You Can Now Export Your Citations From EBSCO to EasyBib!

If your school is fortunate enough to have access the EBSCO databases, students can now export their citations directly into EasyBib. Schools with an EasyBib Pro account have the ability to save their bibliographies and come back at another date to finish their work. The following tutorial is based on a school with EBSCO and an EasyBib Pro account. (For a pro account, make sure you or your student is logged into EasyBib BEFORE the steps below.) The bibliography we are making is based on MLA format. If you want another format, you must tell EBSCO under "preferences".

1. Log into your school account

2. Choose which database you wish to use

3. After you search for a specific topic and choose an article,
your screen should look like this one. Choose EXPORT

from the right side of the screen.

4. You will then see the EXPORT MANAGER. Choose DIRECT EXPORT TO EASYBIB.

5. You will be brought to EasyBib and see this screen above. Arrows indicate what you should pick.

6. Presto! Your bibliographic entry is listed.

Problems? Your EBSCO account might not have the export manager activated. Call EBSCO's customer service for help.

Rutgers R.I.O.T. Rocks

Rutgers University has posted RIOT (Research Information Online Tutorial) to aid students and teachers with their research. The 5-part animated tutorial is interactive. Teacher-Librarians can use this to get students started on their research papers. Thank you Richard Byrne (Free Technology for Teachers) for posting this awesome resource for students and teachers.

The EBSCO Poster

I recently posted information students should know about EBSCO, and I received several requests to see what my finished poster looked like. You can view it here if you'd like to get some ideas.

7 Things My Students Should Know About EBSCO

We are very fortunate to receive a free subscription to the databases of EBSCO from our state library.  It's a resource that offers a long list of databases, and so few of my students know how wonderful it is. I decided to make a poster which explains the 7 most important things they should all know about EBSCO. Here's the information I covered on it:

1. You can trust the information you find on EBSCO.
Although too many students feel that all they need is Google, I have tried to explain to them that Google does a great job of searching, but it doesn't tell them which sites they can trust. EBSCO's databases can be trusted.

2. You can create an account and save articles to your folder "in the cloud".
Once a student is logged into our EBSCO site, they can create an account, which can then be accessed from any computer with an Internet connection. As articles are searched, favorite ones can be saved to the folder for the future.

 3. Always choose "FULL TEXT" when searching for an article.
Not every article is available beyond the abstract. You MUST refine your search to include only full text articles. They are available as either HTML text (view in your browser) or PDF. Either format can be saved to your folder.

4. If the full text of an article is not available on our school's connection to EBSCO, they can try the public library's EBSCO just by entering their library card number.
Our school's package of databases is not the same as the public libraries or colleges. Although the specific database might claim to offer full text articles as far back as 1975, you might find that many are unavailable. I always explain to the student that as long as they have a library card, they can utilize the databases through the county library cooperative. Our county system offers ProQuest, EBSCO and Infotrac.

5. When you choose HTML text and view your article in the browser many of the articles will allow you to listen as someone reads it to you.
Choose from 3 accents and speeds if you like. This is a great feature for ESL or SPED students who could use assistance. The option is also available for downloading the MP3 file to the iPod or computer.

6. Points of View offers pros and cons on hundreds of topics.
From alternative energy to Zionism, this database will assist you when presenting both sides of your topic. Resources include newspapers, periodicals, books, radio/TV transcripts, primary source documents and images.

7. EBSCO has a mobile app.
The digital generation should be familiar with this, right? The app is available for iPhone, iPad and Android devices. Every time I share this with a student, they are surprised this app is available.

EBSCO Mobile for Research On-The-Go

Our school media center is very fortunate to have such incredible support from the NJ State Library. We currently receive a large collection of databases which cover all grades K-12 and which are extremely helpful to our students. Most recently, EBSCO created a mobile app for the iPhone, and is expanding their mobile app to include Blackberrys and Android smartphones. If your school has EBSCOHost, you should introduce your students to mobile access. See how they react when you tell them that even if the Internet is down at school, they can use their smartphone to complete their research! Here's a link to the information about EBSCOHost Mobile.