January 2012 Newsletter

Welcome to the January edition of the JCS newsletter...

A very happy new year to all our readers... from Joyce, Paul and Sarah at JCS! Enjoy the newsletter, and feel free to get in touch with comments or suggestions for new features.

In this month's edition:

New Year message from JCS...

2012 promises to be a very special, exciting and memorable year. Not only is London hosting the Olympics but it is the Queen’s Golden Jubilee and celebrations will be taking place across the UK and the Commonwealth.

But amidst all this excitement and celebration the economic climate is forecast to remain bleak which means school budgets will continue to be stretched. Therefore now is the time for librarians to provide resources that offer real value for money and maximise their declining budgets.

The resources available through JCS do just that.

Not only do the online databases provide a phenomenal quantity of high-quality information, media, and resources to support teaching and learning that would be completely unaffordable and unobtainable in hard copy, but the subscriptions have been priced within a school’s reach and with additional discounts when a group of schools with over 2,500 learners between them want the same resource.

For instance, in an online database such as Science Reference Center™ for just around a couple of hundred pounds per annum a school can get access to:

  • 182 full-text science journals (including New Scientist)
  • 725 full-text science reference books
  • 23 full-text science encyclopedias
  • 812 full-text science essays
  • 3,234 full-length biographies
  • 61 science animations
  • 28,000+ scientific images
  • 519 science videos

An online library offering quality assured resources has so many benefits – educational and financial – that all schools should now be developing one. Here are just a few reasons why we think a library with online resources is so important:

  • Online resources aren’t confined to a physical space and can be accessed by all students and staff 24/7.
  • They can be used by any number of students and teachers and all at the same time.They can be used on a range of electronic devices including mobile devices.
  • They don’t wear out, get lost, or damaged.
  • They don’t go out of date – instead, online resources are regularly updated and expanded.
  • They provide quality assured content for VLEs and for use on interactive whiteboards helping to maximise the value of these ICT investments.
  • Where schools have invested in online resources and teachers have become familiar with them, considerable time and effort needed to search out e-resources has been saved.
  • Students will also save important study time if they have a range of online resources to draw on from within the school and don’t have to spend time searching and vetting resources from the open web which can be very time-consuming and often take them down the wrong or inappropriate route.
  • Students (and a lot of teachers) naturally turn to the Internet for information – this is an environment they are comfortable with.

If you would like to discuss the benefits or challenges of establishing an online library in your school please feel free to contact Joyce at JCS (joyce@jcsonlineresources.org).

To see the full range of online resources available for your school look through our catalogue available on our website at www.jcsonlineresources.org.

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JCS marks National Libraries Day...

National Libraries Day

Win a free annual subscription for your school!

To celebrate National Libraries Day on 4th February 2012, JCS Online Resources is running a competition which is open to all secondary schools and 6th Form Colleges in the UK and abroad.

The six best entries as judged by the JCS team will win a year’s free subscription to one of the following online resources:

  • Bridgeman Education 355,000+ copyright cleared images providing access to the visual culture of every civilization and period from prehistory to the present.
  • The Royal Society of Chemistry's Chemistry World and Education in Chemistry - Two magazines which present authoritative review articles on a wide variety of chemical topics, from historical to state-of-the-art chemistry for teachers and students.
  • Credo Reference - A multi-publisher online reference library offering a wide range of innovative features.
  • eChalk - A broad and expanding range of curriculum-mapped games, puzzles, simulations and starter activities.
  • Keesing's World News Archive (including a 2012 print subscription) - A comprehensive, concise and regularly updated record of the world's most important political, social and economic events since 1931.
  • Scran - 360,000 images, sounds, movies and learning resources copyright-cleared for educational use.

Entries of no more than 500 words may be submitted from students, teachers and librarians from a school or 6th Form College in the UK or Worldwide:

Teachers:

  • Describe how your use of online reference resources has helped and enhanced your teaching, and the benefits that have been gained by you and your students. How do you determine the quality of the online resources you use?

Students:

  • How do you use online reference resources to help your studies, what do you like about them and how do you make sure the information is reliable?

    • Hints: Homework help? More fun than books? Quicker/easier? I can use my phone? Internet searches might not be right? Etc...

Librarians:

  • How has the introduction of online reference resources to your library collections helped enhance the service you provide to your school? Describe their key benefits and how you evaluate their quality.

To enter the competition, follow this link and circulate it to your teaching staff and students! Print off this poster to promote the competition in your staff room, library and school notice boards.

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‘Best databases of 2011’ – three JCS resources come out tops...

The Library Journal (‘the oldest and most respected publication covering the library field and considered to be the “bible” of the library world’) has published a list of the best online digital databases of 2011 as voted for by librarians and Library Journal reviewers.

Credo Reference

Credo Reference

The database picked as the Best Overall was Credo Reference, available through JCS in 3 different packages. It was described by one of the reviewers as “the best database she uses, with straightforward search and results pages.” She especially liked the fact that Credo Reference can be linked to the library’s OPAC and to other resources, and offers several unusual features such as a ‘Gadget’ bar on the Home Page. Credo’s Topic Pages were also praised – “gathering materials by subject which adds accessibility options to a resources was awesome to begin with.” Credo’s Mind Map feature was also highlighted for narrowing and broadening topics, helping students to visualize their topic, and identify keywords. Credo was also nominated for the Best Integration of Media and Best Integration of External Content.

Literary Reference Center

To find out more about Credo Reference click here.

Literary Reference Center

The Runner Up for the Most Elegant database was Literary Reference Center described by one librarian reviewer as “a literature student’s dream”. She goes on to say that not only has the collection a “very classic and rich look” but she always finds interesting tidbits about her favourite authors as well as information that piques her curiosity about writers she had yet to discover. She finds that by putting a bit of a human element to the authors, it deepens the understanding of their works.

For more information about Literary Reference Center, click here.

Literary Reference Center

Rock’s Backpages

Rock’s Backpages also received a runner up award for the Best Niche Product. It was described as representing the gold standard of rock writing and an “essential resource for modern and contemporary music libraries and even cultural studies collections.”

Click here for more information about Rock’s Backpages.

To read about all the Library Journal Best Database winners, click here.

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New from Bridgeman Education...

Bridgeman Education

Librarians can liven up their blogs with free topical content from Bridgeman Education!

Bridgeman Education is offering a select range of low res images on subjects of current interest such as touring exhibitions, current affairs, and anniversaries of historical events and personages.

These images are available in low resolution to post on library blogs and newsletters to help grab your students’ attention.

For more information please contact Alice at Bridgeman Education at alice.chandler@bridgemanart.co.uk to get on to their mailing list for regular updates.

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JCS consortia updates...

Consortia

To find out which of the JCS online resources are already at consortia level in your region, please follow this link. If you want to subscribe to a resource which is not yet at consortia level, contact Sarah at JCS (sarah@jcsonlineresources.org) to see how close we are from reaching this level. It may be that we only need one more school in order to achieve the higher discounts!

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Events...

During the spring term JCS is hoping to run more of our popular Publisher Days in Cheshire, Manchester and Liverpool.

In the Summer Term our focus moves to the south west of England with an event for schools in Devon organised in association with the Devon School Library Service,and hopefully another in or near Bristol.

We are also keen to hold some Publisher Days in Scotland, so please let us know if you can help in any way or offer a venue to accommodate up to 30 delegates in any of these locations.

Keep an eye on our Events page to stay up to date.

JCS is also being invited more and more to speak about the importance of online resources in schools so if you are organising a regional or national event for school librarians or for teachers of history, science or English Joyce Martin, Managing Director of JCS and former teacher will be very pleased to participate.

Please email Joyce at (joyce@jcsonlineresources.org).

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International School Partners...

Does your school have an International School partner? If so, please direct them to the JCS Online Resources webpage as many of our resources are available to schools worldwide at the same discount levels available in the UK.

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Sector News...

The Royal Society's Partnership Grants scheme is now open!

The Royal Society is a Fellowship of the world's most eminent scientists and is the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence and has announced that there is £3000 available for school science and engineering projects.

Schools can apply for up to £3000 to work with scientists and engineers on creative investigations that inspire students with the excitement and wonder of cutting-edge science or engineering research.

The next round for applications closes on 24 February 2012. For more details about eligibility criteria and to find out how to apply via our online application system, go to this page.

South Korea digitises its curriculum...

South Korea aims to digitise its entire curriculum, removing all paper textbooks and replacing them with digital information. The project aims to be complete by 2015 and the South Korean Minister of Education, Science and Technology, Ju-Ho Lee says that: "The transfer from the traditional paper textbooks to digital textbooks will allow students to leave behind their heavy backpacks and explore the world beyond the classroom."

To read more about South Korea’s innovative education plans, follow this link.

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