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I have officially taken over the role of Head Librarian for the middle school library!  The Reinberger Middle School Library was established in 2004, pulling grades 5 and 6 from the lower school library and grades 7 and 8 from the upper school library.  Since its inception, the middle school library has grown and flourished under the same head librarian, who was not me.  So, taking over has been a bit daunting.  I feel like I'm treading on pretty hallowed ground.  I want to bring my own ideas and conceptions into the library, but I also want to honor the woman who came before me.  It's a bit like walking a tightrope at the moment. I've rearranged some furniture with trepidation.

I have been charged with bringing the library into the 21st century.  One of the reasons I was given this position was because of my commitment to learning and teaching about educational technology.  Luckily, I don't have to do it all on my own.  We have amazing tech people at our school. 

One thing that I'm working on now is improving the library website.  Right now, the entire "site" is on Moodle, which the students reach through the school intranet.  The page consists of little more than links to local library catalogs and our library databases, a school calendar, links to resources for some classroom projects, and a decent picture of kids working in the library.  It's not much.  So, I've started to do a bit of research on great library websites and wikis and how to build one.  Here's what I've gleaned so far:

In order to build a good website or wiki, you have to know your audience and your purpose.  What do you want students (and faculty, hopefully)to get out of the site.  Brainstorm a list of your top priorities. I love me my Stickies, so I used one for my list:

Now, time to look out on the web at some library sites that are both informative and attractive for students.  Where do you find these? I've found listservs to be invaluable for this.  People who post to listservs want to share; that's what listservs are for.  So, post a request: What does your website/wiki look like?  Send me links!  You'll hear back from plenty of people if your listserv is well populated.  Don't belong to a listserv?  Google the term, and voila!

A few library sites that I like:

Naomi Bates's site for Northwest High School in Texas

S.C. Lee Jr. High School, also in Texas

Scarsdale Middle School Library, in New York

Westmont WIki, a wiki for Westmont School in Chicago.

I'm so happy I finally pulled my website together! Basically I designed it using iWeb and then went with FatCow mainly because the use wind energy. That was the deciding factor. My plan now is to create bookmarks now that I finally have a CelesteSimone.com domain name and then begin my book signing!
First things first: enter the self-published book contest with Writer's Digest. (Wish me luck) But I think I deserve a little basking in my website accomplishments. What was really nice about FatCow is I was able to just call them and ask them how to do it and they sent me a step-by-step guide. I really have no idea how it worked, but luckily there are people who are much smarter at computers and can make easy programs to help the rest of us out. Plus it was free! I basically loaded my design onto their ftp site.
So feel free to let me know what you think, and of course if there are any glitches!

A note before I get into this weeks topic:
THE PAWS AND CLAWS GALA WEBSITE is up!
Scroll down to see the developing piece I'm working on.

Making "the list"...

A very important part of being an illustrator that can actually survive off of the jobs they obtain requires marketing. While I did do a limited amount of marketing last year, I've taken it upon myself to up my antics this year. As I hope to be a full time freelancing illustrator again by summer (for those of you who don't know, my husband went back to school for 3D animation and modelling last fall and with the pressure of supporting us both on one income I took up a part time job and leapt into as many local craft markets as I could to sell my work face-to-face) I'll need to be exposing myself to the biggest audience I can.

Here's a list of things I'd like to accomplish marketing-wise in 2008:

1) Update website by taking dreamweaver/flash classes
2) Get my portfolio on children's illustrators.com
3) Do another postcard run
4) Enter contests (commarts,applied arts, ACE awards)
5) Become involved in charity auctions with my art (down for 3 this year already)
6) Reasearch other ways to reach clients in children's illustraton market (European emphasis while dollar is strong)
7) Update portfolio for my agent, Maggie on a monthly basis (min)
8) Do group art show for fine art exposure
9) Sign up for more arts/craft markets

Overlook's very own book hottie is in Gawker's "Hot Straight Men of Book Publishing" Poll Top 3! Vote early, often and from every computer you can for our man Aaron (and read Charles McCarry's Christopher's Ghosts, while you're at it.). Democracy is a gift and a solemn duty. Vote today. And then 5 minutes later. And then 10 minutes after that. And so on. And cheers to gawker's bookhotness judge the delightful Ms. Emily Gould. She obviously knows her hot.

Your votes put Overlook's belovedly scruffy Aaron Schlechter over the top of Gawker's "Hot Straight Men of Book Publishing" poll, Round One!" Thanks to everyone who voted and stay tuned. Aaron will need *your votes* to claim one of Book Publishing's highest honors!

The beautiful and talented Gawker dot com genius Ms. Emily Gould is on a search to find the big male hotties of American Book Publishing. And Overlook's very own Aaron Schlechter is in the running. Vote early, often and over and over again for our beloved Associate Editor! From every computer you can! Put Aaron over the top! For the honor of the Overlook and in praise of editorial *hotness*!!