Web Site of the Month: Highlander Way Middle School Library
By Walter Minkel -- School Library Journal, 3/1/2004
Jeff Hastings (hastingj@HowellSchools.com), a librarian at Highlander Way Middle School (HWMS) in Howell, MI, built his school library's site in 48 hours to impress a panel of judges that visited Howell in 1996–1997 to determine if HWMS was an "exemplary" state school. HWMS earned the honor, and although Hastings is not sure whether his "instant" Web site had anything to do with it, he has kept at it, maintaining an eye-catching, informative site.
"Information choices": Hastings has designed the site to help students make what he calls good "information choices." What are the best tools, whether in print or online, to provide them with the information they need? Hastings values subscription databases, so he features links to Grolier Online and SIRS Discoverer, as well as free sites like the local newspaper.
Google–free zone: By instituting a "no open Web search" policy, Hastings discourages students from jumping immediately to Google. He teaches them to check the databases and recommended Web sites instead and has broken many of their Google habits. That way, Hastings says, "our library research projects incorporate only the best sources, no matter how they are delivered."
