Online subscription databases

To supplement the Internet searching for students and public patrons, the school and the Chittenden Public Library jointly subscribe to the Vermont Online Library. This is a diverse collection of database (indexed) resources, focused largely on magazine articles, but including image collections, maps, newspapers and basic encyclopedia entries.

In order to access these, you should acquire passwords from the librarian that will allow their use from both school and home. To find the login page, you should go to the Barstow web page, click on Launch Pad, then enter the appropriate password in the box, varying according to your location - home or school. Once logged in, you can search across all database collections at once, or choose one database to search in. You will usually want to choose to search for "full text" articles, so that your results include only complete articles and not simply the title and location of an existing article.

This database is a great supplement to the initial look-up in an encyclopedia and search for Inernet sites. The magazine articles can be much more specific in their focus, and offer another authoritative source of information. Call the library (773-6926, x. 12) or e-mail agallivan@rnesu.org to receive the password for home and try it out! Practice at using it will make you a proficient researcher in no time.

science fiction meets reality television

My most heart-stopping read over the summer was the book Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. With an alarmingly violent premise, the story was at first difficult to stomach, but it was hard to disengage from the characters whose inner conflicts demand empathy from the reader. In this future time, the post-apocalyptic government, called the Panem, chooses two representatives from each of twelve territories to participate in the annual hunger games - a televised survival "game" where one individual comes out a winner. The event is constructed carefully for audience satisfaction, and while individual lives are secondary to the governing powers, they are primary motivation for some of the participants.

This is a sophisticated story that is both rivetting and thought-provoking. I highly recommend it for 7th and 8th graders who will surely want to move on to the newly realeased sequel, Catching Fire.

goodby to netTrekker - come back again?

Students and parents:

If you became a fan of netTrekker for safe Internet searching at school and at home, I am sorry to tell you that the school did not renew for this school year. Because our district made a commitment to move to a unified catalog and circulation for all of its school libraries, the money that was to support netTrekker was redirected to the software upgrade. If it appears that netTrekker is sorely missed, we will look for a way to fund its return next year.

We would love some feedback. If you are among those who were satisfied with the option of researching a safe indexed site from your home, post a comment here (it can be public or private - just spell that out).