Something New

I have been playing around with Jing--creating screenshots and screencasts.  Click the link below to hear/view my book talk about Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes.

Ninth Ward Book Talk

Day in the life and how do I get there

The blog assignment is coming to an end, which has me reflecting on the end—the goal of the class, or all the classes I am taking.  What would it be like to be a youth services librarian?  

Abby the Librarian has recently posted a couple of ‘days in the life of a children’s librarian.’  See how her days went here and here.  

Since Abby works at a public library, I searched the Internet for a couple of days in the life of a school librarian.  I found a couple of interesting days, one at Heart of the School and the other at Support School Libraries (teacher-librarian).

Caitlyn posted a snap shot of a day at a public library on her blog that made me smile.

Now, how do I get there?  Finish up with classes, go on the market, interview, etc.
Abby the Librarian posted some tips for applying and interviewing for positions.  She had recently been interviewing for positions at her library.

Books and Art

Last week our art instructor, Mr. G, displayed some projects he had the art club and different classes working on during first quarter.  He had sent an e-mail out about one of the projects letting us know that the students can touch them.  In his e-mail he said “these projects are rethinking what the shape and form of a book can be so they are meant to be interactive by design.”  I asked him (via e-mail) about the project and he sent me his lesson plan and gave me permission to post (with pictures).

Title: Great Themes of Art

Objective: Students will discuss and define the six great themes of art that art historians have identified as reoccurring throughout art history.  They are Self, Relationship to others, Nature, Spirituality, Urbanization and Cycle of Life. They will then look at various works of art and in groups try to identify each as fitting into a specific category. During final discussion they will compare and contrast findings with the objective that it is not always clear a work of art fits neatly into a single category. Afterwards they will be introduced to the works of Julie Chen who creates books that are more sculptural in nature, but still communicate an idea. Either working in groups of 2 or by themselves using various materials students will create a book using one of the great themes of art as a main focus. They must make sure that it is interactive like a book but takes on characteristics of a visual art form as well.

Standards:
26.B.3d  Visual Arts:  Demonstrate knowledge and skills to create 2- and 3- dimensional works and time arts
27.B.3  Know and describe how artists and their works shape culture and increase understanding of societies, past and present.

I think this holds great potential for cross-curricular/library collaboration.   Students could create these art books and share them with younger grades during storytimes.  Older students could help younger students create their own interactive books based on stories they write or their favorite storybook. They could go on a library hunt for interactive books.

Thanks Mr. G for sharing!!!

I left class and ran into a Zombie!

I logged off of class this evening and noticed that Abby the Librarian had a new update to her blog--Zombie Makers.  Abby has posted a review of Zombie Makers: True Stories of Nature's Undead by Rebecca L. Johnson.  Might not help with the Zombie Apocalypse but looks like an interesting book to add to the shelves.

Flash Mobs, Social Media, and the Library

Last week someone sent me a link to the University of Maryland’s parody of Psy’s Gangnam Style video.  The library has a Facebook page that gave instructions for practicing the dance and where/when the flash mob would take place.  A majority of the video is shot in the library with the flash mob meeting on the quad.   I have seen other parodies of this song/dance but none done in a library.

How does this relate to youth services librarianship?

Well, my students have been talking about and doing this dance for about a month now.  I even saw a local high school soccer team doing the dance on the evening news when they were featured.  And many of them use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.  So I started thinking about how social media could be used in youth services librarianship.  I took to the ORR to search out some articles for ideas.

“Online Marketing Strategies for Reaching Today's Teens” by Laura Horn discusses using Facebook, blogs, web pages, and widgets to market library services, programs, and event to teens.  It also discusses having a TAB Facebook group to share ideas and planning events.  The article lists some sites as well for ideas and ways to get started.

“Libraries Get Social--Social Media, That Is!” By Victor Rivero offers resources for school libraries using social media for students and librarians.

“Very Pinteresting!” by Kate Messner gives great ideas about using Pinterest in schools and public libraries.  She even lists sites to help those getting started with Pinterest and links to libraries/librarians using Pinterest already.  There are also a number of authors’ Pinterest sites given.

I think social media can be a very effective way to reach and serve youths from a library perspective.  Multiple articles mentioned a few things to keep in mind such as updating and keeping up.  Teens will lose interest in sites that are not updated on a regular basis.  As librarians, we will also need to keep up with what is new in the lives of those we are trying to reach.  


Horn, L. (2011). Online Marketing Strategies for Reaching Today's Teens. Young Adult Library Services, 9(2), 24-27.

Messner, K. (2012). Very Pinteresting!. School Library Journal, 58(7), 24-27.

Rivero, V. (2010). Libraries Get Social--Social Media, That Is!. Multimedia & Internet@Schools, 17(6), 8-12.

"Cool--I can get my sister to check it out for me"

So that is what I heard today from one of my students.  We were going over homework at the end of the day and the students were talking about book report books.  One young man mention the book he wanted to read and another told him that it wasn’t at our school library.  I seized the opportunity to teach them how they could find out where they could check it out in our area.  I asked if they knew where they could look online.  They knew that they could go to the public library website to see if the book was available there and sites for purchasing the book.  My interactive whiteboard was on and connected to my computer so I loaded up the WorldCat site.  We put in our zip code and the title of the book.  Sure enough you could find it at our public library but it was also ‘on the shelf’ at two of the local high schools.  You can search WorldCat from the public library site but it requires some setting changes.

Hopefully, I have given my students another tool they can use when looking for specific books…. and this young man’s sister checks something out for herself too.  

Borrowing Ideas

This past week for class we read some articles about creating programs in libraries including storytimes.  We talked about borrowing ideas from other libraries and librarians.  Abby the Librarian is one of the blogs that I read fairly regularly.  She often will post, in great detail, the storytimes that she does at her library.  This week’s theme was construction and last week’s was about bugs.  She even had a page on her blog dedicated to storytime themes, which includes links to other webpages.   What an awesome way to get ideas when getting started or when you are stuck.  Thank you Abby!

The ALSC blog also posted about a Mad Libs Writing Workshop for 3rd and 4th graders.  Mad Libs = Mad Fun!