Week 11? Really?

Information Sources class discussion

Multiple Intelligences (H. Gardner)

“The theory of multiple intelligences suggests that there are a number of distinct forms of intelligence that each individual possesses in varying degrees. Gardner proposes seven primary forms: linguistic, musical, logical-mathematical, spatial, body-kinesthetic, intrapersonal (e.g., insight, metacognition) and interpersonal (e.g., social skills). “

Principles:

1. Individuals should be encouraged to use their preferred intelligences in learning.

2. Instructional activities should appeal to different forms of intelligence.

3. Assessment of learning should measure multiple forms of intelligence.

Reference:

http://tip.psychology.org/gardner.html

To me this is the best choice because most people do not learn in one certain way. We learn different things in different ways. I love listen to audio books over reading a lot of the time. I can “see” the images better by hearing them. Music has a rhythm that makes words and stories easy to remember. Working with others helps understand what you know and what others know so you can learn from one another. All lessons are like this because we have links to see graphs and charts. We work with one another. We physically go to the library to observe and research so our bodies are involved. I just wish we had more pictures in Library Science. I mean, I know our books are data-packed but couldn’t they add some fun color photos once in a while? Maybe the TWU MLS program should come up with a channel on Youtube to show us how the library works in various training videos. Now that would be cool!

Learning something about your own learning style will help you as you prepare instruction for others with different learning styles.  Take the Learning Style Questionnaire located at the following website:  http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html

I'm sort of surprised that I do not have a high tendency for any certain learning style.  I'm in the middle for most of them.  I'm a little higher in the visual learning only because I knew those questions were asking for that kind of learning.  I know that the activities that I learned from best were based in the visual.  I always loved maps and charts on the board to explain concepts in literature, history and science.  I am not a math fan and I was only able to do well in math when I had a couple of teachers who did equations that were not just in the regular long formula mode but explained in association with other daily concepts, or having equations put into a table when doing variables.  I love using movies in a classroom but even that confuses some students who don't "get it" even after seeing it.  So for people like me (and for every library and classroom around that is full of people with various learning styles) there has to be various types of help.  Signs, verbal instruction, charts or anything else that will appeal to people's different personalities.  This is why our school implemented "Thinking Maps" campus wide.  Having students learn concepts in visual/doing/seeing/thinking/hearing/habitual mode is the only way for them to understand and get the concepts.

Children’s and YA Literature class discussion

Just want to say thank you, Dr. Vardell, for adding this section to our curriculum.  Before I thought fantasy fiction was Harry Potter or Twilight or something with dragons and pirates or something that I wasn't interested in, in the slightest.  (Reminds me too much of those boys in elementary school playing Dungeons and Dragons.)  Anyway, I'm loving this section and keep looking for more books to read within the genre that don't require wands or blood letting.

It also makes me know that I can really enjoy being a Children's or School Librarian in the future.  I've loved being exposed to these different books in each module.

I know this is a simple approach to finding new literature, but I thought I'd post it anyway.  I used this when doing my project for Collection Development class.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/Fantasy-and-Adventure/379002217/?cds2Pid=17547&linkid=1640528

My favorite category is "Edgy Stories for Teens".

Week 9

I’m getting less inventive with my subject headings, I admit.  I’m just counting the days until this term is over.  Not because I’m glad to be finished with my studies, really, just because I’m excited to start working in the libraries.  I honestly have really enjoyed doing this work, especially the work with the Children’s books.  I hem and haw about what library career I want but I think I do want to work with the kids. 

Information Resources and Sources discussion

This week I had to discuss the March 2005 ALA newsletter about Enabling Learning: Proposing a Collaborative Framework for Library Staff Development.  Our question was, “Is this a good staff development plan?  Why? or Why not?  Would it work in your library?  If you are not currently working in a library, would it work in any library with which you are familiar?”  I responded with:

“1) The need for achievement, 2) the need for affiliation, and 3) the need for power, or in this case, more specifically, the need to af­fect change.” I can understand how many jobs give people a need for power though it can be abused. I’m glad to know that in a librarians’ case it means that they have a say so in the changes made at their library. I think that would be pertinent at any library too.

“ While individuals can work to de­velop skills to assess and adapt their professional outlook…Advocacy can become aligned with that sense of purpose we often long for in our lives, and with that sense of service that draws many of us to the profession.” This almost makes it seem that librarians will only be fulfilled and have a sense of purpose by having to take matters into their own hands. “Some staff resist taking on the Protean role of todayʼs librarian and others are motivated but susceptible to negative ‘group think.’” Again, it seems as if this article wants the librarians to learn coping skills and know how to work well with others.

“Self-guided Assessment Tools for staff to as­sess and align their own needs in relation to those of the organization.” I see a red flag right there. I’ve volunteered at a library but worked at schools for years. If they wanted me to self-assess, that would cause me to think there was some kind of managerial spy tactic going on to make me have to take the blame for something that wasn’t getting done. However, “Online discussion groups or blogs for staff at all levels to share stories and resources” always are nice to have at any job. Again, thought, “’Menu for Mentoring’: a means of matching willing ‘experts’ of identified competencies and skills with eager ‘learners’” is another one that looks like it can cause problems and resentment really easily among the staff.

All in all, I just don’t think a librarian would look at this and feel like it’s something to help them. It seems like it’s something to make them take on more responsibility. They have to learn more, teach more, develop more skills, etc. While training is fine, this seems as if the whole answer to the issues within the library is to give librarians something else to do. Again, it makes it seem like they’re being called incompetent (though I know the intent isn’t as such.) Granted, as a teacher, I know we had to learn a lot and it helped our job immensely, so maybe a librarian in the field wouldn’t feel as put off my this article.

I don’t think my opinions were very well received.  Granted, yes, we are all lifelong learners and patrons come to use daily for our expertise.  However, it just seemed like the way to have librarians all get along and feel less stressed was to have them self-assess and learn new skills.  I don’t think that’s the librarians’ main complaint.  I think it’s budget, long hours, not enough hours, patron complaints, overloaded work week…  That was all I was thinking;  just in the mindset of a librarian already working her tail off just to be told, “now, assess yourself and we’ll have you make sure you do a better job.”  Not something that would come by easily to some, I don’t think.

I also had to write some annotations on Chicago Manual of Style 14th Edition which has an updated online version.  I accessed the information on the printed book through Books in Print.

Children’s and YA Literature

I found YA Historical Novels on Goodreads to share for the class.  This week I’m reading Chains, Catherine Called Birdy, and The Wednesday Wars.  I’ll update my Unfinished Book Reviews for those books next week.

Week 8

The end is in sight for this Fall term and I’m so ready for it to be over.  In my Information Sources class I’ve managed to mess up an assignment twice and now have to spend the weekend going back to assignments from 3 weeks ago to change and correct.  At first I was confused about why each week we had, seemingly, the same assignment due.  After reading some of the student chat discussions I discovered that we were doing, as the syllabus says “sets” of these.  These sets were for different categories for each week.  After I thought I’d corrected that, I realized today that the categorized assignments were not corresponding with our weekly chapter reading assignments.  They were for chapters that we’d read maybe 2-3 weeks previously.  I ended up emailing the professor (again) and explaining to her how confused I’d been about these assignments and I would redo them.

With online classes I just get so use to how other professors set up their weekly modules that when another professor does something differently, I get all messed up.  At least I realized I did this now and now at the end of the term.

I also have still been working on my reviews for my Children’s / YA Literature class.  This week we read informational / non-fiction books.  I reviewed Bodies from the Ice, Actual Size, and Walt Whitman: Words for America.  Next week we’re doing historical fiction so I have actual novels to read.  I enjoy this class very much and I can see how being a Children’s Librarian would be very rewarding.

In mid-November I apply for graduation too.  I should be done by May!

Still working on getting back to Steve soon.  Here we thought this paperwork would take only one month, now it looks like it will be December before I get there. 

Playing catch-up on my classes

It’s very late, or extremely early and I’ve finally finished up my assignments for both Info Sources and Services and Children’s Lit.  I had to write three new book reviews for my Unfinished Book Reviews blog that I’m using for class.  After that I had to write my five and a quarter page paper on what I discovered at the reference desk when I played spybrarian (Steve’s clever term, I can’t take the credit) the other day.  All in all I think I’ll like being a reference librarian as a career option.  Plus, I know I’m learning more with my classes, which is a plus.  Some days I’d like everything to come easy to me with the terminology.  It’s intimidating to walk into  the big library world that seems to have a ton of experts who know a heck of a lot more than I do.  But I keep at it and I feel like I’ve made the right choice with my career change.  (Though I do love teaching college.) 

Anyway, it’s way to late and sleep is waiting on me.  Good night, library!  Good night, books!  Good night, school!  Good night, internet!  See you in the morning!

Analysis for YA Book Shelf

Children’s Literature class discussion

I’ve been checking out YA Book Shelf for a while now. I started chatting with the blog author on Twitter when I started studying the YA Books for my Collection Development class. She (Melissa) always has lots of interesting book contests that intrigues her readers. She’s very well read and gives great insight and suggestions on new and old (classic) books to read. As you can see from her most recent post on the YA novel Hush, Hush she really tries to get involved in her own review of the book as well as how it is received in the public. You can tell that she really loves what she does and reading her posts you can see what new books are coming up, including events online regarding books. She’s very willing to discuss the books with you. She has a very modern website and includes all sorts of links plus book trailers if anyone wants to see more examples. This website really inspired me to create my blog that I started and will now use for my class book reviews.

http://www.yabookshelf.com/

http://twitter.com/YABookShelf

In other news:  9 days left until the wedding!

My own Wiki

Collection Development class assignment

You will create a marketing visual to advertise your new collection. This can be a flyer, bookmark, web page, blog page, handout, etc., but it must be visual, graphic, and eye-catching.

http://schultzstm.pbworks.com/Young-Adult-Readers-%40-the-Titusville-Library

Since we've been talking about Wikis so much in this class as well as my other courses, I decided to try my hand at this.  I found a local librarian who has a Wiki for her YA Collection (http://sbateensread.wikispaces.com/)  while doing my Collection Development Project.  I used a lot of her ideas, then changed the information to reflect what my collection contained.  I'm not really good with this yet, as you can see, but I tried to make it sort of like I would a blog.

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Library marketing

Collection Development class discussion
I’m the moderator for the discussion this week so I have to stay on top of things.
Please pick one promotional activities and talk about it. What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages? In what circumstances do you think you would use it? Also, what kinds of promotional activities have you seen from your local libraries? Do you think it was effective? Why or why not?
I’ve seen a lot of various marketing strategies at my local public library. The website was revamped and is a lot more modern and cleaner looking. It has more zing. I think that will attract people more, especially in the library itself – for a while they still had computers with text based only card catalog search capabilities. I’ve seen the same library have information on their webpage but I’m not sure how much viewing it gets. For example, since I’ve been interested in the YA section of the Children’s library, I did not see much listed online at their old website regarding Books Clubs and activities for teens. Now that I’ve been in the library more and snooped around on their new website they have tons of Teen Space stuff. Still a lot of it is not updated. I would love to have a job where I did that kind of marketing in my library. The webpages need to be updated and fancied up as much as possible to keep the views and interest coming in.
I also bought the Friends of the library tote bag they have on sale too. The Friends’ website, incidentally, is so outdated looking that I chose it for my Web Development class project.
Please post the bibliography of your selection tools that you used to develop your collection. Also, please answer this question: What did you think about the assignment? What did you learn about collection development? This should be an informal comment. I just want you all to talk about your experience. You'll be doing a formal reflection for the assignment next week.
I really did enjoy the project, I'll say that up front.  However, I still contend that this was one of, if not the most, difficult things I've done in school before.  I still wonder if librarians do this start from scratch type of collection development often.  I understand we needed to learn how to pick and chose carefully as to what we will include in our collection.  I found that fun in the beginning.  I was very interested to see the similarities in what kinds of books libraries and bookstores had.  Still, it was quite time consuming, just by listing everything.  I took notes throughout the project but it was the actual listing, organizing, polishing, choosing the best justification, etc.  That was the most difficult for me.  And, as I said before, after $2000 worth, I didn't feel like I had even scratched the surface. There are so many great books and great magazines for teens that I would love to pick and choose a little of everything. It really opened my eyes to the world of teen literature.
In my bibliography I listed every thing I ever used to gather any kind of information in my collection.
Personal stuff
35 days until Steve gets here!  No wonder I’m finding it hard to concentrate on grading – I just want to get ready for him to be here!

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Collection Assessment

Collection Development class discussion

This question focuses on different collection evaluation methods. The textbook and the articles talk about different methods to evaluate collections. Please pick one method and talk about it. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each method?

Circulation studies seems like a fairly easy method to deciding if the materials on the shelves are something your patrons are interested in. If you have a collection with books that have not been checked out in several years, maybe it’s time to add that to the library book sale next time and look for books that will be of more interest. However, if we look at the circulation as “the adequacy of the book collection is directly related to its usage” idea, then we may be weeding out some valuable, classic literature that just hasn’t been checked out for a while (Evans 326). That is not to say that a student in the near future will not want to do a project on Mark Twain and will be interested in checking out his works (for example).

This module is all about collection evaluation and collection assessment. For the collection that you are developing in this class, what are the methods you would use to assess your collection and why?

For my YA serialized novel collection, I would definitely have to keep tabs on the circulation of each book. Even if it’s something I view as good as an expert (choosing something recommended in Booklist or something I saw at the bookstore that seemed interesting) that doesn’t mean my teen patrons will be interested. I would try to “push” a book like that through the Book Club and Teen Space website, but if that fails, I would look to see the use of other libraries statistics. If the book is doing well at another county library, then I’ll keep the book on the shelf for longer in hopes the interest will pick up.

Teaching

The semester is almost over and I keep getting late work turned in.  This weekend will be all about me getting these last grades in for their Drama Unit and then by next Wednesday all the Literary Criticism work (and the inevitable last minute work) will be turned in.  I’ll also have to give them the Final Exam that day too.  Then finals will be done, grades will be put in and everything will be done for the term.  It’s been fun.  I’ve enjoyed working BCC quite a lot. 

Personal stuff

Once school is over, I’ll be doing mad cleaning and getting ready for Steve to arrive.  Then it will be Disney vacation time!

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Assignment Completed: Collection project

Comments to my professor:

I know we didn’t have to write a reflection, but I wanted to mention that I have 7 total items because the assignment says “at least three other formats.” I found this assignment very difficult just in time consumption. Every book has positive reviews but since I’m working with sets, it was harder to find a positive review for each book in every set that I had wanted. I thought I’d be smart and find books in Booklist first, then find a second positive review. I went to a couple of libraries numerous times as well as looking through the Teen Fiction section of Barnes and Noble. There’s plenty to choose from and I feel I only scratched the surface.

This helped me learn a lot though. I enjoyed the project all in all but this was the toughest assignment I’ve ever come across. Would we have to start from scratch like this a lot as a librarian, or does a vendor make this part easier?

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Internet

In searching for other internet sources that are pertainant to my blog, I went to Bing.com and searched "florida elementary school library". I found Florida Bible Christian School (http://www.floridabible.org/school/library/elementary.htm), which has direct links to Broward County Kids' Catalog Web Site, eBrary and ProQuest, which students must have a username and password, given to them by the school library, to access. I find this wonderful for showing students how to search other databases instead of having just information about the library, as some school library sites had. I can see using this as the library's home page and then teaching students to search various databases from there.

Visual / Multimedia

Looking for school library graphs and charts, I came across this cable graph. In Milford, MA, they have meetings at Town Hall once a month to discuss issues that residents have. This chart indicates the grants given to various establishments in Milford to have free cable. Most of the money has gone to the schools, and 19% of that money has gone to the Milford High School media center. The website states that,"The infrastructure fund was used to establish wireless internet service in the library, update the MHS and Comcast Studios with digital editing equipment and implement a new bulletin board system for the School Channel." I am so glad to know that the community backs and supports school libraries and the learning process that extends from books into multimedia avenues.

Graph source: http://www.milford.ma.us/cable.htm

Image

Searching for an image in Bing.com, I looked up "pre-kindergarten library" and found this. I chose this image because it shows what an elementary school library could look like. I also liked this image because the school where the image was taken, Ecole Parkside School, says that they include extra student involvement with the library by joining the Library Club where "Students from grades 4, 5 and 6 are invited to assist in the operation of the library at noon and after school. They shelve books and help to process new acquisitions." A very neat way to get students involved!

Library image source: http://www.gppsd.ab.ca/school/parkside/ProgramsServices/Library/Pages/default.aspx

Citation Pearl Growing Search in WorldCat

For this search, since I had to go as specific as possible, first, I chose an article from my previous search: "School Readiness and Pre-Kindergarten Programs" by Nancy McEntire. I used the terms s au=mcentire and s ti=school. I did not recall the name of the journal, so I tried with these two terms first. This produced results, but McEntire, Nancy was not listed in the database. If I, again, go back to other searches, "Science Books & Films' best books for children, 1992-1995 (book review)" from Booklist, may be retrievable in WorldCat. I tried s ti=science, and s pu=booklist. No results. Next I had to try one of the other book reviews, such as the one I found on "Footprints in the Snow" by Beverly Combs, published by Library Media Connection. I tried s ti=footprints, s su=combs and s pu=library and ended up with no results. By just searching "Combs" I could find articles, but none by Beverly Combs. If I took one of my failed results, I could look up the article, "Writing from the heart : inspiration for the writer's heart" by Erica Combs, published in More Heart Than Talent Publishing, Inc. I go back and search s ti=writing, s au=combs and s pu=more. This pulls up the article immediately. I guess if you're going to look for a specific article, it's a lot harder to find the right database that carries it. Using a cross-reference database would have produced better results.

Successful Fractions Search in Library Lit

With the specific facet approach, I didn't have a completely narrow topic to begin with. Now, with the successful fractions search, I will have to purposely narrow by adding facets. To try and change things, I will go backwards from my last search, and begin with "fiction". Undoubtedly that will have a huge number of hits. I search "fiction" and get 5495 hits. If I add the second facet of "books", this will still cause a lot of hits, I'm sure. It does: 2823 hits. Now, when I add on the third, most narrow term I had, "prekindergarten", I end up with 0 hits. I go back and try the spelling again, first with "pre-kindergarten", which does not good, then "pre kindergarten" which leaves me with no hits. I have to eliminate the "pre" and use the word "kindergarten" as my third facet term, and now I have 3 hits. These hits include only abstracts and only articles. However, the third article, "Science Books & Films' best books for children, 1992-1995 (book review)" is a good article to use, if I can find it in full test. Too bad it is over 10 years old though.

Specific Facet First Search in ASC

Since my building block search in ERIC did not give me many books listed for toddlers, I used ASC to find books for those aged students. To search for the facet with the fewest hits first, I chose to look up "prekindergarten" which gave me 468 hits. The second facet I added was "books" which gave me 42 hits. Since some of these are scholarly articles that are about school programs (such as the article, "School Readiness and Pre-Kindergarten Programs" By: McEntire, Nancy), I chose another facet. My next facet term was "fiction". This gave me 4 results of good, books to read in a Prekindergarten classroom: "Footprints in the Snow", "Penguins", "Smelly Peter: The Great Pea Eater" and "The All-I'll-Ever-Want Christmas Doll." These are books reviews that were published in 2007, for the last book and the rest were all published in 2009. This is a good start in creating a Pre-Kindergarten library.

Building Block Search in ERIC

For my Building Block search, I took the query, “What reading books are recommended for Kindergarten students when beginning school?” This search can be narrowed down to s1: reading s2: books s3: kindergarten. I narrowed the search by Education Level: kindergarten as well. I wish to find examples of books that I could use in a school library for kindergarten children.
One of my results is "March of the Penguins: Building Knowledge in a Kindergarten Classroom." While this is an article describing how to teach the same principles of reading strategies with read-alouds and vocabulary building. For a young audience, the visuals along with the words created a tremendous learning tool. The author of the article, Lauren Fingeret, also give information on lessons and tables indicating tested results of those skills.
While this article does not discuss a book, it is quite useful in knowing that I can look for the film and give teachers the lesson plan information. Since Reading strategies go beyond books, I find this a very useful and unexpected search result.

Tagging / Indexing / Cataloging

I searched under "school library" in Library Thing and found this tag cloud:

2001 reads(1) 2004(1) 2007(1) 20th Century(4) 21st c.(1) academic libraries(1) advocacy(1) Australian(2) Autobiography(1) books(1) Books and Reading(2) budgeting(1) censorship(1) collection development(1) copyright(1) database(1) education(5) Fiction(1) gt(1) in(1) information literacy(10) information science(1) intellectual property(1) lesson planning(2) librarians(3) Librarianship(1) libraries(7) library(1) library science(4) management(2) non-fiction(5) public libraries(1) read(1) reading(2) special collections(1) standards(1) teaching(8) technology(1) vintage(1)

The tag cloud and information for "school library" is at the following link: http://www.librarything.com/tag/school+library

Within that search for school libraries, I found a book entitled Library 101: A Handbook for the School Library Media Specialist. This book is a good resource for a career in school librarianship . Another good resource I found was New on the Job: A School Library Media Specialist's Guide to Success, which I would think would serve its purpose in what the title indicates. Having a simple guide to begin your career in school librarianship would be very important to have in your personal library. This book comes highly recommended at Amazon for any first year school librarians, especially elementary school librarians.

RSS

I looked extensively through the ALA RSS feeds list but most of the Children's Literature feeds were only to Wikipedia sites. The updates would only be for changes made to the Wiki site. The RSS feed for the ALSC is not working for that Wiki so I chose to search for "children's literature library blog rss" in Google. There I came across the site that I used my first relevant blog post on, which is the ESSL Children's Literature Blog. I have added this blog's RSS feed to my sidebar.
http://www.library.illinois.edu/blog/esslchildlit/index.xml
Having a list of books that is theme appropriate for all ages is a wonderful resource for a school librarian. Since there is a vast difference between a 7th grader and a 12th grader at a junior/senior high school, having these kinds of book lists handy will help find material for students of various age groups and reading levels.

Podcast

Using iTunes store, I searched for "library" in the podcasts and found "Cool Tools for Library 2.0". As the introduction stated, this podcast is mainly for educational purposes and shows what kinds of tools to use in the classroom and the school media center. For working with students, having new and interesting tools to use to get students engaged in lessons and in what the library has to offer is always essential. It's good to have these kinds of up-to-date posts about new technologies that will work in a school environment. The podcast shows examples and helps the librarian know how to use these kinds of tools for a young audience.

Their blog address is http://cooltoolslibrary2.blogspot.com/

Related Blog

I used Google Blog Search to find the following blog article. It is from the Children's Literature at the Education & Social Services Library. http://www.library.illinois.edu/blog/esslchildlit/archives/2008/08/sibling_rivalry.html
I found this article to have relevance to my blog's theme, as it is important to find books that children can relate to. This article shows a list of various books regarding the theme of sibling rivalry, and lists books for all age groups.
As the article states, "Conflict between siblings is a universal theme. Stories about famous siblings from Cain and Abel to Venus and Serena Williams have captivated people throughout the centuries. The following books explore the frustrations of sharing Mom and Dad's attention, dealing with annoying younger brothers and sisters, and learning to appreciate each other."
Having books available that interest children gets them reading and engaged in the task. This is important, not only for young children who are learning to read and are experiencing a new sibling into the family, but for middle ages and teens as well where these issues are still prevelant, and, perhaps, more difficult.