Extended Essay

It's time for me to start working with our junior IB students getting ready to begin their IB Extended Essays.  I have talked about this before--it has become one of my favorite parts of my job.  The Extended Essay is a 4000 word research paper IB students must complete as a part of their IB diploma.  The work is mostly done independently and begins in their junior year and is completed their senior year.  This paper is probably the biggest piece of academic research these kids have ever completed!  And when they complete it, they feel such a sense of accomplishment and also relief to have it behind them.

I am the school's EE coordinator but since I don't see all the students together in a class like a teacher does, I use some online tools to help direct the students.  My favorite one of all is, of course, Libguides.  I put together a Libguide specifically for our EE with links to the IB handbook, our databases, our subscription for Noodletools, some formatting guidelines, and even some sample papers.  I even shortened the URL with the help of bit.ly so it's easier to remember-- bit.ly/IBextendedessay.

Last year was my first year as coordinator, and I learned so much.  This year I'm tweaking the process even more, but I have to say I am very proud of this Libguide.  And just to show off a little--I've had several schools in other states ask to copy it as the start for their EE guides. That's the best feeling of all!  Not only can I help my own students, but I'm giving other librarians a place to start instruction as well.

If you get the chance to check out my EE Libguide, let me know what you think.  I've looked at it so long, I'm not sure I can find the problems in it.  So I'd love some fresh eyes to look it over!

LibGuides for Christmas!

Okay this is the cutest LibGuide I've ever seen!  Loyola University has put together a Santa Claus LibGuide!  They've put links to NORAD, Letters to Santa--even how to track Santa on your mobile phone! 

I especially like the page on the Dark Side of Santa--some of the legends and myths of the "not-so-nice" side of Santa.  The Occupy North Pole is the best! 

Besides the over-the-top cuteness factor, I think this is a great sample of the versatility of LibGuides.  Have I mentioned I love LibGuides???

LibGuides growing

I saw a great article on the forum for Springshare, parent company for LibGuides.  At this point in time over 200,000 LibGuides have been created with more than 1.3 million pages of content.  I've talked about LibGuides before, but these statistics just reinforce my love for the site.  This many librarians can't be wrong!

In this day and age of Internet access to information, librarians need to be able to help kids and adult patrons find the kind of information needed to solve reference issues.  I know I've seen a huge upward swing in the use of our databases since I've been using LibGuides.  And in this time of budget issues, the more I can prove a site is being used, the more likely I'll have the money to keep using it. 

And for those times when I don't have a database site handy, I can search the Springshare site for suggested resources from other campuses.  I have an IB Spanish class that has a unit on Chicano artists.  I really don't have the specialized resources for this type of assignment.  But a few minutes on Springshare enabled me to put together a detailed, professional website for the project.  Teacher was happy; kids were happy and I was happy.  Win/ Win all the way around!

Thank you LibGuides--here's to more continued success.  And I'll keep doing my part to get you to 300,000 guides!  :)