Professional Development Resources

Learning does not stop at school. Whether you find yourself researching scholarly journals for continuing education, taking practice tests for job-specific certifications, or just trying to stay up to date on what’s going on in your field, your library is here to help. The resources below are available to all BCLS members. All you need is your library card number.

Health & Nursing

Health Source Nursing/Academic Edition – For those looking to move up the ranks in the medical field, this Ebsco-powered resource will help you find scholarly articles in a variety of health-related topics.

Educators & School Services

Curriculum Resource Center – Made for the hard-working teacher in mind, this resource helps create lessons and provides ideas and worksheets for education professionals.

ERIC – For more scholarly articles of and about education, this resource (the Educational Resource Information Center) is a national information system supported by the U.S. Department of Education, the National Library of Education, and the Office of Educational Research and Improvement.

Teacher Reference Center - Another one for our educators, Teacher Reference Center provides indexing and abstracts for hundreds of peer-reviewed periodicals. Some topics included are: Best Practices, Continuing Education, Curriculum Development, Elementary Education, Higher Education, Language Arts, Literacy Standards, School Administration, Teacher Education.

Continuing Education & Career

Ferguson’s Career Guidance Center – For help trying to navigate your career path, Ferguson’s is a reference database for lifelong career exploration and planning. It provides tools to assess career goals, plan an education, learn workplace skills, find apprenticeships and internships, conduct a job search, and more.

Peterson’s Test & Career Prep – This resource is your place for getting instruction to pass those standardized tests some jobs and career paths require you to take.  Tests and prep for Grad School, Civil Service, ASVAB, Real Estate, and many others can be found here

Udemy – If you prefer video-instruction to articles then this is resource you will love.  There are over 10,000 videos addressing topics across a variety of fields.  Business, technology, software use—courses can be found for all of these!