What's the Latest in Technology?

If you happened to miss the recent American Library Association's midwinter meeting, here's some interesting—but untested—new technology seen in the New Orleans Convention Center's exhibition hall.

LeapFrog SchoolHouse(www.leapfrogschoolhouse.com) has introduced LeapTrack, a program that uses the company's LeapPad Learning System (reviewed January 2002, p. 27) to assess progress in reading, math, and other subjects in grades K–5. The software helps students track the skills they need to improve and then designs a "learning path," which helps students master the skills needed to pass statewide exams.

NetTrekker by Thinkronize (www.thinkronize.com) is a searchable database of more than 160,000 Web sites selected by educators. The product is designed for teachers and librarians who need to identify Web sites by grade level, topic (math and social studies, for example), and statewide curriculum standards.

Gale Group's Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center (www.galegroup.com), which will be launched later this year, is designed to help high school students research position statements on controversial topics such as abortion. The database will track down pertinent periodical articles, statistics, and recommended Web sites.

The Virtual Reference Toolkit (VRT), from LSSI, enables patrons to visit a library Web site and ask librarians questions or share a problem with them onscreen. The software enables librarians to control the visitor's browser to demonstrate, for example, how to use a search tool or how to find information in the library's subscription databases. For a demo, visit www.lssi.com/vrt.

TLC CARL (www.tlccarl.com) has released SchoolLibrary •Solution, the company's first automation system software for grades K–12. Designed for school districts that process their books centrally, the software includes "YouSeeMore," an online portal that aims to make library catalogs a lot more like Amazon.com.