….. or so Librarian Chick insists. You might like to drop over to the Librarian Chick wiki – where you will find a big compilation of all kinds of resources.
I am particularly interested in the Books and Audio Books section, because many of our school libraries are looking for good ways of integrating digital and audio book resources.
The NSW (Australia) Department of Education and Training provides an information-packed portal on School Libraries and Information Literacy for teacher-librarians, principals, school assistants, and those interested in collaborative teaching and school libraries supporting ICT and literacy.
They have reviewed the ‘look’ of the Information Process Summary – and the full document will be re-published soon. You may like to pick up ideas from this site from time to time.
We can play hide and seek as much as we like – but we can’t hide from the real issues of equity and access for long. So of course, that friendly travelling Scot, John Connell, who sees so much of the diversity of opportunity, raised a very important point about access to information, literature and cultural repositories in his post World Library 2.0?
My work with the International Association of School Librarianship has brought me close to this type of problem – albeit not actually personally, but through our work in the organisation supporting libraries the world over. How different is a school library that is actually carried around on the back of a donkey, and then displayed with genuine excitement for all, by putting the books into pockets hanging off a long rope strung between two trees.?
Sadly I was not able to re-nominate for my Executive position, as the cost of attending the international conference was beyond my personal budget this year. The conference will be in Taipei, Taiwan 16-20 July on the theme Cyberspace, D-World, E-Learning:Giving Libraries and Schools the Cutting Edge.
I have spent many years working closely with IASL, and want to acknowlege the encouragement I have received from my school Principals since the late 90s in supporting my involvement with IASL, as the work brought me in touch with the joys and hardships of students and teachers around the world, as well as keeping me abeast of the trends and developments in international librarianship.
I’ve met lots of special people along the way. Gosh, how else would I have been able to have dinner with Stephen Heppell, or lunch with Ross Todd? How else would I have learned how to make a book resource out of single piece of paper, or got a set of decorative reindeer bells from Iceland? The opportunities to develop my own learning, or to be engaged in research and learning of others (e.g.on the editorial board of School Libraries Worldwide) have been pretty good. I finish my active involvement with IASL in July and wish the incoming Vice-President good luck and happy learning 🙂
But I digress……… Back to equity and access. I’m not sure that the ‘googlification’ of the world is the answer, but I do agree that digital solutions will help … so long as there is access, and the opportunity to print, view, or store resources.
The whole thing is a bit loopy really, and solutions hinge on a
world that is ‘free and accessible’ – another take on ‘Web 2.0 as platform’.
So some other observations I want to share:
You’ve got to see it to learn it! is a great post from the Infinite Thinking Machine about using digital cameras and Picassa (one of my favourite tools). I regularly recommend free tools to teachers – and wonder why more isn’t being done to promote the diversity and flexibility possible by using tools like these. You can download Picasa for free for Windows and now for Linux. Mac users can use iPhoto in place of Picasa. Google even provides a plug-in for iPhoto that allows Mac users to take advantage of the popular Picasa Web Albums feature to share their photos on line for free. This is a great way to share images of student work, presentations, or field trips with parents using public or private online albums (with permission of course).
My recent visit back to BookYards:Library to the World shows me that there is much more on offer, and that the site is expanding all the time. I suggest you take a look, as it is shaping up as an interesting source for e-books, education links, informatiopn
However, what intrigued me more was the recent post from the Bookyards blog, about Free Books. Did you know that:
…….. there are dozens of websites in Eastern Europe that freely offer tens of thousands of recently published books by popular Western writers in Word, PDF, and/or any other format that a reader may want to browse through. Greylib has been online since 2003. They are a Russian blog that discusses recently published works. But while the site is in Russian, it is easy to locate, browse, and download the hundreds of popular English books (670 at present count) that are in their library. This is done by going to their listing of available English books for downloading….. and selecting your choice of authors from the bottom of the page.
Yes, it is that whole issue of access – and the burning matter of copyright or Creative Commons licencing. It’s so easy to be liberal!
Like the great picture above! I know that it is listed as not being free to copy – but the tehcnology lets me anyway. I’ve often hear people say that it doesn’t matter. I wonder what you think? For me it is about what you claim you do, create or produce yourself – plus I can’t help trying to follow the law.
So I used this photo to make the point that I can beg, borrow or steal if I want to – as many people do. As the image was created by dads on a flickr-hunt, I am hoping that they understand the point I am making – and that I am not out to seek credit or profit from their great little flick. But then I also wonder how many people realise that the default setting on Flickr is for all rights reserved. Would more people share if they knew how?
Photo credit to A Knight who says Ni
It was a lovely autumn day today and a good day to enjoy before the winter doldrums set it. I was very happy to spend time again with my friends who teach in Christian Schools – an hour and a half talking about creativity and learning in a Web 2.0 World.
Welcome to Heyjude 🙂
As promised, here is the presentation – ready for your homework!
We are not alone – not really! The global reach of ideas and subsequent inspiration we can draw from each other is just great! …….. and then the opportunity to share, and be willing to share, is the inspiration of Web 2.0…… communication, conversation, connection, community.
My recent trip to NewZealand gave me a wonderful opportunity to listen and learn from academic, public and school librarians – all involved in education and preservation and promotion of culture. We all have our own challenges – but it is not surprising when these challenges sound the same “across the ditch” – their expression, not mine 🙂
I had a wonderful visit to Broadgreen Intermediate – their school library is a design inspiration, which houses NewZealand art (on loan from museums), and reflects design and innovation throughout. I wrote more about this here.
Enjoy the snaps of this wonderful library. 
I was able to talk about the inspiration of global leaders in libraries. My slideshare is a cut-down version of the presentation, which provides the key links to online sites and videos used. There is a slide that features Michael Stephens, a favourite amongst New Zealand blog readers. It’s a great snap of Michael’s online identity!
Links used in the Web 2.0 workshops I ran for Web 2.0 newbies can be found at Workshop Time!
Congratulations to my New Zealand colleagues.
Lots of discussion in the blogosphere about the merits or hype associated with Web 2.0. Two particular posts challenge readers to slow down….
Bryan Appelyard writes in the Australian IT with a cautionary view of Web 2.0, suggesting that ultimately Web 2.0 will only be good for us if, somehow, it succeeds in evolving towards an identity-based discourse. All else is mere anarchy.
In the AASL blog heated debated, inspired by Twitter reflections, also indicates that people are in Web 2.0 overload. The pressure is on, particularly with our current API driven expansion of Web applications – as seen at the Museum of Modern betas! or that fascinating Web2.0 Directory.
Never mind.
From that most esteemed institution of American Librianship – the Library of Congress – we now have the Library of Congress Blog, launched today. The very first post links right into the idea of change, change, change – at the heart of Web 2.0.
How did I find out about this? Through Steven Cohen on Twitter of course 🙂
What hath God wrought? The blog leads right into the topic with….
Those were the first words ever transmitted electronically, in 1844, by Samuel Morse. That message and Morse’s invention of the telegraph marked what was undeniably, at the time, the most significant communications revolution since the advent of movable type.
Technorati Tags: hz07, Library of Congress, LC, ICT, technology, library, libraries, antrhopology
From Twitter this afternoon, via Stephen Cohen, from Jeff Scott, and on Library2.0. at Ning:::: too amazing for words!
I did it! I was able to take all of the library’s notifications and put them into twitter.
I set up our twitter account at http://twitter.com/cglibrary
Then I dumped all of the library’s rss feeds into http://www.rss2twitter.com
Now everytime the library has an update, a library event, a new book or video, or new newsletter, it goes automatically to twitter. If the content is too long for the message, it automatically creates a tiny url.
Technorati Tags: hz07, twitter, RSS, communication
While attending the professional seminar at the State Library of NSW, I was not only busy with my presentation and workshop – I was also there to receive an award for
innovative and collaborative teaching practices integrating information and communication technologies
The John Lee Memorial Award is sponsored by Charles Sturt University, and is presented annually by the
Australian School Library Assocation (NSW) President and a representative of Charles Sturt University. It was fun to meet with Ashley Freeman from CSU (pictured) as I have been a member of his ‘marking team’ in the Master’s program in the last couple of years.
It was a special honour for me to receive this award, as I worked with John Lee (in whose memory this award is made) in my early years as an information professional, being inspired by him to “think big” and to be future focussed at all times.
John, I think your inspiration has paid off!
I am convinced that we need to make radical changes in the way we design and integrate school libraries into our learning communities. We explored just a little of the Web 2.0 reasons for this recently at the State Library Seminars, but only began the dialogue about solutions to this new imperative.Why did I choose 2020? This date is gaining some prominence amongst strategists – which makes me think that we should adopt this date for our planning deadlines for schools too (it does have a certain symmetry don’t you think?)
The world in the year 2020: Technology will no doubt play a huge part. However, will it contribute to the betterment of society through global, low-cost networks, unimagined efficiency and organizational transparency, or will we inhabit a scene from a dystopian film, filled with terrorist Luddites, virtual-reality addicts and a loss of control over our own innovations?
These are the hypotheses explored by Janna Quitney Anderson, assistant professor of communications and director of Internet projects at Elon University, Elon, N.C., in partnership with Lee Rainie, founding director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The two released “The Future of the Internet II”, the second installment in their series of landmark studies, two years after the first study. Surveying 746 of the most engaged Internet stakeholders, including bloggers, activists, researchers and CEOs, the two hoped to shed light on what the world of technology will be like in 2020.
The findings make interesting reading, and certainly validate the imperative for change in our schools. The study’s findings include quotations from answers to open-ended questions, detailing highly engaged Internet stakeholders’ predictions of technology’s impact on the world in 2020. Companion Web site “Imagining the Internet: A History and Forecast,” provides additional resources on the topic. The site includes video and audio interviews showcasing experts’ predictions about the next 20 to 50 years, a children’s section, tips for teachers, a searchable database of early 1990s predictions and a “Voices of the People” section for readers to post their own predictions.
It was in this context that I explored the Learning Commons (physical and virtual) construct that has become so popular in the tertiary environment. I believe it has much to offer us in schools as we shape our own futures, but we do not have a pool of ideas yet to draw on.
I moved to the idea of Knowledge Commons, as our role in schools as teachers and teacher librarians is somewhat different to the role of library staff in other sectors. Our focus is the learning environment and teaching strategies within that environment, and it is this that must drive our creative efforts for innovative change.
I wonder if such a Knowledge Commons, shaped by Creativity NOT Productivity would need to encompass the following:
- Reading materials for pleasure and study
- Information retrieval and critical analysis support
- Learning activities & Social activities
- Academic writing guidance
- Special education learning support for all ranges
- Information technology support – technical and design support
- Multimedia design and production facilities
- ‘Traditional’ bibliographic services
- 24/7 Learning support
Rethinking Libraries of Today:
If you could redesign your school library, what would it look like?
I was particulary pleased to listen to this recent podcast.Based on a recent meeting with a librarian and an architect, Alan discusses the changing role of librarians, along with what the ideal school library might look like given the anticipated impact technology will have on teaching and learning. Listen to it carefully and imagine the outcomes in the context of our ongoing discussions.
And if you are new to the idea of Learning Communities, here are some links to explore:
Forget MySpace: Try a Little VLC
Virtual Learning Commons allows students to identify areas or subjects of interest…and then connect with others who have similar interests. It’s a great way to enhance social dialogue around learning activities.
Academic Library 2013. It should not be assumed that the academic library of 2013 will be a natural progressions from the library of today, but will be surprising and unexpected.
I am attending (and presenting at) the Australian School Library Association (NSW) professional seminar at the State Library of NSW, on Saturday 17th February. Along with me will be two other excellent presenters – Westley Field and Leanne Cameron, who will set the scene for our enquiry into the future of school libraries.
This will be the first of a number of presentations I will make this year on the theme of our ‘uncommon’ future. Though I know that we have many evangelists amongst the global community who present, blog, and otherwise promote the future directions we must take, they are a long way from Australia. So here I am on my soapbox box.
So, welcome to those who are at my session. This post is for you 🙂 as it provides you with the main Del.ici.ous link for the State Library day, as well as a home-base on HeyJude for further reading and exploration of the global debate in this field. You will find my Web 2.0 Toolset at the bottom of the Resources page.
A theme that will run through each of the threads today will be the changing landscape of our digital world – our flat classrooms – and the convergence of technologies and social networking into everyday life providing fsscinating and challenging possibilities for school libraries.
Web 2.0 tools are important, but their impact goes much deeper than their networking ‘novelty’ might suggest. The tools for information seeking, and the spaces for information sharing are also changing and developing. It is important to become familiar with these and to rise to the challenge.
Individuals and organisations alike are finding new and increasingly effective ways of connecting through Web 2.0 technology. Our students are living that connection. This is the human side of this Web 2.0 transformation.
What does Web 2.0 really mean for school libraries? As we create conversations, conections and a Web 2.0 learning community we are opening the door to a better library future.
I am happy to say that this is beginning to happen – and many of my schools are seeking ways to create better learning spaces, better use of Web 2.0, and better ways to collaborate with teachers and promote student learning all the while. Don’t get me wrong – it is a challenge. But my teachers and teacher librarians are responding to the challenge – all in different ways – but all moving forward with curiosity and enthusiasm.
So our libraries and our classrooms need to embrace Web 2.0, and in so doing create new processes and products, leading to new forms of digital pedagogy and digital scholarship.
Let me share Michael’s words (who is a real inspiraton), as he explained how he is using Web 2.0 within our school’s learning management system (CeNet):
I must say this is a really challenging year for me this year, but I’m enjoying it. Here’s a brief snapshot of some of the things I and others have been doing :
- webcams for animations, filming/evaluating student work, podcasting important lessons, etc.
- wordpress and blogger blogs for tasks which neatly incorporate some online work (eg. posting photos, sound files, website references and research and utilising internet related mutimedia like youtube etc.)
- CeNet for online activities, eg. ELFs which enable submission of electronic work
- rss feeding for students subscribing to and commenting on other students blogs as well as other web content, eg. SMH or ABC online feeds
- online web 2.0 tools for scaffolding, eg. gliffy and read-write-think for timelines, concept maps, etc.
- cenet for making electronic material available for all students after hours.
Michael is using blogs with his French class, and subscribes to their blogs with RSS – so all the student work is delivered right to his desktop!
Let me share France’s blogsite, HFS Conversations, that she set up for providing professional discussion for her school staff. An energetic Teacher Librarian, Francis has initiated many projects, but this blog was a nice effort for a staff training session – and will provide a place for ongoing Web 2.0 learning support for the teachers.
Just two examples of many that are emerging – and I love it!
judyoconnell.com 