Course Reserves

Did you know that COD instructors can put materials on reserve with the Library for their students? This is a great option for instructors looking to make a single copy of a book, article or film available to an entire class.

If your students have found the book request process challenging, Course Reserves provide a convenient solution. Simply request the materials you would like your students to have access to and the Library will make them available at the Circulation Desk. You can select the check-out period: 2 hours (in Library use), 24 hours (overnight), 3 days, or 1 week.

Course Reserves are not limited to Library materials, either-- you can put your own materials on reserve and be confident that they will be returned and kept safe.

Some materials can even be made available electronically-- a convenient alternative for classes that do not meet on the Main Campus.

For more information, review the Library’s Course Reserve policies and procedures or contact Circulation Services at 630-942-2106

New Books in the Library

Although the majority of our ABE/GED and ESL resources are in the OCC Library Annex, any new books added to the collection since construction began are available in the main Library.

You can browse new ABE/GED and ESL titles in the Library’s New Books section.

Here are just some of the new titles in this area:

The Heights Reader Series by Mary Kate Doman
The Heights readers grab the attention of struggling readers with high-interest stories focused on a Latino family that finds humor and hope in unusual circumstances. Written at low reading levels of 1.0-2.0
PE999.H354

Rapid Reads Series various authors
Short, high-interest novels with compelling characters. Reading levels range from 2.0-4.5. Free reading guides available online at http://orcabook.com/rapid-reads.com/guides.html
PE999.R265

Compelling American Conversations eds. Eric H. Roth and Toni Aberson
Questions & quotations for intermediate American English language learners
PE1131 .R68 2012

Perfect Phrases for ESL. Advancing Your Career by Natalie Gast
Hundreds of ready-to-use phrases that help you speak fluently, understand "business speak," network in the global workplace, present confidently, and more
PE1128 .G34 2010

Perfect Phrases for ESL. Conversation Skills by Diane Engelhardt
Hundreds of ready-to-use phrases that help you express your thoughts, ideas, and feelings in English conversations of all types
PE1128 .E57 2013

Resource of the Month

Gooru: A Free Search Engine for Education
http://www.goorulearning.org

On one level, Gooru is, as it proclaims “a free search engine for learning.” The large search box at the top of the screen invites you to “Discover your favorite Science, Math and Social Science topic” (Language Arts are forthcoming). When you search, however, you are not searching the open web, but a limited number of educational resources such as the History Channel, Wikimedia Foundation and Scholastic.

But Gooru does more than simply direct you to learning materials on other sites, it curates that content as well. Gooru organizes material into three categories: Resources, Collections and Quizzes. Resources are multimedia tools such as videos, interactive tutorials and e-books; the Quizzes provide instant feedback on a wide variety of topics; and Collections bring all of the above together in single-topic study units.

Although anyone can use Gooru without registering, a quick login process allows users to save materials and even create customized collections. As a result, Gooru can be used by individual students looking to expand their knowledge on topics or by instructors seeking quality educational multimedia materials for their classrooms.

It's the End of the Semester!

This has been a unique semester in the Library, to say the least. Construction began in August and continues, but without too much disruption. Some of the heavy equipment can be a little loud, especially when teaching in one of the Library’s two remaining classrooms, but for the most part we don’t feel like we’re working in the middle of a construction site.

Helping our students navigate the new book-finding process has been challenging, but seems to have gone without too many hitches. More and more students are familiar with the Library Annex in the OCC building on West Campus and many probably appreciate not having to search the stacks to find books on their own!

I’ve worked with some new ESL, ABE and GED instructors this semester as well as many of the “veterans”. A number of students have taken me up on my regular offer of “find me any time-- I’m happy to help!” and dropped by my new office in the BIC or the Reference Desk. I’ve enjoyed my new daily trek between the buildings as it gives me a chance to encounter students, faculty and staff that I normally wouldn’t run into as much in the closed environment of the library.

I’m looking forward to spring semester-- meeting new students, working with you all to get library cards for your classes and to design creative assignments that introduce students to the library, research and simple, but essential information finding skills.

Although we will continue to have just the two library classrooms through the spring semester, this fall showed us that we’re still able to accomodate all of the instruction, orientation and introduction requests we get from instructors. In addition to the classes that visited the library (and received our much-abbreviated one-floor tour) I had several sessions where I packed up my bag and travelled to classrooms across campus (and off-campus). Whatever works best for you and your students-- we can make it happen!

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch about spring semester. I can work with you to plan your next library instruction session, research project or introduction to Learning Express Library or TERC anytime between now and the last weeks of spring.

I wish you all a stress-free end of semester and a safe and happy winter break.

--Jenn.

Resource of the Month

Open Culture e-books
http://www.openculture.com/free_ebooks

I’ve included Open Culture, the website that curates cultural & educational media from across the Web, as a Resource of the Month before. In February 2011, I highlighted the wide variety of resources available on Open Culture’s site-- educational videos, language lessons, free massive open online courses (MOOCs) and more.

This month, I want to focus on Open Culture’s free e-book collection, which you can browse at http://www.openculture.com/free_ebooks.  

More and more of our students are using mobile devices to access the internet for personal and academic use. Not only are these devices handy, they’re much less expensive than traditional laptop or desktop computers. In the Library, we always get an uptick of patrons asking about e-books in January-- usually with a brand new device in-hand! Some devices allow users to upload books (Kindles, Nooks, etc.) while others simply allow access to online materials.

The books in Open-Culture’s collection meet the needs of both users-- many titles have Kindle, Apple and Nook-friendly formats as well as a “Read Online” version which may take the reader to Google Books, Bartleby.com or other sites. For users with a brand new device, Open Culture has embedded videos demonstrating how to load books onto the most popular reading devices.

Naturally, most of the e-books in this collection are classics, available for free because they are in the public domain. Some, however, are short stories by contemporary writers such as Neil Gaiman and David Foster Wallace.

Reading books online has many benefits for English language learners, whether ESL or ABE. Many devices have built-in dictionaries, allowing readers to access definitions without leaving the text. From a computer, students can open a book in one window and an online dictionary or translation tool in another, making the reading/comprehension process almost seamless.