Google Books!

Google Books is a place on Google where you could find books and reviews. For example, if you look up The Pigman, it opens up the whole book. It also will show other versions or related books.

If you look up Romeo and Juliet, it will open the play. And so it is with all the other books you look up. All you have to do is to go to google.com. If you need to look up something, go to Google Books and you can read the first chapter or the whole book. They highlight the key parts and words, and you can easily search for words and phrases in the book.

The Importance of the National Archives

The National Archives, hundreds of years old, is an important source of information for national records ranging from historical moments to family records.

America's citizens like Beverly Woods could find military records, immigration records, and family records on her great-grandfather. This helped her to discover part of her family's past.

Notable historical records stored in the National Archives include the internment of Japanese San Franciscans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Survivors of the Japanese internment were able to sue the American government for consolation using information from these records.

The existence of the National Archives could also discourage influential people from lying or getting their information wrong.

The National Archives are open to everyone, like the one in Burlingame. Admission is free, but it would be a good idea to take the time out to plan your visit. National Archives sites also hold some public programs.

There is the Regional Archives in San Francisco where federal records on northern and central California, Nevada (except Clark County), Hawaii, American Samoa and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.

The Foundation for the National Archives ally with the National Archives to create the National Archives Experience.

For more information, visit the National Archives website.

Sources: Discovery Channel, National Archives website
Photo source: National Archives

By Julien G. (notes and title)
Brigette W. (summary)

The Good And Bad About Wikipedia

I'm sure many of you guys (and girls) have used Wikipedia before. For the ones who have never heard of it before, here's a small explanation of what Wikipedia is. Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia about almost anything. From countries to movies to books and even to art. But, there's a catch. The information is not always accurate. That's because people can just log in and change the information to anything they want. Usually, they are generous enough to give the correct facts but there are a few who purposely mess it up for everyone.

The History and Founders of Wikipedia

Wikipedia was originally based off the idea of Nupedia, another online encyclopedia. They were both created by Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales. Nupedia was founded on March 9, 2000 under the name of a company called Bomis, Inc. Jimmy Wales was the Bomis CEO while Larry was the editor-in-chief. Jimmy was in charge of designing the encyclopedia while Larry used a wiki to search up the results. In conclusion, Wikipedia was launched officially on January 15, 2001.

Wikipedia: The Good Uses
On Wikipedia, there are articles about almost anything. You can look up different movies, books, countries, and even some schools. It can give you the info you need for your report or something. Wikipedia is open to everyone so a scientific article can be written by a real life scientist.The Inaccuracy of InformationSometimes, this online dictionary can give false information on subjects. Since anyone can just sign up and post words onto subjects, it's pretty easy to discover that the information you found is fake. Some articles are also really short. It gives the really main point that you know. Usually, I wouldn't use Wikipedia as a source for a major assignment, such as a report on a certain topic because, like I said above, anyone can just post false information on the page about my topic.

Differences Between Britannica Online Encyclopedia and Wikipedia
The Britannica is somehow more organized than Wikipedia. It gives categories to choose from where as Wikipedia just has a search box. They list their blog and stuff along with a small search box. But, the Britannica only has articles about certain subjects. They don't have information about movies, people, and shows. Wikipedia has all that since real people are contributing to it.

Source: Wikipedia
Picture Credit From Google Images

Wikipedia: The Good and the Bad

The Herald staff and many people outside of Hillwood rely on Wikipedia for information. However, not everyone understands what Wikipedia is and how it operates.

Student Assignment: Irene
Write a story about Wikipedia. First read a few pages on Wikipedia (general information page and the work-in-progress page) and then a more objective source such The San Diego Union Tribune and Scientific America.

Consider answering the following questions, in addition to the five W’s of news reporting:

• Who (who is the founder of Wikipedia?)
• What
• Why
• Where
• When
• How (where does Wikipedia get its information and what is the process it uses for making sure it is as accurate as possible?)
• How reliable is the information on Wikipedia?
• Is the information on Wikipedia acceptable for your class assignments?
• How does Wikipedia compare to the Encyclopedia Britannica or other such research books?

Include some of image or screen grab with your story. Remember to include a photo credit. (On a Macintosh, you simply select the Command key, the Shift key, and the “4” key at the same time and they select the desired image. The image will be save to the computers desktop. On a PC, follow these instructions.)

Next week, Irene, you begin writing a Wikipedia entry about Hillwood. We will post it Wikipedia for all the world to see. But first you will have to read through this tutorial on Wikipedia.