Great Discovery

I discovered so many wonderful tools this summer during the Electronic Resources Challenge. I am finding it difficult to choose one, so I will discuss a few highlights. Overall, I am amazed by the various resources that are made available through the South Dakota State Library. The sheer volume of information astounds me. It is all right there! At my fingertips! The best part is that I can be confident about the quality of the resources as well.

I love World Book Online (Kids, Student, and Advanced)! It is a great place to start any search. The younger students will love the pictures, videos, sounds and activities. Older students can use it for research papers. Teachers will love the Activities and the Educator tools, too. Since school is back in session and I am a new school librarian, I have heard A LOT about standards. I am also a parent so, of course, I have heard about the “standards” that students, teachers, and other staff are required to incorporate into our children’s education. However, I had no idea how much focus is put on the standards. World Book Online provides the content standards for much of the information that is provided here which teachers will find very helpful.

SIRS Discoverer and SIRS Issues Researcher provide Educators’ Resources and Standards Correlations which I believe can help the teachers immensely.

As a student of library science, I have begun to use ProQuest for my own class work. I have set up RSS feeds from various library journals to keep myself updated on various trends. I will use WorldCat regularly while cataloging books and other searches. I have started showing AP Literature students NetLibrary when they come looking for a book we don’t have in the library. I imagine in the winter and spring, the Juniors, Seniors, and I will be perusing Learning Express Library for ACT help or Job & Career Skills.
Thank you for allowing me to learn about the databases available through the South Dakota State Library. Now, I just need to coral the students and the staff so I can show them how valuable it all is!