Team+1,+ref+log+3a


 * Team 1, Reference log 3a: Indexes & abstracts ||  ||<   ||
 * Reviewed by //Ginny//

//Federal resources for educational excellence.// (2010). Retrieved March 5, 2010, from [|www.free.ed.gov] || Conceived in 1997 by a federal working group and officially launched a year later, //Federal Resources for Educational Excellence// provides information on more than 1,500 federally supported teaching and learning resources from dozens of federal agencies. //FREE// had its first redesign in 2006 and describes itself as among the most popular K-12 websites maintained by the US Department of Education.

Although a bit difficult to locate at first, each contributing federal agency (66 at the time of this review) is alphabetically listed by official title by clicking the //“About FREE”// link at the bottom of the Home Page. Participating agencies include many well-recognized names such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Navy, Food and Drug Administration, Library of Congress, Peace Corps, and US Census Bureau. A “See Resources” link, located to the immediate right of each agency’s name, leads the user to a page listing the resources (and total number of resources) offered by the agency.

The //FREE// Home Page itself is organized as a Subject Map of eight topical areas (Art & Music, Health & Physical Education, Language Arts, Math, Science, US History Topics, US Time Periods, and World Studies) which are further divided into numerous sub-categories. These subjects and subgroups may be expanded to include all entries by subject or an alphabetical listing of entries. The number of entries contained within each subgroup is indicated in parentheses to the right of the subgroup heading. A basic search box is provided at the top right corner of the page.

Users may sign up for email updates as new resources are added to the //FREE// website or they may simply opt to click the “//What’s New//” link. //FREE// is not fancy or particularly exciting; however, it is not full of annoying advertisements either. While the quality and usefulness of resources listed on this site varies greatly, neither of these areas are within //FREE//’s area of control; on the contrary, //FREE// exists as a starting point for further research and investigation on a variety of topics from a variety of sources. ||

Age Level: 12 – 18+ Grade Level: 7 – 12+ Subject Area: ALL Overall Rating: 5
 * //Claudie's// comment: ​ This is an interesting website. It is a good place to find unique and unusual information that perhaps others might not know about. It does need some help with the links on the home page, I had to click around to find a link that worked and then go back to the educational resources. I liked the options of drop down menus and subject map. I dug into "The Raven" and was there for a good 20 minutes. The audio supplements and the highlighted texts and links to pop-ups of definitions and explanations of rhymn and rythum were intreguing. He addresses what it means, where Poe was coming from, and what was going on around him to influence his words. A really well put together tool. Worth holding onto. ||< //Kesha's// comment :



//Citation in APA format goes here.//
 * Reviewed by //Kesha//

//Text of review of reference source goes here.//

Grades: enter //your best judgment of age/grade appropriateness of the resource// Subject(s): enter //your best judgment of subject area(s) where resource would be most valuable// Rating: // provide your rating, using scale of 1-10 // ||  ||<  //Ginny's// comment :

//Claudie's// comment : || //Internet Public Library (ipl2)//. Retrieved from [|www.ipl.org/div/news/] on March 3, 2010. The ipl2 is the result of a merger of the Internet Public Library (IPL) and the Librarians' Internet Index (LII). Consortiums of numerous universities lend authority and credibility to this wonderful resource site. Starting on the home page, 5 options exist. Resources by Subject, Newspapers and Magazines, Special Collections, For Kids, and for Teens. The Newspaper & Magazines section allows you to search by state or country. The country search I thoroughly enjoyed and thought of many uses in the foreign languages curriculum. Also as a tool to entice ESOL parents into the library and into the volunteer family. Some of the countries newspapers are only in their own language, other (North Korea) allow an English language version. option. The search engine is poor and requires exact phrasing to get any kind of returns. For example, a search for ‘dogs’ returns nothing, while a search for ‘financial’ returned links to financial news sources. Going back to the homepage, ‘resources by subject’ offers subject groups that aid in searching. The ‘For Kids’ and ‘For Teens’ and the ‘Collections’ databases are wonderful tools to aid in research. A very safe site with no external links other than those on the newspaper websites. I, too, discovered this source during this semester as I was researching literary criticism sources. I like its wide range of uses to a variety of audiences but poor Search Engines are a personal pet peeve. However, it is refreshing to find a quality, free resource available for students and professionals.
 * Reviewed by //Claudie//
 * Age/grade level range**: K-Adult
 * Subject area(s)**: All
 * Overall rating on scale of 1-10 **: 9  ||   ||<  //Ginny's// comment :

//Kesha's// comment : ||