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"As the teacher-librarian at Mariposa Elementary School," writes David Sornberger, "I believe that a significant part of promoting the services of our school library involves making the library visible in the wider school context. It is my daily ambition to establish our library's Web site as not simply an accessory, but an essential part of the library program."

That attitude alone would earn David and his site a "Cool School" consideration, but the fact is, this is a very pleasant and quite impressive school Web site.

David's emphasis on helping the students in his school, which is located in Ontario, Canada, become computer-literate certainly helps explain the robustness of the site. "I use our Web site to teach Mariposa's students how to search the Web and develop information literacy skills," writes David. "An important advantage of Web technology is the ability to update information instantaneously," he continues, and certainly there's plenty of up-to-date material on the site, even including a scrolling "Dates at a Glance" message on the home page.

With an intuitive navigation to such features as a photo gallery, classes, library features, and the school council, the site achieves the goal David states of having it "synchronized with the classroom programs." Also, David sought out the advice of a student Library Club, formed at the beginning of the school year, which formed the basis of the kinds of content to be found on the site. Then, they decided to combine original content and quality links to flesh out their ideas.

Certainly, this site exemplifies not only a good product, but an excellent, collaborative process as well.

Congratulations, Mariposa Elementary! You are a COOL SCHOOL!