Web Watch
The Internet Public Library

Many websites languish over time, suffering from a lack of updates or a surfeit of technical dazzle over useful substance. And others, of course, simply aren’t there one morning when you click your bookmark.

But some other sites just keep getting better with age. The Internet Public Library began online in 1995, making it a pioneer in Web terms. If your students are engaging in a research project, or if you’re helping them to develop research skills or doing research yourself, IPL is an excellent first destination. Here’s what they—and you—will find:

• KidSpace @ The Internet Public Library offers hundreds of annotated links to age- and content-appropriate websites organized by topic. There’s access to almanacs, encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other reference tools; collections of resources organized around curricular topics; and links to “fun stuff” and parent and teacher resources.



• For older learners, there’s TeenSpace @ The Internet Public Library. Here adolescents can find resources to assist with school projects, along with reading recommendations, homework help, links to information about college and careers, and other collections on topics of interest to this age group.



• Subject collections house resources in familiar library groupings such as reference, health and medicine, social sciences, and regional interests. There’s even a section on education, with links to hundreds of resources for teachers, organized by topic.



• In the Reading Room, you’ll find links to online—and free—books, magazines, and newspapers, organized by title, author, Dewey number, or topic.

The Internet Public Library is so well organized and maintained that browsing is a pleasure: You always know where you are, how you got there, and how to go somewhere else. But, just in case you are trying to zero in on one particular resource, a sophisticated advanced search function is in development. There are even real-life reference librarians available to answer Internet research questions submitted by e-mail.

IPL is based at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI, USA, and is both a service to Internet users (supported by corporate sponsorship) and an ongoing project in the university’s School of Information. Each semester, students in computer and information science work on the site—which explains why it continues to be so current and well run, even after all these years.

For an index of Electronic Classroom Web Watches, click here.

Reading Online, www.readingonline.org
Posted September 2004
© 2004 International Reading Association, Inc. ISSN 1096-1232