Readings/Listenings for Sept. 27

Blogs
1. I am currently enrolled in 2 of Mr. Pentlin's classes and as the semester progresses, the conversations are starting to run together. I am having trouble remembering in what class we've talked about what, but I'm sure that in both we've had the "Wikipedia conversation," which is why a post in Free Technology for Teachers grabbed my attention. "Wikipedia in Plain English" talks about Wikipedia using Common Craft's In Plain English to explain to those teachers and librarians who are dead set against it "how Wikipedia entries are written, updated, verified, and maintained." You can watch the Common Craft video here:

2. Going along with the theme of things we've talked about in class - You Tube is another popular subject for being blocked by schools. In another post in Free Technology for Teachers "47 Alternatives to Using You Tube in the Classroom" explains other routes educators can explore to replace You Tube. I won't overload you with all 47, but here are the Top 10.
--School Tube
--Teacher Tube
--Teachers.tv
--Next Vista
--Academic Earth
--Snag Films
--How Stuff Works (my personal favorite:)
--Viddler
--Vimeo
--Blip.tv
You can view the full list here

3. If you can't tell yet I'm a list person. I love finding lists of things to do, try, etc. Which is why this next post caught my eye. A link on the School Library Journal's blog The Never Ending Search led me to an article by Joyce Valenza titled "Things I Think Teacher Librarians Should Unlearn (20 and counting)." A few of my favorites are
--libraries should be quiet.
--Wikipedia is bad, or less-than-good, in all contexts.
--databases are the only online sources with value and credibility.
--your stakeholders automatically will know what you contribute to your school’s culture.
You can read the full article here:

I'm seeing a lot of recurring themes in things we've talked about in class(es). It seems that the librarians who are clinging to the old ways of doing business had better change/adapt before they get pushed out by more forward thinkers, and they've got to yell from the rooftops what they are contributing to their educational environment.

LM_NET
1. In the first posting I found, in the 9/20/10 e-mail, a librarian was asking for help to embed a hyperlink into the Destiny Catalog to show book trailers for books when they were looking up in the catalog. Someone had this helpful suggestion "In the 856 field, put the URL of the book trailer file in the "u" subfield and the words you want the patron to see, e.g. "Click to view book trailer", in the "z" subfield." What a great way to get kids excited about reading a book by giving them a sneak peek with a book trailer. I think more libraries should do this, it would be another great service to add.

2. The next post I found, in the 9/17/10 LM-NET,said "Joyce Valenza has thrown down the gauntlet" and provided a link to an article written by her in VOYA. The article, titled Manifesto for 21st Century Librarians , Joyce lays down what she believes the qualities of a 21st Century Librarian should have. Here are just a few:
-You consider new ways to promote reading. You are piloting/supplying learners with downloadable audio books, Playaways, Kindles, iPads, Nooks.
- Your desktop screensavers promote great reads, not Dell or Apple or HP.
-You make sure your learners and teachers can (physically & intellectually) access developmentally and curricularly databases, portals, websites, blogs, videos, and other media.
-You know that searching various areas of the Web requires a variety of search tools. You are the information expert in your building. You are the search expert in your building. You share an every growing and shifting array of search tools that reach into blogs and wikis and Twitter and images and media and scholarly content.
-You involve your community in collection building using interactive polls and web-based suggestion forms.
- You are concerned about a new digital divide: those who can effectively find quality information in all media formats, and those who cannot.
These were just a few of the many great points that were made in the article. Thankfully, a lot of what she was saying is exactly what we are currently learning in this program:) You can read the full article here:http://www.voya.com/2010/09/15/tag-team-tech-october-2010/

3. Finally, in the 9/15/10 post, I found a summary of an article talking about a high school in Tampa Bay buying Kindle e-readers for all 2,100 of their students to replace their textbooks. Each student will receive a custom Kindle downloaded with what they need for their specific course load. According to Amazon, Clearwater High School in Hillsborough County, Florida will be the first school to attempt the full transition into e-readers. While I do have some questions, (like will each e-reader be cleared and re-downloaded each year, what will the policy be for lost, stolen, broken Kindles, will students be allowed to make their own downloads for pleasure reading, and will there be additional resources for coursework other than textbooks like dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc. downloaded on each Kindle) I do think this is the right way to make the move into digital. Unlike Cushing Academy, this high school is starting with the textbooks as opposed to all the books in the library which honestly makes more sense in the "books are heavy argument" as textbooks weigh kids down far more than library books do. Also, each student will have access to the Kindle rather than only 18. I think THIS will be the school to watch to see how they and their students handle their transition to digital.

4. I also happened to notice a post about Togetherville, a division of Facebook for kids 13 and under. This is supposed to be a safe and secure site for kids to participate in social networking and kids accounts are linked to their parents. (Genius marketing-if kids really want it, their parents have to sign up if they don't have an account.) I was curious to know what you guys thought about it. I took a look, but I wasn't interested enough and I don't think my son would be either to use this.

Podcast
This week I listened to the 8/27/10 episode of Adventures in Library Instruction. This podcast, hosted by 2 academic librarians and a public librarian, was all about collaboration. They had some really great ideas about working with faculty, but they all boiled down to you have to go to them, you can't wait for them to come to you. The communications librarian at Georgia State University said they had $200,000 to cut in the library budget so they invited themselves to the faculty meeting to let them know that journal cuts were coming and asked for input in what to keep. By the end of the meeting the faculty members asked if the librarian could come and speak to their classes. Another librarian hosted a party for faculty to come look at weeded materials to see if there was anything they wanted to keep and this has turned into some partnerships with teachers. The public librarian did something with the local senior center, but I thought this could easily apply to a school setting. She goes to the senior center and hosts a Tea and Tech where they get together for tea and she explains new technologies.

Empowering Learners Chap.3
All of these readings give some great advice on budgeting and managing the LMC, but I guess my main question is when you are starting out your first year how do you decide how to allocate funds? Do you follow what the previous LMS did until you have time to figure out what is needed where or will you have time to figure it out on your own? If the library has an aide does their pay come out of the library's budget? So many questions...I guess I'll figure it out when I do my practicum. I did think it was an interesting that the reading specifically said the library should have sufficient funding to support priorities. I've heard a lot of stories from other LMSs that that is sadly not the case in their library. Fortunately the library at my son's school has a very supportive PTO and they seem to do very well every year with their book fairs.

Woolls Chap.9
One of the biggest things that scare me about being a librarian is the budget. I've never been a math person, so I am terrified that I will not manage the money wisely. Though I guess being a stay at home mom has given me experience at spending on a smaller income. The chapter mentioned some media centers having to compete for money with other activities. It kills me to see schools spend exorbitant amounts of money on athletics while other areas get little to nothing.

Book Budgets-Hanging on to What is Yours
It's nice to see more experienced librarians out there giving advice like this on how to "beat the system". JCKL is getting ready for a round of budget cuts and I'm hearing about it every time I work. The new UCM president just enacted a hiring freeze for the University and they're worried that this will only be the beginning.

Zero Sum Budgets and Technology
This article was also very helpful to a nervous future librarian. Last year I did a project that brought me to the middle school here where I interviewed the (now retired) librarian. I took the opportunity to ask about the budget and she stated that every year the principal would have a Saturday meeting to divvy up free monies and each person had to present their case as to how much they needed and why. When everyone was done they democratically split it up. Having worked with teacher beforehand to find out things they wanted or needed, she usually got what she asked for. She also built up a huge collection of free online resources for kids to use to compliment her online databases.