C&I 440 Management of School Libraries

Hoffman Article for Tomorrow

albeam2 — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:37:01 +0000

I’ve just tried to access the Hoffman article for tomorrow and cannot find it in Academic Search Premier or ERIC. I searched all the articles in the syllabus before class began, but I must have missed this one. If you can’t locatet this one, skip it.

Clarification for Scenario 4

albeam2 — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:56:00 +0000

I’ve had a couple of questions about assignment 4, so I thought I’d clarify here.

First, there are 2 parts to the assignment. You need to choose between options 1 & 2. Both are professional development options, each from a slightly different perspective. Choose the one most relevant to your situation.

Then, everyone must do the 3rd option – the automation option. You’ll need to investigate stand alone & consortium options available to your library – use the school you work in if you’re not currently working as a librarian. Find out as much as you can – do the “preliminarly research” you’d do if you were a librarian investigation automation options. Based on your research, prioritize your options in the order you think might work best for your library. You probably won’t be able to gather enough information to make a firm decision here – think of this as a scouting report, and make a plan you could use if you were going to do further research. Also include your rational for your plan/priorities. So, after a little research & though, if you’ve decided a stand alone option would probably be best, explain why. Then, do a little research on some of the products out there & list them in the order they appeal to you. Does Follett Destiny sound the most promising to you? It should be first on your list, and tell me why, and what else you want to/need to know before making a final decision. The rank the other options (Alexandria, other stand alone programs if you find them, consortium catalog). It’s impossible to actually make that final decision without meeting with a rep and doing a trial, which I do not expect you to do – but you can conduct the preliminary research to plan who you’d want to meet with/talk with first.

Also, I heard about an open source (free?) cataloging product at ALA this weekend that you might want to consider. I don’t know anything about it, but you’re welcome to see what you can find out: www.biblios.net. I’m not sure if it has a circulation component -in other words, I know you can create an online card catalog with it, but I’m not sure if you can use it to check books in and out. You can also use Library Thing as a free catalog, but it has no circulation option.

Finally, the due date for this is July 23, our last class meeting. No assignments due this week.

Professional Development Oppportunities

albeam2 — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:55:08 +0000

Here are a couple of opportunities that have been posted on ISLMA-Net that are free or very inexpensive:

NEW! Investigative Search 20/10

Starts July 7 (24/7 On-Demand Training)

One-week – Study at your own pace

Ever wonder how your online information searching and vetting skills stack up? Most educators score around 60% when it comes to demonstrating their ability to locate and evaluate digital information. Compared to students, who typically score in the 40% range, this is pretty good. But this leaves a lot of room for improvement.

If you want to consider yourself fluent, a score in the 80% range is the goal for this new self-paced online training.

For nearly a decade, we’ve been observing students and adults search online. Our latest effort is ‘Investigative Searching 20/10′, a performance-based diagnostic and tutorial package to help individuals improve their ability to evaluate information taken from Web pages, blogs, wikis and forums.

This eight hour course features pre- and post-tests, videos, interactive readings, tutorials and all new search challenges enabling you to locate and evaluate information about authors, publishers, publication dates, internal and external evidence. We expect this course will take you approximately a week to complete. As part of our summer special we’ll leave it open for nearly a month!

Click Image to try a tutorial!

Act now to maximize your access! Don’t miss out on this time-saving package!

Summer Pricing: $25 | Earn 8 CPDUs

For more information or to enroll, visit http://21cif.mrooms.net/ (log in as guest)

Keep Your Library in the Spotlight All Year!
A Workshop for K-12 Librarians
Date: Friday, August 7, 2009
Time: 9:00 am – 12:00 pm (registration opens at 8:45)
CPDU Credits: 3
Workshop Fee: $45

Location: Center for Children’s Books
Room 24, Graduate School of Library and Information Science Building
501 E. Daniel Street, Champaign, IL

Pre-registration Required: Maximum 30 Participants

Registration:
Go to http://www.lis.illinois.edu/programs/cpd/spotlight.html
and click on Register Now!

Description: Need some ideas to jump-start the school year? Looking for effective strategies to keep your school community informed and aware of your library throughout the school year? This workshop will provide K-12 librarians with low-budget, low-tech ideas for spicing up a library’s look and appeal. During the first half of the workshop, presenters Pat Mathews and Mindy May will demonstrate ways they draw students, teachers and parents into the library through the use of creative programming and displays. During the second half of the workshop participants will share their ideas, techniques, and programs with each other. Each participant is encouraged to bring samples of their favorite methods for connecting with patrons. Bring one copy and we’ll reproduce it for the group. Join us and start the year armed with fresh ideas to help showcase your library!

Presenters: Pat Mathews has been the library media specialist at Dr. Howard Elementary School in Champaign, IL for the past 12 years. Pat started her career as a music educator, and then earned her M.S. in LIS from the University of Illinois. She worked at The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books as a graduate assistant, and then as a reviewer. You only have to spend a few minutes with Pat to know she has successfully combined her love of children with her love of literature.

Mindy May has worked as the Library Assistant at Mahomet-Seymour High School Library for the past 8 years. She presented a wealth of ideas for bulletin boards and displays at the 2008 ISLMA Fall Conference. Mindy won Second Runner-Up in the national For Dummies @your library Display Contest in 2007 and has been the creative (and construction) force behind transforming the library into a themed space for the high school’s annual literary café.

Schedule: 8:45-9:00 Registration
9:00-10:20 Presentation by Pat & Mindy
10:30-12:00 Small group discussions

*12:00-2:00 After the workshop, the Center for Children’s Books will be open for browsing. Feel free to bring your lunch down to the Center, network with other participants, and use our unique collection of new books to help make your fall purchase orders.

Parking: Meter Street parking is available for $.75/hr.

Questions?
Contact Corrie Ball, CCB Outreach Coordinator (caball@illinoois.edu)

Class Cancelled 7/7

albeam2 — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:02:00 +0000

Hi, all,

I’m afraid my migraines have struck again. I”m going to have to cancel class today. My sincere apologies.

Please post your organizational tip on the class wiki. Include a brief one-paragraph discription of your tip/tool, and post any links, pictures, files, etc. that are relevant. If you’ve never used a wiki, there are intstructions posted for how to add to it. Please take the time over the next day or two to go back and look at what your classmates have posted – you might find a great new trick you can use right away!

I’ll also post Scenario 4. Please note that it is not due for 2 weeks.

We’ll have our automation discussion as planned on Thursday. No readings required.

We’ll talk about policies & scheduling (today’s topics) on Tuesday, July 21 – they’ll fit well there. Please hang on to your questions & we’ll address them then.

I have a few assignments left to grade, and a few people to get back to about final projects. I’ll probably get to these tomorrow.

Please let me know if you have any questions. Again, I may not get to them until tomorrow.

Thanks, and enjoy the day off!

ALA Annual Conference is in Chicago Next Weekend!

albeam2 — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:19:27 +0000

Sorry for the late notice, but I did want to mention that the American Library Association’s Annual Conference is in Chicago next weekend. Here’s the link to general conference info: http://www.ala.org/ala/conferencesevents/upcoming/annual/index.cfm

Since I’m guessing most of you won’t be making plans to attend at this late date, I will also mention that they are offering a virtual conference, which you can attend from the comfort of your own home. Here’s the blurb from their website, and the link to registration info:

ALA 2009 Virtual Conference

Attend Annual Conference from your desktop this year with the American Library Association’s (ALA) new Virtual Conference. ALA is offering 10 interactive Web sessions on Monday, July 13 and Tuesday, July 14 at the closing of the 2009 Annual Conference in Chicago.
Interact with speakers and other attendees during each of these hour-long sessions on a variety of exciting topics.
These interactive programs from ALA’s Washington Office, the Office of Intellectual Freedom and several other divisions and offices will be the next best thing to being right at the Annual Conference itself.
Topics will include accessing stimulus money for broadband deployment, greening your library and best customer service.

Online Registration for the 2009 Annual Virtual Conference

Warning: The ALA site really stinks – it loads FOREVER and sometimes you never get to where you want to go. Othertimes it works just fine. If you’re having trouble, they’re pretty good about listing 800 numbers for help – call them.

More School/Public Library Resources

albeam2 — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:25:30 +0000

Hi, everyone!

Sue Franzen, our public librarian guest speaker, just send me her handout for today & it has a few articles about school/public library collaboration listed. I just thought I’d go ahead and share them now in case any of you have a little time to read ahead before class.

The articles are from Academic Search Premier, so, if the links don’t work, just go into the database & search the titles.

Articles on School and Public Library Collaboration

DelGuidice, Margaux. “Are You Overlooking a Valuable Resource? A Practical Guide to Collaborating with Your Greatest Ally: The Public Library.” Library Media Connection. May/June 2009. 38-39.

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=40101674&site=ehost-live

Squires, Tasha and Mary Golden. “Partnering with the Public Library on Web 2.0 Tools for Student Research.” MultiMedia & Internet@Schools. May/June 2009. 14-18.

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=41233182&site=ehost-live

Fink, Megan. “Teen Read Week Collaboration.” Young Adult Library Services. Summer 2007. 29-30.

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=25546110&site=ehost-live

Check the wiki…

albeam2 — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:08:20 +0000

Check the wiki for resources mentioned in class today, including links to the School Library 2.0 Learning professional development program, and the document Karen mentioned “You know you are a 21st century librarian if you…” I also posted the UHigh annual report as a pdf; the template isn’t really view-able in any other format.

Blog, RSS and Twitter info is up (I’ll try to add more recommended blogs), as is a link to the webinar panel discussion with Joyce Valenza that we mentioned last week.

Please feel free to add things you find on your own. If there’s no appropriate “chapter” in our handbook yet, create one, or send me the info and I’ll create and post.

Joyce Valenza Article for Thursday 6/25 & Annual Reports

albeam2 — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:12:48 +0000

Here’s the direct link to Joyce’s article you need to read for Thursday:

“Open the Door and Let ‘Em In.”

Also, here’s a link to her recent blog post with her library’s annual report and links to other examples.

Sharing Email Addresses

albeam2 — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 03:20:47 +0000

During our on-campus session on Friday, there was some interest in exchanging email addresses to keep in touch. I’d be happy to send out a list of the email addresses I have on file, if that’s okay w/everyone. I will not post on the blog or wiki, just send out via email so they’ll stay within the class.

If you do not want your email address shared with your classmates, email me and let me know. If you’d like me to share a different address from the one you’re using for class, let me know.

It might take me a few days to get this out…

Scenario 1 Feedback

albeam2 — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 23:54:53 +0000

Several of you have sent me drafts of scenario 1 asking for feedback. Normally I’m very happy to do this, but I probably will not have time to read them all and get back to all of you by Tuesday (there are several, and I’ve had a packed weekend & have a busy Monday in front of me). However, if it turns out that you’re totally off base & your assignment is not what I’m looking for, I’m happy to give you a chance to revise it and improve your grade w/no penalties.

Please feel free to ask me for advance feedback in the future – I don’t mind if I have time, and, if I don’t have time, I’ll continue to offer you the chance to revise your assignments if you want to.