Brookhaven Open Library Night Mentioned in National Blog

Julia Benincosa of the West Virginia Department of Education briefly referenced our Open Library Nights in the FCC's Blogband blog.  Thanks, Julia!   Opening the Door to E-Rate in Our Communities

How Can You Tell If You Have Received "Good" Information?

What do you do when you need to find information about a particular topic?  If you are anything like me - and I would bet most of you are - you probably "Google it" or look it up on Wikipedia. These tools are easy to use, free, and most times offer fast, hassle-free answers to our questions. The problem with relying on these resources is that the quality of information they provide varies greatly from being too scholarly for the general reader (too much information) to being absolutely false. How do we know what we can trust?

As adults we most likely will begin a search with some prior knowledge of the topic we are searching.  This prior knowledge helps us determine whether or not we think the information we receive on a website is valid. Children, on the other hand, need to be given background information that is reliable before they can make valid judgements about information they find online.  Where can they get reliable, accurate background information?

 Enter the online encyclopedia.  Monongalia County School students have access to two wonderful subscription publications that have evolved from the print counterparts of older generations.

 The first, Grolier Multimedia Online, is available to all residents of West Virginia free of charge. It is provided to us by a grant from the West Virginia Legislature to the West Virginia Library Commission. Its print edition predecessors include Encyclopedia Americana, Academic American Encyclopedia, and the New Book of Knowledge.  All three are respected encyclopedias recommended by the American Library Association.   Their combination into one multimedia package makes Grolier Online a very comprehensive source for background information.

The second encyclopedia, World Book Online, is provided by Monongalia County Schools using part of the technology funds designated by our special levy.  World Book is my absolute favorite reference resource, dating from the days of my childhood when my parents bought a print set for my brother and me.  Fortunately, parents today don't have to shell out the $800 for a set and worry about keeping them up-to-date with annual supplements. A huge advantage of online resources over the print version is that articles are being continuously updated.  Because the articles in World Book are written by experts in the fields of each article, we can reasonably trust the information in these articles are accurate. Because World Book has for many years geared its content to curriculum needs of students, we can be assured that articles written on a particular topic are at a comfortable reading level for your student.

If children or adults feel the need for additional information beyond what is provided in encyclopedia entries, the user might want to investigate websites and periodicals on the topic.  Both World Book and Grolier provide links to recommended, preiselected magazine articles and websites. Again, because of the authority of the authors, we can reasonably expect these additional sources to provide valid, current information.

If there is a drawback to using these sources, it is that a username and password is required for access. Becuase this blog is a public forum, I cannot post them here. However, the logins and usernames for each source are available on our Edline webpage.  If you have any problem accessing these logins and passwords, email me at lsmartin@access.k12.wv.us, and I will be happy to provide them for you!

Parents, I hope you will encourage your child to use these resources as a first choice for finding information.  I know it is not easy not to use Google as a first choice, but I believe that using these online encyclopedias will lead to a more productive online experience. Once your student is armed with solid background information on his topic, it may be appropriate to "Google" additional information.  Next week in this blog I will discuss additional strategies to evaluate information found on the web.

Oh, the Things You Can Do on Our Library Catalog

Did you know that when using the Brookhaven Library online catalog:

•   Students can create their own login?
•   Students can send friend requests to other students and teachers?
•   Students can search for books they want to read and place hold requests?
•   Students can request materials from other Monongalia County school libraries?
•   Students can keep online lists of books they have read, books they want to read and books they are reading now?
•   Students can renew their books online?
•   Students can write reviews of books they have read and recommend books to people on their friends list?

  Want to get started using our online catalog?  Here are the steps:

1. Point your web browser to http://lib.mono.k12.wv.us.
2. Select Brookhaven Elementary from the list of school libraries.

In the upper right hand corner, click. 'Create an Account.'. The children will need to know their nine digit lunch number in order to create an account.

On this screen enter your last name and lunch number.

On the first screen children will enter their last name and their nine digit account number.

On this screen enter your birthday information.  On this screen enter you birthdate.  Don't worry; this information is secure and already on the server.  Students enter this information as a way of confirming their identity.

On this screen, enter your user name and password.

1.  Finally children will create their unique user name and password.  An email account is not needed to sign up for Destiny Quest, but it can be entered if you desire.

Enjoy!  If you have any questions, call me at 3042919236 or email me at lsmartin@access.k12.wv.us.