Dear Colleagues, Students and Parents

 

I’d like to take a moment to tell you about the online resources offered by EBSCO, now available in our school library through an engaging new interface called Explora. Designed with students and educators in mind, Explora provides a safe, trustworthy environment for students to look up articles and facts for research papers, class projects or homework. A far better alternative to websites and search engines, Explora provides students with easy-to-use features and age-appropriate content from the world’s leading magazines and reference books. Available on school computers and from mobile devices, Explora offers all of the following:

 

• High-quality articles licensed from reputable publishers, recognized by library professionals, and selected for use in a school environment
  • Simple search that quickly delivers relevant results, including primary source documents, news articles, and Associated Press videos
  • Easy-to-browse categories organized by popular topic
  • Topic Overviews that provide students with a starting point for research
  • Text-to-speech for HTML articles to assist struggling readers or those learning English
    • Numeric reading-level indicators to help students and teachers find grade-appropriate articles
    • No ads or pop-up windows
    • COPPA compliancy, meaning EBSCO does not ask for or require personal information to use its databases
    • Password-protected personal folders that allow students to save search results in a secure and organized holding area

  

For more information about how EBSCO resources compare to freely available Internet search engines, please click here.

 

I encourage you to explore these resources with your students or even on your own. For access, go to  http://search.ebscohost.com. If you are prompted for a User ID and Password, please use the following:

 

          User ID: s9762255

            Password: password

 

Please feel free to contact me directly with any questions regarding Explora, or if you have suggestions about other ways I can help support you and your students via the library’s online resources.

 

Regards,

 

Janet Clark

School Library Media Specialist

University Middle School

 

P.S.,

In addition, the EBSCO Support Site offers some great resources for teachers, including thematic units and lesson plans that integrate EBSCO’s online resources into the curriculum. Go tohttp://support.ebsco.com and select the “Student, Teacher, and Librarian Success Tools” link under the Customer Success column on the lower right side of page. To learn how to use the Curriculum Standards Module, accessible from the top toolbar in Explora, click here.

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