WHY USE ELECTRIC LIBRARY:

Electric Library Elementary is a great resource for elementary school children and teachers. It is a full-text database containing articles from children's magazines, some adult magazines, reference books, newspapers, maps and news transcripts. It can be searcher using everyday language (easier for kids) or by using the more advanced boolean operators.

What does Electric Library have in it?

	Eleven newspapers including USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Atlanta newspapers and a few more!
	About 30 magazines are included, all full-text. Made up mostly of children's magazines such as Calliope, Ranger Rick, Jack & Jill, and Odyssey, this database also includes a few important adult magazines such as Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, Ebony, Horn Book, and Sierra.
	Reference books such as World Almanac, 2002 World Book Encyclopedia, Multicultural Cookbook for Children, Events Day-by-Day, King James Bible, and much more.
	Photos from historical and recent news resources. Also has pictures from Earth Life Forms, 2002 World Book Encyclopedia, and several other resources.
	Maps. Various kinds available from: Magellan; MapQuest; MGMaps of the the World; and Maps.com's Digital Earth Maps, U.S. History Maps, World Atlas, and World History Maps.
	News broadcasts from ABC's Good Morning America, Primetime Live and World News; CBS's Evening News and This Morning; and Fox's News Network.

TO ACCESS ELECTRIC LIBRARY FROM HOME:

1. Go to Brighton District Library's home page (http://brightonlibrary.info)
2. Click on Full-text Articles
3. Click on Brighton District Library and then click on GO
4. Click on Access Electronic Library
5. Enter your library card number, WITH NO SPACES, in the box and click on Enter

TO ACCESS ELECTRIC LIBRARY FROM THE BRIGHTON DISTRCIT LIBRARY:

1. Click on Magazine Indexes
2. Click on Electronic Library

SEARCHING ELECTRIC LIBRARY:

From the First Home Screen

1. Electric Library can use everyday language to search. Ask questions as you would in person.
• Good search: How far away is the moon?
• Not-so-good search: moon
2. You can tell Electric Library that you only want certain kinds of sources.
• If you want a picture of the moon, select only pictures.
• If you want anything about the moon, click on select all.
• Click on search. A list of articles will show up on your computer screen.
3. You may also earch using Boolean search terms to join your words together. This is often a more accurate way to search. Boolean operators are words such as and, or and not that are used to join words together when searching..
• Click on Advanced Search
• Choose build a boolean search
• You may use boolean operators and, or, and and not.



TO FIND: all articles mentioning the terms girls and sports	TYPE: girls and sports
TO FIND: all articles mentioning the terms dogs or cats	TYPE: dogs or cats
TO FIND: all articles that talk about animals but NOT pet	TYPE: animal and not pet

ONCE YOU HAVE YOUR SEARCH RESULTS:

1. Sort your results
   • Sort by source type: magazines, books, newspapers, pictures, maps, or transcripts.
   • Sort by what you need the most: pictures, date, relevancy (which articles are most likely to be useful), and reading levels.
2. Click on hyperlinked article title to see entire article and citation.
3. If it's a long article you can click on go to best part which will find the words you used in your search.
4. How do you get the article? You have options!
   • You can e-mail the article to yourself or a friend or teacher
   • You can click on "view printable copy" and then click on "print". If you are printing from the library it costs ten cents per page.
5. For Extra Credit - If you don't understand a word in the article you can look it up right away at the bottom of the screen. Once you have the definition, just use the "Back" button to go back to your article.