We know you might rather be doing something else than homework, but we can't do much about that. We can, however, make your life a bit easier.
One of the best tools still available is the online catalog. You can try searching by subject, and if that doesn't work, try searching by keyword. Sometimes it helps to think of other words that mean about the same thing.
In our online catalog you will find many electronic books, or e-books. These are current, up-to-date books that are only accessible online and can be very useful for research. The only catch is that to access these books from home, you must first come into the library to establish an account with NetLibrary.
We have access to several electronic databases. They make research much easier than the old-fashioned way. Plus they contain thousands of newspapers, magazines, and journals that our library could never hold!
Try using eLibrary to find useful information from magazines and newspapers. Wilson Omnifile is great for unearthing valuable knowledge in journals and magazines. The Biographies database is also known as Wilson Biographies Plus Illustrated. You will find thousands of biographies here, many accompanied by a photograph and a short bibliography. You can enter these NebraskAccess databases with a password that changes every six months (call us at 332-4480.)
Learning Express offers some tools to help you bone up on your skills for tests. Although this database is geared to both adults and kids, you will find learning helps applicable to middle and high school students. There are also practice tests for college entrance exams.
The much criticized Wikipedia Encyclopedia has lately been beating
the Encyclopedia Britannica in tests of accuracy. Even if your teacher won't let you cite it, it can be useful
because articles usually list a number
of sources which you can turn to for information.
Another great source is the Internet Public Library,
or IPL. It has a special "Teen Space," which might be fun to check out, but most of the information is found elsewhere.
You may also consider taking a look at the Nebraska Library Commission's Best of the Web. For a ton of online information, explore the nation's library, The Library of Congress. For history projects, American Memories can be very useful. For state history, check out Nebraska Memories.