Electronic Resources - Public Library

I am embarrassed to say that I had never looked closely at the electronic resources available through the Okanagan Regional Library. I was pleasantly surprised to discover a variety of useful databases and online encyclopedias not available through my school district. The ones most interesting to me, as a teacher-librarian and English teacher, are Novelist (which our district used to have and which will be reinstated next year), Encyclopedia Britannica, and the Oxford English Dictionary.

While the public library does not provide access to databases or encyclopedias that supplement what our district offers to primary and intermediate students, there are some products that would be valuable to high-school students. The public library offers four automotive databases (two are for in-library use only), Canadian Business and Current Affairs, Canadian NewsStand (both available through ProQuest), Opposing Viewpoints, two law databases (for in-library use only), and, of course, the previously mentioned Encyclopedia Britannica and Oxford English Dictionary.

This year, as a teacher-librarian at a K-5 elementary school, I did not promote the databases our district purchases. I did introduce Grade 3-5 teachers and students to World Book Kids and World Book Discover. The teachers seemed to appreciate my instruction, and I noticed that all three teachers later used these online resources to varying degrees; more information in one year, however, would have been too much for them to incorporate.

If I am teaching at a high school in September, I will promote the databases and teach students and teachers how to use them effectively. In a discussion posting, Jody Brummond persuasively illustrates the need "to ensure students have these vital skills before they reach the post secondary level." Jody describes being a "lost student" unfamiliar with online databases until an education professor took Jody's class to the library to learn how to navigate electronic resources. Even students who do not plan to attend post-secondary educational institutions can benefit from knowledge of databases. As I just discovered, the public library offers many databases to patrons. One tool useful to consumers is Consumer Reports, available free through EBSCOhost on the public library's website.

We pay for access to databases through schools and public libraries, but people will not use them if they are not informed of their existence and taught how to access and to use them. Students (and adults) often turn to Google because it is a quick, easy source of information, but they usually do not realize that using a reputable database can be more efficient: much less time is required to assess the authority of a source.