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Circulation Information

• Books may be checked out for 3 weeks
• Reference materials may be checked out for 1 class period or overnight
• Overdues:  There are no fines charged for overdue materials
• Lost or damaged materials:  The cost for lost or damaged materials included the list cost of the item and a $10.00 handling fee. 
• Online access:  Holds and renewals may be placed online with a student or staff library card number. (Patrons can obtain their library card number by asking the librarian.)

Other Libraries

Kitsap Regional Library

King County Library System

Seattle Public Library

University of Washington

Library of Congress

Washington State Library

 

Online Databases

Art Museum Image Gallery  hwwilsonweb.com
is a database of art images and related multimedia.  This resource has over 155,000 images, is easily searchable, and provides access to museum collections from around the world.

Culture Grams  culturegrams.com
is a tool for researching countries and states.  World Edition has detailed reports on 200 countries and territories, including maps, statistics, and information in 25 categories.  Kids Edition has similar information, on 78 countries, for elementary-age children – again, for any younger siblings at home to use.  States Edition has detailed reports on the 50 states and the District of Columbia.  Culture Grams also has a Photo Gallery, a Famous People index, and a Recipe Collection, to add images, biographies, and recipes to the information included in the reports on countries included in Culture Grams.

Oxford English Dictionary (OED) Online  dictionary@oed.com
provides access to the wealth of material contained in the 20-volume Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary and the 3 volumes of Additions. The OED provides authoritative definitions of over 500,000 words, traces the usage of words from their first recorded occurrence to the modern period through 2.5 million quotations from a wide range of international language sources, offers etymological analysis and detailed listings of variant spellings, and uses the International Phonetic Alphabet to show pronunciation.

ProQuest and eLibrary:  www.proquestk12.com

eLibrary allows searching of more than 2,000 sources, including magazines, newspapers, books, television/radio transcripts, maps, pictures and audio/video clips.

eLibrary Elementary is a simple-to-use version of eLibrary, for those families with younger siblings at home wishing to do research.

ProQuest Online draws on a larger publication collection than eLibrary, making it appropriate for research on everything from general reference questions to advanced subject matter.

Thomson Gale Databases:  infotrac.galegroup.com

Discovering Collection offers access to nearly 80,000 articles in the core curriculum areas of science, geography, world cultures, literature, U.S. history and world history.  The collection provides a selection of reference, primary sources, creative works, and multimedia, including audio and video clips.

Gale Virtual Reference Library is the electronic “shelf” holding West Sound Academy’s collection of 19 ebooks, accessible at any time by multiple users.  Ebooks are listed under categories (History, Literature, Science, etc.)  Search individual ebooks or the whole collection.

Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center makes information on current social issues available in a variety of formats.  The database includes the content of several of the Thomson Gale series on current social controversies:  Opposing Viewpoints, At Issue, and others.  Students can search viewpoint articles, topic overviews, full-text magazine, academic, and newspaper articles, primary source documents, statistics, images and podcasts, and links to Websites, or select from a popular topics pick list. 

World Book Web:  worldbookonline.com

World Book Online Reference Center is a comprehensive reference database that includes all the articles from the 22-volume print World Book Encyclopedia, along with the World Book Dictionary, the World Book Atlas, an extensive multimedia collection (audios, videos, and animations) and thousands of editor-selected Web sites.

World Book Advanced is designed for students in grades 8 and up. This reference tool includes encyclopedic, multimedia, e-book, and primary source databases (including the United States National Archives.) Individual accounts within the site offer users the ability to create and save their own content features, including research results from World Book and external sources, timelines, and citations.

Enciclopedia Estudiantil Hallazgos is World Book's intermediate Spanish-language encyclopedia for Spanish speakers and students of Spanish.

Dictionary.com  Reference tool for writers. dictionary.reference.com

Thesaurus.com Reference tool for writers. thesaurus.reference.com

Washington State Information  Access Washington is the official state government web site. access.wa.gov

Printable Outline Maps  Physical, political, and historical maps from Houghton Mifflin Education Place. eduplace.com

Research and Writing Help

Noodle Tools  Noodletools.com
Web based subscription software that assists note taking and bibliography writing.

MLA Formatting and Style Guide offers examples for the general format of MLA (Modern Language Association) research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and bibliographies. owl.english.purdue.edu

Citation Machine is an interactive web tool that helps students generate standard bibliographic and in-text citations. citationmachine.net

Copyright and Fair Use Guidelines is a chart explaining the rights of students and teachers to reproduce and use materials under the copyright law of the United States.  Used by permission of Hall Davidson, Director of Educational Serivces, KOCE-TV. mediafestival.org/copyrightchart

Plagiarism Prevention Resources explains the different types of plagiarism (including both conventional and Internet-based) and gives suggestions on how to avoid it. turnitin.com/research

The Big6 is an information problem-solving process that helps students find, use, apply, and evaluate information for specific needs.  This site includes Big6 ‘Know-How’ tools, including graphic organizers for assignments, research papers, and writing projects, as well as suggestions for making the research and writing process easier and more effective.    big6.com/kids

Research 101 is an interactive online tutorial for students wanting an introduction to research skills, created by librarians at the University of Washington. The tutorial covers the basics, including how to distinguish popular from scholarly communication and how to distinguish primary from secondary sources.  Other sections cover how to.select a topic and develop research questions, as well as how to select, search for, find, and evaluate information sources. lib.washington.edu/uwill/research101

Useful Websites

Librarians’ Internet Index offers “the best of the Web”:  over 20,000 websites selected, described, and organized by librarians, grouped into 14 main topics and nearly 300 related topics. lii.org

History on the Web has links to websites covering different topics in history, organized by geographical region and historical time period.  Selected by librarians at the University of Washington. lib.washington.edu

Portals to the World contains links to in-depth information about other countries and areas of the world, selected by the librarians at the Library of Congress.  Entries are arranged alphabetically by country name or region, and each link is sorted further into different categories.  Also included is a selection of web resources on terrorism. loc.gov/rr/international/portals

The World Factbook from the Central Intelligence Agency gives detailed, up-to-date information about the countries of the world.  Country profiles include the historical background of each country, along with information on its geography, people, government, economy, communication infrastructure, transportation system, military, and any ‘transnational issues’ (refugees, trafficking in persons, and illicit drugs.)  Special sections on flags of the world and chiefs of state are also included. cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook

Website Evaluation

Online website evaluation form for middle school students, used by permission from the Library Director, Fay School, Southborough, Massachusetts. library.fayschool.org/Pages/websiteevaluation

Reliable Website Worksheet, used by permission from Chandler School in Pasadena, California.  download Word doc

Web Page Evaluation Scale for upper school students, used by permission from the McDonogh School, Owing Mills, Maryland.  download Word doc

Five criteria for evaluating Web pages, Cornell University Library  library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/webcrit

Knowing What’s What and What’s Not in Cyberspace: The 5 “W’s” and 1 “H” of Cyberspace., from the Media Awareness Network. media-awarenes

Evaluating Web Resources Checklist, University of Alberta Libraries  library.ualberta.ca/instruction/science/evalweb.pdf

Evaluating a Website, with printable forms to help students evaluate websites, Alberta Education 2learn.ca/evaluating

Critically Analyzing Information Sources, Cornell University Library  library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/skill26

Dihydrogen Monoxide FAQ (Good example of a bad website)  www.dhmo.org/facts

All About Explorers : Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Every Explorer Who Ever Lived … and More!  The ‘more’ are a lot of humorous (but fake) facts about explorers in this site designed as a tool for teaching students about the Internet. allaboutexplorers

Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators, Critical Evaluation Information (Critical Evaluation Surveys, Information by the Author, Critical Evaluation Information by Others, Sites to Use for Demonstrating Critical Evaluation.) school.discovery.com/schrockguide/eval