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April 26, 2006

A+ at the Library

It's definitely the time of the year when paper doesn't just mean an 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of looseleaf. From 3rd graders with state reports to high school students with history term papers, those whopper homework assignments are in the air. Here are a few librarian-tested resources to give your paper that A+ feel.

State reports
Our favorite series of state books is America the Beautiful. They are colorful, full of facts, and even have a great section on famous people from each state.

If you want to use online resources for your state report, let me recommend CultureGrams database. A colorful, kid-friendly interface includes maps, state flags, and even recipes. You'll need your Library card from home.

Animal Assignments
My absolute first stop when helping with an animal assignment is the International Wildlife Encyclopedia in our reference area. It has brief, useful articles on most animals, and includes a great sidebar with a map of their habitat, their weight, size, lifespan and other needed facts. Result: A+ animals!

Inventors
Inventors are difficult, because often little is known or written about them. Using a recent "actual" question about the inventor of superglue, here are the resources I found most useful:

Book
Eureka! in the Children's Reference area. We have several other good invention sources in the reference.
Database
Believe it or not, I'm going to have to cast my vote for the good ol' New York Times. We found a nice article about the inventor using our Proquest Database. See the whole list of databases here.
Website:
Invent Now - National Inventors Hall of Fame had a nice biography of Harry Coover, inventor of superglue, with a decent amount of info.

Good luck with those assignments - only a month or two left!

Posted by Caitlin at April 26, 2006 01:23 PM