Sorry, to get in- you will need a ticket!

Remember how many of your teachers say to their students- "and your ticket to get out is this assignment". Now you can print them out.

Kim prowled around Concert Ticket Generator website (thanks to Librarian in Black- one of our great blogs). You can use it to create digital tickets for just about anything. She made one for our next Marian's gathering on December 8th.

How cool is that! ~ guybrarian

Aggregators Unite!

There are several choices for aggregators these days. (Remember these are those things that let you know when a blog or podcast you are following gets updated)

The all time librarian favorite is BlogBridge which is software you need to download and install on your computer. This is a tough option for schools and educators that don't often use their own machines.

The second best choice for educators is to open a free account on Bloglines.com. Then you can click the "feeds" tab and select ADD FEEDS to paste the URL of LibPower into Bloglines.

The new version of Internet Explorer 7 has the capability of adding FEEDS too. But if you are going to download and install that, get FLOCK - another blog friendly search engine. (I think it is better.

If all else fails- try clicking on the ATOM feed button on the side of this blog and add it that way! Keep getting updates - and share great blogs that you have read! ~guybrarian

How are your students doing?

Recently, an interesting article on Inside Higher Ed about the information literacy skills for college kids. While the title is not that flattering, I found the study they cited interesting. According to the article they interviewed 6300 students and 63 universities and found their skills to be less than stellar.

This has some good messages for us- about reaching kids and helping them to be proficient at info lit standards. For example:

"...when asked to select a research statement for a class assignment, only 44 percent identified a statement that captured the assignment’s demands. And when asked to evaluate several Web sites, 52 percent correctly assessed the objectivity of the sites, 65 percent correctly judged for authority, and 72 percent for timeliness."

The study says that less than half students surveyed found a site that met these criteria.

So- I think we can do better...but we could help each other out by sharing ideas of how we do this. How do you teach resource evaluation? What activities do you do? How do you reach the most kids? Let me know in a comment. ~guybrarian

Library 2.0 and Students Blog?

In the November 2006 SLJ, read the article, A Matter of Radical Trust by Christopher Harris. He explains Library 2.0 (a concept I keep hearing about but didn't have a firm grasp of...) Harris says it's the concept of library services that encourage a more interactive engagement with patrons via blogs and other Web 2.0 tools. OK, that makes sense - interacting with our students & teachers using computer technology.

But that leads me to ask this question again - what is Web 2.0 then? Guybrarian Phil gave me a good explanation of Web 2.0 that I can paraphrase. He said the original web was one that we went to and took information from. The new web (2.0) is something we interact with using wikis, blogs, podcasts, etc We aren't only users of it, but are a part of it!

So Library 2.0 is an extension of Web 2.0 I think. We can have our teachers, students, and fellow librarians interact with us using web tools. I'm thinking of how that could happen and want your input.... I could have my fellow Marian Librarians write on this blog instead of sending emails to our group. I could have students post book reviews on a blog. I could have students do book reviews as podcasts that are on my LMC website - I like that one!
Your thoughts here.....

Back to the article, Harris writes that "the open and dynamic nature of Web sites is...a serious concern to schools." He asks "what if someone puts up something innappropriate"... on his blog for students. Good question! I had a brief discussion just like this with a history teacher here. She blogs, but she wouldn't include it as part of her classes for exactly that reason. She feels that being the blog facilitator is a huge responsibility that she doesn't want. More food for thought...

Kim's First Post

Phil Goerner, guybrarian extraordinaire, has spent the last hour trying to get me to be even more techie than I already am! He's stretching my brain. Now I will be a regular blogger and podcaster, thanks to him. I have a new account with Delicious, bloglines.com, and this one (LibPower).

Marians Meet...

At our most recent Marian's meeting Dr Laura challenged us to think about an aspect of collaboration that I had not before...methods of assessment. We viewed a philosophy from a library that included assessing for knowledge and misconceptions about a subject BEFORE you teach your collaborative lessons. Then finding active realistic methods of assessing She stressed that we "must continue to show that we are active partners of all aspects of collaboration- even assessments." Yeah!

LISZEN is a unique search engine for libraries that allows you to search over 500 library blogs using Google’s new Custom Search service. I haven't tried it too much but I think it could be very useful!

I found a really good library pathfinder site from Lakewood High School with 100's of cool resources for units that the librarian teaches with her staff. I think there are almost more here than Joyce Valenza has! Either one you choose - these are great resources.

I'm also sharing the new Google's tools for educators (we are using calendar and spreadsheets) quite a bit, but I'd like to play with Sketch Up some more.

Have a good week- I've got to go fix a projector!
~guybrarian>