By Martin Couch
Bryant students who want to[more] learn more, often go to the school library for research or just to read books, but in these days of modern technology, the Bryant High School Library has a new website that can assist any student or faculty member at any time.
Go to the Bryant School District homepage and select Bryant High School. In the top line under the words “Bryant High School” is a tool bar that tells about the school district, parents and student links, faculty and staff links, a fan zone and other information. Clicking on the Parent and Student info link will bring down a list of other links where one can find the Library’s main link.
“We have been working very closely with the technology department and started gathering looks at libraries around the state,” BHS media specialist Rebecca Downey said. “We are very proud of it.”
Along with announcements, the library webpage offers a Destiny Card Catalog that has put the old physical card catalogs on the antique list. There is a calendar of events, “Meet the Librarians”, parent links, research resources, frequently asked questions and a way to contact the librarians via email.
“We do W.O.W. book of the week, which is a wordle,” Downey said. “We do it every week on a review of a book. We put it into wordle form and kids can guess what it is. We take out the obvious hints that would give it away and the students come tell us their guess. We keep their name on a list and, on Fridays, we put all the names in a hat and pull out a winner for either a cheese dip party or some candy. It’s a way to try to get the kids used to going to the website. Most of them really love it.”
The website is accessible from home, as well.
“You can look for a particular book in all of our libraries,” Downey explained. “Sometimes teachers want a picture book or something and we have an inner library loan. We cooperate. That way we don’t have to duplicate materials. We also have our research on here so if they want to access other libraries, there is the Arkansas Traveler database, which is provided by the state free of charge.”
The Arkansas Traveler database requires a password and user ID. It offers access to encyclopedias and global research assistance. There is also access to the Saline County Library and the Library of Congress through NetTrekker.
“We have other presentation resources like Wordle, Prezi, Blabberize and Glogster,” Downey said. “Blabberize is a thing where you can make objects talk if you are doing a presentation about something and Prezi is kind of like Powerpoint on steroids. It offers a way for the kids to be creative.”
Downey said that Wordle is used by a lot of the teachers to teach vocabulary terms.
“It gets the kids thinking in different ways,” she added.
Check out www.bryantschools.org and select the parent and student link to find the library’s resources.
