Technology

Maryland’s Howard County Library System, 2013 Gale/LJ Library of the Year, will use the $276,500 grant it has received from the Institute of Library & Museum Services (IMLS) to expand its HiTech program. The program is a STEM education initiative for teens that provides project-based classes in such skill areas as computer programming, 3-D animation, green energy, nanotechnology, music/video production, ebooks, game app design, cybersecurity, and robotics.

Though the U.S. is still trying to push students to absorb more science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects, the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL—aka Rocket City—has been steering hopeful scientists for decades, since opening the doors to Space Camp in 1982. Space Camp is a STEM education fantasy world, in which kids in attendance experience days of STEM learning wrapped into intensive space exploration and rocketry know-how.

Curious about STEAM? Check out School Library Journal's Pinterest board, curated by children’s librarian Amy Koester, author of our October 2013 cover story, “Full STEAM Ahead: Injecting Art and Creativity into STEM.”

Although the U.S. federal shutdown means many important government websites—such as those for the Library of Congress and NASA—have gone completely dark this week, the nonprofit Internet Archive is making those sites available to the public through archived captures, the organization has announced on its blog.

EBSCO Information Services has announced that it is making the government database ERIC, the Education Resource Information Center, freely available during the government shutdown. Since the government site for ERIC is unavailable during the shutdown, EBSCO will temporarily open its version of ERIC for free access online.

School librarian leaders from across the country made their way to the Austin, TX, aka the “Live Music Capital of the World,” on September 28–29 to attend SLJ’s annual Leadership Summit, where they discussed the future of libraries and how partnership is a necessary ingredient for stakeholder success. Throughout the weekend, participants—speakers, sponsors, panelists, and attendees—honed their conversations around the transformative power of collaboration.

Impassioned, creative, dynamic, evolving and cool—these are just some of the words that the sponsors of SLJ’s annual Leadership Summit used to describe their companies’ latest developments. Joyce Valenza, SLJ blogger and teacher librarian, lead a panel discussion with the companies to examine the relationships between vendors and schools, the importance of strong content, and the ways that vendors can help educators in support of the Common Core.

Technology makes everything simpler and more efficient, right? Maybe not always, but with teachers' class sizes increasing, we're all looking for tools to help manage their work load. Teacher librarian Phil Goerner shares info about a free Chrome extension that has been useful at his school. Kaizena allows teachers to grade student work and provide audio feedback, comments, or even a URL link right on their shared Google Doc.

From educational equity and fan fiction to Kanye West and serious games, educator Antero Garcia brought it all together in a rousing keynote, inspiring attendees of the September 28-29 School Library Journal Summit in Austin, TX. The complete presentation is viewable here, along with additional comments from Garcia and related resources on participatory culture.