WELCOME

 

Dear students, staff, parents and friends,

 

Welcome to the 1st International School of Ostrava’s Virtual Library!

 

This library has been created for the 1st ISO community based our school’s mission to develop free-thinking, informed and responsible young citizens who are inquisitive, life-long learners. Furthermore, as our school aims to develop knowledgeable, tolerant, open-minded and caring young people ready for university and life beyond, the Virtual Library can support all our efforts in the following ways:

 

It provides easy, open access for everyone to a huge collection of knowledge.

 

It enables access to resources for a variety of academic interests. Not only can you can find here general knowledge but there is a wealth of specialized resources to support learning in foreign languages, literature, the arts, biology, chemistry, physics, math and all the humanities and social sciences. The availability of these resources can stimulate growth in factual knowledge.

 

The VL was created with an international perspective in mind. Resources were chosen that encourage intercultural awareness and sensitivity. Through this portal, we can reach local and global resources that expose us to diverse ideas, experiences and opinions.

 

While many of the resources listed here are in English, special attention was paid to selecting resources available in other languages so that the varieties of mother-tongues in our community are respected and supported.

 

The VL can support the development of ethical standards by providing materials on opposing sides of controversial issues so that young citizens may develop the practice of critical reading and thinking.

 

The OWL (Online Writing Lab) resources on doing research and using the internet are important for functioning successfully in today's information and knowledge-based society. It is hoped through the OWL, the VL can develop information literacy and life-long learning skills. The OWL section contains important information and resources for student essay writing. There is also important information regarding academic honesty and how to reference using the MLA system.

 

Only resources of the highest quality have been selected for the VL. For example, because of serious concerns over the quality of Wikipedia, we do not encourage our students to use Wikipedia as a source when doing academic research. Wikipedia is appropriate only for general background knowledge. There are however, many reliable alternative online encyclopedias included here.

 

The VL “For Teachers” section provides links to methodological resources for teachers to enrich their teaching. Through the “Careers” section, there are resources to support the careers counselor and more will be added.

 

Last but not least, it is intended that the VL will stimulate the imagination and enjoyment of reading and learning thereby develop positive habits and a life-long love of reading.

 

Please note that we are also in the process of establishing a “real” library of printed materials at the school. The 1st ISO already owns a considerable amount of books and a catalogue of those items will be added to this web-site soon. However, our real library will never hold the literally millions of texts that are available on the web; and that is the wonder of the Virtual Library. And it is open 24 hours a day!

 

The Virtual Library should continuously improve and therefore any staff, parent or student assistance in its maintenance, improvement and expansion is very welcome. It is after all, our library!

 


Phil Corkill
IB Coordinator & “Virtual Librarian”

 

Access to the 1st International School of Ostrava “Virtual Library” is based on the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Freedoms, and is not subject to any form of ideological, political or religious censorship, or to commercial pressures.