South Dakota State Library: Library Development e-Newsletter

Featured eResources of the Month

SIRS adds November Native American Spotlight of the Month, 21st Century tools, and other content

Both SIRS Discoverer, grades K-9 resource for online magazine articles and more, and SIRS Issues Researcher, grades 6-12 resource for online magazine and newspaper articles and more, are featuring Native American Heritage Month for November’s Spotlight of the Month. SIRS Issues Researcher’s Spotlight includes a quiz question and article about Crazy Horse Monument. This information will be available in the Spotlight archives after November ends.

SIRS Discoverer has added more titles from Biography for Beginners, Mitchell Lane’s Blue Banner Biographies for greater historical and contemporary biography coverage.

Each country in the Country Facts feature now offers new graphical organizers for three skill levels, helping students process and retain information.

Science Weekly is a recent addition to SIRS Discoverer’s source list. This grades K-6 title includes activities in science, math and technology.

SIRS Issues Researcher has tripled the number of Leading Issues for a total of 300. In addition to its alphabetical list of leading issues, it offers lists by subjects (Groups) and Visual Browse. The following features were added to each Leading Issue to develop 21st Century skills:

• Timeline of the issue
• Global information about the issue
• Statistics (charts and graphs from articles)
• Research Guides (step-by-step how-to, includes a video tutorial)
• Note Organizer (online graphical organizer for persuasive or narrative projects).
• RSS feed for Leading Issues to keep abreast of new articles
• Share widget to post articles to social networking sites.

SIRS Issues Researcher still contains age-appropriate, editor-selected, curriculum-related content updated daily.

Direct access is available from the South Dakota State Library's Web site within libraries in South Dakota, and 24/7 access is available to citizens from home with a library barcode and password.

21st Century, databases, electronic resources, Native American

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