Links Beyond SABES

Instructional and Professional Development Materials
Internet Tutorials/Web Design Guides
Library Matters
Media Literacy/Web Literacy
Organizations

Instructional and Professional Development Materials

Civic Participation and Community Action Sourcebook
Developed by New England literacy practitioners, this extensive guidebook provides rationales, methods and activities for actively engaging adult learners in the development and political processes of their local communities.

GED Math Practice Program
In his copious free time, Alan Tubman, a Massachusetts adult literacy practitioner, writes shareware software programs. Connect and ye shall find....

Health and Literacy Compendium
Completed in early 1999, this online "reference book" consists of 100 well-annotated bibliographic entries covering print and electronic health education resources. Along with embedded Web links, the compendium is cross-indexed by subject, format, language and reading level.

Journals on the Web: A Mini-Guide
Created by the now defunct ERIC ACVE Clearinghouse, this page provides a handy, hypertext-linked list of education-related journals. Some of the publications offer only a table of contents, but several provide full-text electronic versions of their articles.

Teachers Web Page
An archival set of documents buried within USDOE's site, with the primary subject of professional development. The material consists of sundry reports, studies, and so forth.

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Internet Tutorials/Web Design Guides

Internet 101
Numerous Internet guides and tutorials may be found online, but this particular one is pleasantly-designed, even with the annoying banner and pop-up ads.

The Top 15 Mistakes of First-Time Web Design
A blessedly-short, pleasantly-humorous gloss on the temptations to avoid upon plunging into Web resource creation.

W3C: Getting Started with HTML
From the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the governing body for Web technical protocols, comes this clear, accessible intro to the world of Hypertext Markup Language.

Web Design Group
A fairly comprehensive yet down-to-earth aid, with the stated hope "that with this site as a reference, you will be able to create Web sites that can be used by every person on the Internet, regardless of browser, platform or settings."

Web Style Guide
One of the best-written, best-organized Web design guides originally was hatched at Yale's Center for Advanced Instructional Media and has now been updated in this second edition (2002). Whether you want to produce a single Web document or an entire site, this extensive resource is invaluable.

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Library Matters

ALA Copyright Issues
From the fine folks at the American Library Association comes a basic intro to the sometimes confusing, always changing world of copyright and its sundry subparts: Registration, Fair Use, Electronic Publications and so forth.

ALA/RUSA Best Free Reference Web Sites 1999–2006
An annotated guide to well over 100 highly useful and just plain cool reference sites, covering dictionaries, directories, quotations, statistics, and beyond.

Alternative Press Index
Looking for the guide to all those small, funky, quirky, definitely-not-mainstream publications? Here it is, complete with annotations, ordering information and online links.

Current Cites
If you have a passion for keeping abreast of the library and information science literature, this site will provide considerable measure of satisfaction.

Finding Information on the Internet: A Tutorial
The fine folks at Berkeley's Library drew up a succinct set of "finding aids" for souls launching themselves into online waters.

NoodleTools
Debbie Abilock, California school librarian par excellence, is the person behind this site which nicely combines bibliographic instruction and electronic "ready reference" tools.

Virtual Reference Shelf
The staff at the Library of Congress have put together a very clean, comprehensive index of basic reference tools. If you have time for only one reference visit, make it here.

WorldCat
Basically, a national library catalog. Search for an item, plug in your ZIP code, and you'll get a list of nearby libraries holding that title. Very, very handy.

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Media Literacy/Web Literacy

Critical Thinking in an Online World
A 1996 conference paper written by Debra Jones, Internet Librarian at Cabrillo College, which provides a good philosophical/theoretical starting point for making sense of the electronic domain.

The Internet: Window to the World or Hall of Mirrors?
A constructively-critical three-page article by Jack Solock, a special librarian, which appeared in the online newsletter, InterNIC News.

Internet Evaluation Crib Sheet
Drawn up by D. Scott Brandt, a Purdue University librarian, this handy two-page checklist helps clarify the overall merit of any given online resource.

Center for Media Literacy
From a California nonprofit comes a truly extensive set of links on media literacy issues, including articles, bibliographies and professional development resources.

Testing the Surf: Criteria for Evaluating Internet Information Resources
From Down Under, this 10-to-12 page guide provides a bit more depth and detail than the crib sheet above on the vagaries of Web materials and, as a bonus, contains an extensive, if dated (1992-97), bibliography.

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Organizations

Anywhere, Anytime ABE
The archival site for Massachusetts' ABE distance learning research project, in which four programs from across the state assessed the protocols, practices, and supports needed to make distance learning successful. The key report: What Makes Distance Learning Effective.

Community Partnerships for Adult Learning
The federal Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE) provides a well-designed, content-rich guide to fostering collaboration among social service providers, with annotated links to research articles and websites covering professional development and program management.

Dave's ESL Cafe
Although catering primarily to the K-12 ESL field, the greatest virtue of this site derives from the ease with which teachers and learners have chances to communicate online. Two features which have ready applicability for the adult ESL program: the ESL Idiom Page and the ESL Cafe Bookstore.

Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC)
One of the truly great resource troves for the education field, the ERIC system of 26 clearinghouses was shut down in December 2003, to be reconfigured as a database-driven single site. One other handy ERIC resource, the Test Locator, no longer exists, but its function has been replicated in two other sites: ETS' TestLink and the Buros Institute's Test Reviews Online.

Employment and Training Administration (ETA)
If "workforce development" is your mantra, this US Department of Labor site is definitely a place to stop, as it offers various and sundry factsheets, profiles, contacts and all the SCANS reports you'll ever need.

English as a Second Language
Maintained by Rong-chang Li, a linguist and software developer, this site provides a simple gateway to websites of possible interest to intermediate and advanced ESL learners and their teachers.

ESL Lesson Plans and Resources
Basically a meta-site (or pointer list) which connects you to nearly two-dozen sites chock full of lesson plans for your perusal, complemented by links to sundry ESL/ESOL organizations and associations.

Literacy Assistance Center (LAC)
A sister organization to SABES, the LAC provides training and technical assistance to adult literacy programs across New York City. Their website provides full-text selections from their monthly newsletter, Literacy Update, and annual journal, Literacy Harvest, along with numerous lesson plans.

Literacy Information and Communication System (LINCS)
Funded by the National Institute for Literacy (NIFL), this site offers a rather bewildering array of search avenues. If in a hurry, check out two handy, concise subsections: Facts and Statistics and State and Local Directories.

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Literacy Resources/Rhode Island
From one of the coolest, not to mention smallest, State Literacy Resource Centers around, some handy electronic compilations are ready for your perusal: Adult Education Teacher Inquiry Projects and Related Research Resources and a Learner's Page.

LITERACY.org
The University of Pennsylvania hosts two notable literacy organizations: the National Center on Adult Literacy (NCAL) and the International Literacy Institute (ILI), which together have produced an impressive set of full-text research reports.

Literacy Tech
Managed by Jeff Carter, a former NELRC/World Education staff member and currently director of DC Learns, this site focuses on practitioner- and learner-generated approaches to technology use in adult literacy programs. Two sections of interest: an introduction to technology integration and a guide to undertaking Web publishing projects.

Massachusetts Coalition for Adult Education (MCAE)
Home of the advocacy group for adult literacy practitioners in the state, this site offers news and announcements, info about the annual statewide conference and an excellent, always timely curriculum, Your Government, Your Taxes, Your Choices.

Massachusetts Department of Education, Adult and Community Learning Services
The Massachusetts DOE is providing a steadily-increasing number of full-text documents online, so if you'd like all the latest words on Curriculum Frameworks or Education Reform or the musings of the Board of Education, select-and-print to your heart's content. The site also contains a slick database offering Community Needs and Assets Profiles.

Massachusetts Library and Information Network (MLIN)
This site allows you to search the online library catalogs of many Massachusetts public and academic libraries. Holders of Massachusetts library cards may access several journal databases. You'll also find a section covering library-based literacy programs.

NRS Online
Here it is: the home base for the National Reporting System (NRS), the performance and accountability framework adult literacy workers have come to know and know fondly.

National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL)
For ten years (1996–2006), NCSALL served as the national research center for adult literacy. In addition to general information on their field-driven research projects, this archival site provides a truly impressive array of NCSALL publications.

National College Transition Network (NCTN)
If helping ABE learners go on to college is one of your program's goals, this site is a truly comprehensive "how to" outline, with helpful sections addressing counseling resources and curriculum and instruction issues.

New England Literacy Resource Center (NELRC)
Supported by the Departments of Education in the six New England states, NELRC helps foster innovative program development initiatives across the region. The site describes many of those projects and offers a number of field-developed publications, including The Change Agent, a classroom-focused newspaper, and the Civic Participation and Community Action Sourcebook.

Pro-Net 2000
Funded by the Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE), this project is devoted to researching, documenting and supporting effective professional development practices in adult literacy. The online publications include detailed competencies for teachers and program directors.

US Department of Education
Besides allowing you to wander forever in the electronic halls of a federal agency (which does have a certain entertainment value), this site also provides some original content of use to practitioners, most especially on the Teachers' Web Page.

WE LEARN
The site's full name: "Women Expanding / Literacy Education Action Resource Network." The site's mindful, heart-filled purpose: to address women-centered literacy issues from a number of different angles, complemented by an extensive resource list.

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