Sharing at TLA 2011: Librarians' Know-How!

Six terrific librarians from my district presented four sets of ideas to use in libraries during the first annual 1001 Great Ideas forum on TLA opening day 2011. We had 2 pairs of elementary librarians presenting ideas on bookclubbing using Skype and free resources and apps to use in creating student projects on Itouchs and Ipads. Two individuals, one in elementary and one in middle school, presented crazy ways to get kids hooked into books and how to make green screen movies, respectively.

It was so much fun and such a great way to start off annual conference. There were dozens and dozens of other ideas, projects, and adventures as well from school, public and academic libraries from across Texas! Can't wait to see what comes up next year!

I was so happy to be the "cheerleader" for the folks from my district. They represented a larger group of hard-working innovative people who are trying all kinds of interesting things in order for children to dream, to learn and to create. I took some photos and will share those a little later on this post when I get permission to use their names, but I also took some Flip videos just for fun.

This evening I played with the Flip Share software and in about five minutes (no kidding) created this little Quick Flip movie! I downloaded my not-so-good pieces of video and the software grabbed a few seconds of each and produced this 30 second video on its own! Similar to Animoto in a way!

More later about conference and all the good "stuff" that came from it. I'm beat...off to bed!

028.9 TeenBookCon 2010: Some Reflections

Enjoyed a nice day this past Saturday volunteering for a good pal at the TeenBookCon 2010. Got to hang out with some fun librarians from the local area, folks from our favorite neighborhood bookshop and some creative and clever authors!

I had a variety of little jobs that allowed me to interact a bit with teens who love and appreciate good stories. It was fun seeing their enthusiasm for the event and their excitement over the anticipation at being in the same room with the likes of Sharon Draper. All the buzz about "how good her books are " and "I don't think I could just say one is my fav" gave my librarian's heart a good jolt of "feelin' good!" One district Librarian colleague and I checked in some of the 400 students who attended and took their lunch orders. Who knew choosing between pizza nad Chic-fi-la would be so hard a task at 10:00 in the morning? Sometimes we had to revert to reference interview techniques to get an answer and get the line moving! (KR, enjoyed working with you as always...and solving several of the world's problems as well! :-))

One of my favorite duties of the day was monitoring the authors' break room and making sure they had plenty of coffee, food, cold water, food, sodas, food, ice, and did I mention, food! And the ever-so-important chocolate, of course! (My pal and I had had a fun adventure a few days earlier wheeling a cart thru Costco's aisles picking out just the right things.) Another Librarian in my circle allowed me to move into her slot in the break-room while she went off to serve pizza to the teens (Thanks CL, I owe you in more ways than one.)

Her generosity allowed me to have that few minutes of up close and personal where, among the delightful conversations I overheard, was the discussion four authors were having, not over the finer points of book writing and publishing, but the latest and greatest in oversize scanners. It made me laugh that they were deep in discussion about technology at a book convention! But I also learned something...the scanner is important in the working with large graphic panels that they create for their novels! (The weirdest little things just fascinate me.) They assured me they were having lots of book talk too! L to R: Terry Moore, the Fillbach Brothers, and Jimmy Gownley.

AND I also got to meet a blogger (& author)that I have been following for all the years I have been messin' with blogging...and if you want the skinny on anything bookwise, you should follow Cynthia Leitich Smith's blog . You can also read her take on the day. Yes, I feel connected online with all the folks I follow, but a f2f encounter is a grand ol' cherry on top of the hot fudge sundae.

Here's the whole wonderful group of authors and info about them!

Photo credits:

Pizza Handlers - from FlickrCC by libraryink

Registration - from FlickrCC by libraryink

4 authors - by VWB

CLS - by VWB
Author group - from flickrCC by libraryink

027.8 Libraries: The 12 Steps to the Future

Some people make things SO easy...

and Doug Johnson, the Blue Skunk guy (and one of my virtual mentor heroes) does it AGAIN with his latest post where he lists 12 differences in the libraries of yesteryear and those of the future! Go there and read them for yourself...all signify the changing, transforming libraries that I am seeing around me.

He DID ask us to "join in" so here's my thoughts...

#9 regarding organizing by a set of rules vs organizing in ways that make sense to users. Makes the cataloger's compartment of my little heart skip a couple of beats...YES, I want to be good to my users, but I also want them to be successful in any library they go into and if we get "too" creative in our arrangements, I fear we will suffer from the grocery store syndrome (why can't grocery stores adopt similar arrangements---I hate hunting for canned mushrooms in some stores!) Please, please, think thorough creative arrangements c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y...especially if you want your users to be independent users who can go from the catalog, take the address (call#) and actually find what they want and need without the librarian being the traffic cop!

#8 I definitely want whole-school ownership of the library. It is fabulous where I see it in action. But I still want the professional librarian there...and in my dreams, I wish for more than one professional librarian, but unfortunately dreams aren't coming true in these economic times so I will be content with one (and extra adult hands please?) Unfortunately, administrators and powers-that-be, because they really don't understand our purpose and our contributions to student success, often think they can eliminate the professional librarian because "everyone" and "anybody" can hand out books and equipment. This one worries me a lot because of how it can be interpreted.

I will take his six descriptors and last statement and put them right here where you can read them quickly and easily

Change IS tough, but if we want to be around to take part in the excitement of the future, we must!

027.8 Libraries, Librarians & Kids: Outta the Blogs of Babes!

Super Star #4 paid homage to her Librarian and the excitement in her school library in a recent blog post

"The library is the BEST place in the history of the world!!!!!!!!!!!"

This young 5th grade girl likes everything in her library...the books, the technology, the contests, the freedom to explore what interests her. How lucky she is to have that kind of place to visit.

Her blog reflects her many interests in and out of the library and school. But I can tell that reading is a big part of her life because of all the attention paid to books in her blog posts.

Yes, she celebrated the addition of new MACs, but truly reflects the value of the technology she likes by U-S-I-N-G it to tell her stories! She makes Animotos like some of us make grocery lists...all the time! Sometimes to honor books, some times about her favorite animal--dogs, or her favorite sport--soccer.

I don't ever think she stops to wonder what she should be doing...she just does it because the opportunities are available to her...and her Librarian creates the atmosphere of choice.

But you know what jumped out at me...because of her Librarian (and other teachers involved in her learning,) this 5th grader has been telling her story for THREE school years...3rd, 4th and 5th in a blog! For one-half of her young school life, she has had a place to tell her stories to authentic audiences. She has had a place to come to experience all kinds of new experiences, be they thru a book or a keyboard. And she has had the support and safety net of the Librarian who wants her to reach for the stars in her path.

Super Star #4 is lucky indeed...and I for one can't wait to see what other adventures she shares with us!

741.6 Glogster: A Different Way to "Present"

TASLA 2nd Afternoon Session Training Librarians

Training new librarians

in Ft. Bend...they attend a summer course on electronic resources or information literacy as a participant because they will be expected to teach one of the course during their first year.

new librarians have separate meetings (similar to ours) in addition to regular monthly meetings

Dallas ISD...summer sessions 5-6 days, unpaid in fall 4-7:30, unpaid various courses cover a variety of classes

Overview of Librarianship--photostory format instead of a course.

have “notebook” as they receive info..put it in their notebook

Northside ISD...mentor program

established librarians did a think tank of ideas...

application process for the mentors...principals had to give permission so there would be no surprises

6 meetings with mentors/mentees $200 stipend

monthly checklist for mentors

orientation for mentors...create goodie bag for mentee

Denton ISD...

new program this year (based on Garland’s program)

5 days of training...3 unpaid days in summer, 2 during the year

veterans come in to talk about different topics

this is a day in the life of ....

how do you match a book with reluctant reader

database training

Round Rock ISD...

new librarians workshop 1 day unpaid

what kinds of things are on their mind?

contract between mentor/mentee

they have 4 meetings with each other...list of what to talk about each time

online manual with instructions

acceptable use , copyright, book selection are covered before school on the training day

XXXXX

training library paraprofessionals

Title 1 requirements

that Book Woman...the traveling librarian

uses Raganathan’s 5 laws of library science to generate discussion

Make Them Smile---customer service from Todaro

weeding

management of students -- routines

book selection

027.8 A Good List of Librarians

If you want to check out what blogging librarians are talking about these days, here's a Top 50 list...although it really is a Top 40s + 10 Tweeters...and I won't go there tonight...still trying to wrap my head around that concept. Suffice it to say, the Tweeters have plenty of important (and fun) things to say too!

I have read and follow regularly 9 out of the top 10 plus a bunch further down the line. And I am pleased to say that I have had opportunity to hear many of these fine folks in person...an extra treat! I have a feeling I'll be adding a few more once I give myself time to completely work through the list. 

There are a few missing from the list in my opinion. Among them are Blue Skunk and Library Stuff who have been teaching me a lot over several years! But it's not my list. Enjoy what is there!

Take a look...you'll learn something...all the time!

028.5 Multi-tasking Librarian: In the Right Place

I have said it many times, but it is never enough. I work with the greatest bunch of school librarians. I have made a promise to try and show them off as much as I can. I started my efforts here and here.

Check out the latest efforts of this elementary librarian. When a gift fell into her lap, she jumped at the chance and gave some of her students a wonderful experience with an author and his very popular books...all the same time she was preparing an outstanding presentation to give to administrators seeking answers to how libraries (and more importantly, librarians) can impact student success! Check out the Animoto of her kids. She is a walking advertisement for that type of success.

025.3 Checking Out Cataloging at TLA

There were several cataloging sessions presented at TLA this year and I decided that they would be at the top of my list as much as possible. I know you are asking why and there are several very good reasons. First off, I am the cataloger of record in my district, and although we have a very serious rule of "buy processed," I still get asked some tough questions by the librarians in my circle of influence and I have to be on top of what is what so that I can be sure the vendors "do it right" as well. I am teaching cataloging to some new librarians and I wanted to be sure I was teaching the right stuff...turns out I was/am with one small exception which I will touch on later.

Several of the topics were simply interesting...and some of the presenters are simply "rock stars" in the field and deserved my time for what they know!

As anyone who has attended TLA knows all too well, you can't see and do it all so there were some cataloging sessions I missed. One was Cataloging Reconsidered: Is LOC Still the Nation's Cataloger. The link takes you to some useful information found on the LOC site. Another session, Not the Dreaded Cart Again! A Cataloger's Nightmare is currently not active in the session handouts section. The info was presented by Scott Piepenburg who has put several books together that do help a librarian who finds herself/himself having to take care of cataloging issues. 

I did attend the session about MarcEdit. another session that currently does not have an active link on the

 TLA page  I hate to admit that I came away not totally understanding it and all that it can do for individual librarians. But the website is very comprehensive and I do plan to go thru it carefully for any assistance it can provide.

I also attended the session Cataloging 101 for School and Public Librarians presented by a true rock star of the cataloging world, Joanna Fountain. She knows everything, but has such a realistic view of what busy school librarians can and can not spend time on when it comes to cataloging materials. I have always appreciated how she takes large amounts of information and distills it down to the essential components. You can learn a lot from her sample book as to what is needed in records covering all formats.

Some her comments during the session included 

what is the catalog for

to show what the library has

and what ELSE does the library have

Users should be able to make successful choices based on the info...that is an important job of the cataloger to be sure that can happen and then also being sure that the info to find the material is properly complete.

The librarian/cataloger must understand the audience, know the system that will contain the records and understand content rules, be they AACR2 or the upcoming RDA

As far as having a classification tool, the Dewey abridged is sufficient. LC subject  authorities are available online for free at the LOC website

Fountain did explain with the change in the rules that are being worked on, the term  preferred instead of authority will be the new term of choice in RDA

Steps the librarian/cataloger must think about include:

1st what is this item?

2nd what is chief source of info for this kind of item?

3rd is there a MARC template for this type of material to guide in deciding what is needed, and needed correctly?

Fountain also brought certain things about some fields/tags and sub-headings:

245 - Keep all the diacritics in the title and author , but watch the system you use. Some systems turn them into weird characters!

And the same thing I have to remain my students...Capitalize only the first word and proper nouns in any titles...for get what you learned in English...for the moment!

260 - Why is the place of publication important? Because it can affect the version selected. And what about all those publishers and imprints...go with what appears on the title page...even if it is an imprint! And just as I have always tried to explain...there is a difference between publication date (printing) and the copyright. If you choose to use the copyright date, it always needs the "c" before it. It is best to use the newest date, but very important to be consistent. I know in our district we have that consistency. Newest date first!

When talking a little about AV, Fountain reminded all of us that when working on videos, we now have to think about VHS (on its way out), DVD, or  Blu-ray...the newest format that will need to be included in 538.

She also mentioned that the 2nd indicator in the subject fields (600, 650, 651, etc.) should be filled with a "1" indicating that the material is in a children's CATALOG, not necessarily that the material is a child's book!   

Fountain also shared information about the IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations. There is lots of info about cataloging electronic materials...useful for libraries trying to keep up with all the great stuff online!

She indicated that she would try to answer questions fountain@thegateway.net

Time well spent!

027.8 Teamwork & School Librarians...With a Little Multi-tasking Thrown In

Today was a busy day at TLA. The Strong Libraries, Strong Scores Administrators' Conference was held today...more about that important event in detail a bit later! That necessitated a committee of school librarians who were willing to give of most of one day at conference to help this mini-conference happen.

And this year, this all-important volunteer opportunity fell on a group of librarians from my district, who, when I asked, stepped up to the plate and said yes to whatever! Some parts of the morning were busy, some parts were a tad stressful, but most parts were just plain boring with a lot of sitting around...waiting, and waiting much more patiently than I!

But never let it be said that this group of librarians ever let an opportunity for bonding, relationship building, collaborating, and /or sharing go by. Some were sharing knowledge about personal learning devices (aka fancy phones!), some were learning tips and tricks from each other while allowing a colleague to practice a presentation, and others were just taking time to get to know each other a bit better...all at the same time remaining poised to take on any conference task that bubbled to the surface.

The group of librarians in my circle of influence and my learning community are the greatest, and today only proved the point one more time! Nothing, absolutely nothing did they let go by...they took care of details, large and small, and with smiles on their faces. They counted and recounted simply because I asked; they made trips down the long halls or over to the convention center just because I needed something checked on...again! Some of them even babysat lunches...while important sessions over in the convention center went on without them.

They know who they are, but here is a visual record of my all my right-hands from today. They insisted that I had to be part or there would be no visual record. I am proud to be among them even though I did grumble a bit!

And now for the multi-tasking part: I took advantage of sharing their smiling faces along with how proud I am to call them not only colleagues but friends, but to also showcase two samples of image generator sites...one new to me-- BeFunky, and a favorite Dumpr and a particular technique found in both. Pretty cool don't you think?

P.S. Thanks AGAIN to the team...and to BF, a helper from a neighboring district!

808.06 2.0 Book Reviews: "Rap" Your Brain Around This Idea

Want to try something new to promote books? Want to give kids an alternative to the worn-out version of a book report?

Go here to see what one of the librarians in my personal learning network has produced!
She has gone even further and issued the challenge to her students to one-up her!
Check out here what else she is doing to make the library a happening place!

Check out your "berry" cuz your visit's overdue!