Free INFOhio Online Resources - Part 3

 

 

For the past few weeks, I have been spotlighting some of the great online resources to which Ohio students have school and home access. It is our tax dollars that pay for these resources and what a bargain it is. For pennies on the dollar, the library networks in Ohio are able to negotiate statewide licensing for excellent educational products, saving local school districts an enormous amount of money or in some cases, providing electronic resources to students in disadvantaged areas that would never be able to afford any of them. In this installment, I’d like to highlight what I consider to be the “Big Daddy” of all the resources: EBSCOhost.

I think most parents are old enough to remember how much work it was when your teacher gave you an assignment that was to include magazine articles. First you had to use an index to look up your topic. Then you had to hope your library subscribed to one of the magazines listed in the index. Then you had to hope that no one had ripped the article out of the magazine. More times than not, it was a long and frustrating process. As a librarian, our ears were acutely tuned in for that ripping sound. But now, the journal articles are on our desktops in electronic form to be accessed by multiple people and never to disappear into one individual’s notebook or pocket.

EBSCOhost is a database of over 6,000 magazines and newspapers. From children’s magazines to adult magazines, from the common Time magazine to the not so common Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, odds are you’ll find the journal you are looking for in EBSCOhost. You can also find biographies, some radio & TV transcripts, state reports, photos, maps and flags. Almost all of the periodicals have granted full-text rights to EBSCOhost, so rarely do you come up with just an abstract, which, in turn, means setting out to find an actual magazine. Instead, you can call up the full text of the article to read, print or e-mail. Some journals do use an embargo, which means the full text may not appear until after several months, but for the most part, articles appear almost immediately from the latest editions.

Please take a look at EBSCOhost. You can do a simple search or an advanced search. It’s a very sophisticated program in that it allows the user to set the parameters for the search. Even with all the advance features, it is still very user-friendly. And even if you are just looking for an article in a leisure/hobby magazine, I’m sure you’ll be impressed by the power of EBSCOhost.

When you click on the EBSCOhost link on the INFOhio site, you’ll see that they have tried to separate the periodicals by appropriate grade levels, but that is not a cut and dry thing to do. So, just as you would keep an eye on your child at a newsstand where hundreds of magazines are displayed, you may want to help younger students as they search for appropriate articles. You’ll also notice a button for EBSCO Animals. These are brief articles from The Encyclopedia of Animals and are quite useful for all those elementary school animal reports! Many entries have great pictures for the students to use, too. Speaking of pictures - - don’t overlook the link to EBSCO Images, another useful resource for so many reports and projects.

If there is a topic that you always want the latest news on, consider setting up an alert so that you receive a message when a new article is published on your topic. To learn how to do this, use the search function of the Help section. Enter ALERT in the search box and the directions will appear.

Two last hints about EBSCOhost: If you are accessing these resources through dial-up (phone modem) you can click the TEXT ONLY button to help the speed of delivery. To speed the printing process, always choose HTML over PDF format, if a choice is offered. PDF is an actual scan of the page and will contain ads and other items that appeared on the magazine page.

Wow! What a resource! Remember, you can always get to the resources offered through INFOhio and the district online resources by going to Genoa High School Online Resources at http://genoaschools.net/Staff/pscline/HS%20Online%20Resources%20Page.htm. Students are given bookmarks with the address and password on them.  Or you can go directly to www.infohio.org and click on the CORE RESOURCES button to access those mentioned above and many more that will be highlighted in the weeks to come. If you want to teach yourself how to effectively use these resources, look for help menus or tutorials within the products. We are not allowed to give passwords out over the web, so please request passwords from your building librarian. For an overview of INFOhio, check out the video at www.infohio.org/Parent/OutreachKit/Video2005.html. It’s short but gives you the big picture. You’ll find other valuable information for parents by clicking on the Parents link at the top.

Please feel free to use me, Paula Cline, as a resource to learn about any of our district or state online resources. You can contact me at 855-7735, ext. 13 and if you are by your computer with a question about the resources, I might be able to walk you through the answer. Or, you can e-mail me at pscline@genoaschools.com.