User-Friendly? - Part 1

I had been rolling an idea around in my head for several years ... reorganizing my fiction collection by genre.  Finally, last year, I decided to actually go for it.  It genuinely took an entire school year + a few months into the second school year.  Now that it is 99% finished, I have no regrets.  I am so glad the library has been reorganized.


RATIONALE

1.  Bookstores
Bookstores don't organize themselves using the Dewey Decimal system.  They use the BISC - Book Industry Standards and Communication which was developed by the BISG - Book Industry Study Group.  According to their website:

• BISG motivates and moderates debate about current book industry practices and about the future of digital publications on the international book trade
• BISG develops, maintain and promotes standards and best practices that enable the book industry to conduct business more efficiently and cost-effectively. Our standards cover a wide range of business processes, including product identification and description, business communications, product and carton labeling and digital discovery and delivery.
• BISG conducts and publishes primary research related to the size of the U.S. book industry and in areas of topical interest such as the environmental impact of the book industry and consumer attitudes toward digital publishing.

 2.  Help Me Find a Book!
I wonder if libraries ever performed any market research on using Dewey for classifying their entire collection?  Now, I cannot claim that I performed any sort of market research before I made the decision to change.  However, I was constantly asked by students to help them find a book - they didn't have a specific one in mind ... they wanted recommendations.  So, the first words that would come out of my mouth were, "Well, what are you in the mood for?  Mystery, fantasy, sports, romance ...?"  Once I knew the genre they were looking to read at the moment, I say, "Ok, let's walk the shelves and I'll pull out a few options for you."  Being the librarian, I was uniquely aware of my collection - what books/authors I had available and where they were on the shelves.  So, the student and I would walk through the shelves and I would begin pulling off a book here and there that I thought would interest them.  After providing them with a few options and telling them a little about each one, they would make their decision or ask me to show them more.

I realized my collection was only friendly to students looking up a specific book or author.  For the students that knew they wanted to read a scary story, but didn't know an exact title or author that they wanted, the collection's organization was not meeting their needs.  They needed me and my knowledge of where the scary stories were in my fiction collection in order to find a few options to sort through.  Sure, they could look up scary stories in the library catalog, but the number of results in a bit overwhelming and then looking through the entire fiction collection to pull a few out for themselves to decide was not something that middle school students felt like doing.  I wanted the library to be user-friendly and to promote reading ... I felt like my fiction collection, as it had been organized, was far from doing that.

Book Shelves photo used under Creative Commons license from http://www.flickr.com/photos/33377700@N00/443545349/. 

The Good, The Bad, The Challenges

The start of a new school year always brings changes.  This year, the middle school where I work is dramatically changing its schedule.  The good news is that I no longer have to teach classes.  I will now have a completely flexible schedule.  The bad news is that the students no longer have any free time (study halls) to come to the library to select books, work on projects, read for pleasure.  Of course, every change brings new challenges, and I have two main challenges for this year.

My first challenge will be to build a stronger collaborative environment with my teachers.  Previously, I just did not have the time and flexibility in my schedule.  There were certain teachers and projects that I worked with, but overall, I was too tied down to with classes to reach out to more teachers.  So, I'm trying to be proactive before school starts.  I have created a packet of information to advertise what I have to offer at the library - description of offerings, example projects, and our research guide.  (see below)  I plan on starting small.  I want to focus on language arts and history, then I will broaden my scope to target science and specials as well.  I will be meeting with teachers individually and talk to them about how I can help them and what the library has to offer.

My second challenge will be to provide library opportunities for students without study halls.  I'm thinking about lunch passes of some sort, but that will needs to be worked out.

I would greatly appreciate any suggestions that you have.  How does the library scheduling work at your school?  When do students use the library? 

GLOG DESCRIPTION OF OFFERINGS

Example web2 projects for LA

View more documents from Miss Makatche.

PLUSS research guide

View more presentations from Miss Makatche.

Desk photo used under Creative Commons license from dcJohn.

It's Been Too Long

Eternal Learning of the Open Mind is open again for bogging.  I took the past year off from writing any posts.  Sometimes you just need a break ... but it's good to be back.

I have decided, though, that this blog will look a bit different than it has in the past.  Before, the focus was primarily on using technology.  I am going to expand it to include all my work as a librarian ... what I do to promote reading, how I help teachers with research, how our projects integrate technology.  I'll still highlight new technologies that I love, but those posts will be part of a larger variety of posts.

Open sign used under Creative Commons license from Tanakawho.

Newbie Presenter

This past weekend was my first presentation (other than at school, of course). I was a presenter at the 37th annual Pennsylvania State Librarian's Association Conference.

I'm happy with how the presentation went. There are a few things that I wish I would have done differently in hindsight. I wish I would have taken 5 minutes at the beginning of the presentation to make sure everyone in the audience was able to get to the online portion of my presentation. A few people were having trouble finding the link on the conference wiki. I also wish I would have scheduled about 5 minutes between each application I was talking about to answer a few questions. Oh well, next time I'll try to remember to do those things. Live and learn:)


I began with a short presentation embedded below:


At the end of the presentation, I linked out to a poll by Poll Everywhere. I wanted to get an idea of where everyone in the group was at in terms of using applications like glogster, wordle, audacity, etc.

Then I launched into the content of my presentation using a LiveBinder I created. I absolutely LOVE LiveBinders for presentations because your presentation then becomes a resource binder for those in the audience. My session focused on creating multi-media book projects. I talked to teacher librarians about how to make book projects 2.0-style and allow students to learn important 21st century skills - creative commons, visual literacy, communication, etc.

Book Projects 2.0

It is amazing how a presentation that can take hours upon hours to create and organize, is over in 1 hour and 15 minutes. I wanted more time, but the time I did have was great and the participants were wonderful!

Number 1 photo used under Creative Commons license from http://www.flickr.com/photos/49968232@N00/2115400318/.

Collaborative Writing Made Fun and Easy

Last month my fifth graders completed a unit on Internet Safety. Our culminating activity (which only took 1 1/2 periods!!) was a group essay.

To facilitate the collaborative writing process, which can be difficult, we turned to Etherpad, making the whole process fun and flow smoothly.

So, I'm disappointed to hear that Etherpad will be shut down and access to previously created pads will be lost on May 14. Google had recently purchased Etherpad, released their API, and now they are shutting Etherpad down. Luckily two "clone" sites are available, so I will be using one of them in the future:
PiratePad
TypeWithMe

Process
1. I introduced Etherpad to the students, which only took about 10 minutes. Then I allowed the students to test it out and practice with it for another 10 minutes. Since it was my first time and their first time using it, we worked out all the kinks and brainstormed some ideas on how to use Etherpad effectively to create a collaborative essay. This was also a great teachable moment on discussing the difference between academic writing and text/chat writing because they were switching back and forth between both!

2. Now the students were ready to really begin. Before their next class, I created 5 pads for each class and posted the invite URLs online. All the students had to do was click on the link corresponding with their group and everyone was on the correct pad and ready to write!

3. The class was silent even though they were constantly checking in with one another and communicating about their writing process. Here's just a sampling of the conversations occurring about their writing in the chat box.

4. Once they finished their final products I showed them what the TimeSlider button did. They loved seeing a video of their entire writing process enfold before their eyes. It is the perfect end to a collaborative writing process.

TimeSlider video (I imagine this link will not work after May 14, 2010).

Finished Products





















Classroom Ideas:
Write a group story
Lab reports
Group projects
Summarizing (book, lesson, presentation, video) activity


Teamwork photo used under Creative Commons license from

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22177648@N06/2137737248/

Book Review Podcasts

I just finished working with an eighth grade Language Arts teacher and her students on creating book review podcasts. (I've blogged previously on podcasting - here and here.)

Podcasts are a great way to build students skills not only in technology, but in academic content as well. I was inspired by the poster Langwitches created in her "It's not about the tools . . . it's about the skills". It is such a powerful visual reminder that having students record a podcast is not all about the podcast skills. It is about the writing, speaking, communication, etc. skills taught and reinforced in the process. It is about allowing students to build these skills in a real-world, hands-on experience.

One thing that really struck me throughout the recording process was the growing self-awareness that the students developed about how they sounded while speaking. Common remarks during the first day of recording included: "Do I actually sound like that?" "I need to record that again because I was mumbling" "I can barely hear myself. I need to speak louder next time." The ability to hear what they just said and receive immediate feed back allowed the students to analyze their recording for quality speaking skills. Without much coaching, the students listened to and reflected on the quality of their recordings (speaking skills) and then took measures to correct or improve upon their recording.

We used Audacity to record our podcasts. Alternatives to audacity are GarageBand (for Mac users) and Myna.

Timeline
1 Period - Write book review podcast script
1 Period - Introduce Audacity and let the students play/practice
2 Periods - Record vocal portions of podcast
1 Period - Import music and a sound effect

How To
Book Review Podcast Directions
Full screen version.

Audacity Instructions
Full screen version.

Final Product

To place all the podcasts in a place for all students to have access to them, I uploaded the podcasts to a glog - quick and easy! Each class has their own glog page with their podcasts like the picture to the left.

I wish I could share the direct link for you to listen to a few, but unfortunately I cannot.





Podcasting Skills and Literacies photo used under Creative Commons license from Langwitches.