Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Knight Life Returning - Any Volunteers Accepted
Are you a student at Kimball HS or an alum or other individual with high school newspaper experience? We need your assistance in getting our newspaper started. Librarian with no newspaper experience recruited, but still motivated! Send an e-mail to kimballhslibrary@gmail.com or leave a post.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
While on vacation...
Between summer school and fall school year beginning, I spied this article in the New York Times, which surprised me. The copy and paste problem is EVERYWHERE. It will be a goal to help reduce this problem among Kimball HS students. See this article in its entirety at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/education/02cheat.html
It's one of a series on "...cheating in education and efforts to stop it."
More Summer 2010
Summer school classes also received database instruction utilizing those which would be most relevant to the assignments they were completing in
the library. The most frequently used were World Book, Brittanica, Culture Grams, EBSCO (Health and Literary Reference Center), History Study Center, and Gale Virtual Reference Library. Posted is the DISD databases accessible to students, faculty and staff.
The library was visited by social studies, health and English classes. Since most of the students were from Carter High School, I hope the librarians there will see a few more students who will be using the databases. They're a great resource, and I hope to encourage students to become more comfortable using them this school year.
the library. The most frequently used were World Book, Brittanica, Culture Grams, EBSCO (Health and Literary Reference Center), History Study Center, and Gale Virtual Reference Library. Posted is the DISD databases accessible to students, faculty and staff. The library was visited by social studies, health and English classes. Since most of the students were from Carter High School, I hope the librarians there will see a few more students who will be using the databases. They're a great resource, and I hope to encourage students to become more comfortable using them this school year.
Summer 2010
In April, it was determined a librarian was needed to fill the summer school librarian position, preferably one the librarians on staff. Since my co-librarian had submitted her resignation about this time, I agreed to fill the position. We were asked to create a page to submit to teachers about services our library provides. I will be including that page, with layout borrowed from the head of the summer school training. KHS additions included equipment available for checkout and web sites for more information. Teachers checked out carts, overheads, and some KHS math teachers utilized document cameras which had been assigned to them in the spring. Additionally, I was able to show a few teachers how to access videos electronically using the Power Videos available through Dallas County Schools (http://www.powervideos.org/)Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Wonderful Things I've Discovered and Want to Use
List of widgets from Amazon. I'm fascinated! Carousel widget! We need a website to post it on! https://widgets.amazon.com/
"Will I be charged anything for using these Widgets?
No! Amazon Widgets are not only free to use, but can actually earn you money. Check the Associates Join pages for more information on the Amazon.com Associates program and how you can actually earn money from using Amazon Widgets." Ok, they've been out a while, but it's still new to me.
Library Thing
I'm posting the books KHS students love.
Library Thing
I'm posting the books KHS students love.
"What does it cost?
A free account allows you to catalog up to 200 books. A paid account allows you to catalog any number of books. Paid personal accounts cost $10 for a year or $25 for a lifetime. (See here for organizational accounts.) I conservatively predict the revenue will enable me to recline all day on an enormous pile of gold."
Oh no! Google Wave!
In the process of finding pictures, I'm finding even more things of interest:
"What is a wave?
A wave is 
equal parts conversation and document. People
can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.
equal parts conversation and document. Peoplecan communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.
A wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when.
A wave is live. With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time."
I need more time to figure out how these can be used at Kimball HS!
Learning Tools for Library Which Caught My Attention
I've had a few articles on my desk which have really caught my attention for potential educational use. I'm posting them here for my own future reference, and hope someone else will also find them useful.
Adams, Heidi and Laura Howard. "Clever Clickers: Using Audience Response Systems in the Classroom." LMC Library Media Connection, October 2009. Print.
Quinn, Mary Ellen. "Learning with Blogs: Selected blogs that will enlighten and inform every library professional," American Libraries, August/September 2009. Print.
Rice, John. "Are You Smarter Than a Whiteboard? 10 tips for IWBs in the classroom." Tech Edge, Spring 2009. Print.
(MLA Citation Style from: http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citmla.htm)
The technology mentioned in the articles are available for check out at Kimball HS Library, and I'd love to find or create lessons that would assist teachers here.
Meanwhile, I've been playing catch up between scheduled classes - where questions usually involve Microsoft Word and Powerpoint problems (easy things like: how do I change the margins or line spacing) but lately, things I find not-so-easy, like: why can't I open and use my .mov on Windows Movie Maker, why won't my .tmp file print or give me the message there isn't enough memory to print or why only the text prints. I figured out the why of the problems, but not yet the how-to-solve those problems. Are these easy? Other things I've been working on are: LAN connectivity problems in one area of the library, inventory of books, equipment, and multimedia, trying to input items which seemed to have been kicked out of the system (finding out they will check in now when two months ago we got the message: Not in system), cataloging of new items purchased...oh wait, the district equipment repair technician just dropped in...and many other tasks...school library really is interesting and fun. It's great to be a part of this time in history when there are so many new things to learn...and organize.
Just found another thing I'd like to use on my webpage: carousel widgets! See them at:
https://widgets.amazon.com/Amazon-Carousel-Widget/?id=V20070822/US/bookfizz-20/8010/e423148b-4afe-42b4-b8af-abe987c7efaf&ref=assoc_wdgt_us
One more thing for me to learn: what's a "mashup"?
Adams, Heidi and Laura Howard. "Clever Clickers: Using Audience Response Systems in the Classroom." LMC Library Media Connection, October 2009. Print.
Quinn, Mary Ellen. "Learning with Blogs: Selected blogs that will enlighten and inform every library professional," American Libraries, August/September 2009. Print.
Rice, John. "Are You Smarter Than a Whiteboard? 10 tips for IWBs in the classroom." Tech Edge, Spring 2009. Print.
(MLA Citation Style from: http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citmla.htm)
The technology mentioned in the articles are available for check out at Kimball HS Library, and I'd love to find or create lessons that would assist teachers here.
Meanwhile, I've been playing catch up between scheduled classes - where questions usually involve Microsoft Word and Powerpoint problems (easy things like: how do I change the margins or line spacing) but lately, things I find not-so-easy, like: why can't I open and use my .mov on Windows Movie Maker, why won't my .tmp file print or give me the message there isn't enough memory to print or why only the text prints. I figured out the why of the problems, but not yet the how-to-solve those problems. Are these easy? Other things I've been working on are: LAN connectivity problems in one area of the library, inventory of books, equipment, and multimedia, trying to input items which seemed to have been kicked out of the system (finding out they will check in now when two months ago we got the message: Not in system), cataloging of new items purchased...oh wait, the district equipment repair technician just dropped in...and many other tasks...school library really is interesting and fun. It's great to be a part of this time in history when there are so many new things to learn...and organize.
Just found another thing I'd like to use on my webpage: carousel widgets! See them at:
https://widgets.amazon.com/Amazon-Carousel-Widget/?id=V20070822/US/bookfizz-20/8010/e423148b-4afe-42b4-b8af-abe987c7efaf&ref=assoc_wdgt_us
One more thing for me to learn: what's a "mashup"?
Dewey keep Dewey?
I came across an article in libraryjournal.com which discusses Rangeview (CO) Library ousting Dewey in favor of BISAC (Book Industry Standards and Communications). I know I have enjoyed browsing bookstores and been happier with their organization than with Dewey, and wonder if this may be something that catches on. Yarra Plenty Library asks this very question and discusses results of how patrons reacted at: yarraplentylibrary.blogspot.com.
Meanwhile, while trying to upload the photo (libraryjournal.com via Google Images), I also meandered upon Library Thing, which I had heard about from a Princeton Library friend. "What is LibraryThing?! LibraryThing helps you list your books, get reading recommendations and connect with other book lovers." (http://www.librarything.com/about) I was thinking it would be a great spot to make a list of the new books purchased that students really seem to enjoy.
Web 2.0...giving us fascinating and wonderful things to do and utilize in education...what to do first?
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
My, How Time Flies
Since my last post, my co-librarian has been on extended leave, starting in late October. Then, in December, the media assistant also took a short (most of December) leave, which I hope explains the lack of posts! For a while, there was no sub, then subs which I had to train on a daily, bi-weekly, or weekly basis.This morning, at 5 am, it came to me. Ideas for new posts!
Since then, I have since researched the first idea, and came up with minimal information to share. I'll keep looking for information to present this idea in a future post.Next topic of discussion: Book Club.
Book Club has always had a small membership, partially due to my personally purchasing copies of books selected for each member (as well as weekly snacks). This wasn't so bad when they were available at http://www.betterworldbooks.com, Half-Price Books, or even in paperback. It just got pricy when they wanted to continue a series up to the latest (available in hardcover only) title. I realize there are sources of funding for HS book clubs; some which have strict guidelines and/or specific titles to be read. I wanted the students to have the option of reading the titles they want to read, and they want to see in the library. So far, the selections of the book club members have been very popular with the rest of the school (and some of the other schools in the district, as evidenced in ILLs (Inter-library Loans) of these books.
Titles read since KHS Book Club's inception in April, 2009, have been: "Frostbite" by Richelle Mead, "Vampire Kisses" 1-3 by Ellen Schreiber, "City of Bones," "City of Ashes," and "City of Glass," by Cassandra Clare. Unfortunately, our membership is dwindling. We currently have three regular members, down from our typical seven, from our all-time record of nine. The main reason given was students being unable to pass from the cafeteria to the library for our 7:45 am meeting. New administrators were brought in this past January who are doing a great job, and the hallways are free of wandering students. Unfortunately, many of them were wandering into the library. Our morning traffic is also way, way down. I discussed book club attendance with the assistant principal, and created passes for book club members (see image). However, this hasn't increased numbers so far. We then changed the meeting day and time from Wednesday at 7:45, to Monday at 3:45. This led to a more lively discussion from the remaining members, (who have woken up by that time) but fewer members! The members who couldn't make it into the morning halls have not returned for the afternoon meeting.
I have posted a picture of the pass. I use Avery labels to attach them to the back of the student's ID badge. The clipart is from Microsoft Office downloads.
Book Club has always had a small membership, partially due to my personally purchasing copies of books selected for each member (as well as weekly snacks). This wasn't so bad when they were available at http://www.betterworldbooks.com, Half-Price Books, or even in paperback. It just got pricy when they wanted to continue a series up to the latest (available in hardcover only) title. I realize there are sources of funding for HS book clubs; some which have strict guidelines and/or specific titles to be read. I wanted the students to have the option of reading the titles they want to read, and they want to see in the library. So far, the selections of the book club members have been very popular with the rest of the school (and some of the other schools in the district, as evidenced in ILLs (Inter-library Loans) of these books.
Titles read since KHS Book Club's inception in April, 2009, have been: "Frostbite" by Richelle Mead, "Vampire Kisses" 1-3 by Ellen Schreiber, "City of Bones," "City of Ashes," and "City of Glass," by Cassandra Clare. Unfortunately, our membership is dwindling. We currently have three regular members, down from our typical seven, from our all-time record of nine. The main reason given was students being unable to pass from the cafeteria to the library for our 7:45 am meeting. New administrators were brought in this past January who are doing a great job, and the hallways are free of wandering students. Unfortunately, many of them were wandering into the library. Our morning traffic is also way, way down. I discussed book club attendance with the assistant principal, and created passes for book club members (see image). However, this hasn't increased numbers so far. We then changed the meeting day and time from Wednesday at 7:45, to Monday at 3:45. This led to a more lively discussion from the remaining members, (who have woken up by that time) but fewer members! The members who couldn't make it into the morning halls have not returned for the afternoon meeting.
I have posted a picture of the pass. I use Avery labels to attach them to the back of the student's ID badge. The clipart is from Microsoft Office downloads.
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