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I love searching Twitter. And I love sharing how a Twitter search can dramatically impact student research, by connecting them with experts, encouraging them to develop current awareness, allowing them to listen in on the dialog of a particular field or niche, and, in some cases, enabling them to contribute to the conversation. Learning to [...]
I’ve had these in my files for a couple of years doing nobody no good. So, I thought it was time to crowd-source, update and improve a series of checklists I’ve planning to work on and share. The checklists are meant to be a handy list of things to plan, do, and celebrate month-by-month in the life [...]
September is a great time get your network on. On Monday September 9 at 8 pm ET, it’s the very special third annual Back to School Special, featuring an idea share led by Tiffany Whitehead (Mighty Little Librarian), Jennifer LaGarde (Library Girl), and the daring Gwyneth Jones. Visit the TLCafé homepage for instructions on how to join the event using Blackboard Collaborate.
I’ve come to the conclusion that there are probably a thousand different ways to do library great. Sure there are handbooks on how to put together a traditional library program–how to create a budget, weed a collection, host an author event, collaborate with teachers. But no textbook shows you what it looks like when the [...]
Thanks to my good buddy, Shannon, I getting a little hooked on GeoGuessr and I can’t wait to share it with our Social Studies Department. Released last May, the web-based geographic discovery game places players on five randomly-determine Google Street View locations, asking them to guess where they are. Once a player is ready to guess the location, [...]
I just updated and distributed my September teacher newsletter. Along with all the Spartan-specific content was an update of 50 Ways to Leave Your Research Paper and Tell Your Story, a document I’ve been trying to crowd-source and improve for years. I am sharing this most recent update, though I readily admit its short-comings, one of [...]
I am on a serious mission to push our library out onto the platforms my kiddos love most–their phones, and to a lesser extent, their tablets. I so want our library to be in the pockets. As I finished preparing our QR code handout, it occurred to me that most of the codes, in fact [...]
You’ll want to share this event and its resources with the classroom teachers you are helping to flip. On September 6, the Flipped Learning Network will host the first global Flip Your Classroom Day. To celebrate, the network encourages teachers everywhere to pledge to flip one lesson in the hope that the flipping experience will be a sticky one. [...]
We don’t read all day. Our hair’s not in a bun. We don’t all wear glasses. Don’t always says shush. We do love books. We’re the bosses at the Internet. We do provide the freedom to escape the room you’re sitting in. . . We’re on a quest to teach you how to find the [...]
Every year, as we move back into our libraries and classrooms, we search for meaningful, inspiring, attractive visuals to fill our display cases, to grace our bulletin boards, to embed on our websites. Many of you have already experienced this, but if not, I must warn you of the dangers of searching Pinterest boards for [...]
Fair use is the broad, flexible doctrine that will allow libraries to meet mission in the digital age. A new embeddable infographic, developed by the Association of Research Libraries and American University’s College of Law and School of Communication, with funding from the Mellon Foundation, illustrates how librarians navigate in a sea of copyrighted material, [...]
Here’s one Pinterest rabbit hole well worth falling through. I discovered Alida Hanson’s wonderfully comprehensive and attractive Pinterest boards promoting the new books and media at Weston High School (MA) Library, via a recent AASLForum discussion. When I asked Alida if she’d allow me to share her process for organizing those boards, she generously agreed. [...]
You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. Joyce Valenza shares some creative ways to do a library orientation. (Zombies included.)
(Note: I just realized that I created a draft of this post a few weeks back, but forgot to publish. Forgive me!) Deb Kachel, my colleague at the Mansfield SL&IT, just shared her latest revision of School Library Research Summarized. The revised booklet updates the work of Deb’s grad students in her Spring 2011 Advocacy [...]
At ALA I was honored to be invited by RUSA to respond to research presentation, The Myth and the Reality of the Evolving Patron. Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, shared the latest data relating to how Americans think about libraries and information, their use of library services, and what [...]
In response to LM_NET queries, Doug Johnson published a BFTP (blast from the past) post today on Your Library’s Back-to-School Letter. Doug encourages us to use the start of school as an opportunity for connection and advocacy, inspiring us to design an initial communication that conveys the energy and contributions of our library programs in [...]
A new age of scribe is emerging, notes Joyce Valenza, who, in her latest blog post, considers the craft of sketchnoting and its role in enhancing the conference – and classroom – experience.
YALSA’s Teen Book Finder is one of my favorite apps. I recommend it to my high school students and I/we often take it to the shelves on our iPhones, iPods or iPads for inspiration connected to YALSA’s recommended titles. Good news. This week, YALSA launched an updated version of the free app that now includes titles [...]
Shilpa, Roya, Ahran, and Karan Mission: Club Academia strives to organize existing knowledge in ways that make learning easily accessible while simultaneously inspiring people to discover and innovate. Sometimes you meet a group of kids for whom being college and career ready is simple not enough. As a high school librarian, I am often honored to work with [...]
