Tips & Tricks for ACLA Databases and Downloadables

For those who used the free access to World Book Online during the time it was specially available this year, we have good news! World Book Online has now been added to the regular lineup available through your county eLibrary. World Book, a trusted name in print encyclopedias for decades, now offers an online encyclopedia containing thousands of informational articles with illustrations, videos, interactive maps, research help, and activities for kids, students, and adults.

The initial landing page is divided by audience (Kids, Student, Advanced), making it easy to navigate to the part of the site that is appropriate for your age group.

Far from offering a black-and-white text block, World Book Online is graphically rich and easy to navigate, and includes tons of learning extension. The Kids section in particular includes crafts, puzzles, activities, science projects, and more, to make learning more fun and multi-faceted.

For older students and adults, it is also useful to have a reliable, current resource to point to for accurate information, free of fake news and even deliberately user-sabotaged entries as in other online encyclopedias. The “Behind the Headlines” section in the Advanced module seems particularly useful to this end, and certainly relevant for a time when Facebook is used more to spread misinformation than fact.

In short, World Book Online seems a perfect resource for users of all ages to explore on their own or in conjunction with a specific lesson plan in mind, and we’re glad to have it added to our eLibrary lineup!

— Heather Auman, Western Allegheny Community Library

Tutor.com is a great resource providing homework help to students in grade school through college. Any ACLA library card holder can access tutor.com via this link: tutor.com/clpgh

Students can create a free account with their library card number. Creating an account enables the student to save their work, pickup where they left off, and connect with a favorite tutor.

Tutors are available to help with different grade levels and subjects. Live help is available between 12pm and 12 am. Other tools include the option to submit a paper for review or drop off a math question.

For college-age and older students, Tutor.com has partnered with the Princeton Review to offer practice tests and video lessons for the: SAT, ACT, GRE, GMAT, LSAT, and MCAT. These resources are accessible under the “Other Tools” tab.

Although COVID-19 has made learning different in 2020, and tutor.com is here to help.

-Kate Straccia, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

The Library of Congress recently rolled out a new research tool in conjunction with their wonderful Chronicling America tool: Newspaper Navigator.

On the landing page for Newspaper Navigator is a great introduction video from LOC Innovator in Residence Benjamin Lee.

https://news-navigator.labs.loc.gov/search

Here is a post from LOC that details how Newspaper Navigator came to be and how they envision this resource being a helpful research tool:

https://www.loc.gov/item/prn-20-060/?loclr=ealn

Newspaper Navigator allows users to search for visual data across newspapers from 1789-1963. This will certainly become a resource used by those doing family histories, as well as deeper historical research in general.

Jeff, South Park