A New Role for Information in Schools

Check out Clarence Fisher's comments on how schools should be handling information at http://remoteaccess.typepad.com/remote_access/2009/05/cluetrainplus10---controlling-knowledge.html

Another Perspective on Weeding

Perry Nodelman made an important comment on the YALSA listserv today. Some of the books that you will see on the Terrible Books blog, and some of those that we find with horror as we go through our shelves, may actually be valuable simply because they are so outdated or campy. Check online used and rare book dealers when you weed. Some items might be sold and make enough to buy some wonderful books to replace those terrible ones.

Create Your Own Avatar for Free

Phoebe Applegate (who greeted you on the right) is an avatar created with Voki (http://www.voki.com/). You can create all sorts of speaking avatars for free and post them to your blog, website, or an email. It's incredibly easy to use and fun too. Check it out!

A Great Motivator for Weeding (and Fun Too)

Check out http://awfullibrarybooks.wordpress.com/, a blog dedicated to the awful books that we all (if we're honest) have to admit are lurking on our shelves.

Fun Tools

I've been having fun with the "Warholizer" from BigHugeLabs.com. Phoebe Applegate never looked so cool!

Summer Reading Tools

Most of you have heard of the "summer slide," the decline in reading abilities that students experience during the summer vacation. Here are two free tools to help combat the slide. The Oklahoma State Department of Education is offering access to a free tool called "Find a Book." Find a Book is a program that allows parents to input their child’s reading level and interests to find appropriate books for summer reading. This program is available at the Department of Education website http://www.sde.state.ok.us/. Click on "Search" in the upper right corner, then look for Find a Book. Another great free resource is offered by Scholastic.com. The Scholastic Summer Challenge allows students to register for free, find books that will interest them, chat with other students about books, and be a part of the "world record challenge." Check this out at http://www.scholastic.com/summerreading.

New Search Tool

The hot topic on all of the library and technology blogs is WolframAlpha, a new search engine which calls itself a computational knowledge engine. It does some amazing things with math and science. It also is a great resource for data about places, nutrition, etc. Check out their explanatory video at http://www.wolframalpha.com/screencast/introducingwolframalpha.html.

Federal Funds May Be Available for School Libraries

According to School Library Journal, there will be funds available to school libraries for facilities upgrade if the 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act passes the U.S. Senate. This bill states that fund can be used to modernize or renovate school libraries. For more information, check out the article at http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6658594.html?rssid=190.

Wonderful Library Resources

I wanted to promote two wonderful web sites that offer free access to audio versions of classic works of literature. LibriVox (http://librivox.org) is a site through which volunteers read public domain works. You can download mp3 or ogg files from this site and listen on a computer or mp3 player. LoudLit (http://www.loudlit.org) offers the same sort of works and depends on donations. LoudLit, however, also has the text versions of books, so students can read and listen at the same time. These are both great resources for library media specialists scrambling to meet the needs of their students.

A Great Read

I am totally engrossed in The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (2008). This is a great young adult novel. Again, I'm a little behind the times. She has a sequel, called Catching Fire, that came out in fall of 2009.

I may be behind the times, but I just learned about Google's new search options panel (Thanks to a post on School Library Journal's NeverEndingSearch blog). This has some awesome features to help students think about their searches, expand or limit them, and view different formats of information. This video from Google (on YouTube) gives an excellent demonstration.

Introduction

I recently bought a t-shirt that features "The Evolving Librarian". It begins with a primate wearing reading glasses, evolved to a monk in a scriptorium then to the stereotypial librarian with the bun shushing. The evolved librarian is carrying a book, a laptop, and wearing earbuds. That's what all successful librarians today, especially school library media specialists, must be. Gone are the days when all we had to know was books and other print materials. Today, school library media specialists have to be experts on books and other print materials, auid, video, electronic resources, information literacy, responsible online behavior, integration of technology in the classroom, etc., etc., etc.

I hope this blog will become a space for library media specialists who have evolved or are in the process of doing so.