Welcome to the Archdiocesan Elementary Libraries Page

The links below are for use by elementary students and staff of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.The Archdiocese has paid for these subscriptions on a Diocesan wide basis. They are reliable and authoratative databases, designed to help make our students information literate at an earlier age.

 Your school librarian should have the passwords for the all databases.  The user name is patron.  If you don't have the passwords and teach at an elementary school in the Archdiocese,please contact Charmaine Gates.

Attached to this page are file folders marked Getting started... which have helpful information about the databases listed below including  a video for each as well as tutorial links if applicable.  If you would like live training, please make arrangements with Charmaine Gates at Archbishop John Carroll High School

Gale Virtual Reference Library 

Use this link to get to reference books online. It includes the entire collection of Scribner's Authors and also Encyclopedia of World Biography  as well as the Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 

Noodletools:

A powerful note-taking software that promotes critical thinking and creativity combined with the most comprehensive and accurate bibliography composer on the Web. MLA, APA, and Chicago/Turabian styles. This is available for all grades to reinforce such concepts as paraphrasing and avoiding plagiarism while maintaining academic honesty and integrity.

    SIRS Decades  

This database  features nearly 5,000 hand-selected primary and secondary source articles
highlighting key events, movements, people, and places in 20th-century America. Coverage includes
documents, letters/memos, editorial cartoons, streaming video, websites, photographs, maps, advertisements,
and published articles.

SIRS Discoverer:

A beginning database suitable for use with grades 3-9. This site includes lesson plans, lexile levels for differentiated learning and an array of other teacher tools designed to help beginning researchers find authoritative sources at their own level. it also includes reference sources such as an almanac and Compton's Encyclopedia.