Thing 17~ELM Productivity Tools

At the Detroit Lakes High School, we use the ELM database for a lot of our research. We have them linked right on the Detroit Lakes Media Center web page. I use it when looking for information for teachers, students, and myself. I use OCLC when cataloging books for important tag information and call numbers. When classes come in looking for research information, we direct them to ProQuest and Student Edition of InfoTrac. The information is much more reliable and the students are spending less time finding information.

We recently had a class working on a library research paper. The media specialist gave a presentation on ProQuest and InfoTrac. The students were amazed at how current the information was and the sources of information available. All of the students were able to find at least one article to use for their paper.

We have a psychology class that has to find an article once a month on a mental health issue. The first time the class comes down they are introduced to ProQuest and InfoTrac. Students will come back to use them again because it takes only a few minutes to come up with a good article. The hard part for them is writing a review of the article.

I created the RSS feed on youth smoking will be interesting to find out how many patrons visit it in the next month. I created a webpage in EBSCO on the 23 Things on a Stick and one on Library 2.0. I researched social networking and read a few of the articles. I email it out to a colleague and to myself. I spent some time with NetLibrary. All are worth looking through and handing out to teachers in our building. The webpage would help with presentation that we give to students. Students can make their own folders and have that information ready for them every time they use EBSCO for research, definite time saver.
Overall, ELM is worth the time spent on introducing students. They find information fast and easy. Best of all, it is dependable information.