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 6:55 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 8:56 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.”

These were our top stories of the week on our Twitter feed. Dewey, no surprise, heads the list.

Are Dewey’s Days Numbered?: Libraries Nationwide Are Ditching the Old Classification System

New York approves a new school librarian evaluation rubric  NeverEndingSearch

 Movie Review: Fat Kid Rules the World 

Looking for some books to display for Halloween? Search no more! Nail-biters: Gripping Tales 

There is only one science book in the entire Newbery canon. Maybe that will change this year. Heavy Medal

Best Websites for Teaching the Presidential Election - The Digital Shift

Recommended Comics for Schools: Uncle Scrooge, Papyrus, The Loxleys/Crogan’s Loyalty, Hammer and Anvil Connect the Pop

So. Many. Books. Someday My Printz Will Come

Our October cover story has generated some deep discussion and the conversation continues on a Twitter chat:

Thursday, October 11

9 pm ET, 6 pm PT

hashtag: #sljdewey

Host: Kiera Parrott, Head of Children’s Services, Darien (CT) Library

Participants: Sue Giffard, Tali Balas Kaplan and Jennifer Still-Schiff, all of the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York City and co-authors of the feature story

Pincus, who spoke at the lecture, “Avoiding the Echo,” encouraged bloggers to explore other passions outside of children’s and YA literature. He mentioned Susan Taylor Brown, who blogs about poetry, but who’s also attracted a larger following by sharing her love of photography on her Facebook page. He also suggested that bloggers visit seemingly unrelated sites, explaining that once he stumbled upon a crafting site that drove traffic to his blog by linking to one of his posts. Although Pincus’s own blog isn’t craft-related, he spent time posting on the site and recommends doing the same because new fans can turn up in unlikely places.

Pincus advised bloggers to turn into trustworthy experts in their fields by publishing high-quality content and establishing a reliable online presence. Pincus brought up Lee Wind, whose blog I’m Here, I’m Queer, What the Hell Do I Read, which examines books with LGBTQ themes geared toward young people. Wind often moderates comments for hateful speech and provides a safe space for teens. Since his site is often used as a resource for young adults questioning their sexuality, Pincus also cited him as a blogger who’s succeeded in reaching audiences far beyond fans of children’s literature.

Pincus also advocates blogging about niche topics, rather than just writing about children’s books in general. For example, the popular blog, The Children’s War, also explores historical fiction and nonfiction set during World War II.

Above all, Pincus urged bloggers to share their love of children’s literature with others.

“Bring your love of the world of children’s literature to the rest of the world because they do want to hear it. They just don’t know it yet.”

Held at the at the New York Public Library, the speakers on the “The Changing Relationship Between Reader and Writer” panel discussed how much of their personal lives they share with readers. Moderator Karen Halpenny, vice president of Children’s Media Association, a nonprofit organization dedicated to distributing quality media to kids and young adults, brought up author John Green’s relationship to his audience as an example of the problems that can arise from a strong online presence. Although Green is famous for his enthusiastic interaction with his readers, he includes a page on his Tumblr site in which he urges fans to observe appropriate behavior when contacting him—and asks them not to come to his house or locate his address.

Adele Griffin prefers to maintain a healthy distance from her fans. She talked about her respect for Newbery-winning author and National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, Katherine Paterson, and her approach to meeting fans. While Griffin feels a strong connection with the beloved children’s book author and appreciates her books, she found Paterson much more reserved in person. Similarly, Griffin strives to establish a sense of intimacy with her readers through her written work rather than through real life encounters.

Sheinmel addressed how her fans perceive her, as well as her sense of obligation toward them. Because her upcoming novel, Stone Girl (Knopf, 2012), about a teenager coping with anorexia and bulimia, is based on personal experience, she feels a duty to handle body image issues responsibly when talking to readers. While the advanced reader copy of Stone Girl included a note detailing her own history with these disorders, Sheinmel ultimately decided to remove it, saying that she didn’t want it to affect the way fans viewed either her or her work.

Michael Northrop discussed interactions with adult fans. Because writers usually show a carefully crafted, optimal persona when communicating with fans online, he believes that some fans mistake these positive interactions for real friendship. However, he acknowledged that this response is simply part of being a writer with an online presence.

The authors also described the most effective ways of using social media to connect to fans. Gayle Forman devotes much time and energy into blogging, usually taking an entire day to compose a post. Though she finds blogging time-consuming, she prefers it to Twitter because she enjoys the opportunity to have longer, more drawn out conversations with her readers through the comments section.

While the writers feel that establishing an online identity can be challenging, they all remain committed to their fans.

For more coverage of KidLitCon 2012, please see our article on Critical Reviewing in the Age of Twitter.

Moderator Jen Hubert-Swan, a blogger at ReadingRants and middle school librarian at New York’s Little Red School House, began the conversation by bringing up a recent Slate.com article, “Against Enthusiasm: The Epidemic of Niceness in Online Book Culture, ” which took aim at online book culture for creating an atmosphere in which “retweets, likes, favorites…make any critique stick out sorely” and which has resulted in bloggers who are reluctant to negatively review novels.

Although the panelists agreed that reviewers should honestly critique novels, Betsy Bird, a youth materials specialist at New York Public Library, pointed to a few who would rather limit themselves to writing about titles they enjoyed. Bird, who blogs for SLJ at Fuse #8, says she considers them cheerleaders rather than reviewers. However, Bird cautioned against writing nasty or mean-spirited reviews.

Similarly, Liz Burns, a librarian at New Jersey’s National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped and who blogs for SLJ at A Chair, A Fireplace & a Tea Cozy, advised that a critical review should be supported by quotes or references to the text. She also stated that a reviewer can apply critical analysis to books they appreciate as well as to those they dislike.

Monica Edinger, fourth grade teacher at the Dalton School, a private school in New York, and who blogs at Educating Alice, put the conversation into historical context. She brought up past authors and literary critics, such as E.B. White and Dorothy Parker, who regularly reviewed each other’s work—and often resulted in feuds and arguments. Edinger believes that the world of social media is simply making the relationships between authors and reviewers more public.

Hubert-Swan questioned whether a blogger can have a friendship with a writer and still review their work. Freelance writer Marjorie Ingall, who also writes at her self-titled blog, doesn’t “friend” or follow any authors because her journalism background makes her more sensitive to potential conflicts of interest.

On the other hand, Burns distinguished between knowing an author personally and following them on Twitter, stressing that a relationship based only on social media wouldn’t affect reviews. Above all, she emphasized the importance of transparency and stated that if she’s reviewing a book written by a friend, she always discloses their relationship in the blog-post.

Bird said she often receives responses from authors or editors who take issue with her negative reviews of their work. Similarly, Hubert-Swan talked about her experience writing critical commentary of books on Goodreads. She said she removes her negative comments if contacted by authors because she would rather not start a debate in a public forum.

The panelists concluded that many authors dealing with Internet commentary need more guidance from publishers. Sheila Barry, blogger at Making Books for Children and co-publisher of Groundwood, said that as an editor, she’s often had to reassure authors who were unhappy at receiving negative reviews. As both a blogger and a young adult author, Maureen Johnson finds herself in a unique position. She drew upon her personal experience, stating that confronting the world of online reviews is incredibly daunting for a first-time author. However, she emphasized that authors must refrain from replying to negative responses to their work to ensure that reviewers feel comfortable voicing their opinions.

Picture books: On August 31, Candlewick launched a yearlong video celebration of picture books in honor of their 20th anniversary. Every day for 365 days, as part of the We Believe in Picture Books campaign, Candlewick will offer a video shot by authors, illustrators, staff, and friends, sharing what picture books mean to them, recommending a favorite story, and more. Librarians and teachers are welcome to post these videos on their own websites to share with students. You can also submit your own video to the publisher in which you informally talk about your favorite picture book, what the format means to you, or why it matters.

Pinterest Contest

Win an audio package: Califone International is encouraging educators to follow them on Pinterest and create their own board titled “Classroom AV Wish List,” in order to win tools for their classrooms. To enter the contest, educators have to repin one of four audio packages—portable PA, mobile and ELA learning, library, and clicker—from the Califone Pinterest contest board and then explain how the it will help enrich their classroom. One pin per contestant per week is permitted. Contest rules and submission requirements are featured on the Califone blog. Winners will determined by Califone based on creativity and effective use of audiovisual products. You have until September 24 to enter. Winners will be announced by October 5.

Buy One Get One Free

Ebooks: To celebrate Capstone’s expansion of its Interactive Library interactive ebook program, the publisher is offering customers the opportunity to buy one ebook and get another free. This fall Capstone is expanding its program to include more than 2,000 titles. The program has also improved its technology and is compatible with any PC, Mac, iPad, interactive white board, and any other device with high-speed Internet access. Kids can access Capstone’s interactive ebooks in school, at home, or on any mobile device 24/7. Hurry—this special promotion only runs until November 16. To place an order, customers should use the code “12CILBOGO.”

Careers in Library Service

Career opportunities: The Pratt Institute School of Information and Library Science (SILS) is offering students in their SILS program tuition scholarships and two semester internships at the Brooklyn Museum, the Frick Art Reference Library, and the New York Art Resources Consortium to prepare them for careers in museum libraries and archives. M-LEAD TWO (Museum Library Education and Digitization-Technology, Web, Online) is a three-year project that will give students hands-on experience—they will be able to work with research materials from these museum libraries and be mentored by the museums’ staff. Students will graduate with a master’s degree and an advanced certificate in museum libraries and will also get stipends for participating.

The project is funded by a grant of more than $261,000 from the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) through the 2012 Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program. “With a two-semester internship program and a focus on collection accessibility, the new project furthers our efforts to prepare students for careers as museum librarians and archivist and also advances a new model for museum library education for the 21st century, incorporating digital collections and services across the museum so that graduates are preparing to meet the challenges of museums in our global networked information environment,” noted Tula Giannini, dean of Pratt-SILS and project director.

First, our 28 participants were asked to review three book-sharing sites—GoodReads, LibraryThing, and Shelfari—and vote for their favorite. They ended up choosing GoodReads, which has many strengths, including a strong online presence and an easy-to-use app for smartphones. Then, each class member was asked to create his own GoodReads account. Although I’ve had one for a little over a year, teaching this class really forced me to get to know the site much more thoroughly. I loved browsing through its book reviews, updating the titles I’d read, posting new reviews, and perusing recommendations by other visitors. After one marathon session, I was surprised to see I’d listed 87 books “To-Read.” I love how the app lets me view great selections and find out what my colleagues are reading. GoodReads turns out to be Facebook for booklovers!

In addition to sharing what they were reading on Goodreads, participants were required to blog twice about each title they’d read for the class and share a 250-word review of it. My district generously provides us with Blackboard, and blogging on this site allowed our teachers to see things more from our students’ perspectives, so we could be better bloggers. In fact, several teachers who had never used Blackboard before were so impressed with it that they’re planning to use it with their own classes.

Participants were also required to read education articles on literacy and blog about what they had learned. We also discussed how to get kids excited about reading by using graphic novels, allowing them to choose the books they wanted to read, and how looking at blogs and social-networking sites counts as “reading,” especially for kids who are reluctant readers. Thanks to one of the articles we read, we also had a lively discussion about a sure-fire way to kill the love of reading—by requiring every student in class to read the same novel.

Finally, our participants were asked to answer the question “How are you going to inspire your students and co-workers to read?” This is where my colleagues really inspired me. They talked of actively speaking to students about what they were reading now and what they’d read in the past. A math teacher wrote that he was planning to start a weekly booktalk session so his kids could share what they’ve been reading. One history teacher spoke about including excerpts from nonfiction books in his curriculum, including some from Laura Hillenbrand’s best-selling Unbroken, which he’d read this summer. Another math teacher told us he plans to set up a bulletin board in his class, where his students can post book reviews on 3 x 5 cards. Everyone in our group developed their own individual action plan to promote literacy and they all pledged to be ambassadors of the love of reading in our school. I truly believe that as a team, we can make reading—and talking about reading and writing about it—as popular as Facebook or World of Warcraft.