Week 8 #18 Online productivity tools

Zoho looks very interesting. Collaboration on a Career and College meeting in January will be possible and easily managed easier than with email. Three people are working on this, and we are not all in the same building or time schedule. It will be especially useful when I leave the state.

As we near the holidays, I can see this may be a fun way to set up a round-robin letter to the family. The computer "users" can add to it and the computer "reader-only" crowd will just enjoy.

Week 7 #16 Wikis

Wikis are a fantastic way to give the librarian a simple website that can be added to the school's main page with very little effort from anyone else.

The Steller library wiki can be found at www.stellerlibrary.wikispaces.com. I have 8 pages on information that folks tell me is useful. They can find the volunteer calendar there, as well as the ebooks and online references with live links. One large page is devoted to Career and College Resources.


Wikis can be customized to fit many needs. I liked the English teacher who added a Mebo window so that the kids could connect with him in real time if he was online.
It's also interesting to see how other libraries deal with their situations and plan for the future. Lots of that planning is centered around training users how to use the online resources.

All in all, a very useful, simple to use tool.

Week 6 # 15 Web 2.0 and the future of libraries

The future of libraries is an interesting topic for this week when the Mayor of Anchorage is trying to balance the budget. It was very enlightening to attend a meeting at the library on Nov. 10 and learn that the current library services are far below the levels of comperable sized cities in the US, but our costs are higher. The present level of staffing at the municipal library is 25% below the 1986 level. In 1986 the ratio between people and facilies was one library for every 24,600 people. Today the ratio is one library for every 56,000 people.

The municipal library is looking for ways to serve the needs of the community in the face of social changes that have occurred. The rise of the internet places a greater need for IT people than librarians, at least in the eyes of the politicians. The librarians realise that the library serves the community as a source of job information, resume preparation, and the use of computers to apply for jobs online. They see the library as a social hub of the community with students using the library after school not only for reading and research, but also as a warm, safe place to be socially active and interact with their peers both live and online.

I can relate to Rick Anderson's observations of his "just in case" collection. How many school libraries contain pristine volumes of reference materials, placed lovingly and expectantly by the librarian, never to be touched by the patrons. Last week I assisted a student who was looking unsuccessfully online. I gave him 3 pertinent books hot off the shelf, only to find them sitting beside the computer, unopened, when the student left. I was thrilled to have what he needed, and so disappointed when he rejected it.

I believe we need to understand how the technology is working for today's student so we can help him/her find what they need, and evaluate it critically. Is wikipedia good enough? It seems to be improving at every turn,according to the students, now some teachers are finding it valuable.

My quandry is how do I wisely utilize my budget? Do I buy the online references the kids seem to want, then wage an all out campaign to get them and the teachers to use it over Google. Do I purchase mainly those titles the teachers want to supplement their classes. Often these books are not used by the kids at all but become an extension of the teacher's classroom, collection. When the teacher checks it out more or less permanently, is it technically a library book or a teacher resource, and whose budget should it impact? I guess the bottom line is to get information into the kids heads. If it goes first thru the teacher, it's still benefitting the student.

Week 6 #13

I'm out of sequence because I've been wandering in the Delicious maze.

Delicious is exactly that, a great place to look at some of those wonderful websites you know are out there, but never quite take the time to review, then you can conveniently save them for another day...and another place, from another computer, which is why you need an online bookmarking site like Delicious. There's a lovely Photoshop Tutorial that I'm marking, but I won't bother with the rss feed, because there's not time right now.

I can see this will be good for the classroom, to mark places you'd like the kids to see. You could guide them to approved or prescreened, or topic-centered sites that you have located. My searches for teachers can be bookmarked there as well.

Week 6 # 14

Technoratti, lots of places to get lost here. I searched several blogs, tags, then several other spots for School Library Learning 2.0 with little success. I did find some interesting general articles on school libraries, but clicked the wrong "X", lost it, then couldn't find my way back. Hmmm, it's early and I shouldn't be brain dead yet! Simple searches like travel got me to Florida and Universal Studios in December. Useful information, but not quite within the scope of the class.

Sorry, this was a large disappointment as far as finding the desired result..fun otherwise.

Week 5 # 12 voice thread

I had seen voicethread once before in another class, and I'm finding it difficult to apply to my situation. Other classrooms could use this to get assignments started, to keep a record of who is doing what, i.e. Jimmy will discuss the weapons of the Civil War, while Mary is interested in the nursing care the soldiers got in the hospitals, and Chris will report on the battle of Bull Run.

Writing classes could post a picture as a writing prompt, and have each student write a sentence or even some "popcorn" words to get their and others' ideas flowing.

At this point my idea thread is fraying...I will keep looking for applications in my library.

Week 5 # 11 Exploring web apps

How fun, I have heard about Craigslist and Delicious, so I checked them out when I saw them on the winners list.

Lots of potential on Craigslist, you can do anything from rent a house, find a roommate, to buying anything from soup to nuts. I really did search "soup", came up with soup bowls, and "nuts" garners Chrome wheels for my Subaru...with nuts to hold them on. Immediately bookmarked this one. One of these days I'll talk my husband into parting with stuff, and advertise it there.

Delicious is going to be very useful as we travel to Florida in December. I can finally locate my favorite necessary sites...ie the mail order pharmacy, when I'm away from home. I was proud of my "technical skills" when I moved from the local email provider to gmail and had my address book available, This is the next step.

I'll eventually work my way through the entire list, It's marked on Delicious.