Alabama Virtual Library

As I do not have access to an iPad, and truly do not anticipate that the majority of my Title I students will have access either, I will focus this project essay on the Alabama Virtual Library.  

The Alabama Virtual Library is a group of online databases that has been made available to teachers and students for aid in classroom research and instruction.  It also has a few resources on career seeking and employment opportunities for adults located in Alabama.  

How can you make sense of it?  The best way to identify what to search for is to first identify what exactly you need.  Students can readily use this website to access anything that they may need for a project:  images, websites, magazines, statistics and even differing viewpoints on certain subjects.  The website itself is very easy to navigate and leads you to both simple and advanced forms of searching for what you need.  

For example, a high school science class could be assigned to review certain journal articles on the research topic of their choice.  There would be no way to access these articles through the internet alone.  The Alabama Virtual Library contains the EBSCO database system which houses hundreds of journals from science to history and language.  Through this website, peer-reviewed journal articles can be accessed, allowing students to be exposed to real-world, current scientific progress, and be able to get a feel for how the scientific community exchanges information.  

There are a variety of other databases that can come in handy as well.  For Alabama history classes, there is Alabama mosaic, a resource that contains different archives that students could use as a reference for a project.  Britannica offers Ebooks for reading, on topics from history to science.  Discover America is a book collection that covers all 50 states.  My second grade daughter is doing a project this quarter on Mississippi and I plan on accessing the eBook for it.  Illustrated science is another collection that discusses different organisms and has full photos to accompany the information.  This could be be used to supplement a lesson plan in a middle school biology class.  

One of the more interesting databases I found was the Opposing Viewpoints tab, which led to a site that has links for differing viewpoints on subject matter, statistical information, news, journal articles, magazines and websites.  It seems very extensive and helpful no matter what a student might be searching for in a project.  

For images that are needed for projects or presentation, EBSCO hosts an image collection database, where a student can search for an desired image and also pinpoint which journal they would like it to come from.  

The Oxford English dictionary is available here, as well as Encyclopedia Britannica; there is a student research center, a medical search engine, and a history reference center.  All of these databases could be useful to students, and as the class utilizes this tool, more and more can be achieved through the use of it.  

The thing that I most like about the Alabama Virtual Library is that students in any Alabama school have access to a bevy of information all in one location that they might not know how to search for in a traditional search engine.  Also, as far as journal articles are concerned, a subscription is needed to access most articles, and a database such as EBSCO allows free access to otherwise blocked information.  It is imperative that students have access to current research in the humanities and sciences in order for them to understand how these subjects are approached in the professional world.