Bringing It All Together: K-12 Education Web Portal Created for Educators and Researchers

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The Council of University of Arkansas Libraries K-12 Web Portal.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Teachers and students in the state of Arkansas now have one easy stop for education resources, thanks to a new Web portal created by the Council of University of Arkansas Research Libraries. The K-12 Education Portal Web site is designed to help Arkansas teachers and students locate and use K-12 learning resources throughout the state.

The portal contains digests grouped according to subject area, such as “economics” or “mathematics”; topics grouped according to teacher interests, such as “Arkansas school districts” and “professional development opportunities”; and topics grouped according to student interests, such as “competitions” and “reference resources.” The portal can also be searched using key words, such as “frameworks” or “lesson plans,” or by viewing an A to Z digest of sites.

Each subject category or search produces brief descriptions and links to institutes, centers, associations, agencies and nonprofit groups. Each site featured on the portal is hosted by a University of Arkansas institution or a state association, government agency, state educational institution or other organization that provides substantial information about the state. The contents of each site on the portal are summarized briefly, and select keywords are assigned so that educators, parents and students can use the “search” feature to find institutional sites that meet their interests. Most of the material described on the portal is free, but some content and continuing education offerings require fees.

Librarians and staff from the Council of University of Arkansas Libraries are available to assist researchers with their needs. The committee members can be reached via the “Contact Us” link found on the bottom of each page of the portal.

The portal is currently in trial mode, and its developers are looking for testers and their feedback. Comments and suggestions about the portal should be sent to Elizabeth Chadbourn McKee of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, or Heather L. Smith of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, or by using the “Contact Us” link found on each page of the portal. The portal can be accessed at: http://libinfo.uark.edu/cuarl/k12portal/.

Formed in 2005, the mission of Council of University of Arkansas Libraries is “to share, maintain, promote — and thereby expand — library resources and services offered to the students and faculty of the six four-year University of Arkansas institutions in order to advance learning, teaching, research, service and creativity in the state.”