The Library Geek

In a paper I submitted to my LIBR 261 class, spring 2008 taught by Penny Peck, we were asked to come up with a list of five reader’s advisory sites and five homework-help sites that can be used by librarians as a resource to help by kids’ age 6 to 12 years.  One of the sites I tested and included in my paper, KidSpace, the kids’ page of the Internet Public Library founded in 1995 by Dr. Joseph Janes. The Internet Public Library (IPL) started as a project in a graduate course by a group of 35 students of the School of Information and Library Studies at the University of Michigan to study the interconnection between librarianship and a distributed network environment. Since then it has expanded to serve the public by providing library services to internet users.

Here is an excerpt of the test I conducted on KidSpace:

“I tested KidSpace by clicking on the category Our World, and was taken to the next page displaying several sub-headings ranging from topics like continents (Africa, Asia, Europe), to history (The Ancient World, History & People) to culture (Languages Around the World, Religion). I decided to check if I can get resources for a report on Ancient Egypt so I clicked on The Ancient World. The site then displayed another page with another set of sub-headings, this time nine ancient civilizations ranging from Ancient China to Ancient Palestine. Ancient Egypt is one of the sub-headings. So I then clicked on Ancient Egypt and it transported me to a page with nine links on familiar subjects about Ancient Egypt. The sources seem impeccable from PBS, to museum sites, to National Geographic.

“I decided to test the site again, this time to check if it will help a 6^th grade student who is looking for a science project. I clicked on the topic Science Fair, found under Features at the left side of the main page. The action brought me to a page that is labeled as, “How to Use the Resource Guide,” which provides instructions on how to come up with a science project starting from getting started all the way to displaying the project. The instructions will take the student to a different page at every step and provide him or her with helpful links in completing the project. Reading the Getting Started page, I saw the URL for a site called Cool-Science-Projects and clicked on the link. It brought me to their site which provides ideas for science projects from different grade levels; I clicked on Grade 6, 7, 8 ideas and it displayed a page that a middle school student won’t have a hard time scouring for an idea for a science project.

“It is worth repeating that at every step of the way, KidSpace was displaying links to topics covered by the page and it impressed me how successful this site is in achieving its goal of really coming up with a marriage between the traditions and exactness of the profession of librarianship with the wealth of resources available from the internet.”

So if you are looking for a good homework-help resource for kids, check out KidSpace located at http://www.ipl.org/div/kidspace/.