hough the AK State Library has provided access to Novelist for many years, it took hearing an enthusiastic presention from Lisa Dennis of EBSCO to rekindle my interest in using and promoting Novelist K-8 at my elementary school! Three Ways to Find Books! The opening page of Novelist contains 1) a standard search box, 2) a sidebar of popular reading genre lists and 3) a “recommended reads” selection of current popular items so the user can decide how to start looking for books. (The popular titles are selected based on the retail books sales of the Baker & Taylor book company.) This was so appealing to my classes that I have already requested inter-library loans of highlighted titles!
More About the Search Box! When searching for specific authors, titles and series a sidebar of recommended reading is automatically is generated. After an author search a list of nine similar authors is generated, after a title search a list of nine similar titles is generated and after a series search a list of nine similar series is generated – print this list to give to your patrons! Hover your mouse over the book covers to get more information or click on the magnifying glass to read more about the authors and series.
Appeal Factors! For some readers, author/title/series access to books is not enough, so Novelist categorizes each book on Storyline, Pace and Tone and Writing Style. Search for “funny”, “gruesome”, or “action-packed” reading.
Anchorage School District is linked to Novelist so users know right away if a title is available to them, although an additional search of the OPAC is necessary to indentify the school collection that owns it.
