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Library
Information Services |
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Power Point Dialogue |
1. Here’s the place to start your research – it’s the “One Stop Information Shop.” You might call it the Walmart of library shopping.
2. The Library Resources Page can be much more than a list of databases. As we go through this talk, you’re going to see that it’s also a place we go to for many different databases, local procedures, and useful authoritative educationally–based web sites.
3. The place to begin is www.springbranchisd.com, the homepage of the Spring Branch Independent School District. The link to the Library Resources Page is directly under a changing picture. We have pulled together many sites and linked them to our district home page. Bookmarks are unique to a single computer, but this page is the same no matter at which computer the user sits, whether at school or anywhere in the world.
4. A good web page begins with an identity banner at the top. This one includes the mailing address and phone number of the web master for the page, Dr. Barry Bishop. This page has many resources listed; some are paid for, most are free. They have been chosen with our clients’ use being our number one priority. This is not a pretty page, but we have purposely omitted all graphics. It slows the system and takes up too much space.
5. We provide services to many of our clients but primarily to our students.
6. Because of our connection with Region IV, we were able to purchase Facts on File for $100 per campus. It is a collection of 6 databases, supporting multiple curricular subjects such as careers, health fitness, science ad geography. United Streaming is provided at no extra cost beyond our membership in Region IV. Currently it includes about 1100 videos broken down into 2-3 minute concept segments and searchable by TEKS and subject. Teachers love the blackline masters! [Guusje’s story of the Columbia] Your regional service center may also have these or others available at a reasonable cost.
7. We provide services to our teachers.
8. One of our roles is to teach teachers how to access these resources so they can be more efficient users of the Internet. District coordinators, teachers, and librarians developed these language arts, math, science, and social studies curriculum-related links collaboratively. [Laura – easy place.]
9. Sections like this at the bottom of a page “hook” your clients (mostly teachers) into using this page. Sites like Outlook Web Access, district insurance information, Region IV, and the credit union online are used frequently by our adult clients. [Laura – problem child] We also included a few sites near and dear to our hearts, like TLA, in this section.
10. We provide services to our librarians.
11. This screen is a link from the library resources page, intended only for our librarians’ use. On this page are links to much of the information that we as librarians need on a daily basis, such as buying guides, templates of requisitions, and vendor information.
12. This is a sample of some of the subject searches that librarians use, and teach to their students and teachers. These are examples of many of the free resources available to everyone. [Vaughn – Texas Indians and Blue Web’N]
13. We provide services to our community.
14. 85% of our tax-paying constituents do not have children in our Spring Branch schools. The district has started a community service called the STAR program for our senior citizens to take advantage of the resources their taxes fund in the district, including the Library Resources page. This page with all of its one-stop shopping is available to our community.
15. Where do we begin? We have pulled all of these resources together, and now we’d like to show you the TLC databases. This is the real workhorse of our research process.
16. 16 Gale resources and Britannica Online have been funded by the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund (more commonly referred as TIF). This makes up half of Spring Branch’s subscriptions.
17. You should all recognize this page, the homepage for Gale.
18. There are several ways to display the Gale databases. This one has them organized by subject.
19. One of the most-used Gale databases is General Reference Center GOLD. It includes 1200 sources covering current events with an emphasis on business, consumer issues, and health topics. [Vaughn – old subscription #] At our request they have made the full text rather than the abstracts to be the default.
20. If you haven’t used the Discovering Collection, you need to check it out. It includes full-text Gale and UXL reference books and primary sources. With the increased TEKS emphasis on using primary resources, this is an invaluable tool. The Multimedia Gallery is full of images, video, audio, maps, flags, and seals. It’s a little mini-market in itself!
21. Look in the Professional Collection if you need book reviews. If you can no longer afford library review journals, here’s the place to come. Teachers working on advanced degrees will also find this to be a gold mine.
22. This is how we have reorganized Gale to better meet the needs of our students. The numbers help students remember which database they are using or have used in the past. [Laura – matrix] Every link to the TLC databases needs to mention the TIF and how much we owe our legislators. If you’re not aware, each campus in the state, which belongs to TLC, receives $40,000 worth of free databases for our clients’ use, thanks to our legislators.
23. This is another view of the additional Gale products to which Spring Branch subscribes. [Vaughn – Biography and Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center]
24. Another reference provided by TLC is Britannica Online. Sometimes we tend to think that the reading level is too high for many of our students, but the abstracts can be used by almost everyone. There can be as many as 3 color-coded reading levels for a topic.
25. Web links are another of the strengths of Britannica Online, making Yahoo and other search engines unnecessary.
26. Other database subscriptions also appear on our Library Resources page. These have been purchased by Spring Branch ISD, but the regional service centers are actively trying to buy more through volume discount. By the way, Meriwether is not #1 by accident.
27. Meriwether is the web version of the Gateway Software Corporation, which is what Spring Branch uses as their circulation and cataloging program. This is the home page, and it can be accessed by all of our clients from anywhere in the world without a password.
28. The results page shows all library materials, plus eBooks and web links. Clients can conduct a search at home, print out a list and bring it to the library the next day. [Cheri – Gussje’s story of Veterans Day celebration] If your electronic card catalog can be accessed over the web, then you can add web links to your MARC records very easily or you can actually catalog web sites.
29. We need to spend more time teaching students to use these databases because of their accurate information. However, at some point we also need to educate them about search engines.
30. Spring Branch librarians spent some time working with teachers and students to find the best search engines that are reliable and provide sites that are best used for research. We also tried to avoid those search engines with a lot of banners and advertising.
31. We have 5 KidsSafe search engines listed, with Ithaki 4 Kids being a metasearch engine.
32. Good research ends with good citations, and NoodleTools provides that. It was free until about a year ago, but it now requires a low-cost subscription fee at no more than $10.00 a campus. All the other sites in this section are free.
33. This is NoodleTools’ homepage. Citations are formatted according to both the APA and MLA handbook. A student just completes the required fields (author, title, copyright, etc.) and NoodleTools puts the data in the correct order with the correct punctuation.
34. Brochures and bookmarks similar to what you have in your packet – the blue and green pages -- are some of the ways this page is promoted. Staff development classes are also taught, often using PowerPoint presentations.
35. PowerPoint presentations are used during staff development, on staff development days, faculty meetings, one-on-one, and during class instruction time. Dr. Bishop also sat down with each principal and showed him or her the Library Resources page.
36. This is an example of a school library page. It has a link to some handouts and guidelines created for students to use with a particular assignment.
37. This is an example of such an assignment. [Vaughn – ad lib]
38. As you all know, funding for education by our state legislature is getting tighter and tighter all the time. We need to constantly talk with our clients about the TIF funding and how it would impact our students if the funding were to be withdrawn.
39. All librarians should invite their legislator to their libraries to show them what the minuscule dollar amount that we get has bought and how it is being used.
40. Without Dr. Barry Bishop we would not have the vision of this project.
41. These are the resources we used for this presentation.
42. Remember how we started with the “one-stop-shopping” idea? With this one address, you can link to the world. If you don’t have the resources to create your own library resources page, you are welcome to use ours because 90% of the links are free! Just remember www.springbranchisd.com!
43. Questions??
44. And remember, this is the link to access the files and handouts of this presentation. There is also a link to this from our library resources page.
