Learning through Books, Media and Technology

ARTICLES THIS ISSUE:

1996 Administrative Leadership Award for Library Media Services

1996 President's Award Winner

1996 Technology Award

Editorial: Learning Comes in Many Languages

From Cave Writing to Computers

A Theme's the Thing

Primary Languages, Primary sources on the Internet

Update on a Model Library Media Program

Limited? There Are No Limits

A Bilingual Student Population

Cooking Their Way to Literacy

Good Ideas! Home Page

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Primary Languages, Primary sources on the Internet

Chico High School

This Finnish student is reading her hometown newspaper in Finnish and Swedish over the Internet.

While many speakers of languages other than English are native to the United States, most can quickly trace their roots to another country. In an intuitive, creative, and happily replicable service to speakers of other languages, Peter Milbury of Chico High School has connected these students directly with their roots-through the Internet.

Peter has long been a strong advocate of computer technology in the library, and as co-owner of LM_Net, he put his expertise right to work for his students. Peter set up a World Wide Web page for library research, accessible through any of the 20 computer terminals in the library media center. Students are guided through the chaos and maze of the World Wide Web by the Chico High School Helpful Bookmarks pages, which include distinct sections such as African American Links, American Indian Links, Latino Links, Asian Links, English as a Second Language, and Foreign Languages, plus a news and media section with links to online, full-text newspapers from around the globe. Not only does this provide a unique service to speakers of other languages, but it creates an immediate and dramatic global perspective for all students.

The Internet is a primary source of information for many of the collaborative units in Chico High School's library media center. Over the past two years, for example, Peter and a social studies teacher developed a comprehensive unit on twentieth-century American conflicts for eleventh grade students. In addition to targeting existing print and CD-ROM resources, Peter created a special section for the atlas on the Library World Wide Web Page menu with over 100 links to related resources, providing a variety of national perspectives.

Chico High's library media center reflects its global perspective. Walls are decorated with posters representing a variety of people and places, and computers are tuned in to the world.

• Chico High School (Grades 9-12; enrollment 1,650)
  901 The Esplanade, Chico 95926; (916) 345-3308
  Roger Williams, Principal
  Peter Milbury, Library Media Teacher
  Chico Unified School District