Enclosed is this month's free newsletter for eLibrary® subscribers. This newsletter is designed to help teachers, librarians, and administrators stay informed about the latest changes to their subscriptions, while providing classroom resources and giving tips for using their ProQuest CSA solutions in a variety of settings.
Don't miss our online archive for access to past issues, and to make changes to your newsletter options.
PROQUEST EDUCATION SOLUTION UPDATES
Our product development team is constantly reviewing customer feedback and making changes to our learning resources to meet your needs. Several updates or content additions were recently completed, and we wanted to bring them to your attention.
eLibrary Podcast
When asked what their favorite websites are, most Internet users agree –- online search tools like Google are popular destinations.
Faced with a nearly limitless number of websites, it’s more critical than ever for researchers to carefully consider how they choose to utilize their limited time and energy tracking down information online.
Which brings us to this month’s podcast from ProQuest CSA -- a practical guide to objectively comparing online search engines like Google to its subscription research cousins, including eLibrary, SIRS, and ProQuest CSA. This is one podcast you want to share with your fellow teachers, librarians, and administrators!
Plus, don’t miss our free monthly Web training sessions, which are eligible for CEU credit!
Teacher Resource Explorers
Looking for our popular eLibrary teacher guide? We’ve replaced this tried and true offering with something more… focused.
This month we’re proud to release three new Teacher Resource Explorer documents. Each offers concrete, graphical examples of how eLibrary delivers tools and content to empower teachers and learners in three core curriculum areas. Watch for additional subject areas to go online in the coming months!
What’s the best time to show off the value of your library?
April is School Library Media Month. What an excellent opportunity for librarians to show off their collection of recreational reading and digital information learning resources.
Unfortunately, many students and teachers are by-passing the library’s educator-selected learning resources for the “free” and increasingly popular world of the Internet surfing. (Video overview.)
This new world, limited to websites only, requires students to have the time and expertise to separate credible information from false, misleading, or harmful information--avoiding the many detours and distractions along the way. So, while librarians are still serving a nutritious smorgasbord of the best supplemental resources for learning, many students are opting for “junk food” with the support of teachers.
Activity: How can ProQuest CSA help to support increased use of the library and eLibrary? ProQuest CSA provides handouts for teachers that illustrate how library resources and librarian expertise provide compelling benefits not available through Google and other methods of surfing for K-12 digital learning resources.
Why eLibrary instead of Google?
Download and distribute this handout to your teachers. It compares researching with Google (Web surfing) to your print library with eLibrary content and tools added. Include department heads and your principal to get maximum impact. They are in the best position to evaluate and then promote the benefits of your eLibrary research learning solution. (Video version.)
How can I help teachers jump-start the research process with students?
Here’s a collaboration handout that you can download and distribute to your teachers, department heads, and principal. It lists more than 500 free model BookCarts that are available for you to copy to your local collection. These model BookCarts save teacher classroom time, ensure that student reports/presentation are focused and authoritative, help reduce plagiarism, and often eliminate the need for teacher and librarian supervision of student Internet researching.
How can I personalize the benefits of an eLibrary solutions for my teachers?
The three Teacher Explorers are NOT functionality guides. Instead, they are an effective way for you to handout and demonstrate why eLibrary tools and content are the best way to increase student achievement and teacher effectiveness through assigning research activities.
There are separate Explorers for teachers in English Language Arts, Social Studies, and Science. So, download each one of these and distribute them to teachers, department heads, and principals. They’ll better understand and appreciate your decision to subscribe to eLibrary and help support its use by teachers and students in your school.
ELIBRARY BOOKCARTS: MODELS, COLLABORATION, AND MORE
During the last six years, school librarians and libraries have been challenged by the growth of the Internet as a source of digital information for students and teachers. In many cases, this has led to the erosion of library budgets as administrators, using limited vision, view access to “free learning resources” (video version) as being preferable to paying for library-quality resources.
Even the additional federal funding of No Child Left Behind has left “all libraries behind” because it provides little direct support for libraries, and then only in disadvantaged schools.
How can librarians help reverse this trend? Librarians must provide teachers and students with (a) unique world-class K-12 learning resources, (b) tools that save time for students, and (c) teacher tools to customize learning to address standards and student reading ability. No “free resources” can provide all these education empowering benefits.
The good news is that the exclusive eLibrary 500 model BookCart/QuizCart collection can help librarians reach out to teachers and students by providing compelling benefits for teachers and students that “Internet surfing” methods can’t.
Check out the collection that is ready for you to copy and distribute to teachers.
PROQUEST® PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: ELIBRARY & SIRS
Our professional development training program is a complete package that delivers the key processes to ensure successful program implementation, and the content to support ongoing use and customization across the entire curriculum.
The CEU-eligible program provides educators with research-based technology integration strategies and tools for customizing instruction and assessment using our eLibrary and SIRS online learning solutions. Schools receive the materials they need to build professional development and instructional models that can maximize teacher efficiency and effectiveness, and improve student achievement.
Educators receive rubrics, assessments, activities, and content designed to spur students' information literacy skills, critical thinking, and reading and writing abilities, while increasing their own technology usage. Plus, our flexible model ensures that all instructional staff in a school or system will benefit from the lessons learned.
Our fresh support for our line of SIRS solutions will train your teachers to fuse four types of literacy using SIRS resources with state and national learning standards. Find out more about this new program today--just in time for your spring training dates!
CultureGrams can help you broaden your students' understanding of the world and its peoples. The World Edition includes 190+ country profiles, written for junior high students and older. CultureGrams also has a Kids Edition, Provinces Edition, and a States Edition, geared for upper elementary students. These editions include kid-friendly profiles of 70+ countries, all 50 states (including Washington, D.C.), and the Canadian provinces.
CultureGrams goes beyond mere facts and figures to deliver an insider's perspective on daily life and culture, including the history, customs, and lifestyles of the world's people.
Finland: Did You Know?
Finnish soldiers on skis fought against the Russians during the Winter War. The Finns were dressed all in white, so they were hard to see in the snow. The Finnish troops were known throughout the world for their bravery.
About a hundred years ago, Finnish women gave birth to their babies in saunas.
Reindeer steak is prepared for special meals.
Language
Finnish is one of the hardest languages to learn. Each Finnish word has about 15 forms, depending on how it is used in a sentence. For 93 percent of Finns, it is their first language. Others first learn Swedish or Sami (pronounced “SAW-me”) at home. But in school, all Finns eventually learn the two official languages, Swedish and Finnish. Many people, especially kids, speak English as well. So, many Finns can understand at least three languages.
Independence
Soon after independence, civil war began in Finland. It only lasted two years, but it was very bitter. Peace didn’t last long, either. The Soviet Union (of which Russia had become a part) attacked Finland twice during World War II. Some Finns today remember fighting for their country’s freedom. Because their freedom is so new, Finland’s Independence Day is celebrated in a reverent way. People light candles and visit the graves of those who died for their country.
Sauna
Almost every Finnish home and apartment has a sauna, or steam bath. The sauna is a place for cleansing the body, relaxing, and socializing. It’s usually a small wooden room with wooden benches around the sides. Hot stones are placed on a heater. The family sits on the benches and pours water over the hot stones. This creates steam, which makes people sweat. Those in the sauna sometimes hit themselves on the back with birch tree branches to clean themselves. After sitting in a sauna, people cool off by jumping into a cold shower, lake, or pile of snow.
To find out more about CultureGrams, connect to our website today.
Each month, our SIRS® WebSelect and SIRS® Discoverer WebFind editorial teams scour the Internet for top-quality sites that help teachers teach and students learn. Although no Internet site can supplant a quality research database, these vetted resources offer unique resources that are sure to be of interest.
"James Arthur Wood, Jr., began collecting original cartoon art as a childhood hobby....The Art Wood Collection of Cartoon and Caricature contains more than 36,000 original cartoon drawings and is a jewel among the Library's special collections, illuminating his astounding lifetime legacy of American creativity." (LOC) View 102 drawings from the collection. The cartoons are divided into the following sections: Illustration, Political Illustrations, Caricature, Animation, Gag & Single Panel, Cartoons, and Comic Strips.
"U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's site for kids [provides] lots of fun and interesting things to read and do to learn about the environment." (EPA) Learn about protecting our plants and animals, recycling garbage, providing clean drinking water and clean air, and other ways kids and adults can help the environment. Also, play games and do art activities.
Inside the Cell
National Institute of General Medical Sciences
"This educational booklet about cell biology speaks directly to readers by vividly describing the processes occurring within their bodies. It also shrinks readers down to 0.5 micrometers so they can explore the cell and its organelles close-up. The booklet features cutting-edge cell biology research and techniques. It includes review questions at the end of each chapter and a glossary." (NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF GENERAL MEDICAL SCIENCES) This book is available online as an HTML or PDF version.
Try Spring training, ProQuest CSA-style! In April we’re offering more courses starting at more times, and have reduced your time commitment to just 30-40 minutes each! Download the list of available courses and get online today.
Our product trainers are standing by to help you get the most out of your subscription -- and learn more about our other digital learning resources! We offer a wide variety of online training sessions each month.
Plus, all attendees can easily obtain a Certificate of Attendance (right) for any of our online courses! The certificate documents the course name, amount of class time, date, and verifies attendance. You can use the certificate to document attendance in the class and submit it along with the additional documentation your school district requires for continuing education credits.
Be sure to tell your trainer that you would like to receive a certificate via email at the start of each class. They’ll be glad to help!
You can download three ready-to-print versions of forthcoming training dates and times in PDF format.
Our training sessions cover after-school hours within several time zones. Best of all, there's no cost to participate. All you need is a computer with Internet access, a phone, and one hour.
What features of eLibrary do you and your students find the most useful? Have you recently used or are planning to use it as part of an assignment or student research project? How do you and other curriculum leaders in your institution use your ProQuest CSA educational resources?
Share your experiences with peers working in schools across the country and around the world--through an upcoming Product News Bulletin! We're waiting to hear from you. Please send your ideas and stories to: tim.mclain@il.proquest.com
If we choose your submission, we'll contact you for additional information and permission to use your story in a future issue.
FORWARD TO A COLLEAGUE + EMAIL SERVICE INFORMATION
Increase the usage of your digital learning resources! Our forward-to-a-friend service makes it easy to instantly send this product bulletin -- and all the great ideas and information it contains -- to others in your subscribing institution with a click of your mouse.
Also, be sure to encourage them to sign up for our SIRS, CultureGrams, ProQuest, ProQuest Historical Newspapers, eLibrary, eLibrary Curriculum Edition, and additional enewsletters as appropriate.
ProQuest offers a growing family of K-12 classroom-focused,
subscription-based online research tools. Many of these education solutions offer reading level-linked
(lexile) content, support
21st-century information
literacy skills, and help schools differentiate instruction across all curriculum areas.
Learn more about all of our tools here, tap into our training resources and videos, and don't miss our new eLibrary research tool (more). We also have a pair of special resource pages just for teachers (with lesson plans) and librarians.
Finland: Did You Know?
