Technology

Skype, commonly used by librarians and other K–12 educators to provide real-time engagement for their students, just got better. As of today, existing members of Skype in the classroom or new registrants can use Skype’s Group Video Calling free of charge.

"It was purposeful that the IWitness platform was built with media literacy and school standards around digital education right at the center of its architecture."

For newcomers, computer source code can look quite alien. Librarians might be reminded of the first time they saw a MARC record—a mishmash of recognizable words and bits of information embedded in funky punctuation. But it doesn't have to be that way--learning code can help librarians customize and improve the usability of web-based resources and vendor interfaces and improve communication with a library’s IT staff and software vendors.

It may start this way: you’ve just finished the first lunch period, and because of today's snow, there are massive amounts of students in your library—and a surprising number of them are on task. You’re just now welcoming a social studies class that's here to work on a research project and use the laptop cart and many of your book club students are bursting through the door excitedly.

Students are invited to enter the annual National STEM Video Game Challenge, and organizers are hoping school librarians will help mentor and support kids throughout the process.

A couple of summers ago I was invited to visit New Zealand and speak at the SLANZA Conference. I will never forget the warm welcome, the energy, and the passion of the librarians I met in Auckland.  While I was there I toured the National Library of New Zealand and had the pleasure of meeting [...]

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.”

Cool Tools columnist Richard Byrne presents some free options for research that don’t require a login, along with a few quick tips to aid student searches.

Librarians are uniquely positioned to handle the acquisition and management of digital content. But Michelle Luhtala, department chair of the New Canaan (CT) High School Library, sees some troubling trends, reflecting misconceptions about econtent among librarians and administrators alike.