Princeton High School Library goes digital

[Princeton Packet]

Princeton High School Library goes digital
Tuesday, October 14, 2008 7:12 AM EDT
By Greg Forester, Staff Writer

The Princeton High School Library recently added an impressive arsenal of online reference resources for use by students and staff by securing access to the Gale Virtual Reference Library and its 300-plus reference sources.

Through it, students making queries and doing research can access the virtual library’s resources from any Internet-ready computer. The online reference resource offers institutions options everything from encyclopedias on global warming to textbooks on the U.S. Supreme Court.

”This allows people to do quality research 24-7, even when the libraries are closed,” said Arlene Sinding, the high’s school librarian. “Its availability is terrific.”

The package of electronic reference materials came at a reduced price for the high school.

Ms. Sinding estimated that securing the more than 300 resources individually would have cost the school somewhere around $100,000.
But the high school, with the help of an entity known as the Central Jersey Regional Library Cooperative, secured the Gale Virtual Reference Library for $17,000.

Of the $17,000, $10,000 came through grants secured by the school’s administration and $5,000 came from the Princeton High School Parent Teachers Organization.

The remaining $2,000 came out of the district’s budget.

Trial access provided by the Gale Virtual Reference Library to The Packet demonstrated that students and staff can now access anything from features on tuberculosis in the 19th century to historical documents detailing what life was like in occupied Western Europe during World War II.

”It’s one of our largest databases, with hundreds of reference materials,” said Ann Ruppenthal, a publicist for Gale. “Whatever you want to find, it’s in there.”

In addition to the Gale Virtual Reference Library, the library already has 11 remote access databases, including such well-known resources as JSTOR.

Even those resources can be accessed away from the library, according to Ms. Sinding, who said the students and staff have access through a password-protected system.

In addition to its online resources, the Princeton High School Library boasts over 28,000 books, plus sets of hardcover encyclopedias and other reference materials, Ms. Sinding said.

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