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Webquests, Pathfinders and Information Literacy June 24, 2008

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

We’ve been having quite the animated discussion on LM-Net today, all around this article by Australian webquest guru, Tom March. In it, he wonders whether Web 2.0 has made the traditional webquest, with teacher-supplied links and pen/paper responses, obsolete. There seems to be a 50/50 split between those who agree and disagree.

It started me thinking about pathfinders, however, as I think there’s a similar issue related to them. They are as much a staple of school libraries as card catalogs, and my (middle school/high school) students and faculty love them. This is my first year at the school, and the teachers here had never seen a pathfinder before. They did as much to advocate for my program as anything else I did all year. Teachers would come in and ask, “Hey, can you make me one of those resource thingies the kids mentioned?” I was thrilled.

And yet. As the pathfinders grew more elaborate over the year, with links to the OPAC, databases, suggested books and long hotlists of websites, I started wondering if I were doing the students a disservice. Why spend two or three days teaching them how to search for and evaluate sites, then give them a long list of “approved” links? Wasn’t I defeating my information literacy goal? But teachers loved them.

I began to start each web section of the pathfinder with a group of portals and useful search engines, with a brief explanation of why they were useful and a good place to start their own searching. I also used wikis to create the pathfinders, gave students the password and encouraged them to add their own sites, making it a collaborative effort that also involved critical thinking.

If you’d like to peruse my ‘pathfinder evolution,’ you can find them here.

I’m still not entirely happy with the process; how do we balance findability with information literacy? It would be great to hear what other librarians are doing. Or is this already a settled issue and I just don’t know about it because I’m a newbie?

Virtual Library Legislation Day June 23, 2008

Posted by droth in : Check this out!, Conferences, SKILLS Act , add a comment

Serve your students. Promote and protect school libraries. Make your voice heard.

Virtual Library Legislation Day is Tuesday, July 1, 2008 — Participate!!!

Prepare now (so you know what you want to say and do when the time comes).

Take action on July 1st.

Here’s how:

PREPARE
Read the ALA Washington Office (WO) webpage about the SKILLs Act: http://www.capwiz.com/ala/issues/alert/?alertid=10223941

Write a short piece telling your Senators and Representative the importance of passing the SKILLs Act. Use information from the WO webpage together with with your own thoughts and experiences to demonstrate the vital need to enact SKILLs.

If any of your Senators and Representatives already co-sponsor SKILLs, include your thanks and appreciation.

If they do not already co-sponsor SKILLs, ask them to take this step now.

TAKE ACTION
2 parts to this — for those at ALA Annual in Anaheim on July 1; and for those anywhere else

At ALA ANNUAL in ANAHEIM:
Bring your prepared statement to the Virtual Library Day Pavilion in Exhibit Hall sometime between 8:00 a.m. and 12 noon on July 1.

You will get a t-shirt.

You will participate in the excitement and enthusiasm of people representing the entire library community coming together to empower their political voice.

You will contribute to the voice of school libraries within the entire library community.

You will see Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a strong library supporter, who will be adding his voice to the call for political support of libraries.

For more information see the WO Virtual Library Day webpage at http://www.wo.ala.org/districtdispatch/?p=498

Not at ALA ANNUAL in ANAHEIM
Sometime on July 1st, deliver your message to your Senators and Representative.

How to do this:

Go to the WO Take Action Webpage at http://www.capwiz.com/ala/issues/alert/?alertid=10223941

Enter your zip code in the field provided and the message page comes up addressed to your Senators and Representative.

Put in your message and with a click of the mouse send it your Congressional delegation.

Mark your calendar. On Tuesday, July 1 take a few minutes to participate in our democratic system. Serve your students. Protect school libraries. Let your representatives in Congress know that school libraries are vital for the education of our students and therefore for the good of our communities and our country.

Doc

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!

AASL News

Posted by mjones in : AASL News , add a comment

AASL receives funding for school library relief program
AASL announced that an additional $520,000 is available for Beyond Words: The Dollar General School Library Relief Program. Funds will be available June 2008 to May 2010. To be eligible for a Beyond Words grant, applicants must be located within 20 miles of a Dollar General store, distribution center, or corporate office and must represent public schools serving students in pre-kindergarten through grade 12. Grant applicants must also meet one of two eligibility requirements: the library must have lost its building or incurred substantial damage or hardship due to a natural disaster, fire, or an act recognized by the federal government as terrorism. Complete eligibility requirements are in the Beyond Words section of the AASL Web site. Read the press release.

AASL to sponsor two Emerging Leaders
For the third year, AASL will sponsor two members for the 2009 class of Emerging Leaders. Those selected will each receive $1,000 for travel expenses when attending the ALA Midwinter Meeting and Annual Conference – $500 for each conference. AASL’s Emerging Leaders will have the opportunity to participate in projects crucial to their profession. During conference, they will also benefit from attending specific workshops geared toward networking with fellow peers in the program. For more information about the program, please visit the Emerging Leaders wiki or contact Beatrice Calvin at bcalvin@ala.org. Those requesting consideration for the AASL stipend should indicate that on the application. The deadline to apply is July 31. Read the press release.

AASL 2009 Nominating Committee seeks candidates for AASL offices
The AASL 2009 Nominating Committee is soliciting AASL members who might be interested in the following AASL offices. The Committee will select two candidates to run for:

Nominees must be AASL members. If you have an interest in being considered for nomination to any of the offices, please email one of the 2009 Nominating Committee members listed below:

Dee Gwaltney, Chair: deegwaltney@comcast.net
Linda Gann: linda.gann@mac.com
Laura Pearle: lpearle@gmail.com
Carol Doll: cdoll@odu.edu
Leslie Forsman: lforsman@hotmail.com

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.