Action for Libraries
What Does BCR have for School Libraries? Take Your Pick!
By Gillian Harrison
With the wide range of products and services, training and workshops and more that BCR has to offer, you may well wonder what BCR has that might be of particular interest to school libraries. The answer: BCR has a lot to offer both school libraries and those who work in them.
BCR keeps up-to-date with all the latest products, services, technologies and trends and can help you and your library with the newest fads as well as the solid standard practices. Your library cooperative can help you save money, do more with less and keep current through the wide range of products and services, training and workshops, consulting, custom cataloging and much more.
Training and Continuing Education
BCR is well versed (and offers in-person and online training) on a wide variety of topics including all the hottest technology topics like RSS, blogs, wikis, Flickr, MySpace and podcasting, as well as the tried-and-true subjects such as cataloging, resource sharing, book repair and Web design. Check out the Training section (www.bcr.org/training/) of the BCR Web site to see what courses are being offered in your area or online in the coming months.
Two free online series, the Free Friday Forum (F³) and the Products and Services Showcase (PSS), are also available in addition to BCR's for-a-fee courses. During Free Friday Forums, participants can get a general overview of a technology topic, learn about a new trend in libraries or hear about changes and improvements to library services. At a Products and Services Showcase, a BCR vendor partner educates and informs libraries regarding new products and services or about enhancements or changes to existing products and services. So, if you only have limited time and funds, come spend an hour with BCR at a F³ or PSS and learn about something new!
Through training partnerships, BCR offers discounted access to courses on desktop applications such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel, general Internet and graphics, as well as more technical courses such as programming or networking. BCR also participates in the Network Education Exchange (NEE), which expands the number of training topics available and allows BCR members to access training courses from other regional library networks at member pricing for selected online training programs.
Discounts on Online Information Resources
Through discounted group contracts with vendor partners, BCR is able to offer school libraries deep discounts on several databases and other online information resource products. Following is an overview of products, organized by subject area, that may be of interest to school libraries.
This list represents a selected number of databases from BCR's vendor partners. A complete listing of online information resources, including current pricing and subscription dates and additional product information can be found on the BCR Web site under Online Information Resources: www.bcr.org/reference/.
If you're interested in checking out a product before purchasing, many vendor partners offer free trials or conduct Product and Services Showcase sessions. Information on trials or PSS sessions can also be found on the BCR Web site.
Art and Music- African American Song (Alexander Street Press) - Covering jazz, blues, gospel and other forms of African American musical expression
- Classical Music Library (Alexander Street Press) - Comprehensive database of classical recordings
- Grove Art Online (Oxford) - All aspects of art from prehistory to the present day
- Grove Music Online (Oxford) - Broad coverage of musical styles, includes biographies
- American National Biography Online (Oxford) - Portraits of more than 17,400 men and women, from all eras and walks of life, whose lives shaped America
- Current Biography Illustrated (H.W. Wilson) - Biographies of people making tomorrow's headlines, plus historical figures back to World War II
- Wilson's Biographies Plus Illustrated (H.W. Wilson) - More than 147,000 profiles; images and links to other information
- Children's Catalog, Middle and Junior High School Library Catalog, Senior High School Library Catalog (H.W. Wilson) - Guidance with collection development and maintenance, - curriculum support, readers' advisory and general reference
- NetLibrary (OCLC) - Online eBooks and downloadable eAudiobooks from a wide variety of publishers
- OverDrive - Downloadable eBooks and audiobooks from a wide variety of publishers
- Britannica Online School Edition (Britannica) - Three complete encyclopedias
- Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford)
- Oxford Reference Online (Oxford) - Dictionary, language and subject reference works
- Webster's Third New International Dictionary Unabridged Online (Britannica)
- The World Almanac Reference Database (Facts on File News Service)
- Annals of American History Online (Britannica) - American thought and action from 1493 through today
- Britannica's Original Sources (Britannica) - Story of civilization through digital versions of primary source documents
- Black Women Writers (Alexander Street Press) - Literature and essays by authors from Africa and the African diaspora
- LitFinder (Thomson Gale) - Literary database including poems, stories, essays, plays and speeches
- AccessScience (McGraw-Hill) - Science reference materials
- Today's Science On File (Facts on File News Service) - Latest developments in science
- General Science Full Text (H.W. Wilson) - Full text general science information
- Enciclopedia Universal en Espaņol (Britannica) - Encyclopedia for native Spanish speakers, bilingual students and anyone learning Spanish
- The African American Experience (Greenwood) - African American history and culture
- CultureGrams (ProQuest CSA) - Country reports including insider information on daily life and culture
- Daily Life Through History (Greenwood) - Social history including reference works, monographs and primary documents
- Facts on File World News Digest (Facts on File News Service) - Complete archive including a live newsfeed
- Issues & Controversies On File (Facts on File News Service) - Analyzes and explains controversial topics
- The Latino American Experience (Greenwood) - Latino American history and culture
- LexisNexis Scholastic (LexisNexis) - News, legal research, legislation and statistics
- Oxford African American Studies Center (Oxford) - African American History and the Africana diaspora
- SIRS (ProQuest CSA) - Researcher, Government Reporter, Renaissance, WebSelect, Discoverer and Interactive Citizenship databases on social issues, science, history, government, the arts and humanities
- World Data Analyst Online (Britannica) - Statistical comparisons of countries across the world, using both the most recent statistics and historical figures
- World Folklore and Folklife (Greenwood) - Origins and development of traditional cultures around the world