11-21: Leadership
Podcast
On 5/10/2007 Library Geeks posted a podcast that was an interview with Gary Price who is one of the top men running ask.com. Price is a librarian who started Resource Shelf, a website that is full of info about interesting, new resources available on the web. Price started this with the main goal of keeping himself informed and then it exploded into a successful site that made him well-known and led to his new job. Most of this hour long podcast was a personal interview with Price that dealt with how he got his job at ask.com. However, there were some interesting points brought up about librarianship itself in the podcast, though not as many as I expected. Price claims that he got to where he is by a method of being politely “in your face” with what libraries can offer. He claims that as soon as people hear the work library they tune out and think that it is pointless to continue listening. In part, the podcast set forth the claim that this is because people think they have Google and therefore don’t need help finding information, but that 90% of people will not ever get to the awesome resources found even on Google since the average person never clicks past the first five or six hits that come up. A librarian, Price claims, is invaluable since it is their job to know which resources are most valuable and to direct patrons to them as quickly as possible. Tying to this, there was some discussion about the value of an “old school” librarian who, even though the topics in three books may be the same, can direct patrons to the resource that is most valuable to them. Price also adds that the average person’s idea of advanced searching on the web only entails putting brackets around the search terms. The librarian’s job is to really help people do advanced searching to find what they need since the average person isn’t even aware of what databases are available, if any. Much of this podcast, since so much of it was an unexpected interview, did not seem overly helpful. However, there were some interesting points that do directly relate to running a library. I think it is interesting that Price has this in your face attitude that works well. He made the claim that librarians really have to show the value of what they can do in terms of saving time to patrons and then they will have made a friend for life. After that connection has been made, the librarian can then bring out other cool tools that patrons may have never considered using. I find it interesting, being new to the librarian scene, that librarians are so overlooked. However, upon looking back to my own education I too never used them as a resource. I think that being more outgoing and getting involved in what the patrons are doing and offering my services will make a big difference in how patrons view the librarian. I also find it interesting that a librarian is now one of the main people running ask.com, which I have never really considered to be more than just a basic website. Yet here is a man who is a librarian and who runs a website full of information to help people, just like what happens in an actual library. It certainly makes me view my future job possibilities in a new light. I see form this podcast that shamelessly promoting oneself may be the only way to be a truly effective librarian since so often people just don’t consider librarians at all.
LM_NET
On 8/23/2010 Louise Leonard posted “K-8 Daily Newscast”. My first reaction to this was, “oh, my!” since it appears to be another thing that a librarian at a public school must do. I think, though, that the oh, my moments are passing and now I’m seeing that the librarian is really a person who can do anything. Leonard says that she has been given the responsibility of coordinating and running the daily newscast system at her school. She has to involve all the students in making the newscasts, film them, and run them during the school day for all to see. I think what I find frightening about this prospect is that I have absolutely no background in journalism/news casting. What would I do if I were in her position and asked to do such a thing? I suppose I’d learn how, but with the job of full time librarian I’m not sure where that time would come in. I wonder what all these jobs really say about the school’s perception of the librarian. Is the fact that everything I read imply that librarians get he left over jobs mean that schools don’t value the library or the librarian? I never considered this possibility in all honesty which may be why so much of what I’ve been reading in the Woolls books and on LM_NET has come as surprise. I know that our school librarian is the tech lady but whenever the issue is greater than a simple answer we have a great tech department we are referred to. Were librarians always a jack of all trades? It would be nice to know how the job role evolved over the bad economic times for simple comparisons sake. It’s equally interesting to me to see if the role will devolve when things look up and schools can afford to hire people.
David DiGregorio posted “LM_NET Time warp” on 8/21/2010. The overall gist of it was that school are taking out Smart boards and looking to a newer, cheaper LED device that does the same thing for half the money. Along with this, schools are retraining staff on how to use technology in the classroom. As a librarian, I will no doubt be the tech lady and I expect that I will be one of the people doing the PD and how to use technology in the classroom. What I find interesting about the post most was the comment that, “Teachers are trained to use the technology only when appropriate and not over use ESPECIALLY IN THE ELEMENTARY GRADES. In addition, a common sense approach is advocated summed up in this
statement - the beauty of the subject should drive instruction, not technology.” I think that in many ways technology has taken over in schools as schools a business and at least in my small town the reason I have a nice building to work in and good technology is that people actually move to our little countryside for the schools. After all, there isn’t anything else for them to come here for! I think it’s a fascinating idea to take some technology back out, or at least the overuse of it. We were in such a hurry to say that if it kept kids interested then it must be right that we never considered the fact that sometimes education gets lost in the ease of technology. Sure, kids are interested and there are less classroom management issues, but at what point are we no better than 90 minutes of TV? I can see that the concern at the elementary levels is that what we are really doing is bringing up a group of kids who may be incapable of learning without the feeling of watching TV and being entertained. I am by no means advocating boring class time all the time, but how are they going to do well on state tests in high school if they haven’t had to sit in a room without technology keeping them entertained since first grade? In fact, I think that when I become the school librarian I may bring this up and possibly offer training about how to use technology appropriately all on my own after school. At the very least I could send out a power point to those who were interested.
8/22/2010 has a post on LM_NET by Donna Gallagher about the use of dogs in the library. The posts from other librarians were wonderful and most of them claimed that animals in the elementary library create a learning environment that the kids love and that encourages hesitant readers to read and enjoy library time. I am a huge advocate of animals in the library (or school in general) as they really do help learning. It’s been proven that if a kid has something furry to touch (i.e. not a fish) then they will learn better. Especially at the elementary levels kids will find a new connection to the library that is positive. However, I have concern about the workability of this most schools today. Since the only really furry creatures that would fit in a school library would be a dog or cat, I can foresee the huge obstacle of kids who are deathly allergic. Then there’s the issue of what would happen if a troubled student tried to hurt the animal. In all honesty, I don’t know that I could react with my teacher hat on. I think a program where the animal came in for a few days would be awesome and a great compromise. It would be great for kids to learn to see the library as a fun, new place and then the kids who had serious allergies could simply not go to the library that day or two. However, I did check with my principal and pets are not allowed at school for the reasons listed above.
Blogs
Library advocate posted “Athletes as Leaders and Readers at San Mateo College” on 11/17/2010. The short post was accompanied by their promotional video that explained that the three main goals of the program were to 1. Promote literacy to kids 2. Shows athletes that they need to and can be leaders and 3. Have the athletes promote physical activity to kids in an attempt to stop childhood obesity. Though this is a college and it would work very differently in my high school, I think this a great way for teens to get involved with kids and promote the library as well. We do have a childhood development class at my school where young children (ages 3-5) come in once a week and the students play with them and read to them and try to teach them things. Though this program is currently run by the childhood development class, this class is mostly comprised of teen girls. We have a massive A+ program at school that would benefit from extending the idea that the childhood development class started with and expand it out to our sports kids. I think that this would not only be a way for the library to reach a group of students who stereotypically don’t use the library, but it would also be a great way to break down the idea that cool kids don’t use the library (which we all know isn’t true) and for the athletes at school, who are always stretched anyway, to get extra A+ hours. There’s no better marketing in a school like mine that has a huge focus on football than to tie football to whatever it is you want to promote. In this case, the library would, at the very least, get some good attention.
Swiss Army Librarian posted “Reference Question of the Week” on 11/14/2010. This post was based on a tweet Herzog made about the oddness of shelving magazines that have a publication date three months down the line. At first I started reading this because I too have always found it odd that magazines came out so far in advance, and it turns out I was not the only one. After Herzog tweeted about the oddness of this situation, a friend emailed him to inform him that the date is actually the remove-by date that the publisher gives. Even working at a bookstore for several years, I still didn’t know this and I wonder how many librarians know this. Personally having never worked in a library or paid much attention to the magazine section at the library, I wonder how it works in a library. Since the library purchases the magazines for use (as opposed to stores who purchase them to sell), do we remove outdate magazines by the date listed? Or do we only keep a few months back? And then what happens to them? Perhaps not the most thrilling of questions, this does at least interest me in seeing how well this area of the library is ran since I never go to when I go to the library and Herzog, who is a librarian, didn’t know what was going on with the funky dates on the covers.
On 11/15/2010 ALA Teach Source posted “Marred by Shelving,” which deals with all the issues of lending eBooks. I find this a particularly interesting topic since the invention of the eReader, I would argue, has made readers out an entire generation that may not have ever read. Given the preoccupation with technology in today’s youth and the fact that a screen is far more comfortable to most teens today than a piece of paper, I think the debate over lending eBooks is a serious one. I know that publishers have been saying that the lending of eBooks is tantamount to theft of the books since no gets the royalties, but I agree with Peters (the author of the post) that this is simply another shift in libraries. Public circulation libraries developed out of private libraries where, essentially, friends lent books to other friends. Now the Kindle and Nook offer similar functions. I agree with Peters that this will simply be another shift in society. The Kindle and Nook already offer lending between friends (though I don’t think I could get through most books in the 14 day period that both devices allow), so I can’t see that there is much difference between this function and a function that could be developed for libraries. The CEO of Faber and Faber said in October that their company was going to allow eBooks to be lent at libraries but only if a patron would come in and physically download the book from the library. Now, I ask you, what good is that? Isn’t the whole point of our digital age that we cannot often get to the library during business hours in the digital age? Aside from that, Peters end his post with the thought that eReaders are like cell phones and regardless of one’s financial state, soon everyone will own one. This, he sates, will make shelving much easier and so end his post. I am conflicted though on how positive this end really is. What this really means is that there could very likely come a day when libraries are small one-room facilities with one librarian and only a few books. I suppose this might be good as it would allow for the library to save on the salaries of all non-librarian staff, but what a dismal picture too! As a child I loved roaming the aisles of the library. What if my future, currently non-existent kids don’t ever get that pleasure? And, even worse, what if that leads them to not love reading like I do?
Empowering Learners Chapter 4
I definitely agree with the statement on page 46 that claims, “As interactive technology has come to permeate every aspect of daily life, leading businesses and organizations have changed the way they work in order to thrive in this new global economy. Likewise, schools must move toward a more connected, collaborative form of leadership.” This is so very true. Many schools, mine included, are trying to move toward a more technology based educational model. The problem with that is that it takes money and that is not freely available now. As a librarian, I think it would be my duty to try to get as much technology into the classroom as possible without it costing a ton (and free would, of course, be best). This too I think applies to the “Building Relationships” portion of the reading. Being a leader in the school is necessary both to keep my job and to keep the funding for the library up. I think that this really will come down to my promoting technology in the classroom, which will ultimately lead to less behavior issues, and teaching faculty how to use the technology in an appropriate manner so that it isn’t technology for the sake of technology (something that I perceive to be a huge issue in education).
Woolls Chapter 12
I can’t explain it, but there is some sick part of me that really loves the idea of marketing my library. Perhaps it’s because I feel that the library can offer too much that I am so excited about it, or maybe it’s because whatever I’m going to be marketing is going to be awesome and I know it. I agree with the section that claims that a friendly ambience and a library that is not punitive (fines, grouchy librarian, etc) are some of the best ways to advocate for a library. The list on page 192 is a nice, comprehensive list of things I need to include in my library or into my running of the library. I am particularly excited about the special collections part of the list. I have never heard if we have any special collections at all at our school. If not, I suppose I’d best get on developing some if/when I take over. I know that there is a small teacher development collection, but I don’t know where it is housed and I only get an email about it once a year at the start of school to remind all teachers that it exists. I think that marketing anything on the aforementioned list will not be too hard. Though the school is huge, it is a combination of two very small towns and as such the local newspaper is always excited to come around and write an article about it. Additionally, given that so much negative press has been given to our school due to budget cuts, teacher layoffs, and building restructuring, I think it would be good all around to have some positive news in the newspaper abo9tu the school. This year we have a b budget reduction committee and for the first item since we started talking about cutbacks the library is now on the chopping block, so a little good press may go far in terms of the community supporting the library rather than cutting the budget and laying off an elementary librarian. I’m also really excited about adding new services to the library (another item from the mighty list on 192). I know that there is a book club now, but that’s most of what we offer. As I’m just starting out my program I am unsure of what other things I could add, but I do keep getting ideas and look forward to adding them in.
Woolls Chapter 14
I am very interested in the “Electronic Publishing” section of this chapter. Sadly, it isn’t very long and doesn’t go into details about the legal issues with copyright or suggestions for how kids access the books. I assume we would have to have a computer for every kid or, at the very least, a computer for every other kid and they could share. However, this is something I could totally look into as a librarian in order to save the district money. I particularly like the idea that schools only have to buy the parts they need/want instead of spending $110 on a book they only use half of. I think eBooks for reference books, though, is an excellent idea and a great way to supplement the library’s collection. Not only can they be used by kids at home at all times (not that any kids would wait until the night before the research) and if there are already a ton of books in the library over the end of WWII (for example), then I could only spend money on what I really need for the electronic books, which would be the middle and beginning of the war.
I am also very interested in podcasts. I really, really look forward to creating some for school. I expect once I get good at it, it won’t take long to make one and it will play into the school’s mission to become more technology based, and it would draw kids in. I like the idea of book talks and maybe getting some local authors to come in and talk. I also am excited about it becoming a place to talk about new library tools and upcoming school events. Yet again, this just seems to be another way for the library to become a more central part of the school than it already is.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Monday, November 1, 2010
11/8 Evaluation
Evaluation 11/8/2010
“Assessing Learning: The Missing Piece in Instruction”
I find it interesting that this webpage deals with the issue of media specialists feeling that the lower grades aren’t properly teaching the skills kids need since they feel that every year they have to reteach what kids should already know. This is the same thing that happens in every subject across the board. Even with my advanced, dual credit kids I am still reteaching in-text citations and works cited page info every single year. Very rarely do the kids know what to do and, sadly, even after I reteach it and say they need in-text citations I often get blank looks even though we do a full citation and in-text citation in class properly before they write their first essay. Harada and Yoshina put forth the idea that focusing on addressing kids learning is crucial rather than just the teaching of material. They give the scenarios to assess if kids really know this, but I feel as though I assess my kids learning with the citations referenced above. My kids have to prove that they can make both a parenthetical and full citation on their own form a book they’ve never seen using only their MLA handbook before they can move on. This is the same sort of situation mentioned in this article. However, while the ideas here are good, I don’t think they actually address the real issue – which is how kids will retain it. Assessing for learning does not mean that they are being assessed for long-term retention. I can’t say that I have a good idea on how to fix this either since I’ve been trying to come up with something good for years, but I’m not sure that I feel the solution offered by these authors is any more fool-proof than what we do now. In large part, though it’s an entirely different issue, I think a lot of retention issues stem from not having year-round schooling. No matter how well we know something, we lose it if we don’t use it.
Hamilton’s Reports
In comparing the past reports and the one Hamilton is switching to, I can see how the new version would be more beneficial in making the library appear to be a main part of the school. Not that I’m saying it isn’t a main part, but that with her new reports it will actually be obvious to others besides English teachers and the LMS that it is. Making a report that shows clearly both what’s been going on and gives proof of students learning through samples of work seems to be a great idea in general in terms of advocacy. I definitely see how the old reports were mostly data based, which, as Woolls states, has many downfall since it isn’t based on actual educational outcome. With student work on the new reports, there can be no doubt as to the functionality of the library and the learning that comes from it. On a personal note, I think the new reports will be better overall but I am concerned about getting the knowledge to do them. I hope that in a later classes for this degree more of these programs will be dealt with and I will have to make projects out of them because now I feel totally unprepared (of course, this is only my second class…). In fact, my biggest concern is taking over a library and being the lonely LMS. I expect I can’t just call Hamilton and ask her how to make reports like she does and I am overwhelmed by the prospect of having no one to help me. In general, the libraries at our high school (we have two buildings) work well together, but neither are super into bringing more technology and changes, such as super cool monthly reports, into the system so I am afraid that there won’t be anyone to help with these ideas.
“Annual Report as Advocacy Tool”
As previously mentioned, I totally recognize the benefit of the reports as an advocacy tool for the library. I do find several of points on this webpage interesting and intend to use them later. Firstly, Google calendar does certainly need to be implemented into our school. If my understanding is correct, it will make the reports easier to put together and it would certainly be more user friendly. Now teachers have to go sign up on paper calendars and the LMS then looks at them every day to see what’s going on and has them to produce at the end of the year if necessary. However, to do a report (she doesn’t at our school), I would not want to have to sort through 7 different calendars (yes, there’s that many) and do the entire math. As an additional benefit, as a teacher I would LOVE to not have to walk to the library to sign up for time. It may sound silly, but just getting there to sign up is often difficult and I’m pretty close. There are classes that are super far away which, I expect, makes it even more difficult for those teachers. Another point I intend to use is the folder suggestion. I am a natural organizer and think this is a great way to get things ready to go without much effort at the time or later. I would probably break it down into several folders for students work, interesting events, numbers, etc. then I would just have to pull each folder when I need it. Additionally, this would allow me to do most of the report in April, which is our LMC’s dead time. Then I could simply add once a week to each section instead having to do it all at the end of the year in May when the LMC is crazy and books are being weeded and ordered and shelved and the LMS is prepping for summer school.
Annual Reports
The Springfield Township Report had many good points on it. I love the pie graph that breaks down which departments came in for the library the most (how in earth did social studies outdo English?) and the portion that focused on student reading trends. It was a point that was not mentioned in the other readings and I think has a strong importance on what gets taught in class. If teachers are more informed about what student’s like, teaching is less of a fight. I also think the pictures of students are a nice touch to show the student/library connection.
The Lawrence High School report was not good for me at all. I found it difficult to read firstly. Then I felt that the information was not accessible. There seemed to be lots of links to click instead of just getting the info and the page really had the feel of a library webpage that was promoting cool activities. I know that is a part of the annual report, but this didn’t feel like a report and I found it very hard to navigate.
Hamilton’s Animoto report was not good for me. I gather from the discussion that others like it and are jumping in on it, but I felt that I kept losing the numbers. The idea is cool of adding in the photos and the numbers and it is certainly more entertaining than a basic report, but I do feel that overall it is less effective. I assume that it is accompanied by a paper report, but in that case isn’t the Animoto part just unnecessary? I expect that when my time comes I will be more than willing to incorporate technology into my report and make it meaningful, but this version isn’t one I will do.
Woolls Chapter 13
Several parts of this chapter are good. Firstly, I really like the idea of adding an assessment of the LMC by teachers and students. I think that is an important part of improvement since we can’t fix what we don’t know is wrong. Maybe only the highlights could be put in the report or perhaps I could do a simple scale for all questions where they have to rank the LMC on a scale of 1-5 or something. That data could then be crunched and it would be very easy to add to the report. I also really like the pint Woolls makes about the fact that reports that are only filled with numbers are missing a good part of what the library is about since most of what we do can’t be given a number. I can say how many books were checked out, but that doesn’t say if kids actually read them (which are an especially prevalent issue since we have mandatory SSR). Also, numbers can’t prove that kids have actually learned anything or that I have made a life-long reader out of any of my students. I also really like the idea that reports should focus on both what is right and what is wrong. It may sound silly, but I didn’t think about this until I read it. Normally I focus on what is good or what needs to change, but rarely on both at the same time. I also may not have even considered adding what was wrong to the report that my administrator would see, but after thinking about it I see that it does give a more human look to the library and I think that Principal’s are always [pleased to see that faculty can admit when changes are needed.
Raymore-Peculiar High School Library Reports
After speaking with our librarian, I have discovered that there is no monthly reporting at all. There is a yearend report that is mostly data and doesn’t really seem to go anywhere. It gets submitted to the Principal and that’s it. Part of the issue stems from the climate of the libraries. According to the librarian I spoke with, the librarians across the district have had near total autonomy for so long that there would be a near revolt if anyone started looking over their shoulders. I can see why they would be upset if they were asked to submit reports after such a long time of total freedom, but I also see the value of the reports. I am also way surprised that that’s the case for the librarians since the teachers are constantly checked up on.
“Assessing Learning: The Missing Piece in Instruction”
I find it interesting that this webpage deals with the issue of media specialists feeling that the lower grades aren’t properly teaching the skills kids need since they feel that every year they have to reteach what kids should already know. This is the same thing that happens in every subject across the board. Even with my advanced, dual credit kids I am still reteaching in-text citations and works cited page info every single year. Very rarely do the kids know what to do and, sadly, even after I reteach it and say they need in-text citations I often get blank looks even though we do a full citation and in-text citation in class properly before they write their first essay. Harada and Yoshina put forth the idea that focusing on addressing kids learning is crucial rather than just the teaching of material. They give the scenarios to assess if kids really know this, but I feel as though I assess my kids learning with the citations referenced above. My kids have to prove that they can make both a parenthetical and full citation on their own form a book they’ve never seen using only their MLA handbook before they can move on. This is the same sort of situation mentioned in this article. However, while the ideas here are good, I don’t think they actually address the real issue – which is how kids will retain it. Assessing for learning does not mean that they are being assessed for long-term retention. I can’t say that I have a good idea on how to fix this either since I’ve been trying to come up with something good for years, but I’m not sure that I feel the solution offered by these authors is any more fool-proof than what we do now. In large part, though it’s an entirely different issue, I think a lot of retention issues stem from not having year-round schooling. No matter how well we know something, we lose it if we don’t use it.
Hamilton’s Reports
In comparing the past reports and the one Hamilton is switching to, I can see how the new version would be more beneficial in making the library appear to be a main part of the school. Not that I’m saying it isn’t a main part, but that with her new reports it will actually be obvious to others besides English teachers and the LMS that it is. Making a report that shows clearly both what’s been going on and gives proof of students learning through samples of work seems to be a great idea in general in terms of advocacy. I definitely see how the old reports were mostly data based, which, as Woolls states, has many downfall since it isn’t based on actual educational outcome. With student work on the new reports, there can be no doubt as to the functionality of the library and the learning that comes from it. On a personal note, I think the new reports will be better overall but I am concerned about getting the knowledge to do them. I hope that in a later classes for this degree more of these programs will be dealt with and I will have to make projects out of them because now I feel totally unprepared (of course, this is only my second class…). In fact, my biggest concern is taking over a library and being the lonely LMS. I expect I can’t just call Hamilton and ask her how to make reports like she does and I am overwhelmed by the prospect of having no one to help me. In general, the libraries at our high school (we have two buildings) work well together, but neither are super into bringing more technology and changes, such as super cool monthly reports, into the system so I am afraid that there won’t be anyone to help with these ideas.
“Annual Report as Advocacy Tool”
As previously mentioned, I totally recognize the benefit of the reports as an advocacy tool for the library. I do find several of points on this webpage interesting and intend to use them later. Firstly, Google calendar does certainly need to be implemented into our school. If my understanding is correct, it will make the reports easier to put together and it would certainly be more user friendly. Now teachers have to go sign up on paper calendars and the LMS then looks at them every day to see what’s going on and has them to produce at the end of the year if necessary. However, to do a report (she doesn’t at our school), I would not want to have to sort through 7 different calendars (yes, there’s that many) and do the entire math. As an additional benefit, as a teacher I would LOVE to not have to walk to the library to sign up for time. It may sound silly, but just getting there to sign up is often difficult and I’m pretty close. There are classes that are super far away which, I expect, makes it even more difficult for those teachers. Another point I intend to use is the folder suggestion. I am a natural organizer and think this is a great way to get things ready to go without much effort at the time or later. I would probably break it down into several folders for students work, interesting events, numbers, etc. then I would just have to pull each folder when I need it. Additionally, this would allow me to do most of the report in April, which is our LMC’s dead time. Then I could simply add once a week to each section instead having to do it all at the end of the year in May when the LMC is crazy and books are being weeded and ordered and shelved and the LMS is prepping for summer school.
Annual Reports
The Springfield Township Report had many good points on it. I love the pie graph that breaks down which departments came in for the library the most (how in earth did social studies outdo English?) and the portion that focused on student reading trends. It was a point that was not mentioned in the other readings and I think has a strong importance on what gets taught in class. If teachers are more informed about what student’s like, teaching is less of a fight. I also think the pictures of students are a nice touch to show the student/library connection.
The Lawrence High School report was not good for me at all. I found it difficult to read firstly. Then I felt that the information was not accessible. There seemed to be lots of links to click instead of just getting the info and the page really had the feel of a library webpage that was promoting cool activities. I know that is a part of the annual report, but this didn’t feel like a report and I found it very hard to navigate.
Hamilton’s Animoto report was not good for me. I gather from the discussion that others like it and are jumping in on it, but I felt that I kept losing the numbers. The idea is cool of adding in the photos and the numbers and it is certainly more entertaining than a basic report, but I do feel that overall it is less effective. I assume that it is accompanied by a paper report, but in that case isn’t the Animoto part just unnecessary? I expect that when my time comes I will be more than willing to incorporate technology into my report and make it meaningful, but this version isn’t one I will do.
Woolls Chapter 13
Several parts of this chapter are good. Firstly, I really like the idea of adding an assessment of the LMC by teachers and students. I think that is an important part of improvement since we can’t fix what we don’t know is wrong. Maybe only the highlights could be put in the report or perhaps I could do a simple scale for all questions where they have to rank the LMC on a scale of 1-5 or something. That data could then be crunched and it would be very easy to add to the report. I also really like the pint Woolls makes about the fact that reports that are only filled with numbers are missing a good part of what the library is about since most of what we do can’t be given a number. I can say how many books were checked out, but that doesn’t say if kids actually read them (which are an especially prevalent issue since we have mandatory SSR). Also, numbers can’t prove that kids have actually learned anything or that I have made a life-long reader out of any of my students. I also really like the idea that reports should focus on both what is right and what is wrong. It may sound silly, but I didn’t think about this until I read it. Normally I focus on what is good or what needs to change, but rarely on both at the same time. I also may not have even considered adding what was wrong to the report that my administrator would see, but after thinking about it I see that it does give a more human look to the library and I think that Principal’s are always [pleased to see that faculty can admit when changes are needed.
Raymore-Peculiar High School Library Reports
After speaking with our librarian, I have discovered that there is no monthly reporting at all. There is a yearend report that is mostly data and doesn’t really seem to go anywhere. It gets submitted to the Principal and that’s it. Part of the issue stems from the climate of the libraries. According to the librarian I spoke with, the librarians across the district have had near total autonomy for so long that there would be a near revolt if anyone started looking over their shoulders. I can see why they would be upset if they were asked to submit reports after such a long time of total freedom, but I also see the value of the reports. I am also way surprised that that’s the case for the librarians since the teachers are constantly checked up on.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
10/25/2010 Access to Info
Podcast - Buffy Hamilton
As a learner who needs to see the words I thought it would be very, very difficult to just listen to this and then comment on it. However, I have two pages of notes, so I think I will only be able to pick out the points I think are most valuable to expound upon in the interest of space. I am a huge fan of the idea that kids are not stupid or useless (a common perception I’ve discovered when talking to people about what I do for a living as well as, sadly, other teachers). I love that Hamilton makes the kids feel that what they have to say and offer the world is important despite their age. When reviewing the kid’s comments on the project she mentioned that one said it felt wonderful to have a blog because it felt as though they were being heard. I think this also ties to the idea that kids must take an equal, if not greater, role in learning than the teacher. I have always taught the children who were products of the No Child Left Behind Act, so they have always been very complacent. The kids sit and nod and take notes. Even their misbehaving is complacent. They quietly lay their heads down (usually) and take a nap when they want to snub authority. However, last year we were evaluated as a High School that Works school and the evaluated said he had never seen such well-behaved children who still weren’t doing anything. Their politeness masked their lack of work. The evaluator said that the teacher should never have to work harder than the kids in school. I agree that it is important to have them take control of their education. Otherwise, we are simply sending out polite people into the world who haven’t learned the most important role of responsibility and ownership. My kids must work in class. They lead the conversation and I guide them to the more important parts of the articles we are discussing. At first, they always say they simply don’t know what to say since they’ve never been asked their opinion, and bear in mind that these kids are advanced seniors who are only 9 short months away from college. By the end of the year they say that mine was one of their favorite classes even if they hate English, the content, the book, even me because they got to contribute. I do find it very interesting that the kids had little understanding of how blogs and Twitter work. I assumed, apparently incorrectly, that this was simply something that was engrained in their generation. I would be interested in trying this with my class. Of course, the benefit to me is not only more engaged students but better job security in a dangerous time. However, schools are, in the end, really big public relations machines, and, as our superintendant reminded us only a few months ago, we are in a business and when people stop going to that business it will fail. Raymore-Peculiar is one of the best schools in the state so we had a huge growth in the past 5-7 years. We are also one of the few places only 10 minutes from the city (both Lee’s Summit and Grandview) where you are still in the country. However, with the economic downturn we lost an amazing amount of money from people moving out again. The superintendant urged us to do whatever necessary to make our schools more attractive since the schools are the main reason people move to Raymore-Peculiar. I think this program would do just that. It highlights a schools technology and progressive teaching styles. I do wonder how well this would work logistically though. It’s a struggle to meet the college required four essays a semester now. This would push the deadline back considerably.
LM_NET
Shonda Brisco posted “free internet safety booklets” on 8/16/2010. This seems to be more of an informative post than anything else that gives a link for librarians to go to get free pamphlets on “online safety, cell phone safety, photo sharing online, social networks, texting, cyber-bullying, and offers definitions and suggestions to parents, teachers, and other adults in ways to help guide students in the best ways in which to use these new technologies--without scare tactics.” It’s nice that that LM_Net offers these types of posts since there’s so much information out there that it would be easy to miss this sort of thing. Of course, internet safety is a huge part of being a librarian and I think that this sort of thing, if distributed to classes and then talked about as a group, would be an essential part of my job. Though it would be hard to get the classroom time away from teachers, a gentle reminder that they don’t want to be the teacher who has a problem and chose not to cover this material might nudge them in the right direction.
On 8/16/2010 Cheryl Quinn posted the thread “Follow up about cell phones” on LM_NET. Though I don’t see the original post, she did sum it up for readers. She was looking for a project that would incorporate cell phones into the classroom. Someone suggested that she use a website where the teacher posted a question and the kids texted in their answers. The teacher could then check the site later in the day to grade the answers. I think that it is a nice idea to incorporate cell phones into classes since it is a way of life now. There is no escaping cell phones and to deny them in school really just hurts kids now that they are so “plugged-in”. It would up interest in class and allow flexibility for those who are in high school and work. However, there are many problems with this idea. I can see that kids not having cell phones would be an issue as well as other teachers having trouble with them being used for non-class related material. The claim that the texting was for a school homework assignment would become an issue. However, this might work for a library if it allowed kids to text in questions to the librarian when they were at home thinking about them. However, even then I see that the kids could just email the question. Overall, while I think it’s a good idea to allow kids access to technology throughout the day, I see that this may create more problems than it solves in the high school setting. Additionally, even those with cell phones cannot always afford to pay the high bill for unlimited texting and many students do not have texting at all – their parents only pay for basic service.
On 8/16/2010 Tara Herbert posted the thread “bulletin board responses” on LM_NET. This was an enlightening post since I have no experience with bulletin boards. I teach senior English so I put one up that lasts for most the year. It’s not really a frilly, decorated room. Io have been wondering about this issue as a librarian though as I know that they are supposed to be decorated and engaging for kids. There were some excellent ideas in this post. I can see that this will be a challenging part of my job as a librarian but an important part as well. Kids need to be engaged in reading and often all it takes is the mention of something. This would be particularly effective if kids see something bright and catchy. In all honesty, I can see myself returning to this post or posting my own, very similar, post later in life when I become a librarian.
Blogs
Library advocate posted “PA Passes Historic Resolution to Study School Libraries” on 10/14. This article details the new decision of the PA House of Representatives to study school libraries, to see how many do not have a certified librarian, and how that affects student education. I think this is very serendipitous since just last week the video “All Students Deserve an Equitable Education” stated that 75% of schools in Philadelphia do not have certified librarians. I expect the findings will not be surprising. However, what I find wonderful about this post is the possibility of other states soon following in PA’s footsteps. As is usually the case, once one state does something, others follow and I think it’s very heartening to think that this could be the “end in sight” moment for the troubles that libraries have had.
Swiss Army Librarian posted “Reference Question of the Week” on 10/10/10. The post detailed the long process the librarian had to go through to help a patron identify an old Roman coin he had. The process sounded rather like a treasure hunt, which would be quite amazing if I had time to do it in my profession. I assume this blogger is a public librarian from the nature of his posts. As a school librarian, I can’t imagine being able to go into such detail for any question without neglecting a ton of students. It’s disheartening to think (ah, this must be balance from the last upbeat post!) that to really help one person others need to be neglected. Perhaps I’m simply being pessimistic based on my day today, which was in no way bad, but it was a student workday so every class period I had at least three different people needing me all at once. To come home and read this post where one man had this much time to give one person undivided attention rather made me jealous.
ALA TechSource posted on 10/18/2010 “Deleted Does Not Mean Gone Forever.” This post had many good points. It started by referencing an experiment that a man named Cheng did in 2009 to see how long a deleted photo can be accessed after it is removed from a site. The result was unpleasant. So long as a person bookmarked the URL while the photo was up, it was still available two years later since it was saved in the cache. MySpace and Facebook are working on fixing this issue now that it has had national attention. The author of the post brought up the important fact that since what goes up on the internet has a tendency to stay up, schools need to be super careful about what goes up. At my school we have a huge packet of forms that go home every year and one of those is an agreement to have student photos placed on the website. There are a sizable number of parents who say that their kid’s photos are not allowed online. I think this is going to be a big challenge for me to meet since the best way to promote support for the library is to keep photos of good stuff happening on the webpage.
Woolls Chapter 8
This was such a coincidence!!! We have been spending that last month of school talking about the Patriot Act in my classroom, so I was glad to have this reading this week. There were several parts of the first half of this reading I found interesting, but less so of the second half. I am particularly interested in the ALA’s “strongly recommended” policy on page 126 that states, “Resist the issuance or enforcement of any such process, order, or subpoena until such time as a proper showing of good cause has been made in a court of competent jurisdiction.” I wonder how possible this is since reporter Josh Wolf was arrested in 2006 for refusing to give up his tapes of a demonstration against the war under court order. He was imprisoned for six months and then set free. I wonder at what point that becomes an issue. As a school librarian will I, by refusing to give up my patron’s info until a good case has been made in court, will experience the same situation. Of course it isn’t likely, but I have to wonder at what point it becomes likely. Surely Wolf thought the same thing, and did say so in an interview with Naomi Wolf (yes, they have the same last name so it isn’t a typo). How long can one stall in a country that now allows the President the power to say anyone is obstructing the war on terror and is therefore a traitor to be thrown in jail? I am particularly fond of the order Woolls gives on 127 to destroy records of student use as soon as is feasibly possible, and am even more drawn to it due to the fact that she presents it as a must rather than an option.
I had further issue with the claim on page 127 that states, “The library community recognizes that children and youth have the same rights to privacy as adults.” Since this isn’t even a policy that the school recognizes, I wonder how well that would go over if I ever had to use it as a reason for my not just handing over info to the government.
Despite my apparent distaste of living in a free society where freedom is quickly becoming an illusion to those fortunate enough to not notice what’s happening, I do wonder at what I would do in the situation referenced on page 128. Woolls states, “It is unlikely that school library media specialists would be targeted by FBI agents requesting records unless students were attacked nu other students within the school.” My concern is not from the FBI, but more of what I would do when a student’s disturbing check out pattern became apparent, if it did. If it became clear that a student was truly becoming harmful to either themselves or others, should I go to the counselor? If it was clear they were concerned about abuse from parents, am I mandated first to report to child protective services or is my first duty to privacy? While I ardently believe in the protection of privacy and am whole heartedly against the Patriot Act (having said that I suppose I’ll be on “the list” with one million other Americans now that it’s on the internet!), I think that my concern for and love of my students would win out. And should it? Does my duty as a teacher as a mandatory reporter of suspected abuse take precedent over my duty as a librarian to protect my student’s privacy?
The next interesting point in this chapter was on the filtering of the internet at schools. We have a filter system that filters all cites that contain certain words. My students, who obviously spend a lot of time with delicate subjects, often cannot research at school. This then leads to an even bigger issue for those kids who have no internet or computer access at home. I expect one of my biggest battles will be having the filter removed. Teaching at such a large district, I expect that won’t happen, but I am certainly not going to try having experienced the frustration myself.
Weeding and collection development did bring to mind the conversation I had with our librarian the other day. She said we have 20,000 books in our collection which is WAY more than we need. She said kids only check out maybe 10% of what we have and that that’s mostly fiction. She said she keeps it all around for looks and I wonder if my administration would mind my weeding massively to make room for more technology, reading spaces, fiction, and my awesome charging station I’ve made into a semester-long project.
Empowering Learners
Page 34 of this text only reinforced the idea I had that our library needs to be redesigned as soon as funds become available. Given the description of the physical space, I don’t think our library meets it very well. This ties to the comment on page 40 that states that librarians need to make sure kids with special need have those needs met so they have equal access. I am pretty sure that this is not the case in our library. However, in these economic times, I wonder I this is something I will voluntarily address before I’m forced to address it. In the end, it seems that building a collection or offering resources for the two thousand kids in the district slightly outweighs the eight that have special needs. Not that I won’t try to accommodate, but expensive equipment just can’t be bought for two students at this time.
As a learner who needs to see the words I thought it would be very, very difficult to just listen to this and then comment on it. However, I have two pages of notes, so I think I will only be able to pick out the points I think are most valuable to expound upon in the interest of space. I am a huge fan of the idea that kids are not stupid or useless (a common perception I’ve discovered when talking to people about what I do for a living as well as, sadly, other teachers). I love that Hamilton makes the kids feel that what they have to say and offer the world is important despite their age. When reviewing the kid’s comments on the project she mentioned that one said it felt wonderful to have a blog because it felt as though they were being heard. I think this also ties to the idea that kids must take an equal, if not greater, role in learning than the teacher. I have always taught the children who were products of the No Child Left Behind Act, so they have always been very complacent. The kids sit and nod and take notes. Even their misbehaving is complacent. They quietly lay their heads down (usually) and take a nap when they want to snub authority. However, last year we were evaluated as a High School that Works school and the evaluated said he had never seen such well-behaved children who still weren’t doing anything. Their politeness masked their lack of work. The evaluator said that the teacher should never have to work harder than the kids in school. I agree that it is important to have them take control of their education. Otherwise, we are simply sending out polite people into the world who haven’t learned the most important role of responsibility and ownership. My kids must work in class. They lead the conversation and I guide them to the more important parts of the articles we are discussing. At first, they always say they simply don’t know what to say since they’ve never been asked their opinion, and bear in mind that these kids are advanced seniors who are only 9 short months away from college. By the end of the year they say that mine was one of their favorite classes even if they hate English, the content, the book, even me because they got to contribute. I do find it very interesting that the kids had little understanding of how blogs and Twitter work. I assumed, apparently incorrectly, that this was simply something that was engrained in their generation. I would be interested in trying this with my class. Of course, the benefit to me is not only more engaged students but better job security in a dangerous time. However, schools are, in the end, really big public relations machines, and, as our superintendant reminded us only a few months ago, we are in a business and when people stop going to that business it will fail. Raymore-Peculiar is one of the best schools in the state so we had a huge growth in the past 5-7 years. We are also one of the few places only 10 minutes from the city (both Lee’s Summit and Grandview) where you are still in the country. However, with the economic downturn we lost an amazing amount of money from people moving out again. The superintendant urged us to do whatever necessary to make our schools more attractive since the schools are the main reason people move to Raymore-Peculiar. I think this program would do just that. It highlights a schools technology and progressive teaching styles. I do wonder how well this would work logistically though. It’s a struggle to meet the college required four essays a semester now. This would push the deadline back considerably.
LM_NET
Shonda Brisco posted “free internet safety booklets” on 8/16/2010. This seems to be more of an informative post than anything else that gives a link for librarians to go to get free pamphlets on “online safety, cell phone safety, photo sharing online, social networks, texting, cyber-bullying, and offers definitions and suggestions to parents, teachers, and other adults in ways to help guide students in the best ways in which to use these new technologies--without scare tactics.” It’s nice that that LM_Net offers these types of posts since there’s so much information out there that it would be easy to miss this sort of thing. Of course, internet safety is a huge part of being a librarian and I think that this sort of thing, if distributed to classes and then talked about as a group, would be an essential part of my job. Though it would be hard to get the classroom time away from teachers, a gentle reminder that they don’t want to be the teacher who has a problem and chose not to cover this material might nudge them in the right direction.
On 8/16/2010 Cheryl Quinn posted the thread “Follow up about cell phones” on LM_NET. Though I don’t see the original post, she did sum it up for readers. She was looking for a project that would incorporate cell phones into the classroom. Someone suggested that she use a website where the teacher posted a question and the kids texted in their answers. The teacher could then check the site later in the day to grade the answers. I think that it is a nice idea to incorporate cell phones into classes since it is a way of life now. There is no escaping cell phones and to deny them in school really just hurts kids now that they are so “plugged-in”. It would up interest in class and allow flexibility for those who are in high school and work. However, there are many problems with this idea. I can see that kids not having cell phones would be an issue as well as other teachers having trouble with them being used for non-class related material. The claim that the texting was for a school homework assignment would become an issue. However, this might work for a library if it allowed kids to text in questions to the librarian when they were at home thinking about them. However, even then I see that the kids could just email the question. Overall, while I think it’s a good idea to allow kids access to technology throughout the day, I see that this may create more problems than it solves in the high school setting. Additionally, even those with cell phones cannot always afford to pay the high bill for unlimited texting and many students do not have texting at all – their parents only pay for basic service.
On 8/16/2010 Tara Herbert posted the thread “bulletin board responses” on LM_NET. This was an enlightening post since I have no experience with bulletin boards. I teach senior English so I put one up that lasts for most the year. It’s not really a frilly, decorated room. Io have been wondering about this issue as a librarian though as I know that they are supposed to be decorated and engaging for kids. There were some excellent ideas in this post. I can see that this will be a challenging part of my job as a librarian but an important part as well. Kids need to be engaged in reading and often all it takes is the mention of something. This would be particularly effective if kids see something bright and catchy. In all honesty, I can see myself returning to this post or posting my own, very similar, post later in life when I become a librarian.
Blogs
Library advocate posted “PA Passes Historic Resolution to Study School Libraries” on 10/14. This article details the new decision of the PA House of Representatives to study school libraries, to see how many do not have a certified librarian, and how that affects student education. I think this is very serendipitous since just last week the video “All Students Deserve an Equitable Education” stated that 75% of schools in Philadelphia do not have certified librarians. I expect the findings will not be surprising. However, what I find wonderful about this post is the possibility of other states soon following in PA’s footsteps. As is usually the case, once one state does something, others follow and I think it’s very heartening to think that this could be the “end in sight” moment for the troubles that libraries have had.
Swiss Army Librarian posted “Reference Question of the Week” on 10/10/10. The post detailed the long process the librarian had to go through to help a patron identify an old Roman coin he had. The process sounded rather like a treasure hunt, which would be quite amazing if I had time to do it in my profession. I assume this blogger is a public librarian from the nature of his posts. As a school librarian, I can’t imagine being able to go into such detail for any question without neglecting a ton of students. It’s disheartening to think (ah, this must be balance from the last upbeat post!) that to really help one person others need to be neglected. Perhaps I’m simply being pessimistic based on my day today, which was in no way bad, but it was a student workday so every class period I had at least three different people needing me all at once. To come home and read this post where one man had this much time to give one person undivided attention rather made me jealous.
ALA TechSource posted on 10/18/2010 “Deleted Does Not Mean Gone Forever.” This post had many good points. It started by referencing an experiment that a man named Cheng did in 2009 to see how long a deleted photo can be accessed after it is removed from a site. The result was unpleasant. So long as a person bookmarked the URL while the photo was up, it was still available two years later since it was saved in the cache. MySpace and Facebook are working on fixing this issue now that it has had national attention. The author of the post brought up the important fact that since what goes up on the internet has a tendency to stay up, schools need to be super careful about what goes up. At my school we have a huge packet of forms that go home every year and one of those is an agreement to have student photos placed on the website. There are a sizable number of parents who say that their kid’s photos are not allowed online. I think this is going to be a big challenge for me to meet since the best way to promote support for the library is to keep photos of good stuff happening on the webpage.
Woolls Chapter 8
This was such a coincidence!!! We have been spending that last month of school talking about the Patriot Act in my classroom, so I was glad to have this reading this week. There were several parts of the first half of this reading I found interesting, but less so of the second half. I am particularly interested in the ALA’s “strongly recommended” policy on page 126 that states, “Resist the issuance or enforcement of any such process, order, or subpoena until such time as a proper showing of good cause has been made in a court of competent jurisdiction.” I wonder how possible this is since reporter Josh Wolf was arrested in 2006 for refusing to give up his tapes of a demonstration against the war under court order. He was imprisoned for six months and then set free. I wonder at what point that becomes an issue. As a school librarian will I, by refusing to give up my patron’s info until a good case has been made in court, will experience the same situation. Of course it isn’t likely, but I have to wonder at what point it becomes likely. Surely Wolf thought the same thing, and did say so in an interview with Naomi Wolf (yes, they have the same last name so it isn’t a typo). How long can one stall in a country that now allows the President the power to say anyone is obstructing the war on terror and is therefore a traitor to be thrown in jail? I am particularly fond of the order Woolls gives on 127 to destroy records of student use as soon as is feasibly possible, and am even more drawn to it due to the fact that she presents it as a must rather than an option.
I had further issue with the claim on page 127 that states, “The library community recognizes that children and youth have the same rights to privacy as adults.” Since this isn’t even a policy that the school recognizes, I wonder how well that would go over if I ever had to use it as a reason for my not just handing over info to the government.
Despite my apparent distaste of living in a free society where freedom is quickly becoming an illusion to those fortunate enough to not notice what’s happening, I do wonder at what I would do in the situation referenced on page 128. Woolls states, “It is unlikely that school library media specialists would be targeted by FBI agents requesting records unless students were attacked nu other students within the school.” My concern is not from the FBI, but more of what I would do when a student’s disturbing check out pattern became apparent, if it did. If it became clear that a student was truly becoming harmful to either themselves or others, should I go to the counselor? If it was clear they were concerned about abuse from parents, am I mandated first to report to child protective services or is my first duty to privacy? While I ardently believe in the protection of privacy and am whole heartedly against the Patriot Act (having said that I suppose I’ll be on “the list” with one million other Americans now that it’s on the internet!), I think that my concern for and love of my students would win out. And should it? Does my duty as a teacher as a mandatory reporter of suspected abuse take precedent over my duty as a librarian to protect my student’s privacy?
The next interesting point in this chapter was on the filtering of the internet at schools. We have a filter system that filters all cites that contain certain words. My students, who obviously spend a lot of time with delicate subjects, often cannot research at school. This then leads to an even bigger issue for those kids who have no internet or computer access at home. I expect one of my biggest battles will be having the filter removed. Teaching at such a large district, I expect that won’t happen, but I am certainly not going to try having experienced the frustration myself.
Weeding and collection development did bring to mind the conversation I had with our librarian the other day. She said we have 20,000 books in our collection which is WAY more than we need. She said kids only check out maybe 10% of what we have and that that’s mostly fiction. She said she keeps it all around for looks and I wonder if my administration would mind my weeding massively to make room for more technology, reading spaces, fiction, and my awesome charging station I’ve made into a semester-long project.
Empowering Learners
Page 34 of this text only reinforced the idea I had that our library needs to be redesigned as soon as funds become available. Given the description of the physical space, I don’t think our library meets it very well. This ties to the comment on page 40 that states that librarians need to make sure kids with special need have those needs met so they have equal access. I am pretty sure that this is not the case in our library. However, in these economic times, I wonder I this is something I will voluntarily address before I’m forced to address it. In the end, it seems that building a collection or offering resources for the two thousand kids in the district slightly outweighs the eight that have special needs. Not that I won’t try to accommodate, but expensive equipment just can’t be bought for two students at this time.
Monday, October 4, 2010
10/11/2010 Library as Places
10-11 Libraries as Places
Woolls Chapter 7: Managing Personnel
There are several points in this chapter that I found interesting. Firstly, I must say that I am concerned about the managing of personnel. It wasn’t a task I have ever even considered as a part of the job, but now that I think about it, it does make sense. However, I do not like the idea of having to fire or hire someone. Nor do I like having to evaluate others’ performance, especially when I am with those people all day in an often silent, empty environment. On the other hand, I am a very intimidating person, so my students tell me. This is going to work in my favor since I can manage students, but I am concerned that it will make my assistant unhappy. I would love to have a happy place, but I know that I often come off as domineering without meaning to be.
The more important point that I took from this chapter was that much of it seems to focus on how to make my job indispensable. It is true that funds everywhere are being cut and that I will have to lobby for my job; however, I found some encouraging points in here. As mentioned before in Skype and other posts, I work in a PD-happy district. The first Monday of every month is dedicated to PD and, up until the starving times of this year, there was also PD at least once a month on plan periods. I think that when things bounce back, as they surely must, PD will again become a part of the school day. In addition to this, we have a full week of PD before every school year starts and two days of PD after school ends. As such, I see that Woolls makes a good point by claiming that the LMS may eventually control PD. Though she says, “as professional periodicals are added to the media center collection, the media specialist may copy pertinent articles, highlighting key passages, and forward them to the principal” (119). She ends this portion with the thought that it would simply make both persons look good. I, however, see it as a way to maintain a job. With so much PD in our district, I can safely say only a fraction of it is good PD. Training staff on new technologies and things the library can offer teachers would be a much better way to do PD and that would make the LMS a central part of the school that could not be done away with.
This ties too with her point on page 114 that libraries are now arguably unnecessary. It’s true that it is possible to have a functioning virtual library and as such the librarian would need to be an integral part of school to maintain a place in it. Aside from PD development, another way to make myself indispensible is to help develop cross-curricular activities. I currently teach an English class that doubles as a current events class. My subjects often fall into things that sociology, current events, and psychology study. As a classroom teacher, I feel lucky to get through my grading in a day. I can’t imagine having the time to develop these units with another teacher. However, the LMS is in a perfect position to do so since she sees what kids’ research year after year. This is also a good way to get involved in the classroom and to make the school look good as everyone knows that cross curricular lessons are all the rage now.
Podcasts
Cool Tools 2.0 Live MOcah.com sounds awesome. It is a social networking site with the exclusive function of learning a new language. Aside from being a useful tool for library patrons, as a librarian it is very important to learn a new language so that non-English speaking patrons can still get help. It would further help with understanding patrons with heavy accents. As a social networking site, users get help from native speakers of the language through online chat to help with grammar and pronunciation questions. Online exercises are where the main content is given. Eight languages are covered including Arabic, French, and German. As a high school librarian this is a very important tool to integrate into the library’s cache of online resources in light of the economic situation. Though I certainly don’t advocate the downsizing of foreign language programs, it is happening nonetheless. Livemocah.com will allow students exposure to languages in schools where programs have been cut to the bare bones or cut entirely. In today’s global economy, it is more important now than ever to promote language studies and this is a cheap effective manner in which to do so. Additionally, if nothing else, it would make me look good to the administration as a librarian. After school study groups could be held and this would further highlight the importance of what the library does to prevent downsizing there as well.
Cool Tools Lucid Chart is an online graphic organizer and flow chart creator. As a high school librarian, this would be one of the things that I would promote to students to promote collaboration among them and to help them complete group projects at home. Lucid Chart has premade shapes and connectors (such as arrows and bars) that the students simply have to drag and drop in the order they want them placed. Then they simply type what they want inside them. What makes this tool exceptionally important in today’s education is that a Lucid project can be opened up to other users by the creator. Lucid Chart has a built in chat tool that allows students to communicate about changes that are being made and to help them finish their project easier. To prevent disagreements, Lucid Chart keeps a log of what changes have been made to the project and who has made them. In today’s day and age, it is super important that if educators are going to assign a group project that there also be a tool such as this to go along with it. Kids are busier now more than ever and asking four kids who each work different jobs, play sports, babysit younger siblings, etc to get together at the same time on the same night is nearly impossible. As an added perk, this program is free making it a great tool for both student and the school.
New York times Book Review 8/6/2010
The books that were focused on in this review were Comedy in a Minor Key and The Death of the Adversary by Hans Keilson. Both of these are holocaust novels, but the view they take a drastically different one than most Holocaust novels do.
Comedy in a Minor Key focuses on a Dutch couple who take in a Jewish man that needs a place to hide. Unlike other Holocaust fiction, these people do not really want to take him in and only do so because they are told it is their patriotic duty and because the wife wants glory after the war is over. Furthermore, they live in the country so unlike other holocaust fiction there is not the imminent danger of them being caught and taken to a concentration camp. Another main difference between this and other holocaust fiction is that the Jew who was saved, though aware that his life was saved and appreciative for it, shows jealousy of his saviors. They have been able to keep everything while he has lost everything for a ridiculous reason. As he looks at their things he feels anger at them rather than the blind devotion showed by other who were saved in other holocaust fiction. Furthermore, the Jew dies of natural causes rather than being caught or set free at the end of the novel and the couple who were hiding him then have to decide what to do with a dead body that they shouldn’t have.
Death of the Adversary is told from the perspective a Jew early on in the war. He witnesses nearly all his friends turn to Nazis and gives first-hand accounts of acts of violence against Jews that are often given less attention, like grave desecration. This novel differs from other Holocaust fiction in the sense that the narrator gives the reader a sense of what it is like to be told he is worthless everyday to the point where he begins to believe it.
I think that there is a definite need for “new” Holocaust fiction in libraries. For so long we have read Anne Frank and Night that other points of view, more human points of view, get lost. Additionally, the young generations have lost touch with WWII in many ways. Yes, they all read Night and Anne Frank, but that is part of what caused them to lose touch, I think. A new perspective is needed to bring the issue back to the forefront of thought as a reminder to not allow it again.
Another portion of this podcast focused on teen fiction and the sudden push towards it for adults. I agree ardently with the contributor to this piece, Pamela Paul that teen fiction is in many ways better than adult fiction. Paul claims that the characters are better developed and the problems more important than in adult fiction where character development and plot are often left behind in the search for high literary status. Since teen fiction has been given a bad name for so long (Rowling herself was told that if she intended to write teen fiction she had better keep a day job since no one made money at it), that the authors put more into their work. Additionally, childhood is disappearing quicker now than ever and teen fiction shows that. In this sense, teen fiction is in a way becoming adult fiction. many of the problems faced are not so dissimilar from what adults face: lack of money, homelessness, loneliness, etc. as a public librarian, I would, at the very least, move the teen fiction section away from the children's section and attempt to integrate it more fully into the adult portion of the library in order to encourage more adults to read it rather than be embarrassed by it.
eBooks were another topic this podcast considered. This week (8/6/2010) Barnes and Nobel went up for sale. This podcast’s conjecture was that it did so as it was having a hard time staying afloat in the new digital book age. However, the environment of the café is what kept Barnes and Noble alive so long. I think that both points can be taken to heart at the library. Now more than ever people want to find free things to do and the library fits that description. It would be amazingly helpful if the library could adopt a café-type feel. I know when I go to my public library I still feel that I am at a government institution rather than being at a relaxing place to hang out and browse books.
LM_Net
Dennis LeLoup posted on LM_NET on 8/21/2010 in response to another post about how to manage a library with a split schedule called “Fixed Schedule Question for Elementary Media”. His post states that he in a district that, due to layoffs, has resulted in an assistant being at the library when he is not. Since he has top travel between buildings, he is only at each building every other day and the assistant has to take over when he is gone. I can see that until things get better for schools financially this may be a recurring situation. However, it is one I never even considered. After all, no matter how bad things get for schools, I won’t ever teach my kids only every other day. I have to be with them every day. This is a concerning issue in terms of library administration. At the very least, you would seriously have to trust the assistant that was hired. In the worst case scenario, students would suffer from an assistant that could possibly not have any experience with databases and teen/children’s fiction being the only person there every other day. I can see that this could be a serious problem for the long haul of the library, but I hope that this sort of situation is short lived. I hope that isn’t too optimistic. I expect the idea that a librarian is option will only be further promoted that appearance of empty shelves with the incorporation of downloadable content.
Carol Peterson posted “Dewey Shelving Lessons” on 8/21/2010. Her concern was that she had given her 7-8 grade library aids verbal instructions and shown them how to shelve in the Dewey Decimal System but the kids were still shelving incorrectly after getting over her frustration at their perceived laziness, she discovered that no matter how she explained it the kids just didn’t understand. Here is yet another thing that did not occur to me as a teacher who will later be a librarian. Our school library has no library aids, so I asked the librarian why not. Her answer ran along the same line as Peterson’s issue: that the kids didn’t do it right and it was more baby-sitting than anything else. The result seems that it is far easier to just shelve the material correctly so that the librarian doesn’t have to spend hours hunting down a missing book. I think this is an interesting conundrum. Mis-shelved items were a huge problem at the school I worked at before because kids were putting them back incorrectly. Right before I left the librarian had to reorganize the whole library since it was unusable after years and years of neglect. I wonder of the librarian at my current school doesn’t have the right idea. Perhaps it would be far better to simply absorb and extra bit of work in the short run that would save a ton of time in the long run.
Carolina Cuello posted “Calvin and Hobbes strip about librarians” on 8/20/2010. Though her post is short an only describes the comic with a request for anyone who has it to send it her since it’s funny, there are rather big issues within the management of the library that are brought up by the strip. The comic itself has Calvin being afraid to go to the library because his book is late and he’s afraid of the librarian. Sure this is a common comic trope, but how did it even get that far? What does this say about libraries? At first, I thought that if people borrow books then they need to return them or pay the price. It also seems like an easy way to generate extra money for the library. However, I then read in Woolls that this was a terrible idea since it makes reading punitive. Then I began to think. When I lived in Warrensburg, MO (for less than a year) I used the public library all the time for books on CD. Since I could return the book and lose my spot if I didn’t drive enough in time to finish it, I kept my first book a few days late to get it dome. I went in to pay my fine and the librarian looked at me as though I were weird and said they didn’t fine at all unless a book was lost or damaged. I probably got more books then I would normally have my home library (still the one I use) because I was never afraid of running out of time and having to pay a fine. It does seem to me that reading should be fun. If anything, we should be giving rewards to kids for wanting to read and using the library. Though there is always the issue of what to do when someone won’t bring the book back, I think that the library really needs to be a place in school where there is no punishment (though kids should still not be climbing the walls). All day kids are told what they can’t do or that they need to work faster to keep up with the class. It seems like a good idea to let kids have at least one place where they can go at their own pace. If it takes 8 months to read one book, then at least they’ve read one book.
Woolls Chapter 7: Managing Personnel
There are several points in this chapter that I found interesting. Firstly, I must say that I am concerned about the managing of personnel. It wasn’t a task I have ever even considered as a part of the job, but now that I think about it, it does make sense. However, I do not like the idea of having to fire or hire someone. Nor do I like having to evaluate others’ performance, especially when I am with those people all day in an often silent, empty environment. On the other hand, I am a very intimidating person, so my students tell me. This is going to work in my favor since I can manage students, but I am concerned that it will make my assistant unhappy. I would love to have a happy place, but I know that I often come off as domineering without meaning to be.
The more important point that I took from this chapter was that much of it seems to focus on how to make my job indispensable. It is true that funds everywhere are being cut and that I will have to lobby for my job; however, I found some encouraging points in here. As mentioned before in Skype and other posts, I work in a PD-happy district. The first Monday of every month is dedicated to PD and, up until the starving times of this year, there was also PD at least once a month on plan periods. I think that when things bounce back, as they surely must, PD will again become a part of the school day. In addition to this, we have a full week of PD before every school year starts and two days of PD after school ends. As such, I see that Woolls makes a good point by claiming that the LMS may eventually control PD. Though she says, “as professional periodicals are added to the media center collection, the media specialist may copy pertinent articles, highlighting key passages, and forward them to the principal” (119). She ends this portion with the thought that it would simply make both persons look good. I, however, see it as a way to maintain a job. With so much PD in our district, I can safely say only a fraction of it is good PD. Training staff on new technologies and things the library can offer teachers would be a much better way to do PD and that would make the LMS a central part of the school that could not be done away with.
This ties too with her point on page 114 that libraries are now arguably unnecessary. It’s true that it is possible to have a functioning virtual library and as such the librarian would need to be an integral part of school to maintain a place in it. Aside from PD development, another way to make myself indispensable is to help develop cross-curricular activities. I currently teach an English class that doubles as a current events class. My subjects often fall into things that sociology, current events, and psychology study. As a classroom teacher, I feel lucky to get through my grading in a day. I can’t imagine having the time to develop these units with another teacher. However, the LMS is in a perfect position to do so since she sees what kids’ research year after year. This is also a good way to get involved in the classroom and to make the school look good as everyone knows that cross curricular lessons are all the rage now.
Blogs
School Library Journal posted “LJ's First Virtual Ebook Summit Is a Big Hit” on 9/30/2010. Many good ideas were mentioned in this posting. This was an overview of the major points from the conference focusing on eBooks. The assumption is that eReaders will become like cell phones in the next few years. Therefore, libraries are now spending a sizable portion of their budget on them. However, as one panelist mentioned, that unlike cell phones, eReaders will result in a digital divide. Unlike a cell phone, which can be justified as a life saving apparatus in addition to the sheer convenience of a parent not having to wait outside the mall for an hour while their teen wanders around inside, an eReaders is just not high on the list for some people. The unintentional side effect of libraries switching steadily over to electronic content is that those kids who are left without an eReader will be left behind with books that are outdated. Though I don’t think that libraries will go all electronic, I am gathering that the movement is gaining momentum quickly. I do have some concern over what will happen to those kids whose parents don’t value reading and who can’t afford an eReader. Another good point was the Kindle, which is not as popular among librarians as a Nook since Amazon deletes content at will. Though as I looked into this I found that, and this is to my understanding only from the Amazon site) that a book can be put on the same Kindle up to six times before it has to be rebought. Though the concern in the SLS post was that each kid would have a Kindle, I’m certain that that won’t be the case for a long, long time. In the meantime, the library can own one Kindle and share its books with the students who have Kindles – or a Kindle app.
On 9/30/2010 Swiss Army Librarian posts “Historical Photo Collection Survey Results.” Though this was straight information concerning what printing selections libraries offer, I think there was an interesting point that was implied here. The fact that 42% of libraries do not offer high quality copies and that and that 75% of libraries surveyed offer only limited or no access to historical photos online seems to say something about what’s happening in society today. Though I am an advocate for the eBooks, history seems to be getting lost in the library nowadays. Based off this posting, historical photos are not convenient to get or satisfying once coped from the public library. But where else can the people go? It seems that the options are limited and the result means that those who are interested may lose interest soon.
On 7/6/2010 posted “Fines, Daycares, and eBooks.” The author of this post was concerned with the idea that libraries charge fines for overdue CDs and movies but not books. Historically, she says, this made sense since CDs and DVDs used to cost so much but now she sees it as a way of telling patrons that those things are more important that the books in the library. She has a good point about that. It does seem to be sending the wrong message to people. Then she launches into an explanation of what fines really do. She gives a study that a daycare did where they started fining parents who were late to pick up their kids in the hopes that they would be on time, much like we do with library books. Then the daycare discovered that late pickups skyrocketed because it was worth it for the people to be late. The author of the post comes to the conclusion that people are more likely to do what’s right (return library books on time) when they aren’t being punished. As we all know in education, praise works better than punishment. Though the average patron won’t care at all if we say good job, self-rewards still seem to motivate more than punishing. So really, if they really want to keep Twilight for another month while they finish it, why can’t they?
Woolls Chapter 7: Managing Personnel
There are several points in this chapter that I found interesting. Firstly, I must say that I am concerned about the managing of personnel. It wasn’t a task I have ever even considered as a part of the job, but now that I think about it, it does make sense. However, I do not like the idea of having to fire or hire someone. Nor do I like having to evaluate others’ performance, especially when I am with those people all day in an often silent, empty environment. On the other hand, I am a very intimidating person, so my students tell me. This is going to work in my favor since I can manage students, but I am concerned that it will make my assistant unhappy. I would love to have a happy place, but I know that I often come off as domineering without meaning to be.
The more important point that I took from this chapter was that much of it seems to focus on how to make my job indispensable. It is true that funds everywhere are being cut and that I will have to lobby for my job; however, I found some encouraging points in here. As mentioned before in Skype and other posts, I work in a PD-happy district. The first Monday of every month is dedicated to PD and, up until the starving times of this year, there was also PD at least once a month on plan periods. I think that when things bounce back, as they surely must, PD will again become a part of the school day. In addition to this, we have a full week of PD before every school year starts and two days of PD after school ends. As such, I see that Woolls makes a good point by claiming that the LMS may eventually control PD. Though she says, “as professional periodicals are added to the media center collection, the media specialist may copy pertinent articles, highlighting key passages, and forward them to the principal” (119). She ends this portion with the thought that it would simply make both persons look good. I, however, see it as a way to maintain a job. With so much PD in our district, I can safely say only a fraction of it is good PD. Training staff on new technologies and things the library can offer teachers would be a much better way to do PD and that would make the LMS a central part of the school that could not be done away with.
This ties too with her point on page 114 that libraries are now arguably unnecessary. It’s true that it is possible to have a functioning virtual library and as such the librarian would need to be an integral part of school to maintain a place in it. Aside from PD development, another way to make myself indispensible is to help develop cross-curricular activities. I currently teach an English class that doubles as a current events class. My subjects often fall into things that sociology, current events, and psychology study. As a classroom teacher, I feel lucky to get through my grading in a day. I can’t imagine having the time to develop these units with another teacher. However, the LMS is in a perfect position to do so since she sees what kids’ research year after year. This is also a good way to get involved in the classroom and to make the school look good as everyone knows that cross curricular lessons are all the rage now.
Podcasts
Cool Tools 2.0 Live MOcah.com sounds awesome. It is a social networking site with the exclusive function of learning a new language. Aside from being a useful tool for library patrons, as a librarian it is very important to learn a new language so that non-English speaking patrons can still get help. It would further help with understanding patrons with heavy accents. As a social networking site, users get help from native speakers of the language through online chat to help with grammar and pronunciation questions. Online exercises are where the main content is given. Eight languages are covered including Arabic, French, and German. As a high school librarian this is a very important tool to integrate into the library’s cache of online resources in light of the economic situation. Though I certainly don’t advocate the downsizing of foreign language programs, it is happening nonetheless. Livemocah.com will allow students exposure to languages in schools where programs have been cut to the bare bones or cut entirely. In today’s global economy, it is more important now than ever to promote language studies and this is a cheap effective manner in which to do so. Additionally, if nothing else, it would make me look good to the administration as a librarian. After school study groups could be held and this would further highlight the importance of what the library does to prevent downsizing there as well.
Cool Tools Lucid Chart is an online graphic organizer and flow chart creator. As a high school librarian, this would be one of the things that I would promote to students to promote collaboration among them and to help them complete group projects at home. Lucid Chart has premade shapes and connectors (such as arrows and bars) that the students simply have to drag and drop in the order they want them placed. Then they simply type what they want inside them. What makes this tool exceptionally important in today’s education is that a Lucid project can be opened up to other users by the creator. Lucid Chart has a built in chat tool that allows students to communicate about changes that are being made and to help them finish their project easier. To prevent disagreements, Lucid Chart keeps a log of what changes have been made to the project and who has made them. In today’s day and age, it is super important that if educators are going to assign a group project that there also be a tool such as this to go along with it. Kids are busier now more than ever and asking four kids who each work different jobs, play sports, babysit younger siblings, etc to get together at the same time on the same night is nearly impossible. As an added perk, this program is free making it a great tool for both student and the school.
New York times Book Review 8/6/2010
The books that were focused on in this review were Comedy in a Minor Key and The Death of the Adversary by Hans Keilson. Both of these are holocaust novels, but the view they take a drastically different one than most Holocaust novels do.
Comedy in a Minor Key focuses on a Dutch couple who take in a Jewish man that needs a place to hide. Unlike other Holocaust fiction, these people do not really want to take him in and only do so because they are told it is their patriotic duty and because the wife wants glory after the war is over. Furthermore, they live in the country so unlike other holocaust fiction there is not the imminent danger of them being caught and taken to a concentration camp. Another main difference between this and other holocaust fiction is that the Jew who was saved, though aware that his life was saved and appreciative for it, shows jealousy of his saviors. They have been able to keep everything while he has lost everything for a ridiculous reason. As he looks at their things he feels anger at them rather than the blind devotion showed by other who were saved in other holocaust fiction. Furthermore, the Jew dies of natural causes rather than being caught or set free at the end of the novel and the couple who were hiding him then have to decide what to do with a dead body that they shouldn’t have.
Death of the Adversary is told from the perspective a Jew early on in the war. He witnesses nearly all his friends turn to Nazis and gives first-hand accounts of acts of violence against Jews that are often given less attention, like grave desecration. This novel differs from other Holocaust fiction in the sense that the narrator gives the reader a sense of what it is like to be told he is worthless everyday to the point where he begins to believe it.
I think that there is a definite need for “new” Holocaust fiction in libraries. For so long we have read Anne Frank and Night that other points of view, more human points of view, get lost. Additionally, the young generations have lost touch with WWII in many ways. Yes, they all read Night and Anne Frank, but that is part of what caused them to lose touch, I think. A new perspective is needed to bring the issue back to the forefront of thought as a reminder to not allow it again.
Another portion of this podcast focused on teen fiction and the sudden push towards it for adults. I agree ardently with the contributor to this piece, Pamela Paul that teen fiction is in many ways better than adult fiction. Paul claims that the characters are better developed and the problems more important than in adult fiction where character development and plot are often left behind in the search for high literary status. Since teen fiction has been given a bad name for so long (Rowling herself was told that if she intended to write teen fiction she had better keep a day job since no one made money at it), that the authors put more into their work. Additionally, childhood is disappearing quicker now than ever and teen fiction shows that. In this sense, teen fiction is in a way becoming adult fiction. many of the problems faced are not so dissimilar from what adults face: lack of money, homelessness, loneliness, etc. as a public librarian, I would, at the very least, move the teen fiction section away from the children's section and attempt to integrate it more fully into the adult portion of the library in order to encourage more adults to read it rather than be embarrassed by it.
eBooks were another topic this podcast considered. This week (8/6/2010) Barnes and Nobel went up for sale. This podcast’s conjecture was that it did so as it was having a hard time staying afloat in the new digital book age. However, the environment of the café is what kept Barnes and Noble alive so long. I think that both points can be taken to heart at the library. Now more than ever people want to find free things to do and the library fits that description. It would be amazingly helpful if the library could adopt a café-type feel. I know when I go to my public library I still feel that I am at a government institution rather than being at a relaxing place to hang out and browse books.
LM_Net
Dennis LeLoup posted on LM_NET on 8/21/2010 in response to another post about how to manage a library with a split schedule called “Fixed Schedule Question for Elementary Media”. His post states that he in a district that, due to layoffs, has resulted in an assistant being at the library when he is not. Since he has top travel between buildings, he is only at each building every other day and the assistant has to take over when he is gone. I can see that until things get better for schools financially this may be a recurring situation. However, it is one I never even considered. After all, no matter how bad things get for schools, I won’t ever teach my kids only every other day. I have to be with them every day. This is a concerning issue in terms of library administration. At the very least, you would seriously have to trust the assistant that was hired. In the worst case scenario, students would suffer from an assistant that could possibly not have any experience with databases and teen/children’s fiction being the only person there every other day. I can see that this could be a serious problem for the long haul of the library, but I hope that this sort of situation is short lived. I hope that isn’t too optimistic. I expect the idea that a librarian is option will only be further promoted that appearance of empty shelves with the incorporation of downloadable content.
Carol Peterson posted “Dewey Shelving Lessons” on 8/21/2010. Her concern was that she had given her 7-8 grade library aids verbal instructions and shown them how to shelve in the Dewey Decimal System but the kids were still shelving incorrectly after getting over her frustration at their perceived laziness, she discovered that no matter how she explained it the kids just didn’t understand. Here is yet another thing that did not occur to me as a teacher who will later be a librarian. Our school library has no library aids, so I asked the librarian why not. Her answer ran along the same line as Peterson’s issue: that the kids didn’t do it right and it was more baby-sitting than anything else. The result seems that it is far easier to just shelve the material correctly so that the librarian doesn’t have to spend hours hunting down a missing book. I think this is an interesting conundrum. Mis-shelved items were a huge problem at the school I worked at before because kids were putting them back incorrectly. Right before I left the librarian had to reorganize the whole library since it was unusable after years and years of neglect. I wonder of the librarian at my current school doesn’t have the right idea. Perhaps it would be far better to simply absorb and extra bit of work in the short run that would save a ton of time in the long run.
Carolina Cuello posted “Calvin and Hobbes strip about librarians” on 8/20/2010. Though her post is short an only describes the comic with a request for anyone who has it to send it her since it’s funny, there are rather big issues within the management of the library that are brought up by the strip. The comic itself has Calvin being afraid to go to the library because his book is late and he’s afraid of the librarian. Sure this is a common comic trope, but how did it even get that far? What does this say about libraries? At first, I thought that if people borrow books then they need to return them or pay the price. It also seems like an easy way to generate extra money for the library. However, I then read in Woolls that this was a terrible idea since it makes reading punitive. Then I began to think. When I lived in Warrensburg, MO (for less than a year) I used the public library all the time for books on CD. Since I could return the book and lose my spot if I didn’t drive enough in time to finish it, I kept my first book a few days late to get it dome. I went in to pay my fine and the librarian looked at me as though I were weird and said they didn’t fine at all unless a book was lost or damaged. I probably got more books then I would normally have my home library (still the one I use) because I was never afraid of running out of time and having to pay a fine. It does seem to me that reading should be fun. If anything, we should be giving rewards to kids for wanting to read and using the library. Though there is always the issue of what to do when someone won’t bring the book back, I think that the library really needs to be a place in school where there is no punishment (though kids should still not be climbing the walls). All day kids are told what they can’t do or that they need to work faster to keep up with the class. It seems like a good idea to let kids have at least one place where they can go at their own pace. If it takes 8 months to read one book, then at least they’ve read one book.
Woolls Chapter 7: Managing Personnel
There are several points in this chapter that I found interesting. Firstly, I must say that I am concerned about the managing of personnel. It wasn’t a task I have ever even considered as a part of the job, but now that I think about it, it does make sense. However, I do not like the idea of having to fire or hire someone. Nor do I like having to evaluate others’ performance, especially when I am with those people all day in an often silent, empty environment. On the other hand, I am a very intimidating person, so my students tell me. This is going to work in my favor since I can manage students, but I am concerned that it will make my assistant unhappy. I would love to have a happy place, but I know that I often come off as domineering without meaning to be.
The more important point that I took from this chapter was that much of it seems to focus on how to make my job indispensable. It is true that funds everywhere are being cut and that I will have to lobby for my job; however, I found some encouraging points in here. As mentioned before in Skype and other posts, I work in a PD-happy district. The first Monday of every month is dedicated to PD and, up until the starving times of this year, there was also PD at least once a month on plan periods. I think that when things bounce back, as they surely must, PD will again become a part of the school day. In addition to this, we have a full week of PD before every school year starts and two days of PD after school ends. As such, I see that Woolls makes a good point by claiming that the LMS may eventually control PD. Though she says, “as professional periodicals are added to the media center collection, the media specialist may copy pertinent articles, highlighting key passages, and forward them to the principal” (119). She ends this portion with the thought that it would simply make both persons look good. I, however, see it as a way to maintain a job. With so much PD in our district, I can safely say only a fraction of it is good PD. Training staff on new technologies and things the library can offer teachers would be a much better way to do PD and that would make the LMS a central part of the school that could not be done away with.
This ties too with her point on page 114 that libraries are now arguably unnecessary. It’s true that it is possible to have a functioning virtual library and as such the librarian would need to be an integral part of school to maintain a place in it. Aside from PD development, another way to make myself indispensable is to help develop cross-curricular activities. I currently teach an English class that doubles as a current events class. My subjects often fall into things that sociology, current events, and psychology study. As a classroom teacher, I feel lucky to get through my grading in a day. I can’t imagine having the time to develop these units with another teacher. However, the LMS is in a perfect position to do so since she sees what kids’ research year after year. This is also a good way to get involved in the classroom and to make the school look good as everyone knows that cross curricular lessons are all the rage now.
Blogs
School Library Journal posted “LJ's First Virtual Ebook Summit Is a Big Hit” on 9/30/2010. Many good ideas were mentioned in this posting. This was an overview of the major points from the conference focusing on eBooks. The assumption is that eReaders will become like cell phones in the next few years. Therefore, libraries are now spending a sizable portion of their budget on them. However, as one panelist mentioned, that unlike cell phones, eReaders will result in a digital divide. Unlike a cell phone, which can be justified as a life saving apparatus in addition to the sheer convenience of a parent not having to wait outside the mall for an hour while their teen wanders around inside, an eReaders is just not high on the list for some people. The unintentional side effect of libraries switching steadily over to electronic content is that those kids who are left without an eReader will be left behind with books that are outdated. Though I don’t think that libraries will go all electronic, I am gathering that the movement is gaining momentum quickly. I do have some concern over what will happen to those kids whose parents don’t value reading and who can’t afford an eReader. Another good point was the Kindle, which is not as popular among librarians as a Nook since Amazon deletes content at will. Though as I looked into this I found that, and this is to my understanding only from the Amazon site) that a book can be put on the same Kindle up to six times before it has to be rebought. Though the concern in the SLS post was that each kid would have a Kindle, I’m certain that that won’t be the case for a long, long time. In the meantime, the library can own one Kindle and share its books with the students who have Kindles – or a Kindle app.
On 9/30/2010 Swiss Army Librarian posts “Historical Photo Collection Survey Results.” Though this was straight information concerning what printing selections libraries offer, I think there was an interesting point that was implied here. The fact that 42% of libraries do not offer high quality copies and that and that 75% of libraries surveyed offer only limited or no access to historical photos online seems to say something about what’s happening in society today. Though I am an advocate for the eBooks, history seems to be getting lost in the library nowadays. Based off this posting, historical photos are not convenient to get or satisfying once coped from the public library. But where else can the people go? It seems that the options are limited and the result means that those who are interested may lose interest soon.
On 7/6/2010 posted “Fines, Daycares, and eBooks.” The author of this post was concerned with the idea that libraries charge fines for overdue CDs and movies but not books. Historically, she says, this made sense since CDs and DVDs used to cost so much but now she sees it as a way of telling patrons that those things are more important that the books in the library. She has a good point about that. It does seem to be sending the wrong message to people. Then she launches into an explanation of what fines really do. She gives a study that a daycare did where they started fining parents who were late to pick up their kids in the hopes that they would be on time, much like we do with library books. Then the daycare discovered that late pickups skyrocketed because it was worth it for the people to be late. The author of the post comes to the conclusion that people are more likely to do what’s right (return library books on time) when they aren’t being punished. As we all know in education, praise works better than punishment. Though the average patron won’t care at all if we say good job, self-rewards still seem to motivate more than punishing. So really, if they really want to keep Twilight for another month while they finish it, why can’t they?
Sunday, September 12, 2010
9/27/2010 Budget
9-27 Budget
LM_NET
One 8/13/2010 Stacey Wicksall posted “SHARE money for libraries” on LM_NET. This post informed readers about the site http://www.refresheverything.com/ that is hosted by Pepsi and gives grant money to those who request it based on their need. I think that grants are always awesome to have for high school, but I can see that there may be a problem with going through Pepsi. Perhaps I am jaded of my Michael Moore articles I teach are finally getting to me, but I can’t believe that a huge corporation like Pepsi would be so free with their money and ask nothing in return. Surely this must come with a contract the school has to sign to sell only Pepsi products or, God forbid, we have to have Pepsi Day like other school districts. I am not anti-Pepsi or anything and will probably give it a try, but I’m always nervous to lie down in bed with a huge corporation, especially since so many schools have already been taken over by corporations. In general, though, I definitely foresee this being a positive depending on the strings attached. Schools are more desperate now than ever for money and libraries are being hit very hard! It would go a long way to get one of these grants.
Cindy Roger posted “Textbook Question” on 8/16/2010. This really was just a simple question about where to get free textbook covers for books. However, it spawned new thought in me. It had never occurred to me to consider that the librarian would have to deal with textbooks as well. It seems that more and more to-do style work is being placed on the librarian in addition to being pushed to being a teaching role as well as a librarian role. I wonder if this sort of thing will go away with the upturn that the economy is sure to take soon or if once we have been assigned all these various roles we will have them forever. The list of librarian responsibilities just seems to grow and grow. We are the technology people, teachers, research helpers, cataloguers, orders, supply orders, and now the textbook inventory people. This seems like a long list for one person to do and do effectively. I hate to say it, but some of these postings are a bit discouraging.
Stacy Wicksall posted “Cool Google tool” on 8/12/2010 in LM_NET. The basic gist of the post is that the new trend in fun writing assignments is to write a story using only Google search terms. The story is made of six search terms and a final sentence to tell the whole story in. as a librarian I would totally advocate this to the teachers in the building. I think that it could work in business and English classes and would especially effective in getting kids who are used to brevity anyway thanks to Twitter and texting to actually get into writing. Often being limited on space is more inspiring than having a limit to reach. I think that this would be a good way for the librarian to insinuate themselves into the classroom. This is a simple thing that would be easy to teach and grade and could motivate people to write more. It would certainly appease the powers that be that the librarian is involved in the classroom and, given all the things the librarian has to do, it seems to be a sensible response to the demands on the librarian’s time.
Podcasts
Cool Tools for Libraries 2.0 did a podcast on slideshare.net on 5/4/2009. Slideshare.net allows users to upload slide shows and then can be edited from home. This allows kids who cannot use thumb drives at school anymore to access their work from home. This is also a useful tool as a librarian so that when I go to conferences to present I can use my slideshare account instead of having to remember to bring my thumb drive. It also has the useful ability to save paper, which is all important in schools in today’s economy. Shows created in slideshare.net can be placed on MySpace and Facebook so that my shows can be accessible to all people at all times. Additionally, I can download other people’s presentations and then edit them so that I don’t have to recreate something that has been done already. This is very handy in a school setting since the librarian’s time is so stretched anyway between students, teachers, and technology problems.
Cool Tools for Libraries 2.0 did a podcast on 5/1/2009 about meebome.com. this site is an online chat program that allows the user to chat with anyone who is online regardless of what chat program they other person is using. It is free and functional for librarians so that all platforms of chat do not have to be downloaded and then monitored. This also allows anonymity with is great for patrons who are afraid of looking stupid and admitting who they are, but it more importantly encourages people who are researching a sensitive topic to do so without fear of judgment. This could be in regards to religion, sexuality, or any number of topics that are taboo in our culture. In general this would be nice for high schools to have since every time someone accesses the website they can begin chatting for help. The most practical aspect f this is that if a student is home or in another class using the laptop cars they can chat about how to use the online research databases (that are not user friendly) without having to go the library for one-on-one help. In theory this is a great practice and is surely more functional at a college or public library. However, in a high school setting this unrealistic as the librarian’s time is so stretched anyway. No one other than a librarian should be manning this post in a high school since students may guide others the wrong way or simply don’t’ know the answer about how to research and use the databases. This program does allow the librarian to mark their status as away, but even though this seems to be a solution to the time constraints that are faced by the librarian, I think that the librarian would still be away more than they were there which would really just generate more student frustration.
Cool tools 4/30/2009 podcast on Google calendars. Like calendars in Outlook it is free and all the user has to do is set up an account to begin using the program. What makes this different from Outlook is that pop-up and text reminders about events are available. A benefit to the library is that other people can be given access to a calendar and can then download it into their calendar. Then they are imported into the users’ calendar and that time is automatically blocked off with the library’s calendar. This would be amazing for a high school but only if everyone got on board with the Google e calendar. Otherwise, the benefit of importing would be lost. Additionally, we already have similar technology with Outlook where special access can be given to certain people and others can edit those calendars (like the secretaries can edit the principal’s calendars). With this in mind, it would be hard to switch a school that already had a calendar system that was so similar to switch over. However, I do think that the importing ability makes this a very advantageous tool.
Cool Tool 4/20/2009. Brainfy.com is a social bookmarking site where users can categorize websites by topic. This tool only allows educational bookmarks to be made. It would be very useful in a high school as each course taught in that school could have a brainify account. The teacher, librarian, or possibly even student could go in and add bookmarks to the site that relate to the course content. This would be a great place to go for research on a subject for that class. However, which content is added would be a concern if students were allowed to edit the site. It is also a social networking site in the sense that a student who has a questions can go to the bookmark in the category they are interested and ask a questions rather like posting on a blog. An issue with this currently is that the site is not very popular yet. This means that there are many questions left unanswered at the time. In a school, however, if the whole school jumped n board and used it, it could be a great tutoring tool. Older students could help younger students by answering questions based off their own past experience. As a librarian, though, this would require a ton of monitoring. It would almost be nicer to be able to turn off the question forum. Though it’s a good tool, there simply isn’t the time in the day for the librarian to check all the posts. Depending on how many library assistants there are, it may be possible though. I think that this sort of tool is really awesome in school settings since it’s always good to have students helping other students and can create a more unified building since shy students and socially challenged students could then have a new platform on which to make friends and connections with other students.
Cool Tools 2.0 Evernote 4/2. Evernote is a free, versatile bookmarking site that allows the user to only bookmark a section of a webpage rather than having to do the whole page and then sift through it later trying to find what exactly you bookmarked it for in the first place. Evernote can be searched for a particular word so that if you knew you bookmarked a site about a certain book but couldn’t remember how you saved it you could simply search for the title and it would pull up the sites you saved with those words in them. In a way, this is a bookmarking site within a bookmarking site. I can make bookmarks by categories, such a graphic novels, non-fiction, etc. This is very beneficial to libraries as I could bookmark article reviews of books I wanted to purchase later and when I needed to do the ordering I could simply pull up the category I was needing to order for and there would be the information on the books already. This is especially handy since, as I understand it, librarians have to spend all their book money at a certain time of year which leaves a whole year that the librarian has to remember what she wanted to purchase and why. Evernote does have a subscription service as well that can be purchased when more storage is needed.
Woolls Chapter 9: Managing the Budget and Empowering Learners Chapter 3
I feel that later in life, after I have a budget with real numbers, I may find this chapter more helpful. Now, it seems like a long list of things I can’t really apply, though I expect the budget project for next week will clear that up! As an English person, I am greatly intimidated by the prospect of a budget. All those numbers seem frightening. Add to that the fact that I will be alone when I start as a librarian (unlike being an English teacher where there are eight other people I can ask questions of) and I am quite concerned. I feel that the actual proposal writing will not be a problem. With a solid English background, I can write convincingly enough (I think) to persuade the principal that learning goals can and will be met through changes in the library and the necessary budget increase that those changes would require. The two online postings for this week were enlightening in the sense that at least there does seem to be a large network of people I will have to ask for help and those people seem to be really good at hiding money in places the administration can’t get to. However, one thing mentioned that concerned me greatly was the idea that the book budget and the technology budget are the same thing. I am unsure if that is the way it is at my school, but it sounds pretty accurate based off what I’ve heard the librarian say. That seems overwhelming to try to divide our books from technology since computer issues can be so costly. However, I think that having the ability to control technology in the school will help with my push for electronic devices in school. The technology area discussed in my design project would be far less of a battle if I could control funds and simply buy what I need. I expect that librarians everywhere will get far sneakier with how to make sure the budget stays high for the library.
Blogs
Swiss Army Librarian post “Reference Question of the Week” 9/5/2010
A short and humorous post, this deals with a situation where a patron came in and needed books on back pain. Saying that he could get the books himself, the librarian wrote down the call number and the man was off. However, he returned and said that he needed help after all since the books were on the bottom shelf and he could not bend over to get them. Irony at its best is seen here. However, this post does bring up a disturbing fact that thanks to the Dewey Decimal System things are not always as they should be. As I reflected in an earlier post, the system seems quite antiquated and it can be seen here that the system doesn’t work well if the shelvers aren’t paying close attention. Given that most shelvers are in high school and don’t know a thing about back pain, they probably would consider leaving a partially empty bottom shelf and moving the back pain books to the next top shelf. This post certainly highlights the need to librarians to review the locations of their books on a regular basis to make sure they are appropriately placed in a manner convenient for patrons.
Library Advocate post “Top Ten Academic Library Trends” was put up on 9/3/2010.
Item number two on this list was “Budget challenges will continue and libraries will evolve as a result.” I think the evolving part of this post is interesting. Having just read about budgets for this week I think that the move in libraries will be a swift one toward downloadable content. It is not only convenient for patrons, but it is cheaper for libraries to purchase. I think that over time, library buildings may shift to smaller locations with smaller staff in an effort to save money. As I heard on the news the other day, companies (and I think libraries fit in that category) have learned to love on less. Even when the economy comes back, there will be no need for companies to return to living lavishly as happened in the past. I don’t think that even when things get better financially that anything will ever be the same for libraries. I think that the efforts to save money without sacrificing content and services to patrons will continue despite the upturn in the economy that is surely coming. With that in mind, I certainly see a day when some public libraries will be little more than a room with the majority of the content being online. As yet, I am still deciding if this is good or bad.
School Library Journal post “NYPL Panel Discussion Explores E-Books for Kids” on 9/9/2010
This post brought up a new and interesting point I had not yet considered. Though I am an eBook advocate, I have not yet even considered that there was such a movement for kid’s books. I am excited about this and think it could certainly help libraries reach kids and aid in teaching kids to read. According to this post, there are a variety of eReaders for kids that do fun things like light up words as they are read by a narrator, animated eBooks, and eBooks that are interactive. It would be lovely if libraries could buy this sort of equipment and have it used on an hourly, in-library check out basis. That way it would be far less likely to disappear or break and it sounds amazingly helpful for aiding in children’s reading. I can’t imagine that it would not be used given that many people simply can’t afford the devices now and it should help kids get engaged in reading from a young age on.
LM_NET
One 8/13/2010 Stacey Wicksall posted “SHARE money for libraries” on LM_NET. This post informed readers about the site http://www.refresheverything.com/ that is hosted by Pepsi and gives grant money to those who request it based on their need. I think that grants are always awesome to have for high school, but I can see that there may be a problem with going through Pepsi. Perhaps I am jaded of my Michael Moore articles I teach are finally getting to me, but I can’t believe that a huge corporation like Pepsi would be so free with their money and ask nothing in return. Surely this must come with a contract the school has to sign to sell only Pepsi products or, God forbid, we have to have Pepsi Day like other school districts. I am not anti-Pepsi or anything and will probably give it a try, but I’m always nervous to lie down in bed with a huge corporation, especially since so many schools have already been taken over by corporations. In general, though, I definitely foresee this being a positive depending on the strings attached. Schools are more desperate now than ever for money and libraries are being hit very hard! It would go a long way to get one of these grants.
Cindy Roger posted “Textbook Question” on 8/16/2010. This really was just a simple question about where to get free textbook covers for books. However, it spawned new thought in me. It had never occurred to me to consider that the librarian would have to deal with textbooks as well. It seems that more and more to-do style work is being placed on the librarian in addition to being pushed to being a teaching role as well as a librarian role. I wonder if this sort of thing will go away with the upturn that the economy is sure to take soon or if once we have been assigned all these various roles we will have them forever. The list of librarian responsibilities just seems to grow and grow. We are the technology people, teachers, research helpers, cataloguers, orders, supply orders, and now the textbook inventory people. This seems like a long list for one person to do and do effectively. I hate to say it, but some of these postings are a bit discouraging.
Stacy Wicksall posted “Cool Google tool” on 8/12/2010 in LM_NET. The basic gist of the post is that the new trend in fun writing assignments is to write a story using only Google search terms. The story is made of six search terms and a final sentence to tell the whole story in. as a librarian I would totally advocate this to the teachers in the building. I think that it could work in business and English classes and would especially effective in getting kids who are used to brevity anyway thanks to Twitter and texting to actually get into writing. Often being limited on space is more inspiring than having a limit to reach. I think that this would be a good way for the librarian to insinuate themselves into the classroom. This is a simple thing that would be easy to teach and grade and could motivate people to write more. It would certainly appease the powers that be that the librarian is involved in the classroom and, given all the things the librarian has to do, it seems to be a sensible response to the demands on the librarian’s time.
Podcasts
Cool Tools for Libraries 2.0 did a podcast on slideshare.net on 5/4/2009. Slideshare.net allows users to upload slide shows and then can be edited from home. This allows kids who cannot use thumb drives at school anymore to access their work from home. This is also a useful tool as a librarian so that when I go to conferences to present I can use my slideshare account instead of having to remember to bring my thumb drive. It also has the useful ability to save paper, which is all important in schools in today’s economy. Shows created in slideshare.net can be placed on MySpace and Facebook so that my shows can be accessible to all people at all times. Additionally, I can download other people’s presentations and then edit them so that I don’t have to recreate something that has been done already. This is very handy in a school setting since the librarian’s time is so stretched anyway between students, teachers, and technology problems.
Cool Tools for Libraries 2.0 did a podcast on 5/1/2009 about meebome.com. this site is an online chat program that allows the user to chat with anyone who is online regardless of what chat program they other person is using. It is free and functional for librarians so that all platforms of chat do not have to be downloaded and then monitored. This also allows anonymity with is great for patrons who are afraid of looking stupid and admitting who they are, but it more importantly encourages people who are researching a sensitive topic to do so without fear of judgment. This could be in regards to religion, sexuality, or any number of topics that are taboo in our culture. In general this would be nice for high schools to have since every time someone accesses the website they can begin chatting for help. The most practical aspect f this is that if a student is home or in another class using the laptop cars they can chat about how to use the online research databases (that are not user friendly) without having to go the library for one-on-one help. In theory this is a great practice and is surely more functional at a college or public library. However, in a high school setting this unrealistic as the librarian’s time is so stretched anyway. No one other than a librarian should be manning this post in a high school since students may guide others the wrong way or simply don’t’ know the answer about how to research and use the databases. This program does allow the librarian to mark their status as away, but even though this seems to be a solution to the time constraints that are faced by the librarian, I think that the librarian would still be away more than they were there which would really just generate more student frustration.
Cool tools 4/30/2009 podcast on Google calendars. Like calendars in Outlook it is free and all the user has to do is set up an account to begin using the program. What makes this different from Outlook is that pop-up and text reminders about events are available. A benefit to the library is that other people can be given access to a calendar and can then download it into their calendar. Then they are imported into the users’ calendar and that time is automatically blocked off with the library’s calendar. This would be amazing for a high school but only if everyone got on board with the Google e calendar. Otherwise, the benefit of importing would be lost. Additionally, we already have similar technology with Outlook where special access can be given to certain people and others can edit those calendars (like the secretaries can edit the principal’s calendars). With this in mind, it would be hard to switch a school that already had a calendar system that was so similar to switch over. However, I do think that the importing ability makes this a very advantageous tool.
Cool Tool 4/20/2009. Brainfy.com is a social bookmarking site where users can categorize websites by topic. This tool only allows educational bookmarks to be made. It would be very useful in a high school as each course taught in that school could have a brainify account. The teacher, librarian, or possibly even student could go in and add bookmarks to the site that relate to the course content. This would be a great place to go for research on a subject for that class. However, which content is added would be a concern if students were allowed to edit the site. It is also a social networking site in the sense that a student who has a questions can go to the bookmark in the category they are interested and ask a questions rather like posting on a blog. An issue with this currently is that the site is not very popular yet. This means that there are many questions left unanswered at the time. In a school, however, if the whole school jumped n board and used it, it could be a great tutoring tool. Older students could help younger students by answering questions based off their own past experience. As a librarian, though, this would require a ton of monitoring. It would almost be nicer to be able to turn off the question forum. Though it’s a good tool, there simply isn’t the time in the day for the librarian to check all the posts. Depending on how many library assistants there are, it may be possible though. I think that this sort of tool is really awesome in school settings since it’s always good to have students helping other students and can create a more unified building since shy students and socially challenged students could then have a new platform on which to make friends and connections with other students.
Cool Tools 2.0 Evernote 4/2. Evernote is a free, versatile bookmarking site that allows the user to only bookmark a section of a webpage rather than having to do the whole page and then sift through it later trying to find what exactly you bookmarked it for in the first place. Evernote can be searched for a particular word so that if you knew you bookmarked a site about a certain book but couldn’t remember how you saved it you could simply search for the title and it would pull up the sites you saved with those words in them. In a way, this is a bookmarking site within a bookmarking site. I can make bookmarks by categories, such a graphic novels, non-fiction, etc. This is very beneficial to libraries as I could bookmark article reviews of books I wanted to purchase later and when I needed to do the ordering I could simply pull up the category I was needing to order for and there would be the information on the books already. This is especially handy since, as I understand it, librarians have to spend all their book money at a certain time of year which leaves a whole year that the librarian has to remember what she wanted to purchase and why. Evernote does have a subscription service as well that can be purchased when more storage is needed.
Woolls Chapter 9: Managing the Budget and Empowering Learners Chapter 3
I feel that later in life, after I have a budget with real numbers, I may find this chapter more helpful. Now, it seems like a long list of things I can’t really apply, though I expect the budget project for next week will clear that up! As an English person, I am greatly intimidated by the prospect of a budget. All those numbers seem frightening. Add to that the fact that I will be alone when I start as a librarian (unlike being an English teacher where there are eight other people I can ask questions of) and I am quite concerned. I feel that the actual proposal writing will not be a problem. With a solid English background, I can write convincingly enough (I think) to persuade the principal that learning goals can and will be met through changes in the library and the necessary budget increase that those changes would require. The two online postings for this week were enlightening in the sense that at least there does seem to be a large network of people I will have to ask for help and those people seem to be really good at hiding money in places the administration can’t get to. However, one thing mentioned that concerned me greatly was the idea that the book budget and the technology budget are the same thing. I am unsure if that is the way it is at my school, but it sounds pretty accurate based off what I’ve heard the librarian say. That seems overwhelming to try to divide our books from technology since computer issues can be so costly. However, I think that having the ability to control technology in the school will help with my push for electronic devices in school. The technology area discussed in my design project would be far less of a battle if I could control funds and simply buy what I need. I expect that librarians everywhere will get far sneakier with how to make sure the budget stays high for the library.
Blogs
Swiss Army Librarian post “Reference Question of the Week” 9/5/2010
A short and humorous post, this deals with a situation where a patron came in and needed books on back pain. Saying that he could get the books himself, the librarian wrote down the call number and the man was off. However, he returned and said that he needed help after all since the books were on the bottom shelf and he could not bend over to get them. Irony at its best is seen here. However, this post does bring up a disturbing fact that thanks to the Dewey Decimal System things are not always as they should be. As I reflected in an earlier post, the system seems quite antiquated and it can be seen here that the system doesn’t work well if the shelvers aren’t paying close attention. Given that most shelvers are in high school and don’t know a thing about back pain, they probably would consider leaving a partially empty bottom shelf and moving the back pain books to the next top shelf. This post certainly highlights the need to librarians to review the locations of their books on a regular basis to make sure they are appropriately placed in a manner convenient for patrons.
Library Advocate post “Top Ten Academic Library Trends” was put up on 9/3/2010.
Item number two on this list was “Budget challenges will continue and libraries will evolve as a result.” I think the evolving part of this post is interesting. Having just read about budgets for this week I think that the move in libraries will be a swift one toward downloadable content. It is not only convenient for patrons, but it is cheaper for libraries to purchase. I think that over time, library buildings may shift to smaller locations with smaller staff in an effort to save money. As I heard on the news the other day, companies (and I think libraries fit in that category) have learned to love on less. Even when the economy comes back, there will be no need for companies to return to living lavishly as happened in the past. I don’t think that even when things get better financially that anything will ever be the same for libraries. I think that the efforts to save money without sacrificing content and services to patrons will continue despite the upturn in the economy that is surely coming. With that in mind, I certainly see a day when some public libraries will be little more than a room with the majority of the content being online. As yet, I am still deciding if this is good or bad.
School Library Journal post “NYPL Panel Discussion Explores E-Books for Kids” on 9/9/2010
This post brought up a new and interesting point I had not yet considered. Though I am an eBook advocate, I have not yet even considered that there was such a movement for kid’s books. I am excited about this and think it could certainly help libraries reach kids and aid in teaching kids to read. According to this post, there are a variety of eReaders for kids that do fun things like light up words as they are read by a narrator, animated eBooks, and eBooks that are interactive. It would be lovely if libraries could buy this sort of equipment and have it used on an hourly, in-library check out basis. That way it would be far less likely to disappear or break and it sounds amazingly helpful for aiding in children’s reading. I can’t imagine that it would not be used given that many people simply can’t afford the devices now and it should help kids get engaged in reading from a young age on.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
9/13/2010 Collaboration
9-13 Collaboration
Wools chapter 10 & Empowering Learners chapter 2
The part of both these chapters that I found most important to me was the idea that curriculum must be cross-curricular. Wools states that curriculum units must “go across grade levels and across subject areas” (163) whereas chapter two in Empowering Learners states that learners must, “integrate their understandings with what they already know” (22). I ardently agree that this is one of the most basic, fundamental, important parts of education. So often I hear students complain that what they do has no connection to anything else or their life. I strive to make sure that this is not the case in my class. Part of this is due to the nature of the dual credit English class I teach that is offered through UMKC. Our text is really a current events text that focuses on various aspects of our life (I choose to focus on gender roles and sexuality, patriotism and terrorism, and racism). I have never heard a kid say that they didn’t see the value of what we discussed in class. And it is so lovely to watch them critically think about the world around them. Section three in chapter two in Empowering Learners states that “the number of information sources and the variety of format available can leave many information seekers struggling to identify accurate, reliable sources of information” (23). The first battle I have to fight every year is that my students (from an upper/middles class, white area) just blindly accept what appears authoritative once someone else writes it. The book I use is intentionally controversial and liberal. This not because (as I was once accused by a parent of trying to “make” their child gay by suggesting that maybe acceptance is better than hate)it is correct, but because it is meant to make them think, question, and argue. It takes a few articles for them to really understand that they aren’t supposed to agree with what it says.
This leads into my next point that I found interesting because of what was left unsaid. Empowering Learners states that high-quality reading materials must be available in the library. I argue that high-quality does not necessarily mean age appropriate or school appropriate. Though it is nice to think that our teens are innocent, we all know that they are not. I have heard more stories of what people have done from the child themselves that are so horrifying I can’t even count them all. They are, in many ways, more grown up than I am. They have certainly experienced many more things. The very nature of our society pushes adulthood on them so early that pretending they are innocent will only hurt them. We speak candidly in class about everything from STDs to hate crimes to birth control. They are more mature than most people expect and when word gets out about what we discuss it is inevitable that other teachers ask me how I handle it. The answer is that I don’t have to. They are so grateful to have an adult to discuss it with them without hiding anything that I never have maturity issues. With all this in mind, I think the library should reflect the mature nature of our juniors and seniors. After all, if the student feels uncomfortable with a subject, they can just not check out a book. There have been many times that I needed books or videos for my class that our librarian would not purchase due to content. I couldn’t even get a copy of the Lawrence Fishbourne Othello because of the cover! I ardently think that the library should contain all knowledge and be run by someone who is willing to speak candidly and openly about those subjects with kids who are curious.
Another point I would like to comment on is the persistent issue I keep reading about the high-stakes testing in schools. True, it is negative that so much rides on a test that can in no way truly evaluate learning; however, I disagree with Woolls when she states that, “rote memorization will replace critical thinking unless media specialists can help them understand the value of assignments...” (164). Perhaps Woolls has not ever seen the new EOC tests, but they are the exact opposite of rote memorization. In fact, they can only be passed if kids can critically think and apply basic skills rather than simply regurgitating them. We do not even test over what was taught, but concepts in our school. The tests are all cold-reads (like the ACT, so it’s a double benefit) where they have to apply what they learned (for example, identifying character motivation and development) rather than simply defining.
LM_NET
Honor Zalewski posted to LM_NET on 8/24 a request for help in terms of teaching students about plagiarism and citations to high school students. This post was actually a follow up from her own earlier post asking for ideas from others. I found it interesting that she said she did not get as many suggestions as she had hoped for and only mentioned one suggestion as a good one. She then proceeded to post a long list of citation websites that students can put info into and the site will generate a citation for them that they can just copy/paste into their works cited page. As a senior English teacher, I face the issue of citations and plagiarism all the time. I certainly understand that not many people posted back to Zalewski’s original post for help. People do not spend much time on plagiarism and even then it’s the boring, icky part of English. I myself am tempted to allow students to use the citation generators and it certainly is a better than nothing approach depending on the group of kids you have. Generally, if you have a class where none of the kids are going to college (we actually have a class designed for non-college-bound kids at my school) then it does seem like a waste of valuable time to spend hours on correct citations when the main point is that they credit their source. However, I teach the upper-level kids who often are resourceful enough to use the citation generators without my ever telling them. I still insist that college-bound kids must do the citations from scratch by using a (GASP!) book citation guide. I have found that with the way MLA changes and errors in websites that generate citations the safest bet for a perfect citation is for the kids to look it up and plug in the info themselves. At the risk of sounding like an ogre, it also can’t be too bad for kids to practice their looking-up skills. As a librarian, I expect it would be impossible to tell the college track kid from the non-college track kid so I think that making a handout with a few of the more common citations would be helpful, but we really should continue teaching the old way of doing the citations from scratch.
Cindy Jett posted on LM_NET on 8/24 with a concern about the book The Dirty Cowboy that her principal had asked her to remove from the shelf without any explanation as to why. It is a children’s book and it can be assumed from her post that the reason was not that parents had complained since the principal actually asked if she had two books and she only had the one on her shelf. Had it been a parent complaint, the principal would have known it was on her shelf and he wouldn’t’ have asked about one she didn’t have. Her post was really only a few lines that requested the thoughts of others on the book and its appropriateness. I think the bigger issue that this generates is who is really deciding what kids should and shouldn’t read. I don’t think I will be able to be complacent about what goes on and stays off of my shelf. After all, isn’t it a parent’s job to observe what their kid reads and discuss with them what they don’t find appropriate? Furthermore, even if a parent or principal deems a book inappropriate what on earth gives them the right to say others shouldn’t read it? I have come across this in my experience as an English teacher since I have chosen to teach Harry Potter in a relatively rural school district. Here’s the thing, in my opinion, if parents raise their kids with a certain set of beliefs then nothing I have them read (or, in the case of a librarian, simply have available for them to read) is going to change that belief system. Furthermore, kids are smart, smarter than they are often given credit for. By the time they are in high school they can make reasonable decisions and if a book, any book, is going to permanently damage them for the rest of their lives, then perhaps there is another, larger issue going on that should be addressed. Cam books generate bad ideas? Of course. But the whole point of education is making ideas of all kinds available and allowing kids to think about them and make their own analysis of them. Yes, I know that this particular soap box will probably make me unpopular later in life when I’m a librarian; after all, it’s already made me unpopular as an English teacher. Fortunately, I’m not too upset when others think I’m not doing something correctly.
On 8/23 D’Anne Easton posted a question on LM_NET about how to create a map of the library so that when kids walk in they can go straight to the section they need. She claims to be a bad artist and wants a cite to help her and that the small signs get destroyed (I assume that based off that she’s in an elementary). I’m not sure big, hanging signs wouldn’t work since the kids couldn’t’ get to them and they’d have high visibility (I’m thinking the Wal-Mart-type signs). They’d also be cheaper than making lots of copies of a map to hand out to people. I think the overriding issue here is that the kids feel that going to the library is an easy, painless event. Good for D’Anne for trying to make it smooth and simple. I think that often (and I’m quite guilty of this) since we are natural organizers and have been in libraries our whole lives we forget how foreboding the library can be. It is often large depending on the school district (I assume this is her problem) and the sheer volume of books that kids see when they walk in is overwhelming. (Here I will insert my push for as much downloadable content as possible since kids are already comfortable with it). I had never even considered having a map for kids, but I can see that it would help those students who get overwhelmed easily.
Blogs
Library advocate has a post on 8/26/2010 called “Banned Books Week Machinima Contest” that promotes a contest for students to make a Machinima video on the topic of “think for yourself and let others do the same”. According to the post, “Machinima is filmmaking within a real-time, 3-D virtual environment like Second Life.” As a high school librarian, I think that this is just the sort of thing that should be introduced to promote kids’ interest in reading. Nothing gets high schoolers more upset than being told they can’t do something. I used to teach a banned books week unit to my sophomores where they had to read some of the most commonly banned books for elementary kids and then evaluate why the books were banned and turn their thoughts into an advertising poster advocating the book. Almost all of my students got into this project and really enjoyed doing it. It was also interesting to see them get upset about not being able to read. It was a nice change! As a librarian, I think I could try to make this a part of the English curriculum or a part of advisory with a pizza party or something for the winning group. Kids often don’t think about how much they are limited simply by other people deciding what they are and are not capable of handling.
On 8/24/2010 School Library Journal posted a topic called “Teens use Facebook, Twitter to Spot Back-to-School Deals, Trends.” Though the post was mostly informative and focused on how social networking is becoming a mina part of kids lives that is more important than parents’ views (after all, haven’t we known this forever?), the post did end with an interesting thought: “’ TV is potentially a more immersive experience, whereas social media has the capability for greater personalization, hence more emotional engagement with the customer."’ It’s the emotional engagement that I think is key in education. As a librarian, it would be lovely to connect with kids through Facebook and Twitter in order to promote reading and new books and activities at the library. The medium of transmission of the information alone would promote more student reading due to the emotional engagement and personalization provided by Facebook and Twitter. I’m not sure how logical this would, be in light of the issue in Florida now where teachers have been communicating with current students on Facebook. The school board ruled that all teachers had to remove all current students from their Facebook pages since it was “inappropriate” even though the teachers were communicating with kids strictly about the classes they taught. For example, teachers would check their Facebook on Saturday and answer any questions kids had about the homework over the weekend. If possible, this would be a great way to integrate the library into students’ lives.
On 8/26/2010 Brian Herzog posted on Swiss Army Librarian “Ahmadinejad Classification System”. His concern was that that according to the Dewey Decimal system a book on the holocaust was shelved between two books about imaginary places and events. Naturally, this appears to make the holocaust seem trivial given its shelf space. I too have experienced this even before as well. Often the shelving in the Dewey Decimal system does seem odd and without logic. Personally, I am not a huge fan of the system anyway (though I’m sure that will offend some people). It doesn’t seem logical that we shelve non-fiction under a funky number system that is never explained to use after fourth grade and is forgotten by the time we actually need to use it for research essays. Why not shelf the non-fiction as we do the fiction: by author’s last name? Or perhaps the books could be shelved by topic? Either way seems better to me and as librarians are always encouraged to change what they don’t think is working, I think I might give this one a go when I get my own library. If the goal of a high school library is to be a user friendly as possible for teens, then it makes sense to change a fairly antiquated system with something that kids will be able to navigate easier.
Podcasts
This week I listened to my first Library 2.0 podcast. This one was aired on 5/16/2010 and focused on a program called RFID which seems to be a program that libraries can use to create self checkout and check in as well as a serve as a book tracking system. One of the clear advantages of RFID is that it allows for the reduction of clerical staff. Though cutting jobs is not really a positive thing, it does allow for the library to continue offering other programs, such as subscriptions to databases, after school programs, etc. since the services the library offers are really the focus, cutting clerical staff while allowing the services to continue or even be enhanced seems like a sensible decision. From personal experience, I certainly see the push to self-checkout as a main concern for libraries. The branch of the mid-continent library that I frequent the most does not offer self-checkout and this has often resulted in an aggravating, tedious waste of my time when all I want to do is check out a book and the person in front of me has some long drawn out issue that takes 15-20 minutes to resolve when I am quite capable of scanning my own book. Perhaps more interesting and functional than just the self-checkout is that RFID is a built in book tracking system. Once books are coded, the librarian can tell where it is exactly in the library which would result in a more effectively managed library. Often a book gets mis-shelved and then disappears forever depending on the size of the library. RFID would prevent this issue as the librarian could always locate the book. Additionally, there are several programs that can be added onto RFID that would be very helpful to patrons. One program that is being developed allows patrons to scan a book they are interested in front of a flat panel screen and then a list of reviews will pop up that will allow the patron to decided if they really want the book or not. Part of the discussion of RFID in this podcast centered on the lack of cohesive development of supplementary programs and really a lack of working out the kinks of the original program. All were in agreement that libraries have really lost sight of what needs to be done in regards to the circulating collection. Program developers aren’t getting solid feedback to work on, so the programs aren’t being adapted as they need to be. This issue seems to stem from the sudden push toward electronic collections. There is a massive push for downloadable content, but it seems to be coming at the price of the circulating collection. Librarians seem to be so focused on the electronic content that they are no longer concerned with how to make the circulating collection more efficient. This strikes me as a sizable problem. Though I am a huge advocate of the electronic content, there are many people out there who are die hard bookies and will not switch to electronic devices. There are even more people out there who haven’t the money or resources to make a Kindle, Nook, or iPad logical or even feasible. Though RFID sounds expensive, from what the podcast alluded to without giving numbers, it seems the benefits outweigh the negatives and, more importantly, a strong case could be made for it in terms of finances.
Wools chapter 10 & Empowering Learners chapter 2
The part of both these chapters that I found most important to me was the idea that curriculum must be cross-curricular. Wools states that curriculum units must “go across grade levels and across subject areas” (163) whereas chapter two in Empowering Learners states that learners must, “integrate their understandings with what they already know” (22). I ardently agree that this is one of the most basic, fundamental, important parts of education. So often I hear students complain that what they do has no connection to anything else or their life. I strive to make sure that this is not the case in my class. Part of this is due to the nature of the dual credit English class I teach that is offered through UMKC. Our text is really a current events text that focuses on various aspects of our life (I choose to focus on gender roles and sexuality, patriotism and terrorism, and racism). I have never heard a kid say that they didn’t see the value of what we discussed in class. And it is so lovely to watch them critically think about the world around them. Section three in chapter two in Empowering Learners states that “the number of information sources and the variety of format available can leave many information seekers struggling to identify accurate, reliable sources of information” (23). The first battle I have to fight every year is that my students (from an upper/middles class, white area) just blindly accept what appears authoritative once someone else writes it. The book I use is intentionally controversial and liberal. This not because (as I was once accused by a parent of trying to “make” their child gay by suggesting that maybe acceptance is better than hate)it is correct, but because it is meant to make them think, question, and argue. It takes a few articles for them to really understand that they aren’t supposed to agree with what it says.
This leads into my next point that I found interesting because of what was left unsaid. Empowering Learners states that high-quality reading materials must be available in the library. I argue that high-quality does not necessarily mean age appropriate or school appropriate. Though it is nice to think that our teens are innocent, we all know that they are not. I have heard more stories of what people have done from the child themselves that are so horrifying I can’t even count them all. They are, in many ways, more grown up than I am. They have certainly experienced many more things. The very nature of our society pushes adulthood on them so early that pretending they are innocent will only hurt them. We speak candidly in class about everything from STDs to hate crimes to birth control. They are more mature than most people expect and when word gets out about what we discuss it is inevitable that other teachers ask me how I handle it. The answer is that I don’t have to. They are so grateful to have an adult to discuss it with them without hiding anything that I never have maturity issues. With all this in mind, I think the library should reflect the mature nature of our juniors and seniors. After all, if the student feels uncomfortable with a subject, they can just not check out a book. There have been many times that I needed books or videos for my class that our librarian would not purchase due to content. I couldn’t even get a copy of the Lawrence Fishbourne Othello because of the cover! I ardently think that the library should contain all knowledge and be run by someone who is willing to speak candidly and openly about those subjects with kids who are curious.
Another point I would like to comment on is the persistent issue I keep reading about the high-stakes testing in schools. True, it is negative that so much rides on a test that can in no way truly evaluate learning; however, I disagree with Woolls when she states that, “rote memorization will replace critical thinking unless media specialists can help them understand the value of assignments...” (164). Perhaps Woolls has not ever seen the new EOC tests, but they are the exact opposite of rote memorization. In fact, they can only be passed if kids can critically think and apply basic skills rather than simply regurgitating them. We do not even test over what was taught, but concepts in our school. The tests are all cold-reads (like the ACT, so it’s a double benefit) where they have to apply what they learned (for example, identifying character motivation and development) rather than simply defining.
LM_NET
Honor Zalewski posted to LM_NET on 8/24 a request for help in terms of teaching students about plagiarism and citations to high school students. This post was actually a follow up from her own earlier post asking for ideas from others. I found it interesting that she said she did not get as many suggestions as she had hoped for and only mentioned one suggestion as a good one. She then proceeded to post a long list of citation websites that students can put info into and the site will generate a citation for them that they can just copy/paste into their works cited page. As a senior English teacher, I face the issue of citations and plagiarism all the time. I certainly understand that not many people posted back to Zalewski’s original post for help. People do not spend much time on plagiarism and even then it’s the boring, icky part of English. I myself am tempted to allow students to use the citation generators and it certainly is a better than nothing approach depending on the group of kids you have. Generally, if you have a class where none of the kids are going to college (we actually have a class designed for non-college-bound kids at my school) then it does seem like a waste of valuable time to spend hours on correct citations when the main point is that they credit their source. However, I teach the upper-level kids who often are resourceful enough to use the citation generators without my ever telling them. I still insist that college-bound kids must do the citations from scratch by using a (GASP!) book citation guide. I have found that with the way MLA changes and errors in websites that generate citations the safest bet for a perfect citation is for the kids to look it up and plug in the info themselves. At the risk of sounding like an ogre, it also can’t be too bad for kids to practice their looking-up skills. As a librarian, I expect it would be impossible to tell the college track kid from the non-college track kid so I think that making a handout with a few of the more common citations would be helpful, but we really should continue teaching the old way of doing the citations from scratch.
Cindy Jett posted on LM_NET on 8/24 with a concern about the book The Dirty Cowboy that her principal had asked her to remove from the shelf without any explanation as to why. It is a children’s book and it can be assumed from her post that the reason was not that parents had complained since the principal actually asked if she had two books and she only had the one on her shelf. Had it been a parent complaint, the principal would have known it was on her shelf and he wouldn’t’ have asked about one she didn’t have. Her post was really only a few lines that requested the thoughts of others on the book and its appropriateness. I think the bigger issue that this generates is who is really deciding what kids should and shouldn’t read. I don’t think I will be able to be complacent about what goes on and stays off of my shelf. After all, isn’t it a parent’s job to observe what their kid reads and discuss with them what they don’t find appropriate? Furthermore, even if a parent or principal deems a book inappropriate what on earth gives them the right to say others shouldn’t read it? I have come across this in my experience as an English teacher since I have chosen to teach Harry Potter in a relatively rural school district. Here’s the thing, in my opinion, if parents raise their kids with a certain set of beliefs then nothing I have them read (or, in the case of a librarian, simply have available for them to read) is going to change that belief system. Furthermore, kids are smart, smarter than they are often given credit for. By the time they are in high school they can make reasonable decisions and if a book, any book, is going to permanently damage them for the rest of their lives, then perhaps there is another, larger issue going on that should be addressed. Cam books generate bad ideas? Of course. But the whole point of education is making ideas of all kinds available and allowing kids to think about them and make their own analysis of them. Yes, I know that this particular soap box will probably make me unpopular later in life when I’m a librarian; after all, it’s already made me unpopular as an English teacher. Fortunately, I’m not too upset when others think I’m not doing something correctly.
On 8/23 D’Anne Easton posted a question on LM_NET about how to create a map of the library so that when kids walk in they can go straight to the section they need. She claims to be a bad artist and wants a cite to help her and that the small signs get destroyed (I assume that based off that she’s in an elementary). I’m not sure big, hanging signs wouldn’t work since the kids couldn’t’ get to them and they’d have high visibility (I’m thinking the Wal-Mart-type signs). They’d also be cheaper than making lots of copies of a map to hand out to people. I think the overriding issue here is that the kids feel that going to the library is an easy, painless event. Good for D’Anne for trying to make it smooth and simple. I think that often (and I’m quite guilty of this) since we are natural organizers and have been in libraries our whole lives we forget how foreboding the library can be. It is often large depending on the school district (I assume this is her problem) and the sheer volume of books that kids see when they walk in is overwhelming. (Here I will insert my push for as much downloadable content as possible since kids are already comfortable with it). I had never even considered having a map for kids, but I can see that it would help those students who get overwhelmed easily.
Blogs
Library advocate has a post on 8/26/2010 called “Banned Books Week Machinima Contest” that promotes a contest for students to make a Machinima video on the topic of “think for yourself and let others do the same”. According to the post, “Machinima is filmmaking within a real-time, 3-D virtual environment like Second Life.” As a high school librarian, I think that this is just the sort of thing that should be introduced to promote kids’ interest in reading. Nothing gets high schoolers more upset than being told they can’t do something. I used to teach a banned books week unit to my sophomores where they had to read some of the most commonly banned books for elementary kids and then evaluate why the books were banned and turn their thoughts into an advertising poster advocating the book. Almost all of my students got into this project and really enjoyed doing it. It was also interesting to see them get upset about not being able to read. It was a nice change! As a librarian, I think I could try to make this a part of the English curriculum or a part of advisory with a pizza party or something for the winning group. Kids often don’t think about how much they are limited simply by other people deciding what they are and are not capable of handling.
On 8/24/2010 School Library Journal posted a topic called “Teens use Facebook, Twitter to Spot Back-to-School Deals, Trends.” Though the post was mostly informative and focused on how social networking is becoming a mina part of kids lives that is more important than parents’ views (after all, haven’t we known this forever?), the post did end with an interesting thought: “’ TV is potentially a more immersive experience, whereas social media has the capability for greater personalization, hence more emotional engagement with the customer."’ It’s the emotional engagement that I think is key in education. As a librarian, it would be lovely to connect with kids through Facebook and Twitter in order to promote reading and new books and activities at the library. The medium of transmission of the information alone would promote more student reading due to the emotional engagement and personalization provided by Facebook and Twitter. I’m not sure how logical this would, be in light of the issue in Florida now where teachers have been communicating with current students on Facebook. The school board ruled that all teachers had to remove all current students from their Facebook pages since it was “inappropriate” even though the teachers were communicating with kids strictly about the classes they taught. For example, teachers would check their Facebook on Saturday and answer any questions kids had about the homework over the weekend. If possible, this would be a great way to integrate the library into students’ lives.
On 8/26/2010 Brian Herzog posted on Swiss Army Librarian “Ahmadinejad Classification System”. His concern was that that according to the Dewey Decimal system a book on the holocaust was shelved between two books about imaginary places and events. Naturally, this appears to make the holocaust seem trivial given its shelf space. I too have experienced this even before as well. Often the shelving in the Dewey Decimal system does seem odd and without logic. Personally, I am not a huge fan of the system anyway (though I’m sure that will offend some people). It doesn’t seem logical that we shelve non-fiction under a funky number system that is never explained to use after fourth grade and is forgotten by the time we actually need to use it for research essays. Why not shelf the non-fiction as we do the fiction: by author’s last name? Or perhaps the books could be shelved by topic? Either way seems better to me and as librarians are always encouraged to change what they don’t think is working, I think I might give this one a go when I get my own library. If the goal of a high school library is to be a user friendly as possible for teens, then it makes sense to change a fairly antiquated system with something that kids will be able to navigate easier.
Podcasts
This week I listened to my first Library 2.0 podcast. This one was aired on 5/16/2010 and focused on a program called RFID which seems to be a program that libraries can use to create self checkout and check in as well as a serve as a book tracking system. One of the clear advantages of RFID is that it allows for the reduction of clerical staff. Though cutting jobs is not really a positive thing, it does allow for the library to continue offering other programs, such as subscriptions to databases, after school programs, etc. since the services the library offers are really the focus, cutting clerical staff while allowing the services to continue or even be enhanced seems like a sensible decision. From personal experience, I certainly see the push to self-checkout as a main concern for libraries. The branch of the mid-continent library that I frequent the most does not offer self-checkout and this has often resulted in an aggravating, tedious waste of my time when all I want to do is check out a book and the person in front of me has some long drawn out issue that takes 15-20 minutes to resolve when I am quite capable of scanning my own book. Perhaps more interesting and functional than just the self-checkout is that RFID is a built in book tracking system. Once books are coded, the librarian can tell where it is exactly in the library which would result in a more effectively managed library. Often a book gets mis-shelved and then disappears forever depending on the size of the library. RFID would prevent this issue as the librarian could always locate the book. Additionally, there are several programs that can be added onto RFID that would be very helpful to patrons. One program that is being developed allows patrons to scan a book they are interested in front of a flat panel screen and then a list of reviews will pop up that will allow the patron to decided if they really want the book or not. Part of the discussion of RFID in this podcast centered on the lack of cohesive development of supplementary programs and really a lack of working out the kinks of the original program. All were in agreement that libraries have really lost sight of what needs to be done in regards to the circulating collection. Program developers aren’t getting solid feedback to work on, so the programs aren’t being adapted as they need to be. This issue seems to stem from the sudden push toward electronic collections. There is a massive push for downloadable content, but it seems to be coming at the price of the circulating collection. Librarians seem to be so focused on the electronic content that they are no longer concerned with how to make the circulating collection more efficient. This strikes me as a sizable problem. Though I am a huge advocate of the electronic content, there are many people out there who are die hard bookies and will not switch to electronic devices. There are even more people out there who haven’t the money or resources to make a Kindle, Nook, or iPad logical or even feasible. Though RFID sounds expensive, from what the podcast alluded to without giving numbers, it seems the benefits outweigh the negatives and, more importantly, a strong case could be made for it in terms of finances.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
8-30 Environment
8-30 Environment
Empowering Learners Chapter 1
Having read chapter one and worked with the standards over the summer, I have to say that they still confuse me. I understand the basic gist of them, and I totally agree with the lifelong reader that they try to create, but they do not seem to be organized in an overly user-friendly way. Somewhere between the standards, strands and common beliefs I get lost. Which are we actually teaching and which do we simply believe in? Perhaps this confusion stems from the fact that I am an English teacher now and the only things we work with are the standards we teach. It appears that librarians have set up a policy of why they teach and that seems somehow redundant and unnecessary, which no doubt leads to my confusion. Of course, I do believe in the principles of the common beliefs, but they really confuse me as to how they fit into what we teach. I suppose I will have to somehow get this way of thinking to click in my head soon though.
Woolls Chapters 4 and 5
Chapter 4 was a good deal of review of the school situation for me. Fortunately, as I already teach in a high school and will probably take over our librarian’s job when she retires in a few years, much of this did not worry me. I found the start of chapter 4 giving good ideas that aren’t really practical anymore. The chapter is written on the assumption that the applicant will get an actual choice in jobs, which certainly isn’t really the case anymore. She mentions several times that it is best to look for a school that has a coordinator or director of library media programs because it shows that school values the library program. However, I have never heard of a school that had such a position. Honestly, even if there were an option I’m not sure I would accept it. In general, I’m a type A kind of girl and it’s very hard for me to share my roles. I like to do things efficiently and find that often the best way to do so is to work alone. I must say that pages 63-64 may have given me the single worst advice I have ever read in an education book. When offering advice to find out about the administration the author suggests that the librarian hang out and listen to the teacher’s lounge gossip. Being in a school where massive layoffs occurred last year and more will occur this year and our school is sooooooo confusing now since we suddenly have a two building campus (even the teacher’s don’t know when to let kids out of class), I have discovered that the teacher’s lounge is generally the first place to go if you are in a bad mood and want to share it. I made the mistake of going in Friday, something I rarely do, and spent the rest of the day in a bad mood since in 20 minutes all I heard was complaining. The people who have positive things to say generally don’t hang out in the lounge gossiping about them and rumor starters stay there to spread discord.
Chapter 4 also addresses the other jobs a librarian should expect to take on. At my school, the librarian is the technology coordinator, which is a frightening prospect for me, but one I expect I will be able to handle since we do have a solid technology department. Outside of that, I do feel somewhat daunted by all the jobs a librarian does have to take on. Between being the technology coordinator, textbook coordinator, collaborating with teachers, and working with students, I’m not sure where one would find the time in the day.
I do heartily agree with her point about library fines and the idea that just because something has been done a certain way for a long time does not mean that it has to stay that way. I have never been swayed by what other people do, so I don’t expect changing things will be a problem, and I think that when I become a librarian the first thing to go will be the 2 week check out policy. Kids are busy now and I think that limiting them to two weeks isn’t enough time to promote reading. I think a semester unless someone else wants the books is just fine. I also agree that putting fines on late books is punitive and the last thing we should want to do is punish kids for having a book and reading it longer than they should. Of course, I’m not totally sure how to get the books back when I need them, but I expect I’ll come up with something in the next two or three years.
Chapter 5 had some interesting points about how the library is really a business, something I haven’t considered in terms of a high school library. The library advisory committee is a great way to promote the library in the school and to show the administration that it is a valued part of the school, something that needs to be a constant reminder in these economic times I do find hope in the fact that I will still get to teach and look forward to those kids who come in just wandering around looking for something to do on a study hall.
The section calendars and plan books was both enlightening and concerning. I am unsure of how to keep a plan book when so much changes from minute to minute in terms of what I’m doing. The same hold true for a calendar. I do think, though, that keeping a calendar and maybe sending it out in the morning to the teachers would be a great way to let them know if there’s free time and they can bring in a class. I also think it’s a great way to show exactly how much goes on in the library. I feel that librarians often get the image that they have an easy job since they don’t really have grading and they appear to just be hanging out at a desk most of the day. Posting a calendar that shows what I plan on doing that day and the many areas my activities cover will highlight the importance of the librarian rather than create jealousy.
The list that ended chapter 5 was very heartening for me. These suggestions that the author gives for how to increase effectiveness every day made me feel good as I already do at least half the items on the list. I am a huge planner and am big on getting tasks done, prioritizing, and getting to school early so I have a minute to look over my plan for the day. I feel confident that the craziness of my current job (I have 138 dual credit kids who write a 4-6 page essay every month plus I teach part time at the community college) will well prepare me for the craziness of being a librarian.
Podcasts and LM_Net
I listened to several podcasts this week. To satisfy my bookish nature, I listened to two book review podcasts (one from NPR and one from New York Times) and a short podcast called cool tools for Library 2.0. Library 2.0 was exceptionally interesting and I was very sad it was so short. I wanted to know more about shelfari. IT does seem to be a really cool tool that incorporates everything that a reader would want. It can be used to organize your own books, make lists of books you want to read, and doubles as a social networking site to meet people who have similar interests in reading. It also offers links to MySpace and Facebook pages so that you can get to know more about the people in a different, more personal manner. It sounded like a really cool tool that I will look into when I have a bit more free time. I did already go out to find it and add it to my favorites. I think that things like this will be great for kids when I am a librarian. I could do brief little seminars for 15 minutes or so after school and I think the kids may actually show up. Since it’s about technology it would lure in those techie kids and since it’s about books it would lure in all the regular kids. I bet there’s a ton of stuff like this out there that I don’t know anything about (my husband says I’m just catching up to 1999 technology), so I look forward to learning more about it. Until recently, I have ardently opposed adding more technology to my life (I’ve never in my life actually paid for a cell phone and I’m only 28!), but I have recently had a change of heart. It seems that I can’t make the kids untechnological and they certainly prefer technology in school and I have no doubt that it increases learning. Another teacher tried blogging with the kids at school last year, but a kid hacked the system and was really inappropriate so no one has tried it since, but I might give it a go. The other two were book reviews. I can see the value of this to a librarian who has to constantly order books, but, again, I have to see written word to really make things stick so they would start the review with the title of the book and then give a summary. By the time the summary was done and I was interested in reading the book I had forgotten the title. Perhaps that will be something I get better with over time (my husband just bought me an iPod for my birthday last week, so I’ve never had to listen before now). Of course, vampire literature is always big right now so the new True Blood book was covered and I heard three times (yes, three in only two podcasts) about john Grisham’s new legal thriller for kids, Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer. There was a comparison between this novel and To Kill a Mockingbird which will, I am sure, make the book a huge success. I also enjoyed the commentary on the importance of children’s literature in this podcast. It really is the foundation of our society since children’s books are the first teacher of what is and is not socially acceptable.
One of my LM_NET postings was about the new fad in teen fiction: vampires and werewolves. It never occurred to me that with all the vampire and werewolf craze now that there would be a demand for Native American and African sorties of that nature. It would make sense, however, that these cultures may have the best stories. One librarian was searching for them for her library and I always support stories from different cultures. I think that in terms of effective librarianship this is a great example of diversifying the library holdings and broadening the world view of our students. In recent years (maybe the last 20-50), it seems that Native American and African American culture has been slowly disappearing from our education. History textbooks that used to have a whole chapter dedicated the Trail of Tears now only has two paragraphs. The same is true for African American culture in modern American society. I do see it as a part of our jobs as librarians to keep the history of peoples and pass it down. Finding ways to connect our students to something both amazingly popular and historically important has great value. It would hook kids because it’s yet another vampire book, but it could also serve as a transition into a cultural study.
The other post was about a new novel similar to Number the Stars about a Czech girl who was taken by Nazi’s and then adopted out as a perfect Aryan to a Nazi family. That sort of literature always has a good place in the library as the kids seem really, really drawn to it for some reason. Unlike the slowly diminishing African and Native American cultures in America, the plight of the Jews in WWII seems to always remain at the forefront of education. It slides in and out of the light, but with The Book Thief I think that WWII literature (for the lack of a better phrase) has come back in a big way. Kids need to see the un-sugar coated version of history. As librarians it should be our goal to show things as they are. I really do believe that we can’t forget or gloss over the unpleasant parts of our past or they will occur again. I am glad that more and more WWII literature is published every year and is now modern instead of the old Anne Frank, which is good but for so long was the only type of WWII fiction for kids. I can see that parents may disagree with this (we actually have a national, annual meeting of skinheads in the town I teach in where they descend from all over the country for a week and then leave again), but I don’t think we should be in the business to please, but to teach and remember.
On 8/16/2010 Michelle Bell posted to LM_Net a thread title “First day activities- help please?”. She started at a new school and wanted good first week activities to get her kids excited. A response posted by Michael Bell urged her to begin with the site infotopia. Though this site seems less than helpful for the k-3 librarian’s student body, it does seem super helpful for middle and upper level librarians. The site is a search engine that librarians, administrators, and other teachers can go to and add websites to. Ideally, this would mean that the kids could go to the library, pull up the site, and only see sites that are teacher approved. As a further benefit, this could maybe be a way around the sites that are blocked for kids in high security schools (like mine). Not that I really want to bypass the system, but since only faculty can add sites, they would all be previewed for appropriateness and often my senior students cannot research at school because their essay topics are sensitive. As a librarian, I would play around with this site to see how well it would work for my students and if no other benefit came from it, at least it would be a good starting place for their research for their essays.
Blogs
I read a very interesting post on library fingerprint canners in the UK in schools. Some of this is trickling down to America now as well though no one from the school in Minnesota would comment on it. The concerns raised were, of course, that is was one more step toward big brother and that identities could be stolen with fingerprint scans if the information was compromised. My first and perpetual thought about the big brother claims, no matter what it applies to, is that we are closer than we think anyway. We just don’t know it so we squabble about fingerprint scans to check out books instead of actually learning what’s going on in the country…but that slides into politics. I don’t think people are any more likely to be arrested or followed by the government with fingerprint scans than they are now. Honestly, with the passage of the Patriot Act, the government can already subpoena our library records if we check out enough suspicious books so I can’t imagine that fingerprints would change much. I cou8ld give credit to the idea that kids identities can be stolen though. If the system is cracked then all those fingerprints would be out there. Not that I’m into the whole criminal scene, but I assume that if we head to a more fingerprint based society (for debit cards, identification purposes, etc.) it would be convenient to steal a kids fingerprint and do that who glove thing (if it’s possible outside of action movies)when you replace your fingerprint with someone else’s. I have heard reports of children’s social security numbers being stolen and then when they were 18 they had 17 years of bad credit and it takes years and years to clear up. However, I think fingerprints would certainly be a quick, convenient way for libraries to be run. After all, the kids can’t say they forgot their finger at home so they can’t check out a book!
I also found a great idea of edible book day. Apparently a librarian at Calvin College set it up as an adaptation from something similar in Europe. I think that would be a great way to get kids involved in the library. There could be a prize, or even if not, the kids would surely be very excited about eating and the students in my school are super competitive so they would be clamoring all over each other to make the best representation. The premise is certainty simple. All they have to do is bake some sort of physical, edible representation of a book of their choice. I’m thinking that it could be adapted to be set up before school and kids could vote throughout the day (on lunch, between classes, etc.) up to the last block of the day. Then I could tally the votes and we could eat it all after school. In this manner, it wouldn’t’ even affect the school day really. Perhaps I could convince English teachers to offer some small extra credit for participation in the contest.
From the Library Advocate blog I watched a simultaneously sad and humorous video dramatization of closing a school library. Unfortunately, I don’t think that it was meant to be humorous, but one can only go so far in a dramatization before laughter has to happen. The point was, in fact, very disturbing. It showed the library before being closed and it was full of kids drawing, reading, putting together puzzles, having fun, etc. of course, it was all wholesome fun because there was a librarian. Then the process of closing the library was shown and the final result of empty shelves (which was super sad for me). However, to really drive the point home all those kids that were being wholesome at the beginning of the clip were suddenly making out in the halls, participating in vandalism, and beating up other kids. Though I do think the library is positive and does keep people out of trouble, I can’t imagine that if the library is closed those same kids that were into puzzles, reading, and art will suddenly become juvenile criminals and magically get pregnant. Did I mention that the closing of the library and kids sudden shift to degenerates was accompanied by the theme song to the 70s Psycho?
I think I may have just found my first video on a blog (have I mentioned that this is my first foray into technology?) that was so funny I was crying! It’s a clip of school librarians redoing a Lady Gaga song. They changed all the lyrics to relate to searching for research and they recreated the video with some of the dance moves. There were tons of librarians in it too. Whoever put it together must have traveled to many libraries to get so many people involved. It was hilarious. It’s on the library advocate blog, so you should check it out if you haven’t. I guess it’s on YouTube as well. Though there was absolutely no educational value to it whatsoever, at least it’s solid proof that librarians can, in fact, be very fun and are no longer like the stuffy Madame Pince out of Harry Potter.
Here’s an interesting post about copyright law. I public librarian posted her issue that a woman returned a DVD case that was empty. They called and asked her to check her DVD player. When she returned the phone call she said that she had scanned in the art and made a reproduction of it (complete with barcode) and returned the wrong case accidentally. After checking her history they found she had a huge record of checking out DVDs and the librarians assumed that she was copying both the cover art and the DVD for her private collection. The librarians at the branch were unsure what to do since she never said she copied the DVD (only the art). One suggested sending her name and record to the FBI for copyright infringement, another suggested revoking her renting privileges. I can see how sticky this situation is since one of the core beliefs of the ALA is that we should rent without discrimination to all patrons. Another is that we should never, unless under subpoena, give out a patron’s check out record. I am unsure where I fall in the issue. At the least, I think you could revoke her card since she copied the cover art for sure and that too is copyrighted. But then the patron would not be able to check out books, and surely she would not scan in a whole book page by page. If it were my decision, I would ban her from all electronic renting and only allow paper materials to be rented out.
Empowering Learners Chapter 1
Having read chapter one and worked with the standards over the summer, I have to say that they still confuse me. I understand the basic gist of them, and I totally agree with the lifelong reader that they try to create, but they do not seem to be organized in an overly user-friendly way. Somewhere between the standards, strands and common beliefs I get lost. Which are we actually teaching and which do we simply believe in? Perhaps this confusion stems from the fact that I am an English teacher now and the only things we work with are the standards we teach. It appears that librarians have set up a policy of why they teach and that seems somehow redundant and unnecessary, which no doubt leads to my confusion. Of course, I do believe in the principles of the common beliefs, but they really confuse me as to how they fit into what we teach. I suppose I will have to somehow get this way of thinking to click in my head soon though.
Woolls Chapters 4 and 5
Chapter 4 was a good deal of review of the school situation for me. Fortunately, as I already teach in a high school and will probably take over our librarian’s job when she retires in a few years, much of this did not worry me. I found the start of chapter 4 giving good ideas that aren’t really practical anymore. The chapter is written on the assumption that the applicant will get an actual choice in jobs, which certainly isn’t really the case anymore. She mentions several times that it is best to look for a school that has a coordinator or director of library media programs because it shows that school values the library program. However, I have never heard of a school that had such a position. Honestly, even if there were an option I’m not sure I would accept it. In general, I’m a type A kind of girl and it’s very hard for me to share my roles. I like to do things efficiently and find that often the best way to do so is to work alone. I must say that pages 63-64 may have given me the single worst advice I have ever read in an education book. When offering advice to find out about the administration the author suggests that the librarian hang out and listen to the teacher’s lounge gossip. Being in a school where massive layoffs occurred last year and more will occur this year and our school is sooooooo confusing now since we suddenly have a two building campus (even the teacher’s don’t know when to let kids out of class), I have discovered that the teacher’s lounge is generally the first place to go if you are in a bad mood and want to share it. I made the mistake of going in Friday, something I rarely do, and spent the rest of the day in a bad mood since in 20 minutes all I heard was complaining. The people who have positive things to say generally don’t hang out in the lounge gossiping about them and rumor starters stay there to spread discord.
Chapter 4 also addresses the other jobs a librarian should expect to take on. At my school, the librarian is the technology coordinator, which is a frightening prospect for me, but one I expect I will be able to handle since we do have a solid technology department. Outside of that, I do feel somewhat daunted by all the jobs a librarian does have to take on. Between being the technology coordinator, textbook coordinator, collaborating with teachers, and working with students, I’m not sure where one would find the time in the day.
I do heartily agree with her point about library fines and the idea that just because something has been done a certain way for a long time does not mean that it has to stay that way. I have never been swayed by what other people do, so I don’t expect changing things will be a problem, and I think that when I become a librarian the first thing to go will be the 2 week check out policy. Kids are busy now and I think that limiting them to two weeks isn’t enough time to promote reading. I think a semester unless someone else wants the books is just fine. I also agree that putting fines on late books is punitive and the last thing we should want to do is punish kids for having a book and reading it longer than they should. Of course, I’m not totally sure how to get the books back when I need them, but I expect I’ll come up with something in the next two or three years.
Chapter 5 had some interesting points about how the library is really a business, something I haven’t considered in terms of a high school library. The library advisory committee is a great way to promote the library in the school and to show the administration that it is a valued part of the school, something that needs to be a constant reminder in these economic times I do find hope in the fact that I will still get to teach and look forward to those kids who come in just wandering around looking for something to do on a study hall.
The section calendars and plan books was both enlightening and concerning. I am unsure of how to keep a plan book when so much changes from minute to minute in terms of what I’m doing. The same hold true for a calendar. I do think, though, that keeping a calendar and maybe sending it out in the morning to the teachers would be a great way to let them know if there’s free time and they can bring in a class. I also think it’s a great way to show exactly how much goes on in the library. I feel that librarians often get the image that they have an easy job since they don’t really have grading and they appear to just be hanging out at a desk most of the day. Posting a calendar that shows what I plan on doing that day and the many areas my activities cover will highlight the importance of the librarian rather than create jealousy.
The list that ended chapter 5 was very heartening for me. These suggestions that the author gives for how to increase effectiveness every day made me feel good as I already do at least half the items on the list. I am a huge planner and am big on getting tasks done, prioritizing, and getting to school early so I have a minute to look over my plan for the day. I feel confident that the craziness of my current job (I have 138 dual credit kids who write a 4-6 page essay every month plus I teach part time at the community college) will well prepare me for the craziness of being a librarian.
Podcasts and LM_Net
I listened to several podcasts this week. To satisfy my bookish nature, I listened to two book review podcasts (one from NPR and one from New York Times) and a short podcast called cool tools for Library 2.0. Library 2.0 was exceptionally interesting and I was very sad it was so short. I wanted to know more about shelfari. IT does seem to be a really cool tool that incorporates everything that a reader would want. It can be used to organize your own books, make lists of books you want to read, and doubles as a social networking site to meet people who have similar interests in reading. It also offers links to MySpace and Facebook pages so that you can get to know more about the people in a different, more personal manner. It sounded like a really cool tool that I will look into when I have a bit more free time. I did already go out to find it and add it to my favorites. I think that things like this will be great for kids when I am a librarian. I could do brief little seminars for 15 minutes or so after school and I think the kids may actually show up. Since it’s about technology it would lure in those techie kids and since it’s about books it would lure in all the regular kids. I bet there’s a ton of stuff like this out there that I don’t know anything about (my husband says I’m just catching up to 1999 technology), so I look forward to learning more about it. Until recently, I have ardently opposed adding more technology to my life (I’ve never in my life actually paid for a cell phone and I’m only 28!), but I have recently had a change of heart. It seems that I can’t make the kids untechnological and they certainly prefer technology in school and I have no doubt that it increases learning. Another teacher tried blogging with the kids at school last year, but a kid hacked the system and was really inappropriate so no one has tried it since, but I might give it a go. The other two were book reviews. I can see the value of this to a librarian who has to constantly order books, but, again, I have to see written word to really make things stick so they would start the review with the title of the book and then give a summary. By the time the summary was done and I was interested in reading the book I had forgotten the title. Perhaps that will be something I get better with over time (my husband just bought me an iPod for my birthday last week, so I’ve never had to listen before now). Of course, vampire literature is always big right now so the new True Blood book was covered and I heard three times (yes, three in only two podcasts) about john Grisham’s new legal thriller for kids, Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer. There was a comparison between this novel and To Kill a Mockingbird which will, I am sure, make the book a huge success. I also enjoyed the commentary on the importance of children’s literature in this podcast. It really is the foundation of our society since children’s books are the first teacher of what is and is not socially acceptable.
One of my LM_NET postings was about the new fad in teen fiction: vampires and werewolves. It never occurred to me that with all the vampire and werewolf craze now that there would be a demand for Native American and African sorties of that nature. It would make sense, however, that these cultures may have the best stories. One librarian was searching for them for her library and I always support stories from different cultures. I think that in terms of effective librarianship this is a great example of diversifying the library holdings and broadening the world view of our students. In recent years (maybe the last 20-50), it seems that Native American and African American culture has been slowly disappearing from our education. History textbooks that used to have a whole chapter dedicated the Trail of Tears now only has two paragraphs. The same is true for African American culture in modern American society. I do see it as a part of our jobs as librarians to keep the history of peoples and pass it down. Finding ways to connect our students to something both amazingly popular and historically important has great value. It would hook kids because it’s yet another vampire book, but it could also serve as a transition into a cultural study.
The other post was about a new novel similar to Number the Stars about a Czech girl who was taken by Nazi’s and then adopted out as a perfect Aryan to a Nazi family. That sort of literature always has a good place in the library as the kids seem really, really drawn to it for some reason. Unlike the slowly diminishing African and Native American cultures in America, the plight of the Jews in WWII seems to always remain at the forefront of education. It slides in and out of the light, but with The Book Thief I think that WWII literature (for the lack of a better phrase) has come back in a big way. Kids need to see the un-sugar coated version of history. As librarians it should be our goal to show things as they are. I really do believe that we can’t forget or gloss over the unpleasant parts of our past or they will occur again. I am glad that more and more WWII literature is published every year and is now modern instead of the old Anne Frank, which is good but for so long was the only type of WWII fiction for kids. I can see that parents may disagree with this (we actually have a national, annual meeting of skinheads in the town I teach in where they descend from all over the country for a week and then leave again), but I don’t think we should be in the business to please, but to teach and remember.
On 8/16/2010 Michelle Bell posted to LM_Net a thread title “First day activities- help please?”. She started at a new school and wanted good first week activities to get her kids excited. A response posted by Michael Bell urged her to begin with the site infotopia. Though this site seems less than helpful for the k-3 librarian’s student body, it does seem super helpful for middle and upper level librarians. The site is a search engine that librarians, administrators, and other teachers can go to and add websites to. Ideally, this would mean that the kids could go to the library, pull up the site, and only see sites that are teacher approved. As a further benefit, this could maybe be a way around the sites that are blocked for kids in high security schools (like mine). Not that I really want to bypass the system, but since only faculty can add sites, they would all be previewed for appropriateness and often my senior students cannot research at school because their essay topics are sensitive. As a librarian, I would play around with this site to see how well it would work for my students and if no other benefit came from it, at least it would be a good starting place for their research for their essays.
Blogs
I read a very interesting post on library fingerprint canners in the UK in schools. Some of this is trickling down to America now as well though no one from the school in Minnesota would comment on it. The concerns raised were, of course, that is was one more step toward big brother and that identities could be stolen with fingerprint scans if the information was compromised. My first and perpetual thought about the big brother claims, no matter what it applies to, is that we are closer than we think anyway. We just don’t know it so we squabble about fingerprint scans to check out books instead of actually learning what’s going on in the country…but that slides into politics. I don’t think people are any more likely to be arrested or followed by the government with fingerprint scans than they are now. Honestly, with the passage of the Patriot Act, the government can already subpoena our library records if we check out enough suspicious books so I can’t imagine that fingerprints would change much. I cou8ld give credit to the idea that kids identities can be stolen though. If the system is cracked then all those fingerprints would be out there. Not that I’m into the whole criminal scene, but I assume that if we head to a more fingerprint based society (for debit cards, identification purposes, etc.) it would be convenient to steal a kids fingerprint and do that who glove thing (if it’s possible outside of action movies)when you replace your fingerprint with someone else’s. I have heard reports of children’s social security numbers being stolen and then when they were 18 they had 17 years of bad credit and it takes years and years to clear up. However, I think fingerprints would certainly be a quick, convenient way for libraries to be run. After all, the kids can’t say they forgot their finger at home so they can’t check out a book!
I also found a great idea of edible book day. Apparently a librarian at Calvin College set it up as an adaptation from something similar in Europe. I think that would be a great way to get kids involved in the library. There could be a prize, or even if not, the kids would surely be very excited about eating and the students in my school are super competitive so they would be clamoring all over each other to make the best representation. The premise is certainty simple. All they have to do is bake some sort of physical, edible representation of a book of their choice. I’m thinking that it could be adapted to be set up before school and kids could vote throughout the day (on lunch, between classes, etc.) up to the last block of the day. Then I could tally the votes and we could eat it all after school. In this manner, it wouldn’t’ even affect the school day really. Perhaps I could convince English teachers to offer some small extra credit for participation in the contest.
From the Library Advocate blog I watched a simultaneously sad and humorous video dramatization of closing a school library. Unfortunately, I don’t think that it was meant to be humorous, but one can only go so far in a dramatization before laughter has to happen. The point was, in fact, very disturbing. It showed the library before being closed and it was full of kids drawing, reading, putting together puzzles, having fun, etc. of course, it was all wholesome fun because there was a librarian. Then the process of closing the library was shown and the final result of empty shelves (which was super sad for me). However, to really drive the point home all those kids that were being wholesome at the beginning of the clip were suddenly making out in the halls, participating in vandalism, and beating up other kids. Though I do think the library is positive and does keep people out of trouble, I can’t imagine that if the library is closed those same kids that were into puzzles, reading, and art will suddenly become juvenile criminals and magically get pregnant. Did I mention that the closing of the library and kids sudden shift to degenerates was accompanied by the theme song to the 70s Psycho?
I think I may have just found my first video on a blog (have I mentioned that this is my first foray into technology?) that was so funny I was crying! It’s a clip of school librarians redoing a Lady Gaga song. They changed all the lyrics to relate to searching for research and they recreated the video with some of the dance moves. There were tons of librarians in it too. Whoever put it together must have traveled to many libraries to get so many people involved. It was hilarious. It’s on the library advocate blog, so you should check it out if you haven’t. I guess it’s on YouTube as well. Though there was absolutely no educational value to it whatsoever, at least it’s solid proof that librarians can, in fact, be very fun and are no longer like the stuffy Madame Pince out of Harry Potter.
Here’s an interesting post about copyright law. I public librarian posted her issue that a woman returned a DVD case that was empty. They called and asked her to check her DVD player. When she returned the phone call she said that she had scanned in the art and made a reproduction of it (complete with barcode) and returned the wrong case accidentally. After checking her history they found she had a huge record of checking out DVDs and the librarians assumed that she was copying both the cover art and the DVD for her private collection. The librarians at the branch were unsure what to do since she never said she copied the DVD (only the art). One suggested sending her name and record to the FBI for copyright infringement, another suggested revoking her renting privileges. I can see how sticky this situation is since one of the core beliefs of the ALA is that we should rent without discrimination to all patrons. Another is that we should never, unless under subpoena, give out a patron’s check out record. I am unsure where I fall in the issue. At the least, I think you could revoke her card since she copied the cover art for sure and that too is copyrighted. But then the patron would not be able to check out books, and surely she would not scan in a whole book page by page. If it were my decision, I would ban her from all electronic renting and only allow paper materials to be rented out.
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