Website: National Screening Room

The NATIONAL SCREENING ROOM from the Library of Congress features movies from the library’s digital collections.

The project contains nearly 300 videos with 18 from the 19th century. Almost half of the collection are in the category of nonfiction while 50 are fiction. In addition, over 100 are silent films.

The project also includes articles and essays that provide a context for the films including an exploration of mental health films and persuasive films. The National Film Registry is a list of films considered to be “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

Librarians will find this collection useful in teaching about the history of film along with providing fascinating primary sources across the curriculum. Ask students to watch a film from the National Film Registry and write about why they think the film was included for special recognition.

While many of the items are in the public domain, others are copyrighted. Keep in mind that the moving images reflect the time period when they were created, so be sure to talk with youth about changes in perspectives and beliefs over time.

To visit the website, go to https://www.loc.gov/collections/national-screening-room.

Technology Review: Internet Archive

INTERNET ARCHIVE is a large website containing access to millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.

Sponsored by a nonprofit based in California, this digital collection coordinates with many universities, libraries, archives, museums, and historical societies to provide public access to digital resources.

A basic and advanced search tool provides access to individual digital objectives. Users can also explore sections focusing on text, video, audio, software, and images.

The WayBack Machine allows users to enter a URL or keywords and see the history of over 279 billion web pages.

The website’s entry page provides links to top collections such as American Libraries, Live Music Archives, and Community Audio.

Librarians will find this website to be one of the best starting points for difficult to find historical materials, particularly books. Their web-based interface works well for reading these historical documents online.

To visit the website, go to https://archive.org/.

Technology Review: DOGOnews

DOGOnews is a website and app resource focusing on current events, news, and nonfiction articles for students and teachers.

The website consists of short articles. Most of these informational stories contain numerous images. Vocabulary words that may be unfamiliar to youth are highlighted and link to pop-up definitions and examples. Each article ends with reading comprehension questions, a critical thinking challenge, and vocabulary. A game helps readers review the vocabulary. While the website contains limited, education related advertising, it’s not distracting to readers.

Tabs lead users to articles about news, books, or movies. Within the news category, students can choose from science, sports, social studies, world, green, entertainment, fun, and other categories. They can also narrow by grade levels including K-3, 3-5, 3-8, and 3-5. This is useful when accessing articles that are appropriate for particular reading and interest levels. Within the book category, students can choose clubs, series, freebies, or seasonal works. Books are also organized by genre and reading level. Within the movie category, children can browse by categories such as mystery or animation.

The website also offers special features for students and teachers. Students can create their own avatar, earn badges, share articles, and write articles. Teachers can set up classroom accounts and make assignments.

The app works much the same way as the website. The easy-to-navigate app contains access to over 3,000 articles across the curriculum. Articles are categorized by grade level. Clicking on highlighted works leads to definitions and places are linked maps. Lesson plans are connected to national standards.

Librarians will find this easy-to-use resource is useful in reading activities. It’s also valuable for informational reading in the subject areas such as social studies and science.

To visit the website, go to http://www.dogonews.com/.

To download the app, go tohttps://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dogonews/id740364862.

Book Review: The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever

THE GREATEST ZOMBIE MOVIE EVER by Jeff Strand is a quirky young adult novel celebrating horror film-making.

Although Justin’s previous horror films haven’t done the greatest on YouTube, he’s hoping that his latest zombie adventure will be a hit. Unfortunately, everything doesn’t go as planned and his movie is a disaster. However with a little creativity and he’s able to turn his zombie movie into something unique.

Strand’s engaging brand of humor and many movie references will attract teens who enjoy the idea of making a movie.

Librarians will find this title appeals to a niche audience who enjoy Strand and his approach. Keep in mind that this title isn’t a zombie horror, instead it’s a friendship story about a teen’s quest to make a movie. Look for an audience among youth who like quirk humor and movies.

To learn more about the author, go to https://jeffstrand.wordpress.com/.

Published by Sourcebooks Fire on March 1, 2016. ARC courtesy of the publisher.

Website Review: Commonsense Media

COMMON SENSE MEDIA is a website providing information related to media and technology for parents and teachers. In addition to a great place for educational ratings and reviews, it’s also an effective way to keep up with the movies, games, apps, TV shows, websites, books, and music of interest to youth of particular ages.

Their K-12 Digital Citizenship Curriculum and interactive learning games are outstanding. The free materials are available as iBook textbooks or as printable lessons with online videos and interactives. Topics include internet safety, privacy and security, relationships & communication, cyberbullying, digital footprint & reputation, self-image & identity, information literacy, and creative credit & copyright. You can even download colorful posters for library displays.

Graphite is their new service that helps educators find the best apps, games, and websites for the classroom. This website is aligned with the Common Core State Standards and provides lots of tools for searching and organizing websites.

To learn more, go to COMMON SENSE MEDIA at https://www.commonsensemedia.org/.