After a nice summer vacation, some students may dread the thought of heading back to school. But the Tennessee Electronic Library can help make the transition easier, officials said.
The Tennessee Electronic Library (www.tntel.info) makes available at no cost an extensive collection of online educational materials to help make returning to the classroom a less daunting experience.
The Tennessee Electronic Library (TEL) provides an Internet link to databases that provide access to a variety of materials on various subjects.
Students who are working on research for classroom assignments can tap into TEL to find a huge selection of newspapers, news magazines and scholarly journals containing information about current events, economics, education, environmental issues, health care, literature, art, politics, social science, technology and more.
For younger children, TEL offers the Kids InfoBits database, which is specifically designed for students in kindergarten through fifth grade. This database offers age-appropriate content and visual graphics.
TEL also offers the LearningExpress Library, a database with practice tests for high school students who are planning to take the SAT or ACT and tutorials for students in fourth grade and up who want to improve their math, reading comprehension or writing skills.
For teachers, TEL has a number of collections, including Educators Reference Complete, Educators 200 and Professional Collection.
TEL, which is a free resource available to all Tennesseans, is administered by the Tennessee State Library and Archives, a division of the Tennessee Department of State. The Tennessee Electronic Library is funded by the state, the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services and through pledges made by libraries throughout Tennessee.