It's official. I am in LOVE! MnLink Gateway is my favorite 'thing' so far. How have I gone so long without knowing about this resource?! I have been playing around with the basic and advanced search options. I am amazed that I can access libraries throughout the state. This has been a real eye opener for me. I didn't realize how everything is networked. Wonderful! I always thought I had to ask a media specialist to guide me through the ILL process, now I know how to take care of this on my own.
I have already included a link on my teacher web page for the kids to access MnLink. I am planning on showing it to them today. I am going to do a really vague search like "Jackie Robinson" vs something specific like "Minneapolis teacher strike" to show them how a tool like this is effective with a specific subject. I also want to show them how to do an advanced search for a title since many of them found titles in the works sited pages of other resources they have been using.
I am nervous that they won't have the sources in time for History Day in a month, but it is worth a shot. It will be very helpful for kids who make it on to the next level of competition.
Next year I will have to show them MnLINK right away in November when I introduce history day. This is the perfect kind of long-term project to use ILL.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Thing 16: MnLINK
Posted by Sarah Rother at 9:15 AM
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1 comments:
Sarah,
I agree that this is a cool tool for us to have access to! I have gotten resources in as little as one week and as much as three months. . . so it can be a bit of a gamble in terms of timeliness. Sometimes if I see the resource is at the U of M, I just ask my son to get it for me rather than wait for the interlibrary loan system. About a month ago, I requested a book for a student from one of the libraries in the southern part of the state and it still hasn't come in. It is incredibly cool that our state is set up to do so much resource sharing!
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