Give me the money!

I just found out that there is money available to LIBM graduate students for reimbursement since it is considered a deficit area in Arkansas. It won't reimburse everything but every little bit helps! I just hope that I remember to fill out the paperwork and send it in when January rolls around!

Animoto.com/education

Okay, I am super excited! I was just reading an article on School Library Journal and found the top ten digital resources that all school libraries should have. This (animoto.com/education) was one of them. It is a way for kids to make quick book-talk videos online. Educators can use it for free if they are willing to set up class sites and give feed-back. I havent' gotten to look at it yet but will as soon as I finish this. I have been thinking and looking for a way to revive book talks with my students. They have been done to death by the time they get to 7th grade and just want to read! Which is wonderful! But we also want them to learn how to share the books that they love. Anyway....I'm going to go check it out!

Not so easy!

Every class I attend, whether physically or online, I am reminded how detailed and intricate library information work is. It astonishes me to hear people make comments about how easy it must be to get a master's for a LMS. If only people really knew what kind of work goes into such a position. Why is it that so many, even in education, have that idea? Do we under-use our libraries? Are we just careless about noticing how much is accomplished through them? Hearing one LMS tell how she meets regularly (weekly) with the teachers in her building to ascertain what their information needs are makes me more and more aware that the benefits of the LMS are beyond what we notice and acknowledge.

Changing Face of the Library

After reading the article, What is to become of reference in academic and public libraries, I feel strongly that though the face of libraries, reference, and books is most definitely changing, there is as much if not more need for library media technologists as ever before. One thing that kept coming to my mind was this: What will happen to our level of accurate information if no one directs people in the ways and types of information that they are using as answers to their research questions? I think it is kind of scary to imagine people making decisions and basing research on information found on sites that are not regulated by anyone that is capable of determining the accuracy of the presented information. If there is to be improvement and advancement in any profession, areas will have to change to meet the changing needs of the society around it.

Bluford High can impact students.

I have often felt like books could be a way to reach even those students that many have written off as too far gone. When I discovered the Bluford High books a few years ago in Lit Lab, I was surprised and excited. Although there are no ethnic groups in our school, many of the students still deal with the same fears, temptations and struggles as the characters in the stories do. I was amazed to see how quickly these books were passed around. It only took one student in the class to read one of them, tell the others how great they were and there they went. I really like that some are from a girls perspective and others from a boys perspective. It really brought around good discussion between the two groups. When I stumbled across the article (http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6655502.html?industryid=47070) sharing a librarians experience of a book club using Bluford High I thought it was a great idea. She even created the article itself in a graphic format....really neat! I love how she points out that a librarian can impact students fluency and their desire to read other books can start through a project like this. Too often educators are willing to write off a student once they hit upper middle school. There are ways to reach, influence, and even impact these students; it just takes a little creativity and desire to figure out how.