Welcome to this month's product news bulletin for eLibrary™ subscribers. This newsletter is designed to help teachers, librarians, and administrators stay informed about the latest changes to your subscription, while providing classroom resources and giving tips for using your ProQuest subscription in a variety of settings.
Don't miss our online archive for access to past issues, and to make changes to your newsletter options.
Our product development team is constantly reviewing customer feedback and making changes to our learning resources to meet your needs. Several updates to our eLibrary family of products were recently completed, and we wanted to bring them to your attention.
2005 Training Tools, User Materials & FAQs
eLibrary and its cousins have matured and expanded greatly over the past few months. To showcase all of the progress we've made in positioning eLibrary as a set of standards-aligned, reading-level-searchable, digital learning resources, it was critical to start the new year by revising our core set of training and user materials to help schools make the most of their subscriptions.
1. User’s Guide: A must-have for every user of eLibrary. This 32-page document covers everything from how to login to your subscription, to conducting searches, creating lessons and activities with BookCarts, narrowing queries by standard or reading level, and so much more.
2. PowerPoint Presentations: Whether you’re planning a training session or interested in a quick, visual overview of your subscription, retrieve a copy of our new PowerPoint presentations today. Plus, revised versions of our popular Multimedia Mini-Research Models for Middle & High School Students are online.
3. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs): Our technical support group has been hard at work as well, creating a set of FAQs to answer more than a dozen basic questions about your ProQuest K-12 subscriptions. Whether you subscribe to eLibrary, SIRS, or CultureGrams, alone or in combination, this new page will help you when you get stuck!
4. eLibrary Trial Toolkit & Evaluation Guide: This toolkit is designed to demonstrate the power of eLibrary as an education solution for increasing student achievement and teacher effectiveness. New trialers as well as current subscribers who may not be aware of the content, student tools and teacher tools in eLibrary will benefit from this collection of resources--unique eLibrary resources that extend the life of existing textbooks and provide another way to motivate and assess student performance in reading, writing, and critical thinking.
5. eLibrary Elementary Teacher’s Research Guide: This revised guide is designed to support teachers and librarians in teaching the strategies and skills of digital information literacy. Digital information literacy integrates technology literacy with information literacy skills, language arts skills, and critical thinking. These are the emerging skills of the 21st century, and are already playing a major role in secondary education and colleges. Digital information literacy includes critical reading, analyzing, organizing, synthesizing information, and then writing/reporting conclusions based on original thought. These are the essential skills being tested by states and integrated into all state standards.
6. How to Obtain & Schedule Usage Statistics: Our new usage statistics engine is as powerful as it is easy to use. View our new quick-start guide to see how simple it can be to obtain your latest usage data, plus set up regular transmissions of this important information to one or more email addresses.
Grants & Funding 2005
The Improving Literacy through School Libraries (LSL) competitive grant under Title I was increased to $19M in 2004 and was received by 92 recipients. Congress is now proposing a significant increase in funding for 2005 and beyond. That means that librarians have a greater opportunity to receive these funds than ever before. Don't miss out! Visit our Funding Guides section to learn more.
Reminder: BookCart Collection
A librarian’s greatest challenge today is to expand the information literacy culture of teaching and learning in their school. Success in this venture will be based on motivating, collaborating with, and supporting teachers in creating engaging research assignments. Ultimately, it is the teacher who decides whether or not to make the assignments that require the use of library resources and the expertise of the librarian.
ProQuest can help in this endeavor! Our team has created a collection of more than 210 professional BookCarts that support teacher and student research needs across the curriculum, and at all levels of learning. This standards-based collection is yours to copy in less than five minutes and then share with your teachers and school leaders.
Retrieve a list of our 210 ProQuest BookCarts. For instructions on how to copy these BookCarts to your collection, view our new audio demonstration. (Flash is required. Be sure to turn up the volume on your computer.)
Curriculum guides to help teachers to use the BookCarts effectively and create their own when they’re ready are also available.
Teachers like BookCarts because they help manage research activities, save classroom and library time, and ensure the relevance and quality of learning resources. Students like BookCarts because they save time and ensure relevance. Librarians like BookCarts because students must search and use critical thinking to decide which (among more than 25 resources in each BookCart) are the best to use.
ProQuest has completed the acquisition of privately held Voyager Expanded Learning, a leading provider of in-school core reading programs, reading intervention programs, and professional development programs for school districts. Voyager established its reading programs to achieve what research says is possible, for 90-95 percent of children to become successful readers, and to this end has aggressively examined its results.
Ron Klausner, president of ProQuest Information and Learning, said, "Voyager has a proven track record of improving reading abilities in children. In a recent nationwide study of 10,000 kindergarten-through-second-grade students, less than 40% were reading at grade level at the start of the school year. After using Voyager’s Universal Literacy System for one year, more than 70% were reading at grade level. We are impressed with the product, the mission, and the management of Voyager, and its programs fit well with our desire to provide greater support to the education community."
Diana Schneider, from Williston Junior High School in North Dakota, writes:
"I have used eLibrary as a great resource for the middle school students to use when they are doing research-type of projects. eLibrary is easy-to-use for the students, and it helps them get useful sources. eLibrary contains information that has been evaluated and is reliable for students."
What features of eLibrary Curriculum Edition do you and your students find the most useful? Have you recently used or are you planning to use eLibrary CE as part of an assignment or student research project? How do you and other curriculum leaders in your institution use your ProQuest 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.
eLibrary users have access to an incredible Black History Month resource at their fingertips.
eLibrary BookCart Resources
Black History Month recognizes the experiences of African-Americans in United States history and focuses on slavery, segregation, civil rights movements, and famous African- American leaders. It’s intended to educate all Americans about the legal and social obstacles and prejudice African-Americans have encountered in their quest for racial and economic equality.
The impact of African-Americans on our nation’s history and culture is profound and diverse. From the tumultuous period of slavery to the open expression of the jazz era and the civil rights movement, African-Americans such as Frederick Douglass, Billie Holiday, and Martin Luther King, Jr., have left a legacy to enrich future generations.
eLibrary BookCarts can help teachers and students look at Black History topics in more depth than just the sprinkling of these topics in a typical U.S. History textbook. ProQuest has created four BookCarts that teachers and students can use to study a variety of topics related to Black History. Librarians and teachers can copy these BookCarts to their local collections to save classroom and library time searching and to ensure quality and relevant information, too.
2. Click BookCart Admin to take you into BookCart Editor.
3. Type Black History in the Title box.
4. Type PQ BookCart in the Author box and click Search.
5. Click the two Select boxes to the right of the titles and then click Copy.
6. Click on the link to go back to your BookCart list.
7. Type African-American in the Title box.
8. Type PQ BookCart in the Author box.
9. Repeat steps 5 and 6 to copy two additional BookCarts to your local list.
10. Four new BookCarts have been added to your local listing for teachers and students to use for mini-research activities in celebrating Black History Month.
Black History Resource: Magnum Photos
To honor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King on his birthday, Magnum Photos arranged for filmmaker Spike Lee and his brother, photographer David Lee, to select the images projected on the digital billboard over the Port Authority building on the corner of 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue, New York. These images, which were on display from January 15 through January 19, were part of the month-long exhibition, "42 Seconds on 42 Street."
"We want to do our part to honor the legacy of Dr. King," said Spike Lee. "Great visionaries never go out of style, and his mission is as important today as it ever was. The billboard is a great forum, and any reminder of the struggle of our parents and their parents should spur us on."
Almost all the 200+ photographs in the exhibit curated by Spike Lee are in eLibrary. Here are five highlights from the collection:
Full citations can be found by accessing the images through eLibrary.
-- Search Strategies for eLibrary images from Magnum Photos
Enter Search Term: Civil Rights
In the Advanced Search area, enter:
Publication: Magnum Photos
-- Other eLibrary Black History Search Terms:
Black Power
Civil rights
Segregation
Voting Rights
March on Washington
SNCC
Black Panthers
Nation of Islam
Stokely Carmichael
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Malcolm X
Andrew Young
Jessie Jackson
Mohammad Ali
John Coltrane
Wynton Marsalis
Dizzy Gillespie
Nina Simone
Harlem
Selma Alabama
Birmingham Alabama
movements, political issues, events, key figures, places, organizations
You can also search for the works of a particular Magnum photographer by entering his or her name in the Author box in the Advanced Search box. Magnum Photographers active in recording the Civil Rights Movement include Bob Adelman, Eve Arnold, Leonard Freed, Thomas Hoepker, Hiroji Kubota, Danny Lyon, and Constantine Manos.
Here’s a bonus advanced search:
Search Term: jazz
Publication: Magnum Photos
Dates between: 01/01/1930 and 12/31/1969
Results include: Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Charles Mingus, and Thelonious Monk
Magnum Photos is a living archive updated daily with new work from across the globe. Magnum photographers document most of the major world events and personalities, from the Spanish Civil War to the present day. Constantly updated profiles on most countries of the world, covering industry, society and people, places of interest, politics and news events, disasters and conflict. Magnum Photos reflects all aspects of life and the unparalleled brilliance of the greatest collective of living documentary photographers.
Looking for an in-person, CEU-eligible program to increase teacher effectiveness and boost student achievement?
ProQuest offers a new full-day, hands-on professional development program designed to train teachers to integrate information literacy plus state standards into mini-research assignments. View a syllabus or send us an information request to find out more.
CultureGrams can help you broaden your students' understanding of the world and its peoples. Our World Edition includes 182 country profiles, written for junior high students and older. CultureGrams also has a Kids Edition and a States Edition, geared for upper elementary students. These editions include kid-friendly profiles of 66 countries and all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia.
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.
Country: India
+ Capital City: New Delhi
+ Population: 1,049,700,118
+ Area: 1,269,338 square miles (3,287,590 sq km)
+ Real GDP per capita: $2,840
+ Adult literacy rate: 69% (male), 46% (female)
+ Infant mortality: 60 per 1,000 births
+ Life expectancy: 63 (male), 64 (female)
Did You Know?
India is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world, with hundreds of linguistic nationalities and hundreds of different castes (tribes) residing in each state.
In India, 33 languages have 100,000 or more speakers. Eighteen languages have official status.
India is the birthplace of Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism.
Personal Appearance
Women generally wear a saree (a long length of fabric draped in variations that can represent socioeconomic status and religious affiliation) or a colorful pantsuit with a knee-length shirt. Women also wear considerable jewelry. Hindu women may have a bindi, or red dot, on their foreheads. Traditionally a sign of femininity, gracefulness, and marital status, the bindi has become for many an optional beauty aid, and its color frequently matches the wearer's outfit. After marriage, the bindi, accompanied by white powder on her upper forehead (or vermilion powder in the part of her hair), signifies the woman's husband is alive; widows do not wear a bindi.
Dating and Marriage
Weddings are cause for great celebration, expense, and feasting. Ceremonies are often elaborate and vary widely from state to state. In many, the bride and groom exchange garlands and/or words before they circle around a fire three to seven times to solemnize the marriage. Bright clothing, jewelry, and flowers are part of nearly every type of ceremony. Giving a dowry (money, land, etc.) to the groom is still common for the bride's parents, even though the practice is illegal.
Diet
Diet depends on culture and region. For example, rice is a staple in the south, while wheat bread (roti) is a staple in the north. Indian meals are usually very spicy. Onions are used in most dishes. Different types of curry (eggs, fish, meat, or vegetables in a spicy sauce) are popular. Betel leaves and nuts commonly are eaten after meals to aid digestion. Vegetarianism is widely practiced, often for religious reasons. All castes have different food laws and customs, as does each religion. Hindus consider cows to be sacred and will not eat beef. Muslims do not eat pork or drink alcohol.
Recreation
The favorite sports in India are cricket, soccer, and field hockey. Women generally do not play sports. India's motion picture industry (popularly known as Bollywood) is one of the world's largest, and cinemas are well attended. Every major city has numerous modern theaters, some equipped with elevators and restaurants.
Find out more about CultureGrams today. You may also take a virtual tour of CultureGrams with our latest multimedia demo. Be sure to turn up the volume on your computer.
Each month, our SKS WebSelect™ and 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.
"Mosques burn and a filmmaker is murdered in a culture clash between Muslims and Christians in the Netherlands. A series of bombs tear apart commuter trains in Madrid. Al Qaeda terrorist cells are uncovered in the U.K., Germany, Italy and Spain. Tune in as 'Frontline' investigates the new front in the war on terror: Europe... Compare European and American approaches to fighting terrorism at the companion Web site." (PBS)
"Discover the themes and works that emerged when creative and intellectual voices intersected during the Harlem Renaissance." (JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS) Explore the people, places and themes of the Harlem Renaissance and how they intersected through this multimedia site. Watch Earl Tucker dance, listen to Langston Hughes read a piece of poetry, listen to Fats Waller perform, and more.
"Help Dobie find treasure under the sea by matching letter patterns and word parts to spell words." (HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY) Improve your spelling and vocabulary skills through this online game!
Take a few minutes this month to build your brain power, eLibrary-style! Here’s a small set of sample searches that will help you experience different search techniques to get the most out of your subscription.
1. Simple Searches
Click the radio button next to Natural Language, then enter these keywords:
2004 election
global warming
school uniforms
2. Advanced Searches
Click the radio button next to Natural Language, then enter these keywords:
obesity
Click in the box next to Health beside Emphasis on, click Search, then sort your results by Publication.
mergers
Click in the box next to Business beside Emphasis on, then sort your results by Date.
2. Natural language search
Click the radio button next to Natural Language, then enter these keywords:
what is the solar system?
who is FDR?
what is SARS?
Have you conducted a sample search recently that you think other users might benefit from? Send your recent queries 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.
Our ProQuest 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.
Now there's another reason to check out our top-quality, free online training offerings! Whenever you sign up for *and* attend an online training course during the month, you'll be automatically entered into a drawing for an Amazon.com gift certificate for $100. One winner will be chosen per month.
Congratulations to our latest winners, who each won a set of CultureGrams resources!
Barbara Newman
North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics
SIRS Researcher (11/17)
Christine DiNoto
Old Saybrook High School
CultureGrams (12/15)
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. Register for a course today!
You may also sign up for a new enewsletter to receive training dates each month via email as soon as they're available.
Finally, don’t miss our new Training Center! You’ll find information about our online and in-person training offerings, along with training packs for use with our full line of learning resources, and more.
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.
To subscribe to any or all of these offerings, click here.
To change your email address, unsubscribe, or modify your subscription settings, click here.
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.
Country: India
