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.
