One of my librarians just sent me this link about an article titled: Neil Gaiman: Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming

Neil Gaiman at Chapters reading (Photo credit: phoenixdreaming)

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/15/neil-gaiman-future-libraries-reading-daydreaming

Power stuff. Take a minute to read this message from a noted author about the value of libraries.

Last week I was literally sitting on the dock of the bay when along came a kayaker. Hello I shout and she shouts back hello and pulls up to the dock where we proceeded to have a 30 minute conversation. It really is a small world. The kayaker is an English professor at an East coast university and we commiserated about the lack of true research expected of her students and/or the lack of knowledge about how to begin the whole research process. Typically she teaches upper level classes but lately the administration at her university has decided all teachers should have the opportunity to work with English 101 students. I was pleased to hear her say she and some of the other university professors know who can help steer the students at their university…the librarians.

My district and a neighboring district team up every year about this time to have a professional development day for all of the librarians in our area. One of the sessions we will have is called Preparing Secondary Students for Research at the College Level. We have invited four university level librarians and two professors to be a part of a panel discussion covering expectations, academic research, citation tools and ways to develop and boost students’ information literacy IQ’s. When we are in the company of post-secondary librarians we are reminded that our students really are your students.

The circulation desk as we know it is changing. In my district as we renovate our elementary libraries I have reduced the height of the circulation desk countertop to better accommodate our younger students and self-check. I constantly look at self-check kiosks for both elementary and secondary levels but have yet to purchase a free-standing one.

If you follow this blog you know we just opened our first STEAM Academy with a library commons of less square footage than a traditional campus library. I had a smaller footprint circulation desk custom-made and today it arrived. Ah, it is the right size, shape, and texture for that campus. The students will mostly self-check with a laptop we leave on top along with a scanner. We aren’t taking up valuable landscape with a huge circulation desk and it accomplishes its intent…get books in the hands of our students. What do you think?

Our new Academy high school had their Open House tonight with an energized crowd. We have opened this campus with a Library Commons and no librarian but it seems set to be the focal point of the Academy due to its location and inviting presence.

Listening to the parents and students it was obvious they were awed by the uniqueness yet familiarity of the space. There are still physical books along with the normal eBook components and soft seating is suited to the needs of our students. As parents and students wandered in and out of the library I loved hearing one parent say to her children, “Oh, they have books and we still have the ability to sit and read!”

Everyone was excited and positive as they toured this district’s newest educational endeavor. We aren’t sure if this campus will have a librarian (all teachers are at least dual certified) next year as the enrollment grows, but in the meantime we will support it and the needs of our students.

My colleagues and I just spent two days in professional development sessions with our district’s elementary and secondary principals and their administrative staffs. The energy was high and the principals were engaged and dare I say enjoying our presentations. How much better could it get?

With their jam-packed schedules principals can be a tough sell but a unifying piece to remember is we are all in the business of educating our students. The administrators took the information we shared with them back to their campuses…and there they will spread it two-fold.

My advice is to enjoy the connection with these folks when you have the opportunity and make the most of the time you have with them. Win-win.

Rachel’s Challenge was in the DFW metroplex over this past weekend and I was able to participate in one of the sessions. Rachel’s Challenge came out of the death of Rachel Scott in the 1999 Columbine school shooting. This program is committed to preparing students and adults alike how to stop bullying, but it is also about creating a positive school climate. Certainly our libraries can be a major player in fostering a place where students looking out for others is the norm.

The session I attended was presented by Darrell Scott, Rachel’s father. He spoke of a new component coming to Rachel’s Challenge called Awaken the Learner: Finding the Source of Effective Education  This module pinpoints the need for teachers to build relational trust with their students. He admits he is not an educator but wants a way to equip educators with the tools needed to bring the message of kindness and compassion to the classroom.

Scott does bring up an educational philosophy that is still used in some schools today, but I haven’t heard about it since my education classes of long ago. The 3H’s…that is the Head, Heart and Hands method… is used to support emotional intelligence as a way to improve academics. I’ll have to research that topic, but isn’t that the point? Grow and learn, learn and grow.

I also came away with two fantastic quotes:

“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”
Albert Einstein

“I’m not a teacher, but an awakener.”
Robert Frost

Poetry is not just the name of a town in Texas.  From 3^rd grade forward poetry knowledge will be tested and it will be a supporting standard even as far as College Readiness Reporting (Fiction and Expository).

Time to gather and have your students read all kinds of poetry, not just in form but in content and ability levels.  We know Narrative, Lyrical and Free Verse are tested as part of the standards, but expose them to everything possible.

I have come across a few new poetry resources, including some from Dr. Sylvia Vardell out of Texas Women’s University. Her “poetry a week” collection in The Poetry
Friday Anthology is a wonderful collection of poetry for k-5 with TEKS and Common Core curriculum connections and she also has a version for middle school. Dr. Vardell’s The Poetry Teacher’s Book of Lists has lists of poetry bibliographies and strategies to follow. What I like about this book is you can find science poems too!

And John Grandits’ poetry book Technically, It’s Not My Fault  well, it’s just fun! Poems here show meaning and emotion through text and visuals.

If you have a little downtime this summer take a look at these resources and be ready for next school year.

I’m in Austin at the Texas Association of Library Administrator’s conference where I enjoy meeting new people and reconnecting with colleagues from all parts of this great state.   We went to dinner tonight with the Mackin group where we heard Chris Wood speak. He is the Library Director for the Genessee Valley Educational Partnership. This is an educational service agency in western New York. Chris is a national leader in the school library community so I was very interested to see him at this dinner and hear what he had to say. Chris announced that tonight was the national launch of Here Be Fiction. He said that Mackin and the Big 6 publishers have reached an agreement and a limited beta release of their new fiction titles is underway.

He said the Big 6 have agreed to provide discount access for multiple users (you may have to buy more than one title), agreed to provide off line access with no Internet needed and can reach our special needs readers. Kitty Heise, co-owner of Mackin, said that School Library Journal is helping to sponsor this new program by having their reviewers review some of the titles they will offer. We librarians are anxious to see if our expectations are met.

Now is your chance to partner with a vendor who is stepping up to help libraries in Moore, OK. Funds4Books.com is an easy way to donate and help those affected by a tornado or other natural disaster.

My district has been all over Participatory Learning for several years now and when I first saw Makerspaces I thought, oh, yes, perfect. Our libraries already have a rudimentary beginning for this and what’s not to like about a DIY space?

“Makerspaces come in all shapes and sizes, but they all serve as a gathering point for tools, projects, mentors and expertise. A collection of tools does not define a Makerspace. Rather, we define it by what it enables: making.” From Makerspace Playbook

Makerspace as in create, build, design bring to life an idea. Not digital 21^st or web 3.0 tools, but real tools like my dad had in his workroom.

Not sure what to do or how to start? Download the Makerspace Playbook and get started!

With our new STEAM Academy, makerspace-like areas will be the norm, but why can’t an area in our libraries become a niche space for collaborative hands-on projects?  We need places where the 8 or 18-year-old student can teach not only classmates but also the teacher.

This is a pivotal time for our libraries to stand up and reshape the old notions of what can or cannot be done while in the library. I say, bring on the tools…my dad would be proud!

 My iPad and I are getting along effortlessly and now to make it even better our Texas library listserve has been touting the advantages of using Reflection to connect and use the iPad with a projector in our libraries. What? Did I need more reasons to love my iPad? We all know we can buy a VGA adapter (limited to a roving range of the length of cable) or use a product like Apple TV (wireless but expensive), but we want to be free and untethered and we want something inexpensive.  Reflection and AirServer seem to both hit the mark. They are still fine tuning some bugs, but I have high hopes for both of these products.

I just returned from a couple of days at the Texas Library Conference in Ft. Worth where I had the opportunity to meet new people, renew long distance friendships and learned so many best practices covering a myriad of topics that I was sorry it was over. Even though our state had standardized testing that week, it was a very well attended conference and continued through Saturday to accommodate the many school librarians who could only make the latter part of the week. One tip I know I will repeat is how to make learning about Boolean searching actually fun. Seriously! We were up and moving as we learned the difference between “or” and “more” and how the different words returned different search results. Clever and useful for any level.

I was also a presenter for two sessions and want to let those of you looking for the handouts that they will be posted on the TLA web site soon.

The students from West schools will head back to the classroom on Monday courtesy of neighboring Connally ISD after a horrific fertilizer plant explosion killed 12 people and injured approximately 200 in that community.  The explosion also destroyed one intermediate school and severely damaged two other secondary campuses.

As educators we all want to help, but how can we best do that? Let’s be smart about this and not cause more work for those people who already have their plates full in West.

Some less emotional responses will be most helpful so skip the teddy bears and send gift cards or make donations to the Red Cross instead.

Education Service Center Region 12 is taking donations
Send a check to Education Service Center Region 12 (Put West ISD in memo line)
ESC Region 12
Attention: Business Office
P.O. Box 23409
Waco, TX 76702

Or by Credit card contact Dana Baer [email protected] Assistant Director Financial Services ESC 12

Point West Bank in West is also taking monetary donations. Donations are being accepted in the form of cash, checks (made out to “Victims of West Explosion”), or wire transfers. Checks can be mailed or dropped off at the bank in West. To contact Point West Bank, visit http://www.pointwestbank.com or call 254-826-5333.

Get gift cards from Home Depot, Ace Hardware, Lowes, WalMart and Target Stores, which are in close proximity in neighboring towns.

Monetary donations for the American Red Cross West, Texas Disaster Fund can also be made online at redcross.org

These students and families will certainly appreciate your effort to help them return to some sort of normalcy.

Have you traveled lately? I have and I’m disappointed by what I didn’t see. In the past I could start or become part of a random conversation based on the book I was carrying. Oh, you’re reading ‘The Intercept,’ Dick Wolf’s first novel…me too! Well, that didn’t happen. The serendipitous contact just doesn’t occur when fellow readers are carrying a Nook, Kindle or iPad. Chalk one up for the print community.

I had been using an android tablet that required everything run through my gmail account, but I recently saw the light and bought an iPad. My own children teased me about how long it took to “get it”. Now I find the iPad and I are becoming BFF’s… traveling together, exploring apps, and chillin with a good novel. Ah, thank you Apple, but hmmm did someone say mini iPad?

I recently heard about an updated Smithsonian website. Yes, that Smithsonian!  So I took a peek and it blew my socks off!

Oh, cool links to art, history, invention, innovation, and animal cams. Sure you can subscribe to Smithsonian Magazine, but why? This site is loaded and it’s free and it has a kid’s page!

I recently participated in an eBook demo session with Baker & Taylor’s Axis 360 Electronic Business Info Services Manager Alice Belous.

I have been on what has seemed like a never-ending journey to find an eBook vendor who is able to provide downloads on computers, most smart phones, tablets, iPads and even some proprietary devices like the NOOK, using a variety of formats – Baker & Taylor’s Axis 360 with cloud based hosting and wireless synching and their Blio ereader might prove to be the answer to my problem. Axis 360 also has a solid mobile interface (see image from Alice’s presentation).  As an added bonus, if down the road you decide to leave Axis 360 you can transfer your existing content to a different delivery platform and they will assist you.

Because Axis 360 makes use of EPUB and PDF formats, or Blio, their free ereader app, students have many options on a format that works for them. The Blio Free app runs on Microsoft, Apple IOS, Android and Kindle Fire and HD. You can use Adobe Digital Editions runs on Macs, NOOK, Kobo and the Sony Ebook Reader. If a student doesn’t have a smart phone or other personal electronic device, they can still use the school computers to read a digital book and are not excluded from this reading experience.

Baker & Taylor’s Title Source 3 module allows you to order your eBook just like a physical book and to use it for collection development.  Included are free MARC records with an 856 link. Your students can locate the eBook via your PAC or the Axis 360 website. And to cap it off, Axis 360 and Blio are the only ADA Compliant Solution for the visually impaired.

Alice sent me a three page list of publishers that Axis 360 is working with, along with publisher information for the school market. It is interesting to see the extent each of the Big Six Publishers unique business model goes to protect their profits. For instance, Random House has increased the price of their eBooks substantially for libraries and we all know about Harper and Collins 26 circulation business model. I am disappointed that Scholastic currently has an agreement with Baker & Taylor to sell only to the public library market and is not including the school library market.

I’m still gathering eBook provider information but I’m getting closer to finding the elusive unicorn.

I was trying to come up with a catch phrase and having no success but when I put in a Google Search “Libraries are” these are the prompts I was given. Oh, no! Look at that first one…there is no way libraries are obsolete and I don’t just say that as a librarian. Reading habits change and formats change but look at the Common Core and at your state standards. A higher level of literacy for all students is called for in these standards and the library and the access it provides is the great equalizer.

Barnes and Noble founder and Chairman Leonard Riggio has told his company he wants to buy back the retail end of the business. Oh, no! What does this mean for my Nook? You know I have a history with e-Readers to begin with, but I have personally invested in my Nook and I don’t want it to go the way of the Flip Camera!

Barnes and Noble has devoted time and money trying to perfect it’s Nook, but nowhere do I read that Riggio is interested in that piece of the company. He holds 30 percent of the company’s shares but Nook has not performed well and there is a projected loss exceeding last year’s $262 million loss. If all we librarians hear is how terrific eBooks are, then why isn’t Riggio jumping at the chance to stay in the game and beat the competition?

The librarians in my district were recently asked to be a part of our district’s instructional technology focus plan that will steer the district’s technology needs for the next 3 years. Sixty nine librarians were asked for their input on how district technology currently meets student and staff needs and what might be necessary for the future. The focus group intent was not library-centric, although those ideas were also noted, but rather a vision of needs that the librarians felt would better the entire district’s goals. Rarely are we presented with the opportunity to meet as a large group unless it is Professional Development but I was able to secure funding for a substitute for each librarian so they could bring their voice to this important conversation. They did not disappoint.

I’m always looking for new ways to present material whether it is for a district meeting or a major conference.

PPT, check!

Prezi, check!

We all want something that isn’t a type of software but a different and easy way to hold and captivate our students. I’ve got it. Pecha-kucha! Pecha what? Pecha-kucha.

Pecha-kucha is a Japanese word for chatter and it is a way to bring new life to the old standby, Power Point. I am excited to be a part of this session in April at our Texas Library Association Conference and I am learning a lot about how this presentation tool plays out. I happily signed on when asked to facilitate this session…I love learning new things!

Here’s how it works. Our session will have 5 topics to present within a defined amount of time. You use 20 slides shown for 20 seconds and you will tell your story as the slides advance. Do the math; it is 6 minutes and 40 seconds worth of time. That’s it. No fudging since someone else is on your coattails ready to present their 20 slides. No, this is not time to do a bottomless presentation, but it is a way to quickly cover many topics of interest in a short amount of time.

Cruise over here and look at some phenomenal presentations http://www.pechakucha.org/

Magazines or periodicals call them what you may, but get them in the hands of your students! A topic we hear from time to time centers on the best way to track magazines and make them available to our students.  For years we made records, barcoded and circulated magazines then we quit barcoding them and said just let the students use them. I honestly think sometimes we spent more money creating the records (time is money) and paying for the barcodes than we paid for the subscriptions! Do what works best at your campus but make those magazines accessible.

I am still able to budget money for print magazines at every campus (although with the Texas Legislators in session you never know what might change in educational funding) and the librarians decide the titles and place the order. 

Magazines are important at all levels. They are useful for writing prompts, current events, pop culture and they are a great source of non-fiction with their maps, charts, illustrations, graphs, timelines, tables, and diagrams.

In Texas we have TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) and magazines can be used for examples of persuasive and procedural text. They can also be a great tool for ESL students and vocabulary development.

If your state standards reference “informational text” it’s time to take a second look at a magazine.

Texas swears in a whole new set of lawmakers today for the Legislator’s 83^rd session. This freshman class has 40 new members in our 150 member house alone. I respectfully request that pointers not be taken from the previous session.

If you followed the Legislator’s last biennium you know how they reduced the education budget for Texas’ children by $5.4 billion. In my district every department, program and area suffered cuts.

When the final gavel pounds down in 140 days I hope budget changes include reestablishing education funding to my district and the many other districts who suffered millions of dollars in losses. Dear legislators, please find ways to balance the budget without negatively impacting the children of Texas.

Pew Research year in review is out and it holds some interesting findings.

There are dramatic changes in America’s news reading habits – print is down but online and all forms of digital reading for news is on the uptick. Americans who say they get their news on a social networking site has doubled since 2010.  Currently 19% get their news that way compared to 9% in 2010.

We embrace social media so much so that 60% of U.S. adults use it (some kicking and screaming, but still using it).   

I don’t think I am alone when I say I get a lot of news from my various mobile devices, but the Pew Research finding show that 66% of tablet  and smartphone owners get their news that way! 

If you don’t see implications for your library in some of these findings it is time to have a smartphone wake-up call.

The mechanism for a 400 km high-altitude burst EMP: gamma rays hit the atmosphere between 20-40 km altitude, ejecting electrons which are then deflected sideways by the Earth’s magnetic field. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One Second After came out in 2009, but I just finished reading it. Wow! A great read and something else to ponder along with the “fiscal cliff” except this book is fiction, or is it?  American author William R. Forstchen writes his novel about an unexpected electromagnetic pulse attack on the United States. Needless to say, all creature comforts are gone, along with electricity, I’m glad I have a backup plan for my Nook… it’s called a book.