Media Center

About Our Media Center

The Media Center is a central part of the Shadow Mountain campus. A variety of activities take place throughout the school day to accommodate our academic programs, as well as before- and after-school club activities. The Media Center provides assistance for students to locate the proper resources (books, online books, references, etc.) for research papers and projects. We support students as well as teachers with technical issues such as printing, password management, Infinite Campus, PVOnline, Destiny, and accessing the online textbooks. Our staff practices digital citizenship in the areas of cybersecurity and information literacy. Students are instructed on the proper use and practices for securing and protecting  their passwords. Also, assistance is provided for students on the proper search strategies to identify and use evaluation techniques to effectively use information. This allows for students to select quality, creditable, and valid websites and giving proper credit to their resources.

Destiny Discover

Destiny Discover is our school's web-based library catalog. Students are able to use this resource from any electronic device that is connected to the internet. This system allows students access to a wide variety tools:

• View your Destiny account.
• 24/7 access to all books both hard copy books and digital eBooks in Shadow's system.
• View book information, a description of the book, reading level, and reviews.
• See suggestions of related subjects.
• Make a list of book selections.
• Create a bibliography from a book list with a touch of a button.
• Write reviews.

Find out what is available at Shadow, visit "Destiny Discover" website. To access, students and staff click on "Log in" in the upper right-hand corner. Then click on the blue button "Paradise Valley Singles Sign On Log In for Library Patrons" on the left side of the log in page. You can explore Destiny Discover as a guest by clicking on a school name to see book titles available at that site.

Students and staff have to option to view and download eBooks to any electronic device when using the Destiny Discover app. Access to eBooks through Destiny Discover is a free resource for all PVSchools students and staff. Parents may receive free access to Destiny Discover eBook by contacting the school library for an account to be setup.

Visit Destiny Discovery

Download Destiny Discovery App

More Online Resources

Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg is a free online library of more than 60,000 eBooks. Students have access to some of the world's greatest literature that can be downloaded to a device or read them online. You can access eBooks by using any computer or mobile devices. There are no special apps require the literature can be read through the Web browser or eBook reader.

Visit Project Gutenberg

Gale Databases

The State of Arizona Library has provided the Gale Databases for free to all Arizona residents. All students have access to thousands of online popular magazines, scholarly journals, current newspapers, and wide variety of reference works. Students are encouraged to use the school library's website to access these resources.

To Access the Gale Data enter in your home "Zip Code."

Visit Gale Databases

Research Practices

When beginning a research report you want to search and find proper sources.

Primary Source

The primary sources are immediate, first-hand accounts on the topic/subject. This is a person/people who had a direct connection to the person/event/topic. Primary sources come in a number of formats.

Examples:

Secondary Source

Secondary sources describe, summarize, or discuss information or details that were originally presented in another source. This means the author of the written work did not participate in the event/topic/subject. Secondary sources are written and meant for the purpose of a broad audience. You would use a secondary source in order to obtain an overview of the topic and/or identify primary resources.

Examples:

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a website that allows users to add and update content on the site through their own web browser. This means "anyone can make changes to a wiki." Wikipedia cannot be cited for a research paper.

Citation Style Guides