Checkout binder by class in ABC order.
Monday, June 24, 2013
Mountainside Elementary
JaDene uses envelope lables, and places the words or names vertically on the spine. Easier to find or shelf.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Orem High
Closed balcony section which opens up from the library. Area can be used for litter louder activities such as puzzles and games besides reading.
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Learning 2.0
Learning 2.0 has been a good program for me to experience in
order to help me become more comfortable with technology. Through this program I have come to develop
more of a curiosity rather than a fear for the world of technology. Before going through 2.0 my greatest fear was
that I would do something to infect my computer, give out too much information,
or erase something of importance.
Working with this program I have come to feel more at ease in trying new
things and applying them to other areas other than my class.
I have always wanted to know more about what the new
technology was capable of doing. Once I
felt more comfortable and relaxed it became fun, though still frustrating at
times. It was liberating to be able to use
my new skills to create new things and communicate in different ways rather
than be reluctant and hesitant.
As a future librarian, this would be a good program to encourage
my faculty to go through, plus use the skills I have learned to benefit and
enhance my library program. When
visiting with librarians, they often state how they wish they knew more about
technology, and they have had to learn as they go. I believe that learning 2.0 has given me
confidence to know that I could “learn as I go” as new technologies are
introduced and used in the educational world.
To help me keep somewhat current with technology, in the
future I plan on taking online UEN technology classes for my professional
development classes that will keep me somewhat up-to-date in this fast-paced
advancing world of technology.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Grant Writing for Libraries 101 Podcast
I chose to listen to the podcast Grant Writing for Libraries 101. This was a podcast given to students
studying to be librarians in the School of Library and Information Science program at San Jose University. In the past, as
an educator I have written several grants and been able to get funding for several
projects in my classroom, and I would like to become an effective grant writer
for my future library. I am very
interested in learning about ways to better improve my chances for attaining
funds to provide the materials and resources needed to help me be an effective
librarian. The podcast started out by
talking about the many different grants that are available to librarians. This podcast not only discussed about the
nickel and dime grants, but grants funded through individuals, local organizations, big corporations and government funded research projects. Another main theme that kept coming up was how
important it is to know everything you can about the grant you are attempting
to attain. Do some homework. Go onto the internet and find out what the
organization is looking for. If
appropriate, e-mail or call the program officer and ask for specifics. Find out what is important to them and see if
your grant would be a good fit for them.
Also, go to some public records or even their website to find out who
they funded in the past. Another
interesting fact I had not considered was how larger corporations often prefer
donating funds to something they can put their name on and receive recognition,
and how larger local businesses are more interested in providing grants to
those local projects that benefit their employees. It was stressed how important it was to find
out all the information you can about those who are giving the grant and write
a well thought out and organized proposal specifically written for them. ‘Cookie cutter’ grants were highly
discouraged. One last thing I thought
was very insightful was that not every grant a person writes is going to be
accepted. When this happens, do not be
afraid to get feedback. This will help the
grant writer write a better proposal in the future. Sometimes those individuals or organizations
who give out the grants will allow the grant writers to resubmit their
proposals if they are not successful the first time. These are some interesting things I learned about
grant writing from listening to this podcast that I hope to incorporate when I
become a librarian.
Friday, March 22, 2013
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Teacher Librarians at the Heart of Learning
Teacher Librarians at the Heart
of Learning is a
video that portrays what the 21st school library should be focusing
on to be the heart of the school with the teacher librarian being a necessary
and important part in education of the school community. The library is a place where the students
feel welcome and everyone has a voice, is participating, and is actively
engaged. One librarian stated that
getting the things for the library is not the problem, but rather what the
student is going to do with it, and what knowledge are they going to produce
with it is the underlying challenge.
Kids need to know how to utilize the information they come across. Better skills need to be taught so that the
student can embrace technology and use it.
Information literacy needs to be promoted through technology. One professor stated that technology can be
locked down, or instead we can help students learn to internalize what it is to
be a digital citizen, and the library is a good place to learn this.
A
teacher librarian is also an advocate for reading. Books should be off the shelves and into the
hands of the students. A teacher
librarian needs to have a passion for books and reading so that she can help
others develop this same passion. One
way to excite students about books with technology is through book
trailers.
I really
like how one librarian demonstrated how she is able to help her teachers. She constantly asks her teachers what they
are teaching in class. And then she
follows up with a question such as, “What do you need to help your kids be
successful learners in school and in life?” Then she does what she can to make it
happen. I thought this was a simple, yet
effective way to actively use her resources and knowledge to be of service to
those within her area of influence.
Monday, March 18, 2013
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
My Twitter Experience
It was really interesting reading about and exploring Twitter
today. When used correctly, Twitter can
be an effective advertising and promoting tool. I believe I now have a better understanding
of what Twitter can do to help promote a library.
Andy Burkhardt’s article on
How Librarians can Leverage Twitter was useful concerning how a librarian
can use Twitter as a tool to help promote a library. Mr. Burkhardt has used Twitter to report what
is happening in the library, such as an author coming to visit. He also uses Twitter to promote what
resources and services the library has.
Through twitter he has also forward community events that others have
tweeted him. Mr. Burkhardt stated, “The
libraries are the center of the community, so they want to promote what others
are doing.”
In order for this to work correctly, I believe a librarian
would need to have consistent and dependable assistants in the school who are not
afraid to help out with the technical aspects of the library. Upon following my community library on
Twitter, I noticed that the last post was months ago. There needs to be a systematic and organized way
to post tweets and answer personal tweets without overwhelming the librarian so
that Twitter can help promote the library is a positive way.
Like much of the new and up-coming technology of today, Twitter is a tool that can be effectively useful to librarians when applied in the right way.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Monday, March 4, 2013
Christopher Harris on Library 2.0 ITLS 6030
This article was written about the changing world of
technology and how we as librarians need to embrace this change to be the
effective, creative and efficient school librarians in today’s world. We need to learn to function in an electronic
information environment. If we do not do
this, we will fall behind and become obsolete.
As librarians, we need to transform the way we think and the way we do
things and stay on the cutting edge of technology. Not only do we need to focus on having the
library physically the center of the school, but we need to take the library to
the student and teacher throughout the school where learning is taking
place.
Mr. Harris mentioned ways in which librarians were using
technology in their schools, and possible applications for future use. Del.cio.us
was mentioned for social bookmarking and to help located online resources. He stated ways to be creative with booktalks
and bookclubs that included blogging, media, and voicemail. He cited My
Thing as a way to get students to write reviews on the books they were
reading and creating a bookshelf to display their favorite books.
An important point that I thought he brought up was that of marketing the library. He
stated how many librarians do not like to advertise what they are doing, or to
self-market what they are accomplishing.
Mr. Harris pointed out that it is vital to the future of these
institutions to let others know how the library is useful and helpful in
education today. It was suggested that
we create a logo, or sticker that we can place on everything we do. Librarians need to be vocal and visual in
their accomplishments to let others, especially those who have the power to
give or take away funding, know what an invaluable service librarians are performing.
Librarians are here to bring education to the next level so
as to help students function in a constantly changing world. As Christopher Harris stated, “ We are
helping children to become literate users of information in order for them to
have successful careers in school and beyond.“
Friday, March 1, 2013
RSS Feeds and Newsreaders with Google Reader
I really enjoy seeing the other blogs in the class. It is fun to see what others are doing and I get many good ideas on what I can do. There are many benefits to knowing how to use Google Reader, and it could be helpful as a librarian in keeping up on the latest information through RSS feeds and Newsreaders. I picked the following blogs:
1) The Daring Librarian http://www.thedaringlibrarian.com/
I like this blog because of the way the librarian explains how to accomplish technological tasks in a creative and fun way for her school faculty and staff. The illustrations are bright and the explanations are often shown in a comic book style format. The way she communicates with the staff about being technologically on board is humorous, yet quite direct.
2) The School Library Journal Blog http://www.slj.com/slj-blog-network/
This Journal has a lot of information about libraries that could be helpful in many ways. Some of the articles written for the month of March include Adult Books 4 Teens, Battle of the Books, and Good Comics for Kids. There is so much good information given on a monthly basis. A librarian could not go wrong reading this on a regular basis.
3) The Blue Skunk http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/
This seems to be a blog that addresses issues for a whole district. The posting I viewed gave a checklist of what students should know and to be able to do technology wise by the time they are a freshman. I liked how specific his post was.
1) The Daring Librarian http://www.thedaringlibrarian.com/
I like this blog because of the way the librarian explains how to accomplish technological tasks in a creative and fun way for her school faculty and staff. The illustrations are bright and the explanations are often shown in a comic book style format. The way she communicates with the staff about being technologically on board is humorous, yet quite direct. 2) The School Library Journal Blog http://www.slj.com/slj-blog-network/
This Journal has a lot of information about libraries that could be helpful in many ways. Some of the articles written for the month of March include Adult Books 4 Teens, Battle of the Books, and Good Comics for Kids. There is so much good information given on a monthly basis. A librarian could not go wrong reading this on a regular basis.
3) The Blue Skunk http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/
This seems to be a blog that addresses issues for a whole district. The posting I viewed gave a checklist of what students should know and to be able to do technology wise by the time they are a freshman. I liked how specific his post was.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Diigo
There are
some very interesting aspects about Diigo that I would like to further
explore. This is a website that would be
very helpful to anyone doing a research paper.
All the information that is found during research can be stored easily
on this website. With all the
information on the web, a person can access it through a number of electronically
devices. So for example, if I did some
research through my personal computer, I could later access if from my Tablet,
or from a computer at school the next day.
This way I could always access it anywhere and anytime and I would not
have to worry about a computer crash.
After installing the Diigo bar on the screen, it is very easy to
bookmark an article, tag it, and organize it under any specific file I would
need to create. I would be able to
highlight important parts of the article and even add a ‘sticky note’, a
comment box I could add particular thoughts on that specific highlight. Another interesting aspect is the use of
Social Media. Through Diigo one is able
to connect with other people and groups have similar tags, thus connecting the
researcher with more people who have created similar bookmarks that could
provide additional helpful information in the search.
As already stated in our assignment,
as a librarian this would be a great tool to create lists of links on certain
topics and make them available to your users on your blog or wiki. This website could also be an invaluable tool
to high school students on the college track.
The librarian could teach and direct these students to the researching techniques,
highlighting, and sticky note tools available on this website.
Monday, February 25, 2013
My 'Technorati' Experience
Technorati is a website that is especially tailored for
blogs. This website indexes blogs and
puts them into categories. A person can
look for a specific type of blog, or they can search for information on the
“blog posting” search box. Technorati has a top 100 blog list,
indicating which blogs are visited the most.
This list is constantly changing depending on how many visits these
blogs get.
On looking over the blog directory, there were certain
categories that were better represented than others. The entertainment, technology, and living
categories seemed to have more blogs. The
sports, science, and green categories did not have as many. The categories were very broad, and the sub
categories were a little less general. There
were a few sub-categories I did not see such as education, vacations, news,
gardening, soccer, and outdoor recreation.
There were several categories that I could not find in
the blog listings, but had better luck with the blog postings. When I typed in ‘library’, I had no luck with
the blog listings, but found out some interesting information in the
postings. One post mentioned a wedding
performed in a library, and another post mentioned a New York Library having a
book returned that was overdue for almost 55 years. I did not find any blogs about ‘gardening’,
yet when I searched through the blog posts I came across several interesting finds,
such as building a ‘Walipini’, or underground greenhouse which produces food
year round. I had better luck when I
searched ‘books’ in the listings, I came across a variety of blogs such as one
for comic books and another for London’s best reads. When I searched in the blog posts, I had
random comments about books.
Would I use this website as a librarian? I do not know yet. I could use it to claim a personal blog I
would create for my school community or one specifically for librarians. Perhaps
this site would be helpful to see how many visits a blog was getting to
determine its authority number which could be an indicator on how trustworthy
the blog may be. I was disappointed that
I did not find any librarian blogs. It
could just be that I am in the wrong website, or maybe I still have more to
learn about the site.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Library Thing
It was fun exploring Library Thing and finding out the many ways a person could benefit and learn from it. As a librarian this website could be useful for your library in quite a number of ways. For example:
-I could create an account with the new books that have come into the library and place a widget with already made brief explanations of the books on my wiki. This could be easily updated on a monthly basis and a fun way to display the books. A librarian could even display books consisting of a certain genre or theme.
-Through thousands of readers, Library Thing collects much data and is able to create many ratings. With these ratings a librarian can tell what books are being read the most. It also can let a librarian see which books and authors have the best ratings, all created by thousands of its readers who have a registered account. It also shows what authors had the lowest ratings. Many reviews written by the readers are available for all to see. All this information could be very helpful when selecting new books for the library.
-Another helpful aspect of Library Thing are the recommendations for future books based on what you have read in the past. I wonder if these recommendations take personal reviews into account. For example if I read a book and am not thoroughly impressed, will Library Thing be able to recognize that I do not want similar books such as that one?
-As a librarian this would be a good place to write personal reviews about the books I am reading and return to this site when I need to remember why I liked or did not like a book. -Library Thing also connects the reader to other readers with similar tastes. They are able to communicate back and forth to get ideas and discuss certain books. Many readers are always looking for a good book to read, and this could be very useful.
This website has so many fun and useful applications that I believe most librarians would appreciate what a site like this has to offer.
-I could create an account with the new books that have come into the library and place a widget with already made brief explanations of the books on my wiki. This could be easily updated on a monthly basis and a fun way to display the books. A librarian could even display books consisting of a certain genre or theme.
-Through thousands of readers, Library Thing collects much data and is able to create many ratings. With these ratings a librarian can tell what books are being read the most. It also can let a librarian see which books and authors have the best ratings, all created by thousands of its readers who have a registered account. It also shows what authors had the lowest ratings. Many reviews written by the readers are available for all to see. All this information could be very helpful when selecting new books for the library.
-Another helpful aspect of Library Thing are the recommendations for future books based on what you have read in the past. I wonder if these recommendations take personal reviews into account. For example if I read a book and am not thoroughly impressed, will Library Thing be able to recognize that I do not want similar books such as that one?
-As a librarian this would be a good place to write personal reviews about the books I am reading and return to this site when I need to remember why I liked or did not like a book. -Library Thing also connects the reader to other readers with similar tastes. They are able to communicate back and forth to get ideas and discuss certain books. Many readers are always looking for a good book to read, and this could be very useful.
This website has so many fun and useful applications that I believe most librarians would appreciate what a site like this has to offer.
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
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