The Secretary of State's Office and the Illinois State Library are excited to share more information about how school libraries can access the statewide e-resource package. The following is information that can be used to start accessing this resource. We encourage school library representatives to share this information with the appropriate person in your school.
Why you should take the time to get these set up for your school:
Teachers will find the Explora interface (which powers many of the databases in this package) helpful with the “Curriculum standards” section that suggests sample lesson objectives and then suggests search strings to use to find accompanying information. Resources can be shared directly to Google Classroom or other Learning Management Systems.
Illinois passed a bill (Public Act 103-0422 ) that will take effect with this school year requiring the teaching of Native American History in elementary and high schools. These resources have a large selection of native culture information that can help both teachers and students with this requirement.
The Illinois State Board of Education recently switched back to requiring high school students to take the ACT. The testing database, LearningExpress PrepSTEP High School, has an ACT guided study course and multiple practice exams to help students prepare for the test.
What you can do:
If you have a library website, please add the links to the site. Let your teachers know these are available and use them to help your students!
If you don’t have a library website, you’ll be able to bookmark the Secretary of State’s forthcoming website for these resources.
How to get access:
Existing and past EBSCO customers will see the statewide databases in your EBSCOadmin account. Reach out to EBSCO how you normally would, either by contacting your EBSCO rep or by submitting a help ticket/creating a case in EBSCO Connect. Ask for direct links for your school (that way you can check statistics on how much your school is using the databases). There are 50+ databases, but you don’t have to put all of those links on your website. You determine what’s appropriate for your students and staff. You could also ask EBSCO to create a profile with multiple databases in one link.
Schools new to EBSCO services should reach out to EBSCO’s Customer Support by calling (800) 758-5995 to get added to the Illinois State Library package. Once added, EBSCO can send you direct links to the databases. Same as above, there are 50+ databases, but you don’t have to put all of those links on your website. You determine what’s appropriate for your students and staff. You could also ask EBSCO to create a profile with multiple databases in one link.
What’s in the e-resources package:
A wide range of databases covering topics from car repair to legal resources, from health information to peer reviewed articles for academic research, from home improvement information to study materials for college entrance exams. A list and brief description of all the databases is attached.
Why this is so exciting:
The Secretary of State and Illinois State Library have never offered such an extensive database package. All people of Illinois should be able to access these reliable resources (if there are any issues contact the ISL or EBSCO). Schools already providing e-resources will be able to reallocate those funds for other important library resources. Schools that previously did not offer e-resources can now offer their students access to quality information without impacting their budgets.
Who to contact:
For questions about the statewide e-resource program, contact ISL Library Program Specialist Suzanna Jones, sjones@ilsos.gov, or by phone, 217.785.7334.