Thing 17. ELM Productivity Tools

I did the infotrac search and did not find the rss feed as others noted. I did see the explanation further down on the blog responses as to where it should appear, but it wasn't there either. There was no option to add a search alert.

I did the EBSCO web page generator. It's fairly simple and straight forward although I prefer to use Microsoft FrontPage for my media center web. I could see making some webpages with search results from Proquest, saving them and then linking them off of my media center page. This would be a nice, quick way to add these search results.

I'm curious about using the personal accounts for students. If they each set up a username and password, they could archive their search results for the duration of the research project or longer.

This tool could assist in collaboration with teacher as they could each create an account and build a larger list of resources. These could direct students to the resources they desire them to view. In the same way, this could be useful in getting research out to teachers in the district.

Overall, these databases are invaluable! They are a major staple in my students' research diet. We are so fortunate to have these available to our students. It goes a long way toward shrinking the information divide that could occur between poor and rich library systems and school districts. Information is the great equalizer, and these products go a long way toward equalizing.

I still need to learn more about NetLibrary. I attended an ELM session on this at a conference, but it's still a bit hazy to me. I think the whole process is still being refined to make it more user friendly. It's a little complicated yet--at least to me. Maybe I just need more information. I will continue to look into this.