Iowatown School Library

Research Help
Home
About the Library
Library Catalogs
Library Databases
Research Help
Reading Ideas
Faculty Guide

"Research means that you don't know, but are willing to find out." - Charles F. Kettering

Pathfinders
Find your course research topic below.
[Create your own alphabetized list with links to pathfinder pages individualized for your library here. Use these links to guide your development of pathfinders for frequently-done units in your library. See The Pathfinder Project of the State Library of Iowa, a collection of pathfinders created by Iowa librarians as well as a template you can use for creating new pathfinders. See also Potamus Place Pathfinders , an award-winning public library site from Clevland Heights (OH) University Heights Public Library, with multiple, visually-appealing Pathfinders especailly for children about topics relevant to the K-12 curriculum.]
 
 
Web Guides
Use librarian-created subject guides and search directories in addition to general web search engines to find more web sources for your topic.

Digital Librarian: A Librarian's Choice of the Best of the Web - [useful for secondary libraries] maintained by Margaret Vail Anderson, a librarian in Cortland, New York.

Great Web Sites for Kids - sites selected by the American Library Association for elementary students through middle schoolers.

Librarian's Internet Index - [useful for secondary libraries] a searchable and annotated subject directory of Internet resources selected and evaluated by librarians for their usefulness to users of public libraries.

Web Search Tools

[See a professional-looking example of how Iowa City West High School Library lists web search engines and search directories, and explains the difference...]

Ask.com or Ask for Kids where you can type your question.

Google (Tip: click Advanced Search and in the Domain line, enter .org or try .gov or .mil  as appropriate for your topic).
 
 

Research Help

  • Ask the Teacher-Librarian! - Your best resource is to ask your professional library teacher.  "Google doesn't teach students how to use information, but librarians do!" - Walter Minkel, School Library Journal.  Get help choosing/narrowing a topic, determining sources available, determining information relevance for your topic, and more...

  • How to Make a Bibliography - [Link to your school's MLA or APA guidelines.] 

[You may also wish to add a link to online bibliography-making tools such as Noodle Tools NoodleBib Express. Add links to more of your school's "how-to" guides. See samples of more How-To-Guides from Iowa City West High School Library website, e.g. How-to make an outline, and How-to create a brochure...]

How to Follow the Research Process

  • The Big6 Information Skills for Student Achievement - An approach to teaching information literacy and technology skills.

  • Guided Inquiry: A framework for learning through school libraries in 21st century schools. - a resource from Rutgers' Center for International Scholarship in School Libraries of research and scholarship about the guided inquiry approach to help students "learn meaningfully from the diverse and complex information sources"

    • Site map

    Back to School Home
    Back to District Home

    Iowatown School Library
    School Library Address
    City, ST ZIPPP
    Phone
    Template by Karla Krueger, 2006.

    This School Library web site template was created in October, 2006 by Karla Krueger, School Library Media Studies Division, College of Education, University of Northern Iowa, for use by Iowa Teacher-Librarians. You are welcome to personalize this template for your library by adding, deleting, and making changes as needed. The template is designed to be used for an elementary, secondary, or K-12 school library with a few simple edits you can make e.g. deleting book awards links for age levels not served in your library or changing headlines or any other material as appropriate for your students' level.