Library Lady sings Lady Gaga

Found this cute video from another Texas librarian. Really cute and quite appropriate for this time of year when we are trying desperately to get materials returned to us before the end of the school year! Enjoy!

Open Culture

Have I ever talked about the site called Open Culture? It's an amazing treasure trove of freebies available on the web. Everything from movies to university classes to books--it's all here! Any time I need to look for a book available online, I go here.  I probably should access more of their free movies since I'm an old movie buff.  And every time my hubby talks about wanting to improve his foreign language skills, I send him this link. 

I follow Open Culture on Twitter to keep a running feed of new things available on their site.  I just discovered a download of all the organ pieces by Bach.  Might take me a while to download them all but think how cool that is! 

Here's an example of the type of content on the site.  This is a video about Michael Pollan's books--In Defense of Food and The Omnivore's Dilemna--both excellent books even though they don't really go along with the educational theme of my blog. 

Check out the site next time you have loads of time to explore!

Michael Pollan's Food Rules from Marija Jacimovic on Vimeo.

New review in SLJ

I don't know why I get so excited when I see my reviews posted in School Library Journal, but I do!  I mean, the whole point of writing them is to see them published, right??  Yet still, every time I run across one in the print version of the magazine, I get a little heart flutter of excitement!  Sort of a Sally Field's reaction--"they really liked it!"

And the latest review published in the Journal was actually a pretty negative.  I wasn't anticipating publication of this one at all.  The book was good but really, in my humble opinion, more appropriate for older, mature readers.  But hey, my words are in print and I'm excited for that!

I may have posted this one before, but just in case I didn't......here it is again....straight from SLJ.

	Pieces Of Us GELBWASSER, Margie. Pieces Of Us. Flux. ISBN 9780738721644. Gr 10 Up. Magazine Section: Grades 5-up
Gr 10 Up—For a few weeks every summer, Julie, Katie, Alex, and Kyle are free of the demands of school and their lives back home when they meet at their grandparents' homes in the Catskills. But this year, events at home begin to interfere with their peaceful lives in the mountains. Alex is angry at his father for abandoning the family and his mother for ignoring him and Kyle. He acts out by having meaningless sex with a succession of girls and leaving them behind. Kyle stays quietly out of sight as much as he can. Katie is a popular cheerleader whose mother dotes on her while her sister, Julie, can do nothing right. But when a violent date rape is caught on tape and goes viral throughout the school, the grief and humiliation is more than Katie can handle. And when Alex finds out about the incident, his anger boils over into his relationship with her, and their idyllic summers are over. This bitterly dark, depressing drama has multiple interlocking story lines that all end unhappily, and the characters, especially Alex, don't change much by the end of the book. The narrative alternates among the four teens, which gives interesting perspectives to the story, but can be confusing. The plotline of too much alcohol mixed into a party atmosphere results in a great cautionary tale but the extremely descriptive sexual violence and repetitious use of raw language make this one suitable for only the most mature readers.—Diana Pierce, Leander High School, TX School Library Journal, March 1, 2012

EB vs. Wikipedia

Over the past few weeks, you probably heard the news that Encyclopedia Britannica is ceasing publication of its print edition.  I found this infographic from Mashable comparing Encyclopedia Britannica with Wikipedia.  Now as a librarian, I tend to discount most information from Wikipedia as being a bit unreliable.  But after looking at this comparison, I must admit I had to pause and think. 

This paragraph is the most compelling:

The crowd-powered reference site (Wikipedia) is arguably the greatest knowledge experiment civilization has ever seen. And while its critics are the first to point out its unreliability, advocates would counter that a self-correcting collective is more reliable and scalable than a room full of scholars (who, on occasion, also make mistakes).

I never thought about the "self correcting" aspect of Wikipedia.  I always thought of it as being interesting but unreliable.  I do encourage my students to look at the external links with articles--those will lead a researcher to other sources of information.  And sometimes Wikipedia is the best source for "pop culture" or very current information--something Britannica or World Book can't always keep up with.

So here's the question......do you allow Wikipedia as a research source?  Is it acceptable as long as it is not the sole source? 

Once again, I'm finding myself changing my train of thought and trying to adapt to a "new world" in terms of technology.  Learning new things is supposed to grow brain cells and keep you young......I just feel old......

Library spaces

You know I try to use my blog for good positive sharing of educational information of interest to teachers and librarians.  But once in a while, I just need a place to vent my own personal concerns.  Today is one of those days. 

A little background.....I work in an old school.  The physical building isn't large enough for all the students who attend the school.  The gym, the cafeteria, the library--none of the common spaces are big enough.  I understand the need for us all to work together and be creative with the use of space.

But these days I'm beginning to feel a deep resentment at the way the library space is seen in the building--especially by our administrators.  I've lost two large storage areas all ready and yesterday I found out I stand to lose two more.  It wouldn't hurt so much except for the fact that I have asked and asked to rearrange our circ desk.  Doing so will mean we have to run some electrical and cable wiring.  And I keep getting turned down because it "costs too much." 

Moving the desk will open up the library and allow better traffic flow as well as allow me to rearrange our computers into a better teaching arrangement.  But no one above me understands that.  But they do seem to think it's okay to pre-empt library space and use it for another purpose, whether I'm in agreement or not.

I'm seen as "not being a team player" when I fuss about losing our storage areas, but no one thinks my ideas for improvement are valid.   My administrators think all I do is check out books and harass kids about missing ones so why should we bother rearranging things?  I don't know how else to show the importance of the library to this campus.  I send stats every six weeks on every possible number I can think of; I've shoved my way into our IB program to coordinate and improve our extended essays, and I've volunteered for every committee I can find.  I'm at a loss where to go next.

 My library coordinator suggests talking to students and video taping their responses.  That's one good idea I haven't followed up on yet.  I suppose when I'm not mad any more, I will be able to think better, but right now, I'm just hurt and angry.  My assistant always says we should just lock the doors one day and let the admins deal with the fallout.  Maybe she's right, but in my heart of hearts, I just can't do it.... to the kids or the teachers.

So to anyone out there in the great blogosphere.....help me out!  How can I show the importance of this library to my admins?  I welcome any and all suggestions.

Blabberize

In need of a new project idea?  Here's one you could use with an sort of project involving famous people or historical figures.  It's a site called Blabberize.  It's so cute! 

You insert a picture and then you can make a part of the picture move and "talk"--saying whatever you want it to say.

Students could use this site for book reports, using pictures of characters to "talk" about the plot.  Or use it for a biographical report. 
It's a fun site--check it out!

Survey Monkey

So I guess all I've been thinking about lately is our Extended Essay assignment for our IB students.  Hopefully you read my short article yesterday so you know what I'm talking about.  I took over the job as Extended Essay coordinator and after fumbling around this year, I've spent the past week revising the way I approach the assignment for students and for teachers. 

A lot of the revisions I've made were based my end of essay survey I conducted with this year's seniors.  I used Survey Monkey--a great site to help you gather information!  I've used them before and the information I can gather is invaluable.  The site has various levels and I'm just using the free part right now.  I don't need the bells and whistles the site offers but it's nice to know they are there!  I can write my own survey questions so I can tailor it to just the information I need. 

Here's my end of essay survey:

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.