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DIY Google June 18, 2008

Posted by jhurd in : Check this out! , add a comment

If you haven’t discovered it yet, Google has a useful new custom search engine that you can host on your own website. You create a name for the search engine, then manually enter the website URL’s that you want the engine to use in searching. Time consuming, yes. But what a great school-wide project, and imagine what a powerful tool you would have after a few years. There are also options to search the entire web, emphasizing your selected sites, or just to search the entire web.

Google then allows you to host the site on your Google homepage, your blog, or another website, and generates the embedding code.  Nifty, eh?

I will admit that, as a high-school librarian, I have issues with using filtered search engines; students must learn to find and evaluate their own sites. Still, this has real potential, and I can see some wonderful content-specific possibilities here.

Departments can create a subject specific search engine, or teachers create a search engine for a specific topic of study. The History department at my school requires students to use a minimum of seven primary sources in their research papers. I spent an inordinate amount of time this year hunting links down for the pathfinders (have you ever had to find seven primary sources on Zulu warriors?!), and worried I was doing the students a disservice by finding the sites for them.

So I plan to create a primary source search engine with ALL of the links from the various pathfinders. Students still have to dig and root, but with better luck. They’ll even still need to distinguish between secondary and primary sources, as some of the sites are a mixture of both.

Really, you have to love Google, sometimes!

Conference tips June 15, 2008

Posted by Debbie Stafford in : Check this out!, Conferences , 1 comment so far

With ALA, NECC and other conferences coming up this might be a good time to pass on conference tips.  Three ideas that are often shared;

What are your other tips for successful conference going? How do you handle the exhibit hall?

When I go to the exhibit hall I take a map noting the vendors that I already deal with frequently. I may not have a question or concern but I like to stop by their booth and make contact. Sometimes they can tell me what new things are coming. Next I try to cover each aisle. I try to be careful with collecting freebies taking only items from vendors I may use. These freebies I take back to my school and in the fall during some inservice days use these as door prizes.

Reading Indulgences June 5, 2008

Posted by maharlan in : Check this out! , 1 comment so far

This weekend is the 48 Hour Book Challenge in the kidlit blogosphere sponsored by Mother Reader.  I have set aside my weekend, there will be no house work, yard work, or cooking of dinner.  I am going to indulge - for those of you who read and blog - come join us.  It can be considered a tool for reader’s advisory for those of you who might need a “professional excuse”.

On a separate note I had no suggestions on title for an online book club.  However there has been quite a bit of discussion on LM_Net about The Dumbest Generation by Mark Bauerlein.  So I am inviting anyone who wants to - to join me in reading this over the summer.  Discussion will begin August 11th, right here.

Deadline near for comments on AASL Standards in Action May 26, 2008

Posted by Kathy Lowe in : Check this out!, Standards , add a comment

Dear Colleagues,
June 6th is the deadline for submitting your comments on the first draft of the AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner in Action. This document provides support for school library media specialists and other educators in teaching the essential learning skills defined in Standards for the 21st Century Learner. It presents Action Examples for putting Standard 1: Inquire, think critically, and gain knowledge, into practice in Benchmark Grades 2, 5, 8, 10 and 12+.

Visit http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslproftools/standardsinaction/standardsinaction.cfm to view the draft.

We have had very few comments submitted so far, but hope that many of you will take the time in the next two weeks to scrutinize this draft and offer your input before our task force resumes its work on the remaining Standards. Please don’t miss this opportunity to contribute to what will become the new “handbook” for our profession and make it the best it can be.

We look forward to receiving your commnets soon at StandardsInAction@ala.org

AASL Learning Standards Indicators & Assessment Task Force:
Katherine Lowe, Chair, Massachusetts School Library Association
Cassandra G. Barnett, Fayetteville High School Library, AR
Melissa P. Johnston, Silver City Elementary, Cumming, GA
Barbara K. Stripling, New York City Department of Education
Dr. Violet H. Harada, University of Hawaii
Frances Glick, Baltimore County Public Schools, MD

AASL Blog Book Club April 29, 2008

Posted by maharlan in : Check this out! , 1 comment so far

I know many of us are preparing to end the year. If your library is anything like mine, chaos ensues. It is my busiest time of the year. What a great time to start a book club!!

O.K. I only partly jest. This is to announce the beginning of the AASL Blog Book Club, a chance to read and share with one another. We will select a title, read it together, and use the blogs and comments to discuss the title beginning at a set time. For an example of what we envision see the “Night blog.” Think One Conference, One Book on the blog. Examples of titles can be anything from A Whole New Mind, The World is Flat, or Three Cups of Tea. Think about a title that has some, however nebulous, relation to our profession and that will stimulate discussion. So among all the chaos use the comments to make a reading suggestion. I will post the selected title and reading schedule next week.