Digital Libraries Online sources Student Resources Digital Libraries Online sources Are you aware of the wide variety of resources available to students for free in Blackboard? Let’s take a look at them…

Student Resources Once you have logged into Blackboard, click on the Student Resources tab at the top of the screen.

Student Resources There are more than 20 different services available to help students explore and build knowledge. Let’s find out how they can be used.

LIBRARIES You will not have to go anywhere or worry about closing time to get information from these electronic libraries. eLibrary Curriculum Edition gives you accurate, comprehensive answers on any subject from thousands of books, magazines, websites, videos, and more. eLibrary Science makes complex science subjects easier with interactive simulations, video, demos, encyclopedias, full-text articles, and multimedia-rich websites. The BCPSS Library Catalog gives you access to any school library in the district. You can also go to the Library of Congress, the largest library in the world, with millions of books, recordings, photographs, maps and manuscripts in its collections.

ENCYLCOPEDIAS You will also find a collection of electronic encyclopedias in Student Resources. SIRS Discoverer is geared to the younger learner and offers Animals, arts, science, or sports—whatever the topic, it makes research a blast with books, magazines, videos, pictures, websites, and more. SIRS Knowledge Source provides a portal to relevant, credible information carefully hand-selected by the SIRS editorial staff, so there is no need to worry about inappropriate content. It contains thousands of full-text articles and resources exploring social, scientific, health, historic, economic, political, global arts and humanities issues. MicroSoft’s encyclopedia Encarta and all of it’s content is available for free. ProQuest Platinum is great for all types of school projects and qustions, with full-text magazine, journal and newspaper articles on any topic.

HISTORY History class can be challenging with all of it’s talk about people from the past and from places far away. These sites will help students develop perspectives about others. Culture Grams is a site that lets you see the world’s people as they really live with country reports that go beyond mere facts and figures to deliver a local perspective on daily life, history and culture. History Study Center explores 14 centuries of history—from ancient to modern, old world to new world—in one place with Study Pages that cover the most-studied topics. ProQuest Historical Newspapers lets you picture the past through more than 150 years of The New York Times—from the advertisements and cartoons to the opinions and news published since 1851. 100 documents is a site that helps you to think, talk and teach about the rights and responsibilitites of citizens in our democracy. You can explore the 100 milestone documents of American history. Black Studies Center is a gateway to Black Studies including scholarly essays, recent periodicals, historical newspaper articles, and much more.

LITERATURE As part of your childs Language Arts class, ProQuest Learning: Literature will open the doors to poetry, prose, and drama with the works, biographies, and literary criticisms on over 4,000 national and international authors.

SCIENCE The Science Resource Center is an in–depth, curriculum-oriented science database that provides a one-stop resource for all science related research needs. It focuses on key concepts taught in classrooms : Earth science, history of science, life science, physical science, science and technology, science as inquiry, and space science.

Mathematics This is an online supplement to the Scott Foresman math textbooks in Student Resources. The site includes examples, tutorials, quizzes and activities based on the grade level texts.

Becoming a Better Student HOMEWORK HELP Does your child need help with homework or a school project? The collection of links provided by Discovery Education, will assist in finding all of the answers you need. It is filled with information geared to subject area and grade level. The Reference Desk also has many links that will provide you with information on a variety of topics and grade levels. If you want to improve your study skills check out the videos that are available through this link. The TSS provides video that will give you helpful hints on how to become a better student. Study Skills Becoming a Better Student

THE ARTS At the Young Audiences site you will see the value of the arts in the classroom and the community. They strive to provide the highest quality programs at the lowest possible cost, so that anyone, regardless of their resources, can experience the arts. We welcome you to browse through the web site, and view the many services offered.

FAMILY MATTERS This group of sites provides information that all of the family may find useful. CollegeBoard has everything that paents and students may need to get themselves ready for college. The Beehive was established to help you make your life easier! It connects you to important information about daily living – plus the local help to make it happen. If you are not comfortable online check out the teacher created ebook that contains many tips and tricks for using the Internet.

Do you want to know more? Send an email to Bert Ross rross@bcps.k12.md.us Call the Technology Training Center 443-984-1550 Now you know about all of the free resources that are at your fingertips in BlackBoard. We hope you find them valuable. If you have any questions or concerns please contact Bert Ross by email at rross@bcps.k12.md.us or call him at the Technology Training Center 443-984-1550.