At the start of the 2018/2019 school year, BCPS students had automatic access to the Baltimore County Public Library databases through the BCPL student public library accounts with BCPS schools. While many of our students already had library cards and used this account to check out books, many were not accustomed to or experienced in using the many databases that the public library has to offer. This may be because their classroom teachers and librarians had not been offering direct instruction that incorporated these databases, since it would be highly likely that many students in the class would not have an account, making the instruction meaningless to them. With these automated student accounts newly created, teachers and librarians could now proceed in providing direct instruction using these databases, knowing that all of the students in their classes will have accounts. Turning this corner in our partnership has allowed me to move forward in marketing and infusing the wide array of incredible tools that are now available to all our students.

At the start of the 2019/2020 school, I placed personalized labels on student devices during the device distribution process. These computer-friendly, removable labels had the student's name, username and password for their BCPL student account in a easily seen location on their computer, making access to their account even easier. Students without these labels can easily access their BCPS ID number (which serves as their username) by logging into BCPSOne and going to Naviance. Their BCPS student ID number is located on their profile page. The password for all students is 0000. Here are just some examples of how the BCPL and BCPS partnership has played out at Pikesville High School in recent classes so far this year:

English 11

Students used Literature Resource Center to conduct research on any topic that in some way relates to the novel The Great Gatsby. This database offers, “Full-text biographies of American, English and world authors and literary criticism of their works through scholarly journals, literary magazines, critical essays and other resources.” (bcpl.info) Using this database, students were able to locate scholarly papers and criticisms that fueled the arguments for their papers. Students were able to cite and organize information easily using Noodletools, an instructional tool offered by BCPS.

AVID 9

Students in AVID 9 used Testing and Education Reference Center or TERC for career research. This database does require students to set up individual accounts, since there are tools built in that will save their progress on practice tests. TERC includes practice tests for exams such as the SAT, ACT and AP exams. It also has practice tests for all sorts of occupational licensing. Students in the AVID 9 class chose the “career assessment” to get personalized results on potential career interests and then clicked on the built in database to research the career. Their objective was to, “gather relevant information from digital sources in order to complete research related to their future career choice.” Students then went on to write a full research paper using the information they found.

Homeland Security and Interactive Media Production

Students in both completer programs at PHS were able to use Lynda.com for online tutorials. Students in Interactive Media Production or IMP used Tonal Correction Premier Pro to edit images and students in the Homeland Security Program were able to access courses on cyber security. There are hundreds of self-paced online tutorials available through Lynda.com. There is no separate account needed to access this tool, however students do need to enter their library credentials again once they have selected Lynda from the database options.

AP Seminar

Students in AP Seminar access Brainfuse, another BCPL database, to use the Writing Lab feature. Using this tool, students can upload a writing sample and receive feedback from a professional on their writing within 24 hours. The feedback includes comments on several areas of writing including citation, grammar and organization. Students will need to set up a separate account for this tool, like TERC. However no personal identifiable information is required.

Hands-on Support

In addition to the virtual resources provided by our partnership with BCPL, the staff is supportive and attends on site events at our school on an average of twice per year. This usually occurs for our school-wide events such as, Back to School Night or Curriculum Night. On these occasions, the staff have provided marketing materials and hands on learning experiences with activities such as button-making or drone-flying.