Electronic Library for Minnesota

About ELM for K-12 Academic Standards

What is ELM for K-12 Academic Standards?

ELM is the Electronic Library for a Minnesota, a collection of research databases that contain millions of encyclopedia, magazine, journal, and newspaper articles; videos; audio files; primary sources; and more. This great content comes from sources you know and trust, such as Encyclopedia Britannica, Time Magazine, the New York Times, and many more.

ELM for K-12 Academic Standards matches the great content in ELM to Minnesota Academic Standards in order to present it in a very practical way to educators. Simply find the benchmark included in a curriculum or lesson plan and discover relevant content to use for class preparation or to pass along to students for homework or research projects.

ELM is paid for using state tax dollars and is brought to you by your local library or school media center, Minitex, and State Library Services, the MN state library agency, with state appropriations to the Minnesota Office of Higher Education and the Minnesota Department of Education, and federal LSTA funds under the support of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Why should I use ELM for K-12 Academic Standards?

Teachers

• Save time
  Give up on the time investment of digging through Google and the worry of verifying unfamiliar websites.
• Support classroom instruction
  Find the benchmark you're teaching to and discover articles, videos, images, and more to help you teach.
• Discover sources for students to use
  Locate and recommend age-appropriate reliable sources that cover the topics your students are researching.
• Promote information literacy and the use of trustworthy sources
  Show your students the benefits of using professionally-published sources and see how student work improves.
• Be a spring board to your school's media center
  Challenge your students to do better research by using ELM for K-12 Academic Standards as a spring board to the additional research tools purchased by your media center.

Curriculum Professionals

• Support classroom instruction
  Help your teachers find articles, videos, images, and more to help them teach.
• Recommend quality sources
  Show teachers grade-appropriate, reliable sources covering the topics their students are learning about.
• Save your teachers' time
  Help your teachers to spend more time with students and less time verifying unfamiliar online sources.
• Promote information literacy and the use of trustworthy sources
  See how using professionally published sources leads to improved student work and prepares students for college research.
• Be a bridge between the classroom and the media center
  Open up a world of possibilities to students by helping make the connection between ELM for K-12 Academic Standards and the additional research tools purchased by your media center.

Media Specialists

• Align library content to the classroom
  Get library material into the flow of classroom teaching and learning.
• Build value recognition with teachers
  Reaffirm the library as a tool that makes research and learning easier.
• Save your teachers' time
  Present reliable content to help teachers prepare for class, instruct during class, and assist their students with research.

What databases are included in ELM for K-12 Academic Standards?

ELM for K-12 Academic Standards represents a collaboration between Minitex, the organization that manages ELM, and the companies that contribute databases to the ELM collection. The following databases are included within ELM for K-12 Academic Standards:

• Student Resources in Context – This database from Gale/Cengage is created for middle and high school students and contains encyclopedia, magazine, newspaper, and scholarly journal articles along with video, audio, primary source material, and more.
• Student Research Center – This middle and high school database from EBSCO contains encyclopedia, magazine, newspaper, and scholarly journal articles along with video, audio, primary source material, and more.
• Academic Search Premier – This database from EBSCO contains thousands of scholarly and peer-reviewed journals. It is created for college students and researchers, and may be useful to high school students.
• Science Reference Center – This EBSCO database contains science-related encyclopedias, magazines, journals, images, videos, and more. It is made for middle and high school students.
• Encyclopedia Britannica Middle School – This database from Britannica includes the extensive full text of Compton's Encyclopedia along with video, audio, primary source material, and more.
• Encyclopedia Britannica Elementary School – This database from Britannica includes the Elementary Encyclopedia plus video, audio, interactive materials, and more.
• Searchasaurus – This elementary school database from EBSCO contains magazines, encyclopedias, and images.

Minitex thanks these companies for their cooperation.

What Academic Standards are included?

ELM for K-12 Academic Standards is built around Minnesota Academic Standards and relies on our database company partners to make the connection between those standards and their content. Minnesota Academic Standards currently used:

• Common Core English Language Arts 6-12, adopted 2010
• Language Arts K-12, adopted 2003
• Science K-12, adopted 2009
• History and Social Studies K-12, adopted 2004

More information on Minnesota Academic Standards is available via the Minnesota Department of Education.