Week 4: (Not) Just for Kids! Tumblebooks, Overdrive Kids, and World Book

This week we’re going to play! Let’s take a look at the most popular kids’ eresource at OPL: Tumblebooks. If you have little ones nearby, you may want to bring them along.

Start on OPL's kids' page. Choose Stories Out Loud, and click on Tumblebooks.

From here, you can choose to have a story read to you, watch videos about science, play games, and practice your skills in one of six non-English languages. 

The links for Story Books and Nonfiction Books will take you to a selection of stories with simple animation and voice-over narration. For those who are learning to read, Chapter Books pairs text highlighting with narration  to help with practice.

TUMBLEBOOKS CHALLENGE: What is chasing Mercy Watson on the cover of "Mercy Watson to the Rescue?"

Did you like hearing the stories out loud? Let's roll onto OPL's Overdrive Kids page, where you can download children's audiobooks and ebooks. 

From Stories Out Loud, scroll to Kids' Audiobooks and click on the link. You'll land on a custom page that Overdrive built for us featuring all of our juvenile Overdrive audiobooks. Notice the links on the left side of the page--you can browse books by rating, grade level, publisher, even by devices supported.

OVERDRIVE KIDS CHALLENGE: Who reads the audio version of "Frog and Toad Are Friends?" (hint: you don't have to download the whole book to find out)

Finally, let's take a look at World Book. World Book Online is--you guessed it--the online version of the World Book Encyclopedia. Head to the library's database page, scroll to Encyclopedias, and select World Book Online. Click the icon for Kids--you'll notice a stripe that says "New" because the Kids' page recently got a big makeover! 

Icons across the bottom of the screen tell you what you can do on WBO Kids. World of Animals takes you to information about, yup, animals. Click on the aardvark- he's my favorite. 

Activities takes you to all kinds of fun--recipes, games, logic puzzles, music, drawing, and more! 

One cool thing you can do on WBO Kids is compare two animals, countries, states, or other places. Click Compareplaces on the main WBO Kids page. Choose a country, state, continent, or other place. After you've selected one place, click the purple Compare button on the upper right. Now you can select a second place. Click the purple Compare Now! button at the bottom right, and you'll see a side by side comparison of your two locations. Wow, did you know that Laos has more than three times as many people as Gambia? Now you do!

The Pictures and Videos portion of WBO Kids is also pretty cool. I found a picture of a traditional Maasai dance, a Balinese mask dance, and a video interview with a Wampanoag person exploring whether Native American people refer to themselves as "Native Americans." There's a lot to discover here.

WORLD BOOK KIDS CHALLENGE: How many insects can an aardvark eat in one night?

Release your inner child--digitally! And bid on a prize pack.

Week 3: Software Training with CustomGuide and LearningExpress

Welcome to Week 3 of the e-Library training adventure! This week, we'll dive into two software training resources: CustomGuide and LearningExpress.

You can find CustomGuide easily from our webpage by searching the catalog for "CustomGuide". The first link will take you in to the resource.

You first need to set up a free account to get started; you do need a valid email address. Once you're in the system, you will see a full list of courses - CustomGuide provides interactive online tutorials for Microsoft Word, Excel, and other products in the Office suite of products. For most of the courses, you can first take an assessment test to see what your current skill level is before launching in so you can skip sections that you already know about.

You also get access to a bunch of cheat sheets if you click on the "Quick References" tab. These include helpful tips/tricks for shortcuts and other handy insights for working with a particular software product or computers in general. You can also get a reference page to print out for many of the sections under each software tutorial. The "Profile" tab just lets you change your contact details and change your password as needed.

Another neat feature of CustomGuide is that you can track your progress if you click on the "My Usage Summary" link on the right. You can then take a screen shot of the courses completed and use it as 'proof' that you've done your work, which is great for employers that want to make sure employees are completing specific courses.

Exercises for CustomGuide: Please try out one of the tutorials and download a Quick Reference sheet. Which software tutorial did you choose? Which Reference sheet did you download? Please share two tips you didn't know already about working with that particular software. 

Now, let's move on to LearningExpress. You can find this easily from our webpage by searching the catalog for "LearningExpressLibrary" as one word. The first link will take you in to the resource.

Just like CustomGuide, you should set up a free account; you do not have to enter a email but it's useful for recovering your lost account.

LearningExpress includes not just tutorials and tests, but also e-books that you browse online. There are eight 'centers' total that divide up the various tutorials and e-books into broad categories, or you can search directly in the search box at the bottom of the screen. For example, if you need to find practice tests for a particular exam, it's easiest to search by the test name. And, you can click on the "Featured Resources" list on the top of the page to get a browsable view of the most often accessed content. Once you're in the "Featured Resources" view, you can get a full list of all the e-books available as well. There's also content available in Spanish - for general math and reading help, as well as GED and citizenship prep.

For students, School Center and College Centers are excellent free resources, and includes test prep resources you normally would have to pay for. It's broken up by age level, and the practice exams will give you immediate scores and feedback. There's also a resume course and a cover letters course in Career Center. You can start and save tests to finish at a later time.

Exercises for LearningExpress: Look through the various centers and pick out the most useful-seeming Center for your patrons' needs. How would you advertise this resource to your patrons? What surprised you about this resource? 

Please leave a comment with your responses to the exercises, and then go bid on a prize pack!

Week 2: Zinio & Freegal - What Are They? & What Do They Have In There For Me?

Here's Zinio:

Zinio is the world's largest newsstand. It offers full color, interactive digital magazines for your enjoyment. Browse the library's collection of popular titles with no holds, no checkout periods, no fines, and no limit to the number of magazines you can download!

Mobile apps — Read magazines on 95% of today's mobile devices including all iOS (Apple), Android, Win8, and Kindle Fire/HD/HDX.

Current Issues of Magazines— New issues are released simultaneously with the print edition. Many are available before they arrive at the library and are ready for immediate download.

Back List — As OPL's collection grows, so does the digital backlist for checkout and reading.

Easy browsing and checkout — Browse  OPL's collection of titles one at a time, search for your favorite magazines by title or use the convenient category feature to find new magazines which meet your interests.

Manage your collection — Using the personal account you create, you will have the opportunity to checkout magazines and read them instantly on your computer (both PC and Mac) or access the content on a portable media device. (Note: viewing options, including the ability to download or view the content while online, may differ based on the device and/or magazine publisher).

No limit permanent check out — Check out as many issues as you want and keep them in your account as long as you wish.

Watch the Zinio tutorial by clicking HERE

***First: you need to go to Zinio.com to sign up for your own free account.***

Assignment:  Download the Zinio App. (or, if not on a tablet/smart phone: just read using your computer browser) and then look at this week’s issue of The New Yorker.   Which poets are featured in the issue?

And now for Freegal:

Freegal is a downloadable music service from your library. All you need is your library card number and a PIN. Freegal offers access to about 3 million songs, including Sony Music’s catalog of legendary artists. In total the collection is comprised of music from over 10,000 labels with music that originates in over 60 countries. 

A download usage counter is located in the upper right corner of Freegal music.com displaying your weekly allotment. For instance, 1/3 means that you have a weekly limit of 3 downloads, and you have used 1 of those downloads. The download counter resets each week at Monday 12:01 AM (Eastern Time, USA).The site is set up to browse or search for your favorite music or artist. You can use the navigation at the top of the page to browse by keyword, artist, or album; or you can simply use our advanced search page. Freegal Music also offers a collection of Top Download lists on the homepage where users can browse a variety of music selections.

For use on a mobile device:  download the Freegal App. If you have an Apple device (iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch), you will be able to download the Freegal App by doing a search for “Freegal Music” in the Apple iTunes App Store.  If you have an Android phone or tablet, you will be able to search for “Freegal Music” in the Google Play store. A Freegal App for Kindle Fire/HD/HDX can be downloaded from GetJar or SlideMe.org.  If you are on a laptop or PC, simply download songs onto your computer.

Watch a Freegal tutorial by clicking HERE

Assignment:  Login to your account on Freegal using your library card.  How many downloads can you get this week and how much time do you have for streaming music?