September 22, 2016
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Robyn Truslow
410-535-0291
Students in the Calvert County Public School system went back to school with an extra bonus this year. In a brilliant partnership, Calvert Library and Calvert County Public Schools have given every student a special library card. They are calling the card a CRAB card… “C” for Calvert, “R” for Research, “A” for Access and “B” for Books.
It isn’t a physical card so there is nothing to lose. Students can check out up to five print items at a time and no fines will be attached to the account. They just need to know their student lunch number and stick CALV at the front of it. Best of all, and the motivation for the school system to enthusiastically embrace this offer, students will have access from home or school to the library’s many online resources. Those include online tutoring and homework help, research databases, technology courses, newspaper archives, testing practice, language lessons and of course for fun, downloadable ebooks, audiobooks, movies, music, comics and TV shows.
Library staff made presentations to many teachers during the orientation week before school started and there was a lot of enthusiasm about this new access to library resources. A number of schools will be getting devices for individual students to use and ideas were already flying; how the whole class could check out the same book from Hoopla and read together; how teachers could encourage students to submit their papers to the online writing lab first so they would have a more polished paper to hand in; how a class could learn how to do history fair research in a variety of databases with each individual researching their own selected topic. One teacher asked for extra Brainfuse bookmarks (online tutoring service available through the library) to be able to share with parents. One teacher/parent was thrilled to find out there was online math tutoring for her high schooler!
Calvert Library Director Carrie Plymire said of the partnership, “Libraries are all about access to learning. We want every student, every child to be able to use the library. The CRAB Card makes it accessible even to those families who aren’t able to get to the library every three weeks to get their books back on time. Whether it’s complicated transportation or complicated family schedule, we don’t want anything to stop kids from accessing the important resources the library offers. We are thrilled that Dr. Curry and Technology Integration Teacher Specialist Jen Sturge partnered with us to create a CRAB card for every CCPS student.”
This new partnership takes advantage of economies of scale…the library subscribes to numerous resources for the community and their subscriptions are based on population served so Calvert County students are already included in that number. With their CRAB card, students will be able to use valuable resources like Lynda.com, HelpNow! Powered by Brainfuse, online encyclopedias, TumbleBooks, testing practice resources, CQ Researcher, Newspaper Archive, Washington Post, Gale Virtual Reference Library and African-American History Online.
Parents probably noticed the new paperwork this year for technology in the schools. More and more, academic resources are accessed online so learning how to access, evaluate and use information this way becomes ever more critical. Calvert students’ new CRAB cards will give them lots of opportunity to hone these skills.
Calvert Library is including homeschoolers, private schoolers or even pre-schoolers in this bonus as well. These students under the age of 18 can obtain physical cards with the same parameters (5 checkouts of print material without fines, access to all digital resources) at any Calvert Library location. Just ask for a CRAB Card. Plymire believes that “all children should have access to information, education and opportunity and that’s what we’re offering at Calvert Library.”
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Robyn Truslow
Public Relations Coordinator
Calvert Library
850 Costley Way
Prince Frederick, MD 20678
410-535-0291
410-535-3022 (fax)
Calvert Library…Your Source for Awesome!
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