Friday, June 13, 2008

ALSC Expands 'Great Web Sites for Kids'

By SLJ Staff -- School Library Journal, 6/13/2008

The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) has added several Web sites to
Great Web Sites for Kids, its online resource of hundreds of links to commendable Web sites for children.

Great Web Sites for Kids features links to valuable Web sites, organized by subject headings such as animals; literature and languages; mathematics and computers; the arts; and history and biography. There is also a special section with sites of interest to parents, caregivers, and teachers and an area devoted to sites in Spanish. The ALSC Great Web Sites for Kids Committee maintains and updates the site.


“This spring, committee members reviewed approximately 100 Web sites for children aged birth to 14, in search of sites that are outstanding in content and conception,” says Karen Lemmons, cochair of the committee and a library media specialist at Howe Elementary School in Detroit. To qualify for Great Web sites for Kids, a site is put through a “rigorous evaluation and voting process by the committee before being deemed ‘great’ and added to the GWS page.”

ALSC’s Committee voted to add the following sites in spring 2008:
All Safe Sites
Amazing Space
Bnetsavvy
Debra Frasier
EMuseum at Minnesota State University
Ethan’s Bookshelf
FBI for Kids
Fun – Family Fun & Entertainment
Gymnasium for the Brain
Johnnie's Math Page
Kids Know It Network
Mary Jo Rhodes
Ology
TeachPeaceNow
Webrangers
The World of VictorYoung Adult (& Kids) Books Central

Members of the 2008 Great Web Sites for Kids Committee are: Lemmons; Becki Bishop, co-chair, Campbell Court Elementary School, Bassett, VA.; Amy Brown, Worthington Libraries, Columbus, OH; Robin Gibson, Granville, OH; Diana McFarland, Brunswick, ME; Carla Morris, Provo City (Utah) Library; Marilyn Sobotincic, Medina County (Ohio) District Library; Terrell Young, Washington State University, Richland.

The complete listing of great sites and selection criteria can be found at
www.ala.org/greatsites