Technically a Librarian

The Gilbert library in Arizona is opening a new library and ditching Dewey. Here is the link for the article: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0530nodewey0530.html The are going to shelve by topic...Move over Barnes & Nobles!

http://acrlblog.org/2007/05/14/formula-for-academic-library-success/ There was a great article on the Association of College and Research Libraries blog today discussing the formula for academic success. "Given what Law shared about his research results, there may be cause for optimism. It seems that students may be more savvy about using library research databases than we suspected. They also tend to depend on search engines less heavily for serious research than we may think, and more frequently as a complement to library databases. Yes, students may typically begin in a search engine, but that’s how they acquire background or introductory information. But they then seek out the library’s databases for more detailed information or scholarly content on their topic. " Posted by StevenB on May 14 th , 2007 under Libraries and Learning , Research Issues , Public Services . There is an archived copy of the webcast available here http://home.learningtimes.net/library?go=1561563

Tim Green has recently written a new YA book called Football Genius . He was a wonderful speaker and a great way to end the conference. I went back and spoke to my principal about getting Tim while he is doing his book tour. I emailed Tim but am still waiting for him to get back with prices and dates. Jane and I are hoping to split him between East & West. Odds & Ends: The Knickerbocker Award banquet was very nice. The sound system wasn't hooked up correctly or something making it very hard to hear the award recipients. Jerry Pickney was a great speaker and very charming. He didnt' stay for the dancing afterwards. I danced from 9-12 (after I ran upstairs to lose my jacket and do the inhalers that I brought-though I forgot my rescue inhaler). It was a lot of fun though part way through I had to remember not to sing at the top of my voice since I had to present on Sat! Thank you to all the great people I met and for those of you who attended my presentation! I am going to

I presented during Session 4. http://www.sosinformationliteracy.org SOS for Information literacy is a free K-16 multimedia database. It contains: Lesson plans Quick teaching ideas Online lessons Videos It encourages collaboration. S. Situation (grade level, curriculum area) O. Outcome (information skills) S. Strategies (teaching, motivation, techniques) There is no Ask A service because you can contact the author of the lesson directly. You don't have to sign in to use this but if you would like to save your lessons after you find them you have to create an account. You can create teaching units by putting together different lesson and saving them to "your space." Information literacy and the Information Power standards are included. The next phase of this project will contain a new search engine created by Liz Liddy. The Educators Spotlight Digest in part of this site. There are tutorials as well as online help. If you would like to submit a lesson to be included there

I went to Information Ethics presented by Ed Nizalowski. His concept was good-putting a section of information literacy into a Participation in Goverment class. His project took 5 days to complete but was taught in isolation with the teacher leaving the room during it. On a positive note, he did get to evaluate his part. He created a webquest to go with it but he didn't show it to us or share a link for it. Unfortunately his presentation was poor (due to many things). This caused much of the idea to be lost. We received one handout on the project. The idea was a good one though.

Okay-some of you may be asking yourselves-how could I have gone to both session 2 presentations? I left early after I copied down Jacquie's information (took the handouts) and heard it's all online, then snuck over to Jane Fenn's. Great handouts were provided. She will be sending these in to be posted on the website that Bernie Tomasso said was being created to house them. Ideas for Advocacy Breakfast and bulbs When the AV position was cut at Corning West High School, Jane invited her teachers to bring down their overhead projectors to clean them and teach them to change the bulb. They had breakfast, got a can of air and a new light bulb. Go to high profile events (so the parents & students see you) concerts, plays sporting events be a club advisor go to school events and award programs Call attention to the extra jobs you do Write up professional/library events and send them to the district office to be included in the district/building/parent newsletters. Ask yourself

Jacquie Henry has a blog called Wanderings She shared with us A Song for Students: Not on the Test by Tom Chapin Her notes and presentation are available here! http://nlcommunities.com/communities/wanderings/articles/127368.aspx I am checking out the "Did you Know" video by Karl Fisch at Youtube! (I added it to my blog if you would like to view it.) Please add her blog to your reader. She has a lot of fantastic ideas that are definitely work reading about. A great example of Library 2.0 all around!

You would think that after sitting through session 1-Web Feeds I would've had enough but Alice Yucht delivers fresh materials and ideas with each presentation. Her luncheon presentation was entitled: The New 3 Rs, Digital Literacy Skills for the 21st Century There has been a evolution of information: The information superhighway User driven Interactive Collaborative 2. Information Ocean Can't control the ebb and flow of information Kids need instruction to stay afloat Teenagers now referred to as screenagers. They are digital natives. They use their thumbs (from texting) the way we use our pointer fingers. Pew Internet - Teens, Privacy, and Online Social Networks Alice referred to students by their millennial characteristics. I found an interesting PPT on how it effects them as students. She commmented that we are teaching digital kids analog skills. We are in 1950s buildings using 1990s technology with a 1980s curriculum. We should be looking at contextual learning http://

If you ever get a chance to go to a workshop presented by Alice, take it! She is a great speaker-very down to earth, humourous and knowledgable. Her SLSM presentation was entitled: "How blog reading can make you look brilliant" She mentioned many blogs in her presentation including Shiny Shiny , Indexed and Lifehacker . She stated that our role is "chief information officer". (Which I agree with!) Some sites she mentioned: AAA Fuel Cost Calculator Jot-it (where you can leave yourself an electronic note) Even a texting translator ! She proceeded to define what a blog is: "A website with entries in reverse chronological order with catagories." There are 3 different kinds of blogs: Personal/ point of view (covering events and impressions) Practical/purposeful (new resources/links) Philosophical/polemical (exploration/big ideas) You can use blogs to further your professional development. They provide: Instant information Hot topic in the profession Lifelong

I came across a great list of tips from Superpatron's blog. Not only could patrons use it but librarians too! He also created a video that he presents at libraries that is listed on his site . People who love their libraries want them to be better. Here's what you can do. Ten ways for superpatrons to build better libraries: 1. Blog about your library Write about your experiences at the library on your blog. Note who you talked to, what you noticed while you were there or while you were online, and how things worked. You have a set of eyes that the people who work at the library don't have, and by giving feedback in public you have some way to draw attention to what is working and why your library is valuable to you and to your community. 2. Request the books you want to read Libraries have book acquisition budgets, and people whose entire job it is to put books on the shelf that get circulated. There's no way that they will know every last title that should be on the s

The 2007 session of SLMS in NY opening speaker was Toni Buzzeo . Her construct was entitled "Collaborating from the Center of your School Universe: Beyond the Basics to Advocacy". She is very passionate about collaboration. She talked about how information is either causing the collapse of schools or accelerating the growth of learning. She commented that positive growth encourages expansion. Toni defines collaboration as "The process by which we learn/design, team teach, & team evaluate." Students need to know, understand, and be able to "do" whatever learning task is set. She mention Information Power I which was published in 1988 and was the beginning of the concept of collaboration. Information Power II stated that collaborative energy powers the library media program. To follow her universe construct, she mentioned that productive collision courses (running into a teacher in the hall) provide an exchange of ideas. (Like when stars collide, ener

I read a great post today by Steven Bell on how we don't tend to disagree in the blogosphere. It really made me think and reread the blogs I usually check in on daily. It is mostly true that instead of dissent or differences of opinion there are many comments that are just "yes, I agree" or what a great post. One of Steven's arguments states that if we want to be considered as library science professionals we would do well to debate both sides of every controversy. Another great blog to check out is Monsterlibrarian This is a site that reviews the horror genre. It's updated often.