September 19, 2023

Obtain the unique link for your institution!

School and Public Libraries - Use the Links Generator

PASSHE and Community Colleges - Contact Support

This multilingual family history research database includes billions of historical documents from 48 countries, millions of historical photos, public records, indexes, and additional resources that span the past five centuries.

Content Includes: 

• More than 19.4 billion historical ​records from all over the world
• The U.S. federal census (1790-1950) with images
• The U.K. census (1841-1901) with images​
• Nearly 5 billion exclusive family tree profiles from MyHeritage and Geni
• More than 816 million US public records
• Hundreds of millions of Nordic records
• More than 100 million gravestone photos
• More than 500 million historical photographs
• Military records, immigration records, and passenger lists
• Citizenship and naturalization records
• Directories, guides, references, biographies, and yearbooks
• Government, land, and court records
• Wills and probate records
• Exclusive databases
• Additional content under license including Tributes obituaries,
• WikiTree, BillionGraves, Canadian Headstones and many others
• More than 100 million records are added every month

ATTENTION SCHOOL LIBRARIANS!

POWER Library is hosting a live information session to cover your back-to-school checklist and provide important POWER Library updates. 

During the POWER Hour, we will:

1. Review the "Welcome Back" POWER Library checklist
2. Introduce the New POWER eCard
3. Discuss using Chat with a Librarian effectively in the classroom
4. Preview POWER Library’s Fall training offerings
5. Answer your POWER Library questions

Select an option below to register for the POWER Hour:

• September 21, 2023 at 11:00 am
• September 21, 2023 at 3:00 pm

Best wishes for a great school year!

Learn about the newly added e-resources to POWER Library:

• Britannica School Elementary
• Cricket Media Collection
• MyHeritage Library Edition
• SIRS Discoverer
• Transparent Language Online

Training is included in the Technology Support Fee.  There is no additional cost to attend training for POWER Library/Access PA staff of participating institutions.

Fall training will be in-person only, and space is limited.

Don't wait to register!

We wish you the very best of luck as you start this new school year!

Let's get started on the right foot!

• Check your POWER Library contact information. Is your school’s entry in the Participant Directory up to date?
• Does your district have any new librarians? Please let us know so that we can get their contact information, get them added to email lists, and subscribed the newsletters, etc.

Check your access to POWER Library E-Resources 

• Make sure you test ALL the POWER Library links on your website from inside your school – sometimes authentication issues are vendor-specific. 
• Are you being prompted for a barcode number inside your school? Contact your IT department for your current public/external IP address or range as well as any additional public IP addresses including load balancers, backups, cloud filters, separate wireless or student device networks, etc. If there are any updates, please let us know!
• Are you seeing another type of access issue? Check to make sure that you’re using your school-specific links, available via the Links Generator. If updating the links doesn’t solve the problem, please let us know!  
• Does your school use SSO to access POWER Library? Test authentication from both inside and outside of the school building. If one or both isn’t working, please let us know!

Check your information in SHAREit, the Access Pennsylvania Catalog 

• Participate in ILL? Take a look at your Participant Record in SHAREit and make sure it’s current. Participant Record documentation is available if you need a refresher. 
• At a different school this year? Please let us know so we can verify that your school’s SHAREit notifications come to you. 
• Did you export your holdings at the end of last year? If not, now is a great time to do so! Unsure how? Let us know and we’ll get you the documentation and login credentials you need.

Check your statistics

Getting your library’s monthly statistics emailed to you? If not, log into the Current Statistics module and set up your profile.  Not sure how? Check out the POWER Library E-Resource Statistics documentation, specifically "Generating Monthly Reports" (p. 7)

Looking to make it easier for your students?

Looking to make it easier for your students to access POWER Library e-resources from home? Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication is now available for school districts using ClassLink, Clever, or Google as their SSO platform.

No more eCards or library cards!
SSO eliminates the need for students to enter library card or eCard numbers.

What will it cost my school to make SSO available?
There is no additional fee to add SSO authentication for public school districts. However, every school in the district must participate in POWER Library. Private schools will be assessed a small annual fee to add SSO authentication.

The eCard registration system has been upgraded to a new system that requires all eCard users to register for a new eCard.

Please note that PA residents with a local public library card do not need an eCard. 

The deadline to obtain a new ecard has been extended to September 30, 2023.

Important notes:

• Patrons with a library card issued by their local library do not need an eCard.
• Do not share an eCard number with students or post an eCard number to Google Classrooms, etc. Doing either is a violation of the e-resource license agreements. 
• Single Sign-On (SSO) is available for schools that use Clever, Google, or ClassLink. To learn more about SSO, please visit:
  https://powerlibrary.org/librarians/sso
  

Check Your POWER Library Contact Information

Please forward this newsletter to the librarians, especially any new librarians, in your district or system that participate in POWER Library.

Do You Need Support? We Are Here To Help!

If you need support, please use one of the options provided below to contact HSLC. 

Complete the POWER Library Support Form
Email us at support@hslc.org
Call us at 215-222-1532