can sit for 30 minutes listening to books," but whatever. Our craft was to make a kite scene. I had a long roll of paper lightly colored with blue crayon taped to the wall. We gave out kites and die cut figures (kids' choice of boy, princess, elephant, chicken, rabbit, and turtle. The chicken was not a favorite. :) ). The kids glued their kites up high and their figure down low and got crayons to decorate the kite and draw a string to their figure. After about 10-15 minutes and a few tears from one of the younger ones, we returned to the carpet.

Wiggles!: Now I'm no fool. I know that after a craft the kids are talking to each other and distracted and they don't want to settle down. So I had them do a body movement song from Simply Super Storytimes chapter on Flying High Stories. Titled "The Wind" and sung to "Here We Go Looby Loo." You jump up, you skooch down, you go forward, then back and then you go round and round. I walked them through it first, then sang slow and got faster and faster. And then evil girl that I am, I sang the last line ("here we go round and round") over and over and over super fast and ended with "and then we sit down!" That got the energy out of them and the focus back on me for our final book.

Book: I introduced our final book by talking to the kids about our craft. I asked, "what did we do?" When they answered they made "their own" craft, I asked, "can you take it home?" "Noooo." So then I pointed out that although they each made their own kite, together we made a field of kites, a pretty picture that took up the whole space of the wall that we did in a short amount of time and that by ourselves, the same picture would have taken forever. And here's a little story about coming together called Stone Soup. I picked this version by Muth because it stars an Asian cast and introduced the kids to new costumes, foods, and ways that people celebrate. I love a book that does so much. And lucky me, that actually sat fascinated by the book.

It was a great storytime!

InfoPeople Core2: Business Resources: Occupational Info

So you wanna job?

As I have tons of experience looking for jobs (I used to move around... a lot), applying to jobs, writing resumes and cover letters, and even a little bit in interviewing, I feel pretty comfortable with answering questions in this area. My library also gets a lot of questions about this area, so I have directed the users to the resources that we have in our database.

Resume Writing - it totally helps to have a coach, and thank God for my AmeriCorps trainer Jodi who taught us how to translate our service experience into applicable skills. Barring a personal trainer, the library I work for offers Career Transitions and JobNow, two databases that assist with creating the resume. One of them even provides real personal feedback. New resume books are always coming out, so be sure to look up the latest one in the catalog. There might even be targeted advice, such as for "women, recent grads, career changers or specific fields."

Online Resources

• Resumes, Cover Letters,& Other Job Search Correspondence
• Damn Good Resume
• there's more, it just gets to be a bit overwhelming

Info about Jobs and Industries

• Researching the field begins with the ever delightful Occupational Outlook Handbook available online and in print. I love this book. I love that it has info on how much you can expect to earn, the growth of the industry, the type of education you need and so much more.
• US Department of Labor and it's Wage and Hour Division page
• O*NET Online - use this site for more research into the field you are looking to join. (These sites are sites I would encourage high schoolers and college student to explore to learn more about the actual job market and the skills they'll need beyond the liberal arts degree. (Which I like, don't get me wrong!))

Actually Searching for a J-O-B? There are several job hunting sites such as Monster.com. I would recommend spending some time on them to learn about the titles of jobs and where there seems to be job hunters. It gives you an idea of geography. However, once you've learned a thing or two about skills needed and so forth, I recommend looking at associations, local and national, for leads in the fields. Identify the companies you'd like to work for and then apply to them. This helps you to focus on where and for whom you'd like to work. It shows you are interested in the organization and helps to prep you for the interview.

InfoPeople Core2: Business Resources: Investment and Finance

I took an online class about stocks and bonds, so I'm pretty familiar with the main resources, although the reminders are always helpful. The notes start of with definitions of important finance terms, quoting Barron's Finance & Investment Handbook. My class listed Investopedia.com as the free online source for definitions. The difference being that Barron's is a known creator of finance information. Investopedia's articles are written by a community. Granted that community of writers has to show their expertise, including submitting a resume, but it's not their primary job. However, Investopedia does have other features, such as the Simulator, which allows you to play with pretend money before you invest your real money.

Things I apparently should at least know:

• American Stock Exchange AMEX was acquired by NYSE Euronext in 2008 and had its name changed to NYSE MKT LLC. According to the notes, this exchange is the primary place for US company trades, bonds, etc. The website however says the exchange is "the leading capital market for small cap companies within NYSE Euronext." I have no idea what that means.
• Mutual Fund
• NASDAQ Stock Market - according to Wikipedia, the name originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations," which would make sense as this is an electronic exchange.
• Ticker symbol - the code given to identify a stock. 

For a list of exchanges, see the Rutgers University Libraries' Stock and Commodity Exchanges page. This is a super sophisticated site! Not just a list of American exchanges, it has listings for countries around the world. InfoPeople notes that their general business page (http://libguides.rutgers.edu/business) is also valuable. I would say their entire Lib Guides section is worth checking out. They have them sorted alphabetically and by Discipline.

If you cannot find a stock in the major exchanges, it could be that the stock is in a regional exchange (
See the lib guide referenced above.), or on a "pink sheet" exchange.

One of the questions a public librarian may get regarding stock is a historic price.  Resources to find historic prices include:

• Historical Stock Quotes and Charts - according to the website you have the "ability to retrieve exact and split-adjusted stock price information and split adjustment factors as far back as January 1985."
• Search old newspapers on microfilm (also check to see if the papers have their own archive or check the database to see if there is an indexed listing)
• Try Standard and Poor's printed Daily Stock Price Record for the AMEX, NYSE and NASDAQ.

Information to be sure to include when quoting stock prices is company name, exchange where traded, common or preferred status, and date. Give the High, Low and Close figures or the Bid/Asked price for over the counter stock.

Of course, don't forget the databases when doing research. See what your local library offers, such as ValueLine, or Morningstar. For beginning investors (think about the one kid who kept wanting stock info) try steering them toward Investment FAQ and Yahoo!Finance pages.

InfoPeople Core2: Business Resources: Starting a Business

How many times did I have people come into the library interested in resources for starting a small business!? Okay, maybe only 4-5 from the first of the year to the present, but they ranged from florist, to auto shop, to spa services. As in the notes, interests ranged from financing, to internet resources, business plans to just getting started. Before I take any more notes from the lesson, I do want to point out that my library system has a great online resources titled The Business Plans Handbook volumes 1-26 from the Gale Virtual Reference Library. They are digital files dating from the 1990s, so while the projections on the numbers of the older plans are over 20 years old, the types of things to plan for may still apply or will at least get a beginner going.

The notes make certain that you understand two "important" defintions:

1. definition of Small Business- set by the Small Business Administration, usually based on numbers and annual earnings and will vary by industry.
2. US Small Business Administration- usually your first stop when you really want to be confused. The notes are much more positive in their review of what the SBA can do for you, but when I was going about creating a business plan a million years ago, all I was was confused by the website and by the local office. It looks as though they've streamlined the page since then to revolve around what a person wants to achieve (write a plan, qualify for contracts, etc) rather than a list of departments and publications. The SBA has various publications, so if you already know what you are looking for, you can just submit a title in the search box. Otherwise, there is the site map. Other links from the SBA portal:
• Business Law and Regulations
• Office of Women's Business Ownership
• Regional Small Business Development Centers
• also look for links for veterans and faith-based entrepreneuers 

Other titles:

• Small Business Sourcebook: the entrepreneur's resource- I tried searching Gale/Cengage for this title, but I didn't retrieve any results. According to WorldCat the most recent print edition is the 29th published in 2012.$600+ on Amazon. I gotta get my hands on this thing to see what it is about!
• Legal Guide for Starting and Running a Small Business, Fred S. Steingold. Nolo Press (latest edition, 2013 346.7306 LEG 2013)
• Small Business Bible: Everything You Need to Know to Succeed in Your Small Business, Steven D. Strauss (John Wiley & Sons, 2008) 658.022 STR 2012 We also have this as a downloadable audio.
• The For Dummies series (Wiley) - Includes a number of small-business-related titles. 

Other Online Sites to consider:

• Small Business Advisor - isquare.com
• SCORE: Counselors to America's Small Business - score.org
• Entrepreneur.com
• Nolo.com Self Help Law Center - nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia - I quickly looked at this site and for a dotcom, I'm happy to see it is a self-contained that doesn't have external commercial ads. I know that Nolo has their own line of books, and so there probably isn't a ton of info under the individual articles, but it will answer preliminary questions and then point you to the correct resources. And this site was extremely easy to browse or search.

Franchises- try these resources to learn more about them before getting into one.

• Bond's Franchise Guide - the 2013 is out, but we only have the 2009: 381.13 BON 2009 
• Franchising for Dummies - 658.8708 SEI 2006 
• Association of Small Business Development Centers:  asbdc-us.org - Lots of information geared toward real small business entrepreneurs, such as how to web productivity tools and using interns legally. But this site works more like a blog than a systematic collection of browse-able information, which if you have a specific thing you want, would be difficult to find, especially as the site does not have a search bar.
• Franchise Solutions - franchisesolutions.com -site allows for searching by amount of investment, industry (retail, food, lodging, education, real estate, etc) and location. There are also lists for the most popular searches and the top franchises, dependent on industry.

Financing the great plunge into small business ownership:

• SBA's Financing page: sba.gov/financing - the page for the SBA loan program, including the microloan, real estate and equipment, and general small business. Tips on how to prepare for the loan application process and looking at venture capital are among the articles written.
• Financing Guide Table of Contents: morebusiness.com/finance 

Assignment: a quick look at the levels of information the .gov, .org, .com web resources provide. I think based on their goals for displaying the info, the three that I found were equally informative. I know that most people are looking for free money when that inquire at the desk about funding for small businesses, so the SBA finance site is confusing. It should state clearly whether the government provides free money assistance. However, it does have plenty of info on getting a loan. I liked the interface for the Association of Small Business DC site. It is good for serendipitous discovery.

Montessori Storytime: Theme Camping

Theme: Camping

Introduce myself – My visuals are a camping scene built out of a construction paper fire, stuffed animals with cotton ball marshmallows

Opening Song as needed: "We are here for storytime" sung to the tune of Mary had a little lamb or London Bridge- either works. *from Simply Super Storytimes (JR 372.4 CAS)- after just one story time session, the kids totally caught onto this song. They like when I turn my voice down absurdly low.

First book: Camping Day by Lakin, Patricia

Second book: Shake My Sillies Out by Raffi - this is an action book. You can get up and move to the words or sit and watch the pictures.

Activity: "Missing Camping Gear" *from A Storytime Year (JR 027.6251 DAI) p 153-158 1. Place pictures on the board while discussing the gear needed when you go camping. 2. Turn the board away and remove a picture while saying: We are going camping, we gathered all our gear. We placed them in a pile, now something is not here.What is missing? 3. Encourage the kids to identify the missing item. Repeat the game, removing more and more pictures to make it more challenging.

Third Book: Down by the Bay by Raffi – Do you want to have another book with a song or do you want to do a sound effects story? When you go camping, you can sing camp songs. Here’s another book with a silly song. I’m sure you’ll figure out the rhymes.

Sound Effects Story: Adam Alan’s Camping Trip. *from A Storytime Year (JR 027.6251 DAI) p160-163 Photocopy

Fourth book: Toasting Marshmallows: camping poems by George, Kristine O'Connell – this book doesn’t have a specific story, but is made up of little poems that describe the experience of camping. Not all poems rhyme like our first book or some of our songs, but if you listen to the words, you can hear they create a rhythm and then make music with their sounds that repeat. If you want to get comfortable and lay down, that’s okay. These poems are for dreaming in your head.

Ending Song as needed: Raffi's The More We Get Together