My responses to 5 blogs

The Unquiet Librarian blog article, Are Librarians, Not Seth Godin, The Ones Missing the Point on Libraries? May 16, 2011 by The Unquiet Librarian

            I loved what Seth Godin said in his blog about the role of a librarian. “The librarian is the interface between reams of data and the untrained but motivated user.” (Godin, 2011) Now more than ever with all of the handy resources available online, the librarian needs to be the one who can teach teachers, students and parents how to find the most knowledgeable, reliable sources available. Even if libraries as we know them were to go away, there will still be the need for great librarians. Godin goes on to say, “the scarce resource is knowledge and insight, not access to data.” (Godin, 2011) Anyone can go online and look things up in Wikipedia, but that doesn’t mean that all the information posted is accurate (sorry, I know a lot of you love Wikipedia). There just might be better resources out there but without a librarian to help them, many students just find the first piece of information on a subject and run with it.

            Godin states that “the library ought to be the local nerve center for information.” (Godin, 2011) A library should be an inviting, exciting place where people can exchange ideas, information and do research with the help of a librarian who, understands people, keeps up on the latest technology and knows the best sources of information. He believes the library should have a lot of terminals and handheld devises, so everyone who comes in can find what they want, access what they want and not have to wait for the hardware to become available. He says, “There are one thousand things that could be done in a place like this, all built around one mission: take the world of data, combine it with the people in this community and create value.” (Godin, 2011)

            I quite agree with him. If you are interested in reading his whole article and you haven’t subscribed to The Unquiet Librarian blog, you can go to http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/05/the-future-of-the-library.html and read it for yourself. It’s a great article and very pertinent for today’s librarian.

            The Unquiet Librarian agrees with Seth Godin too. She talks about how we need to be open to discussions about all different paths to learning and to embrace the knowledge of others outside our own viewpoints. The thing that will keep librarians in their jobs, even if all paper books go away, is the knowledgeable service the librarian can provide. She sees herself as even more of a teacher in a way than when she actually was a teacher because she has to be constantly seeking out new ways and methods of teaching and learning. (Unquiet, 2011)

            I thoroughly enjoyed reading this blog and Seth Godin’s blog and I encourage all librarians or future librarians to read them. Her blog is <http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/ >

Citation:

Godin, Seth. “The Future of the Library.” The Unquiet Librarian. Wordpress, 16 May, 2011. Web. 10 Jun. 2011 http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/05/the-future-of-the-library.html

Unquiet Librarian. Are Librarians, Not Seth Godin, The Ones Missing the Point on Libraries? The Unquiet Librarian. Wordpress, 16 May 2011. Web. 10 Jun. 2011. http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/

NeverEndingSearch blog article, I hope you’ll search (with skill):a revised letter to my grads by Joyce Valenza, Jun 7, 2011

            In this letter that she addresses to her graduating students, she offers some great tips for research success. I think it is something every librarian should keep as a reminder for teaching students to research properly and successfully.

            Some of the tips she offers include:

1)       Picking key, descriptive words when researching to narrow the field of information;

2)      Look for subject headings to make sure you are on the right track;

3)      Use the word “and” or “not” to help define the search;

4)      When you find a great article, see if the author has written other articles or cited other articles that pertain to your research subject

5)      Use the advance searches in a search engine, whenever possible

6)      Pick good databases to use. Don’t always think Google or Wikipedia

7)      Document and cite everything!

8)      Learn to search wisely. If you set up a pertinent database as an RSS feed, anytime there is any new information, you’ll be notified.

9)      Look beyond just databases. Read blog and wiki posts and any other research types that you think might have the information you are looking for. Just make sure they are reliable.

10)   Look beyond just books, magazine and online articles or journals. Think about videos and multimedia presentations. You might find something really great that will enhance your research topic.

11)   Appreciate the many creators who have made their work available in the creative commons and use their work. It will keep you out of copyright infringement trouble and when you have finished your project, think about making it a part of the creative commons world, so others may benefit from your research and hard work.

12)   Look for quality always. Look for great databases and materials; don’t settle for something less and make your research the best it can be.

13)   And remember that there are always people available to help you when you need it. Don’t be afraid to ask your librarian for assistance. That’s their job and they should be very eager and willing to help you. You just have to be willing to ask for help. (Valenza, 2011)

These tips are ones I will use when teaching my middle schoolers how to do research. Thought you might find them handy too. To read her whole letter, go to: <http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/neverendingsearch/>

Citation: Valenza, Joyce. “I hope you’ll search (with skill):a revised letter to my grads.” School Library Journal.com/Never Ending Search, 7 Jun, 2011. Web. 9 Jun. 2011. http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/neverendingsearch/

Library Advocate blog video entitled, “What Does a Teacher Librarian Do? Ask a TL!” by Jackie S, 2.0 project manager Mar 7, 2011

            I encourage all librarians to watch this video and then encourage their fellow teachers and staff members to watch it. This might help communication between teachers and librarians. It would be a great video to use at a beginning of the year assembly for students. It’s not very long and it might encourage the students to check out what the library has to offer. It asks questions that cover a wide range of topics and technology that most librarians should know or at least know how to find. Several examples include simple things like finding the book Twilight or helping a student learn how to use power point (Jackie, 2011). But it offers more things like creative ways to present reports besides writing or power point. If nothing else, it might get teachers and students interested in visiting the library to ask questions. While I do believe the video could have gone into greater depth  and shown a little more of the technology aspect, I do feel that it points out two of the main reasons this world needs librarians: to serve customers (answer their questions, provide the tools for learning, etc.) and to get them excited about learning.

            I feel this video would be a great addition to any resource list you might be compiling. I know it will be on mine. If you haven’t subscribed to this blog and wish to, it is available at http://advocate4libraries.csla.net/

I’m not sure how to cite a video within a blog.

Always Learning blog article, Students as Teachers: 6^th Grade Tutorial Designers by Kim Cofino, Feb 27, 2011

I found this article to be really intriguing. This tutorial project was done by a technology class, but I think it is something that could be created by the combined efforts of the computer/tech teacher and the school librarian. This project was created because the teacher Ms. Cofino found that many of her students were not good at independent learning—they needed constant instruction from the teacher. So, she decided that having the students learn how to create effective tutorials not only helped them understand how to follow directions by themselves, but they could also create a tutorial on how to create a sixth grade survey for teachers to use to help them understand on which subjects their students were struggling.

I won’t go through each step but the basics were:

1)      They had to draw a picture and then write down how the steps involved in creating the picture. They then had to have someone else try to draw the same thing with only the instructions they had created. Needless to say, it wasn’t very successful but they learned how important and precise the instructions must be and how important visual aids were to the success of the recreation.

2)      They then watched a bunch of tutorials and talked about what steps were involved in making a great tutorial. The steps are listed in the article.

3)      They then had to pick a simple skill that they wanted to teach someone else. They had a fellow student do the skill while they wrote down each how-to step.

4)      Storyboarding came next. The students drew pictures and wrote out how to do each step of the process. After that they then fleshed out their scripts.

5)      Each student or group of students then has to decide on which technology to use. In this school, they had the choice of Jing, QuickTime, VoiceThread or iMovie.

6)      Each student or students then practice acting out their tutorials, then make the tutorials and present them for critique. (Cofino, 2011)

If you are interested in reading more from this blog, just go to: http://kimcofino.com/blog/

I think this would be a great project for any school, especially the upper elementary or middle school grades. It helps them creatively think through critical processes and helps them come up with creative ways of learning. It might help future students who have need of tutorials.

Citation:

Cofino, Kim. “Students as Teachers: 6^th Grade Tutorial Designers.” Always Learning, 27 Feb. 2011. Web. 10 Jun. 2011.

AASL blog article, Filtering as an Intellectual Freedom, May 5, 2011

Filtering is a necessary evil for schools, but the extreme filtering that has become a norm in schools is an ongoing issue. A group called Project Tomorrow surveyed a huge number of K-12 students, teachers, librarians and parents about intellectual freedom and the number one complaint from students, teachers and librarians was the blocking of Web sites that are beneficial for students—ones like YouTube that have a lot of how to videos. The Web site Mind/Shift interviewed Karen Cator, Director of the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education about this problem. She says there are myths about filtering that teachers and administrators need to know about. The Mind/Shift article is called, Straight from the DOE: Dispelling Myths about Blocked Sites by Tina Barseghian, April 26, 2011. Some of the things she says might shock you. For instance, Cantor says that teachers who use YouTube when it is blocked are not violating CIPA rules unless they show something harmful to their students. (She doesn’t say what CIPA stands for and I don’t know.) She also says that there are no rules that say Web sites blocked for students must be blocked for teachers too. Also, schools won’t lose their funding if they unblock Web sites. She encourages school to work with their students to teach the appropriate behavior so they will become successful digital citizens. There are many other things she talks about, so I encourage every librarian to read the article and share it with the rest of their school’s staff.

Citations:

Barseghian, Tina. “Straight from the DOE: Dispelling Myths about Blocked Sites.” Mind/Shift. AASL Blog.  26 Apr. 2011. Web. 9 Jun. 2011. http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/04/straight-from-the-doe-facts-about-blocking-sites-in-schools/

 “Filtering as an Intellectual Freedom.” AASL Blog, 5 May 2011. Web. 10 Jun. 2011. http://www.aasl.ala.org/aaslblog/