America The Beautiful Online User guide

Transcription

1 America The Beautiful Online User guide Welcome to America The Beautiful Online. We hope you find all the information you're looking for, and a lot more! America The Beautiful Online is published by Grolier Publishing Company, a division of Grolier Inc. It was engineered by Grolier Interactive. It supports Netscape Navigator 4.0 and above and Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 and above, and conforms to HTML 4. Here is a rundown of the contents and how to find what you need. THE HOME PAGE The Home Page features a large map of the United States. Click on the name of any state, or Washington, D.C., on the map, and you'll be taken to the section dealing with that state. At the lower right of the Home Page are buttons that will take you to information about Puerto Rico or the major U.S. Territories (Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa). At the top of the Home Page are five red bars offering special features: U.S. Topics, Timelines, Profiles, Games, and Almanac. These features are described below. At the upper right corner of the Home Page are the Search options. You may select to search "All Grolier Online" or "America the Beautiful Only." The default is "America the Beautiful Only." Type a word or phrase into the "Find it Fast!" search box and click on "GO" to begin your search. This will bring up a list of all the places in ATB (and in other Grolier products if the "All Grolier Online" option was chosen) in which that word appears. For more specific searches, click on Advanced Search. (For more information, read the Grolier Online general help section.) At the bottom of the Home Page are four additional links. The About link brings you to the screen containing staffing and legal information about the site. Help provides instructional material on how to use the site. Further Reading brings you to a listing of bibliographies arranged alphabetically by state. Teacher Resources provides guidance on how to use ATB in the classroom and a variety of projects and activities to help students get the most out of the site. 1

2 THE STATES Go to the opening page of any state to find the following features: An introductory text. A map of the U.S., highlighting the state you are reading about. (Clicking on the map brings you back to the ATB Home Page. There are also Home buttons at the top and bottom of each screen.) A menu, to the left of the screen, listing all the sections of the state module: Introduction, Fast Facts, History, Geography, Economy, Culture, Government, Cities, Spotlights, Profiles, State Timelines, Word Find, and What Do You Know. Clicking on any of these items will bring you to the first page of that category. In some cases, the menu will expand to offer additional choices within the category. A geopolitical map of the state. Click on the map to enlarge it, and then click on major cities and features on that map to bring up specific text about that city or feature. A photograph. Click to enlarge it and read a fuller caption. Maps & Media button. Clicking on this button brings up a list of all the maps, illustrations, and multimedia features pertaining to the state. Multimedia features include audio slide shows and panoramic photos. Web Links button, at the top of the right-hand column. Click on the button to find a carefully selected list of outside sites that provide additional information about the states. Print/ button, also at the top of the right-hand column. Click on the button to see instructions for printing or ing. Find It Fast! and Advanced Search options are at the upper right. Search options include: All Grolier Online, America the Beautiful Only, and Search This State Only. Special feature options (U.S. Topics, Timelines, Profiles, Games, and Almanac) may be accessed by clicking on the red bars at the top. About, Help, Further Reading, and Teacher Resources options are at the bottom of the screen. List of States, at the top of the screen, allows you to move quickly to a different state. Just click on the name of the state you want to bring up. If you prefer, you can go back to the Home Page and click on the map to go to another state. 2

3 Each state module contains the following material: Introduction, giving an overview of the state's people, history, and contributions. Fast Facts, a capsule presentation of important statistics and information. Pictures of the state bird, flower, seal, and flag are usually shown. History, presented in several segments beginning with Native Americans and explorers and proceeding up to modern times. Geography, covering the regions, resources, flora and fauna, and scenic highlights. Economy, which tells how people earn their livings. Culture, focusing on the state's people and the way they live. Ethnic backgrounds, religion, education, artistic accomplishments, and recreation are all covered. Government, a report on the state's governmental structure and its role in national politics. Cities: essays on four or more of the major cities in each state. Spotlights: features on many of the famous places, historic sites, and natural wonders of the state, all of which may be visited today. Profiles, offering capsule biographies of important people, past and present, who are associated with the history or accomplishments of the state. State Timeline, a chronology of the key events in the history of the state. Accompanying the state timeline is a chronology of U.S. history. Word Find, a puzzle challenging you to locate and highlight words associated with the state. What Do You Know?, a multiple-choice quiz about the state. Maps, eight per state. Included are geopolitical, historical, and topographical maps, as well as others covering exploration, natural resources, cities and routes, parks and forests, and population density. About 50 historic and modern illustrations per state. Web Links to additional sites that will help you in your research on the state. Seven or more bibliographical citations, fully annotated, accessible via the Further Reading link. 3

4 U.S. TOPICS Clicking on the red U.S. Topics bar at the top of the ATB screen brings up a list of five options: Cities. If you choose this topic, you'll see a list of more than 200 major U.S. cities. Click on any one to read an essay about that city's history and features. Explorers. Clicking on this title brings you to the names of the adventurers who played key roles in the European discovery of what is now the United States, as well as other American explorers of note. Places and Events. Battlefields, homes of famous people, historic sites and events, unique museums or other attractions all are listed here. Read about any one by clicking on the name. Native Americans. This option provides information about more than 40 of the most important and interesting Native American groups. Natural Wonders. America's spectacular scenic attractions are described here. Click on any wonder to read about its history and uniqueness. Presidents. If you choose this topic, you'll see a list of the 42 men who have served in the highest U.S. office. Click on any one to access a biography and portrait of that President. TIMELINES Clicking on the red Timelines bar at the top of the screen allows you to choose from a selection of topics and time periods. The key dates and events in American history are divided into four eras: before 1750, , , 1950 to the present. Click on any period for a capsule view of the nation's progress. You may also view any one of four other timelines along with the U.S. chronology: Science & Technology Arts & Entertainment The Written Word World History Another special feature allows you to compare the timelines of any two states. Just choose two states from the lists provided at the bottom of the screen and click on the Compare button. 4

5 PROFILES Brief biographies of more than 900 important American men and women, plus all the presidents, may be accessed here. Simply select a letter from the alphabet at the top of the Profiles screen to generate an alphabetical list of all Profiles beginning with that letter. Then just click on the name of a person you wish to read about. GAMES Here's your chance to show how much you know about America and have fun at the same time. Click on the red Games bar at the top of the ATB screen to bring up one of these games: Discover America challenges you to uncover a photo of an American scene by answering questions about one of the 50 states. Liberty Lights is a hangman-type puzzle. By choosing the right letters and finding the correct answer to the questions, you'll light up Lady Liberty's torch. Wrong answers douse her light! What Is This? asks you to identify something by looking at a small section of an object that has been greatly enlarged. Which Came First? allows you to create your own timeline by putting events in the order in which they happened or people in the order in which they lived. Which State Am I? gives you a chance to firm up your knowledge of the state capitals. ALMANAC Click on the red Almanac bar at the top of the screen and you'll find a fascinating and useful compilation of facts about all the states and the country. What's the highest mountain in the U.S.? How many states regard the cardinal as their state bird? Where is Jarvis Island, a U.S. dependency? Who is the current governor of Hawaii? You'll find the answers, and much more, in the Almanac. Sections include: Economics Education Geography Government History Parks Population Symbols U.S. Dependent Areas 5

6 MULTIMEDIA In addition to the nearly 3,000 illustrations and 400 maps in ATB, there are special multimedia features: Panoramic Photos allow you to see more of a scene than a standard photo would permit. Just move your cursor across the photo and the scene will rotate. You'll feel like you're right there! Audio Slide Shows present a procession of photos about a particular topic, accompanied by an interesting spoken narrative. Topics range from the desert life of Arizona and the beauties of the Everglades to the lives of John F. Kennedy and Thomas Edison. To find out if an Audio Slide Show or Panoramic Photo is included in a particular state module, click on the Maps & Media button to the right of the Introduction to that state. LINKS ATB offers both internal and external links. Internal text links: Throughout the text, many names and other words are highlighted in blue type. If you click on them, you'll call up an article about that person, place, or event. Map links: Many of the names of cities and places on ATB maps are interactive. You can tell by passing your cursor across a map. If the cursor becomes a hand, then the city or place is interactive. Click on it to see an article about that city or place. The Web Links button at the top right-hand corner of the screen takes you to a list of specially selected outside sites that provide additional information about the states. Each site is checked regularly to make sure that it remains current, accurate, and appropriate. FURTHER READING At the bottom of each screen is a link to the Further Reading bibliography section. Clicking on this link from a state module brings you to the specific annotated entries for that state. From there, scroll up and down throughout the section. Clicking on Further Reading from any other screen brings you to the top of the list, where general works for the United States are compiled. Scrolling down the list displays the entries for each state in alphabetical order. 6

7 DICTIONARY Finding the meaning of a word you don't understand is easy. Simply highlight the word with your cursor and then click on the Dictionary button on the frame above. The definition of the word from the American Heritage Children's Dictionary will appear on your screen. SEARCH OPTIONS The search engine of ATB allows you to search the full text of state articles and all the special features. Searches can be limited to one particular state by using the "Search This State Only" option. They can also be limited to article titles by using the Advanced Search page. Advanced search techniques include Boolean logic operators (AND, OR, NOT) and wildcards. To extend your search to other Grolier products, click on the "All Grolier Online" button. (For more information, read the Grolier Online general help section.) Full-Text Searching Type a word or phrase in the "Find it Fast!" search box at the top of the screen. Select the "American the Beautiful Only" button and click on "GO" to begin your search. The search engine will perform a full-text search of the encyclopedia articles, returning a list of all that contain the search word. Scroll through the text to locate the highlighted search word(s) in the article. The ATB search engine also contains a powerful "stemming" function that will automatically look for plurals and other variant forms of the term you have specified. Search This State Only Searches can be limited to a particular state. For example, to conduct a search on Portland, Maine, click on "Maine" on the map on the ATB Home Page. The "Maine: Introduction" page will appear. Under the Search options at the top of the screen select "Search This State Only." Click on the "GO" button. The search engine will display a list of ATB articles relating to the city of Portland, Maine. Searching Article Titles To search for a specific article title (or for any article title that contains a specific word or words), click on the "Advanced" search button. Type the title word(s) that you wish to search for in the Search the ATB window that appears and select the "article titles only" option. Searching only article titles will greatly reduce the number of articles returned. 7

8 Boolean Operators When you use Boolean operators (AND, OR, and NOT) between words in your search string, you are specifying logical relationships among the terms. These relationships are described below. x AND y: The search will return all articles in which both search terms appear. For example, "Lincoln AND Nebraska" will return articles that contain both words, and not articles about President Lincoln. x OR y: The search will return all articles in which either search term appears. For example, "freedom OR emancipation" will return all articles that contain either (or both) of those terms. x NOT y: The search will return all articles in which x appears but not y. For example, "Columbus NOT Christopher" will return articles with information about Columbus, Ohio, but not articles with information on the explorer Christopher Columbus. Wildcards Use wildcards to represent unknown characters within a word. * (zero or more characters): Use the asterisk, or star, to represent a variable string of zero or more characters. For example, an article-titles-only search for "Indian*" would yield "Indiana," "Indianapolis," and "Indians."? (single character): Use the question mark to represent a single variable character. For example, a search for "Anders?n" would return "Andersen" and "Anderson." $ (zero or one character): Use the dollar sign to represent zero or one variable character. For example, a search for "colo$r" would return both "color" and "colour." Search Results Once a search is complete, a numbered list of articles is displayed on the Search Results screen. Article titles are displayed in order of relevance and are provided as hyperlinks that is, you can click on the title and go right to the article. 8