Fast Finds come to students’ aid

Jeff Benson

After he founded Mission San Fernando de Velicata in Baja California

in 1769, it took Father Junipero Serra a month and a half to get to

San Diego and establish the first of 21 California missions.

Newport Beach Public Library employees are hoping it won’t take

fourth-graders nearly that long to build their own houses of

Franciscan worship.

Mission projects and others are hitting full stride in some

Newport-Mesa schools, leading many students to flock to the library

for last-minute research materials. But the library staff knows

students don’t want to spend the rest of their winter break searching

for help with class projects.

That’s why they’ve designed Fast Finds -- color-coded bookmarks

that provide third- through sixth-grade students with recommendations

of reference books, nonfiction books and videos for school projects.

The most common projects include California Indians, California

missions, states and ancient civilizations, said children’s librarian

Victoria Campbell, who created the Fast Finds.

“We try to take all the major projects and give kids resources of

where they can find information,” Campbell said. “When we know the

projects are coming, we’ll put a lot of books out in sections.”

The Fast Finds also list websites for a handful of online research

materials and library databases that can help students in case the

books they needed have already been checked out.

Students are also welcome to search through the library’s own

database at https://www.newportbeach

library.org and the library’s kid’s page at

https://www.newportkids.org.

Many local teens are working on biographies and literary criticism

projects, and the library is finding ways to help with those, too.

The library’s ProQuest database allows students to search for free

magazine, journal and newspaper articles as long as they have a

Newport Beach library card, librarian Genesis Hansen said.

“It’s a really excellent resource because they can do it from home

and after hours, when the library’s closed,” Hansen said. “This

database can be used by college students. It’s very comprehensive.”

The library’s Young Adult Advisory Council website at

https://www.yaac.org gives teens help with bibliographies, college

planning and suggested reading.

As much of a resource as the Internet can be, it’s not a cure-all

for students’ school projects, said children’s librarian Amy

Harpster. Most people don’t know about the Fast Finds yet, she said.

“It seems like we’ll ask them a lot of times about getting

material off the Internet,” she said. “Usually their teachers will

tell them to go to the library and get a book.”

The Newport Beach Public Library is at 1000 Avocado Ave., Newport

Beach.