Department Meeting, December 17, 2008

It was great hosting the public librarians today. Their programming initiatives are impressive! I'm looking forward to attending the Global Village celebration on January 25 at 2:00 when there will be a performance by Smith Street students, the high school jazz band, and the ribbon cutting ceremony for the much anticipated new computer center. April is the library's film festival, and we'll be sure to invite our tv studio students to enter their efforts! March and April features a major poetry event which always is greeted with enthusiasm. The public librarians report that our students are active junior Friends of the Library members. Students of all ages take advantage of the varied programs. Book discussion groups and other activities thrive! A new service is tutor.com and Live Librarian, both of which extend library service to users 24/7. Teaching our students the value of being active library users and actually learning about the role of a trustee is a potential collaborative project that will be explored with Nancy Froehlich and Trina Reed. We also discussed the success the summer reading partnership initiative enjoyed, and we look forward to even more participation this summer!

We showed Shelfari, an online site to share suggestions for new books to read.

The librarians were most interested in learning how we use interactive whiteboards in the district, so we had a bit of show and tell. Adele and Gail prepared movies and flipcharts to demonstrate some examples of content and techniques.

We navigated over to searchme, a visual search engine. It's even more versatile than I thought! Check out the homework helper stack. Black History Month is coming in January--check out this stack as well. Kind of reminds me of flowgram--but that robust site is for another day.

Cool site

Have your students select a topic and do a side-by-side comparison of results in Google and Yahoo.
Scroll to the bottom of the page for a geography challenge:

Department Meeting, November 19, 2008

A bold move:

I am no longer going to print the agenda. Please refer to this blog. Minutes will be integrated seamlessly so we will have a record of our discussion and any decisions made.










1.The images to the left and above are brought to you courtesy of Wordle, http://www.wordle.net/.
The first one above simply connects to one of my del.icio.us accounts and arranges the tags I use for my bookmarks. I created the second one by typing words that resonate with me when I consider libraries. This would be a great exercise to do with your students during a brainstorming activity. A bonus is the flexibility to use color and randomize the way the words appear. Have fun, and be sure to share!

2. Good news about SIF--and Follett. The program is working. New student names should automatically populate the fields every 10 seconds or so. Let me know right away if this isn't the case. A new upgrade for Follett has been released, but we are holding off on the download until we're certain that the latest one is working without a hitch. Feedback, please.

3. We are scheduled to meet with the public librarians on Wednesday, December 17. We will meet in the high school library. Thank you to everyone for volunteering to bring refreshments. The public librarians are very interested in seeing how we use the boards, so Gail, Adele and Paulette volunteered to showcase their work.

4. Sharing--Lawrence Road Middle School website. Paula took us on a tour of the Lawrence Road Library website which is a comprehensive, extremely impressive 24/7 learning station.

5. LITE Bytes articles--Let's plan to publish a mid-year newsletter centered around the theme on helping our students succeed. Please volunteer to write an article. Everyone agreed to submit an article by mid-January. I will set up the wiki so you can compose right to the site. If you prefer, e-mail it to me or save it in Library M. Articles so far: eChalk blogging (Dolores), Promethean/video (Gail), ALA standards (Deirdre), collection development (Nancy F.).

6. Database update--Usernames and passwords for Grolier and Book Flix have been received and are available in Library M. Please confirm they are both working properly before I update the username and password lists. Lists will be updated by the beginning of next week.

7. Purchase orders/budget info--Due to the economic crisis, we will not be increasing any of our codes. Anticipate that capital outlay expenses will be placed on hold. You may prepare a wish list of such items, but be prepared to sacrifice them. I again encourage you to prepare your purchase orders for this year and encumber your funds. There currently is a freeze on equipment, furniture, and supplies, except in cases when the items are critically needed for instruction and student use.

8. Collage of Careers--Let's plan to put together our tri-fold boards at our January meeting. Our focus is on resources that support career investigations. Nancy F. is targeting librarianship. Artistic talent and vision will make this extra-special, so start thinking!

9. Websites of Note--Educational Games http://www.ramogames.com/
Library songs http://northside.woodfordschools.org/Media_Center/library_songs.htm
Curriki http://curriki.org/ Since I last told you about this site, it has enjoyed significant enhancements.
AASL Awards http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslawards/aaslawards.cfm Most of these are collaborative in nature. Go for it!
AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslproftools/learningstandards/standards.cfm
Henrico County's Today's Library says it all http://henrico.k12.va.us/hcpstv/vv_library.html
Tech Museum Online http://www.thetech.org/
Teachscape free professional development modules http://www.teachscape.com/html/ts/nps/subscribe_to_our_email_newsletter.html Click on Module of the Month to subscribe, or select from the list for one that interests you.
Write like an Egyptian at the Egyptian Gallery of the University of Pennsylvanie Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology: http://www.fi.edu/learn/tut/index.html
Great ideas for using Google Docs http://www.google.com/educators/p_docs.html

Handouts: In the interest of saving paper, I am limiting what I am copying for you. Wherever possible, I will suggest online links and offer to copy articles for you if you're interested.

Blogging in the Library, Sara Jaffarian School Library Program Award

If you're interested, let me know if you want a copy of "Mysteries of Ancient Egypt" from Multimedia & Internet@Schools (November issue). It includes links to Ancient Egypt clip art: http://www.kingtutone.com/clipart, http://www.phillpmartin.info/clipart/egypt.htm, http://www.webweaver.nu/clipart/egyptian.shtml, http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/index.htm

Stumbling Blocks

Interesting article about filters and web 2.0 tools in schools:
http://www.edutopia.org/web-2.0-tools-filtering-firewalls

Department Meeting, October 22, 2008

1. Follett Destiny—update and issues
The upgrade to 8.5 pushed the defaults onto the program so specific items have to be upgraded. I fixed the default browse subjects capability and removed fines from all patrons. As far as the patrons are concerned, the system did not remove those who are no longer in the district. New patrons were added with grade levels 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. without a 0 appended to the beginning. Students who should not be in the system have a 0 in front of their grade—06, 07, etc. When you have a chance, look at the database and run a list by these grade levels. You can ask your assistants to delete those who should no longer be included. The purpose of this would be to clean up the database; however, it is not an urgent task.

2. Staff Development, November 4, 2008, 8:00-3:00, UHS LibraryTraining with the Promethean boards to create lessons enabling librarians to serve as a turn-key resource for teachers in their buildings. Time will also be devoted to exploring strategies to promote the use of district databases in research and instruction.

3. Budget—Status and Preparations
Proposals for capital expenditures always come first, so be prepared if there are upgrades to your library that you want to put forward.

4. Collage of Careers, May 19, 2009
We agreed that we would put together a display for the department, a K-12 look at resources that support career choices and investigations. Nancy F. is going to work on one that focuses on librarianship.

4, Online Databases update
Take advantage of the Book Flix trial that will be in effect until the middle of December. We hope that our subscription will have been activated by then.

5, Blogs
Dolores demonstrated her just-established Northern Parkway blog that she is going to use with fourth and fifth graders. I will also activate the capability for Lawrence Road and the high school. If anyone else is interested, let me know.

6. NSLS Scope and Sequence Project
We discussed the curriculum developed by Nassau School Library System and whether we should make adjustments to ours based on the work done there. It was felt that ours is more specific and that the standards that drive the NSLS document are the overarching ones that are inherent in ours. It was pointed out that NSLS may have used ours as a jumping off point.

7. I participated in a Bernie Dodge webinar where he discussed developing WebQuests that incorporate Web 2.0 tools. Other webinars that may be of interest to you can be found at the EdTechConnect website: http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/.

Websites of Note:AfterClass http://www.AfterClass.net
San Francisco Symphony www.sfskids.org/templates/home.asp?pageid=1
Modern Museum of Art for Children www.moma.org/destination/#
National Gallery of Art www.nga.gov/kids/zone/zone.htm
Science clips www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/
ALA Standards for the 21st Century Learner http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslproftools/learningstandards/standards.cfm
Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading? http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/books/27reading.html?_r=1&emc=eta1&oref=slogin
Blog worth following: http://disruptingclass.mhprofessional.com/apps/ab/
Lookybook http://www.lookybook.com

Handouts: Election Connections 2008, The Summer Olympics: A Catalyst for Learning About a Healthy Lifestyle, Fun with Windows Movie Maker, The LOC Connection: Hispanic-American/Native American Months, Bibliographies: Smiles and Laughter, Editor’s Choice Awards, Aren’t We All Teachers of Literacy?, Learning About Occupations, ISTE Media Award Application

What Reading Means

What a poignant and true picture of what reading means to a young person--and what we carry with us as we grow up and older. http://citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=16743
Reaching back into my own reading history, I remember reading and re-reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for its fantasy and heroism, without a clue concerning its multi-layered allegorical meanings. What about you? What book moved you as a child?

Follett Destiny 8.5

Mary and I watched a webinar about Destiny 8.5 today. It has features that are enticing, such as the ability to create digital book reviews and upload files to attach to specific Marc records. The webinar is archived at http://www.FollettSoftware.com/Webinars.

Additional info on Destiny Library Manager 8.5 http://www.follettsoftware.comdestiny85/

Additional info on Destiny Quest http://www.FollettSoftware.com/LibraryResourceCenter

What's new in Destiny 8.5 FAQs http://www.follettsoftware.comdestiny85/

Also, if you want to add the 65 free ebooks to your collection (and there are varied and appealing titles included), go to the catalog, Add Titles, and click where you're invited to do so in the middle of the screen. You'll be contacted by Follett once you do so.

Department Meeting, September 17, 2008

It's the middle of the month and the flurry of school starting up again makes me feel we didn't miss a beat. The September issue of School Library Journal helps us get off to a strong start.

Be sure to take advantage of the excitement surrounding this year's Presidential election--the first African American presidential candidate and the first woman on the Republican ticket as a vice presidential nominee. School Library Journal has made our lives easier by publishing a helpful article full of links that will engage students as they research issues, positions and candidates: http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6590042.html. Also, peruse "Getting Out the Vote" http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6590043.html.

Teen Read Week is in October: http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6593562.html

This article about the connection between reading success and public libraries has parallels to school libraries: http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6590044.html.

It's baseball season--and a great time to reflect on the role of African Americans in the greatest American pastime: http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6590039.html.

An inspiring idea for online lesson plan development and sharing: http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6590061.html

A boost to our TLC titles in the form of links to fight bullying: http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6590062.html

Reading blogs is a great way to keep up-to-date and informed. Try these:

School Library Activities Monthly has a blog worth viewing: http://blog.schoollibrarymedia.com/

Another blog for librarians: http://oedb.org/blogs/ilibrarian/

AASL http://www.aasl.ala.org/aaslblog/

Resource Shelf http://www.resourceshelf.com/

There's really way too much here, but for those of you who are insatiable:
http://www.sldirectory.com/libsf/resf/current.html

Here's our agenda with minutes included:

1. Follett issues
Patron upload continues to be problematic. We're hopeful to have this resolved in the next few days. I appreciate your patience. The good news is the SIF agent will make the whole process seamless--and ongoing! The file will be updated every 15 seconds.
Cataloging books
Librarians reported problems with cataloging. One of the problems is that z sources aren't loading; I've reported that to technology. Another problem is that books are arriving without records. I will be in touch with our rep.
Destiny Quest
Consensus was to introduce this new interface after students have a handle on traditional searches.
Free ebooks--To learn more about Follett eBooks and how you can help build a bridge to the classroom, call 1-877-221-3506.
2. Picturing America Grant—http://picturingamerica.neh.gov/
We applied for this grant which comes with a collection of books and posters.
3. Interactive whiteboards—ActivStudio tutorial http://www.prometheanlearning.com/
Sign up to take this tutorial. It is straightforward and helpful. Atomic Learning has tutorials on the board as well.
4. Blogs--eChalk now has a blog feature. I will investigate opening it up for those interested.
5. Summer reading program follow-up--Once you receive names of the participants, make sure to raffle the books. I'd appreciate a photo that you can save to Library M in a folder I set up in Summer Reading for that purpose.
6. Finance Manager/budget information--You can retrieve budget info from your Requisition Manager account. If you have any trouble, let me know.
7. Lesson plans--Please save to your Library M folder, e-mail me, or use the online form.
8. Inservice courses--If you're interested in teaching a class, let me know. Some of the Teachers as Readers sections will have to be combined because of low enrollment.
9. Staff Development--Ideas for November were discussed. a)online databases vs. Google
b)Promethean ActiveStudio I will canvas you further once I have the go-ahead to meet with everyone as a group.
10. Videoconferencing--If you haven't introduced videoconferencing to your buildings, this year would be a good time. Take a look at the BOCES website http://www.nassauboces.org/dln/Videoconferencing/index.htm. Call me for a username and password if you want to look at the catalog. I need to assess whether we should purchase additional modules, so let me know of your interest asap.
11. Websites of note
Resources for school librarians http://www.sldirectory.com/
Go SLMS blog http://goslmsgo.blogspot.com/2008/04/digital-copyright-issues.html
Children’s Picture Book Database http://www.lib.muohio.edu/pictbks/
Eduscapes http://eduscapes.com/

June News

It's hard to believe we safely can say it's the middle of June, but here we are with summer vacation within reach.

A few items of business:

1. Publicize the summer reading program. Post any photographs you take in Library M/Summer Reading/Photos. We would love to be the proud recipient of the grant again next year and a little publicity will help our cause.


2. When your TLC books come, catalog them with the TLC prefix and affix a label to the spine. Add Title I funding to the notes field. Call me so I can come to your school to stamp the books.

3. Databases update: Good-bye to World Book and Tumblebooks for the reasons we discussed. Hello to Scholastic Bookflix (elementary). We kept Grolier Online with New Book of Knowledge, Grolier Multimedia, Lands and Peoples for all schools; New Book of Popular Science and Nueva Enciclopedia for secondary schools. Good-bye to United States at War (high school). We have our own subscription now to TeachingBooks for all levels. Take advantage of it! I think it has great potential. Facts.com doesn't seem to be available but that's being checked.

4. For our annual lunch meeting to be held on Thursday, June 26 at 12:30, we're not going to Laguna Grill. Please re-mark your calendars. Instead, we're going to La Bella Vita, 2485 North Jerusalem Road, East Meadow. RSVP by June 19.


5. Check out LITE Bytes--it's almost done and ready for prime time. I'll be publicizing it in the next few days--as soon as I have the straggler articles :).

6. It's not too late to sign up for Summer Technology Institute classes. There's a lot of room in the morning session of Do You Google? and I hear that's an excellent course.


7. Some of you know that we're moving to Promethean boards and software. You can take a Summer Technology Institute course to familiarize yourself with this program, or you can learn on your own at http://www.prometheanlearning.com/ and register for one of the online courses offered at no charge.

8. A few gems from this month's CIT Response:

Seussville Storymaker
Literacy Center
Kathy Schrock--Shedding Light on Web 2.0--links to several worthwhile Web 2.0 tools
Teacher Tools: Forms and Letters--share with your teachers
Fusion: Training Resources
Make Your Own Comic Strips
iPaper--Display documents as embedded files in your web pages or wikis. You have to see it to know what I mean.

Department Meeting, May 21, 2008

Thank you for meeting with me in this online environment. The


was indeed a huge success, but today I have to play major catch-up. To those of you who helped and contributed, I extend my deep appreciation. You know I couldn't have pulled it off without such a wonderful team! Thank you for all you do.


Items for action, discussion and consideration:


1. Online databases. Please carefully review our subscriptions with an eye to what recommendations you have. Is there anything you would like to add? Elementary librarians, give me your feedback on Bookflix. Is there still interest in adding Grolier's Animals? Secondary librarians--shall we continue Teen Health and Wellness? Add or drop anything? To all--what's your feeling about TeachingBooks? NSLS is not continuing the subscription, so we'd have to do it on our own. Please take advantage of any trials that you believe would be worthwhile. Even if we don't end up subscribing, in most instances the students could benefit from the access until the school year ends. http://www.nassauboces.org/nsls/template.htm


2. Overdue notices. Do your best to collect outstanding materials so they'll be available to our patrons next year.


3. Interactive whiteboard update. We are migrating to Promethean boards and will purchase the software for our existing boards. In the meantime, check out Promethean Planet and set up a free account.


4. Plans for Convocation 2008 are in the works. Tentatively, after the keynote address, teachers will report to their buildings for meetings and set-up activities. There will be only one day of work prior to the opening of school which will cut into our meeting time. We might be able to have our first meeting the following Wednesday, September 10, instead of waiting for the third. I'll keep you posted. Our first staff development day will be on Election Day which leads me to...


5. Staff development needs, 2008-09. What are they? Are there areas you would like to have addressed in our staff development time together? My recommendation would be to work together to become adept at using the new Promethean software. Please chime in with your suggestions. Remember to register for Summer Technology Institute classes if you're interested.


6. Periodicals, 2008-09. Delores is investigating whether the vendor will give us the list in time for your review before summer vacation. If so, please return it before you go.

7. Summer Reading update:

• Flyers are at the printer.
• I am placing a copy in the summer reading folder in Library M in case you want to print and display it with the basket in advance of distribution.
• I have bookmarks that I am sending your way to use however you see fit to encourage participation.
• We'd love to have pictures of the baskets with eager readers. Please take a few and place them in the Library M folder that I'm setting up for that purpose (in Summer Reading).

8. National Geographic books. I have about 20. Let me know if you're interested and I'll divide them up.

9. Character Education titles. We have significantly more money to spend on these books than I originally thought. Any suggestions for a purchase with more of a bite? Does anyone know of a collection of books, an encyclopedia for instance, that might fall into this category? We have $4,500 to spend for all eight schools.

10. LITE Bytes. Thank you to those of you who have contributed. Remember the June 1 deadline is approaching! If you need a memory refresher as to what article you're writing, let me know.

12. I'll be inter-officing some articles to you. In the meantime, this one is available online: "Are Textbooks Becoming Extinct?". Look for these--"Copyright in a Social World", "Summer Excursions", and "Storyboarding".

13. Date for Final Meeting: Thursday, June 26 at 12:30. Shish Kebob? Baci's? Weigh in with your selection--majority rules.

14. Conferences, workshops: I attended a few. Hall Davidson's Leadership Institute. NYSCATE. I'll post a separate entry with items of interest.

Boolify

If you've ever been stumped by teaching Boolean searching, this web 2.0 tool is just for you! Visit http://www.boolify.org/index.php. Interactive whiteboard users especially will love this! Please share!

Department Meeting, April 30, 2008

Thank you to Beverly Wolcott for providing the office space for us to meet.

1. Purchase orders—deadline today!

2. Replacement book monies--

Procedures for collecting lost book monies have been refined to ensure that libraries can apply these funds directly to the replacement of lost books. Please follow the procedures below:

a. Collect money for replacement books. Use the district receipt book to record transaction (to be distributed).
b. Bring money to Business Office. This money will be deposited to a revenue account. Complete form if required.
c. Order replacement books; acquire invoice. You may use any district-approved vendor. Suggestion was made to order books from Follett, but keep this order separate.
d. Business office will write a check for the purchase.
Other suggestions: print two copies of notice from Follett, give student one and keep the other in a binder. Turn in the money a few times a year, at intervals good for your school. If a book is located after the money has been turned into the business office, reimburse student only when more money is available in your library's fund.

3. Summer Reading baskets were distributed. The baskets were assembled beautifully by Kathy Balsamo, and support the summer reading theme of insects. K-1, 2-3, 4-5, 6, 7-8 baskets will be raffled to public library summer reading participants. I will prepare a flyer by June 1.The funds for the purchase of the books were generously provided by Molloy College and a First Books grant.

4. Online databases, 2008-2009 http://www.nassauboces.org/nsls/template.htm
Please review the list and take advantage of free trials. Give me recommendations for any changes by June 1. I attended a session at a recent conference (see earlier post) where Teaching Books was featured. I encourage you to incorporate it into any lesson/unit where the students are exploring a specific author and his/her works.
We also discussed Tumble Books vs. One More Story. One More Story is not available through BOCES, but I'll try to order it for the elementary school libraries for next year.

5. Websites of note: Seeing Reason Tool http://educate.intel.com/en/ThinkingTools/SeeingReason/TryTheTool
ALA Awards http://www.nassauboces.org/nsls/2008ala.htm
Information Literacy http://skil.stanford.edu/intro/research.html
Information Literacy to support reading and writing http://www.hitchams.suffolk.sch.uk/foundation/literacy/index.htm
21st Century Skills http://21stcenturyskills.org Podcasts on 21st century skills http://edcommunity.apple.com/ali/collection.php?collection=492

6. Poetry Café
Thank you for participating. Boards can be dropped off in Beverly Wolcott's office this month.

7. LITE Bytes articles
By June 1, please:
Created Equal Bookshelf Grant Award--Smith Street
Summer Reading--California Avenue
Author/Illustrator and Community Reading Days--Northern Parkway
Dream Poems--Grand Avenue
Reading Book Club--Walnut Street
Webpage updates--Lawrence Road
Summer Technology Institute--Turtle Hook
Book Review Project--UHS
Remember the Children Day--UHS

I will set up a page for each story on the litebytes wiki so you can post your stories directly. Look for it early next week.

8. Book reviews
Students with usernames and passwords can post reviews directly to Destiny. These will need your approval before they go "live". The username is the student's student number (found on SASI). We're working on seeing if their SASI password can be imported.

Handouts: "You’re Not Bilingual, So What?", "Culturally Speaking: English Language Learners", "Old School Meet Library 2.0", "Teaching Effective and Inspiring Engaged Readers in the Library Media Center", "A Few New Things"

Blogging for You

I attended a NASTech meeting yesterday in the library at Westbury High School. They have a room adjacent to the library with several computers, but the library itself only had a few locked down laptops for their OPAC stations. The school has implemented a very successful COW program that extends to the use of laptops in the libraries.

I was most interested in the presentation given by an elementary bilingual teacher about blogging in her second grade classroom. She chose this venue because it simulated journal writing and she believed she was helping to create an online community of readers and writers. Sure enough, connections were made with a school in New Zealand, and the students are now enthusiastic writers! She recomends using David Warlick's blogmeister because it's made for the classroom, but also check out 21 classes.

Avatars, anyone? Check out Voki and take your pick.

Computers in Libraries 2

I was too ambitious to think that I would be able to share everything in one posting.

Highlights from other workshops:

Screencasting
The presenter for this workshop simply pressed "play" and walked away from the podium while the flash movie ran on the screen, introducing us to the concept of creating flash movies for tutorial purposes. He mentioned programs like Jing, with which we're familiar, as well as Camtasia (for a fee) and meebo. The advice he gave is to keep the screencasts short, and to find a good hosting service. He suggested blip.tv, YouTube (well, Teacher Tube would be better for us), freescreencast.com, screencastomatic. The entire presentation is available at http://screencasting.pbwiki.com.

Bookmapping
This presentation explored the use of interactive map technology to bring a geographical perspective to books. Sites that help make this possible include Google Earth, http://gutenkarte.org/, and Google Lit Trips.

Second Life
I'm still not convinced of the worth of creating a second life for libraries--don't we have enough to do with our first one!!!--but there are avid followers who create virtual worlds for all kinds of functions, including answering questions via an avatar at a reference desk. Visit http://secondlife.com and see what you think.

Teaching Books
I had a fresh look at this program and I have to confess I was much more impressed with it than I've been in the past. We still have access through Nassau BOCES. I recommend you take a look the next time you introduce a new author. There's a lot of highly usable, quality and original material that you could use.

Fish4Info is an example of an open source catalog. It's a great solution for libraries who have yet to automate. I definitely liked the "Amazon" feel to it which makes it intuitive for the novice.

Are you interested in a global project? Check out http://primarysource.org/.

I attended a workshop, Gaming Your Library, that emphasized Johnny Chung Lee's position that students have an organic information need that relates to their own lives. Students need someone to meet them where they are to take them where they need to go. Hence the idea of applying gaming strategies to the learning environment. Recommended title: Marc Prensky's Don't Bother Me, Mom, I'm Learning. I'm putting it on our next order.

Loved what I saw from the Cleveland Museum of Art's videoconferencing presentation. One was featured that combined art and wellness through a study of self-portraits. The question was asked: What do artists reveal? Lots of food for thought. Definitely check it out.

The librarian from the Frank Sinatra Performing Arts High School showed us how she had the students use a variety of online programs to create pathfinders on various topics. The collaborated in Google docs, shared and discussed on Wikispaces as they reflected on their sources through a Read/Write/Think 3-2-1 strategy: What did you discover? What did you find interesting? What is one question you still have? Peer editors completed a reflection: I read...I noticed...I wondered...The final rubric asked the students to contribute what they could teach others, what they still need to learn, what they need to get better at, and what they would like to see done differently.

At the copyright workshop, I was reminded of the "poor man's copyright" strategy. Mail your original work in a sealed envelope to yourself. Don't open it. If you want to do some reading on the subject, there's actually a graphic book called Bound by Law. With so much original work being posted online, it is incumbent upon the "poster" to make sure he or she has permission.

Computers in Libraries:

The Computers in Libraries Conference with its corollary, Internet@Schools East in Washington, D.C. is in its 23rd year. Planned to coordinate with the marvel of cherry blossoms in bloom, this conference offered resources and ideas for us to implement with our home libraries. Some of the time, I have to confess, I proudly noted: we already do that in Uniondale! And we've gone even further down that particular path! Other times I was furiously taking notes, capturing as much as I could to bring back to all of you.

I'm going to share with you some of my favorite newly discovered gems, together with the name of the workshop I attended. Hope you find this useful!

RSS@Schools

Steven Cohen is a law librarian in Huntington who probably has the marketshare on RSS feeds. He has a daunting 900 or so and must have given up any semblance of a life to read even a little bit of each. In any case, why RSS? I know we've talked about the reasons to let RSS into our library lives--the ability to bring all our best-loved sites into one place precludes the annoyance of having to search for them--and remembering to do so! As librarians, posting feeds on our websites for students and teachers could be particularly helpful.

A few familiar and new gems, in no particular order:

For gathering your feeds--Google Reader http://reader.google.com/

Search library feeds--http://www.libworm.com/

Open archive for library and information science--E-Lis http://eprints.rclis.org/

Track bills, issues, members in Congress--Open Congress http://www.opencongress.org/

Voters database in Congress http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/

Monitor changes to webpages http://watchthatpage.com/

Create feed for a webpage http://page2rss.com/

Highlight quote on page and go directly to that passage--very cool and worth a try! CiteBite http://www.citebite.com/ I created an example for you here: http://pages.citebite.com/q4u0q6q1ewsx

A lot of databases have rss feeds, most notably EBSCO. Check them out.

Steven Cohen has a lot to say on his librarystuff.net blog.

Professional Journals

As you know, one of my addictions is to professional journals where I am amazed by the gems of helpful hints, resources, and plain old good ideas that are shared. The April/May edition of LMC (Library Media Collection) is full of articles that 1) spur thinking or 2) confirm that we are on the right track. At our next meeting, I'll share some with you. Of special mention is Joyce Valenza's "A Few New Things" (not to us--we're doing so much!) and "'Old School Meet' School Library 2.0: Bump Your Media Program Into an Innovative Model for Teaching and Learning". Classroom Connect's April issue includes great ideas for livening up literature lessons and an assortment of other tips and treasures. It's available online at http://connectednewsletter.metapress.com/content/111m23380v2utvxu/fulltext.pdf.

I might have shared the article, "The Power of RSS" from Multimedia & Internet@Schools (January/February 2008) with you already. It's an easy-to-understand overview of RSS feeds and their use in the library setting. You have to set up an account to view it: http://www.mmischools.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=13387. I was especially intrigued by the idea of beginning a research dialogue with a student and setting him or her up with a mechanism to receive additional articles and resources as they become available.

March Department Meeting

At our meeting today, we discussed:

1. any questions and concerns that have arisen since we began to use Requisition Manager
   Consensus--program working well, allows us to keep track of expenditures.
   Concern expressed about time needed to use program. Expectation this will ease with increased familiarity. Anyone with problems should speak to me.
2. Poetry Cafe (indicate your plan at http://turtlehook.poetrycafe.sgizmo.com/) If you need any inspiration, check out Nikki Giovanni's poem in the March issue of American Libraries (copies distributed): "a Library is: a place to be free/to be in space/ to be in cave times..."
   I would like every library to have a presence. So far, there are wonderful ideas coming forward.
3. Lost books
   We brainstormed about how to handle lost books and lost book monies. Pending discussion with the business office, our procedure for student replacement of lost books will be:
   a. encourage the student to locate and return lost book
   b. ask the student to bring in a new copy of the same book
   c. accept an alternate book--a new paperback for a lost paperback book and new hardcover for a lost hardcover book
   d. The last choice will be payment for the book with cash. Receipts and records of transactions will be kept. All monies will be turned into each building's main office in January and June.
   Follow-up question for business office: Will each school have a bookkeeper? When monies are turned in, is it possible to allocate them for replacement library books?
4. Summer Reading
   Thanks to a donation that allowed us to puchase books from Borders, we're preparing baskets to be raffled in the fall to summer reading participants. The baskets are built around the theme of insects in keeping with the summer reading program theme for students in grades k-2, 3-5, as well as for middle school students. Totals: 5 k-1 baskets, 5 2-3 baskets, 5 4-5 baskets, 4 6 baskets, 8 7-8 baskets
5. New professional books
   Librarians perused and borrowed new books from our professional collection. A complete list can be found at http://workbench.wikispaces.com/Professional+Books.
6. National Geographic books were distributed for each library.
7. TLC collection-- title recommendations
   Please give me recommendations for additions to our TLC collections by April 16.
8. Remaining monies
   Now is the time to close out our accounts. Please spend your remaining monies by the time we break for vacation.
9. National Geographic books were distributed.

As much as possible, I'll include links to articles rather than distribute hard copies.

Articles and websites of note:

"Meet Your New School Library Media Specialist"

"Top Shelf Fiction for Middle School Readers"

"A Cyber Six-Pack for Educators"

"Addressing Adolescent Literacy"

A Gathering of Readers: An online celebration of indigenous chldren's reading and culture.

We have a new subscription to Information Searcher, a new newsletter put together by Pam Berger. If you're interested I have the most recent issue. The lead article is "Web 2.0 Strategies for Searching". There are also articles on world history resources, blogging in English language arts and election links for young people.

Connected Newsletter's February edition has as its main theme digital photography in the classroom.

Distributed: Nikki Giovanni's poem, "Storytelling in the Web 2.0 Era", "A Vision for Classroom Blogging"

Teaching and Learning Celebration

Channel 13 did it again! I had heard about this wonderful conference, but this was the first year I was able to attend, thanks to Pearline Everett's good fortune to win two free passes and her kind generosity in responding to my strong-arming tactics by agreeing to allow me to have one of them. Thanks, Pearline!

I started the day with Will Richardson. Many of you are familiar with his work on blogs and wikis (TCHRS 371.33 RIC: UHS Library). Apparently he is also a wikispaces devotee. You can visit the site he created for the conference at http://willrichardson.wikispaces.com/. He believes that the ability--and prevalence--of publishing to the web is the single most transformative happening that has emerged from the technology revolution. The capability for all of us, most notably our students, to be participatory journalists is a heady and empowering change. Take a moment to visit his wiki and consider his timely message about connections.

Speaking of connections, one of the amazing things I learned at this conference is how the learning truly doesn't end because of the opportunities literally at our fingertips! Did you know that many universities now have free open courseware? For example, you can take a course of your dreams at MIT, Tufts, U. C. Berkeley and many other institutions here and across the globe.

On that note, Tim Magner, Director of the U. S. Department of Education, explored 21st educational trends and how learning is now location-independent. He introduced us to GELC (Global Education Learning Community) where educators can start or join projects and take advantage of resources. We were challenged to consider that while everything in our world has changed so markedly, why are schools still the same? As educators, we have to create our own transformational toolkit, work with our communities to prepare our students for the world that awaits them. This world features, in a very short list, collaboration, "loose" boundaries, the accessibility of information over a variety of platforms, and connectivity in more ways to more people than ever before possible or imagined.

I had a chance to stop by the Apple workshop on podcasting which also supported the concept and recurring theme of the celebration to create work for a global audience. We can facilitate this by giving our students a voice and the tools they need to make themselves heard. Myriad resources are available on the iPoddess site. Click on resources. (Reminder: the workbench wiki has extensive links to help you get started with podcasting.)

When Jane Goodall walked to the podium for the keynote address, the standing ovation she received was heartfelt and admiring of her lifetime devotion to her passionate interests. Her talk glossed over the work she has done up to now to focus on Roots and Shoots, a program that engages and inspires young people through global community service. She left us with this thought to ponder: "While we all need money to live, we don't need to live for money." She certainly has modeled her life after this mantra.

All this caused me to reflect (surprise :)) on what role librarians play in this evolution/revolution, and what should we be doing in Uniondale to ensure our students leave us, minimally, with the comfort level needed to navigate the new information landscape and, hopefully and with great effort, with the expertise in hand to ask the right questions and discover appropriate resources to lend clarity to whatever bewilders them. Certainly we can line our shelves with books to pique their curiosity and interest, to entertain and delight, but we are also uniquely positioned to infuse student learning with the skills necessary to be informationally literate in the broadest sense, to put into practice what David Warlick emphasized when he spoke of knowledge integration.

Summer Reading

By popular demand, we once again will raffle new book baskets to elementary and middle school students who document their participation in the public library summer reading program. This year's theme is "Catch the Reading Bug" and "Metamorphosis". Visit http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/libdev/summer/ for additional information.

Please share your ideas for titles and non-book items that we should include in these baskets. Let me know if you have any books left from last year so I can plan purchases.

Requisition Manager

Thanks to Jo-Ann Becker for her thorough presentation that taught us how to enter requisitions the 21st century way! From this point forward, librarians will enter their requisitions using the program. Let me know when one is pending, and I will review it for approval.

A few items to remember for long lists so you don't have to include every item in the description box:

1. For a long list of items such as a Follett book order, indicate in the description that the list will be submitted separately.

2. Indicate what the list will include--i.e. books, supplies, etc.

3. For those of you who order online, write "Open Purchase Order for titles to be submitted online". (This only holds true for book vendors who notoriously don't/can't fill an entire order, thereby allowing you to submit additional titles later).

4. After you complete the requisition and it is approved, there is a quick turn-around to convert it to a purchase order. The actual p.o. will be sent to your school's main office. All you need to do is check Requisition Manager, locate the purchase order number, and write it on each of the five copies of your list that you will be sending to the purchasing dept.

5. Whenever you are submitting a separate list of items to purchasing, make an additional copy for me and inter-office it.

If a vendor you would like to use is not on the list, you'll have to complete a special form. You can find it in Library M in a folder called Requisitions. Also in this folder is a set of instructions prepared by Barbara Spiritus.

Questions? Call me.

Library Department Meeting, Feb. 27, 2008

Thanks to Paula Trapani's inspiring blog (http://lrmslibrary.blogspot.com), I am experimenting with this one to see if a blog could be used as our vehicle to share department meeting agendas and minutes. Please excuse its sparse nature as it is definitely under construction!

At our library department meeting on February 27 in the high school library, we will stray from usual business to be trained in Requisition Manager. Using this program will enable librarians to manage and input their own purchase orders that then will be routed to me for approval. We will meet at 2:00. Time permitting, we will address procedures for dealing with lost books, plans for our summer reading program (an exciting development--stay tuned!) and the Poetry Cafe. If there are topics you would like us to cover, please either e-mail me or add a comment to this blog.

Of interest: Teen Tech Week is March 2-8. Visit http://www.ala.org/teentechweek for ideas and resources.

You might want to consider signing up for one of the new inservice courses scheduled to begin in March! Do You Google?, The World of Wikis and Other Web 2.0 Tools, and Interactive Whiteboards at Work soon will be listed on My Learning Plan. Take advantage of these opportunities to become expert techno-magicians! (Speaking of Web 2.0, check out WikiMatrix for an unbelievable array of choices and possibilities).

Our monthly a list of Websites of Note listing is included here for your convenience. As always, at our meeting I will distribute articles that are not available online. Look for one on digital storytelling (I know that many of you are putting into action what we learned on Staff Development Day!) and one on classrooom blogging.

I also wanted to point out to you that I've purchased several professional books that may be of interest to you. Highlighted book titles are below: