April 1997 Library-in-the-Sky Assists Earthbound Learners
The name suggests an open, expansive, inviting notion of learning—The Library-in-the-Sky. But what is it? And where is it?
The Library-in-the-Sky, sponsored by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, helps teachers, students, parents, and community members find K-12 resources on the World Wide Web. It's also a new addition to the NWREL Web site.
Are you a first-grade teacher who needs a lesson plan on estimating measurements? A student who needs to know how to take care of a gerbil? A parent who wants to find out what to do about a five-year-old who refuses to drink milk?
Are you trying to remember the words to "Ol' Man River?" Are you looking for an automated teller machine? Would you enjoy playing an animal guessing game? Do you need to know the Spanish word for airport?
Library-in-the-Sky can help you find all this and much, much more.
Launched in December 1995, Library-in-the-Sky is an outgrowth of a federal grant. Its directory includes nearly 9,000 links, and it's growing all the time. The Library has received numerous awards and recognitions, and in the month of January alone, users accessed the Library 105,000 times.
"It creates a responsibility that's very hard to grasp," says Dr. Jerry Adams, an Associate at NWREL who coordinates the Library. "It's a directly rewarding activity for the Laboratory to do." Adams looks through about 1,000 links a month, actually using them at a ratio of about 1:30. "We're constantly working to make it more interactive and user-friendly," he says.
The Library-in-the-Sky home page depicts five doorways surrounded by Greek columns: the multiple doorways symbolize the Library's distinctive ability to reconfigure itself according to its user, whether teacher, student, parent, librarian, or community member. For example, students can step through the student doorway and the Library will highlight links of interest to them while de-emphasizing links to material such as lesson plans, which are of more interest to teachers.
The Library's K-12 focus combined with the doorway feature is a powerful time-saving device. "With other research engines," says Adams, "even if the link you want is there, so what? You don't have two hours to find it. The Library-in-the-Sky gets in two minutes what might otherwise take hours to find."
The Library offers three basic ways to search for the links that will get you to the information you want.
An index organizes topics alphabetically. If you want information about Black History Month, look under "B." Alternately, entering the words in the Library's word search function will bring up sites with those particular words in the sites' names. Finally, a menu of subject areas can start you on your way. For instance, if you're looking for information on tobacco use among teenagers, you could look in the index under tobacco, enter the word in the search engine, or click on the virtual nurse's office.
One of the strongest areas of the library is its multicultural holdings, says Adams. One of its most frequently accessed areas is information on attention deficit disorder because of its disproportionate impact in the classroom.
To keep the Library-in-the-Sky current and useful, Adams tries to keep ahead of teachers as the school year progresses. For instance, he greatly increased the number of entries related to Black History Month and Presidents' Day before they occurred.
Future development in the Library may include chat rooms inside topic areas and materials that key to schools trying to meet subject-area standards. To access Library-in-the-Sky, go to http://www.nwrel.org/sky or click on the Resources menu on the NWREL home page. While you're there, don't neglect the page's other offerings, including:
- Northwest Education magazine
- NWREL Annual Report to Members
- Products and Publications
- News and Announcements at NWREL
- Events, such as conferences
- Parents: Let's Talk column addressing topics such as Big Learning at Small Schools, Travel Games Help Kids Learn, and Teamwork Helps Academic Success
- Newsletters such as Northwest Report, Equity Infoline, Schoolwide Northwest, and others
- Promising Practices in the Northwest, a database searchable by descriptors
- A special link to highlighted program resources such as the School Improvement Research Series
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