Awesome Library

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Awesome Library is a website which provides information resources for education. The site organizes the Web with 33,000 carefully reviewed resources, including the top 5% in education. It is a Web site that was developed for K-12 teachers, students, parents, and librarians. Over time its purpose has expanded to include college students and professionals. The Awesome Library is published by the Evaluation and Development Institute and Dr. R. Jerry Adams. The Awesome Library opened in 1996 under the name of Neat Schoolhouse and changed to its current name in 1997.

[edit] Web tools

The publishers of the Awesome Library, in partnership with Code-It, make available free copies of the Awesome Talking Library [1]. The Awesome Talking Library is a browser that allows children to hear articles that they select on the Web. The browser is designed to assist children with building their reading and research skills by reading along with an adult voice. The voice can be set to "slow."

[edit] External link

• Awesome Library

[edit] External reviews

The Awesome Library has been reviewed by hundreds of sources [2] and ranked among the top 10 for "library" in Google [3] (out of over 400 million "library" sites). Examples of expert reviews and recommendations include the following:

-The American Library Association, the largest and oldest professional association for librarians, chose the Awesome library as one of the "Great Web Sites for Kids." [4]
-Gale Group [5], a reviewer of encylopedias and databases, panned the Awesome Library in March of 2001; Dr. Peter Jacso later re-reviewed the Awesome Library and changed his assessment. [6]
-Education World [7] provides an in-depth evaluation of the Awesome Library (March of 2001) and gives it an overall rating of "A."

Many of the nation's libraries recommend the Awesome Library. Some examples include Berkeley [8], Los Angeles [9], Fort Worth [10], Fresno [11], Milwaukee [12], Minneapolis [13], Salem [14], Salt Lake City [15], Multnomah County [16], and Yuma County. [17]

-Ask.com ranks the Awesome Library #1 for "k-12 education." [18]
-USA Today [19] reviewed the Awesome Library in its "Best Bets in Education" column on July 11, 1999.
-The Educator's Reference Desk, formerly the ERIC Clearinghouse, recommends the Awesome Library as one of two internet sources for Special Education Lesson Plans. [20]
-Beaucoup [21] includes the Awesome Library as one the 10 best search engines for kids.
-BBC Scotland Online made the Awesome Library its Pick of the Week for March 22, 1999.
-The British Columbia Teacher-Librarian's Association [22] places the Awesome Library first among its recommended Web sites.
-Educational Testing Service (ETS), [23] publisher of college entry tests, lists the Awesome Library for several subject areas.
-The Child Welfare League [24] lists the Awesome Library as one of its two recommended Education Resources.
-Family Education [25] provided a positive review of the Awesome Library on February 19, 1999: "THE AWESOME LIBRARY lives up to its name. Here is a website that organizes your exploration of the Internet. It contains 14,000 carefully reviewed resources, including the top 5 percent in education. A must have resource link for parents, teachers, and kids. It now lives at the top of my bookmark file. Great site!!!"
-Forbes [26] reviewed the Awesome Library in its "Best of the Web" section. In its review it called the Awesome Library "A portal obsessed with usability."
-Idiom Sisters [27] gave the Awesome Library an Idiom Sisters Award for Content-Rich Sites in January of 1999.
-NASA [28] recommends the Awesome Library in its science resources for Educators.
-KidsClick! [29] recommends the Awesome Library as a Web Directory.
-RefDesk.com [30] recommends and uses the Awesome Library.
-The Awesome Library is listed repeatedly under the Education (370) section of OCLC [31], a key reference resource for librarians.
-Gateway to Education, [32] one of the U.S. Government's Web sites for educators, uses the Awesome Library as one of its foundation sources.
-MarketLeap [33] rates the Awesome Library with a "search engine saturation" of over 82,000. By comparison, the site ranked by Google as the top "library," the Internet Public Library (IPL), has a search engine saturation of around 92,000.
-Highlights' Teachernet [34] awarded the Awesome Library "Site of the Week" on June 12, 2000.
-VoteNet [35] recognized the Awesome Library as "Outstanding Political Website" on January 9, 1999.
-Yahoo [36] ranks the Awesome Library first among its resources for k-12 Teaching.
-Anne Collier [37], editor of the SafeKids/NetFamilyNewsletter and president of NetFamilyNews.org, reviewed half a dozen search engines for kids. Awesome Library was included and gained a favorable review.
-Colossus, [38] a listing of the best search engines worldwide and in many languages, includes the Awesome Library.

In addition to reviews of the Awesome Library, thousands of Web sites refer to the Awesome Library as an external link or reference, such as the Anti-Bias Curriculum [39]in Wikipedia.