If you’re working from home, starting a business, writing a book, doing research, etc. there may be a database or information network you can access that saves you hours of time and bundles of money.
Here’s one…
From Maine Today
“A lot of people had never even heard of it,” said Sylvia Jadczak, Messalonskee High School’s library director. “It’s underused. Kids in high school know how to use it, but the public isn’t aware of it, for the most part, including teachers.”
Jadczak is talking about MARVEL, an acronym for Maine’s Virtual Library, an online database portal run by the Maine State Library. MARVEL is available not just to schools and public libraries, but to the community as well.
Few people know about the free research database, the contents of which would have cost the school $16,800 to amass on its own, according to data on the MARVEL Web site.
It boasts an array of free information, including many that would otherwise cost money on the street: Time magazine articles, for example.
“It has equalized information for everyone,” Jadczak said. “Even if you have no Internet at home, you can get this at libraries and schools.”
Just type www.maine.gov/marvel into the Internet browsers. First-time home users will need to register a user name and password, but the service is free.
From there, what Jadczak says amounts to thousands of magazines, newspapers and reference sources will show up, including encyclopedias segmented into high-school, middle-school, and elementary-school learning levels.
Research topics are divided into arts and culture; business; dictionaries and encyclopedia; environment and ecology; health; history; literature; politics and government; science and technology; and social sciences.
It’s not just for students. There are health resources on the database, tailored differently for consumers and practitioners. There’s Business Week magazine, the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and less well-known titles like Wood Digest and African Art.
No comments yet.