Giveaway of the day

Posted on November 29, 2007 by Judy O'Connell

Thanks to the Edublog awards and the worldwide ‘cross-posting’ about this event, I have discovered a great new-to-me blog and a great new-to-me blog-based advertising initiative – with benefits for us all.

Reid Kerr College Library ….is much more than just books… online journals, ebooks, websites…video, sound, did I mention e-books? …..doing the searching so you don’t have to!!! A great site making use of Joomla (I will have to look into this!) and lots of social-networking tools. I’m always on the look-out for exciting libraries like this one! Many tools in action – blogging, wiki, delicious, LibraryThing and more. Check out their NewsBlast provided via Pageflakes.

I love the audacity of the e-mission for NewsBlast information services:

All I am trying to do here is draw together many strands of what should be interesting information (we are educationalists, after all) in one easily accessible website which consists of a mere 4 pages. If you don’t think this is useful, fair enough! Build your own.
It’s called Current Awareness. Try it sometime.

See what I mean? Great work from Reid Kerr College Library!

I discovered them via their blog arKIve where they ‘ain’t too proud to blog’.

I discovered one of their new-to-me resources, Giveaway of the Day. What a great way for software publishers to distribute great software in a new, and what’s also important, legal way! New software featured each day – and available for download for 24 hours – I have downloaded the current offering!

Now and then you will find great things to use for your yourself, your school or your library!

For now I have added a widget to the sidebar here because it highlights the current Giveaway of the Day. You can also add this service to your RSS feeds, and be ready to grab a bargain whenever you spot one that’s interesting for yourself.

Book hacks for the library crowd

Posted on November 13, 2007 by Judy O'Connell

This is one that I have been meaning to post about for absolutely ages….thank goodness I was not quick and efficient this time 🙂

Thanks to Paul Reid who took the trouble to email me the link to Hack Attack: 13 Book Hacks for the Library Crowd.

Covers all the obvious things like integrating your public library catalogue into your own computer; online booksellers; notifications for overdue books; building bibliographies; book downloads etc; as well as cheeky things like an ‘invisible bookshelf’!

So my delay in writing gives you the benefit of the additional information included in the comments. Perhaps you have other recommendations to add to the Book Hacks collation to keep this useful compilation alive.

Photo: FlickrCC

The Connected Library – get one now!

Posted on November 9, 2007 by Judy O'Connell

Earlier this week, our network of teacher librarians were able to spend the day with one of Australia’s leading school library practitioners. Fabulous Suzette Boyd from Scotch College has been an inspiration to many of us during our careers, keeping us grounded on quality services, imaginative enterprises, exciting initiatives, and most important of all – customer focused!

Yes, the kids are what it is all about, and Suzette certainly knows how to manage a school library to achieve the best.

As Victor explained

Suzette was indeed different. I would have liked to have spent an entire day listening to her recount many of the things which she has tried over the years – her ideas are innovative, creative and above all real-world.

During the course of our day we looked at Suzette’s key points:

building connections and trust with students
communicating with and enlisting the support of all users
being positive, upbeat and enthusiastic
marketing and promoting the library through an extraordinary array of ideas and activities
influencing the Principal
becoming the cultural and educational hub of the school.

The best news of all is that Suzette’s inspiration is no longer a secret. She is sharing her vision with us all through her book The Connected Library: A handbook for engaging users.

John Marsden says

The Connected Library is a flight manual for librarians

Marita Thomson says

Slim enough to be manageable in these days of information overload, I found this book affirmed many of my current practices but more importantly inspired me to reach a bit further. There are first all those things I always meant to do but didn’t quite get to and then the more difficult area of taking a few risks. I think what is obvious or correct or a risk will vary from one library to another, but Suzette’s book is an excellent place to find your next project.

In recent times librarians in schools have come to be considered technology experts, curriculum leaders, literature gurus, web masters and providers of on-line information and professional development. They are also expected to be human dynamos, with energy to burn, to have a huge capacity to absorb new information, to have the imagination to deliver exciting new programs, whilst at the same time having the ability to maintain an efficient and relevant library service.

Suzette Boyd believes this is probably still not enough and that the level of engagement with users is the real measure of success!

This book is good reading and very manageable. Go on, order it today, or borrow a copy. Your local public library will probably buy it if you ask.

Transformation Lab – Library 2.0 prototype!

Posted on November 4, 2007 by Judy O'Connell

This is old now (in a Web 2.0 world 6 months is old!) but this video about the The Transformation Lab, funded by The Danish National Library Authority and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (and The Main Library in Aarhus), is well worth watching to provoke discussion about future ideas and options for libraries.

Comments added to the YouTube video:

“There will be books in the physical library of the future – but I think they will be connected to digital material. In this way they can be enriched with relevant digital information that will be exposed, when the book gets near a mobile phone, interactive table or an info coloumn as in the video”.

“In another project at the Main Library in Aarhus – The Children’s Interactive Library – they made som prototypes showing how books can be tagged with digital information using RFID-chips”.

“One of the prototypes was a Bib Phone – A “phone” that allows you to talk to books and hear what other people have told them! This is a new, funny and different way of reviewing, commenting or even hiding secret messages in books. The messages are inherited in the particular book allowing the next person access to hear it”.

“Actually there were books in the labs. One of the ideas was to bring various types of media in closer contact with each other – combining words, images and sound – increases the user’s qualitative experience of the media. The Literature Lab presented successive literary topics. In connection with each topic – such as poetry — all types of media related to the topic were brought together and combined to increase the user’s qualitative experience and sense of coherence in the library”.

Information [R]evolution

Posted on October 18, 2007 by Judy O'Connell

This (rather fuzzy) video explores the changes in the way we find, store, create, critique, and share information. This video was created as a conversation starter, and works especially well when brainstorming with people about the near future and the skills needed in order to harness, evaluate, and create information effectively.

Excellent companion piece to the Machine is Us/ing Us.

Here’s one mighty mini-library on Facebook

Posted on September 25, 2007 by Judy O'Connell

GerryMcKiernan reports on the mini-library application for the social networking site Facebook – which makes me very envious!

Named Mini Library it is now available for searching The European Library, an online portal to major European OPACs.

The portal allows users to search through the resources of 30 of the 47 national libraries involved in The European Library. Currently The European Library gives access to 150 million entries across Europe.

I WANT one of these for Australia!

In 2017 libraries will be….

Posted on September 19, 2007 by Judy O'Connell

Oohhh, schools too please!

From the 2007 LIANZA (National Library of New Zealand) Conference.

Photo credit: Timothy Greig

Back to the future! with Library SKILLS

Posted on July 22, 2007 by Judy O'Connell

Many of us are all to familiar with the ‘shoestring’ approach to school library resourcing. What is even worse is the lack of understanding of the purpose and role of a school library, and the work of a teacher librarian. Actually, I think some teacher librarians (library media specialists/librarians) also need a wake up call – but that’s a whole different story.

However, there is no doubt, based on research, that schools should have qualified staff and appropriate resources. The Ofsted Report (UK) “Good School Libraries: Making a Difference to Learning” identifies factors that make good primary and secondary libraries. There are many school library impact studies, the most well-known being the Colorado Studies. Keep an eye out for one more Colorado Study, the third in a series of studies by the Library Research Service (LRS), which proves that school libraries have a direct link to student achievement. For more links, go to School Libraries make a difference to student learning on the IASL website.

How better to embrace 21st century learning than with a fabulous library centre and learning space that supports literacy, research, creativity, and multimodal/multimedia approaches to learning

Study after study proves that students in schools with well-stocked libraries and highly qualified, state-certified school librarians learn more………Today, only 60 percent of school libraries have full-time, state-certified school library media specialists on staff. With limited resources, school administrators are struggling to stretch dollars, and library resource budgets are increasingly being used to make up for shortfalls in other areas.

A press release from the American Library Association tells us that the US government is taking the research findings seriously.

Seems they are going Back to the Future – strengthening libraries again.

Legislation introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate last month is an essential step forward in ensuring that students across America have the library resources and support they need for a Twenty-First Century education.

[Hello? is anyone else listening?]

The Strengthening Kids’ Interest in Learning and Libraries or SKILLs Act guarantees that students across America will be served by highly qualified, state-certified school library media specialists and will have the library resources they need to succeed.

The SKILLs Act ensures that library funds will be available to serve students in elementary, middle and high schools throughout the nation; that appropriate books and materials will be available for students at all grade levels, including those with special learning needs and those learning English as a second language; and that highly qualified school library media specialists will be available to assist and support all students with their learning needs.

[what should we do to promote similar clear commitments in our own school, town, state or country?]

Citation:

“Legislation Introduced to Ensure Essential Library Resources, Support for 21st Century Education.” American Library Association. 2007.
http://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleases2007/june2007/skillsactpr.htm (Accessed 22 Jul, 2007)

Daily fix – to find your good reading!

Posted on July 22, 2007 by Judy O'Connell

Drawing on a huge collection of book reveiws from around the world, the Critical Compendium represents a great mashup – and a nice idea to emulate for your library! or just use it as it is 🙂

Very Library 2.0!