Senator Grassley Visits DC-G Middle School

On Thursday, January 19, 2012, Senator Charles Grassley visited DC-G Middle School--speaking to students in the library--as part of his 99-county swing through Iowa. Students asked questions they had prepared in advance. Senator Grassley shared his personal stories of entering Iowa and national politics. He also spoke on a variety of topics, such as the Internet anti-piracy bill, education, and bullying. To read the article about Senator Grassley's visit as it appeared at The Iowa Republican online, click here. To see the full video of the Senator's remarks, click here.

Senator Grassley with library associate Ms. Fitzpatrick, left, and with teacher librarian Mrs. Ellis, right. Click on the QuickTime movie below to view additional photographs from the event.

Nonfiction EBooks

Through the AEA, teachers and students can access free, online nonfiction eBooks here. The books focus primarily on science and geography, and the collection includes biographies as well. The books are NOT downloadable. They are available 24/7 with unlimited/simultaneous use. No special ereader is required. Any portable device or computer with Internet access can be used, including iPads.

To access the ebook collection, you will need to use the same AEA online database username and password you use to sign in to EBSCO, CultureGrams, iClipArt, etc.

Free EBook Websites

Looking to read an eBook? Try these online sources for free titles:

The Open Library includes more than one million free ebook titles. The ebooks can be read online, downloaded to your computer, and read on a Kindle or other ereader devices. Some of the books are also available as audio books.

ManyBooks.net is a service that has more than 29,000 free eBooks that are available in a variety of formats. The books here are either in the public domain or have been licensed for free distribution. You can search by title, author, genre, or language.

Planet eBook is a free service where teachers and students can find classic literature titles available as free downloads. Planet eBook offers previews of titles, which allows students to get an overview of the book without committing to downloading the entire book.

20th Century War Books

Students in 7th grade social studies have a variety of books to choose from as they work on a 20th century wars unit. Be sure to check back often; titles will change as students check out and return books.

Christopher Columbus Primary Sources Online Searching

Students in 8th grade social studies classes are researching Christopher Columbus and using primary source documents, among other sources, to evaluate his actions as heroic or not. Mr. Rankin's and Mrs. Wright's classes visited the library for a quick lesson related to using netTrekker, Student Research Center, and Britannica Online to search for valid, reliable, accurate, and up-to-date information.

We had a successful book fair and were able to purchase

many new titles for the library. Look for the new items in the

New Books display in the fiction section.

Happy reading!

Iowa Teen Book Award Nominees 2011-2012

This year's nominees are below, and you can access a Prezi presentation related to the titles:

Want to see what others say about the nominated books? Click here to see student book talks for this year's ITA books.