How to Suggest a Title for Purchase

The library is always interested in student and staff suggestions for book titles to purchase. Please share your ideas with the librarian, either in person or via email, at any time. It is helpful to know the correct title and the author's full name.

How to Use Wikipedia

Wikipedia is NOT ACCEPTABLE as a research source because it is a general encyclopedia, and because the contents of its articles cannot be verified. However, Wikipedia is useful in other ways:

1. You can read a Wikipedia article to get some general information about your topic so that you will have enough clues to know what to look for in other sources.

2. You can use the table of contents in a long article to get a sense of how information on this topic is organized. Use the table of contents as a list of subtopics so you know what to look for in your research.

3. Use the links and Works Cited at the end of a Wikipedia article to find information on your toic from more reliable sources. It may be true that these sources provide verification for the Wikipedia article, but if that's true, then use those sources in your Works Cited, and not Wikipedia. Even if an article in Wikipedia is correct, it's still a general encyclopedia.

How to Use NoodleTools

NoodleTools is a platform that formats the list of works cited based on bibliographic information input by the student user.

Advantages of using NoodleTools:

• The Works Cited pages produced are always in correct format and always in the right order.  NoodleTools offers formatting for MLA style (typically used in English and humanities classes), APA style (appropriate for science classes), and Chicago style. Unlike Easybib and other online citation generators, all styles in NoodleTools are free to access.

• It keeps the focus on using reliable sources and documenting them properly, and takes the focus off the little details of formatting.
  

• It doesn't interfere with your own style of taking notes or writing.

1. Go to your Google Drive and log in. Go to the apps launcher ("waffle") at the top left of the screen, and scroll down to "NoodleTools."  If you have not used NoodleTools this school year (or ever), you may be asked to verify your school and year of graduation.

2. Once in NoodleTools, click on “Create a New Project”.  Give it a name (Research Project), choose your citation style (MLA), and citation level (Starter is usually fine), and click “Submit.”  

3. Click on your newly-created project, and then “Sources” at top. Click “Create a New Citation” and choose the type of citation (database, website, book, etc.)

4. Enter the information requested. For a website, you’ll be asked for a URL, the date of publication, the date you accessed the information, the author(s), title of the webpage and of the website, and the publisher of the website.  Look at the top and bottom of the webpage to find this information.  

5. Click “Save.”

6. If you get any information from any of the databases (Gale Biographies, EBSCO, etc.), it’s even easier!  Find where it says “Quick Cite,” and copy and paste the citation and import it into NoodleTools.  Click “Save.”

7. When you have entered all of your sources, click on “Print/Export” and send your correctly-formatted sources to Word or to Google Docs. (Do not just copy and paste your sources from NoodleTools!)

8. Your exported document will be formatted and titled correctly.  

9. Paste your citations to the end of your research paper.

REMEMBER:

• No general encyclopedias and especially no Wikipedia.

• Don't forget the references in text (in-text citations) within the body of your paper.

• All rules of plagiarism apply. Your works cited and references in text are there to prove that you haven't plagiarized.

How to See a List of the Library's Videos

All of the DVDs in the library collection are listed in the Library Catalog, as books are. The catalog can be searched for title, author, and subject, as well as keyword.  Only teachers and staff members may check out DVDs.

How to Create or View a Resource List

Our library catalog (under the Catalog tab) offers users the opportunity to create resource lists. A resource list includes titles in the library collection that relate to a chosen topic. Any teacher can create a resource list, or ask the librarian to create one.

1. A teacher who wants to create a resource list must login to the library catalog, using the "Login" button at the top right of the screen. Your username and password are the same as those you use to log into a school computer.

2. Once logged in, the teacher chooses Resource Lists from the list of choices at the right, and then will see a list of all the lists s/he has already created (if any).

3. To create a new list, click the "Add List" button. Name the list (it will be helpful to your students to include your own last name in the title) and click "Public" so that the list will be published for your students to see. Enter a description, if you like. Save.

4. Next, search for the books, eBooks, or DVDs you want to include in this list, using the Library Search feature. Each time you find an item that you want added to your list, click the button to the right that says "Add to this list."

5. (You'll notice that the list most recently created appears in the "Selected List" box above your search results. You can select any of the lists you've created and add to them at any time by selecting a different list in this box.) Continue until your list is complete.

To view a Resource List:

Your students will not need to login to see the Resource List you've created. Anyone can see any Public List by going to the Library Catalog, selecting Resource Lists, and then the Public Lists tab. Lists can be re-sorted and printed, as needed.

How to View the Library Schedule

The schedule of classes that have reserved library time can be viewed through the school's email server. Sign into your fairlawnschools email, and go to the bottom left corner of the screen to "Public Folders." Click on "Computer Lab D203."

NOTE: This schedule allows you to view the schedule for both the D203 computer lab and the library.  You can change from a weekly to a monthly view, and to an agenda view, which will show you the schedule for the current day. You can see when you are scheduled, or when the library or the computer lab are available. The procedures are different for the two rooms:

If you want to sign up for the D203 computer lab: you may add yourself to the schedule if the period(s) desired is available.  Click on "New" (appointment) and in the subject line put your last name and class period:  Bauman Period 5.  For location type in D203.  Find the start and end times that approximate your class time (or you can highlight the times and put in the exact beginning and end times for your class).  If you decide later on you will not need the lab, please remove your appointment (delete it) so that someone else can use the room.

If you want to sign up for the library:  Please email the librarian to schedule class time in the library, or use the form below.  Although the library schedule will appear along with the D203 lab schedule, do not add yourself to the library schedule. Please don't show up unannounced.  There are often events and activities in the library that are not reflected in the schedule.

• Request the Library including computers

Why is the Library Named for Daniel A. Rothermel?

Daniel A. Rothermel is best remembered as the principal of Fair Lawn High School, serving in that position from 1963 to 1978. The library was named in his honor on March 24, 1994.

Mr. Rothermel began his career as a guidance counselor, and served as Director of Guidance (1947-1952) and Vice-Principal (1952-1963) before becoming principal. He also served as Coach of Boys' Tennis.

Alumni and parents recall Mr. Rothermel as a man of unshakable dignity and integrity. In an early interview, he said of teaching:

"If we have been successful, we have given you, not answers, but a way of finding them, not a point of view, but a method of viewing."

All three of Mr. Rothermel's children were graduated from Fair Lawn High School. A world traveler and tennis buff, he was a long-time resident of Fair Lawn.

A Brief History of Fair Lawn High School

Our Colors: Red and Gray | Our Teams: The Cutters

Fair Lawn High School opened on September 13, 1943, with a student body of nearly 900 and a staff of over 40 teachers, guidance counselors, and administrators. Housing grades 7 through 11 (grade 12 was added the following year), ours was the only high school to be built in the country during World War II.

The first class to graduate was the class of 1945, consisting of over 60 residents of Fair Lawn who had transferred in from the high schools in Ridgewood, Paterson, and Hawthorne they had previously attended. Rapid population growth in Fair Lawn led to overcrowded conditions; by 1948 the high school was on double sessions. Grades 7, 8, and 9 attended in the afternoon and grades 10, 11, and 12 attended in the morning. The situation eased when Thomas Jefferson Junior High School was built on Morlot Avenue and opened in the mid 1950s.

In 1955, the B-Wing, an addition which more than doubled the size of the high school building, was opened. It included a gym, an auditorium, and two cafeterias, as well as specialized rooms for industrial arts, home economics, science, and art. The B-Wing was built at a right angle to the A-Wing; the front faces Berdan Avenue.

Alumni who graduated before the B-Wing was built would see many, many changes in the school. The former cafeteria area now houses the administrative main offices. The former main office suite now serves as the faculty room. Although the library remained in the same location, an adjacent classroom long ago became part of the library itself. The main entrance to the high school was relocated to the center of the B-Wing.

Perhaps the biggest change is that a Student Lounge area was created on the first floor where the A- and B-Wings meet. It was placed in the very center of the school, and nearly every member of the school community passed through it at least once each day.

In the 1980s and 1990s, rooms in the B-Wing were adapted for use as computer labs and interactive television. Industrial arts and home economics rooms were updated to accommodate technology and industrial foods education.

In 1961, overcrowding again was eased by a new addition, the C-Wing, which included science and language labs. Consisting of classrooms only, the C-Wing branches out from the A-Wing near the end of the corridor farthest from the B-Wing.

In the early 1970s, two computer terminals were installed in room B224, prompting the formation of the Computer Club, and making FLHS an early player in the field of computer education. Our Computer League has often taken top honors in national competitions.

In 1992, FLHS was recognized for its rich diversity, including programs in the sciences, arts, and humanities; in sports and extracurricular activities and in student-faculty cooperation and achievement. We were designated one of the nation's "Blue Ribbon" schools. This honor was bestowed upon FLHS again in 1998.

The D-Wing opened in January, 2007. It contains a large cafeteria ("the D-Caf"), which also serves as a student common area, replacing the original B-Wing lounge. There is entry from the D-Caf corridor to an outdoor courtyard, where there are tables for students to use during lunchtime in good weather. The D-Wing also has a new room for the band, a new library, and several classrooms. The renovation that took place in the building as the D-Wing was being constructed gave us new art rooms, a new foods lab, and a new child car classroom, as well as much-needed office space. The Guidance Office was relocated to the old library space (upstairs from the Main Office), and the nurse's office was expanded.