The objectives of the workshop are to: Introduce the various online reference resources available to APS students and teachers, particularly at the elementary level Provide a tutorial on using ACORN—APS’ Online Catalog Provide an overview of the available online reference databases for use in class and preparing lessons I also have a handout that provides a list of the resources, URLs, and other useful information
All of APS’ online research resources are available via Blackboard: see http://apsva.blackboard.com/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp Don’t forget to use Mozilla Firefox when accessing and using Blackboard.
After logging into Blackboard, simply click on the “For Staff” tab and then click on the “Library Online Tab”
As you can see, all the resources are available in one place, easily accessible to both teachers and students via blackboard.
We’ll start with ACORN, which students and teachers will use most often. This is our online catalog and stands for Arlington County Online Resource Network. APS shares ACORN with the public libraries.
Note that you can access the APS catalog from this website, as well as the public library catalog and the various online research tools via this website.
ACORN has three different types of search styles as noted in the color tabs at the top of the screen: Visual, Classic, and Kids. Users can search by keyword, title, author, or subject. In both the visual and kids search screens, you’ll notice a word cloud on the left hand side of the screen. This is enabled by ACORN’s faceted search capabilities. This word cloud will show you associations with something to do with your search term, including spelling variations, thesaurus terms, word variations, and discovery trail. The larger the word, the more relevant associations. Other key hints: To target a search in the visual search mode, simply use quotation marks. For example, author: “rowling, j.k.” Another helpful pointer, ACORN searches are not case sensitive.
Use these commands when using a targeted search…You can browse by simply entering the keywords, title or author in the search box.
An important tip when using ACORN and searching for materials—make sure to select the school where you’ll be looking for the information.
The records includes a description of the work, some of which include useful notes, annotations, and published reviews. By simply scrolling down the screen, you
By scrolling down the record, you will find the holdings information. This will tell you where the book is located in the library’s collection (that is the call number” and the status of the book—whether or not it is in the library’s collection.
Currently, we cannot search subscription databases through ACORN. However, APS subscribes to many useful online reference databases for elementary students and teachers. As noted earlier, these are accessed via blackboard without a password or can be accessed remotely with a password. Please make sure to write down the password information
Britannica offers an elementary edition. Resources include the Miriam Webster Dictionary, biographies, atlas and a interesting country comparison feature. World Book Student and World Book Kids offers many options including a dictionary feature, atlas and maps. I would suggest using the student edition for older elementary students and World Book kids for younger elementary. students.
Scholastic Product. One useful feature of Grolier is that offers Lexiles for students. However, while many resources populate this database, the new book of knowledge is one of the only that works for elementary students.
This set of databases provides access to full text articles
Provides information about the place (country or state), history, the people, cultural notes, and fun facts and symbols. Useful for geography and social studies. Also provides links to slideshows, recipes, interviews, etc. I think that this is the best to browse. Some neat features, search under videos and find a video with third-grade students in Mali—this would be a great way to introduce the ancient Mali curriculum to VA third graders.
SIRS Discover: links to websites, historical documents eLibrary: links to full text and multimedia information Really better for older kids
All the above referenced databases offer products for K-12. CQ researcher offers information about federal and state governments for high school students. Primarily teaching resources WebFeet includes pre-selected websites that ensure accurate and safe information (K-12) TeachingBooks.net is an online, multimedia collection of resources about K-12 books and authors.