Tag Archives: Food for Thought

Weekly Review 2/18/16

CMLE Updates: State & Regional News
– New ELM Video project More
– Authors coming to GRRL More
– New composition of CMLE Governing Board More
– We’ve Learned: Library staffing news More
– State Library Update 2/11/16 More
– New! CMLE Event: Supervisor Nuts and Bolts Workshop More

 Upcoming Events and Registration Information
– Register NOW for CMLE’s Spring Author Event with Erin Hart & Paddy O’Brien More
– 55 FREE Online Library events in February More

 Resources You Can Use
– AASL Recommended App: iBiome: Wetland More
– Action Guide to re-envision your public library More
– YA books that promote mental health More

 Tech Bits and Ideas
– 10 tips for troubleshooting your internet connection More

 Food For Thought
– The benefits of reading aloud to teens More

 Just For Fun
– 33 ways to make your house amazing! More

My unfortunate "mother of all booklists" experiment

photo-1431608660976-4fe5bcc2112cHave you noticed the abundance of “best books” lists? It is starting to feel a bit daunting, I must say! Here at CMLE, we seek to manage the noise for our readers, keep the clutter from your inbox, and find tools or solutions to make the tsunami of information more manageable. So, I was on a mission!

I valiantly decided to get my arms around the many entities that are creating these book lists. And, a real plum in the process would be to find a mega site that was the ultimate list of book lists; the mother of all book list sites! It started out as all fun and games with a Google search on “best books” 2015.  I was happily copying the sites and lists into a Word doc in hopes of later creating a possible LibGuide, maybe nicely categorized to further “containerize” the content. Suddenly, I sat back, looked over my list, and became very sad. It became really apparent, very quick, that my list contained almost all commercial sites, and that libraries were nowhere in the first four pages of search results.  Yes, I know the average user will not last this far into the search results! Amazon, Time, New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, etc…. filled my screen. How sad is that and why is it true? Where are libraries? Librarians are the ultimate content curators, aren’t they? What started out fun, became depressing.

A recent post I did about the absence of libraries in typical book search results online, A Great Big Cloud Catalog for the Greater Good of All? came to mind. In it, I questioned why it is that if libraries are the biggest book “containers” online, they don’t they show up in search results? Is it any wonder libraries often feel marginalized, and are often scrambling to find opportunities to “tell their stories” or even change what it is that they do altogether? If we could get library holdings front and center in online end-user search results, is it possible there would be less scrambling?

How did my experiment come out?

  • I further wondered what criteria is used to create all of these individual lists. Are they  based on sales or actual quality of writing? Doubt prevailed. What if we harnessed all of the creative power of librarians nationally, and built a “go to” site with all possible book lists? Now that would be phenomenal!
  • Inevitably, I abandoned my Word doc when doubt overtook me, and Pima County Public Library in Arizona and the Los Angeles Public Library (scroll down) showed up, among others. While I am impressed with their lists, I am still not sure they are the best, the most comprehensive. More of everyone “doing their own thing?” Click on their links here to see what you think.  If you know of a better, more comprehensive “list of lists” please share! Send email to admin@cmle.org or use the comments field to further enlighten me!

Patricia-

Image credit: https://unsplash.com/(Glen Noble),licensed under CC0 1.0

 

100 Things Kids Will Miss (if they don’t have a Teacher Librarian in their School)!

Some rights reserved by eyllom
Some rights reserved by eyl

This list is back by popular demand! And now in handy poster form.

Use this list as a proactive way to share the merits of school library programming and staffing. It is taken from Standards for the 21st Century Learner by the American Association of School Librarians, suggestions from members of the American Association of School Librarians, and students in the school libraries of the United States. Released by Dr. Nancy Everhart President, American Association of School Librarians May 19, 2011.

Tip: This list would be good to keep on hand in case you need to defend the existence of the media center in the future too!

100 Things Kids Will Miss (if they don't have a Teacher Librarian in their School)!

Some rights reserved by eyllom
Some rights reserved by eyl

This list is back by popular demand!

Use this list as a proactive way to share the merits of school library programming and staffing. It is taken from Standards for the 21st Century Learner by the American Association of School Librarians, suggestions from members of the American Association of School Librarians, and students in the school libraries of the United States. Released by Dr. Nancy Everhart President, American Association of School Librarians May 19, 2011.

Tip: This list would be good to keep on hand in case you need to defend the existence of the media center in the future too!

Results of Blue Skunk PLN Survey

TwitterWords. mrsdkrebs
Image by Mrsdlrebs. Retrieved from Flickr. Used under Creative Commons licensing.

In a recent post, you may have noticed that Doug Johnson’s Blue Skunk blog was named in the top 50 list of school library blogs. Doug used that platform to his advantage to encourage followers to take his survey on Professional Learning Network (PLN) Tools. Within a week or so, Doug had 513 responses; a good and fast response! Some interesting facts follow, but please read Doug’s full blog post to read more about other highlights or possible  limitations of the survey.

  • PLN means different things to different people.
  • Professionals are connected and those connections, while maybe changing in some ways, are getting stronger overall.
  • Three most used PLN tools were: social bookmarking sites, webinars, and blogs
  • Three least used PLN tools were: Google+, LinkedIn, and Nings
  • Three tools getting most increased use: blogs, webinars, and social bookmarking

What about you, what is your favorite PLN tool?