Are There Owls in Your Library?

Jane Barron and Linda Matthis

What is WiseOwl?

WiseOwl is a database supplied and supported by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. The database was originally constructed to take the place of Reader’s Guide in the facilitation and access to research materials.

Welcome to NCWiseOwl!What does NCWiseOwl

offer? Magazine Database Encyclopedias Kids InfoBits Jr. Reference Center SAS inSchool Kaleidoscope

Elementary section Middle School section High School section Professional section Media/Tech section Parents section

How is NCWiseOwl Organized?

NCWiseOwl is divided into four separate areas: Student, Teacher, Reference, and Parents.

Student section = Web sites related to NC Course of Study

Teacher Section = WebQuests that supplement the curriculum

How is NCWiseOwl Organized? (continued)

Reference Area = periodical databases, encyclopedias, and child-friendly search engines

Parents = Web sites that encourage Internet searching and helping children with homework

How do I access NCWiseOwl?

School access does not require a password

Home access requires:

Gale InforTrac password : wiseowl

Username: 490-000

Password : school

Which Section has the most Usage?

The General Reference Center Gold gets the most access because it is a research database for magazine articles.

All articles are full-text with the bibliography at the beginning and can be e-mailed to your computer at home.

How do I Search on NCWiseOwl?

Types of Searches:

Subject Guide

Relevance Search

Keyword Search

Advanced Search

Journal Search

Start Over

You can search the entire site with a General Search, or you can limit your search by using a Limited or Advanced Search.

Example of a Keyword Search

Keyword: Holocaust

Out of 22, 826, 806 articles found on the General Reference Center Gold (started in 1980), 7901 contained the keyword Holocaust.

Limited searches almost always need to be used to limit the amount of information presented.

Facts About NCWiseOwl General Reference

Center Gold was started in 1980.

Kids InforBIts meets the needs of K-5 research.

Newspapers are on current events, science and math, government, health and sports.

More Facts About NCWiseOwl

Books include the Junior Reference Collection for school and libraries.

Featured are easy-to-read information bases, information on authors, people and places, and multicultural topics.

There are more than 1,600 authors of jounrals.

There are over 5,600 Web links.

What’s the Best Part of NCWiseOwl?

It’s Free to all North Carolina Residents!!!!!

Newspaper Resources

Greensboro News & Record

Asheville Citizen-Times

New York Times Naples News Savannah Now London Guardian And many more!!!!

PathFinders in NCWiseOwl

PathFinders about NCWiseOwl can be found at:

www.sasinschool.com

Kaleidoscope Kaleidoscope is

another way to access information from NCWiseOwl.

This section is for teachers.

To access information, click on the appropriate grade level.

PathFinder for NCWiseOwl

Go to http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/curriculum/

List outcomes and assessment Implement stratagies Identify keywords/subtopics Select WiseOwl resources and determine

search strategies

PathFinder Continued

Reference Centers:– Infobits search strategies

– Junior Reference Center search strategies

Encyclopedias– New Book of Knowledge

– NBK News

– Grolier Multimedia

PathFinder Continued

Professional Page– Featured Web sites

– Evalutech

– Lesson plans

Bibliography Gale General Reference

Center Gold Gale InfoTrac Student

Edition Gale InfoTrac Kids

Edition Kids InfoBits Gale Professional Journals Scribner Writers Series Grolier New Book of

Knowledge

Bibliography Continued

Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia Online Lands and People The New Book of Popular Science