This practicum was designed to provide better access to current information for the students and staff in a middle school. The printed materials in the school's media center were outdated, in scarce supply, or had inadequate subject coverage. Electronic databases were available for online searching and information retrieval, but students did not know how to use them as a source for completing class assignments or how to browse within the online services to find additional information. Lesson plans and strategies were developed to train students and teachers on two online services available in the media center. Daily sessions on the databases provided students and teachers with training in e-mail usage, searching and locating information on current events, printing from the screen, saving messages, and dialing into the online services. Teachers were encouraged to continue to use the services for curriculum enrichment and as an additional source for future lesson plans. Students were much less hesitant than teachers to use the online databases. The most successful activities involved students improving their communication skills by becoming "key pals" with other schools. Teachers enthusiastically supported these activities and requested that key pal projects become a permanent part of the curriculum for service learning and responsible student citizenship. (Contains 90 references and 9 appendices of materials used in the project.) (Author/SWC)