BadgerLink Resources for Schools

During this time of school and library closures, the BadgerLink team would like to highlight resources that are most applicable to you as a user. BadgerLink’s 50 online resources are available to you 24/7 from home with your public library card or school barcode. Please contact us to set up a school login if your school is not listed on the login page.

Would you like help using these resources? Are you interested in learning about other BadgerLink topics? Let us know!

Here are some of the best BadgerLink resources for schools:

Britannica School

Encyclopedia articles with images, maps, games, and other learning materials for K-12 students and their educators.

• Every article and image has a citation.

• Accessibility features include:

  • Double-click on a word for definitions, pronunciations, and Spanish translation.
  • Switch between levels to find the appropriately difficult article​.

  • Ability to increase text size.

Explora for Elementary Schools, Explora for Middle & High Schools, Explora Educator's Edition

Search interface for EBSCO's general information resources.

• Searches multiple EBSCO resources at a time, broken out by grade level.
• Browse by Arts & Literature, Biography, Business & Careers, Current Events, Geography & Culture, Health, History & Social Science, and Science & Math.
• Full-text articles are searchable by reading level indicator (Lexile).

• Accessibility features include: Text to speech, Transcripts for audio and video, Alternate text – page titles and image descriptions, ARIA landmarks for screenreaders, Access keys for keyboard navigation, and EPUB ebook format.

LearningExpress Library School Center

Skill-building resources for classroom and homework success.

• Improve math, reading, grammar, spelling, science, logic, and geography skills

• Prepare for high school entrance exams

Middle Search Plus

Magazine and primary sources suitable for middle school students.

• More than 170 popular middle school magazines, including Sports Illustrated Kids, Scholastic News, National Geographic.
• More than 55,000 primary source documents.
• Full-text articles are searchable by reading level indicator (Lexile)​.

• Accessibility features include: Text to speech, Transcripts for audio and video, Alternate text – page titles and image descriptions, ARIA landmarks for screenreaders, Access keys for keyboard navigation, and EPUB ebook format.

NoveList K-8

Children's fiction recommendation resource with read-alikes, discussion guides, reading lists, and more.

• Search for books by keyword and reading level (Lexile).
• Includes book recommendations created by book experts.
• Search by terms of appeal like style and mood.

• Accessibility features include: Text to speech, Transcripts for audio and video, Alternate text – page titles and image descriptions, ARIA landmarks for screenreaders, Access keys for keyboard navigation, and EPUB ebook format.

Primary Search

Full-text magazines for elementary school.

• Contains nearly 100 full-text popular children's magazines.
• Includes the Encyclopedia of Animals, Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, and American Heritage Children's Dictionary.
• Full-text articles are searchable by reading level indicator (Lexile). ​

• Accessibility features include: Text to speech, Transcripts for audio and video, Alternate text – page titles and image descriptions, ARIA landmarks for screenreaders, Access keys for keyboard navigation, and EPUB ebook format.

TeachingBooks

An engaging collection of resources that brings books to life.

• Gain new insights and understanding from award-winning authors.
• Reinforce cultural authenticity and perspectives with diverse books.
• Find author interviews, lesson plans & interactive activities, discussion guides, and more to support literacy instruction.

• Accessibility features include:

  • Accessibility for those who cannot use audio resources.
  • Highlighting of the spoken word — students can now visually follow along.
  • Google Translate of the copy for more than 100 languages — creating accessibility for non-English speaking patrons.
  • Audio anchoring — activate the audio and highlighting from any location of the recording.

  • Transcripts for printing, previewing, and research — with MLA 8 citation.

U.S. Newsstream

U.S. news, current and archival to 1980s.

• Featuring key national and regional sources including The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Newsday, and Chicago Tribune as well as over 80 Gannett titles.
• Daily updates and same day publication access to over 250 titles.
• Includes newswires, news journals, television and radio transcripts, blogs, podcasts, and digital-only websites.

• Accessibility features include:

  • Ability to narrow searches by date, multiple fields, and document types
  • Spell check
  • Abstracts for every newspaper article
  • On demand article translation in 13 different languages
  • Multilingual interface (18 languages available)
  • Text-to-speech capability

  • OpenURL compliancy

Resources from trusted partners:

PBS Wisconsin Education

Educational videos, images, sound files, and animations spanning all curricular areas.

• Innovative, cost-free multimedia resources including videos, student interactives, eBooks, sound files and a new Wisconsin historical inquiry adventure game.
• Gateway to PBS LearningMedia and PBS NEWSHOUR Student Reporting Labs.

• Award-winning classroom resources connect to Wisconsin's academic standards.