Communicate Archives | Gale Blog: Library & Educator News

The Big Jump From High School To College

August 26, 2016August 23, 2016

By Traci Cothran

Diamond is a recent high school graduate from a charter school in Detroit, heading off to college this fall. We’ve been together for four years in the Big Brothers Big Sisters Detroit program, and I recently demonstrated our Gale databases for her, and asked her a few questions to share here on our blog.

You’re a college freshman – congratulations! What are you excited – and maybe anxious – about?

I’m excited to get away from home and be independent. I’m nervous about the work load in comparison to high school – everyone says it’s much harder – but I’m confident I have the organizational skills for success. However, my college has great tutoring resources that I know I can use – and they’re located right in my dorm. I’m not planning on working or doing sports my first year to be sure I have a handle on academics. But I am going to check out the various clubs and organizations and plan to join some.

Did you visit a library at your college during the tour?

Yes, we toured the library. The library not only had a floor with books, but I was surprised to find it had a study floor, and quiet floors, too. There’s a tablet instead of a librarian to use to find resources and direct you to them. I don’t recall online resources mentioned during the tour.

How much did you use print books and electronic resources during high school?

Once I switched schools after ninth grade, it was 100% digital and worksheets – no print textbooks. We were a “Google school,” and we were provided with Google computers, with Google software and integration. I’m comfortable with either digital or print, though sometimes I prefer print. My teachers used all kinds of online resources, but we did not have a physical library or librarian.

Driving Electronic Content Discovery and Usage: Collaboration – Part 1

February 26, 2018September 1, 2015

Posted on August 31, 2015
Posted by Jan Snyder and Jennifer Maurer

As librarians, we feel privileged to have a very rich collection of Gale databases and eBooks at our fingertips to use with students and staff, at zero cost to us, through the Oregon State Library’s Statewide Database Licensing Program. This allows for statewide access to a wide range of vetted information, on unlimited topics, for use by our patrons. These same databases are available at K-16 throughout Oregon, as well as at public libraries, for use by all state residents. In talking with librarian friends across the country, we know that we enjoy a benefit not available in many states.

Funding for the statewide databases comes from a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant. Another grant project was initiated some 15 years ago, when members of the Oregon Association of School Libraries (OASL) and Oregon State Library staff shared concerns about access to information literacy resources for students and teachers, as the number of licensed school librarians employed across the state declined. OASL applied for a LSTA grant from the State Library to create OSLIS, or the Oregon School Library Information System, and that has become a continuing statewide project. In addition to offering information literacy resources and citation generators in MLA and APA formats, OSLIS serves as the K-12 access point for the statewide databases.

Having statewide central access to the databases provides consistency for students as they move from elementary to middle school and then high school. It also means that students and educators served by school library staff who are not familiar with how to link directly to databases still have access to statewide resources.