Welcome to the Conard Library

Check out this new improved link to our eBook collection. You can click on any link to go directly to the book.

http://www.whps.org/school/conard/library/eBook%20Collection.htm

These titles have also been added to our regular catalog (Athena) so that the book and the website address will appear when searched for by name or subject matter. Eventually, we hope to make it possible to link to the book directly from the catalog as well.  If you want to use an eBook from home, you'll need a password - just like you do when you use a database. Pick up a list of user names & passwords in the library.

Day One: Clicker Questions & the Library Discovery Quest

Day Two: Book Quest

Day Three:  Review of Book Quest & Social Studies Assignment

Please provide some quick feedback on the instruction and activities that your students experienced during their visits to the library (listed above.) What worked well? What concerns or suggestions do you have? We'll be adding your impressions to ours as we revise materials for next year and develop more activities for future visits.  Thanks.

Here's a great website that helps students or teachers search for "just the right" book.  You can search for a title that is similar to something that you've just read, or you can search for reading suggestions by author or by reading level.  There's a "BookAlike" link, and other ways to search for suggestions intended for both individual teens and adults, or book groups or teachers.

 http://bookwizard.scholastic.com/tbw/homePage.do

If you're looking for good summer reading suggestions (or fall, winter or spring reading suggestions) here are two more excellent sources. 

The biggest, baddest "teen reads" collection I've ever seen - includes brief plot summaries and it's organized into categories like "Word on the Street", "Parents from Hell", "Hookups & Heartache," etc.  http://teenlink.nypl.org/bta_new.htm

Shorter list, different - more personal recommendations: http://www.teensreadtoo.com/

There are many different sites for finding and downloading complete books online, but few are as well-organized and easy to use as Read Print at http://www.readprint.com/ .  Highly recommended - check it out.

We will soon be reviewing our library magazine subscriptions and we'd like to hear from YOU!  What new mags would you like to see?  We can't promise to get everything that everyone wants (is it "appropriate"? can we afford it?) but we can promise to listen  -- and learn!

Enjoy this brief video and get to know Teacher Tube - an excellent unblocked source for educational videos. At www.teachertube.com.

Students (and teachers) with newer computers at home may have trouble opening the Word documents they created at home when they get to school.  These instructions from IT -- very short and simple -- explain how to solve the problem.

At Library Connection, all you need is a library card - and you can download any book in the audio book catalog to your MP3 player. It's free!  Best-sellers, classics, new arrivals, required reading, just for fun reading.

To load up your player while in school, bring it to the library WITH YOUR USB CABLE and ask a staff member to help you get connected.  (Remember, you also need a library card number!)

I would like to allow more educational games to be played on the computers in the library by students who are here after lunch and have "finished" their work.  The competitive word games that we recommended last year became a big hit. If you know about an online game (that isn't blocked) and you can persuade us that it has educational value, please comment.

Maybe you've heard of Project Gutenberg, the first and the largest collection of free electronic books, or eBooks, on line.  The site contains audio books as well, which can be downloaded in a variety of formats.  Check it out at: http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/categories/1

And while you're there, you may want to browse through the thousands of "printed" titles you can access through the site - all free!

There are other sites that offer free books in various formats. If you know of one, please tell us about it.

This Thursday we're having a special Hispanic Heritage Assembly. I am very excited about this program because there will be a performance of Mariachi music. I love Mariachi music!  Listen to some of the tracks at this site and tell me that doesn't just make you want to sing and dance!www.mariachimexteca.com/music/music4.html.  Then stop in the library and borrow a book by Sandra Cisneros, Juan Felipe Herrera or another one of the many great authors of books with Hispanic American themes.

We all love Wikipedia. Yes, I use it too -- whenever I want a fast answer to a question about a fast changing subject, especially a technology topic.  I don't need to worry about the author's bias or ignorance. It's sort of like asking a knowledgeable friend for some basic information -- when you don't really care what your friend's sources are or whether she takes credit for someone else's ideas or not. 

But I wouldn't go to Wikipedia as my final authority on any important subject that absolutely had to be accurate and I wouldn't accept it as a source for any student work. Why? Well here's one reason: Listen to or read this story from NPR and post your comments. Agree or disagree?