97% of your students want you to… February 24, 2009
Posted by Christopher Harris in : AASL News , 1 comment so farAre you looking for a quick way to reach 97% of your student population? Want to immediately appeal to their interests while still promoting your library’s goal of learning? Sure, this could be a blog post with 10 Ways to Reach Your Students! but we are all under too much pressure to read the 9 ways that might work. Let’s skip ahead to the number 1 way to immediately connect.
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97% of your students are gamers and want you to apply for ALA’s new Libraries, Literacy, and Gaming grant
This grant is looking for school libraries who are just getting started looking at gaming and are interested in a one time grant of $5,000 to help develop a gaming program. The program must be for students 10-18 and needs to have a strong literacy component. For more information on how gaming can work in libraries (or for best practices upon which to model your grant application) be sure to check out The Librarian’s Guide to Gaming.
AASL’s own Terri Kirk was one of the national experts involved in the first year of the ALA grant. Her gaming programs at Reidland High School (KY) are included as examples of a school gaming club, a student-run Cyber Night with gaming, and a “big game” that sent students around the school in a large scale search for information.
Interesting research article February 20, 2009
Posted by Debbie Stafford in : AASL News , add a commentIf you have not already done so, check out some of the links in our blog roll. One good one to check out at least weekly is ResourceShelf. Today in scrolling down the list, a posting for February 19 is Full Text Report from Project Information Literacy. This is a report out of the University of Washington Information School titled “What Today’s College Students Say about Conducting Research in the Digital Age.
Some of the main points
- differentiate between “every day life research” and “course related research”
- four types of context – big picture, language, situational, information gathering
- wikipedia is often used for big picture and language
- accessibility of both the librarians and the library are factors
- “Research seems to be far more difficult to conduct in the digital age than it did in previous times.”
While the article talks about college students it has ramifications for high school libraries.
Technology and the Library February 20, 2009
Posted by abranyon in : AASL News , 1 comment so farHave you ever had a frustrating week? We learn so much about technology and incorporating it into our lessons in the library that we finally get the message to use it as often as we can. We use blogs, nings, and twitter to network to the latest innovations and then try to incorporate these valuable and usable ideas into lessons. We want to develop a working relationship with technology and make it our friend. Does anyone know of any sites, conferences, etc, that can be utilized? Is anyone else having any problems dealing with technology and using it? Thanks.
ALA Unconference Registration Now Open February 11, 2009
Posted by Wendy Stephens in : Check this out! , add a commentFebruary 10, the American Library Association (ALA) announced an unconference event Friday, July 10, 2009, at the Annual Conference as part of President Jim Rettig’s “Creating Connections” initiatives.
The event bears all the hallmarks of the unconferences which have emerged from the world of technology. It’s free, open to all on a first-come, first-serve basis, and the participants decide the agenda by specifying what they want to present or facilitate.
More information about the event in the press release and on the annual conference wiki. But be sure to sign up as soon as possible, since registration is currently set to accomodate 75 participants.
Act Now for Library Funding February 11, 2009
Posted by sbrisco in : AASL News, Advocacy, Hot Topics , add a commentALA has urged us to continue our lobbying from the grassroots level. The following information was sent to encourage librarians to continue their work to let their legislators know the importance of funding to libraries around the country. Read their request and contact your legislators to encourage them to support libraries!
The next 36 to 48 hours is critical to get millions, maybe billions, of dollars for libraries in the stimulus package. We need every single library supporter to start sending messages and calling congressional offices so that we can keep important library provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). As you all know, libraries are a key source of free Internet access to look for jobs and so much more. Our libraries provide essential services that stimulate our local economies, and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 provides crucial funding for libraries to continue and build upon them. This week, the Senate and House versions of the economic stimulus package will go to conference to reconcile these pieces of legislation, and your calls and e-mails will help protect this funding. There are pros and cons of each version of the stimulus, and we need to protect the parts that benefit our communities.
In the coming days, you will receive a lot of e-mails from us, and your advocacy will be the key to our success. Last week, Senate Amendment 501 could have stripped broadband funding from their version of the bill but your calls and e-mails to your elected officials defeated this amendment and successfully protected this funding. Now, more than ever, your activism is needed. Over 1,250 calls went to our elected officials, and now we need even more.
Please call your elected officials and tell them to communicate with the conferees in support of the following parts in both the House and the Senate versions:
Restore education construction funds eliminated from the Senate version of the ARRA. The House version of the ARRA would provide $14 billion for K-12 construction and $6 billion for higher education construction and specifically mention libraries as an allowable use of funds. The K-12 construction funds would create 300,000 jobs.
Restore the money cut from the State Stabilization Fund in the Senate bill to $79 billion to and restore the Governors ability to use a portion of the funds at his or her discretion.
Maintain $8 billion for ‘Broadband Technology Opportunities Program’ for robust broadband to all of America including “fiber to the libraries for the 21st century.”
No less than $200 million that shall be available for competitive grants for expanding public computer center capacity, including community colleges and public libraries.
Open access of networks should be upheld and not include provisions allowing intrusive network management techniques.
It is critical that you contact the following legislators, as they are conferees on this legislation and control what stays in and what will be taken out. TLA urges all library supporters to contact their Congressional representative. To find contact information for your member of Congress, go to ALA’s federal resource center at:
http://capwiz.com/ala/mail/compose/?&azip=78746&mailid=custom
Please contact the following :
Appropriations Chairman Obey (D-WI)
Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-NY)
Commerce Chairman Waxman (D-CA)
Appropriations Ranking Member Jerry Lewis (R-CA)
Ways and Means Ranking Member Dave Camp (R-MI)
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)
Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT)
Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-HI)
Finance Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
Appropriations Ranking Member Thad Cochran (R-MS)
Again, the only way our grassroots effort will be successful is with your calls and e-mails.
Joyce Valenzia’s Ning February 9, 2009
Posted by abranyon in : Check this out!, Professional Development , 1 comment so farSo as I continue to search for ways to add to my PLN (Personal Learning Network) I came across Joyce Valenzia’s ning. I immediately joined and have already received countless ideas to share with the teachers with whom I collaborate. The web address to her ning is <http://teacherlibrarian.ning.com/>. I also just finished reading Fabled Service by Betsy Sanders. I have been focusing this year on creating a library that offers “fabled service.” So often teachers complain about not having time to do “enrichment” activities. I am trying to create activities that are not just for enrichment but also address SOL skills and content. By doing this hopefully I am reinforcing what the classroom teacher is doing and making the library experience an indispensable part of the classroom curriculum. Any ideas for what else I can do to continue to grow and to continue to be an equal collaborative partner with my teachers?
In the news: Simplifying thought patterns? February 8, 2009
Posted by mkowalsky in : Check this out!, Technology , 1 comment so farThe discussion about whether technologies in general, or search engines in particular, have contributed to the “dumbing-down” of modern thought patterns has resurfaced again among educators, psychologists, and futurists. Here are three articles to share with your fellow SLMSs, teachers, or students to encourage discussion and questions.
An article in The Atlantic over the summer had asked “Is Google Making us Stupid?” (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google), and had led many readers to liken the argument to a similar one made about how television may have been corrupting young minds, decades ago when it was first introduced. While Google and the Internet as a whole have certainly changed the way we interact with information, and with each other, perhaps concluding that these changes have made us “dumb” is a bit premature to pronounce so early in the course of their/our history?
In a more recent article in Wired, Clive Thompson explained how he believes You Tube changes the way we think about information delivery as well as ourselves (http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/17-01/st_thompson). Use of these tools has changed the way we communicate and archive, as well as search and find. And, he says, perhaps these new languages are also changing our purposes for using information which comes in a new medium or through a new tool. While it seems that our children possess different kinds of knowledge — and create different kinds of knowledge — than children of past generations, could it be that new information is crowding out older formats and content because older knowledge is not as useful in a modern era?
The Science Daily also recently asked whether technology was producing a decline in critical thinking and analysis but an increase in visual literacy (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090128092341.htm). This article seems to be circulating on email among classroom teachers who may be inclined to agree with the title based on their personal experiences or their in public education over the years. However, this UCLA professor’s research-based study also points to results which show that increasing children’s recreational reading develops many needed skills. The article also reviews studies on television, video games, and other educational media and the results and conclusions which studies of these topics have produced thus far.
These and many other articles and books have provoked an interesting question for ourselves as library media specialists and as educators: Why do we tend to choose only one favorite among the many types of knowledge, skills and abilities encouraged and afforded by books, by technology, and by interpersonal interactions? Why do we periodically choose one as best? Aren’t they ALL necessary for our students’ learning, and their confluence a factor in producing exponentially better results in student achievement?
SLMR–Call for manuscripts February 4, 2009
Posted by jdonham in : AASL News , add a commentAs we begin the development of the 2009 volume of School Library Media Research Online, we invite researchers to submit manuscripts for consideration for inclusion in the juried research publication of AASL. Information regarding manuscrip submission is available at http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/aaslpubsandjournals/slmrb/aboutslmr/manuscriptpolicy/slmrmanuscriptsubmission.cfm
Personal Learning Network (PLN) February 4, 2009
Posted by abranyon in : Check this out!, Professional Development , 3commentsIn recent months, it has become apparent that being a librarian can be an overwhelming job especially when in addition to managing your collection and developing curriculum and collaborating with teachers, you also try to stay connected to new trends and developments in the field of library science. Recently a colleague shared that she uses a personal learning network to stay informed. She uses igoogle as an aggregate to bring together all her websites, blogs, twitters, nings, and informational sources so that she can be in contact with this site with a single click of her mouse. AMAZING! A librarian can even check for updates in between periods, classes, at the end of the day, beginning of the day, on weekends, etc. (How exciting it that!) It is extremely easy to set up your page on igoogle and then customize it to include anything you may want. Go to google and then look to the right and click on igoogle. You will have to create an account but that is very easy. Once you have finished your account, check out the following website for wonderful library resources. Create a library gadget by going to “Add Stuff” in the right hand corner and create a library gadget. Then you can just add any or all of the library resource from this website: http://www.google.com/ig/sharetab?source=stb&stid=10315853340625645915492c633b1aa61819a27431d8590ade86b
Enjoy and if you find any wonderful sites to add to a Personal Learning Network, post them for all of us to benefit.
Did you know . . . February 2, 2009
Posted by maharlan in : AASL News, Standards , add a commentIn Denver at the ALA Midwinter meeting AASL released the new publication Standards for the 21st-Century Learner in Action. This publication examines the strands and indicators of the Standards for the 21st Century Learner, that were released in Oct. 2007. This is the practical component of the work that AASL is doing in developing student learning standards. Learn more about the book here (also where you may purchase the book.)
