Library Log

The Votes are In - Kindle Rocks!

2010-03-02T13:53:00.002-06:00

During my last post, I mentioned that we had purchased two Kindle eBook readers for the OE Library. I'd like to tell you about some of the features, in bulleted format:

- Very slim design (we have the second generation Kindle models). For more information on the various models, see: www.amazon.com
- Super short learning curve. However, these Kindles are packed with features we are still discovering. So, in short, you can be up and reading within minutes. Later, when you explore, you will discover all sorts of cool ways to use this device (such as using the cursor to "hover" in front of a word for which you need a definition -- one will appear the bottom of the screen).
- Instantaneous gratification. With Kindle's Whispernet technology (their wireless platform) you will be able to search the Amazon store for titles, and download them extremely quickly. I found this to be true at home, on the subway in Chicago, on a train, and in our car out in the middle of nowhere (Iowa)!
- Buyer's remorse? Not a problem. With the Kindle, if you accidently order a book you really don't want, you can immediately retrieve that purchase.
- Large font sizes are available. For middle-aged people, and younger students, this is a great boon. If you don't need a large font size, then you can simply arrange the type to appear in the size that is most comfortable for you.
- Lightweight - the Kindle is super easy to throw into a purse, backpack, messenger bag, tote bag, etc. It is small, thin, and weighs less than a pound. When you realize just how many novels you can load into the Kindle, it is hard to believe that you will never develop back strain (or even hand strain) from using large, heavy books.

I could go on and on, but I also want to mention that we are still exploring. How will we use this semi-fragile device with students? Is there a protective, and yet rigid, skin we can purchase to protect the screen? I like the idea of using Kindles for students who are not comfortable reading text yet, operating the text read-aloud function as an aid for helping them to decode text as they hear it being read aloud.

And, because I am reviewing this product, I do have a couple of suggestions for Amazon:

1. Build a backlight into the Kindle design. For those who like to read in bed, on a darkened plane, train, or automobile, or in a situation where you don't want to disturb others (maybe you arrived at the movie theater early to get your seat and have a 30-minute wait), a backlight would be most welcome.

2. The search interface isn't pretty. It works, but there must be a way to make searching the Kindle store into a more seamless experience as it is with Amazon on the PC or Mac. You have a better experience searching if you know the title ahead of time, rather than simply going on a fun search. I recommend looking at the New York Times bestseller list as a starting place. I also wish the buyer reviews were easier to access.

My next post will be about revisiting a fun, elementary school event right here in our high school. Coming soon in April! Oh, and Happy Birthday to you, Dr. Seuss. I still remember my days of reading about Yertle the Turtle!

Testing: Amazon's Kindle

2009-12-17T15:14:00.002-06:00

Whoopie! We bought two Amazon Kindles this semester. I will be testing them out over the winter break and plan to write a review for library users and teacher-librarians. Some questions I'll be looking to answer include:

- Is there a backup via Amazon's server for books I order? The Kindle stores a certain amount of data, but it is not infinite. And as we all know, data does get lost. Often.
- Is the read-aloud text feature reliable and actually usable? I've heard text read aloud by machines, and it isn't always pretty.
- How sturdy is the Kindle? I'm thinking in terms of checking it out to students and teachers.
- What is the process for wiping out prior book purchases and then reloading them?
- What are ways that the Kindle might be used with visually impaired students (text size can be increased, but what else might be helpful)?
- How can I integrate this technology into the curriculum?
- How might this device be used with students who have learning disabilities?

I did get over the first hump regarding purchsing the Kindles. Amazon charges sales tax, and will later remove it if you request that they do so. Because we are a public school, we must not allow sales tax to accrue for any items we purchase. I discovered that the process for having sales tax refunded is actually very straighforward and simple with Amazon. I was impressed - if only all financial arrangements in life were so simple...If you want to know whom to contact at Amazon for requesting a sales tax refund for tax-exempt purchases, please contact me. I'll be happy to share what I've learned.

Meanwhile - have a wonderful break, students, teachers and all readers, and enjoy the extra time to try out some new novels and non-fiction. Happy reading!

Library Support Personnel

2009-11-19T12:18:00.002-06:00

Woe is me! I miss my clerk this week. She's been home for several days, terribly ill and struggling to feel better. I have been reminded daily of how crucial she is to the performance of our library program. This year her presence especially hits home, because in our high school libraries we had cuts to LMS staffing; each high school now has one full time, certified library media specialist and one (almost) full time clerk. Last year, we had an additional half-time LMS (Mrs. Reeves), and this library functioned very successfully between the three of us.

This semester, I know I've dropped the ball on some things. We haven't had a major library contest yet. The video collection conversion from title to Dewey is dragging. I cannot travel as easily to classrooms for technology problem solving. I find myself staggering class instruction so that I am not delivering teaching for seven hours per day.

Don't get me wrong. We are still very viable and alive. When our last book order arrived, we had a sensational day sharing books and snacks with students and staff. We are having a great time with the Library Club (meet us at AMC 30, Monday, Nov. 23 at 3:45 p.m. for New Moon). Cirulation figures are off the charts. The library just played a huge part in a schoolwide Veteran's Day celebration that involved many different events and performances.

But when cuts are made, programs suffer. If I were to also lose our wonderful library clerk, Mrs. Curbow, I do not know how I would continue striving to provide an exemplary program and still keep my head above water. Mrs. Curbow is the first point of entry in our library, and she handles a great deal of customer service up front, allowing me to perform programming work on the side. This week without her has made me appreciate her help and caring attitude all the more!

The decisions that school districts are making today are grave ones that affect much more than a budget. They affect the functioning of lively, engaging school library programs run by certified teacher-librarians who are invested in students and their learning. Those librarians need adequate staffing to help them provide exemplary programs. What a shame if budgetary constraints dictate wrong decisions that ultimately wind up hurting our student populations...

We are back in business!

2009-11-06T12:16:00.001-06:00

Library Log is up and running again. I strayed to WordPress, but ultimately decided that our students and staff are best served by using Dreamweaver for the library web page, and Blogger for the Library Log blog. I'm looking forward to sharing news about the Olathe East Library Media Center with students, staff, and our community.

Mrs. Franklin

Hey Seniors! Bring Back Those Books!

2009-04-21T18:22:00.004-06:00

Dear Soon-to-be-graduates:

We are a fun place. We provide a myriad variety of services for all of our patrons. Remember the day we served nachos and cheese, just because? Or the fun library parties, complete with gorgeous new books, prize drawings, and candy? We are all about books, and young people. And sometimes, food. We are not in the business of charging overdue fines.

However, as the last day of school for senior students approaches, we do hold our wonderful students to one expectation: making good on their library accounts. What does this look like?

1. Return your library books by May 15.
2. If you've borrowed a book and lost it, please pay for it.
3. If you've borrowed a book and damaged it, please pay for it.

Come, bring your books back to the library. If you need to make payment, please bring either cash or a check made out to: Olathe East. If you return your books,we'll probably do a cheer for you! We might even jump up and down. We want your graduation checkout process to go as smoothly as possible. Taking care of this portion will complete one more item off of your checklist!

Students, our goal is to have all books returned and to avoid having any students have to pay for materials. We look forward to seeing you in the next few weeks.

And yes, we are going to miss you so much! Your visits have been a source of fun, wonder, inspiration, and many good experiences.

The OE Library Staff - Mrs. Franklin, Mrs. Reeves, and Mrs. Curbow

Web 2.0 for Teacher-Librarians

2009-03-12T21:09:00.001-06:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Web 2.0 for Teacher-Librarians

View more presentations from Lori Franklin.

Updates, Club News and Movies!

2008-12-10T10:24:00.005-06:00

The first semester passed by so quickly at Olathe East, that I did not take time to blog! We saw a tremendous amount of classes in the OE LMC for instruction, research projects and other visits. Our numbers attending Academic Resource Time (ART) and Seminar are up over the previous year's figures. These increased visits make our library a very busy place, and we have been strategizing how we'll handle increased numbers of students when the 9th graders move up to high school (2011-2012). The library will not be having additional space added, so we will need to be careful and thoughtful about how we manage an increase of 500+ more students. One suggestion is to convert our office area into an instructional space. Because we have moved our desks out onto the library floor, this is viable and may well free up space currently used by our instructional section.

The Reading Club has been meeting regularly. Club members worked together last week to sign and decorate Christmas cards for our U.S. soldiers stationed overseas. We were so pleased with the caring and creativity our students expressed at our work party. Of course, food, drink and holiday music rounded out the event!

Last month, several students, teachers and I attended "Twilight." It was so much fun to see how the movie captured certain aspects of Stephenie Meyer's first novel. Of course, when a book is translated to a movie, there are often many details left out and this was the case here. Still, the movie was enjoyable and from what I've read, it looks like the second film will be created, aligning with New Moon. At first, I did not like the way Edward looked (based on my own preconception of what he might look like), but as the movie played, he grew on me. It was a fun afternoon activity!

We are so delighted to have a new library clerk, Kathy Curbow. She loves working with young adults, and has a lot of experience. A library clerk is often the first point of contact in this setting, and we are especially pleased that Kathy exudes such a warm, welcoming presence for our students and teachers. If you haven't met her yet, please stop by and say, "Hello."

We are wrapping up this semester and eagerly looking forward to 2009. One of my resolutions for the new year is to update this blog more often. Be watching for previews of new books we've ordered, and for upcoming library celebrations. Hint: one day next week we will be giving away cookies to our Seminar attendees!

The Twilight Series Phenomenon

2008-09-12T14:04:00.004-06:00

By now, you've no doubt heard about Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. We have six copies of each title and cannot keep them from flying off of our library shelves. Really, what is so great about a love story between an average high school girl and a guy (well, let's just say "supernatural" doesn't really begin to describe him) who has piqued her interest?

I've read Twilight and New Moon. I want to read Eclipse. But I am making myself wait. Why? Because I need to get my life back! I need to study for classes I am taking. Instead I've been plugging into my iPod and listening to the adventures of Bella and Edward for hours and hours and putting off all sorts of important things in my home that simply must be accomplished! I'm giving myself a two-week break to try not to muse about Meyer's exciting books, and to focus on reality instead...

And honestly, I cannot wait to download the third book. I'm dreading beginning the fourth book, Breaking Dawn, because I know that the series will then be complete, and I'll have to quit living in Meyer's world, until I find another series worthy of my attention. I've thought a lot about the Twilight series, and here are the reasons why I think Meyer's books are so popular with readers:

The main character, Bella, is just an ordinary girl who has to shuffle off to a new high school, in a strange small town, and mostly just wants to get through the first few days of school. She also wants it to stop raining, which is nearly never does, because the story is set in the Pacific Northwest.
Edward is such an enigma. He's smouldering, angry, contemptuous, and yet at the same time, hugely appealing and even protective. Clearly, he's enough to keep any girl on her toes, trying to figure out how make him happy. I also forgot to mention one other character trait: he's drop dead gorgeous!
Bella's character shows growth and spunk, especially from her first, somewhat hapless days at school as she gets to know the kids who go there. With time, and anger, she develops into a feisty woman prepared to make important decisions that will affect the rest of her life.
Meyer really taps into the intensity, and the extreme joys and sadnesses of a first true love. The stories she weaves reminds readers of the first time they fell hard for somebody, and went through all of the accompanying emotions, and even physical reactions. When Bella looks at Edward, she can hardly speak, let alone think. She feels as if her heart will break right out of her chest, because it is pounding so hard.
I've watched boys, girls, twenty-somethings, married couples, and parents enjoy this series - it has huge crossover appeal for a variety of people in different situations in their lives. Several teachers at Olathe East are talking daily about the characters and the events that motivate them to act as they do.
Simply said, word-of-mouth is one of the most powerful forms of advertising. This book has legs like the Harry Potter series, even if sales figures don't necessarily match up.
Finally, Meyer is an excellent storyteller. She gives enough detail to paint a picture, but at the same time knows not to give too much away, especially early on. She's been criticized for using too many adjectives in her writing, but aside from the occasional awkward phrase, her stories just work. And work, and work, and work.
This is one of those cases, where I resisted reading a book for a long time. I scoffed, "Yeah right, it's some love story/vampire thing." Oh but readers, it is so much more than that. And while I wish I'd dived in earlier, I cannot complain and as I mentioned, I dread finishing up the final book in the series. I also resisted reading Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card) for years, and after finishing the entire series, could have kicked myself for not giving it a try sooner. Same deal with Lonesome Dove (Larry McMurtry).

If you've finished reading the Twilight series and you need a vampire book fix, consider Anne Rice's Interview with a Vampire. Again, great storytelling, compelling characters, and a swirling plot all come together for an exicting read. Yes, it is part of a series! So if you get hooked...

Drop by the Olathe East library for more suggestions about great books to read. We'll spend time with you, and help you find what will work. We welcome suggestions from students, teachers, parents and our community about other great reads to stock in our library.

Summer's Over, Baby...Time to Rock 'n' Roll!

2008-08-21T18:45:00.012-06:00

Mrs. Reeves and I are so happy to be back in the Olathe East Library, greeting a new school year. As always, it is a pleasure to catch up with former students and to notice how much they grew over the summer months! We've met some really fun sophomores who are excited about checking out a new library setting. We created an awesome, relaxing area surrounded by magazines, interesting books to look at, and cool toys for exploration!

We welcome a new library clerk, Martha Credit. Mrs. Credit has extensive experience serving QUEST students in the past, and has enthusiastically joined our team in the library. Be sure and say "Hello" when you see her in the library.

Once again, we are excited about providing students with an alternative place to eat lunch during fifth hour. I am always pleased to see our students treating the library with care, in terms of cleaning up after themselves.

Best of all, it's time for another great Book Party! Please join us all day Tuesday, Aug. 26, as we unveil our newest book offerings and provide treats for our patrons. This year we have scheduled the Language Arts classes to bring their students for visits. Our Book Party also aligns with the curriculum: students will self-select from a variety of literary offerings. The Language Arts department has a new requirement for students at Olathe East - they each need to have a book to read daily during class time. We encourage students to drop in and choose from a variety of genres, including an extensive Manga selection.

Next week: Library Club Sign Up!

Summer is a great time to:

2008-06-06T12:12:00.002-06:00

Summer (blessed summer) is a great time to:

1. Buy airline tickets in advance (on Good Morning America today, a special report cautioned air travelers to make advance purchases because airfares continue to rise).
2. Prepare for the ESU SLIM Summer Institute for School Librarians! See you all there on June 11-12, 2008.
3. Finish up POs and other financial paperwork from the fiscal year.
4. Order books so they'll be ready for the first day of school in August.
5. Read novels of all types.
6. Study.
7. Take a trip somewhere fun.
8. Enjoy all of the extra light we have from the early morning until around 9 p.m.
9. Hunker down when those tornado sirens go off (and based on this year's storm patterns, I think we haven't heard the last of those sirens).
10. Relax, even if you are busy doing other things.
11. Get organized.
12. Plant some flowers.
13. Update your web page and/or blog.
14. Take more time to connect with friends and family.
15. Cook out on the grill!

Senior Countdown is On!

2008-04-25T14:47:00.005-06:00

Our seniors at Olathe East have just a few more days of school left. I'm sure that time seems like an eternity to them. This is the culmination of 13 years of formal schooling. There are so many library media skills that we would like for them to tuck under those graduation caps for when they enter the world beyond high school:

1. Locating Information. The sounds simple enough, doesn't it? Locating pertinent information is often an early stumbling block to successful searching. But in order to locate the "good stuff," our students should be:
2. Knowing What They are Looking For. Being able to tell with some precision what you are attempting to find will cause an information search to be smoother, and will result in better results. Some people call this the Essential Question (like our good friends from Intel). Along with knowing what you are looking for comes another important skill:
3. Filtering. Out of the incredible information overload existing in today's media-rich world, students need to be able to get to the meat of their search. Of course, in their world, they'd like to find what they need nearly instantly. Filtering often means spending time, and unfortunately, this competes with other distractions in adolescent lives: jobs, after-school activities, sports, relationships, families, etc. Along with filtering, we'd like for our teens to be comfortable:
4. Analyzing Information. It's one thing to print out three reports on a single topic. But what do those reports really mean and how can that information be used to gain in personal knowledge? And, did those reports come from reputable sources? This is challenging to teach to anybody, no matter how old they are. When our students are able to deeply learn about their subject matter, they are ready for:
5. Using Information. They need to know how to place their knowledge in different media formats according to teacher requirements. PowerPoint slides call for different types of information sharing than do formal research reports. Finally, we hope that they will understand about:
6. Evaluating Information. Facts are only as good as the myriad ways you can use them for understanding. If young adults discover that databases provide valid, reliable and useful information, they may conclude that they will return to use them in the future for other assignments. They may also learn that Wikipedia is an incredibly fun site to visit, but that most teachers will not allow it as a source for a research paper or project. We've heard about so many teachers banning Wikipedia and Google. Instead, we need to teach our young people how to co-exist within many formats of information, and to determine the best sources for their individual and changing needs.

If these items sound familiar, it is because they are frequently taught in library media centers under different "packagaging" - you may have heard of some of them: Big 6, I-Search, Handy 5, etc. What is important here is that students learn the process of information seeking and retrieval. This is what we wish for our graduating seniors, who are heading out into a world filled with ever-changing and flowing information channels all around them. They need these tools to exist and to make decisions about their lives and their education. They need to be critical users of information and ask questions such as "Why?" and "So what does this mean for me?"

We're tremendously proud of and excited for our senior students. We wish them well in their future lives and in the information worlds they will inhabit!

Media Nights

2008-04-08T20:19:00.003-06:00

There are only three Media Nights left for this school year. Make sure you take advantage of these opportunities to complete assignments or exams. Remember - Media Nights are scheduled from 6-9 p.m. in the OE LMC. This year's final dates are tonight (April 8), April 22 and May 13.

In other news, our students are working hard on math assessments. What does this mean for a school library? With online testing, it means that we provide spaces, time and assistance for classes who are temporarily moved to accommodate test-takers. This week we've been busy hosting several classes with differing needs for technologies. Our laptop carts have been reserved for assessments, so we have been creative with scheduling solutions to help elective teachers. At times, we've had four different classes all using the LMC at the same time.

Finally, I would be remiss if I did not comment on the attire of our students today. After the Jayhawks won the coveted national title in San Antonio, our young adults turned out in full blue and red regalia. It was an exciting day, hearing about all of the different aspects of the game enjoyed by students and staff alike. Many of our faculty attended KU, so there was much rejoicing today.

Read Across America

2008-03-06T13:20:00.002-06:00

This week's Read Across America celebration was a wonderful success. We enjoyed a wonderful day filled with cake, new reading selections, surprise guest readers and prize drawings. We will hold another library celebration day in April for National Library Week.

Meanwhile, we are supporting ongoing assessments at Olathe East. We provide space and time for classes that need to be relocated temporarily for assessment procedures. We have also been working with students to finalize research papers that are due this week. We've seen a lot of last-minute questions about creating MLA citations and making Works Cited pages. There are several online citation generators available on the Web for students, and we frequently experiment to find the most useful ones. Our current favorite is BibMe. This site can create fairly complete citations from a book's ISBN alone. It will also help students generate citations for electronic sources, including databases.

The previous week, we hosted the OE guidance counselors as they walked several classes through our first online enrollment process. Everything went smoothly. I overhead several students comment on how easy it was to go online to sign up for next year's classes. Once again, we had several library aide requests, so I know we'll have between one to three students working with us every hour. For more information about the online enrollment process, visit the OE Guidance Counselor's Office.

Hiroshima, Political Parties and Spanish Artists

2008-02-09T16:48:00.000-06:00

The past six weeks in the Olathe East library, we've been working with a variety of classroom teachers to help deliver database and library media skills instruction for many different projects. One aspect of focus has been the atomic bomb. Was President Harry Truman justified in dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima? Our students were asked to research both sides of this event in history. They then used the knowledge they gained to help determine a personal viewpoint, and provided resources to back up their opinions.

This might sound easy, but I noticed a lot of students who would have preferred to provide two viewpoints: why this action was justified, and why it was not. On one hand, our young people easily provided me with a list of why dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima (and later Nagasaki) was a crucial step in ending World War II. On the other hand, I saw students questioning the lasting effects of Truman's decision, especially in terms of loss of life and ongoing medical and environmental issues.

I really enjoy working on critical thinking assignments that require more from students than simply looking up a topic and regurgitating material. There are no fast and easy answers. You might find a lot of information in Wikipedia on this topic, for example, but synthesis and analysis must be developed from time spent reading resources, thinking about the decisions that were made, and comparing possible answers. I believe performing research such as this is practical, and fits in well with problem solving. It is such a stretch from the topical papers I was assigned to write when I was in high school. I am looking forward to reading the final results, and to speaking with our American History teachers to see how well they believe students performed on this assignment. I know our discussions will aide us greatly as we plan for next year's assignments.

And isn't this entire process typical of life in general? You try out something, step back and see 1) whether or not it worked and 2) how well it worked, and 3) what you might have done differently to create a variable outcome. These are all skills that relate directly to the library media curriculum we are entrusted to teach to our high schoolers. But more importantly, in my viewpoint, they are powerful skills that tie directly to lifelong learning. I feel strongly that our juniors will remember the analytical and comparative steps involved in this process the next time they have an issue or concern to research.

We are also working on units involving several departments: Spanish, French, Sociology, AP American History, College Prep English IV, Careers and Science. From observation, we've determined that providing handouts of our database guidelines (tailored to assignment requirements) helps students stay focused and within the updated, valid research databases we purchase.

Just like the process our students went through to provide justification for Truman's decision, teaching database research skills is an ongoing process, and we frequently step back and discuss what worked and what did not. Then we modify. For example, students do not want to hear an entire hour's worth of talk about which databases they should be using. They prefer tailored examples, with hard copy handouts. They also need a circulating library media specialist who is approachable and enthusiastic about walking them through the steps of searching. And even with the wealth of electronic resources available at their fingertips, there will always be students (and teachers) who prefer print materials.

Ready for Relaxation

2007-12-18T15:28:00.000-06:00

Our students and teachers are ready for a couple of weeks of R&R. Before you know it, we'll be back in school preparing for more learning experiences. First up will be an American History research project. We'll also be gearing up for an intensive poetry project with our College Prep English IV students.

I was so pleased today to see many of our young adults checking out books to read over the break. One ambitious young lady even checked out five books. I plan to enjoy a mixture of reading, relaxing, and enjoying time with my family.

Our first semester at OE went by very quickly and when we return, we'll have less than five months until graduation rolls around. In our school media center, this means that the library staff will have numerous opportunities to connect with students and to provide instruction for using library resources. When our young people begin their post-secondary educational journeys, we want them to feel comfortable locating, using, synthesizing and evaluating information resources from a variety of providers.

See you next year!

Code Read in Action!

2007-11-01T12:58:00.000-06:00

Code Read is off and running! Today we met and worked on our first service project. We are collecting books for kids and working with a group from the Johnson County Christmas Bureau. Our club kids today worked on creating posters, flyers and decorating book collection boxes. The book drive will occur from Nov. 5-Nov. 16. We are fortunate to have classroom teachers who enthusiastically support our goals and have agreed to provide space for our book collection boxes.

After we've finished collecting books, we've also pledged to donate $75 from our club, in conjunction with $25 from a neighborhood group. Together we will spend $100 at the Scholastic Warehouse to buy new books for children, including books written in Spanish.

Here's what I love about our club (by the way, Code Read is prounounced using the past tense for read):

- we have a huge variety of wonderful students in our club

- they are eager to help others

- the jump right into a job we give them

- they love to eat while they work

- they come up with ideas for improving ways we can do projects

- different members have quickly and confidently taken on leadership roles

- they get along really well, even though some of them had never met before

One thing I should mention about Code Read. We aren't exclusive. If members tell us they don't like reading books, we don't bug them about it. We know they probably do reading in other formats (online, listening to books on CD, magazines, newspapers, 'zines, podcasting, graphic novels, manga, etc.) Our only requirement for membership is that our participants love libraries! So far, so good.

Selling Our "Stuff"

2007-10-24T12:13:00.000-06:00

We've noticed an interesting phenomenon in the OE LMC lately. Students are coming in to search for books for their senior college-prep English classes. They have a reading requirement this year and these kids actually earn points for bringing books to class and they are given a set amount of time each week to enjoy reading them. We also have a bunch of sophomores who love to read and are excited to visit and check out our offerings. Of course, we have book lovers amongst all of our students. We also have young people who need a bit of encouragement to plunge into their next reading adventure.

Right now, we have a lot of gorgeous, shiny new books in our library. We place many of them on our "New Books" shelving and sometimes when a student cannot decide which type of book to read, we direct them to this area. We also display them on top of our wood shelves throughout the library. However, we don't put all of them out at once.

Here's where the phenomenon comes in. The books that are brand new, but haven't yet been enticingly placed on the shelves, are arranged in cupboards in our workroom. We like to put out a few new ones every week to keep our collection fresh. So when we get a customer who is not finding what he or she needs, we casually glance around and then tell them, "You know, we've got some brand new books in the back. Nobody's really seen them yet..." Then we shrug our shoulders. Wait a few seconds. Ask: "Would you like to see them?"

Voila! Instant satisfied book customer! We stand in front of the cupboards with the student (sometimes it's a small group of students) and we pull down specific titles and share what we know about each item. Young people love knowing they are the first to check out a brand new book, and so do adults for that matter...I know if I were at Borders, just browsing, and an employee happened to mention that they had the latest great stuff in the back room, and then asked me if I'd like to see it all, I'd jump on the opportunity.

Once again, it all comes down to customer service. No, a school library is not a Borders bookstore. But why can't we borrow some of the large bookstores' marketing techniques? These might look like:

- using display easels to showcase attractive covers
- scattering large-size books at our end tables in the comfortable seating area
- providing interesting items to touch and explore
- using displays to describe book genres and plots
- soliciting instant user recommendations from other teachers, staff and students
- treating our customers as valued clientele

I'll also admit that we've got the whole great coffee aroma thing going, from our teacher/staff bistro area. But that's a whole 'nother blog. Right now, we are tickled pink that those trips to the cupboard are yielding an increased interest in the books we offer for students.

Evolution of a Club

2007-10-03T10:08:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow our new library club will meet for the second time. We spent our first meeting coming up with a club name and electing leaders for various activities. The students decided to call the club this: I Love Libraries (I.L.L.) Club, but have since indicated that they want to try to make another, better name. This means we are going to be flexible and fluid - a good name will come, eventually, and the kids will support it all the more because of the input they provide.

I was surprised at how many students signed up to be in this new club - 36 and counting! The students range from sophomores to seniors and we count among our members the following categories:

- Readers
- Non Readers
- Males
- Females
- Students who are brand new to our high school
- Sports jocks (football, basketball, bowling, golf, and track)
- Manga lovers and those who disdain reading any type of graphic novel
- Extroverts (perhaps too many!)
- Introverts
- Kids who are into every club and activity you could imagine, both in and out of school
- Kids who will join perhaps only one club per year
- Members who are not native English speakers

What do all of these young people have in common? They feel welcome in the library! They know they will be respected and that we'll listen to their suggestions. They are pumped up about performing service work for groups like Head Start. They want to give back to their community. They gather with us to enjoy snacks, share some laughs and to get down to work toward creating a strong club that promotes all things library.

A big part of this club's beginning success belongs to my co-librarian, Lorissa Reeves. She knows just how to talk to teenagers and how to get them excited about events that occur in our library. She staked out a table during club sign-up week and talked the library club idea up to each and every student that dropped by. If one student signed up, Lorissa immediately convinced that student's friends into signing up at the same time. I don't really know how she does this, but her enthusiasm and zest for living is infectious and young people respond to this. Lorissa has also been the food gatherer and if you work with teens, you know how important food is to the whole scenario. They are a really neat group of young people and I'm so pleased to have them in our library.

Tomorrow's Goal: change the club name and begin thinking about the next big library event and how we'll celebrate! We also hope to get around to making a sign-up list for our podcast book reviews and a possible time frame for upcoming service work projects.

Calendar Update

2007-09-10T13:10:00.000-06:00

Well - I changed the calendar again for the OE LMC web page. This calendar shows which classes are scheduled for instruction and/or computer use in our library. I was using Google Calendar, which I liked a lot. But there were some frustrations, including:

1. Appearance - when a lot of events were scheduled in one day, the calendar had a jumbled look that was not clear and streamlined.
2. Updating - updating was easy, but there was an extra step involved of logging into my Google account to access the calendar features.
3. Usability - Google Calendar is really easy to learn how to use. However, here's a caveat: it is far too easy to erase multiple calendar entries than it should be.

Now I'm using the Calendar tool embedded within my Novell Groupwise account where I check my e-mail. When I create an event and "post" it, the event automatically appears on the page that my web page calendar link goes to. It's very clean and readable. I am still able to include "extras" such as standards, benchmarks and indicators. I also like that there are several ways to print out the calendar. I have been printing a daily copy to keep up at our front desk for reference. I know I still have more about this feature to learn, but for now I am very pleased with the ease-of-use and the appearance. Check it out by going to this link and choosing Calendar at the top of the page: http://teachers.olatheschools.com/oelibrary/

Chillin'

2007-08-31T08:22:00.000-06:00

One of our goals is to make students feel at home in our library. We strive to create a warm and welcoming environment where rich learning experiences can occur. What are some of the ways we welcome our student clientele?

1. An open, clean library with comfortable seating arrangements for computer work, table work and relaxed reading.

2. Displays of enticing, shiny new books.

3. Purchases of niche areas in book selection, such as Manga.

4. Lots of tactile items for touching and exploring. Right now the favorite one is a pin box. Students also like our U.S. History flash cards and our flip book.

5. Periodicals that students suggested we purchase.

6. A welcoming attitude at the front desk. Sure, we need to ask for passes when students come in, but one of our goals is to make this a friendly, relaxed experience.

7. Offering help in an inviting way that allows students to feel empowered about their needs.

8. Allowing consumption of food and beverages in the library.

9. Providing an alternative place for eating lunch. Some students prefer a more quiet environment than the cafeteria.

10. A respectable level of noise - we aren't into "shushing" but we respect the needs of all learners.

Today we had a group scheduled in the library who were finishing up a research project about career choices. I came across one student who was so relaxed and into her work that I was struck by her strong comfort zone in our library. I asked her if I could take her photo and she was happy to oblige. Yes, her flip flops are off. Yes, her feet are on the furniture. I mentally asked myself these questions:

- Is she learning? Check.
- Is she engaged in her task(s)? Check.
- Is she using her allotted time wisely? Check.
- Is she using technology appropriately? Check.

I love moments at work like this - it's why I gladly and enthusiastically come to work every single school day.

Standards, benchmarks and indicators, oh my!

2007-08-24T13:07:00.000-06:00

This year we posted our library schedule online. I suspected that we'd have some of our more far flung teachers in the building use this service so they could determine at a glance if we have free time or not. This is how I shared the online schedule concept with our teachers:

Scheduling library instruction and/or usage just got easier. We have placed our schedule online. You may schedule library time two ways now!

1. Send either Lorissa or Lori an e-mail and let us know your request. We'll add you to the schedule book and the online schedule.

2. Come up in person and sign up! Please speak with either Lori or Lorissa so that we can best accommodate your instructional needs. Our job is to work with you!

To see the online calendar, go to: http://teachers.olatheschools.com/oelibrary/

Click on the Calendar link at the top. Click on a specific date and hour to see what is scheduled.

I wasn't sure what type of reception this message would get, but I've been pleasantly surprised to find that our services are being sought by some teachers in instructional areas who have not been typical LMC users. For example, we just wrapped up a research project about historic diseases with the Health teacher. She liked the way we delivered instruction and has decided she will come back for the next unit. Her initial request to use our instruction and facilities came about as a result of the e-mail we sent. We've also heard from the Business department and from teachers in Chemistry and Forensics. We still have our common users - language arts and social studies, but what a thrill to show these other populations what we can do for them.

Another advantage of posting the schedule online is that it provides access during times when we are not in school. Last weekend I was out of town. When an American History teacher decided he needed to schedule time, he checked the online schedule and e-mailed me his request. I was able to upload the schedule and change it immediately. I think this new structure will help us with the occasional double-booking scenarios that sometimes happen. We still keep a paper schedule also, but when one is updated, the other method is also updated at the same time.

While playing around with our Google Calendar, it dawned on me that it might be a useful way to keep track of which library media standards and benchmarks and indicators we are covering with each lesson. I used the "description" area in the Google Calendar event section to share this information. This gives us a quick at-a-glance method for seeing what has and has not been touched upon as we collaborate with teachers to provide instruction. Here's an example of what it looks like:

What: HR 1--SULLIVAN--Career analysis research project

When:Fri Aug 31 8am - Fri Aug 31 9:30am

Where: OE LMC

Description:
Indicator 10-12.LM.I.IR.2: The student identifies and locates appropriate print and non-print resources.
Concepts: keyword/search engine/subject directories/primary sources/secondary sources/grammar of the Internet/URL/subject experts

Indicator 10-12.LM.I.IR.3: The student evaluates and verifies the accuracy, relevance and completeness of information.
Concepts: database/primary source/secondary source

Back in the Swing

2007-08-16T15:12:00.000-06:00

We are back at school and today we had our first full day with all students. We sure enjoyed seeing some familiar faces and we met a lot of new students as well. Days like this remind me of how much I love working with young people - they are so much fun! It's a delight to share in their school experiences and of course, when you really connect with students, they also share stories and events from their personal lives.

I let teaching staff know today that they may schedule library time either through e-mail or in person, using the online calendar to determine which time slots are available for instruction and/or support. This is an experiment for us and I'm looking forward to seeing if providing an online schedule increases our usage statistics. I hope it does. If nothing else, posting our schedule online provides an additional degree of visibility and school librarians know that visibility is key to job security.

Our Power Hawk painting looks so wonderful! And our student love the New Books shelf that we began, at the suggestion of a sophomore last year. I know this year is off to an excellent start and the OE librarians are pumped!

New Student Club

2007-08-07T16:59:00.000-06:00

We are excited about starting a new student library club at Olathe East. There have not been any other clubs like this at our school, so we are creating this organization as we go, starting with the students first. The temporary name for the club is: Student Library Advisory Committee (SLAC). Our goal is to have students meet with us and devise a name that is meaningful for all of us!

What will our Library Club students do? Good question! Some of the ideas we've discussed include:

- help us choose new materials
- help us promote and build up our Manga collection
- create podcasts for book reviews
- help us celebrate holidays and special events in the OE LMC
- help decorate the library and our hallway display case
- participate in service learning opportunities during the year
- support schoolwide celebration of Read Across America in March 2008

We are open to other suggestions as well. This club fits in with our district's library media curriculum in some very specific areas:

Standard 2 – Independent Learning

Indicator: 10-12 LM.L.LM1 – The student establishes purpose for assigned and self-selected reading.

Indicator: 10-12.LM.L.LM3 – The student self selects and reads literature by a variety of authors from a wide range of genres and award programs.

Standard 3 – Social Responsibility

Indicator: 10-12 LM.S.LC4 – The student collaborates with others to plan, construct and evaluate information products.

Indicator: 10-12LM.S.LC3 – The student understands and demonstrates the concepts of intellectual property rights and intellectual freedom.

Indicator: 10-12.LM.S.EB4 – The student demonstrates respect for shared information and technology resources.

I have high hopes that our club will become an important activity for some of our OE students. Mrs. Reeves and I will be working hard to come up with some exciting ideas. But we'll also work hard on our listening skills - we both know that students come up with awesome ideas and we are looking forward to hearing them.

What School Librarians Do

2007-07-31T19:14:00.000-06:00

What do school librarians do? I recently had a young person ask me just what it is I do all day at work. They said they thought I might be shelving books. Or helping other people find stuff. But what else did I do to fill up the day at work? I didn't mind the comments or question. I know that a lot of what school librarians do are things or jobs that occur behind the scenes. Unless you make a point of explaining all of your myriad duties and accomplishments, you run the risk of letting others assume they know your job. It's a fine line - do you broadcast what you do? Or do you work in the background and feel contentment as long as the library program is performing up to expectations?

One thing I remind people about is that running a school library is sort of like running a small business. Well, truly - it is a business complete with a creating and maintaining a budget, developing a marketing plan, gathering and interpreting statistics, creating and nurturing partnerships with stakeholders and taking time for reflective analysis and evaluation. One analogy that I find people seem to understand readily is the comparison of the LMC to a gas station. One of my former colleagues, Donna Shrum, and I used this example a lot and I've continued bringing it out when talking to interested parties. How does it work?

At a gas station, people or customers drop in all day long and fulfill a changing variety of needs. Same thing with our LMC patrons.
Some people at the gas station want their items immediately, and with as little interruption in their schedule as possible. Have we seen this in our library? Check!
At the gas station, some sort of negotiation process may occur to help the clerk and the customer come to an agreement upon what is desired. Ditto - except in the LMC we might call this the "reference interview."
Some people pop into the gas station needing very simple items - for example: Where is the ATM? This is why we stock all of the necessary products for research projects right in the LMC for our clientele - pencils, calculators, computers, printers, storage devices, MLA guides, erasers, scissors, colored pencils, etc. When all of the tools you need are right at your fingertips, you are that much closer to successful completion of a project.
Some people wander into a gas station looking for one item and then quickly realize they can get a lot of other things done at the same time. You probably have experienced this scenario yourself - you stop by for gasoline and go inside to pay the clerk and then realize you also need a gallon or milk, some popcorn for the video you'll watch later and then decide to purchase a copy of the newspaper. Same deal in our corner. We have students who come in to get a book on one narrow topic and wind up discovering that we offer other services that they'll use sooner or later as they navigate their school year. This might include Media Nights, personalized online database instruction, fiction reading recommendations, AV equipment for interviewing assignments, a special area set aside for viewing videos they missed when they were absent, and even a listening ear for a particular problem they might be experiencing.
The gas station - it offers one-stop shopping! Your school library - we are here to serve your needs and we can do a lot in one physical space! Why? Because we are trained professionals who use a lot of different tools, some tangible and others virtual, to provide assistance to our patrons. We wouldn't be here if we didn't love what we do...

And yeah, sometime we also shelve books!

Summer...Silently Slipping By

2007-07-21T10:48:00.000-06:00

I looked at our school calendar yesterday and realized that we will be back on official duty in less than a month on July 31st. It's been a very quick summer and we are enjoying our last few days of rest and relaxation before we jump into another fun year in the OE LMC.

The Harry Potter mania is truly amazing. We ordered two copies of the final installment to the series and they should be available when school begins. We also ordered an incredible amount of reference, fiction and non-fiction selections that I know our students and teachers will enjoy.

The OE LMC has new paint and we are also having a Power Hawk professionally painted one of our tall white walls below the windows. The new colors (blue and orange) have really brightened up the LMC and the Power Hawk will pull it all together really well. Having new carpet would also be nice...but we are all patient and know that this necessary step in renovation will occur someday soon.

Be looking on the OE LMC home page for our very first podcast. Our goal is to have students podcasting book reviews for their favorite reads. So when you listen to Mrs. Franklin on the first one, be nice and remember that this is an experiment! If you are interested in creating a podcast, please contact Mrs. Franklin or Mrs. Reeves. We have a digital voice recorder that makes creating a podcast very easy. We can also convert voice files into MP3 files necessary for uploading. Enjoy these wonderful, long, lazy days of the season. We're looking forward to seeing you soon!

Conference for Librarians

2007-06-14T11:43:00.000-06:00

I am currently at the Emporia State University Summer Institute for School Librarians. The featured speaker yesterday was David Warlick, techno-guru and the brains behind the fabulously useful Landmark Citation Machine! He's enthusiastic, funny and welcoming and I can tell he has a quality that I value - scanning and searching the horizon for new solutions.

I picked up a lot of 24 karat gold nuggets from David's presentation. Some things I'll be exploring include:

- Digg digg.com-- a sort of online newspaper hierarchy/archive/trendspotter that is constantly evolving as news stories and online access occurs. It looks like so much fun!

- Long Tail theory -- David talked about a study conducted in 1998 that showed that media not typically seen as lucrative for online vending does actually create a larger percentage of purchasing power. For example, he told us that more than 50 percent of Amazon's revenue comes from the Long Tail media (items that are not the "blockbusters" or "Top Ten" hits that you frequently see advertised at places like Amazon and Borders. Just this brief bit of information tells me that there truly is a market, and a substantial one, for "oddballs." This gives me hope for future publishing aspirations! I am interested in the idea of niche marketing and the availability of choice for consumers. Look at how TiVo, DVR recorders, You Tube and iPod have rocked our world already.

- Netvibes -- netvibes.com -- I want to play with this social aggregator. And I'll also examine Google's aggregator. I currently use Bloglines, and I enjoy it very much, but I am intrigued by the organizational aspects and flexibility of Netvibes.

- Web 2.0 has many characteristics, chiefly:
participatory
trainable (which for me implies fluid and hierarchical qualities)
magnetic (interconnectivity and constantly evolving)
collaborative

What I heard from David, and what I've been observing myself, is that Web 2.0 applications are sharable. They are not meant to be from creator to end-user without change. Instead this process is meant to constantly evolve and hopefully (!) improve along the way.

There were so many other things I learned. But right now author Sharon Draper is about to speak to the school librarians gathered for the second day of the conference. I just learned that she is a National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT)! What a thrill! As a fellow NBCT it makes me very proud to count her among our ranks.

More on conference gold digging later!

Posting LMC schedule online

2007-05-08T09:52:00.000-06:00

The OE LMC schedule (click on the Calendar link) is now posted online via the Google Calendars feature. I was hesitant to post our schedule online, but I also realized that providing remote access to our calendar would allow teachers more flexibility for planning. So far, we've spread the news through one-on-one discussion with teachers who have classes currently in the library working on projects. When school begins in August, we'll announce the online calendar availability. My expectation is that we will receive more planning requests via e-mail than in the past. I also think our drop-in traffic will increase.

My only concern is that there are occasional lightly-used time slots in the LMC, which we utilize for running the business side of operations - processing materials, creating orders, maintaining equipment, streamlining procedures, etc. I have often read that the teacher librarian should write these activities down in the schedule book, the same way we would if a class were being scheduled. I don't know if I would choose to detail all of my daily activities, but I understand the thinking behind the suggestion.

Another justification pushing me to publicize our calendar came from the social networking Teacher Librarian Ning mentioned in my previous post. I learned a lot about how other teacher librarians are posting their calendars and what responses they've received. It was clear that the positives outweighed the negatives!

Join the Ning!

2007-04-24T19:32:00.000-06:00

I've joined a really promising support group for teacher librarians:

Teacher Librarian Ning. I've reconnected with library media specialists I already know and made some new friends as well. This social networking site is easy to join and you can jump into ongoing discussions to share your two cents' worth. So far, I've spoken with teacher librarians throughout the world about posting our LMC schedule online (pros and cons), providing links for our library blog sites, and discussing end-of-year "musts" we are thinking about.

Besides checking in with the Teacher Librarian Ning, my colleague Lorissa Reeves and I have been cleaning up the LMC! I don't mean cleaning as in breaking out the spray and dust cloths. Instead, I mean clearing out old paperwork, reorganzing cabinets and shelves, and thinking of logical ways to arrange our work spaces. We created a super user-friendly VCR/DVD taping station, for example. We are playing with the thought of putting a library media specialist desk out on the library floor. We may put a laptop on it, since we have wireless access now, and share time at the desk during the day. I like this idea because:

It will give us more visibility. Visibility + Effectiveness = Job Security.
It will provide our clientele with continuous, easy access to information professionals.
It provides us with opportunities to increase our own awareness of information needs for students, teaching staff and community members.
Sharing a public desk with a secured laptop will force us to have a clean workspace.
Working at a desk separate from the circulation desk allows us to utilize student aides behind the circ desk - at the high school level there is no reason we shouldn't have our young people checking books in and out to their peers and teachers. I really like the idea of getting out from "behind" the fortress and being more available.

If you are a library media professional, I hope you'll visit the ning I mentioned above, and consider joining. The input I've received so far is sometimes just as valuable as reading professional journals (and really, a lot more fun!).

Mucho Manga

2007-04-17T17:46:00.000-06:00

Last weekend I met two of our high school students at the local Borders bookstore. Our goal? Buying complete sets of manga for the library collection. Are you familiar with this genre? According to a definition I found on Google (I purchase online database subscriptions, but I also use Google daily):

"Sometimes confused with anime, manga is the Japanese word for comic book (or Graphic Novel, if you prefer) and is used in English to mean Japanese comic books. Manga and anime are very closely related, as artists frequently crossover, as do the characters they create. Usually the manga is created first, and if it becomes really popular then the market it deemed capable of supporting a much more costly animation based on it."

There are a lot of guides out in the world of library publications, offering recommendations for appropriate manga selections for school libraries. We do use district and other published guidelines to help us choose manga books. However, "we" are all adults! I knew that in order to build a popular, quality collection we needed to get input from our users.

The students I met with are a male sophomore and a female junior. While we were at the bookstore, we also met a young lady who attends another high school in our district. She listened to our conversations about topical themes, appropriateness and artwork and chimed in her own opinions. I listened to her, because she attends a school with a very strong manga collection. I liked having both males and females help me make choices, because they each brought different levels of interest to the decision-making process.

It was an enlightening morning for me. I'll readily admit that manga is not my own personal genre of choice. But I like science fiction and some fantasy, so there is a bit of crossover appeal. Of course, when you are over 40 and just beginning to read books from back to front, and from right to left, there's a learning curve involved. What surprised me most of all was the extreme variety of topical themes explored in these Japanese books. After browsing through several I found the following:

ghostly creatures
doomed romance
futuristic aliens
power-hungry leaders
questioning teens
magical worlds

Sound familiar? These themes should ring a bell - at just a glance I recognized the same topics from classics we've all enjoyed throughout the ages: Frankenstein, Romeo and Juliet, War of the Worlds, Heart of Darkness, Catcher in the Rye and Dune.

Perhaps the best outcome from our shopping trip was that a student asked me to sponsor a manga club at Olathe East. I'm checking into the requirements and determining how we will weave club activities into curricular requirements (self selection, evaluation of reading materials, literary themes, etc.) and how we can also perform service to the community. I have to thank our young people for joining me on a chilly Saturday morning. Their enthusiasm and my willingness to spend budgeted dollars on this genre means that OE students will enjoy strong manga offerings for years to come.

Caring: Not Listed in the Job Description

2007-04-04T12:11:00.000-06:00

What are our responsibilities as teacher librarians towards helping students succeed? We have national and state curriculums with standards, outcomes and indicators. We have excellent guidelines published by successful and respected library media people such as Doug Johnson and Joyce Valenza. Some school districts are lucky enough to have library media coordinators who provide assistance with our work. Most library media specialists know their subject area thoroughly and enjoy collaboratively planning instruction with teachers.

But what about our role as a caring person to students who are struggling in any area of their lives? I'm talking about what I affectionately call "fringe students." The funny thing is that they aren't always the ones "on the outside, looking in." Fringe students can be the same core group all year, and they can also be individuals whose faces change daily according to needs, moods and motivations.

These are the young people who show up frequently in the media center. Sometimes they keep to themselves, reading books or simply sitting alone in our seating area. Other times they spend their entire visit at the circulation desk, excitedly sharing the lastest tidbits from their lives. Some students come in and ask for help on assignments - in all of their core classes! Others may be very impatient on a particular day, requiring assistance formatting or printing the work they've completed.

One young man, in particular, checks in daily with our half-time media specialist. He stops by to socialize, but we don't let the communication between all of us stop there. Our half-time media specialsit goes over his assignments with him, offers suggestions for prioritizing his schedule and even helps him research potential colleges online. In all of these interactions, however, she performs a much more important role. I wouldn't call her a "Mom" exactly. But the meaning comes very close. Instead, I prefer to think of her, and all media specialists who perform the same function, as: caring mentor.

She's takes the time to care about what is going on in his life. She's learned enough about his history to have some background knowledge about his needs and desires in life. When he's uncooperative and rude, she reminds him about his educational goals. When he flies into our library, happy and grinning, she's there to congratulate him on his latest success. When she's gone, he's always disappointed. She checks in with his teachers to find out if he has assignments that may benefit from extra help in the library. We truly are excited about the possibilities in this young man's future and consider it part of our job to prod him along when he needs motivation.

Library media specialists (and their staffs as well) aren't necessarily considered to be mentors to young people. I believe we are seen in other, long-defined roles. But the mentoring aspect is crucial. The library media center absolutely must have a warm, welcoming climate in order to create positive interactions and have an environment conducive toward achievement. I feel so lucky to be in a position to not only offer realistic, useful instruction for students, but to also have a chance to share in their lives, their joys, their disappointments and ultimately, in their successes. We truly touch the future in every interaction, every day. Our job places us in a unique position of being able to communicate with nearly every student in the school. And yes, just like classroom teachers, we go home at the end of the day and muse over, worry about and consider future dreams for our young people.

That's Cool!

2007-03-30T15:50:00.000-06:00

Today I had a student who needed (desperately) to convert a document that was created in a different program to a format recognizable by MS Word. We tell students here that they can save their word processing products in RTF (rich text format) to bypass compatibility issues.

This particular student had not gone that route. No problem. Another easy way to deal with file conversions is using Media Convert. This site asks you for the source file (your original file). To simplify this process, we ask students to download their file to the computer desktop. Then we pick up the source file from that location, tell the program to convert it to our version of MS Word, and voila! Technology can't be beat. There are other programs out there that perform this same function, but Media Convert is very user-friendly and seems to cover a large variety of product types - and not just word processing.

One caveat: We tried to do this with a file created on a Mac, and were not successful. Doesn't mean it can't be done. Just not with this particular program. Happy converting, people!

Celebrating a Birthday for Dr. Seuss!

2007-02-26T15:42:00.000-06:00

Friday is Read Across America day. In past years as a library media specialist, I've donned a baggy The Cat in the Hat suit and celebrated this day with cake, balloons, streamers and guest readers. This year I'm excited to be spreading the word about Dr. Seuss' birthday at the high school level.

We've got some special festivities planned for Friday, March 2. Our Leadership students will be reading aloud to feeder elementary schools. Students dropping by the LMC on Friday will be especially happy to discover something they dearly love - food! Following our activities, I'll post photos of our students enjoying this special day.

Have you heard about the new annoted book devoted to Theodor Seuss Geisel? Newsweek magazine just published an article about “The Annotated Cat: Under the Hats of Seuss and His Cats,” by Philip Nel. According to the author, we are not readers of Dr. Seuss books to discover new poetic formats. Rather, "Instead, we are lost in the cat’s effort to balance two books and a fish and little toy ship and some milk on a dish! We are hypnotized by the struggle to contain Thing One and Thing Two before they can destroy the house. (And yes, some of us are hypnotized by the book’s unanswered questions: what is the boy’s name, and what sort of mother leaves two young children home alone “for the day”?) But most remarkably, we are hypnotized night after night after night. This is a story that never goes stale, and what is that if not art?"

I know that I was always mesmerized by all of the little cats and the pink snow in The Cat in Hat Comes Back. And Yertle the Turtle ("For I am the ruler of all that I see!") remains my most favorite Seussian character.

For more on Dr. Seuss and his wacky world, visit Seussville.

Using Information Skills 24/7

2007-02-16T07:41:00.000-06:00

Having just returned from a short family vacation on Grand Bahama Island, I can assure readers that using information seeking skills is a 24/7 job that can be made much easier through the use of technologies. I've had several people ask me who planned our trip; it seems to surprise them when I tell them that I put the whole trip together myself. And I did nearly all of the tasks using a computer, e-mail, Internet access, a Palm Pilot and a cell phone! Some of the items I handled included: buying airline tickets for one group from Kansas City and a lone traveller from Chicago (meeting at the same destination), figuring out the newest passport regulations, stopping my mail delivery, determining the cheapest transport from the airport, finding and renting an oceanfront condominium for the best price, booking a kayaking excursion, and so on.

Our students need to know that the library information skills we teach them today will be in use for the rest of their lives. We often talk about how they will use X Skill to help them when they need to search for their first "real" job. Or how they will use Skill Y when they have to compare apartment rentals for a variety of reasons that are important to them. But have you ever watched anybody under the age of 20 use the Yellow Pages? It's interesting. This thick book, which could easily serve as a doorstop, is becoming archaic with every week that passes. The average teenager does not think in terms of subject headings. They don't think: Physicians--sports medicine. They do think: Doctors. They might need to find the movie theater, but I guarantee you that most of them will look in the M section first.

Instead, our students need practical skills combined with thoughtful strategies to make their information seeking encounters successful. These skills must be palatable and useful in order for students to become the lifelong learners who will shape our future society. For example, we've been spending time this year showing students how to use the powerful Control F command when they are searching large blocks of text. Even the choice of which search term to type into the bar is a lesson in trial and error. Looking for information about Imperialism in post-war Japan? A quick try using just the word "Japan" will quickly show the searcher that the term they've chosen is too broad. The word Japan is going to pop up throughout any article about much to do with this country. And, typing in the exact question or topic right from their research paper guidelines doesn't yield the greatest results either. This is where simple one-on-one help is so valuable. When we sit down with students, after instruction, we help them think through how they are going to search and what terms will give them the tightest, most relevant results. We also take the time to let them make mistakes and then guide them into brainstorming more tangible suggestions.

Of course, simple communication skills still reign supreme. One day during our trip, we walked three miles to the local grocery store. Perhaps we were too excited by the sight of all of the fresh food and the fact that it was 11 a.m. and we still had not eaten breakfast. We bought far too much to carry home on another long walk. A quick discussion with a local Bahamian woman saved the day. She directed us to the proper bus stop for the direction we needed to travel (remember - they drive on the other side of the road in the Bahamas) and also told us the best news of all: the trip would cost $1 per person, but if we gave a little extra to the driver up front, he'd deliver us right to the lobby of our building! That was a five minutes well spent, and information that we used more than once during our trip.

Our Job is a Myriad One

2007-01-26T15:50:00.000-06:00

In the past there have been lists published by library media specialists outlining the many different hats they wear through the days, the weeks and the years on the job. And we do perform a truly varied task list at work, one that seems to change daily as the needs of the students, staff and community dictate. These lists may bolster up the flagging spirits of librarians or create opportunities for discussion at professional gatherings, but what they really should do is serve to remind us that it's not necessarily the details of what we do, but the spirit in which our services are offered and provided.

When you get a request in the library media center, you can compare the variety of things you are asked to do by taking a moment to imagine that you are working in a gas station. Think of the number of customers that pass through the doors of your local Quik Trip. One person is going to want to buy a certain type of gasoline for their particular car. Another might need to locate the air supply to fill his or her tires. Somebody may wander in looking for food and drink. Other people stop by to buy their weekly lottery tickets. Countless visitors will need to use the restrooms. And others might just need to buy a pack of gum. What they all have in common is that these patrons all have needs that require fulfillment. It's the same way in the library.

A teacher asks for a video camera, a tripod and a fresh VHS tape so their substitute teacher can record student presentations for later viewing? No problem. Turns out the tripod is missing? This happens! What are your options? Hand deliver the video camera and tape and show the sub how to operate it and then see if you can find a student who'd enjoy taping the presentations. In other words - be flexible and find quick solutions. Never, never say "I don't think we can do that..." Instead, your first answer should always be, "Let me see what I can do to make this happen for you." Or, "I don't know the answer to that, but I'll find out and get back to you soon."

Remember, librarians are in a position to provide a great deal of support throughout the school. Because our schedules are not as rigid as classroom teachers, we must be willing to provide service above and beyond the call of duty to help our colleagues. However, we should all take our attitude beyond willing and move forward to enthusiastic. Here at the OE LMC, we value all patrons who pass through our doors as valued customers. We want return business. We want our users to walk away with a good feeling about visiting our library media center. We constantly examine how our system works and we brainstorm new ways to make access, in all forms, easier for our population. This doesn't mean we don't make mistakes. We do. But we work hard towards identifying and solving problems. And we realize how lucky we are to be in such a constantly-evolving position - it's a great feeling, knowing that our expertise and sharing are helping all of our clientele continue to grow as lifelong learners.

It's the Small Things that Make Research Work

2007-01-19T10:06:00.000-06:00

We've been working closely with several 11th grade American History classes on a research assignment. Students are writing 5-7 page papers about different events in history, but are not performing old-school topical research. Instead, they have chosen a variety of questions to explore. Part of their searching includes assessing their own prior knowledge and creating questions about what other information they want or need to discover in order to gain a deeper understanding of the event they are studying. These questions are a powerful way to require students to synthesize and analyze data so they are able to make their own informed thesis statements.

For library instruction, we've taken an entire class period to introduce students to our varied databases and their various quirks. In order to simplify the instructional process, we created a web-linked research guide so that students would be able to focus on instruction and process rather than note-taking. We also used a portion of instructional time to talk about different ways to create MLA citatations and about options for saving work. Many of our students were pleased to discover how to access their H drive away from home.

Of course, this has been a learning process for the librarians at Olathe East and along the way we've figured out a few things that will guide future projects in the library:

Giving students many different ways to access the web-linked research guide provides them with options. Our guides are posted on the OE LMC web site, on the student-accessible O drive, and sometimes on the classroom teacher's Blackboard site. When we teach students about databases, all that is required in the way of handouts is a simple strip of paper providing our library web site page where the guide is posted.

Students really don't enjoy creating citations! I think we already knew this (duh!), but it's always exciting to find different sources that will help them electronically build a correct MLA citation. When students realize that they can make this crucial process easier to do, they quickly catch on and return to repeat the procedure.

Taking a few extra minutes to link a web site is worth the effort. We showed students a Facts on File trial database and we have been pleasantly surprised to see that they have used it again and again. The database fit our needs perfectly and we are looking forward to seeing what usage numbers tell us. Experiences like this drive purchasing decisions and using the trial database in a real-life situation has been valuable. Also helpful is that several of the teachers we are working with promoted the trial. Using it alongside of our subscription databases gives us great opportunities to compare the quality and quantity of hits. Posting the trial web address and login/username was easy to do and has garnered big results.

Finally, simply touching base with students working in the library often yields requests for support that may not be voiced in a group setting. Even though students often appear to be working successfully, we noticed that when we approach them with offers for assistance they usually remember a question they had earlier or will ask us to help them through a search or citation process. We are lucky to have such awesome students at our school - they are polite and appreciative.

Searching Mentalities

2007-01-03T08:31:00.000-06:00

This article, written by OE library media specialist Lori Franklin, was published in the KASL newsletter published in Dec. 2006:

Solutions for “Fast Food” Searchers

Ever notice that students not only want their information quickly, but they also want it delivered to them hot, fresh and without any mistakes? This behavior is what many like to call the “Fast Food Mentality” of information seeking. Students want reliable facts, but there’s a gap between the desire for correct information and the effort that goes into seeking, gathering, examining, using and evaluating those resources.

As a library media specialist, it can be frustrating to observe students looking for the quickest, easiest solution. When we allocate a portion of our budgets for purchasing online subscription databases, we are taking a chance that we will be able to provide helpful, inspiring instruction that will cause our students to naturally seek out these resources. Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case.

At our high school, we’ve discovered a unique way to guide students to use online subscription databases by providing them with hyperlinked resource guides. These documents also provide access to appropriate free web links and even links for online PowerPoint presentations and other interactive activities that pertain to topics being researched. We help steer learners to the online guides by sending them to our library media center web site and then having them choose. Once there, they open various PDF files that contain links to databases, along with searching suggestions for specific assignments. We note which databases provide different services, such as saving search results to folders, or giving the option of e-mailing hits to a home or school e-mail account. This is also a great place remind students about opening up database links in either full-text format or PDF format for best results.

Our online research guides also provide students with pre-chosen web links for sites that have been selected for their assignments. And, in keeping with student searching behaviors, we use the online research guide to promote using the “advanced search” feature on Google to perform a smart search using limiters. For some students, this is the first time they’ve been exposed to the idea of creating tight, specific searches that may yield less than 100 hits, rather than the typical million plus hits usually gathered by a search engine.

One other item we’ve managed to highlight on our research guides are free online database trials we are currently examining. We post the name of the database, tell why it might be useful and give the end date of the trial. Using this method, we determined this year that we will purchase Culturegrams when we renew our online database subscriptions. The hits on this database trial were phenomenal, and using our online research guide helped us spread the word about its availability. We always ask for permission to publish the information about online database trials, and so far vendors have been willing to have this information shared. Using a database trial during a real-life assignment or unit allows us to observe its usefulness during a meaningful process, rather than a simple, one-time examination.

For an example of one of our online research guides, visit our library media center site at Olathe East High School: http://teachers.olatheschools.com/~lfranklinoe.
Then choose: Research Links by Assignment. Ongoing assignments and their respective guides are listed.

"You are the Last Generation..."

2006-12-07T11:07:00.001-06:00

"You are the last generation who will see a Holocaust survivor. Your children will never be able to experience this," Jack Mandelbaum told Social Studies students at Olathe East this week. Mandelbaum, 79, is the topic of a book by local author Andrea Warren - Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps. The pair gave two presentations to students to share information about how the book was created and about why it is important for young people of today to understand how atrocities such as the Holocaust can occur.

Mandelbaum told the story of his idyllic life in Poland before he was placed into a forced labor camp at the age of 12, and later moved to different concentration camps until he was liberated in 1945. When he was separated from his family he clung to the hope that he would eventually be reunited with them. This hope and his own resilience drove him to live through horrific circumstances and to stay strong and healthy. In actuality, his mother and younger brother were killed the day they were separated. He also lost his father and an older sister, as well as other relatives from his extended family.

Today, Mandelbaum lives in Overland Park. He is the co-founder of the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education. He is married and has four grown children and 16 grandchildren. He moved to Kansas City after the war and while he's traveled extensively throughout the world, is always happy to return to the area where he's created his business and raised his family.

Author Warren has been a professional writer for more than 25 years. She was originally planning to write a book about a different Holocaust survivor, but he died while they were in the beginning stages of the project. She searched documents, books, and papers to find a survivor that she wanted to write about. When she initially contacted Mandelbaum he responded quickly, and during their first telephone conversation she knew that he was the special person she wanted to write about. Her book about Mandelbaum has garnered numerous awards, including the William Allen White Award in 2004.

Mandelbaum has indicated that he will probably not be giving presentations like the one at OE anymore. The process of dredging up painful memories is exhausting and he'd prefer to focus his efforts on his work for the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education, as well as his own successful business.

Students viewing the presentations were moved and asked thoughtful, probing questions. They came up to the stage to meet Mandelbaum in person. Some of them hugged him. Others shook his hand. Still more gathered to purchase autographed copies of the book about his life. They didn't want to leave the presence of this charming, courageous man. We feel fortunate indeed that we were able to witness such a moving, meaningful presentation. A key person who helped us make this possible is Mary Ellen Grant, Olathe District Schools Library Media Coordinator.

A Special Visit for OE Students

2006-11-21T13:55:00.000-06:00

We are very excited at Olathe East! We have two special guests coming to make a presentation on Wednesday, Dec. 6 to our Social Studies students. Jack Mandelbaum, Holocaust survivor, and Andrea Warren, local author of Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps, will talk to students during Hours 2 & 3.

Ms. Warren's book has received numerous awards and was named the William Allen White award winner in 2004. Some of the other awards for this title include:

American Library Association Robert F. Sibert Honor Book for Most Distinguished Informational Book for Children
Gold Medal for Children's Nonfiction, National Association of Parenting Publications
Kansas City Star's "100 Notable Books for 2001"
Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies
Association of Jewish Libraries Notable Children's Book of Jewish Content
Featured at United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC: and Harry Truman Presidential Library, Independence, MO
Children's Literature Choice
VOYA Nonfiction Honor Book for 2001
American Library Association Notable Children's Book

For more information, please contact librarians Lori Franklin or Lorissa Reeves, (913) 780-7130 or via e-mail: lfranklinoe@olatheschools.com or lreevesoe@olatheschools.com

For an PowerPoint providing background information about this presentation, click here.

Observations...

2006-11-07T10:42:00.000-06:00

We've been working hard in the media center this week to teach students about ways to access information covering the Victorian Era. Our instruction has focused on using online subscription databases, online virtual reference library books, selected web sites and online PowerPoints. We are trying to help our 10th grade language arts students gain a general understanding of the timeframe, so that when they read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde they will have background knowledge and be able to use context clues to help them have the best experience with this type of literature.

Here are some observations as we've watched them begin work, following library media instruction:

Some students need beginning directions repeated once they actually delve into research.
Some students need further clarification of what is required for the assignment.
We've seen a lot of "ah ha" moments where the content being researched meshed with the student's prior and newly-gained knowledge base.
Reading primary source documents written during the Victorian Era is difficult -the language used and style of writing and conversation is much more stifled and formal than the language and writing we use today. This fact in itself provides a clue about the era and the restraints in society - something that some of our students have picked up as they've been reading.
Students really like having information delivered in a variety of formats - both written and visual. Best of all, they like interactive sites that invite them to participate in the information-seeking process.
Students seem to appreciate having the hyper-linked study guide we created available to them via the OE LMC web site. Proof of this is also seen in our counter numbers, which have risen dramatically since we began this unit.
Working together on this project has really helped the library staff to get to know our 10th grade students better. We are amazed sometimes with the excellent search strategies they are already employing.
Occasionally, it is a challenge to help students to understand that they need to find several balanced views of a topic, rather than relying on one source. I call this the "Fast Food Mentality" - a lot of kids today want their information instantaneously and delivered to them ready for use. Instead, we have to teach them that "digging" for good sources often yields better results and an understanding of the topic.
We feel good about this project - through co-teaching with our Language Arts teaching colleagues, we are giving our students skills they will use throughout their lives!

What Can Media Night Do for You?

2006-11-01T16:00:00.000-06:00

Media Nights at Olathe East are held two Tuesday evenings per month, from 6-9 p.m. The library media center, writing lab and other areas of the school are open for students who need to complete academic work.

What types of help can you expect during Media Night?

Computers, printers and scanners are located in the library. We also have pens, pencils, erasers, calculators, rulers, paperclips, and staplers!
Internet access.
Software programs used at school, such as the Microsoft Office suite.
The Writing Lab is staffed by a Language Arts teacher.
Teachers from specific core subjects are available to work either one-on-one or in small groups with students.
Teacher-provided quizzes, tests, exams and makeup work are available - check the circulation desk for more details.
Book checkout is provided during this time.
Help with handheld computers, including charging and hot-syncing, is provided.
Teacher-directed video viewing in a quiet room is offered.
Quiet study areas are provided, where you can spread out your papers and complete assignments.

Media Nights for the rest of the semester include:
Nov. 7
Nov. 28
Dec. 5
Dec. 12

New Books + Food = Sublime Joy

2006-10-25T11:05:00.000-06:00

Come by the OE LMC anytime Thursday morning, Oct. 26, for a look at our brand new books. We have some fabulous new offerings in:

- fantasy
- contemporary fiction
- science fiction
- romance
- horror
- manga
- general graphic novels
- award-winning (Caldecott) picture books

Some of our incredible new non-fiction includes:

- cultures and countries
- the Dummies series of books
- "How To" books
- world record books and book of lists books
- biographies
- some one-of-a-kind, just-have-to-browse selections

When you stop by to see these new beauties, check out our wonderful breakfast goodies too. Hope to see you Thursday, or any day, for that matter. We welcome you to the Olathe East library!
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To Save or to Send? That's the Question!

2006-10-17T10:06:00.000-06:00

Every week we hear the same question come up in the library: “Can you get this report off of my floppy disk? I can’t find my stuff.” Sometimes we can easily extract work saved on a floppy disk. Other times, the written work is unrecoverable. The disk might not be formatted or may have even been damaged in transit. Sometimes we run across a disk that works with a Mac operating system instead of a PC.

When students complete school work at home, they need to decide how to submit the work at school. If the homework assignment calls for a written paper to be turned in, and a printer is located in the home, this solves the problem. However, if the student wants to continue to edit their work, or a printer isn’t available, they need to bring their work back to school in one format or another. Options for this include floppy disks, travel or jump drives, accessing the H drive from home or sending work as an attachment to student e-mail.

Most new computers do not have floppy disk drives. We have 4 desktop computers in the LMC with floppy drives and 5 external, USB floppy drives that can be attached to any of our other desktop models. However, if the student is preparing any type of work that includes graphic images (Microsoft PowerPoint or Publisher or multiple photos for a multimedia project) a floppy disk will not provide adequate storage space.

Instead, the simplest way for students to create and modify work is to access the student’s H drive from home. We’ve discovered that many students are unaware of this option. To do this, go to: http://myfiles.olatheschools.com/
Students will be prompted to provide their username and password and will then be able to access all of their files stored on their H drive. Files can be opened up at home, modified or completed, and then saved back to the H drive for later retrieval at school.

Another way to send files back and forth is to attach them to student e-mail. To get to the student e-mail link, go to: http://students.olatheschools.com and scroll down the list on the left side of the screen. Students will be asked to provide their username and password to gain access to their e-mail account. The paperclip icon is used for attaching files being sent to and from the account. Students can also use a home e-mail account to send a file to a student e-mail account (which is always accessible at school). Sending files via e-mail is a simple, easy process and this mode is both accessible and reliable.

New Books!

2006-10-10T18:01:00.001-06:00

We've got tons of brand new books in our library! Check out some of our new titles:

Red Hot Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Being Young and Latino in the United States
edited by Lori Marie Carlson
Latino poets tell us, in English and in Spanish, who they are, where they are, and what their hopes are for the future. From a review in Booklist, "Among the new writers are a few high-school students, and teens of all backgrounds will easily relate to the young authors' fury over stereotypes: "I'm surrounded by a society that expects nothing of me / other than to become a regular, tired housewife," writes student Ivette Alvarez. Most poems are translated by the poets themselves, and many are written in an inventive blend of languages, which English speakers will easily follow with help from the appended glossary. Powerful and immediate, these are voices students and teachers will want to share. "

The Queen's Soprano
by Carol Dines
This historical novel covers the life of Angelica, who is living in 17th century Rome. She's blessed with a gorgeous voice, but unable to share it with others because of the Pope's edict against women singing in public. Her mother sees her voice as a way to gain entrance into a good marriage match, but Angelica defies her and moves to the court of Swedish Queen Christina. Here, Angelica hopes she may perform publically, but discovers that she has much to learn along the way.

Last Shot
by John Feinstein
Another offering in the Final Four Mystery series, this novel will appeal to teens who love sports stories. According to a review in School Library Journal, "...this action-packed mystery is set at the NCAA Final Four men's basketball tournament. Eighth-graders Steven Thomas and Susan Carol Anderson are aspiring journalists and winners of the U.S. Basketball Writer's Association 14-and-under writing contest. Their prize is a trip, with press credentials and reporting responsibilities, to the Final Four in New Orleans. While exploring the Superdome, they overhear a blackmail threat leveled at Minnesota State University's star player. Threatened with a falsified transcript that would disqualify him and his team, Chip Graber is pressured to deliberately lose the final game against Duke. Stevie and Susan Carol become resourceful sleuths determined to save Chip and to expose the scandal. Throughout the story, famous basketball personalities make memorable guest appearances, including spirited sports analyst Tony Kornheiser and irrepressible commentator Dick Vitale. References to real players and coaches mingle, almost eerily, with the fictitious characters. Feinstein shares his extensive sports expertise, smoothly weaving into the tale a wealth of background information about NCAA regulations, tournament traditions, recruitment and eligibility issues, and gambling."

Look for the Dummies! We have several new books in this innovative, fun series. Look for entries on foreign languages, sports, cooking, computer skills, money management, standardized test prep and travel. Look for the bright yellow covers.

Beginning Library Log

2006-10-06T14:39:00.000-06:00

This is the first Library Log created for the Olathe East Library Media Center. Library Staff includes Lori Franklin and Lorissa Reeves, library media specialists and Linda Hopkins, library media clerk. Our goal is to share library media center information via this informal format and to encourage two-way dialog between students and library staff.

This week's news from the OE LMC:

1. We're expecting NEW BOOKS to arrive soon! We have ordered approximately 750 new titles, including popular fiction in all genres, non-fiction and reference materials. We have something special up our sleeves for the lucky ones who come in and peruse our new beauties. Be looking for more information soon.

2. The OE LMC has a 2-month trial for several ProQuest products, including Culturegrams.
URL: http://trials.proquest.com/pqte/cust/login.do?userid=2005412
Password: welcome
This trial ends Nov. 30, 2006. In the meantime, give some of their databases a drive and let us how well they worked for your personal needs!