Internet Public Library Expands

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Lauren Barack -- School Library Journal, 9/18/2007 1:30:00 PM

The Internet Public Library (IPL), an online resource site aimed at students of all ages, is getting an overhaul meant to broaden its current services into a virtual learning lab for both media specialists and scholars.

Drexel University, the University of Michigan, and Florida State University will oversee IPL’s upgrade aided by $600,000 in grant funding from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services’ Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program, which will continue through June 2010. New features are to include digital reference courses, an online learning community, and other resources.

IPL, which launched in 1995, has been hosted by Drexel University’s College of Information Science and Technology since January 2007. While its home page is a fairly simple site offering access to online collections, almanacs, and other straightforward resources, K–12 students can click through to IPL’s KidSpace and TeenSpace. There they’ll find a treasure trove of links from a Teen Poetry Wiki to the Everyday Mysteries page created by the Library of Congress, where children can learn why their parents’ hair is turning grey. (And no, it’s not because of the cell phone bill.)

“The IPL is a valuable public resource and teaching tool,” says Eileen Abels, a professor at Drexel’s College of Information Science and Technology who will work on the project. “The IMLS grant means that more library and information science students will receive hands-on digital library experience and more faculty members will be able to collaborate on new projects in the area of digital reference.”