Tips and Tricks on Making the Most of the School Library

Published January 15, 2016

In honor of Library Month in Williamson County, WCS high school librarians have teamed up to offer tips and tricks to help students make the most of the school library and its resources.

Noodletools. Noodletools is a great tool to help students keep organized while preparing their research papers. It blends seamlessly with Google Apps for Education. All of the notecards and citations are electronic so we are not finding stacks of notecards someone accidentally left behind in the library! It has a fabulous graphic organizer embedded in the software, which helps these freshmen visualize how their paper should be organized. – Kim Gaither, Ravenwood High

Don’t be intimidated – just ask! Don’t be afraid to ask questions to your librarian or library media specialist. Chances are we already have a list created if you’re working on something your teacher has assigned. Memoirs, narrative nonfiction, great American classics, etc. Just ask! – Sherry Monroe, Summit High

Databases are better than Google. Use databases located on the Summit Library Catalog to locate information. Spend 20 seconds longer at the beginning and save two hours on your search time. – Sherry Monroe, Summit High

Use all the tools in the toolbox. We aren’t limited to print. We have audio books, e-books, online databases, DVDs and a table full of pens, paperclips, markers, notecards and other things you need. – Sherry Monroe, Summit High

Get to know the Tennessee Electronic Library. We recommend that all students, or any resident in the state of Tennessee, take advantage of the Tennessee Electronic Library (TEL). TEL is a virtual library that provides access to over 400,000 magazines, videos, e-books, homework help, test prep and more to any device with internet access. Some great tools within TEL include student resources and opposing viewpoints. TEL is administered by the Tennessee State Library and Archives and is free to all Tennesseans – saving public and school libraries thousands of dollars each year. Click here to visit TEL. – Melissa Ralston, Brentwood High and Christy Sweeney, Independence High

Destiny Book Catalog. If your school’s Destiny book catalog has added great research links to its Home tab, visit old.wcs.edu and click on “Parents and Students.” From there, click on Internet Resources and log into Destiny with your regular network username and password. Here you have 24/7 access to these college-friendly databases and citation help. – Suzanne Lovett, Centennial High

Knowledge is Key. WCS librarians teach our students and faculty how to search our Union catalog of our collections, evaluate web sources, research tools and resources to utilize for the most effective searches, access Google drives and classrooms, properly implement the BYOT standards and use proper citation skills aligned with the required standards. – Carol Hogue, Page High