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How Do You Get Those Books Back~!~???

Posted by gwyneth jones on April 27, 2009 at 8:30am

I need help writing a new newsletter request to parents for end of the year help getting Media books back...i'm tapped out of ideas and don't like my old newsletter messages.. what do you say? also, along those same lines last year, i also go this from a Media Specialist friend of mine about end of year getting books back: "Hey Gwyneth. I was wondering how you handled getting overdue books back at the end of the year. Any ideas for rewards/incentives? Thanks." my response: hi sweetie!" all books are due back by memorial day then i start on the TV show announcing the numbers of each grade's overdue books... to start a bit of competition, i do that for a week or more - announcing all books are now overdue and please GET THEM IN or ms. jones will come looking for you! muwwaaaaa! (this message is repeated in different ways also in conjunction with giving english teachers a list of kids who have overdue books so they can nag them, too....) then the last few weeks i go personally to each english class and i pull the kids out that still have overdue books and and i ask with mock fierceness like an interrogation: where's the book? (if it's in the locker - go get it now!) if it's at home - where is it at home? did you check under your bed? in the closet? bring it tomorrow! do i need to call home? (put on your list what the answer was H=home, C=call, T=tomorrow etc.) next day, follow up....same questions...this usually brings in like half of the books at least. after that...giving them some chances to bring it in....i have a handful left....THEN i call EVERY kid's parent/guardian on the remaining list and ask for help getting the book back also telling the price in case they need to pay for it but i emphasize and always say "i'd rather have the book than the money" in the end, i usually end up losing about 20- 30 books a year :-( but that's my population/kids..i've made peace with that...some of them keep favorite books because they can't own them any other way....and really, don't tell them i'm sorta cool with that.... oh and if a kid returns a book within a year, i give him/her the money back i don't like to give prizes for getting books back, because that's what they're sposed to do anyway...though i have tried giving a prize to the first english class of each grade to have NO overdue books...but that hasn't made much of a difference sadly..... it's a LOT of work, but i do like to get our books back..... in the end, i re-order the books that don't come back if they're popular, not dupes or needed... those are some of my tricks, what are yours?

A reminder about work for 4/30/09

Posted by Marianne Hunter on April 27, 2009 at 4:16am

Work for this week:One article review? (all 4 are due on or before 6/18)2 Blog Posts – forward me the linkMonitor “ning” – network with all class members (options: Enhance your Page? Start your own Blog?)“First Steps” NarrativeAlso, 7 of you have joined ning -- I'm waiting for 3 more!See you on Thursday.

Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS)

Posted by Richard Beaudry on April 25, 2009 at 5:00pm

Hello everyone, Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS) has a great website for teaching Information Literacy skills. Information Literacy: Learn how to identify, locate, evaluate, organise and effectively use information 1. About Information Literacy 2. Ages 9-11 3. Ages 12-14 4. Ages 14-18 http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/informationliteracy/ An added source of information that is useful is Sharing Practice 1. Supporting Information Literacy development 2. Developing note making skills 3. Family history project 4. Researching world religions 5. Helping senior pupils with research 6. Information Literacy using the ExPLORE Model 7. Developing S1 information literacy http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/informationliteracy/sharingpractice/index.asp And finally Study Skills: Learn how to become an effective learner and how to manage your own learning 1. Ages 5-9 2. Ages 10-14 3 Ages 15-18 http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/studyskills/

The U.N.'s World Digital Library

Posted by Richard Beaudry on April 23, 2009 at 6:17pm

Hello everyone, I am posting an article from Time online about the World Digital Library. The U.N.'s World Digital Library By FRANCES ROMERO Wednesday, Apr. 22, 2009 http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1892916,00.html

Nancy!

Posted by Richard Beaudry on April 23, 2009 at 6:00pm

Hello everyone, Tame the Web Blog suggested that we read the Nancy comic from April 19th. I agree that is is worth reading. Enjoy: http://comics.com/nancy/2009-04-19/

Spring 2009 LIBM 602

Posted by Marianne Hunter on April 19, 2009 at 4:51pm

It's Sunday night, and I wanted to send out a couple of reminders to those who have joined so far (and those who will, I hope, be joining us very soon).First, if you haven't already done so, when you send in your WLMA membership form, please write on it that you are one of my students. I have sent the class roster to the WLMA Membership Chair, Pat McKinley, and she will be looking for you.Second, be sure to subscribe to a school library or learning technologies blog before next session. There are plenty to choose from. My personal favorites are NeverEndingSearch (Joyce Valenza, the creator of this network) and Blue Skunk (Doug Johnson, a wise and very funny District Library Coordinator from Mankota, MN). You may choose these, but I'd love to learn about other cool blogs as well.Finally, just want to say that I'm very excited about this group. I'm pleased with your enthusiasm and engagement so far. I hope you'll find the time well spent, and I'm looking forward to learning from you as well. In fact, thanks to Jeff R., I'm already learning some handy-dandy tricks.See you on Thursday.

Have your voice heard on Earth Day 2009!

Posted by Durff on April 18, 2009 at 4:23pm

Earthcast is a 24 hour broadcast held on April 22, 2009. It begins on April 22, 2009 at 00:00:00 GMT, which is 8:00pm Tuesday in my time zone, and runs until 23:00:00GMT or 7:00pm Wednesday where I live. All the live action can be heard by navigating to http://earthbridges.net/liveand more information about the Earthcast is available at http://earthbridges.wikispaces.com/

Querious Queries --Participation needed in short poll each week until June 1st

Posted by Julie Udy on April 13, 2009 at 8:53am

Pullman High School Library has been awarded a $4,000.00 grant from the Office of the Secretary of State, Washington State Library Division, funded by the Library Services and Technology Act (LTSA) through the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)."Querious Queries" is the title of the project developed for the grant. Our Current World Problems (CWP) students are generating a "Querious Querie" to be posted each week via our school's website and our local library's website.The results of the poll will be tallied every Friday and then shared with the CWP students through class discussions over the course of the rest of the school year.If you have 30 seconds each week, I would ask that you participate by going to one of the following websites and then click on the "Querious Queries' banner.PHS website http://www.psd267.wednet.edu/Schools/PHS/default.asp?PageID=11Neill Public Library website http://neill-lib.org/Departments/Library/Default.aspxThe results of each "Querious Querie" will be posted each week at http://phs-library.blogspot.com/(The Querious Queries banner was designed by one of our seniors as part of his Culminating Project).

Library of Congress channel on YouTube

Posted by Richard Beaudry on April 7, 2009 at 9:59am

Hello everyone, The Library of Congress has its own channel on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/user/LibraryOfCongress They offer an array of media for use in schools and school libraries. Richard

Library hirings slow

Posted by Richard Beaudry on April 7, 2009 at 6:23am

From the Daily Iowan comes the following article. Library hirings slow BY MEGAN DIAL | APRIL 07, 2009 7:30 AM http://www.dailyiowan.com/2009/04/07/Metro/10911.html While the headline seems rather negative, the article is upbeat for the long term possibilities of new librarians. Richard

What’s our role as educators in copyright usage in schools?

Posted by Richard Beaudry on April 7, 2009 at 5:42am

From the Edging Ahead blog comes the following article: April 7, 2009 Course Reflection - the logical conclusion? Robert J. Rubis http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/ An essay on copyright issues in an age of globalized cheating. Richard

National Library Week - April 12 - 18 2009

Posted by Richard Beaudry on April 6, 2009 at 6:53am

Hello everyone, The ALA is celebrating National Library Week April 12 - 18 2009. For more information see: http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/pio/natlibraryweek/nlw.cfm Richard

Horizon Report on 2009 K-12 Education

Posted by Richard Beaudry on April 6, 2009 at 6:48am

Hello everyone, This report identifies and describes emerging technologies that will likely have a significant impact on K-12 education. http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2009-Horizon-Report-K12.pdf Richard

Information Forensics: Overview of Website Evaluation Resources from 21cif.com

Posted by Dennis O'Connor on April 5, 2009 at 8:16am

Join us at NECC 2009: TP430 Power Searching: Information Fluency at Your Fingertips
Tuesday, June 30, 2009 12:30pm–3:30pm

Information Fluency Homepage

Gateway to hundreds of free online resources focused on 21st Century Information Fluency.
Tags: 21cif, information literacy, information fluency, evaluation, web, 2.0
- Digital Information Fluency (DIF) is the ability to find, evaluate and use digital information effectively, efficiently and ethically.
Internet Search Challenges - Evaluation Games
6 online learning games that teach evaluation skills. Multiple levels. NETS alignment!
Tags: 21cif, information fluency, learning games
Web 2.0 Evaluation Kit
Information Fluency Evaluation Kit. Online resources for evaluating author, publisher, bias, links, date, evidence, and accuracy.
Tags: 21cif, information literacy, evaluation
- Evaluating Digital Information
  Part Five of the series Five Things Today's Digital Generation Cannot do (and what you can do to help) discusses how searchers have to invent their own evaluation standards because schools are not teaching them.
- Teacher's Guide: Personalized Evaluation Searches
  How to use Rollyo, Swiki and Google Co-op to create personalized search engines for safe Web page evaluation practice at all grade levels.
- Teacher's Guide to Action Zone Evaluation Games
  Recommended uses for the Bad Apple and Use It! or Lose It! online evaluation games in this Kit, including tips and answers.
- IMSA Evaluation Wizard
  How to use our Evaluation Wizard to assess how students evaluate what they find online. (The Evaluation wizard is a 10 step online guide to investigating websites.)
Evaluating Digital Information: Introduction, Research, Resources
In depth article on evaluation of digital resources by Dr. Carl Heine.
Tags: 21cif, information literacy, information fluency, evaluation
Excerpts:
- Every school administrator wants to maintain a safe distance between objectionable material and impressionable students. Blocking students from potential contact with sexual predators and other mal-information is absolutely well-intended. However, blocking sites does not help students think critically about the quality of the information they retrieve or prepare them for the real world of information they encounter outside of school.
- Teachers may contribute to the problem by introducing filters of their own into learning experiences. In practice, it works like this: a teacher wants her class to access digital information, so she conducts a search ahead of time and selects web pages she finds credible and appropriate. Students then engage in a Web quest using pages or sites that have approved content. Aside from the intended benefits of the exercise, the students have missed an opportunity to learn skills in searching and evaluating that they need in the 21st century.
- Our research suggests that students who search for digital information are better able to judge its credibility than students who are handed information. In a pilot study, over 100 middle school students were given a question and three relevant web pages for answering it. Two of these pages were credible. The success rate for answering the question using relevant information was 73% when the task involved reading the three pre-selected pages.
Workshop Resources: Assessing Information Fluency
Guided tours of 21CIF resources perfect for workshop presentations. This is a series of webslide style sets of pages that detail 'Speculative Searching" and "Investigative Searching".
Tags: 21cif, information literacy, information fluency, evaluation
MicroModule: Checking the accuracy of information found on a webpage.
A one page overview of how to check the accuracy of information. Includes a link to an online learning game to help learn essential concepts.
Tags: 21cif, information literacy, information fluency, evaluation
- Try this interactive micromodule companion for a hands on experience in determining the accuracy of web-based information. Test your skills at:
  finding embedded evidence
  checking evidence for accuracy
  triangulation of data
Information Fluency Newsletter
Low volume, high content free newsletter to keep you posted about new resources and developments from 21cif.
Tags: 21cif, information literacy, information fluency, evaluation, web, 2.0
- Subscribe to our free email newsletter and receive periodic updates about 21CIF including professional development opportunities and new resources.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of Information Fluency group favorite links are here.

The Soloist by Steve Lopez

Posted by bj neary on April 4, 2009 at 12:28pm

This book was so very interesting, so very painful, so very revealing, and gave real insight to the effect of paranoid schizophrenics who live on the streets. Steve Lopez's quick stop one day to listen to an African American homeless man playing violin in a tunnel reverberating with speeding cars, and the sounds of Skid Row, proves to be fortuitous for both men. Lopez's efforts to get this Juilliard trained musician into "safe" housing was met at every turn with Ayer's obstinate will to be "safe" living on the streets. Lopez's compassion, all the people he "meets" after he writes about Nathaniel in his column, are all inspiring only because they get what Nathaniel is like while Steve Lopez tries to defy the odds and work a miracle with this homeless man who becomes his friend while serenading him with Beethoven & Bloch, all the while maniacally cleaning up cigarette butts. I empathized with Lopez's angst, anger,and frustration with himself and the slowness of the mental health system and Nathaniel was just plain suspicious of any attempt at medication. But Lopez's language concerning Nathaniel Ayers' music describes the raw beauty of the notes, chords, and sheet music that kept him living and loving each day to play more and more and more. Such a stirring story about two men who really find so much in happinees each other through their friendship. Thanks OBOS for this great recommendation.

Spring in Literature

Posted by Richard Beaudry on April 3, 2009 at 7:30am

Hello everyone, Every so often, The Guardian newspaper in England post an online literary quiz for its readers. The latest was posted yesterday. For those wishing a challenge, here is the link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/quiz/2009/apr/02/spring-literature-quiz Richard Richard Beaudry Librarian Langley Secondary

Darian Statements on the Library and Librarians

Posted by Richard Beaudry on April 3, 2009 at 7:26am

One of my favorite blogs to read is Librarians Matter by Australian librarian Kathryn Greenhill. Recently, she worked with fellow librarians John Blyberg and Cindi Trainor on writing a statement on the future of libraries. The end result is the Darian Statements on the Library and Librarians. The document is posted on John Blyberg's blog Blyberg.net - A library Geek Blog. http://www.blyberg.net/2009/04/03/the-darien-statements-on-the-library-and-librarians/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Darien Statements on the Library and Librarians Written and endorsed by John Blyberg, Kathryn Greenhill, and Cindi Trainor The Purpose of the Library The purpose of the Library is to preserve the integrity of civilization. The Library has a moral obligation to adhere to its purpose despite social, economic, environmental, or political influences. The purpose of the Library will never change. The Library is infinite in its capacity to contain, connect and disseminate knowledge; librarians are human and ephemeral, therefore we must work together to ensure the Library’s permanence. Individual libraries serve the mission of their parent institution or governing body, but the purpose of the Library overrides that mission when the two come into conflict. Why we do things will not change, but how we do them will. A clear understanding of the Library’s purpose, its role, and the role of librarians is essential to the preservation of the Library. The Role of the Library The Library: Provides the opportunity for personal enlightenment. Encourages the love of learning. Empowers people to fulfill their civic duty. Facilitates human connections. Preserves and provides materials. Expands capacity for creative expression. Inspires and perpetuates hope. The Role of Librarians Librarians: Are stewards of the Library. Connect people with accurate information. Assist people in the creation of their human and information networks. Select, organize and facilitate creation of content. Protect access to content and preserve freedom of information and expression. Anticipate, identify and meet the needs of the Library’s community. The Preservation of the Library Our methods need to rapidly change to address the profound impact of information technology on the nature of human connection and the transmission and consumption of knowledge. If the Library is to fulfill its purpose in the future, librarians must commit to a culture of continuous operational change, accept risk and uncertainty as key properties of the profession, and uphold service to the user as our most valuable directive. As librarians, we must: Promote openness, kindness, and transparency among libraries and users. Eliminate barriers to cooperation between the Library and any person, institution, or entity within or outside the Library. Choose wisely what to stop doing. Preserve and foster the connections between users and the Library. Harness distributed expertise to serve the needs of the local and global community. Help individuals to learn and to use new tools to create a more robust path to knowledge. Engage in activism on behalf of the Library if its integrity is externally threatened. Endorse procedures only if they guide librarians or users to excellence. Identify and implement the most humane and efficient methods, tools, standards and practices. Adopt technology that keeps data open and free, abandon technology that does not. Be willing and have the expertise to make frequent radical changes. Hire the best people and let them do their job; remove staff who cannot or will not. Trust each other and trust the users. We have faith that the citizens of our communities will continue to fulfill their civic responsibility by preserving the Library. ------------------------------- I for one will be passing this along on listservs and blogs in Canada. Richard Richard Beaudry Librarian Langley Secondary School

The World Digital Library will launch on April 21, 2009

Posted by Richard Beaudry on April 2, 2009 at 4:50pm

UNESCO, Library of Congress and partners launch World Digital Library From the Unesco Website: UNESCO and 32 partner institutions will launch the World Digital Library, a web site that features unique cultural materials from libraries and archives from around the world, at UNESCO Headquarters on 21 April. The site will include manuscripts, maps, rare books, films, sound recordings, and prints and photographs. It will provide unrestricted public access, free of charge, to this material. More information at: http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=28484&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html The World Digital Library Website: http://www.worlddigitallibrary.org/project/english/index.html

Libraries in Bangkok - yes we do have them!

Posted by Brian on April 1, 2009 at 6:08pm

About three months ago I started a small campaign to increase the profile of libraries in Bangkok, mostly via the website http://bangkoklibrary.com. As a teacher of English as a foreign language, I was keen to find out as much as possible about libraries in Bangkok, to develop good reading habits in my students and to find resources for expats and people like me living in Thailand. There are some really great libraries here - many of which are packed full of kids and university students. If anyone reading this post is based in Thailand, or would like to help me with the website, I would be very glad to hear from you. Also, I would love to visit some other schools to see what they have to offer in the way of library resources.

New Legislation to Revise National Security Letters

Posted by Richard Beaudry on April 1, 2009 at 5:35pm

From the blog LIS News comes the following article. It would seem that this will be beneficial to librarians. New Legislation to Revise National Security Letters April 1, 2009 - 10:09pm — AndyW http://lisnews.org/new_legislation_revise_national_security_letters

Note: this page contains paid content.

Note: this page contains paid content.

Note: this page contains paid content.