C.O.D. Library ESL/ABE/GED Faculty Newsletter November 2010
Resource of the Month
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/ teachers/index.html
WGBH American Experience – Teachers’ Area makes it easy to bring American history into the classroom. American Experience has been airing award winning documentaries since 1988 and many of those are available to watch in full from the PBS website (we have 100 episodes on DVD and VHS here in the Library!). The Teachers’ Area allows instructors to “search or browse over 1,500 features from more than 110 American Experience Web sites — including timelines, primary sources, teacher’s guides, maps, galleries, interactives, video, and more — to find history, civics, and other social studies resources for your classroom.” Browsing the Teachers’ Area allows you to see the breadth of American Experience’s historical
Reference Collections If you've been in the Library since the start of the Fall semester, you will have noticed that we moved some furniture around over the Summer break. In doing so, we completely upended the organization of our Reference Collection. This collection has always been a challenge for students to navigate-the call number ranges on the ends of the shelves can be confusing, the shelves are close to the ground and hard to browse. Now, it's even hard for the librarians to find our way around! I, for one, knew the collection not by call number, but by plain old remembering the physical location of certain types of books on the shelf. Now, everything has been turned around and a student's guess is as good as mine when it comes to finding the Encyclopedia of Junk of Food. The Reference Collection is a fun place to browse, though. We have such a wide range of dictionaries, indexes and subject encyclopedias and we're adding new material all the time. There's always something to match anyone's interest-- whether it's soccer, science fiction, space or swearing. Reference books are also an excellent way to familiarize oneself with a new area of study. Simply flipping through something like the Encyclopedia of Magic and Magicians or Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology can provide a quick introduction to the breadth of a topic and the many related subtopics. Students looking for background information or quick references, aren't limited to the collection in the Library, however. Reference resources are available 24/7 via an everincreasing online collection that includes databases such as Credo Reference and the Gale Virtual Reference Library. These collections allow students to search multiple reference titles (dictionaries, encyclopedias, biographies and more) simultaneously. Need to know what the phrase "cold war"
coverage in a chronological listing that spans first European contact with Native Americans through contemporary issues. A click on a topic, such as “Culture and Society” in the Civil War and Reconstruction era, reveals the many supporting materials available from the site– maps, primary sources, timelines. A convenient box to left of the list allows you to narrow your results by feature and media type. Textbased teachers guides also provide activities that use all of, or parts of, American Experience documentaries.
Your Librarian Jenn Kelley Reference Librarian Office: SRC 3043A Phone: (630) 942-2383 E-mail: kelleyj@cod.edu Library Website: www.cod.edu/library
means? A quick search in Credo yields articles from general reference sources as well as information from social science, history, literature and science sources. Students get images, maps, audio and links to biographies of related people. I love learning new tidbits of information, but don't always have time to read entire books (or even articles!) on subjects that interest me-- that is why I'm a fan of reference books. The content is easily accessible, presented in manageable-sized chunks of information, generally illustrated and eminently browsable. I would encourage you and your students to explore the wonderful assortment of titles available here in the Library and online in our Reference Research Databases. You're bound to find something new and interesting!
New Library Materials Novel Scenes: • Low intermediate, Rooms with a view / Ann Gianola : PE1128 .N684 2010 • High beginning, Holding the bag / Ann Gianola : PE1128 .N683 2010 • Low beginning, In a tight spot / Ann Gianola : PE1128 .N682 2010 • Low beginning, In a tight spot / Ann Gianola : PE1128 .N682 2010 Oxford Picture Dictionary Reading Library- Workplace • Math and Max Brian Sargent ; illustrated by Dominic Bugatto : PE1126.N43 S275 2009 • A big night at Maria’s Cafe Sheila Fletcher ; illustrated by Paul Gibbs : PE1126.N43 F548 2009 • An important guest at the Shelton Hotel Antony Di Nardo ; illustrated by Bunky Hurter : PE1126.N43 D56 2009 Oxford Picture Dictionary Reading Library- Academics • Healthy eating Les Asselstine ; illustrated by Alana McCarthy : PE1126.N43 A773 2009 • Annette succeeds in class Paula S. Goepfert ; illustrated by Daniel Chen : PE1126.N43 G636 2009 Oxford Picture Dictionary Reading Library – Civics: • Finding good childcare Rod Peturson ; illustrated by Nicola Slater : PE1126.N43 P488 2009
• A busy morning at the bank Daniel McGillis ; illustrated by Mona Daly : PE1126.N43 M383 2009 Endeavor Series: • Endeavor. 8 / contributing author, Vista Resources, Inc. ; development : PE1128 .E528 2009 • Endeavor. 7 / contributing author, Vista Resources, Inc. ; development : PE1128 .E547 2009 • Endeavor. 6 / contributing author, Vista Resources, Inc. ; development : PE1128 .E526 2009 • Endeavor. 5 / contributing author, Vista Resources, Inc. ; development : PE1128 .E525 2009 • Endeavor. 4 / contributing author, Vista Resources, Inc. ; development : PE1128 .E524 2009