For Immediate Release:
August 19, 2024
Contact: Jeff Barbosa
(279)-399-8981
press@library.ca.gov
[Sacramento, Calif.] – Students returning to California public schools – and every Californian with a library card – now have free access from their phones or their laptops to a large collection of performing arts videos, Ken Burns’ documentaries, world music and 11,000 plays.
The expanded arts, history and social studies collections are part of COMPASS – California Online Media Program for Access and Student Success – which provides a broad range of online resources to local schools and libraries that includes Britannica, TeachingBooks, National Geographic for Kids and PebbleGo Science.
“COMPASS is an incredible service that already digitally puts the world at the fingertips of every student and every Californian,” said Greg Lucas, California State Librarian. “Now it’s even cooler with even more wonderful musical and cultural adventures to explore.”
COMPASS and all the new material just added to it is available to more than 90 percent of California’s almost 6 million public school students and available through 95 percent of California’s public libraries. COMPASS has generated more than 607 million unique investigations and searches over the past five years.
This new content will expand on collections already offered to schools and libraries through the ProQuest Alexander Street platform, a part of Clarivate.
“Statewide arts resources such as thousands of drama texts and hours of dance instruction video for public schools – and anyone with a California library card – is something to celebrate,” said Julie Baker, CEO of California for the Arts.
“The arts, like libraries, are public goods. Every person in California should have access to the health and economic benefits of arts participation and arts education. Our goal now is to ensure that folks who benefit from these free resources know they exist!”
Some of the new Alexander Street content highlights are:
• Thousands of drama texts, including 20th Century classics and culturally diverse plays;
• History and social studies videos, including over 1,000 mini-documentaries from CNN and full-length history documentaries from producers such as Ken Burns, PBS and The History Channel;
• Expansions of various professional performing arts video and audio collections of classical music, folk, jazz, and world music; and
• Dance instruction videos encompassing hundreds of hours of instruction.
“At Clarivate, we connect students, teachers and communities to trusted content that inspires and transforms their perspectives and our world,” said Susan Bokern, Vice President, Product Management, at Clarivate. “We are honored to bring high-quality history, social studies and performing arts content to California public school students and public library patrons. The COMPASS team’s selection of diverse content, in alignment with new state standards, is something we are proud to support.”
