Reference Challenge - Week #6 - Gale Virtual Reference Library

Wow! I am slow.....here's to the hope that I can get the last challenges done in the next day or so! Clock is ticking.

Alright, confession time. I have.....(sheepishly)....never used GVRL. I am so SORRY!!
.
.
.
.
NO! That's a lie. I have used it! Once! We had someone looking for the College Blue Book.

OK, better confession time. I have used GVRL once!

So, let's fix that. Time to play.

1. What is available? A LOT. Let me quickly point out a few that caught my eye:

• Ancient Europe, 8000 B.C. to A.D. 1000: Encyclopedia of the Barbarian World, 2v, 2004 (9780684314211)
• Fashion, Costume, and Culture: Clothing, Headwear, Body Decorations, and Footwear through the Ages, 5v, 2004 (9780787693008)
• Human Geography: People and the Environment, 2v, 2013 (9781414491387)
• Middle Ages Reference Library, 5v, 2001 (9780787693091) 
• World War I Reference Library, 4v, 2002 (9780787691813)
• World War II Reference Library, 5v, 2000 (9780787691868)

Since I love history a great deal, when everything is immediately better with "Europe" in the topic, let's go with my first choice. OK, not everything. "Right on red" is a purely American thing, and according to Jeremy Clarkson, America's greatest contribution to western civilization. Go us!

Smoky goat cheese on a cracker, there's more MAPS!

 

They're not the greatest looking, but this one shows ancient burial sites and ritual locations! My favorite! The location in Ireland right next to my PDF hand is Newgrange, which is an amazing location to visit. We even got to go inside!

Ok, ok. No more maps. Moving on.

While going through the table of contents the article on "Archaeology and Language" looked interesting. What a fascinating article on the basis of language, how it spread, where it originated, and why it hasn't been solved yet! One very interesting tidbit of information is that when it was determined in 1786 that the Romantic, Germanic, Greek, and Persian languages are part of the same language family as Sanskit, and that they all were derived from a base language called Proto-Indo-European. Many cultures claimed that the basis for this "pure" national heritage (Aryans) and language originated in a variety of locations, but one German scholar Gustaf Kossinna made his claim that the origins were in northern Europe, and more specifically Germany. His writings are based on the idealized thought that Aryans originated here, and was a major contributor to the Aryan ideals of one Adolf Hitler and his programs some 20 years later. It's crazy how history intertwines!

Some of the uses that I could potentially see for GVRL and not necessarily just this specific title is that it essentially just more detailed and in-depth reference materials and encyclopedias for more finite subjects. This would have seriously come in handy the other day when one of my teenagers came into the library and wanted something on Norse culture. We had some items on the shelf, but she (and I) would have benefited from this.

2. Search for anything? MUAHAHA! The possibilities are endless...what to do? What to do?

You know what, let's go with my teens question. Let's check out Norse. Typing....BAM!

First hit is on Norse mythology. Perfect! Ooooh, another on Ragnarok. Did you know: according to most Norse scholars, Ragnarok occured on February 22, 2014. It sparked the epic battle of the Norse gods against the giants, that equates to 3 years of winter. Do I think it happened? With all this snow and more coming, you bet I do! :D

Listen feature is nice, but quite comical. Not all of the words (especially those in the pronunciation part) come across clearly. At one point, it spelled out the letters. However, that aside, this is a nice bit of extra features for those who don't know how to pronounce words or have difficulties reading (friend who had dyslexia comes to mind). What is really cool is that say there is a word 3/4 of the way through the article and you don't want to listen to all of it, you can actually highlight that word and click the listen button and it will say your highlighted section! That is cool!

Nice additional features available at the bottom of the article that allows you to go directly to terms that are used and their own respective articles or entries.

Alright, I promise to use Gale more often!