Information taken from Technology for the School Librarian: Theory and

Practiceby William O. Scheeren

Samantha RagasaLEM 511

Spring 2013

A database is a collection of information on

one or more related topics.

Today we use an online database call

OPAC (online public access catalog).

Early databases searched for magazine

content.

Librarians bought a system called

InfoTrac, which provided a bibliographic

citation with a code number linked to a

sheet of microfiche.

Advantages

Available to many users at any time.

Searching is easy.

Cheap and easy to update.

Does not take up a lot of shelf space.

Disadvantages

Cost a lot at first. Must have available funds for

keep-up subscriptions.

Computers may not work.

1. Prepare a plan.2. Analyze the needs of the school’s

students, faculty, and administration.3. Analyze the product and its benefits.4. Try to add bulk buying to lower costs.5. Compare products to see which one is

best for your library.6. Negotiate a price with a vendor.7. Train the faculty on the product.8. Evaluate the product.

Full-text archives of electronic journals

available to view with either a monthly

cost, or sometimes free.

E-journals do not have a good search

capability.

A digital version of a traditional print book

designed to be read on a personal

computer or an e-book reader.

Constantly changing field and becoming

very popular.

Still costs a lot per student to supply and

buy the books.

A large percentage of the Web that is not

able to be seen from the common viewer.

Google Scholar – an access point that

allows your teachers and students to

conduct broad searches of scholarly

literature.

Google Earth – an interactive program

allowing users to see a 3-D version of

geographical locations.

1. OPACs – an online database of materials held by a library or group of libraries

2. Google Earth - an interactive program allowing users to see a 3-D version of geographical locations.

3. Google Scholar – an access point that allows your teachers and students to conduct broad searches of scholarly literature.

4. periodicals – a published work that appears in a new edition on a regular schedule

5. proliferated – increasing rapidly in numbers6. microfiche – A card or sheet of microfilm capable of accommodating

and preserving a considerable number of pages, as of printed text, in reduced form.

7. InfoTrac – a bibliographic citation with a code number linked to a sheet of microfiche.

8. E-journals – electronic databases of journal, usually in a full-text format.

9. Authentication – the act of confirming the truth of an attribute of an entity

10. Consortium – an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations, or governments with the objective of participating in a common activity or working together to achieve a common goal.

2. The superintendent is very interested in the concept of e-books as a possible replacement for print textbooks and print reference materials for the school library. You are less sure the concept is feasible but have decided to compare two things: print textbooks versus e-books and print library reference materials versus e-books.

The main problem with e-books is funding and how the e-books will be managed. Will there be enough for every student or will they check them out? Will they go home with the students? I would suggest a mixture of print textbooks and library reference materials with some e-books. Mainly the library reference materials should be updated to online databases. With the money saved from buying updated reference books every year, more e-books can be purchased. However, the cost of e-books is no where near the cost of e-books and the updates that continually need to be done.

4. In this chapter, we discussed two “good” online resource: Google Scholar and Google Earth. Locate three other online resources that you consider worthwhile.

National Geographic for Kids:http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/Google for Kids: http://www.kidrex.org/A search engine for kids: http://www.sweetsearch.com/

There are many online materials available for a school library.

The library media specialist must analyze and evaluate the needs of students and the different means of online materials in the school library.

The library media specialist should use this information to determine what online materials should be provided in the school library.

Electronic Books (e-books) free for download: Project Gutenberg (over 15,000 e-books for public

view, older books):www.gutenberg.org Great books online: www.bartleby.com International Children’s Digital Library (over 600

children’s books): www.icd/books.orgElectronic Books (e-books) that have a fee for a download: Gale Virtual Reference Library: www.gale.com/gvrl Greenwood Publishing Group:

www.greenwood.com/ebooks Follett Library Resources Company: www.flr.follett.com Questia: www.questia.com

Library resources with online databases: http://www.mylibrary.us/online

“The Truth about Ebooks” by Christopher Harris: http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6660883.html

“Online Databases: Ebooks Arrive” by Carol Tenopir: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6523478.html