Best practices for a better 2010

We’d like to share a half-dozen best practices submitted by librarians and media specialists during the past few months. Perhaps they’ll give you some ideas to boost usage for your Gale Virtual Reference Collection in 2010.

eBooks on reference shelves

Grossmont College in El Cajon, CA, places a cardboard “dummy” of their Gale Virtual Reference Library titles in the Reference Collection where that call number would be shelved. The cover of each dummy includes detailed instructions on how to access the electronic resource. This helps remind the librarians that the title is available electronically while students who are browsing are alerted to its existence.

Michelle Blackman – Instruction Librarian
Nadra Farina-Hess – Librarian
Grossmont College
El Cajon, California

Bibliographies simplify research

Montclair Public Schools created a bibliography to guide students through their literary resource. The bibliography is divided into areas of Library Research: Literary Criticisms, Biographical Sources, Historical Resources, and Literary History and Movements. In this manner, students are made aware of special encyclopedias that are available not only in print but electronically in the Gale Virtual Reference Library. Students are also given a handout that reminds them how to access the Library’s electronic resources remotely from home.

Doreen Corsetto
Senior Librarian
Montclair Public Schools
Montclair, New Jersey

Online exposure for eBooks

Lee County Public Education Center in Fort Myers, FL publishes an online electronic newsletter monthly (and archived for the year) that is shared with media specialists and teachers district-wide. Gale Virtual Reference Library resources are always a part of that information. They’ve also created a media specialist’s wiki.

Sandra Agle, EdS
Lee County Public Education Center
Fort Myers, Florida

Side-by-side comparison

When school groups visit the Northbrook (IL) Public Library, the staff always chooses a book that is part of the print collection as well as in the Gale Virtual Reference Library — pointing out that a blue “e” sticker denotes an eBook. By demonstrating that the same page in the eBook is exactly as it appears in the print version, teachers are reassured that the quality of the resource has not changed in the electronic version and allows the student to pick the format they prefer. When parents visit the library, students often reiterate what they’ve heard in class about the “e” stickers and how the information is the same in print as it is online.

Mary Kay Perrenot
Northbrook Public Library
Northbrook, Illinois

Assignment: Create a subcollection

Rather than going to the physical shelves to find books for an instructor’s specific assignment, Sara Rofofsky Marcus of Queensborough Community College turns first to the Gale Virtual Reference Library to create a subcollection for that assignment. The unique URL is then posted to the Library’s listing of ejournals, and is also provided to the instructor to share with the class in the course management system for on-campus use.

Sara Rofofsky Marcus
Queensborough Community College
Bayside, New York

Add a widget

The ability to narrow down the eBook choices in Gale Virtual Reference Library to a smaller, subject-specific subcollection has made a huge difference in the ease of use for students at Mansfield Legacy High School (TX). Once a subcollection is created, Library Media Specialist Pamela Pinkerton visits the widget page on the Gale Web site to create a subject specific search widget and then places it directly on the library’s site. The site now features subcollections and widgets for Careers, Chemistry and the Renaissance with more to come.

Pamela Pinkerton
Mansfield Legacy High School
Mansfield, Texas