Illustration by Regan Dunnick

In his video “Tumblr: The Musical,” Youtube celebrity Hank Green mocks how Tumblr aficionados get lost in a loop of scrolling, liking, and reblogging to the point of neglecting everything else in their lives, including sleep. The addictive Tumblr scroll has indeed become the preferred Internet rabbit hole, as Green, brother of the author John Green, hilariously shows.

Should libraries and librarians use Tumblr? Is it wise to wade into this alluring sea of wacky photos, pop-culture commentary, and gifs—snippets of moving images—in order to virtually chat about best book lists, library events, title recommendations, and our favorite quotes?

Yes, and here’s why. The key to a useful social network is to strategically use communication tools, understand each network’s reach, and guarantee ease of use for all involved. Tumblr can be a successful way to connect to new and diverse audiences, provided you understand who you’ll be attracting to your site and how to use Tumblr to your advantage.

Why Tumblr works

In my job as a teen librarian, I’ve been running social networks since 2006. As anyone using social media knows, it’s vital to meet your patrons where they are, rather than try to get them to visit a new, unknown site. My colleagues in the reference section maintain lively accounts representing the library as a whole on both Facebook and Twitter. But the Twitter account I maintained for my teens fell dormant, since none of them seemed to be using that platform. So I decided to concentrate my efforts on where I thought my teens were: Facebook.

In the past year, though, it became clear that my teens were no longer on Facebook—or if they were, they weren’t using it to connect with the library. During that time, I searched for ways to invigorate the teen section of our library’s website—to post more content daily and engage more readers. I sought a streamlined, visually exciting site. But the traditional blogging options were hampered by clunky interfaces and an outdated look; I knew that the posts weren’t reaching many patrons, let alone teens.

Enter Tumblr. I had been using a personal Tumblr account for a few months and found its mix of art, photos, gifs, quotes, and videos to be far more engaging than my library’s traditional text-dominated website. Hank Green was on to something.

Tumblr’s interface is easy to use, and each post looks professional the instant it uploads. There’s no need to know code, wrangle with images, or get complicated with fonts. The site can easily take the place of a traditional website or blog.

Depending on the theme you choose for your Tumblr, you can include static information—like phone numbers or hours of operation—in a sidebar, while keeping the main part of your page fresh and visually exciting with an ever-changing stream of posts. Updating is incredibly easy, and you can save drafts and schedule posts to appear at future dates and times—useful for event reminders and time-sensitive content.

As with Twitter, your goals while using Tumblr are to engage with your public and gather followers. The more you post, the more users will find you through your content, especially by searching your tags. As on Facebook, people can “like” your posts. They can also reblog them on their own Tumblrs—similar to retweeting on Twitter or sharing on Facebook. Liking and reblogging are how your Tumblr audience shows its appreciation and where they may add their own notes. While the flow of information is mostly one-way, you can track your followers as well as the number of times an individual post has been liked and reblogged to gauge your impact.

Most important for youth librarians, though, is that young people are active on Tumblr. When I checked with my teens, many said they were Tumblr users and were excited by the idea of connecting to the library this way. That’s why I made the leap to Tumblr for our teen site.

Eight tips for successful tumbling

If you’re considering starting a Tumblr, either as a supplement to your established Web presence or as a replacement for a blog, it’s important to think through your needs and those of your patrons before making the switch. Below, some pointers.

1. Think visually. The most popular Tumblr posts tend to be images, photos, or gifs. In the past, there was no easy way to quote a TV show, film, or video game without posting a video. But with Tumblr’s magic combination of gifs and blogging, media quotes are now everywhere. Take advantage of this. If you’re recommending books, don’t just post a list: Include images of all of the covers. Promoting an event? “Tumbl” your poster and a selection of photos.

2. Tag your posts. Tagging is incredibly important on Tumblr because searching tags is how users discover content and people to follow. Remember, though, that only the first five tags on any post are searchable, so choose your tags wisely. After those five, people use tags to add commentary to their posts in the same way that savvy Twitter users deploy hashtags as asides or jokes. So these additional tags can be humorous reading.

3. Be professional but playful. Be mindful of what you post. It should be in keeping with what you would highlight on any part of your library website. At the same time, be aware that your Tumblr should be fun to follow. Share favorite quotes; topical, pop culture images; and favorite artists.

4. And…be mindful of mature language. One of the truths of Tumblr is that there is no oversight regarding mature content or language. When you first sign up, your Tumblr will be automatically set in safe mode, meaning that you will not see any content deemed “not safe for work” (NSFW) on your dashboard. The Tumblr community counts on users to flag their own blogs and posts as NSFW in order to keep safe mode working properly. There’s definitely 18+ material out there, and you won’t necessarily be forewarned by tagging or a user’s customary posting habits. Many Tumblr names are variations on the appreciative phrase f**kyeah___ (example: “f**kyeahbooks”). While you may be inclined to like or reblog those items, you should consider the profanity in the source site before doing so.

5. Schedule your posts. It’s especially enjoyable to schedule themed posts, perhaps once a week, that highlight a particular topic or service. For example, the New York Public Library celebrates “Caturday” every week on their Tumblr by posting cat-related images and items from their collections. School Library Journal runs a regular feature, “Where I Work?” with photos, sharing a glimpse or two of authors’ writing spaces. Who doesn’t want to see where their favorite novels are created?

6. Check your sources. A lot of unsourced images gets passed around Tumblr, especially when it comes to art and photography. If you’re not certain of a work’s provenance, use Google’s image source search by clicking on the camera icon that allows you to search via an image URL and see if you can locate the source reliably. Artists and image makers will thank you, and you’ll set a strong example of giving creators credit for their work.

7. Remember, it’s (basically) one-way. Tumblr is not the place to gather comments, start discussions, or debate favorite books. People can send in questions, or “asks,” through the Tumblr interface. You can also pose a question and invite your followers to answer it. That’s about it for the platform’s capacity for discussion.

Tumblr is built to be used through its dashboard, the main control panel where you scroll through posts and investigate whatever keyword searches you like. On your dashboard, there’s no easy way to comment. You can reblog a post and add a comment, but replying gets increasingly cumbersome. Unless Tumblr revamps its question system, at this point you’ll be announcing or sharing information, but only occasionally responding to a question.

8. Make it easy and fun to maintain. Check in daily and take advantage of Tumblr’s tools. Use the J, K, and L keys to navigate your dashboard quickly. Hitting the L key “likes” a post, and typing shift+R (on a PC) reblogs that post instantly. Remember the current limits: You can send 10 “asks” an hour and “friend” up to 250 people per day. For more Tumblr tricks and tips, check out this helpful list over at the Daily Dot: http://ow.ly/nVTvc.

Checking in on my Tumblr account has become the most relaxing and enjoyable part of my daily routine, keeping me abreast of new books, targeted book lists, library news, and the grand world of art and images from various media. One of my teens recently proclaimed how much she enjoyed my Tumblr—a gratifying signal that I’m heading in the right direction. As long as that enjoyment continues, and my own messages are getting out, I’ll keep on tumbling.

A few of my favorite Tumblrs:

General Tumblrs 

Book Riot
LIFE
National Public Radio
The New York Times’s The Lively Morgue 
PBS’s This Day in History
WYNC’s Radiolab

Library Tumblrs

Public Library of Brookline (MA) Teen Services (my Tumblr)
Cape May County (NJ) Library Teen Zone
Grand Rapids (MI) Public Library Tumblr for Teens
Library Advocates
Library Journal
The Lifeguard Librarian
Librarian Wardrobe
New York Public Library
School Library Journal
Teenlandia: Lewis & Clark (Helena, MT) Library Teen Services Department

Tumblarians list from

The Lifeguard Librarian
Young Adults and Teens at Oak Lawn (IL) Public Library

Teen Lit Tumblrs

Public Library of Brookline teen title recommendations (mine again)
Diversity in YA
The YA Cover
YA! Flash
YA Highway

Teen Authors who Tumble

Cassandra Clare
John Green
Shannon Hale
Karen Healey
Malinda Lo
Maureen Johnson
Rainbow Rowell

Robin Brenner is the reference and teen librarian at the Public Library of Brookline (MA). She is also the editor-in-chief of the graphic novel review website No Flying No Tights and know all too well the allure of the late-night Tumblr scroll.

“Brother Mike” Hawkins (at left) and YOUmedia’s Spoken Word team at the
“Louder Than a Bomb” poetry competition in Chicago, March 2013.
Photo courtesy of “Brother Mike” Hawkins.

Taylor Bayless, a librarian with the Chicago Public Library’s YOUmedia youth learning space, runs a podcasting program for teens. Since Bayless had no previous experience with podcasts, she was “muddling through” the learning process along with the kids, teaching herself as she was teaching them. “Someone working with youth has to have the capacity and desire to learn new technology,” says Bayless.

That was one message that came out of an hour-long chat on using social media in libraries, part of a month-long discussion series focusing on teens and the future of school and public libraries.

Sponsored by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) and Connected Learning, an online learning network, the five programs that ran in May were all about how to engage that most fickle of consumers: teens. During the online discussions, media specialists and librarians who work with young people in new media offered their insight and best practices on how to successfully engage teens and tweens.

Participants were encouraged to comment using the #futureoflibraries Twitter hashtag, watch through Connected Learning’s Google+ Page, and chat over Livestream, where the conversations were archived. Speakers included “Brother Mike” Hawkins, associate director and lead mentor at YOUmedia’s Digital Youth Network.

Getting involved with students early on—and supporting their creative efforts while providing guidance about privacy and fair use—is good policy, says YALSA president-elect Chris Shoemaker, the incoming director of the Rye (NY) Free Reading Room. He recommends talking with teens about the content they produce, such as who may view their posts, the identity they’re projecting online, and what information can be traced back to them. Shoemaker works with students to revise their material before they publish. “I would never want a teenager to pull down content after it’s posted,” he says.

At DYN, Hawkins monitors teens’ social media use rather than polices. That strategy has motivated his young patrons to take ownership and think critically about what they post. When the content is inappropriate, Hawkins and other DYN staff are careful to express their concern in such a way that encourages kids and keeps them engaged—and helps them make good decisions. “I won’t say, ‘Take that down,’” says Hawkins. “But I may say, ‘You want to play this on the radio—but I can’t share this with anyone.’ So you can shape things.”

Ultimately it’s the teens themselves who determine how successfully libraries integrate social media. The real acid test? Whether or not they invite their friends into the branches.

Hawkins says, “We have students coming to the [YOUmedia] studio and taking pictures” who then share the images, attracting the attention of other kids, who ask, “Where you at?” The teens’ own posts can be very effective in promoting the library as a cool place, he adds.

Particularly for libraries lacking a marketing budget, this kind of public relations can work wonders. “If [students] see something cool, and they see a place where adults care about them,” says Hawkins, “they’re going to promote it more than we ever could.”

The idea of Snapchat is simple, delightfully so. Take an image or a video, send it to a friend or paramour. Ten seconds after the receiver opens the file, it self-destructs, and the sender can rest assured that no trace of the message remains. Signed, sealed, delivered, deleted.

But that’s not quite true. In December, Buzzfeed reported on a security loophole in the app, which allows one to permanently save a Snapchat file without notifying the sender. The expectation of privacy and impermanence that makes the app irresistible to young users is thus deeply flawed. And yet it remains wildly popular, ranking in February as the second-most popular free photo and video app for the iPhone, besting even Instagram.

Gary Price, author of the information industry blog INFOdocket, says Snapchat illustrates an important lesson in digital literacy: the Internet never forgets.

“If you make something available on the Web, you can never be sure it will ever be 100 percent be gone, even if you work to remove it,” Price says.

The problem, he says, is two-pronged. First, users of such services seldom take the time to understand and research their inherent risks. If they did, they’d be less likely to share material that could come back to haunt them.

Second, providers of such services often shirk their responsibility for full and visible disclosure. With Snapchat, for example, the only mention of  images and videos potentially becoming available for longer than specified is in the company’s privacy policy, a document that users often gloss over—if they bother to read it all. “The Snapchat FAQ makes no mention of any of the concerns or potential problems in general,” Price says.

Citing the motto of now-defunct clothing store Syms: “An educated consumer is our best customer,” Price says, “If you think about that in the Web age, I’m not sure that that’s really true.”

Earlier this month, the Washington, DC-based public interest research center EPIC filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission against Snapchat, for what it termed “deceptive business practices.”

The lack of transparency in how services like Snapchat function also concerns Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, a technology reporter at social media news site Mashable. “Those services where you don’t know what’s going on, you have to trust them blindly,” says Franceschi-Bicchierai, who has written extensively about online privacy. “But you should always ask yourself: Am I comfortable showing this to someone I don’t know?”

The best way to get young users thinking about the risks of sharing sensitive information online, he says, is through horror stories. “There are so many stories of kids posting something embarrassing on Facebook and then not getting accepted to college. You always think, ‘it’s not going to happen to me.’”

Gwyneth Jones, a librarian at Murray Hill Middle School library in Laurel, MD, says that she doesn’t believe in “Internet safety,” only “Internet awareness.”

The biggest privacy concerns nowadays don’t stem from strangers, says Jones, but rather from people within a child’s circle. “It could be the older brother of the kid down the street, or even a classmate, who tells a 13-year-old girl, ‘why don’t you show me a picture of your cleavage?’”

This is why, she says, education about the use of Google and social media is as essential to children as sex education. “You know they’re going to do it anyway,” says Jones. “Better to do it with knowledge, discernment and ethics.”

And parents, teachers, and librarians need to become allies in helping kids understand the risks of technologies such as Snapchat, she says, a belief echoed by Price, who says that as a parent, it’s his responsibility to understand the tools that his child is using on a daily basis.

Increased awareness, education, and transparency then, are what will allow a service like Snapchat to keep delivering value without damaging the trust naive users often put into it. After all, as computer scientist Jaron Lanier, author of You Are Not a Gadget (Random House, 2010), says, “information doesn’t deserve to be free. It is an abstract tool; a useful fantasy, a nothing. It is nonexistent until and unless a person experiences it in a useful way.”

“Sure, you’re only sharing Snapchat material with friends who also use the app,” says Price, “but sadly, your friend today might not be your friend tomorrow.”

Despite her usual policy of abstaining from heated political interactions on social media, Messner continued the conversation, refusing to be intimidated.

“I’m a writer. Recommending books is probably what I do most in my social media life. Those who follow me are accustomed to that,” Messner tells School Library Journal . “This book connects with what’s going on in the news today. I didn’t think anything of it.”

She explains, “I was at first perplexed about how someone from outside of my Twitter feed, who does not even follow me, could have found my tweet.  And when I looked at the person’s feed and profile, I realized that he or she had to be someone that has set up a search for Islam, and made it their mission to seek out anyone that had something positive to say about the religion.”

The Twitter battle of words was witnessed by many of the author’s supporters and friends, including educators and librarians. A few of them added the title to their future purchase lists, or brought awareness of the book to their own audiences.

Educator and writer Michelle Cusolito, who teaches at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA,  was spurred on to suggest Golden Domes to her local bookstore, Eight Cousins in Falmouth, MA, and to create a Pinterest page for World Religion resources, with Khan’s title its first entry. “What most upset me about the situation was that all Kate wanted to do was promote openness and diversity, and this person was trying to stop that and intimidate her,” Cusolito tells SLJ. “My immediate response is, ‘I have to buy it.’ The second it hit my table, both my kids read it.”

Lauren Strohecker, a school media specialist at McKinley Elementary outside of Philadelphia, PA, tells SLJ that she sympathizes with Messner’s situation, and was disappointed that what Messner meant to be an act of sharing incurred such blowback. “It’s really hard to find books on religion appropriate for younger age groups in a K-6 school library,” Strohecker says. “But it’s important to have these titles available. Kids should have the opportunity to expand their worldview at any age.”

Strohecker has already added Golden Domes to her purchase list for the next school year because of its broad appeal, and plans on using it in a unit about colors. “It’s a book that I can integrate on subjects other than religion,” she explains.

The discussion took place over the course of a few days, with both sides coming to a standstill. Messner says she was shocked at the other party’s continuous harassment and religion bashing, but ultimately chose not to block the person, “Because that conversation—the fact that it happened—opened a lot of people’s eyes to the need for more conversations. Sharing books is powerful, and I think responding to hate with poetry and education is just about the best we can do in this world.”

Strohecker agrees. “We have the choices every day. How do we respond to hate? More hate? Or hope and stories and education? That’s a better route. And if we have that conversation with kids now, we’ll be less likely to see reactions like this one in the future.”

For a list of resources that can be used by parents, classroom teachers, and librarians, see also: Islam in the Classroom

“Goodreads was fully independent…. it made them the natural allies of people who wanted to avoid the consolidation of the industry, in particular publishers,” LibraryThing founder Tim Spalding told LJ. “I have a lot of respect for Amazon. They’re a very smart company. But I’m personally worried about them controlling the entire book world, and it’s really kind of heading that way.”

The acquisition presents an opportunity for LibraryThing to build a stronger bond between publishers, independent booksellers, and the site’s 1.6 million users, he argued in a blog post shortly after last week’s sale was announced.

“Publishers are desperate to find a way out of the Amazon trap—needing Amazon, but also competing more and more with Amazon’s own publishing operations, and finding their individual and collective power declining as Amazon’s grows,” he wrote.

Spalding acknowledged that Amazon also owns a stake in LibraryThing, acquired when it purchased the popular online used bookseller Abebooks in 2008. (The company bought out social media site Shelfari the same year.) Abebooks had been a minority investor in LibraryThing prior to the acquisition, and Amazon has maintained its stake since the purchase.

However, reports that Amazon’s stake is as high as 40% of LibraryThing are inaccurate and fail to take into account that ProQuest affiliate Bowker is also a minority shareholder in the company, according to Spalding. He continues to retain majority ownership, but declined to disclose additional information about how shares of LibraryThing are divided.

Courting allies

Spalding predicts that that Hachette, Penguin, and Simon & Schuster will redouble their efforts with their social media joint venture Bookish.com, and noted that publishers were also demonstrating renewed interest in LibraryThing.

“We’ve already seen publishers writing us and saying ‘we want to leave the Goodreads early reviewers program [First Reads] and go back into yours,” he said.

As an industry observer, Spalding said he is most interested in how the Goodreads service will be integrated with Kindle e-readers and apps.

“The downside of that is that e-readers [as dedicated platforms] are inherently monopolistic,” he said. “The technology just lends itself to concentration. This just underscores that. But sharing is so much easier when you don’t have to type anything in…. I’m of mixed opinion about it myself. But [integrating social media into an e-reader] needs to be tried, nobody has tried it, and I think that they have a real opportunity there. I’m excited to see what they can do.”

Overall, Spalding sees little downside for LibraryThing as a result of the acquisition. Goodreads already had the largest user base, by far, in this segment of social media, and LibraryThing had continued to draw steady traffic and sell software to libraries including LibraryThing for Libraries, LibraryAnywhere, and BookPsychic. The acquisition by Amazon does give Goodreads additional heft, along with a new marketing platform in the Kindle, but independent startup companies often slow down once they are acquired and integrated into much larger corporations, he noted.

Many LibraryThing members also have accounts with Goodreads, and use the services for different purposes, Spalding said.

“They’re not fully competitors. A common use pattern is to use Goodreads as ‘here’s what I’m reading now,’ posting that to Facebook and interacting socially. And then LibraryThing is where you store your whole library. We have a lot of users who do that.”

As part the library’s efforts to raise awareness about poetry leading up to National Poetry Month in April, NYPL is encouraging aspiring poets to “follow @NYPL on Twitter, and submit three poetic Tweets in English as public posts on your Twitter stream between March 1 and 10, 2013.” Each set of three poems will constitute a single entry. To qualify, all three must contain the @NYPL Twitter handle, and at least one of the tweets must reference libraries, books, reading, or New York City.

“Twitter seems like the perfect medium for this contest,” Johannes Neuer, NYPL Associate Director of Marketing, told LJ. “It has a wide reach and requires a lot of discipline and creativity because it’s restrictive [in terms of character count], which makes writing for it challenging.”

Neuer said that the contest was partly inspired by the Twitter Fiction Festival—a five-day, experimental virtual storytelling event organized last fall by Twitter, NYPL Labs, The Brown Institute for Media Innovation, and the Plympton literary studio devoted to ‘”serialized fiction for digital reading.”

“It was inspiring to see how well this microblogging platform is suited for writers, and I’m very much looking forward to seeing the poems that are published,” he said.

Ten winners will be selected by a panel of judges, based on originality, creativity, and artistic quality. Each winner will receive a set of poetry books including Red Doc> by Anne Carson, Quick Question: New Poems by John Ashbery, Place: New Poems by Jorie Graham, The Narrow Road to the Interior by Kimiko Hahn, and The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010 by Lucille Clifton.

Their work will also receive significant exposure. Each day during National Poetry Month in April, NYPL will highlight one of the 30 winning poems in its social media channels, reaching more than one million of the library’s fans and followers. And, winners could potentially be selected for inclusion in an upcoming special edition NYPL poetry ebook.

Writers and poets interested in participating must first register, so that NYPL has their twitter handle and contact information available. Requiring participants to include the @NYPL handle in each submission will enable NYPL’s Meltwater Buzz social media monitoring software to capture entries and match them to this list of registrants. The panel of judges will then review all of the collected entries and select winners by March 18. Participants can submit one three-poem entry per day, and all poems must be original, unpublished, and must not have won any prior awards.

“We’re looking forward to reaching a lot of people with these poems, and inspiring them to engage with poetry—and maybe write poetry themselves—through retweets, commentary, likes, +1s, and blogs. And, of course, hopefully we’ll inspire some people to follow the New York Public Library year-round on our social media channels,” Neuer said.

Illustration by Mark Tuchman

That’s the first thing you do when you finish reading a book? Pass it along to a friend? Return it to the library? Place it on the unruly pile of titles that you charitably call your “office”?

Scores of dedicated readers log on to Goodreads and share their opinions with the world. Imagine Facebook and your public library having a baby (on second thought…) and you get the gist of the social network that millions have come to know, use, and depend on. You may not have heard much about Goodreads, and the public at large hardly knows it exists, but this site has a devoted following among book lovers. It’s a powerful and, occasionally, controversial way for readers to connect with one another, share their two cents’ worth, and decide which title to tackle next. It can also be a valuable professional tool to share with your students and colleagues.

Calling all teens, teachers, and librarians

Similar to Facebook, you must be 13 or older to sign up for Goodreads, which helps to explain why it’s a useful tool for recommending books to young adults. It’s also a great way to stay in touch during the summer, because students can see what their librarians or teachers are reading. And since kids can write reviews for the site, it also offers them opportunities to offer an in-depth analysis of the titles they’ve read.

For those of us who work in school libraries, there’s the added benefit of being on the cutting edge of kids’ book publishing. I’m constantly finding out about new titles—such as Kelly DiPuccio and Heather Ross’s Crafty Chloe (S & S/Atheneum, 2012), Steve Jenkins’s The Beetle Book (Houghton, 2012), and Martin Salisbury and Morag Styles’s Children’s Picturebooks: The Art of Visual Storytelling (Laurence King, 2012)—which inform my collection-development decisions and help me make savvier reader’s advisory choices. I can see librarians going wild with Goodreads’ bookshelf concept (more on that later)—creating virtual shelves for their favorite read-alouds and subjects, and those oft-requested topics (princess books, anyone?). Every year, I lead an after-school, professional development session on the year’s best books. With Goodreads, it’s easy to pull up my favorite titles to share with our teachers. And even if you don’t want to create your own interest-specific shelves, you can still benefit from looking at your friends’ shelves. OK, are you ready to take the plunge and join Goodreads?

Dig Goodreads?

Then you might also enjoy the following sites for book lovers:

Shelfari 

The look of this Amazon-owned operation is very visual with book covers galore. You can import your Amazon purchases and contribute to the wikilike “Book Facts” for each title. This information is available on the site as well as on Kindle devices and apps.

Library Thing 

This site (tagline: “Catalog Your Books Online”) is a utilitarian alternative to Goodreads. There are fewer frills, and the look isn’t as slick as Goodreads, but there’s also no advertising staring you in the face. The basics are all there: reviews, collections, groups, and discussions.

BiblioNasium 

Billed as “part kids’ social network, part parent’s guide, part teacher’s tool,” BiblioNasium is geared toward the education market, and it’s very kid friendly. Teachers can join, generate class accounts, and create a reading network with their students, who can respond to books and post their own reviews.

A few basics

I joined Goodreads in 2008, about a year after it was launched, and was pleasantly surprised to discover that many of the librarians and bloggers that I follow were using the service. It’s secretly popular, and it’s growing by leaps and bounds. In December 2011, BuiltWith, a technology information provider that tracks working websites, reported that Goodreads had “6,700,000 members who have added more than 230,000,000 books to their shelves.” And in August 2012, the Los Angeles-based company announced that over 10 million users had recommended more than 300 million books on its site.

My home bookshelves may be a mess, but on Goodreads, they’re immaculate. Many people, myself included, use the site as a de facto home library. By adding titles to various virtual “bookshelves,” Goodreads encourages its users to organize their reading and to reflect on what they’ve read. Members can assign a one- to five-star rating to each title they’ve completed, and their individual appraisals contribute to a book’s overall rating, which appears next to the title.

Inside and out

When you register for Goodreads, you have the option of letting the service check your email or social media accounts for any members you may know. Once you have a few friends, things get interesting.

If you have a Facebook account, you’ll feel comfortable—even peaceful—with Goodreads’ design and layout, because the site keeps clutter to a minimum. Its home screen lists “Recent Updates”—the equivalent of Facebook’s well-known wall of “Status Updates”—that indicate when friends have added a new book to their to-read piles, rated a book, or written a review. Overachievers, ahem, frequent users can even offer updates on the number of pages they’ve read in their most recent book.

If you’re new to Goodreads, one of the first things you’ll notice is that it has a few built-in shelves—“read,” “currently reading,” and “to-read”—for you to put your books on, but you can also create your own custom shelves. I have one for “Books Read in 2012” and a “to-review” shelf for some 2013 titles that I’m planning to critique, including Steve Jenkins and Robin Page’s My First Day (Houghton), Cecil Castellucci and Sara Varon’s Odd Duck (First Second), and John Coy and Joe Morse’s Hoop Genius (Carolrhoda).

From the home screen, you can easily set up a “Reading Challenge.” Simply enter the number of books you’d like to read this year, and Goodreads will track your progress. There are also plenty of social features. The site lets you compare books with friends, comment on reviews, and recommend books to friends. Members can also set up lists for others to vote on. I especially like checking out the Newbery and Caldecott lists, because they highlight titles that are getting good reviews and may be in the running for these prestigious children’s literature awards.

You’ll also find groups for every imaginable genre and niche—from manga to literary fiction to werewolves—which offer a place for those with shared interests to get together to discuss what they’re reading. You can also start a book club or create a digital counterpart to a club that already exists in the offline world. I belong to a mock Newbery group that has more than 800 members, and we always have lively discussions.

If sharing on the site isn’t enough, you can also create a widget that displays your books on your website or blog. It looks like a little bookshelf and flashes through the titles on any of your Goodreads shelves.

The organization benefits alone are worth the price of admission. Actually, since the price of admission is free, the benefits are worth way more. I love being able to quickly look back at my reading history. Plus, the ability to add filters—narrowing my search results according to the number of stars a title has—means it takes only seconds to pull up a list of my “five star” favorites.

Goodreads is also a helpful place to find basic book information. Summaries, pub dates, cover images, and genre details are available for any book you can think of. Underneath this information, you’ll find reviews from Goodreads users. Friends’ reviews always appear at the top, followed by other users’ opinions.

Goodreads’ free mobile app is another good reason to jump onboard. It’s well thought out, with intuitive touches that allow easy access to just about everything you can access on the regular site. It even lets smartphone and tablet users scan books’ barcodes—entering them into their “to-read” shelves without having to type a single thing. I knew I got a smartphone for a reason.

Controversy!

Any time “non-critics” are able to share their opinions worldwide, there’s bound to be some friction. While this sort of “review by committee” approach is something that rightfully makes many cringe, it invariably holds some power, and most likely guides many readers’ book choices. The “yea or nay” type of reviews that Goodreads allows (it should be noted that the site also offers an opportunity for lengthy, thoughtful reviews) may not be ideal, but the Harvard Business School recently released a study that shows that, in general, Amazon’s reviews (which are very comparable to GoodReads’) are more similar to a professional critic’s opinion than one might think. I’m not giving up my professional reviews any time soon, but this study provides some food for thought. As you might expect, this is a controversial topic.

The public nature of online reviews clearly has pros and cons. In some cases, it has increased the tension between readers and authors. Writers who belong to Goodreads should be prepared to occasionally give their thin skin a workout. I’ve heard of authors (I won’t name names) who have joined the service only to cancel their accounts because of unfavorable (and, in many cases, unfair) reviews of their work. Stories of unhappy writers directly contacting users to contest their negative reviews are also out there. But there’s a flip side: being a member of Goodreads allows authors to directly interact with their fans in ways that were unimaginable until fairly recently. And for readers, the chance to easily contact a favorite author to praise their latest book is a genuine 21st-century thrill.

Still, controversy occasionally erupts, as in the case of British thriller writer Stephen Leather, who admitted that he’d created fake Goodreads accounts so he could write positive reviews of his own works. He also, every now and then, gave other authors’ books one-star reviews to lower their overall ranking. Although this sort of deviousness is rare, it offers a glimpse into the “book review 2.0” world.

It’s a wrap

Now that I’ve been a member of Goodreads for a few years, it’s hard to imagine going back to the days when my only bookshelf was an actual physical object. I like that my unorganized mess of hard copies has a neat and tidy online counterpart. The organizational, informational, and social elements of the service have won me over. It’s a personal and professional win. Chances are, it’ll enrich your reading and teaching life, too.

Travis Jonker is a school librarian and an SLJ blogger (100scopenotes.com). His last feature for the magazine, “Travis’s Excellent Adventure” (September 2012), was about how to launch a successful ereader program.

Photo: Jupiterimages, Brand X Pictures.

The study, from researchers at the University of Haifa in Israel, focuses on 9–12th grade students at three different high schools. Out of the 591 students surveyed, a whopping 95 percent said they regularly sent emails or texts during classroom lessons, while 94 percent said they browsed file-sharing sites or social media sites like Facebook. Listening to music is another popular classroom activity, according to 93 percent of students, while 91 percent admitted to actually talking on their phones during class. Overall, 60 percent of students use their cell phones in class, with 10th graders the most aggressive cell phone users and 12th graders picking up their phones the least, according to the survey.

This may present a sobering reality check to many educators in K–12 schools who have been looking for the best ways to incorporate digital tools into their classrooms. Already the number of Web-connected computers per student is increasing rapidly across the country. In 2000, the ratio of students to each Internet-connected computer was 6.6 kids per every device, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d11/tables/dt11_109.asp); by 2008 (the latest year for which complete statistics are available), that number had jumped to 3.1 kids per device.

Successful school programs utilize digital devices in ways that keep kids engaged, such as conducting polls during civics lessons or searching for materials on a school library site. But in practice, there can be a big difference between the efficacy of using school-issued laptops and tablets compared with students’ own devices, at least among the older grades, according to the study.

With personal devices, students have more control over their own tools—and the ability to hide their online activities, particularly on phones with small screens.

“Students use their mobile phones in various ways—to surf the Internet and access social media, to listen to music, take photos, play games, and send text messages and photos,” say the researchers. “Based on our findings, there is almost no moment during any class when some pupil isn’t using their cell phone.”

The report—the first in a Pew/Berkman series that’ll explore youth privacy issues—features information from interviews with focus groups that were conducted by Berkman’s Youth and Media team and a national phone survey of parents and their teens that examines the use of social networking sites.

The findings are based on a phone survey of 802 parents and their 802 teens ages 12 to 17, conducted between July 26 and September 30, 2012. Interviews were done in English and Spanish and on landline and cell phones. The research team also conducted 16 focus group interviews with roughly 120 students. The report is fully downloadable, and may also be searched online.

’Tis the season for prizes, including the 2012 Edublog Awards. Announced yesterday, the winners and runners-up include “Best Individual Blog,” “Best Twitter Hashtag,” and “Best Individual Tweeter.”

Sponsored by blogging service Edublogs, the awards are determined by a nomination process open to the general public, and winners and runners-up are chosen by vote. The awards were started in 2004 as a response to schools, districts, and educational institutions blocking the use of social media with the intention of promoting the importance and relevancy of these sites.

SLJ’s “Cool Tools” columnist Richard Byrne garnered both “Best Ed Tech/Resource Sharing Blog” and a runner-up award for “Best Individual Blog” for his site Free Technology for Teachers, where he provides practical tips for incorporating technology into the classroom. From apps that help students keep track of homework assignments and platforms for peer tutoring, to infographics on the solar eclipse and programs providing an in-depth look at human anatomy, Byrne’s site has something for everyone.

Bibliophiles looking for a site melding tech and kid lit will appreciate John Schumacher’s (aka Mr. Schu) Watch. Connect. Read (pictured), which was runner-up in the “Best/library/librarian blog” category. Exploring the world of book trailers, Schu’s blog also features interviews with authors and illustrators, revisits Newbery and Caldecott-winning books, and recently included the highlights of a Twitter chat about the “Babymouse” and “Lunch Lady” graphic novels. “Best Library/librarian blog” winner, Educational Blog, Iliana Ilieva-Dabova shares tips and suggestions for Bulgarian teachers creating lesson plans.

For educators eager for apps but overwhelmed by the vast selection, there’s the Edublog category “Best Mobile App.”: The winner, Flying Books, is based upon William Joyce’s short film and picture book The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (Atheneum, 2012), the story of a man who follows a flying book into a library where he spends years working. Runners-up included apps for Dropbox, which lets  users  share videos and images, Evernote, for storing ideas and notes, and the Night Zookeeper Drawing Torch, a game that features animals and monsters and that lets players tap into their drawing abilities.

“Best Student Blog” and “Most Influential Blog Post” went to Jaden, a student in California who blogs on subjects ranging from the past presidential election to the “Hunger Games” series at Jaden’s Awesome Blog. In “Ten things I’ve learned from blogging,” the fifth-grader shared wise words about lessons learned while creating a social media presence. Tips:  “When people are nice enough to comment on your blog, comment back so they will return to your blog,” “Don’t post pictures of yourself,” and “Add gadgets to make your blog the best it can be.”

The winner of the “Best Twitter Hashtag,” #UnfollowBullying was started by  the Elk Grove Unified School District as a way to take a stance against cyber-bullying. Best Hashtag runners-up included #comments4kids, providing ways for students and teachers to find blogs they’d like to comment on, and #slpeeps, for speech and language professionals.

@SpeechyKeenSLP won the “Best Individual Tweeter” award, while @ictmagic and @RossMannell were among the runners-up.

Making the most of Twitter was a common thread in this year’s awards. The runner-up for “Most Influential Blog Post,” “Nomenclature and basic functions of Twitter” by Lexical Linguist, for example, gives novices a “101” introduction to the social media platform, sharing pointers about hashtags, privacy issues, and how to interact with other users.

Other winners included Jamie Forshey, instructional technology coach and teacher at the Bellwood-Antis School District in Central PA, who took “Best New Blog,” for Edutech for Teachers and Tim Rylands, an experienced teacher from the UK known for his integration computer games and technology into the classroom, who won Edublog’s “Lifetime Achievement” award.

Culled from the responses of 694 randomly selected educators, including librarians, teachers, and principals, the study compares findings with those from a similar survey conducted in 2009.

According to the report, “2012 Survey of K-12 educators on Social Networking, Online Communities, and Web 2.0 Tools,” 82 percent of all K-12 educators now use social networking for personal and professional use, up from 61 percent in 2009.

The study provides information about educators’ favorite sites by category and reveals social networking patterns by age and frequency of use. It also reveals educators’ concerns about privacy and provides information about school district technology access policies for students and teachers.

Facebook, Edmodo, and the Discovery Education Network most popular in their categories

Facebook is the most used social networking venue among respondents, with 85 percent using the site, the same percentage as in 2009.

LinkedIn is the second most popular, accessed by 41 percent of respondents, up from 14 percent in 2009. Twitter is third, at 39 percent, followed by Google+ (27percent), Ning (11percent), and MySpace (20 percent).

Younger educators network the most, with 97 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds networking online, as opposed to 75 percent of respondents who are 55-plus, according to the report.

Among education-focused sites, Edmodo has the most members, accessed by 27 percent of respondents, followed by edWeb.net (15 percent), ASCD EDge (9 percent), Classroom 2.0 (9 percent), We are Teachers (6 percent), Teacher 2.0 (5 percent), NSTA Learning Center (4 percent), and Educators PLN (3 percent).

Librarians use the first four of these education-focused sites more than teachers or principals, according to the study. Looking forward, 31 percent of librarians say that they will likely join a new networking and PD site in the next year, as opposed to 22 percent of teachers and 31 percent of principals.

For librarians, the top five branded online communities are the Discovery Education Network (49 percent), Edutopia (31 percent), PBS Teachers (30 percent), Thinkfinity (25 percent), and BrainPOP Educators  (24 percent).

Webinars are the most popular networking tool among educators, while document sharing is the most used in classrooms.

Concern over privacy and restrictive school policies

Forty five percent of respondents express concern about privacy on education sites, while 26 percent worry about inappropriate relationships with students. Twenty six percent are concerned that affiliation with a social network “might head to an incident that would jeopardize my job,” according to the report. Among those surveyed, 80 percent keep their personal and professional accounts separate most of the time.

Twenty-three percent believe that their school or district’s policy on Web 2.0 tools is restrictive to teachers, and 47 percent think their schools’ regulations are a hindrance to students.

Fifty four percent of respondents work in districts that allow kids to bring their own devices to school, but only five percent of those schools allow students to use them with no restrictions. 64 percent of educators think it likely that their districts will “open up policies on BYOD in the future.”

“There is growing awareness that online communities help teachers create an extended personal learning network and access a wealth of professional development resources—often at no cost to the teacher,” a press release connected to the report states.

The press release adds that the U. S. Department of Education has encouraged educators to access online resources by declaring August 2012 “Connected Educator Month,” along with initiatives including the 2010 National Education Technology Plan and the Connected Online Communities of Practice Project (COCP).

How did you get the idea for the Teen Technology Project?

Two years ago, I took time off from teaching because I didn’t feel I was having the impact I wanted in the classroom. I didn’t want to become a cranky teacher, but I didn’t have the energy to “change the system” so I took a break. I started my own business, but I’ve always been trying to think of ways that I can return to working with teenagers.

In my business, Your Event Without Borders, a live video-streaming technology service provider, I often get contacted by nonprofit organizations or causes that would like to use my services to spread their message but can’t afford to pay me. I’m currently working with some of these groups, but cannot afford to work with them all for free.

In June, I attended a 24-hour virtual retreat for businesses, and while meditating on all the pieces of my business and my passions, the idea struck me: What if I combined my business with working with teens outside of the traditional education system?

I realized that the nonprofits that had been contacting me would be great clients for teens to work with. The teens could get valuable experiences, and the nonprofits could get much-needed help.

From there, the vision continues to grow, but a key idea in the project is that the teenagers will control decisions, so I’m holding back on my own vision so that the teens have room to create their own.

How have teens reacted to the project?

The first group I spoke to had specifically come at lunchtime to talk to me about the project. Their own interests included filmmaking, online broadcasting, Web design, gaming, and photography. They quickly “got it” and started asking questions about the idea and the scope. One of them is already doing some YouTube broadcasting and appreciated the idea of having a more professional platform to work with. They were also excited about the idea of having better equipment and software and a place to work from. This group is busy spreading the word now, and I’ll be meeting with them later this month.

The second group I spoke to was a senior art class with about 20 students. Their reactions ranged from not listening to me at all, to not being interested in the idea, to asking me questions and writing down my information so they can contact me when they have some artwork ready for the project. Some of these students also saw the possibility of doing contract work for the nonprofits or other clients and spreading their artwork beyond their parents and classroom.

The costs of starting up the Teen Technology Project are clearly outlined in your Indiegogo document. I noticed that you’ve included costs for studio time. Have you considered partnering with the local Kootenay libraries for space and Internet access to reduce costs?

This is a decision that will be up to the teens once we have a group of interested “business teens” ready to start making these decisions. The plan is to go with these teens and view different options ranging from spaces like the library up to monthly rental space. With the money raised, one of their decisions will be about whether the best investment is in a free low-cost or high-cost studio space. I want them to have ownership over this decision.

One major factor with the library space would be making sure it had a fast enough and stable enough Internet to run some of the live broadcasting software we may be using, as well as the ability of the teens to personalize the space with their own posters and artwork.

I think figuring out these types of pros and cons will be a great first challenge for the teens.

The Kootenay Association of Science and Technology (KAST) provided you with some important connections and guidance. Can you talk a bit about that organization and its Growing Learning Opportunities with Science (GLOWS) program?

I’m currently meeting with KAST to figure out the different ways we can work together to spread the idea of the project and benefit everyone involved. With some of the money already raised, the Teen Technology Project sponsored the L.V. Rogers Secondary School team in the November 10 GLOWS robotics competition.  Normally, I would like the involved teenagers to make decisions like this, but it was too great of an opportunity to start making an immediate impact and spread the word.

I also attended a KAST workshop recently and met some of the speakers at that event who I’m planning on bringing into the project as guest speakers to talk with teens. We’re also discussing getting some of the teens to attend a KAST grant-writing workshop so they can learn how to write grants and start looking for some alternative funding for the project.

According to 2008 data from Statistics Canada, self-employment and service jobs are higher in the Kootenay area than in other provinces of British Columbia. Do you think those factors will encourage young adults in the area to be more entrepreneurial?

This is a great question and to be honest I’m not sure, but I’m hoping to find out. From my time teaching in the area, most of the kids I worked with were planning on following a traditional educational arc: graduate from high school and attend college or university, or get a full-time job. I wasn’t exposed to a large group of entrepreneurial teens. However, I was teaching math and science, which generally put me in contact with kids that are probably more inclined to head down the college/university route.

If there isn’t an entrepreneurial trend in the area already, one of my big hopes is that the Teen Technology Project will start to create that inclination in the area. One of the big questions the project is asking in my head is, What would happen if teens were exposed to the entrepreneurial spirit at a young age? I’m really looking forward to answering that question and seeing what happens.

Thinking of your former work as a high school teacher and your current business, Your Event Without Borders, how do you think simulcasts can be built into the education system to benefit students and teachers?

This technology could have a huge impact on the education system. Schools and students in British Columbia are spread out in a number of small communities, and sometimes it can be hard to provide content specialists in all of these areas. Currently, kids are learning some of these subject areas via recorded online classes and reading materials, but the technology I use in my business would change the way this looks.

You could set up a teacher and classroom in one location, and then stream that video feed live to other locations where students could join those classes and learn in real time. You could set up live discussion groups in different areas so teens in more isolated areas would have a peer group to discuss topics with. You could afford to bring in bigger name speakers for teacher professional development and pay for those speakers by broadcasting that event to multiple schools. Library programs could bring in authors that normally wouldn’t come to a small area, by broadcasting that author’s talk to multiple locations and increase the audience.

My mind goes in a million different directions with the possibilities of this technology for education, and I think with the right implementation, it could make a great difference in B.C—though I think we have to be careful with its use, too, so we don’t turn all teaching experiences into students staring into a non-interactive computer screen.

The most famous living author of horror fiction strolled into the library unannounced on October 19, following a year-long campaign by students to convince King to visit their school by Halloween of this year.

Students had written 1,100 letters to King, sent by mail and posted here. They also sent King-themed artwork to the author, displayed on a project site; shot films and YouTube musical parodies, including a rap composition; and, with teacher Sarah-Jane Smith, chronicled events on Twitter at @StephenKingSRHS. A Stephen King book drive added 120 of the author’s books to the school library.

“I came because of all those letters,” King told the small group of students, who had been informed that they had been assembled to meet with a representative from their school district. “I was just blissed out to get them all.”

“You are so not from the school district,” one of the students told King, prompting laughter.

Dressed in a grey T-shirt tucked into jeans, King, a former teacher, went on to speak with the students about his evolution as a writer, his working habits, and how to improve their own writing.

“I’m just like you,” he told the group. “I came from a small town across the border in Maine. I went to a one-room school. I went to a high school that was smaller than this. I started to write stories because I liked it. That was the only reason.”

He added that his grades weren’t so great, except in English.

“How many of you like to write?” He asked them. “You don’t have to raise your hand.”

But most of the hands went up. King then took a black marker and wrote a sentence, composed by one of the students, on an easel. Conducting an informal workshop, he asked the kids for suggestions on how to improve the sentence and handed the marker to a volunteer.

Later, King moved into the school auditorium and chatted informally with a larger group.

“Writing is about seeing and saying,” he said. “You see something, you say it, and you try to say it in a way that’s new. But you also write it in a way that will make people want to read it.”

”Write with the door closed. It’s not anybody’s business but yours,” he advised. “Then, if you like what you’ve done, you’ve got to open up the door, look at it, and say, ‘Can I improve this?’”

Before his first story was accepted for publication—“a publisher paid 35 bucks for it”—King used to display rejection letters on a nail on his wall. After 60 or 70 rejections, the nail fell down, he said.

He offered this encouragement to determined young writers: “There’s always going to be room at the bottom, because people like me are going to croak.”

About his own writing process, King said, “I write from 8 in the morning until noon every day. And when that time is going by for me, I’m not in the world. I’m inside whatever the story is. It’s a little bit like being crazy, only they pay you for it, so that’s really good.” And after all these years, “For me, it’s still fun.”

And what was the most frightening thing that ever happened to him? “I got hit by a car,” he told them, an experience he detailed in his book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (Scribner, 2000).

Smith told SLJ that she and SRHS students, overwhelmed by interview requests, were no longer speaking to the media. A 31-minute video of King’s visit is available here and a 5-minute highlight reel is here.

Space are meaningless without meaningful connections with adults and peers in libraries. #engchat

October 22, 2012 7:55 pm via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite

@meenoorami

Meenoo Rami

Moran, Superintendent of the Albemarle County Public Schools in Charlottesville, VA, and Socol, a special education technology scholar at Michigan State University’s College of Education in East Lansing, emphasized that it’s crucial to the survival of librarians that they keep up with today’s technology driven world.

But how imperative are ebooks? Many tweeters cautioned against wholeheartedly embracing this technology. Middle school librarian Deven Black (@devenkblack) reminded participants that access to ebooks in poorer schools is limited. Jenn Cook (@cookout70), an associate Professor of English and Education at Rhode Island College, warned that abandoning physical books may make libraries less inclusive: “Just like when millionaires talk about poverty, when we assume that ‘change’ means going digital/virtual, we leave many behind.”

Similarly, Buffy Hamilton (@buffyjhamilton), a high school teacher in Canton, GA, and blogger at The Unquiet Library, urged restraint among librarians who view electronic materials as “a one size fits all solution.” Though ebook distributors like OverDrive may seem to hold all the answers, she noted, not all libraries can afford them, and their content may not be essential or interesting to students.

Participants agreed that librarians must maintain traditional skills—such as readers’ advisory—but also be savvy to new trends in order to stay relevant. Becky Fisher (@BeckyFisher73), an educator in Charlottesville, VA, tweeted that “Contemporary librarians have to understand contemporary means of accessing and making information!” and encouraged them not to fear sites like Wikipedia. Going back to basics, librarian Kathy Kaldenberg (@scsdmedia) stressed the importance of encouraging a love of literature: “Hands down. The most effective thing we do at our library is read the books and give personal recommendations.”

Librarians aired frustration that administrators on tight budgets do not always accept evidence showing that libraries improve student learning. Julie Goldberg (@juliegoldberg), a librarian in Rockland County, cited a three-year study conducted by the Center for International Scholarship in School Libraries (CISSL) at Rutgers University showing that school libraries have a positive effect on student achievement  but lamented that “many decision-makers are unaware.” Hamilton tweeted, “many librarians are attempting to lead change but meet tremendous resistance from admin and faculty.”

Participants agreed that libraries should be warm and innovative environments, but opinions differed over whether they should also maintain quiet spaces. Shannon DeSantis (@shdesant), a library science graduate student at Syracuse University, tweeted that “the days of the shush library should be over. We want our space to be collaborative and welcoming!” On the other hand, Fisher spoke for many participants when she described her ideal space: “We are looking at providing cozy, quiet, curl up with a book spaces as well as noisy, collaborative, make things happen ones.”

Though participants had many diverse ideas about what future libraries must look like in terms of space and technology concerns, the belief that librarians are vital to the success of a school was a constant. Meenoo Rami (@meenoorami), founder and moderator of Engchat, underscored that what students need most is committed librarians: “Space are meaningless without meaningful connections with adults and peers in libraries.” Participants who want to continue the conversation can use the Twitter hashtag #sljsummit to follow Socol and Moran’s thoughts about the evolution of libraries at the Leadership Summit.

Challenging students to expand how they think about writing, national literacy and educational groups are asking teachers, librarians, writers, children and creators of all kinds to share what they write on Twitter and other social media channels on Friday, October 19.

Under the hashtag, #WhatIWrite, the National Writing Project (NWP), National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and the New York Times Learning Network, among other groups (School Library Journal is a participant), are exploring the myriad forms that writing can take—from a list to a Facebook post, a podcast to a video piece.

“Our effort is to draw attention to the critical role of writing in our lives,” says Paul Oh, senior program associate with NWP. “I think we’re at this moment in education defining what it means to be literate.”

Encouraging students to find their literary voice and empowering them to craft pieces is more important than ever, particularly with the emphasis on writing in the Common Core, says Oh. As paper and pen yield to pixels and screens, students may need help understanding that the blog piece they craft, or the podcast they record, is adding to their literacy skills—and should be celebrated.

The online gathering is geared toward students, but everyone is encouraged to get involved. The digital event takes place the day before the Fourth Annual National Day of Writing—with the hope that children will tweet about what they’re composing at school and at home. The Twittersphere was already chirping with posts from excited participants, from learning coach Aaron Svoboda (@Mr_Svoboda) suggesting people tweet in haiku to sixth grade teacher Kevin Hodgson (@dogtrax), linking to a multimedia project he’s creating to celebrate the National Day of Writing.

Oh hopes more people will participate through blog pieces and social media posts using the hashtag. He wants to hear from school librarians in particular: he sees them as a core group thinking broadly about media and literacy, and a community linked to students of all ages. “Librarians have helped me see that video and audio composing is part of being literate today,” he says. “They’re often the ones helping us to expand our definition of writing.”

while i still am team dewey, i embrace almost every other thing about metis. this in nutshell is my eternal problem, wanting both #sljdewey

October 11, 2012 9:56 pm via TweetChatReplyRetweetFavorite

@LizB

Liz Burns

Some questioned the decision to throw out Dewey entirely instead of just adjusting it to user needs. Though Liz Burns (@LizB), a librarian at the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, who blogs at SLJ’s A Chair, a Fireplace & A Tea Cozy, remained wary of wholeheartedly embracing Metis, she appreciated the concept of “librarians using MLS skills to totally customize to community.”

Similarly, Stacy Dillon (@mytweendom), an elementary school librarian at Little Red School House, relayed how she relies upon a customized version of Dewey that uses separate sections for biographies and graphic novels. Nevertheless, Kaplan argued that Dewey is too flawed, stating that simply tweaking it would be, “like taking a size 6 dress and cutting it down. Better to start with a new pattern.”

Participants responded to criticisms that abandoning Dewey means oversimplifying the library experience. Melissa Techman (@mtechman), a K-5 school librarian in Charlottesville, VA, tweeted that it is “not dumbing down to consider usability.” She later mentioned that, for example, patrons often find it frustrating that books on mummies are not categorized next to those on Ancient Egypt.

Still-Schiff also disagreed with claims that jettisoning Dewey is anti-intellectual. Because Metis’s structure is so child-centered, she believes that it encourages more rigorous thinking. (For example, students themselves engaged in the decision-making; they made the choice to group materials on whales with those about aquatic animals rather than with those about mammals and to put books about athletes with other sports titles instead of with biographies.) Still-Schiff wrote: “Hierarchical thinking isn’t dumbing down; it is higher order work than memorizing or writing numbers.”

Several librarians praised the use of Dewey for its teachable moments. Dillon said that instructing students in how to use the traditional system “gets kids thinking about organization.” Similarly, KarinLibrarian (@KPerry) advocated teaching students better search skills and said that learning Dewey “isn’t just a library skill. Math teaches decimals too. Part of life.”

However, Giffard finds teaching a numerically based approach to young children with limited math and reading skills to be counterproductive. Kaplan raised the point that Metis is a superior tool for teaching categorization because its structure is much more logical. In reference to domestic animals being classified under the Dewey class 600 (applied sciences) rather than 500 (science and animals), she quipped, “Try telling someone that dogs belong in Technology.”

Some librarians are also considering revamping their fiction collections, by grouping books according to genre instead of by author. Techman finds that students are more likely to find new books using this system, and Tamara Cox (@coxtl) likes it because “she can SEE what shelves are empty (popular) and order more to meet demand.”

Though Dewey still has its supporters (with Burns lamenting that many librarians’ Dewey Decimal call number tattoos may soon become irrelevant), overall most were open-minded about the possibilities of evolving newer library systems. Cox (@coxtl) encouraged other librarians “to at least THINK about our sacred cows and make sure we’re serving our kids, not tradition.”