Tamanend Middle School
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Judith A. Sheridan, Librarian
Mrs. Sheridan began her career in education as a science teacher.
After thirteen years - and a new degree - she became a school librarian.
Before coming to Tamanend, she worked in the Pennsbury School District
and at our sister schools Holicong and Lenape. Mrs. Sheridan loves
being a school librarian, and she especially enjoys working with the Tamanend
students.
Ruth Keller, Library Assistant
Mrs. Keller joined the Tamanend staff in 1995. She assists in all aspects of the library operations bringing a new level of competence and caring to her position. She was hesitant about working with teenagers until she began working with the Tamanend students and found out how nice students this age can be.
Most of the items circulate on a two-week basis, with unlimited renewals. Selected items circulate overnight which means they cannot leave the library until the end of the school day and must be returned before homeroom the next school day. Overnight items checked out on Friday are due back on Monday. Overnight items checked out on the last day before an extended break are due back the day we return from the break. There is no limit to the number of books a student may check out at one time.
Fines are assessed on overdue books at the rate of 5 cents per day per
book. Students must pay for lost or damaged books. They get
money back if the lost book is found at a later date.
The Tamanend Library is open everyday during the regular school day hours
from
7:30
AM until 3:00 PM. Students who need to stay later can make arrangements
with Mrs. Sheridan.
During the school day, students may use the library on their own before and after school and during the resource period. They may also return items when they are passing from class to class.
When assignments necessitate, teachers bring students to the library for
an entire class period of research.
The Library relies heavily on its electronic resources, and students are taught how to access these tools from computers located in the library and throughout the school.
The paper card catalog is a thing of the past. Students now search in the online public access catalog (OPAC) when they want to find books. Because the library system is networked throughout the entire district, students are able to search every Central Bucks school library collection from the Tamanend Library.
Magazine articles are also available online. Students use a tool called InfoTrac to locate the articles. Through InfoTrac, students can print out the full texts of articles or they can email the texts home.
In addition, the library subscribes to online encyclopedias and several specialized references selected specifically to support the 9th grade assessment.
Students have access to the internet through the computers in the library. They are encouraged to use the internet when it is the appropriate source of information, and in fact, some of the research tools to which the library subscribes are available only online.
Searching the internet is a learned skill. The internet is a vast resource, and the validity of the information it contains varies greatly. Students receive instruction in internet searching skills and strategies, and they are also taught to evaluate the sources they find. In some research situations, usually because of time constraints, the students are limited to using bookmarked web sites which have been preselected by the librarian and the classroom teacher.
Internet access on the Central Bucks network is monitored by a filter known as BESS. This device prevents students from going to inappropriate web sites.
The Central Bucks librarians
suggest you consult the following information rich web sites.
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Copyright
information
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http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright |
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Reference
Desk
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http://www.refdesk.com |
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Librarians' Index to the
Internet
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http://lii.org/ |
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17
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http://www.17.com |
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Internet Public Library
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http://www.ipl.org |
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ALA
Resources for Parents, Teens and Kids
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http://www.ala.org/parents/index.html |
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* * * * * Search
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Engines * * * * * |
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Ask
Jeeves
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http://askjeeves.com |
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Dogpile
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http://dogpile.com |
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Google
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http://google.com |
The following word processing and graphics tools are available for students to use at the Tamanend Library