Databases

Teacher Lesson Plans

Last Monday I did an electronic resources presentation for a group of college and high school students teaching summer enrichment programs.  Since many of them have never taught before they wanted to know where they might find lesson plans they could use.

I knew that some of our databases offered teacher lesson plans I couldn’t name them off the top of my head.  Thanks to a little bit of searching and help from my fellow librarians I was able to provide them with this list of Gale databases that offer lesson plans:

  • U.S. History in Context
  • World History in Context 
  • Science in Context 
  • Biography in Context 

The steps for finding the teacher lesson plans are the same in each database–

  • Click on the Resources tab above the rotating banner.
  • Under the Teachers heading you will see Access FREE Lesson Plans – Click Here

Do you know of any other county-wide databases where teachers can find lesson plans?

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Top Takeaways from the Job and Career Resources Training

On Wednesday, April 25, Cooper-Siegel Community Library hosted EREC’s training on job and career resources.  The two presenters, Betsy Neidle from CareerLink, and Wes Roberts, Senior Librarian at CLP’s Job and Career Education Center/PC Center, both provided a plethora of useful information.  The EREC committee members have culled together our top takeaways for those of you who weren’t able to attend.

Top Tips from CareerLink:

PA CareerLink is a one-stop shop that seeks to connect employers and job seekers.  They offer a range of services to help job seekers find available jobs, assess and improve their skills, and complete the required Commonwealth Workforce Development System (CWDS) profile, which is related to collecting unemployment.  Many people have not completed their profile, which is essential in order to receive job matches.  She was kind enough to provide a printable CWDS Enrollment Guide. This document offers detailed instructions for completing a CWDS profile. 

Betsy herself had two great recommendations.  We should all take some time to go through the process of creating our own profile in the CWDS, as well as visit a CareerLink location. As she said, our patrons are using these services, and the more familiar we are with them, the more helpful we can be.

Betsy had a lot of interesting statistics to share, including the fact that of the 61,809 people CareerLink Pittsburgh served in 2011, a high percentage (48%)  had completed college, demonstrating that …  For more interesting statistics and details about what CareerLink can offer your patrons, check out Betsy’s PowerPoint. 

Top Tips from the Job and Career Education Center:

Wes highlighted a lot of great resources for job seekers as well.  In addition to a variety of useful databases available through CLP and, in some cases, a handful of other county libraries, there were a number of helpful free sites. Some of our favorites are:

  • GCFLearnFree: This site offers free online lessons to help people improve their technology, literacy, and math skills. 
  • Resunate.com: This Pittsburgh-based company offers a resume wizard, but also a unique “Auto Focus” feature that helps customize a resume to a specific job description.  Users get three free focuses before they have to select a subscription plan. 
  • Indeed.com: This job aggregator captures about 70% of local job openings, making it one of the more useful places to find potential local employment.   

For more great recommendations from Wes, check out his Prezi.

Were you at the training?  If so, share your favorite takeaways in the comments below.  If you weren’t there but have a favorite job and career resource, we want to know about that too!

Charmaine

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Keeping Current in the Sea of “E”

Do you ever feel like you are barely treading water in the ever-shifting tides of the ebook sea?  Wondering how to keep afloat in the e-content ocean?  The EREC and ACLA Downloadables Committees are in the same boat.

Fortunately, there are a number of resources we’ve found to help us keep up-to-date.  We’ve added a “Life Preserver” section (kidding, it’s actually called “Other Informative Sites”), at right, to share some of our favorites.  We’ll add to the list whenever we come across something we think is especially useful. 

Have a favorite of your own?  Tell us about it in the comments!

Sarah

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Opposing Viewpoints in Context

Last year an 8th grader came to me asking for Opposing Viewpoints book to use for her teen pregnancy project.  My response of “We no longer have that series of books” was quickly followed by the students saying, “My teacher said I have to use an Opposing Viewpoints book!”

At which point, I probably gave a too-detailed explanation of Gale’s Opposing Viewpoints database.  But, there is so much to say about it!

For Students:

For Teachers:
Plus:
  • A rotating banner of current events related to possible research topics!

-Kelly R, Sewickley Public Library of the Quaker Valley School District

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