Uncategorized

NoveList K-8 Plus: Assisting Young Readers in Discovering Their Next Great Book

At our library, we are constantly in search of tools that make the journey of reading discovery enjoyable, meaningful, and accessible. NoveList K-8 Plus stands out as one of our top choices for supporting students, caregivers, and educators!

What Is NoveList K-8 Plus?

NoveList K-8 Plus is an online readers’ advisory and book recommendation database specifically designed for children in Kindergarten through 8th grade. This fantastic resource helps young readers—and the adults guiding them—find books that they will love, whether it’s the ideal next read or titles related to classroom subjects. You can easily access it via your library’s website using your library card, providing free access to curated reading support from the comfort of home, school, or the library.

What Makes It So Helpful?

Here’s how kids, parents, and educators can benefit from NoveList K-8 Plus:

Discover books by reading level and interest

Search by grade range, genre, or topics like “friendship,” “superheroes,” or “mystery” to uncover books that match both reading ability and curiosity.

Receive read-alike suggestions

Loved a book? Find similar titles, authors, and series recommendations that keep kids engaged and excited.

Explore both fiction and nonfiction

Whether it’s picture books, chapter books, or informational texts, NoveList K-8 Plus encourages reading for enjoyment and learning.

Browse curated, theme-based reading lists

Searching for award-winning titles, seasonal reads, or books related to classroom units? There are hundreds of ready-made lists to explore.

Why It’s Great for Libraries

As library staff, we appreciate how NoveList K-8 Plus aids reader advisory in a kid-friendly manner. Its user-friendly interface and expertly curated content simplify the process of:

  • Answering questions like “Can you suggest books similar to this one?”
  • Creating reading lists for display or instruction
  • Assisting families in finding books that align with their interests and abilities
  • Supporting classroom teaching with age-appropriate, curriculum-aligned recommendations

Gabi B – Robinson LIbrary

Continue ReadingNoveList K-8 Plus: Assisting Young Readers in Discovering Their Next Great Book

Build Diverse Booklists with Novelist

Happy Black History Month, everyone! 

If you haven’t noticed yet, Novelist has a new look that is: just like all the other Ebsco products! If you want a broad overview about the new Novelist experience, you can click here to learn more about it from Ebsco itself. 

But I’ve already blogged about that. What I’m here to blog at you about today is how the tools in the new Novelist experience can support you when building diverse booklists to use in Bibliocommons, printed booklists, display inspiration, and more.  

Novelist’s advanced search has lots to offer, but I am going to focus on the author facets. You have to scroll down a bit to find them, but here you can see options for the author’s gender identity, cultural identity, and nationality.  Lots to choose from!

For instance, let’s say you want to make a Black History Month fiction display in your Teen space, you can select “Black” as the author’s cultural identity. 

Then you can select “Teen” as the Audience, and “Fiction” to return a list of novels. 

Using just those three facets, you’ll get a list of more than 1700 titles! That’s a lot! Maybe too much! So, to go a step further, you can also use keyword searches. Here, I’ve used “secret societies” because secret societies are cool. You can see the results have narrowed down to a manageable list of 55 results.  

From there, you can use the “Check the Library Catalog” button to be whisked away into our collections in Bibliocommons, find read-alikes, save items to lists in your Ebsco account, and all the other good stuff Novelist can do with its results lists. 

Our collections are built to reflect the vibrant, diverse communities we support. Take a cruise through Novelist’s author facets to find out how they can help this vital work. 

-Mary, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh 

Continue ReadingBuild Diverse Booklists with Novelist

Free (and ad-free!) craft classes through Creativebug.

We’ve all been there. We want to learn a new craft, go right to YouTube, wait through THREE advertisements forced on us before we can hit skip, and then the video that follows is poorly edited with loud obnoxious music and a monotone presenter who seems to have even less of an idea of how origami works than we do. The solution? CREATIVEBUG.

Creativebug’s videos are vetted for content, professionally edited and filmed, and presented by experts who are actually experts. Plus, they are AD-FREE. Read that again, and relax your grip on the mute button you hover over so don’t have to listen to that cringy Aflac duck for the 500th time.

I know, I know – who needs another website to check, right? YOU DO. Plus, it’s easy to get to and the only access required is a library card number. The navigation is simpler (certainly less cluttered than YouTube) and you can easily save your progress and classes you are interested in for later. Whether a casual dabbler or a hardcore crafter, there is content for everyone, clearly rated from basic to advanced. Plus, many videos include free access to supply lists, step-by-step directions, and printable patterns (usually held behind payment walls on other sources).

So skip the ads and take advantage of this hidden gem among your library’s resources. Then share the word, and spread the joy of ad-free, stress-free, subscription-free crafting!

Allegheny County Public Libraries | Creativebug

– Heather Auman, Western Allegheny Community Library

Continue ReadingFree (and ad-free!) craft classes through Creativebug.

SAT/ACT Help on Tutor.com

SAT®/ACT® Essentials Test Prep
Your patrons get 24/7, no-cost access to The Princeton Review SAT/ACT Essentials self-paced courses. These feature:

  • 20 full-length practice tests
  • Detailed score reports
  • Video lessons
  • Practice drills
  • College planner tool
  • …and of course don’t forget online help from real tutors every day from 12 pm to 12 am

Download the SAT®/ACT® Essentials Test Prep below and share it with you patrons. Test Time is Fast Approaching!

https://tutor.com/clpgh

SAT-ACT_Essentials_princetonreview-tutor-en-1Download

~ Hilary Lewis, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

Continue ReadingSAT/ACT Help on Tutor.com