Scrappy Librarian

Sherlock Files: 100 year old secret

2009-07-26T11:32:00.001-07:00

The Sherlock Files: The 100-Year-Old Secret

by Tracy Barrett

Grade level: 4

Notes

Great Stone Face Nominee 2010

First book in the series The Sherlock Files. The sequel is called The Beast of Blackslope.

Booktalk

Xena
Holmes and her younger brother Xander have moved from Florida to
London, England with their parents. One afternoon they are playing
their favorite game in front of their hotel, guessing people's jobs and
hobbies by getting clues from their clothes, when a
mysterious stranger presses a note into Xena’s hand, mutters “It fades
fast,” and hurries away.

Read p. 6, "What's that?" Xander tried to snatch the paper from her hand ...

through page 10, "The pub over there," the doorman said, leaning forward and pointing down the street."

Xena and Xander follow the note’s puzzling instructions and discover that they are not
only descendants of Sherlock Holmes but also the heirs of his notebooks
and his unsolved cases. Reading through the notebook of clues and cases, they discover one of the unsolved mysteries is still in the newspaper and people are still wondering what happened! A missing portrait by
an artist named Nigel Batheson, whose other works are being displayed in a nearby
gallery, was never found. Xena and Xander set out to find the painting and reunite it using their kid smarts and 21st century technology to discover the answer to the 100-Year-Old Secret.

This is a fast-paced,
entertaining mystery, with a lot of twists and turns and clues along the way - you can have fun trying to solve the mystery before the characters do!

Sara Zoë Patterson, July 2009
Some text from book covers, SLJ and Booklist book reviews

Google Lessons on Search

2009-07-25T05:11:00.001-07:00

Some really useful modules on teaching search from Google educators: http://www.google.com/educators/p_websearch.html

notes on Millenials as learners from LESCN 4/1/09

2009-04-13T07:54:00.000-07:00

Millennials:

collaborate with their parents
world is open 24/7
pressured by work-integrated into home as modeled by parents
enveloped in a world where confidence is emphasized, they are guided and secure: greater safety net
hopeful goal + achievement oriented, civic minded
inclusive: 31% minority, used to being organized into teams, no one left behind norm. As educators, we need to push more independent work so they can be self-sufficient learners as well as team learners
read: Neil Howe Millennials Rising
Parallel process + multi-task. Takeaway: instead of 1 task for 20 min, launch 2 tasks at once for 40 minutes (LH "have-to" day)
Graphics BEFORE text. Graphic organizers integrated into lesson, always on the wall throughout, nonlinguistic representations
Marzano 9 strategies
authentic, real world context
mutimedia does not produce lazy learners
overview of learning in a graphic organizer that stays up throughout learning
ask for feedback/give feedback/formative assessments
let failure be ok, have to establish that as a culture in your classroom

RSS links for PSD 1.09

2009-01-28T15:37:00.000-08:00

General web info:

w3schools
webopedia

Readers:

Bloglines
Google Reader

And many many more ...

Starter feeds:
Infomancy
Joyce Valenza's NeverEnding Search
Will Richardson's Weblog-Ed
David Warlick
Andy Carvin's Learning.now
LII's New This Week
Discovery News
NPR
the New York Times
Lifehacker
official google blog
Librivox New Releases

Local feeds:
Front Door Politics
RiverRun Bookstore
Foster's

White House!

For the overachievers:
Feedity
Feedmarklet
Yahoo Pipes
Feedblender

Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat

2008-11-07T10:57:00.001-08:00

Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat
by Lynne Jonell
c. 2006

Notes:

The sequel, Emmy and the Home for Troubled Girls, is published (one copy for LH on order until we see if there is interest).
Genre: Mystery with fantasy and humor
Great Stone Face nominee 2008/9
for 4th and 5th grades

---------

Emmy's world has turned upside down. Since her family
inherited a fortune, her parents are rarely home and seem to have pretty much forgotten her. Her teachers and fellow students ignore her, and she has
been left in the hands of her coldhearted and sinister nanny, Miss Barmy.

Read p. 1, "Emmy was a good girl. At least she tried very hard to be good.
through
page 5, "you're a big nothing, if you ask me."

As if things weren't bad enough, now Emmy has a rat insulting her! But Emmy discover that she isn't the only one who can understand the class rat when Joe, who is popular and plays soccer very well, surprises Emmy by talking to her when he catches her leaving a note for the Ratty the rat.

Read p. 14 "Emmy stared at Joe. Someone had spoken to her"
through
p. 15 "except Joe, who stared at her wildly"

So Emmy does decide to be a little bad, and she impulsively lets Ratty, who is not so very mean, out of his cage and they become friends. Emmy and Ratty are trying to figure out what Miss Barmy is doing sneaking into the school and are hiding in the bushes near the soccer field, when suddenly ...

read p. 98 "all at once, a whistle blew, a player shouted ...
through
p. 100 "curled up on the ground and shut her eyes"

Now Emmy has several mysteries on her hands - why can she and Joe understand rodents talking? Why is her nanny Miss Barmy so mean and exactly what is she really up to? Why do all of her classmates and teachers treat her like she doesn't exist? And, what is she going to do about Joe, who is now two inches tall?

Find out by reading this fun, action-packed mystery!

------

5th grade booktalk

Sara Zoe Patterson
11/08

some text taken from: http://nancykeane.com/booktalks/jonell_emmy.htm
SLJ review
Book cover/flap

Shadow Thieves

2008-10-17T09:48:00.001-07:00

Shadow Thieves
by Anne Ursu
c. 2006

Notes:

This is the first book in a planned trilogy called The Cronus Chronicles. The second book is already out, called The Siren Song; Little Harbor owns one copy. The Promethian Flame, book 3, will be released summer 2009.
Genre: fantasy
Mielswetzki is pronounced Meals - wet - ski
Share with grade 5 - nothing inappropriate, just a challenging book requiring some background knowledge

---------

In The Shadow Thieves, a fantasy book by Anne Ursu, the author imagines a world very much like our everyday world, except that ancient Greek myths are real.

Charlotte Mielswetzki is a pretty ordinary girl, but something extraordinary happens to her, and
it has everything to do with her creepy English
teacher, Mr. Metos and the peculiar, yellow- eyed men in tuxedoes that have begun
to follow her everywhere.
And then there's her new cat, Mew, who stopped her on the street and insisted Charlotte take her home and seems to have some strange abilities.

Charlotte's cousin Zee lived in England, where all of his friends became mysteriously and seriously ill. Sent to Charlotte's family in
America, Zee discovers that the same thing starts to happen to his new
friends.

Read p. 76 "Perhaps everything would have unfolded differently ...."
through
p. 77 ".. and just about every new release the movie rental place had."

p. 79 "Zee's days of bed rest meant he was not in school on Monday ..."
through
p. 80 "and make-up work to, well, make up."

p. 80 "by Wednesday afternoon parents had called parents, doctors had called doctors ..."
through
p. 81 "and on Tuesday half the students are out sick."

When Charlotte learned there was to be no school, she ran up to the den to tell Zee

p. 83 "Hey, Zee! Guess what?"
through
p.84 "They followed me."

Zee believes he is the cause of the mysterious sickness , and Zee and Charlotte set out to solve the mystery in order to help their friends. The cousins must get down to into Hades and across the River Styx to get to the bottom of this …they must save the world from The Shadow Thieves.

------

5th grade booktalk

Sara Zoe Patterson
10/08

some text taken from: http://booktalker.blogspot.com/2008/07/ursu-anne-shadow-thieves.html
SLJ review
Book cover/flap

On the Wings of Heroes

2008-10-17T08:20:00.001-07:00

On the Wings of Heroes

by Richard Peck

Great Stone Face Nominee, 2008-2009

(Better for 5th grade - will end up on that "list" next year but booktalk it to both 4th and 5th for the GSF)

On the Wings of Heroes is by Richard Peck. This book is historical fiction. Historical
fiction books are from the author’s imagination yet set
in an actual time and place in history. This story takes place in the year 1941, as World War II was just beginning for the United States.

When the United States enters World War II, life changes for everyone, including Davy Bowman. Davy's older brother Bill enlists and becomes a bombardier on
a B-17, flying dangerous missions over Germany. Davy's mom and dad worry about his brother, waiting anxiously for news about him. Instead of playing hide-and-go-seek, Davy and his friend Scooter spend their time collecting metal, paper, and milkweed for the war effort, and meet the town's cast of quirky characters.

Davy and Scooter are combing the countryside for milkweed, which will be used to fill life vests, when they spot a very interesting barn, and inside the barn, a very cool old car. They start exploring the barn and the car, when suddenly ...

Read: p. 67 " an explosion about busted my eardrums. Hail rattled the roof from a clear blue sky."

Through p. 70 "He looked modest. Also, he had a buttermilk mustache. Miss Titus's was real."

Sugar, shoes, toothpaste, and car tires are all rationed, leaving Davy wearing shoes many sizes too small while he waits for his turn to get larger ones. But school goes on (with Miss Titus as a surprise substitute!), and Davy's adventures with his friends and his father keep him busy with funny and sometimes sad adventures and misadventures while he waits to hear news of his brother Bill, flying secret missions overseas.

Sara Zoë Patterson

August 2008, revised 10/08

reading for kids

2008-08-13T12:43:00.000-07:00

Warriors: The Lost Warrior Manga/Tokyopop edition, Erin Hunter
Ages 8-12, grades 4-6
So the first thing is that this is in graphic novel format, but there is nothing 'manga' about it. That completely aside, I'm not really interested in this story. It was amazingly popular with the 5th and 6th grade girls at my previous job (the regular format, that is). These cats take themselves way too seriously.

Clementine's Letter, Sara Pennypacker
Ages 7-12, grades 2-4 (main character and setting is 3rd grade)
Clementine is awesome, and I definitely see why kids and adults alike love her. Great books, appealing story, funny and realistic in an overall positive sense.

Leaping Beauty, Gregory Maguire
Ages 8-12, grades 3-6
This would make an excellent read-aloud for older grades (4 and 5), especially when studying fairy tales. I can imagine activities where the kids listen and draw characters based on what they are listening to. The vocabulary, sentence structure, and themes would make this a challenging book for all but the brightest and strongest readers. But a lot to interact with and read together and talk about - very stimulating and full of great vocabulary.

Dinosaur Trouble, Dick King-Smith
I'm not going to bother looking up the age range or anything because I just didn't like this book - dinosaurs work together to kill a t.rex that has been tormenting them.

Nate the Great and the Boring Beach Bag, Marjorie Weinman Sharmat
grades 1-2
Pretty fun story, good vocabulary, lots of straightforward dialogue. A solid beginning reader.

I Love My New Toy!, An Elephant & Piggie Book, Mo Willems
Ages 4-8, grades k-2
Another solidly awesome beginning reader from Mo Willems - funny, pretty simple, great story and great characters

Medusa Jones, Ross Collins
Ages 9-12, grades 3-5
Would make a perfect Ancient Greece tie-in - Medusa Jones is a medusa, and has a centaur and minotaur friend - their other classmates are the kids of greek gods, and are vain and a little lacking in brains. They pick on Medusa and her friends until they all go on a field trip up Mount Olympus and Medusa and friends save the day. The greek gods' kids don't really stop picking on our heros, and Medusa, in a funny, inadvertent way, turns them to stone. A fun story with a lot of opportunity for discussion and research outlets.

Bloom's Taxonomy for the Digital Age

2008-08-04T10:06:00.001-07:00

Bloom's Digital Taxonomy

I will be digesting this for a long time to come - using this space to begin passing it along - I like the inclusion of so many different skill sets, and know many will appreciate the rubrics (me, I am completely disenchanted of rubrics these days, but that is another story about kids growing up to always need specific, concrete guidelines, a story for another day)

Reading for kids

2008-07-23T11:17:00.001-07:00

What I've read recently [mostly notes for myself to remember these books later]:

Rex Zero and the End of the World, Tim Wynne-Jones [grades 5-8, ages 9-12]
a fifties Cold War kids in suburbia book, from the perspective of a new-to-the-neighborhood kid. A mystery "monster" is terrorizing kids and making them spend their summer in fear and solving the great mystery, at home the news is making their parents build bomb shelters or not talk about things. Some good kids get it and parents don't stuff, some good sibling it's ok to be friends but you don't have to be as long as you can get along and see your siblings as people stuff.

Babymouse, Queen of the World! [grades 4-6, ages 4-8]
fun, silly and not-so-silly graphic novel. Babymouse wants popularity over friends to start, but figures it out before the end. lots of great fairy tale and classic story references (cinderella, frankenstein)

Artemis Fowl the graphic novel [ages 9-12]
I haven't read this series yet, but the graphic novel makes me want to. Evil 12-year-old genius as the central character? Awesome. Not sure my long term patience for the high-tech fairy world, but we'll see.

Amulet, Kazu Kibuishi - Book 1, The Stonekeeper [ages 8-12]
brilliant illustrations, a story painfully similar to Spyderwick Chronicles, but still alluring - mom eaten by blobby thing in basement other world, kids rescue her with the help of the amulet. Cliff hanger.

The Time Travelers, Book 1 in The Gideon Trilogy, Linda Buckley-Archer [grades 5-8, ages 9-12]
Two modern kids that barely know each other get thrust back in time due to an experimental machine. They land in 1763, a time where the details of life (clothes and getting around) are very different, but so are cultural things like the criminal justice system. Engaging, with a riveting story that provides continuous reasons to keep reading till the end.

on the power of fandom

2008-04-18T10:49:00.000-07:00

Over at The Movie Fanatic, they are running a series called THE TWILIGHT SAGA: and today's installment is The Twilight Fandom: Who they are and what they're capable of.

I was hoping for a little more from the title, ie "what they're capable of" but perhaps that is coming in the rest of the 4-part series. For now, though, it's just fun to read things like this and know that people can be really really really passionate about books:

Twilighters Around the World: Twilight sites are not limited to English speaking countries. If you think Harry Potter is the only ‘worldwide’ phenomenon, think again, here's our current alpha list:
Argentinean sites: http://www.twilightlatino.com/ and http://www.eclipse-la.com
Australian site: http://www.twilightaustralia.net/
Brazilian site: http://www.twilightteam.com.br/
Chilean site: http://www.twilightchile.com/
Colombian site: http://conexionvampirica.blogia.com/
Finnish site: http://www.vampirelove.net/
French site: http://the-meadow.fr/
Italian site: http://www.twilighters.it/
Mexican site: http://www.crepusculo-mx.com/
Philippine site: http://www.twilightsaga.multiply.com/
Portuguese site: http://www.twilightportugal.blogs.sapo.pt/
Spanish sites: http://www.crepusculomeyer.blogspot.com/ and http://www.crepusculo.com.es/
Swiss site: http://www.bellaswan.net/
Venezuelan site: http://twilight-fans-venezuela.blogspot.com/

According to the Twilight Top Sites, there are now 86 websites dedicated to Stephenie Meyer's book and soon-to-be movie, Twilight.

giving stuff away for free can mean making more money

2008-03-26T14:39:00.000-07:00

From Neil Gaiman's blog (bold emphasis mine):

It's worth drawing people's attention to the fact that the free online reading copy of American Gods is now in its last six days online (it ends 31 March 08). I learned this from an email from Harper Collins, which also told me the latest batch of statistics.
For American Gods:

68,000 unique visitors to the book pages of American Gods

3,000,000 book pages viewed in aggregate

And that the weekly book sales of American Gods have apparently gone up by 300%, rather than tumbling into the abyss. (Which is -- the rise, not the tumble -- what I thought would happen. Or at least, what I devoutly hoped would happen.)
The book is up at This URL, if you're interested, or want to pass it along to a friend.

Hear that you sellers of books and music and journals and other content? This is how you make fans. Fans buy stuff. Simple as that.

libraries + video games in the new york times

2008-03-24T16:32:00.001-07:00

I love the focus of this article, legitimizing video games as a medium that is worthy of its place in libraries, not only as program center but circulating material. Plus, the idea that the video games encourage young people to use the library, and that is something we actually want (v. trying to get rid of teens in libraries)

Taking Play Seriously At The Public Library With Young Video Gamers >

librarian, for realz

2007-12-27T12:32:00.000-08:00

I'm a real librarian now. Job, already started two months ago - I'm a public ya + reference librarian. Done with my grad work, all but a pass/fail class finalized (and no worries on that front).

Today I taught a kid how to tie his shoes.

a press release from my favorite online community doing good stuff . . .

2007-11-01T17:17:00.000-07:00

LibriVox makes it to 1,000!

LibriVox, the free audio book project has just cataloged it's 1,000th book: "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," by Edgar Allan Poe (read by Reynard T. Fox).

LibriVox.org started in August 2005 with a simple objective: "to make all public domain books available as free audio books." Thirteen people collaborated to make the first recording, Joseph Conrad's "Secret Agent."

Two years later, LibriVox has become the most prolific audiobook publisher in the world - we are now putting out 60-70 books a month, we have a catalog of 1,000 works, which represents a little over 6 months of *continuous* audio; we have some 1,500 volunteers who have contributed audio to the project; and a catalog that includes Jane Austin's "Pride and Prejudice," "Moby Dick," Darwin's "Origin of the Species," "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," Einstein's "Relativity: The Special and General Theory," Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason," and other less well-known gems such as "Romance of Rubber" edited by John Martin. We have recordings in 21 languages, and about half of our recordings are solo efforts by one
reader, while the other half are collaborations among many readers.

We are always looking for new volunteers! Come join us.

young Librarians in the Chronicle of Higher Education

2007-10-17T06:22:00.000-07:00

What I like most about this article, which is largely a response to the New York Times article from the not so distant past on Hip Librarians, is the thoughtfulness of the process and the simplicity of bringing together a bunch of very very smart folks and allowing them to speak for themselves. Instead of manipulating quotes and sound bites into a pre-formed article, author Scott Carlson provides the forum, some good, open questions, and lets the words and formed thoughts roll. And, bonus, some audio as well.

(and don't it feel good to be able to link to the NYT?)

A vision of students today

2007-10-17T05:53:00.000-07:00

from the Kansas State University Digital Ethnography folks, another brilliantly conceived, planned, and executed video.

a little more spresent testing

2007-08-16T07:38:00.001-07:00

that last thing went well, and for bloggy size the built in size is well and good, but i'd like to go bigger. Can I?

testing spresent.com

2007-08-16T07:36:00.000-07:00

(which thus far is wicked awesome, btw)

What book are you?

2007-07-22T05:45:00.000-07:00

Only a very few quickly answered questions . . .

You're Catch-22!

by Joseph Heller

Incredibly witty and funny, you have a taste for irony in all that you
see. It seems that life has put you in perpetually untenable situations, and your sense
of humor is all that gets you through them. These experiences have also made you an
ardent pacifist, though you present your message with tongue sewn into cheek. You
could coin a phrase that replaces the word "paradox" for millions of
people.

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

copyright and fair use

2007-05-24T15:02:00.002-07:00

brilliant video "explaining" copyright law and the need to exercise our fair use rights so we don't lose 'em:

synopsis: Professor Eric Faden of Bucknell University provides this humorous, yet informative, review of copyright principles delivered through the words of the very folks we can thank for nearly endless copyright terms.

more info here.

Firedoodle - Fun with demonstrations

2007-04-14T06:48:00.000-07:00

Firedoodle - Turn the web into a whiteboard

free fun Firefox add-on - what a great little thing to use when giving demonstrations on using a database or website - you can circle or highlight to really make sure your viewers are seeing what you want them to see. Good for screencasts, too.

TeacherTube - "Teach the World."

2007-04-06T16:44:00.000-07:00

TeacherTube - "Teach the World."

TeacherTube! What a fabulous idea - a great collection of videos created by educators, with all the commenting/favoriting/flash-love goodness of YouTube. How much you wanna bet this is blocked by my work?

some thoughts from Karen Schneider

2007-03-13T14:00:00.000-07:00

these are quotes from a piece Karen wrote on the ALA TechSource blog as an open letter to the LOC regarding a meeting they were holding at Google headquarters - no comments from me, just using this space as mental storage backup.

It is both ironic and poignant that librarians are still worrying about “bibliographic control,” after ceding so much of the same to the companies that now rent them journal access per annum at usurious rates, digitize their book collections into DRM obscurity, or sell them ponderous, antiquated “management” systems that on close inspection do little more than serve as storehouses for the metadata specific to the formats of bygone eras, bold days when we saw our central roles as defenders and curators of our cultural heritage.

We have moved from the librarian as information artisan—a professional creating and using tools to manage information—to the librarian as surrogate vendor, facilitating what is essentially the offshoring of thousands of years of information into private hands.

However, I would caution the committee that tinkering around the edges of how we as a profession do our old-world business—buy a book, create a record—is to miss the point. Small upward bumps in traditional book circulation, coaxed by major redesigns of traditional tools—however important these redesigns--are no more comforting than brisk sales at a masking-tape store in a mall going out of business (to invoke an old Saturday Night Live skit).

To paraphrase Andrew Abbott's point in The System of Professions, we are behaving like the train companies, who thought they were in the train business, not the transportation business, and like them, there are already signs that the “train business” we do is on artificial life support. We are not even close to being the first service of choice for information seekers; we are pretty much down there with asking one's mother. Libraries across the country are increasingly asked to justify their existence in order to receive continued funding, and some have been unable to do so.

Freedom and Innovation Revitalizing US Entrepreneurship Act of 2007

2007-03-09T19:10:00.000-08:00

via THOMAS (Library of Congress)

well, the details look good to me. Decriminalizes hacking DRM to make mixes and mashups for personal and educational use, and re-asserts that just because a device can break copyright, as long as it has legal uses, the device and the device makers cannot be held responsible for criminal uses.

I say it looks good to me, but I don't have a whole lot of experience reading these things, and really wish there was a ready made plain language translation.

I read about this due to one of my newer rss feeds - the US Copyright office's copyright legislation page. The copyright office, a division of the LOC, has really sexed up their website - slick, clean, and useful.

Cyber School Day

2007-03-08T14:24:00.000-08:00

Queen Anne's School, a prep school in Maryland has a system in place so that if school is cancelled because of inclement weather, every student and teacher logs on to the internet and they have Cyber School. The headmaster talked about IM, and they seem to have a really serious and involved Virtual School system. And they've been doing this for 7 years.

There has been some talk of late amongst state level administrators about trying to plan for the possibilities of epidemics - bird flu being the inspiration behind these conversations - and trying to deal with what can be done if school needs to shut down for months at a time. This *could* be done, but there are about a gazillion steps between us and Queen Anne's School's readiness.

Heard on NPR (only 3 minutes)

my favorite quote - "As headmaster, I can tell you that I know more about what goes on and can really validate the worthwhile nature of it on a cyber school day than I can when they're on campus."

Library Ninjas

2007-02-25T09:56:00.000-08:00

I love the short sweetness (and mad styling) of this video - books aren't always better, but really, with questions like this, they are often faster. It's about choosing the right source for the right time - info literacy, yo.

Hillary Clinton in Dover, NH

2007-02-18T05:18:00.000-08:00

I'm a YouTuber now - I went to see Hillary speak at a nearby high school and it suddenly occurred to me I could do this with the digital camera I was carrying.

Some disparate thoughts: I think these came out pretty well for a little digital camera, and I suddenly am understanding where a lot of the YouTube videos are coming from. Sorry I was slow on the recording, and I was very sad when the sd card ran out of memory when Hillary was talking about her gay rights stance. Living in NH means I get to be a spoiled voter for the next year (after primaries the two candidates won't come back) and now that I've realized I can do this, I hope to do this more. Not being originally from NH means I appreciate how spoiled I am and how not normal it is to be able to see all of the candidates multiple times. This is blasphemy up here and I may be drawn and quartered for it, but I do think it is ridiculous that this little white NE state has so much say.

And on Hillary: I am excited for her to be running. I think Obama is enormously appealing, but has some experience to put on - like a lot of other people, I'd love to see him as her vp candidate. What impressed me most about her talk yesterday was the way she engaged the audience in complexities. When asked about how she views universal health care coverage actually happening, she talked about several options and talked about needing to decide as a nation. She took several audience polls (informal hand-raising) about what the audience wanted to see - and then, and this was really amazing - pointed out that what the audience said they wanted from one question to the next was contradictory - in other words, she is willing to say that it is going to take dialog, and there are no easy answers. Another questioner asked her why she wouldn't apologize for previously voting for the war in Iraq. To which she responded (paraphrasing here) that she takes responsibility for her vote, and that she voted to the best of her ability and knowledge at the time, and if it was that important to a voter to have someone reneg on their vote, there were other candidates. Other candidates!!! It takes a gutsy politician to basically say, look, if you don't get it, go vote for someone else. I was stunned, and I really respect her for not pandering.

This choppy video was Hillary's response to a question on DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) and might she consider repealing it. Her answer didn't address repealing it, and I have no indication that she would try - she is fairly conservative and middle of the road on gay issues. This at times very much bothers me - but there aren't any viable candidates with better positions on this issue, so I hope people keep asking the question, I hope we can change the mainstream mind.

This was in response to a question about why Hillary is choosing to vote for funding for the war, when she is against the war and other politicians are saying we shouldn't fund it:

training

2007-02-12T06:00:00.000-08:00

I seem to gave gone all YouTube happy, and mad apologies for those who read at work and are blocked from the content

Although this is a joke, the underlying message is very real - all new things, as simple as they seem to ITpeople/the implementers/whomever, require some explanation or training - sometimes they require intensive explanation and intensive training, and that depends more on the user than on the new thing.

The Machine is Us/ing Us

2007-02-05T13:49:00.000-08:00

This video response to the concept of web2.0 from the Digital Ethnography Center at KSU really hits the nail on the head for me - giving a nice balance of concrete and theoretical. I'd love to hear some responses from people who are just beginning to fool around with social software, or aren't yet - how clear is this? Does the amorphous thing that is 2.0 have more shape for you now? (Because I'd love to gank it for intros to presentations on specific things like rss, blogs, wikis, etc. - might be a nice way to be able to get to the concrete w/o totally skipping the very important theoretical)

because a bad librarian can ruin a library

2007-02-03T15:13:00.000-08:00

Doug Johnson thoughtfully digs through an issue that has been on my mind a lot lately, as I get closer to finishing library school. Going into library school, I had a pretty bad attitude about what I might learn after 4 years working in a high school library.

(I have learned much, probably not as much as many of my classmates, but more than I expected because I never before (nor will again) read much informational behavior theory. And my cataloging class was such an unmitigated disaster that ever since I feel much freer to break all sorts of rules in an effort to make the catalog more accessible - guerrilla tagging, if you will.)

But the thought on my brain of late is that library school didn't turn me into a dynamic librarian who will change the world. I was already that way. And most of my classmates came in with that attitude, too, but others don't have it. It bothers me that the training/education doesn't even attempt to get at/address what is most important to success for our students and profession. As Doug says, and I thank him so much for mentioning it explicitly, these thoughts come from believing in libraries for students, not in our jobs. This isn't about outreach/promotion for the sake of us, but for the sake of the kids who need information literacy now more than ever.

This is also on my mind because a colleague at another school has been struggling. She treats the job as an 8-3 thing, and doesn't go out of her way for anything or anyone. Not in a stingy, mean way, but just because it isn't her personality. There is such a thing as giving too much of yourself without compensation - most of us are guilty of that. This is the opposite of that. I encourage my colleague to do more for her students, but my words are not having much of an effect. If this colleague stays in her job, teachers and students alike will loose out on the learning experiences they need.

Blue Skunk Blog - Librarian-proofing library programs

A free speech/fair use/satire case at Binghamton U.

2007-01-28T12:32:00.000-08:00

Pipe Dream on the Web

The question centers around the use of the University's and art gallery's logo and design and whether it it fair use not in terms of education but in terms of parody and satire.

I find it a bit chilling that they simply shut off the creator's electronic access w/in the university system - no email, no access to her files. How does one stay a member of a University community, for 4 months so far, w/o these forms of communication? W/o these tools that are so integrated into our lives?

public domain images

2007-01-27T17:00:00.000-08:00

found via Lifehacker

As a librarian and an educator, I am all over responsible use and re-use of media. Thanks, Wikipedia, for making it easy and keeping it real:

Wikipedia:Public domain image resources

The ratings system we've all been waiting for

2007-01-26T15:00:00.000-08:00

Erica is one person I am really glad has too much time on her hands.

Rated B for Bad: The Librarian Avengers Film Rating System

LibraryThing does Novel List - and it's free

2007-01-15T13:32:00.000-08:00

Suggester is Library Thing's Novel List. I say on the whole it is just as good - it is much much faster - no log in, no seven screens to nav through - although you don't get the ability to customize things like subject headings you care about v. those you don't. Given all the options though, you end up with a fast and good starting place for book suggestions/readers' advisory. Novel List is nothing more than that - a starting place - anyway. And, LibraryThing being as fun as it is, there's the Unsuggester (bad recommendations), too.

A book will never let you down

2007-01-14T16:23:00.000-08:00

found via LibraryJuice:

scaryideas | BookPlus: A book will never let you down

2 items of note from the Praxis

2007-01-13T04:32:00.000-08:00

I took my Praxis a week ago, an odd experience given that the GRE is way harder, but I need it in pursuing alt certification in NH to speed up the process of getting a decent paying job.

the Dewey Decimal system helped me get two answers right. Two questions involved comparing long numbers with multiple digits after the decimal point, like 456.9819 and 456.99. If not for shelving, these questions would have taken me a while to figure out (to put it mildly, I am a late bloomer in math).

On the essay section, in the second sentence I wrote, I used the word skilz. Literally, I typed skilz for skills. I don't end all my words in z or misspell often in type, but I do use the word skilz, especially in reference to mad skilz, ninja librarian skilz, etc. It all comes from a Croatian who lived in the same boarding house as I did (over ten years ago now) in DC when I was interning at the American Folklife Center at the LOC. Thankfully, I picked up on my use of skilz in the wrong context quickly (like 2 sentences later). I could only laugh and chide myself for being a big dork.

registry of online identities

2006-12-12T14:16:00.001-08:00

I've got huge problems with the idea that once we've released people from prison we still treat them like criminals when what we really need to do is completely fix the multitude of problems associated with sex offenders (which makes me like the McCain plan better). But this is a fascinating idea and one that takes a semi-legit view of the problem, for once, from my perspective. Instead of simply saying no, it's too dangerous, we must simply scare everyone away from anything collaborative, let's look at the details of the (overblown and inflated) issue of safety on the internet for our kids. This on the heels of last weeks announcement from MySpace saying they will be checking their records against registries of convicted sex felons, which came with an acknowledgment that it wouldn't work if people didn't use their real names (from the NYT):

December 12, 2006
Virginia: Registry of Sex Offenders’ Online Identities
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Attorney General Bob McDonnell said he would seek legislation to require convicted sex offenders there to register their online identities with the state to help MySpace and other Web sites frequented by teenagers more easily block access. Senators Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, and John McCain, Republican of Arizona., announced plans for similar federal legislation last week, but theirs would apply only to those on probation or parole. Mr. McDonnell’s plan for Virginia would apply to all convicted sex offenders. Hemanshu Nigam, MySpace’s chief security officer, applauded the Virginia announcement. “This legislation is an important recognition that the Internet has become a community as real as any other neighborhood and is in need of similar safeguards,” Mr. Nigam said.

yay! a NH library blog!

2006-12-06T15:51:00.000-08:00

The NH state library system has been a tad slow to blogging - so it is with gusto that I share this new one, Book Notes from the NH Center for the Book:

Book Notes New Hampshire

Portsmouth, NH public library

2006-12-02T09:38:00.000-08:00

The old library is closing today and the new one will open December 18th. On December 9th there will be a meeting at city hall - the city is asking the public what should be done with the old building.

ETS's ICT test - first results are in

2006-12-01T13:21:00.000-08:00

a nice round-up of the preliminary findings of the new ICT test over at the AASL blog:

AASL Weblog - Working together towards information literacy

the opac may suck, but you can make it suck less

2006-11-30T18:23:00.000-08:00

Pop goes the library has a few smart suggestions on cataloging dvds so your patrons can find them. Most of the suggestions apply to non dvd items as well. Yeah, it takes more time in cataloging. Time well spent in my opinion - if they can't find it, then the item may as well not be on the shelf.

Pop Goes the Library: How Do You Solve A Problem Like A DVD Set?

Web 2.0 for Educators: Social Software - NOTES � Multimedia, Teaching & Learning

2006-11-30T18:12:00.000-08:00

One of my talks at the Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference was blogged:

Web 2.0 for Educators: Social Software - NOTES - Multimedia, Teaching & Learning

we had a really great discussion in this hands on session, stimulated by the blogger herself and she captures some good notes about the discussion. In essence, how do you make sure you get enough perspective? If you are choosing to read only what you already want to read? Good stuff for thinking. Part of my answer is that I'm getting stuff in my reader that is not only my worldview because of the quantity. Part of my answer is that my aggregator is not my only source of information, and that the linkable nature ensures I travel far and wide in the information world.

CMTC2006 - Look Mom, No Binder: eportfolio considerations, Royce Roberts

2006-11-30T07:27:00.000-08:00

there are lots of options - this is not the only way to do it -
what do we want out of this? we want students to be able to represent themelves in a number of ways, "representation of professional self" - curricular, extracurricular,
FEAT - functional, educational, administrative, technical
strikes at the heart of assessment
functional - tool itself, 'click paths'
educational - curriculum, scope, sequence, purpose
administrative - policy, budget, planning
technical - system conditions, requirements, infrastructure

cycling through artifacts, standards, and reflections

choose the artifact - what form? best work or baseline for growth?
choose the standard - details of the standard? natural fit?
reflect on the artifact and standard

educational

'formal learning'
what gets taught where - standards, curriculum map
students are evaluating how their work fits into the standards themselves

focus the purpose - don't water it down to try to serve all purposes

common or custom - depends on what you'd like to get out of it. really, custom is the way to go -
iWebfolio is the tool they use
pros and cons to most every design template

formal review tied to the advising process
timeline - add, reflect, review - add, reflect, review - add, reflect, review

http://oz.plymouth.edu/~rroberts/files/nhste

Kathleen Malsbenden, What is This Thing Called Web 2.0?

2006-11-29T12:02:00.000-08:00

demo'd skype - video for skype
educationbridges.com
My Personal Learning Space - social networking site for students
Edublogs / LearnersBlog
Responsible Use Guideline should incorporate video conferencing and everything else
del.icio.us
writely
zoho
imagination cubed
webcast academy
jotspot, superglu, basecamp

CMTC2006 - David Weinberger, New Sources of Authority: Who Can be Trusted on the Web?

2006-11-29T09:02:00.000-08:00

(discussion session - comments from all attendees)

old sources of authority are dying, new peer to peer resouces are emerging, how do we teach students to navigate this very very gray world?
teachers often put restrictions on internet resources because they (the teachers) don't feel comfortable on the web
the other extreme is teachers just saying, find it on the web
example: part of an assignment is to print out three webpages that the students used and have them do a reflection on validity of those sources, justify their use of those pages
traditional classroom model is teachers have control over the content they provide the kids
David: there's sending kids out to find library like resources on the web, and then there's what they are going to do for the rest of their lives which is find blogs and their discussions - its where intellectual life is happening, where ideas are forming
"students can now research and put together a paper without ever reading a word"
"i think helping them figure out what is good crap and what is bad crap is much easier than helping them figure out how much crap is too much crap"
david "maybe you need to teach them how to assess in 20 seconds. im serious"
"I know how to do this because I'm an adult" "That's the hitch"
David - "The safe harbors are the least interesting part of my intellectual life"
David - "The form of discourse that they're being trained in is irrelevant" - down with reports!!!
adults don't write reports, why do we make kids write reports???
David, "every possible niche of trust is going to be filled"
we've moved into an age of good enough information, librarians need to make that jump

CMTC2006 - David Weinberger, Social Software as Teaching & Learning Tools

2006-11-29T07:51:00.000-08:00

(came in halfway through)

social software needs to have a sense of a persistence for the user (blog url, avatar)
edublogs.org
other audience members - we can be their guide, they are going to be doing this eventually anyway, we can be there to talk about safety - meet with parents if necessary
we are kidding ourselves if we think we can really control internet access by kids - posting to myspace from their cellphones in the bathroom
the best thing we can do for our kids is help them understand what is appropriate
points to a piece of parent education that is larger than social software - we need to start talking with them about how the world is flat
one parent printed out a paper copy of his daughter's myspace page and went to hang it up on the bulletin board at the mall - daughter of course freaked out
we have empowered parents to opt out of these things by treating 'technology' as an extraneous thing. no. it is absolutely necessary. it has to be so integrated there is no room for opt out. we need to say to parents , 'you not get the choice.
david asked if anyone sets up 'back channels' in their classroom - chatrooms for additional discussion in the background about what is being presented

CMTC2006 - David Weinberger, keynote

2006-11-29T06:25:00.000-08:00

Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference, wednesday keynote

(came in half way through) Weinberger's web page

talked about the fairly aribitrary way scientists decided Pluto wasn't a planet
archaic Dewey decimal system to illustrate how even though it doesn't really function well in our global world, we're stuck with it and that's ok - we can think about knowledge despite it.
defining and examining 'knowledge' / 7 properties of knowledge
books are bad at linking information - footnotes are pretty ridiculous
expensive to produce so the issue of authority comes into play
with books - write in private then publish , can't update- model is being flipped on its head
orders of organization - first order, actual stuff. second order, metadata (card catalog). third order, everything is digital - content and metadata
4 principles of organizing digital information

leaf on many branches - put the book in lots of places
messiness is a virtue
no difference between data and metadata - search by about or a piece of the thing itself - only difference is data is the thing you are looking for and metadata is the thing you know - now any bit of information can be metadata
unowned order - owners of the information no longer own the organization of the information - for the users - used NCSU catalog as example, then del.icio.us

(this is such a turn-on for a lis geek like me!!!)

leaving the tree model (everything has 1 info place and only 1 place) and going to a 'pile' of info - new shape of knowledge - everything is connected
it is more expensive to exclude stuff than include it - storage is so cheap - easier to keep everything than to make decisions about what to keep
preserve everything because we do not know what matters
filter on the way out, not on the way in - postpone building the taxonomy, let the user do it and give them the tools
7 properties: one and the same; simple; impersonal; bigger than we are; filtered; orderly; has a knower
simple things become complex - simple george w speech, bloggers tease out the history, compexities, links
no longer the broadcast era - no longer need to be so simple, blogs allow the conversation to be complex
filtered - knowledge has been filtered by experts. there are other experts. used digg as the example
authority - "when in doubt, look it up" (britannica)
mere presence does not convey credibility.

wikipedia - history and discussion pages incredible artifacts
discussion pages increase the credibility of the articles
increases credibility by letting you know right up front that there is debate about the article
encourages authors/readers to increase the conversation
beta is great
showed a mocked up NYT front page with wikipedia warnings about neutrality, etc.
publicly negotiated knowledge

the world's greastest authority debates the common man
world's greatest authority will leave if her stuff is changed too often
the result is not what any individual would come up with, it has been negotiated
knowledge is social

(i think i am a little in love with this guy. this is all sooooooooooo up my alley)

kids do their homework socially w/ im
kids learning social because knowledge is social (individual testing is ridiculous)

(some german guy) in order to know what a hammer is, you have to know what nails are, what wood is, what trees are,
context context context of info in order to create meaning
externalization - books externalize knowledge, calculators externalize arithmatic
now in the process of externalizing meaning -

everytime you tag you make it possible for people to create meaning
no links, no web!

Moviemaker and IMovie workshop

2006-11-13T15:08:00.000-08:00

just my notes:

Nicole Tomaselli
held at the Manchester Professional Development Center
workshop website http://www.nashua.edu/tomasellin/multimedia.htm

AIPTEK digital video recorder - records to SD, takes still and audio, BEST BUY, 2gb sd memory card for $40
- quality is totally great and fine!!!!

- movie projects are really time intensive. Be specific about how long the project will go. Be specific about the fact that the quality is not going to be perfect. Learning in stages. 30 sec projects.

- utilize 'found' video - united streaming, google video - repurpose video
- best place to start is to start with existing media

- lapel microphones cost $3 on govconnect

- scientific element infomercials hee hee!

library website usability

2006-10-12T15:36:00.000-07:00

Library terms evaluated in usability tests and other studies

a handy chart of what works, what doesn't summarized from a lot of university usability studies. K-12 librarians, take note! If it's not working with college kids, its not working for our kids, either. What's especially nice is that it turns it around to suggest terms that do work, terms suggested by the subjects of the usability studies themselves - students.

Library Student Journal, Issue 1

2006-10-01T05:54:00.000-07:00

The first issue of Library Student Journal is now available.

I am very excited about this concept - though I haven't yet had a chance to check it out. I'm particularly interested in the concept of taking ownership of our education - we already do it, but within limited strictures - we still have to take lame required courses in which Dialog is taught for 10 weeks. I'm interested in the idea of having a formal public space to really talk about why library school is so lame when the field itself is full of such innovation.

From the editor's statemen:

This journal, Library Student Journal (LSJ), starts from two premises that may be contrary to common assumptions but which I feel are decent and defendable. First, that the field encompassing librarianship and information science is not at threat from developing technologies and the evolving ways in which information is communicated, but is well positioned to take advantage of these changes. And, second, that the traditional structures of scholarly publishing face an Open Access (OA) storm so strong that even the hybrid traditional-OA programs to which many of the established scholarly journals are now turning will do little to prevent a collapse.

...

Our goal with LSJ is to provide a forum for discussion of current LIS education issues and to publish the best student papers in the LIS field, broadly defined, while providing valuable publishing and editing experience to authors and editors alike. But I hope our readers, authors, and editors will also take away this lesson: libraries can be publishers, and librarians can take advantage of our diverse skills and the many resources at our disposal to be directly and actively involved in the publishing of high quality scholarly information.

And ya know what's double-hot? There's comments. Comments on journal articles. yeah.

SecondLife Law School

2006-09-14T17:55:00.000-07:00

Harvard Law School is offering a class in Second Life - wowsers.

via Weblogg-ed

YALSA - Free Online Legislative Advocacy Course

2006-09-12T13:28:00.000-07:00

As seen on YALSA's blog :

"ALA's Washington Office has just announced a free online course on legislative advocacy. You can read about the details here. “Messaging and Talking with Congress” guides users through the process of developing messages, teaches users to communicate effectively with Members of Congress and other elected officials, and offers strategies on building lasting relationships with Congressional staff. Users may navigate the course at their own pace and download and print helpful worksheets."

Kids figuring it out for themselves

2006-09-10T07:33:00.000-07:00

When Information Becomes T.M.I. - New York Times

an interesting little article chronicling the recent kerfuffle at Facebook. My favorite parts being not only that they realized too much is enough, but that they instantly galvanized, took action, and won. If only they can keep that spirit a few years longer and turn it into real political action -

Sure it's a toy . . .

2006-08-10T05:13:00.000-07:00

But for $300 bucks, is it at least as good as a tv? With built in speakers and dvd player and using cheap lightbulbs? And way more portable?

A DVD Projector Turns Multimedia Into Child’s Play - New York Times

This brings up a common problem I have when wanting to innovate in schools (when spending taxpayers money on techy things) - if only I could get my hands on one, borrow one and play with it. Then I'd know one way or another. There's only so much research you can do. Questions always remain, and you never really know, is this thing going to work?, until you get it out of the box. It's one thing to return something to Beasty Buys as an individual consumer, receipt in hand. It's another when dealing with the world of POs.

Ugg - DOPA isn't dead (yet)

2006-07-28T06:16:00.000-07:00

CDT | Headlines.

The House passed it. Friggin' morons.

Thoughtful commentary from Jessamyn.

google does accessibility

2006-07-20T11:34:00.000-07:00

from the google blog:

Accessible Search adds a small twist to the familiar Google search: In addition to finding the most relevant results as measured by Google's search algorithms, it further sorts results based on the simplicity of their page layouts. (Simplicity, of course, is subjective in this context.) When users search from the http://labs.google.com/accessible site, they'll receive results that are prioritized based on their usability.

In its current version, Google Accessible Search looks at a number of signals by examining the HTML markup found on a web page. It tends to favor pages that degrade gracefully--that is, pages with few visual distractions, and pages that are likely to render well with images turned off. Google Accessible Search is built on Google Co-op's technology, which improves search results based on specialized interests.

I just finished my Rutger's online MLIS Multimedia Design class in May, and granted, there was a lot of great stuff crammed into a really short time, but accessibility was not at all addressed. In fact, we asked our professor, early and often, about questions of accessibility. We wanted to learn it. But our professor, being pretty experiences in teaching the course, knew we didn't have the time. Having taken the course, I can respect that.

My problem remains, though. I have taken two technology-centric courses, both dealing mostly with webby stuff, and haven't learned anything about accessibility in either. No readings, no assignments, nothing. Meredith talks about many people getting through library school without any techy training, and I'm certainly grateful for what I've learned and know that I will continue to learn and will eventually teach myself what I need to know about accessibility. Eventually. When I'm not in school and have the time. In the meantime, I'm creating web content that isn't accessible, and that bothers me.

Shouldn't we be more in tune to this stuff than anyone?

How Students Think (and with good reason)

2006-07-07T13:10:00.000-07:00

a quick quote from John Updike's Terrorist [I'm 195 pages in - it is expectedly heavy, but very very good. If you'd rather own than borrow from your library, try Powell's]:

"My students do not believe they will ever need business math (substitute any and all subjects here - SZP) in their heads. They imagine the computer will do everything for them. They think the human mind is on eternal holiday, and from now on has nothing else to do but absorb entertainment." (p. 113)

YALSA - Out of the Closet and Into the Library

2006-07-07T09:20:00.000-07:00

YALSA - Out of the Closet and Into the Library

a super excellent conference post from a yalsa panel discussion on services for glbtq teens. excellent links and my own personal take-away: putting glbtq themed reading lists (I've already made one for our library here) inside glbtq themed books. ie, "like this book? here's some more like it . . . " in an accessible but anonymous place.

dvd discussion group

2006-06-10T11:43:00.000-07:00

Pop Goes the Library covers a new initiative from the Stafford Branch of the Ocean County Library (where "Every Ocean County resident uses and champions the library." If true, Ocean County is library utopia) where people watch the dvds on their own time, like a book club, and then come in for discussion. They started it up for Gay Pride Month with several of the recent big gbltq films.

Very exciting. I haven't yet wrapped my mind around adapting such a concept for a high school library - for one thing, movies couldn't be rated R, and it seems so many discussion-worthy movies are, for another, there's the dvds - but I'm wondering if public libraries could really make a concerted effort with older teens in this regard. I'm wondering if R ratings matter so much in that realm. Certainly 20-somethings would be aaaaaalllll over this.

nsa and myspace

2006-06-10T06:52:00.000-07:00

or, guess what kids? posting stuff online makes it totally public - to *everybody*

Yet another situation arises that is not only sketchy and angering from a 'why is my government so sucky?' perspective, but also inspires me to ask for the bazillionth time why the teaching of online safety and common sense (yes, we need to teach common sense to teenages) isn't du rigor in public eductation. Instead, we are busy trying to understand the basics of what is happening, finger-wagging, and fear-mongering. We teach stranger danger to second graders. We know how to do this. We just aren't.

Here's a clip from the New Scientist article via Lifehacker:

Pentagon's National Security Agency, which specialises in eavesdropping and code-breaking, is funding research into the mass harvesting of the information that people post about themselves on social networks. And it could harness advances in internet technology - specifically the forthcoming "semantic web" championed by the web standards organisation W3C - to combine data from social networking websites with details such as banking, retail and property records, allowing the NSA to build extensive, all-embracing personal profiles of individuals.

creative commons and music

2006-06-06T04:43:00.000-07:00

via lifehacker, a baby digg-like site that focuses exclusively on creative commons licensed music. Which means students could use these pieces in powerpoints and videos, and in some cases hack them up with garageband or audacity and use them some more. All of which is very very cool. Gotta love musicians (and all artists/creators) who release their stuff under more flexible copyright than the default.

NHEMA talks 2006

2006-05-28T05:35:00.000-07:00

gave two talks at the NHEMA conference this past week. I think they went well, other people tell me they went very well.

The first started out to be an overview of the concept of library/web2.0. I wanted to put '2.0' in the title, but the conference organizers had no idea what that concept was, and said the attendees wouldn't, either. So the talk evolved into a brief overview of social software that will be impacting education soon, if it hasn't already, and a more in depth introduction to rss feeds and aggregators as a way to explore 2.oish concepts in more detail than we had time for. My boss attended the talk, and she seems to be still reeling. All the attendees said they learned a lot, but they looked kind of stunned. My boss said I pushed them, and that was good. Not sure, though. At least they are now familiar with a couple concepts they weren't. But it still weirds me out that things I take for granted are totally new to them, especially in light of the fact that there is so much out there, so many people, who are way more cutting edge are way more knowledgable than I. I was sort of hoping by the end of this talk to get some people excited about maybe making a NHEMA blog. Maybe next year.

The other talk was on digital audiobooks, focusing on our own very successful program, but giving a lot of background information, links to research, and lots and lots of nuts&bolts. It was the kind of talk where I got to say two sentences, then there was a question. Good for audience interactivity, bad for trying to keep up with my own slides. Good for keeping me on my feet.

Wrong About Japan, Peter Carey

2006-05-28T04:34:00.000-07:00

Wrong About Japan, Peter Carey
Originally uploaded by plentyo'moxie.

I ordered this book because I thought our manga/anime crowd might get into it - they've checked out other non-fiction books about Japan and Japanese culture and can't seem to get enough. They haven't gotten into this book at all - I don't know if they haven't found it, if it's just plain unappealing, or what. So I finally took it home myself, and it turns out to be a great book for educators to start to understand teens' obsessions with all things modern Japan. There's a lot of good detail oriented stuff about manga, with history and culture woven into it all. The writing isn't particularly engaging, but it isn't off-putting either. And the length of the book is short enough. Educators and librarians looking for more background info on manga and anime will be pleased with the content of this book.

iTunes isn't as mean as it pretends to be

2006-05-25T15:04:00.000-07:00

A little bit of talk over on Lifehacker seyz that if something happens and you lose all your purchased music, iTunes may let you redownload it. Mebbe. Never hurts to back it up anyway.

Bloggerific v. DOPA

2006-05-13T06:27:00.000-07:00

I had a bloggerific day the other day. A reading class (seriously, it is a class where they just read and read and read - mostly whatever they want. On Thursdays the teacher brings them in to read magazines and newspapers, sometimes they need something non-fiction, and there are all sorts of options for assessment - I love this class) stopped by to read and use the computers to blog about what they were reading. I had already introduced this class to the blog, so that was out of the way and many happily, easily blogged. For others, there was a lot of tech support. You need an email address to be invited to be a contributor of our blog - more than a couple kids didn't have email addresses (?! - we are a mostly wealthy, white district - mostly very connected at home - this surprised me, though a few explained they just use MySpace to communicate with friends - a very teachable moment in both directions). There were kids that kept clicking on the 'create a blog' button v. the 'create a post button.' And so on.

Overall, though, the kids wrote about their books, checked previous posts for comments, read other people's posts, and then went back to reading. It was awesome to read their posts, to see them read the other posts and then be interested in the book the other student-blogger recommended (peer reader advisory!), and to generally interact with the blog in terms of the content, not the delivery.

And then I got home and read about DOPA. Something that blindly would put a kabosh on all this good learning - tech learning, peer learning/teaching, personalized, independently paced, individualized learning, learning relevant to the real(virtual) world- all of which are apparently the big education buzz words and things we are supposed to be emphasizing and doing more of.

Punch in the gut.

Except it isn't any sort of done-deal yet, in fact it is barely off the ground. Action, people, action.

random reflection brought on by malfunctioning technology

2006-04-28T04:35:00.000-07:00

Wednesday the wireless went wacky in the apartment. B came home to try to help, but I was prepping food and the house to have people over for dinner, so we never did get it working that day. We did figure out that it was some sort of communication error between lappy and the Airport Express, because everything else worked, including hardwiring the laptop to an ethernet. This was more than awkward, so I decided I could just use B's big bad g5 with dual monitors for the light stuff I'd be doing that day - checking email, aggregator, class discussions - not doing any actual homework.

Getting closer to the point: I have a hella lotta passwords and user ids. I actually had no idea just how many of these things I have going on, because I let the computer remember most of them. I don't let the computer remember anything about my online banking, but that's about it. In the daily course of checking email, aggregator, and grad school class space, there's a lot of *other* stuff I end up doing - blogging, commenting on a lot of blogs, looking at pictures, adding to wikis, writing more emails, looking at a lot of links, looking up books at the library and so on. And a lot of these things require the user ids and passwords I created and save on lappy.

I have probably about 3 core variations on the user id, which also means I'm spawning multiple identities across the net. There's my real name, there's my libraryish screen name, there's my foodie screen name. Then there's the issue of if my screen name isn't available and I need to choose a variation. Sometimes my standard variation of that particular screen name isn't available, so then I have to make up a new variation. So I might have up to 10 different actual user ids.

And then there's passwords. Let's just say my passwords are probably only secure from me. I can't remember which one I've used where, and more often than I like have to go through the process of resetting said password.

I suppose why I found this so interesting (really frustrating as well as I kept getting stopped in my tracks) is that I generally avoid creating accounts whenever possible. I use bugmenot.com in my rabid avoidance of creating accounts for news organizations. But I think its a very telling sign of the interactivity, the 2.0-i-ness, of the web, that someone who generally won't comment on a blog or read an article if I have to create an account has ended up with this long list.

In no particular order, some of the many places I visit and have to login for:

bank
home email
work email
grad school email
project email
flickr
blogger
grad school class space
grad school library
grad school grades
grad school money stuff
yahoo groups
typepad
public library opac
library elf
blog aggregator
amazon (which i don't purchase from anymore because they donate a lot of money to the republican party)
powells
zingermanns
delicious
eat local wiki
wikipedia
meredith's library wiki
paypal
livejournal
grad school ftp web stuff

Yet another reason to love Canadians

2006-04-27T08:15:00.000-07:00

As if we needed any more . . .

Canadian Music Creators Speak Out Against File Sharing Lawsuits

To quote extensively (hell, I'd love to paste the whole thing here, make sure you check it out - there's only a couple paragraphs more):

Major international music artists based in Canada have banded together to form a group aimed, among other things, at protesting the recording industry's practice of targeting fans with lawsuits.

With Barenaked Ladies, Avril Lavigne and Sarah McLachlan as members, the Canadian Music Creators Coalition stated in a White Paper Wednesday:

Suing Our Fans is Destructive and Hypocritical: Artists do not want to sue music fans. The labels have been suing our fans against our will, and laws enabling these suits cannot be justified in our names. We oppose any copyright reforms that would make it easier for record companies to do this. The government should repeal provisions of the Copyright Act that allow labels to unfairly punish fans who share music for non-commercial purposes with statutory damages of US$500 to $20,000 per song.
Digital Locks are Risky and Counterproductive: Artists do not support using digital locks to increase the labels' control over the distribution, use and enjoyment of music or laws that prohibit circumvention of such technological measures. The government should not blindly implement decade-old treaties designed to give control to major labels and take choices away from artists and consumers. Laws should protect artists and consumers, not restrictive technologies Consumers should be able to transfer the music they buy to other formats under a right of fair use, without having to pay twice.
Cultural Policy Should Support Actual Canadian Artists: The vast majority of new Canadian music is not promoted by major labels, which focus mostly on foreign artists. The government should use other policy tools to support actual Canadian artists and a thriving musical and cultural scene. The government should make a long-term commitment to grow support mechanisms like the Canada Music Fund and FACTOR, invest in music training and education, create limited tax shelters for copyright royalties, protect artists from inequalities in bargaining power and make collecting societies more transparent."
here's another version of the same story, this one with comments/discussion.

Patrons are people, too

2006-04-26T10:13:00.000-07:00

Aaron of Walking Paper points out that patrons might like to interact with their library website in cool ways just like they interact with other social software sites - creating content and making it amusing for themselves and others - and in terms of privacy, adults can make their own decisions about such things if given half a chance.

circulating art

2006-04-23T13:23:00.000-07:00

What I like so much about this initiative from the Portland (Maine) public library is not just that they are recycling things into art, but that then they go ahead and circulate the art. And that they accept that things like stolen, lost, and damaged items happen, and treat those situations like any other circulating item. Art is meant to be appreciated, but not treated as too precious to be appreciated by people in their own homes. I *heart* circulating art. Story, from the New York Times, here.

Powells and New Orleans Libraries

2006-04-19T04:16:00.000-07:00

Here's an easy way to directly help New Orleans libraries through Powells. One book cost $8.95, you can recommend a book if you want. Powells and the Katrina Project make sure the libraries get what they need. More info on the Katrina Project, including some intense pictures of what floods do to libraries, here.

more on schools and wikipedia editing

2006-04-16T06:21:00.000-07:00

Apparently, our school isn't the only one being blocked on the basis of IP address from editing Wikipedia, and mine aren't the only students taling back and asking that the Wikipedia blockers give schools special dispensation. In this case, Andy Carvin asks the question, what are schools doing to make sure students are editing responsibly? ummmm . . . . nothing. But different in our case, our students do add constructive, though mostly very minor, edits. Probably not enough to balance out the vandalism. But enough to know there are some really cool kids who get it.

my kids rock the wiki house

2006-03-20T12:09:00.000-08:00

A student came up to me a few weeks ago, all worked up because our ip had been blocked on wikipedia - he couldn't edit a page he was using for a class. He'd learned something for his project he didn't see on wikipedia and wanted to add it.

So he went into the user talk and made his points - and came back to me 20 minutes later with a few pieces of paper printed out from 'our' user talk page - he got his point across, and the wiki community came up with a compromise. Real world learning on all kinds of levels.

Check this out:

Excuse me, this is a school library IP. Can you really punish the entire school for the vandalising actions of just a few. Seems like an injustice to me, though I do not know the wikipedia's policies on this matter. Thank you. ~Jesse S. of Winnacunnet High School Hampton NH

And the response, a few minutes later:

Okay, the block should have expired now. I did not realize that this was a school IP, if I had, the block would have been shorter to limit the collateral damage. In general, we use blocks to prevent vandalism, sometimes that is the only way to stop it. It is regrettable that it affects innocents, if you have a registered account and your IP winds up being blocked for a long period of time, you will be able to e-mail the blocking administrator, explain the situation and hopefully you will be unblocked soon. Sorry for the trouble. Sjakkalle 15:44, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

The whole conversation.

we so cool . . . update

2006-03-16T14:24:00.000-08:00

so far, so good. there were some trouble-shooting phone calls with my-friend-our-first-volunteer-reader over the weekend - I had given some piss-poor technical directions on one part, which reminded me why testing is such a good idea. Got the file, had to spend some serious time doing various things with it - serious time only because things like uploading .wav files and renaming id3 tags was new to me. It's in the LibriVox forums right now, an editor has claimed it, and soon it will be ready for prime time.

The project manager called the reading "charming." Which made me grin like an idiot. I love it when things work.

We so cool . . . the testing phase

2006-03-11T05:00:00.000-08:00

At work, my boss wrote a grant so I could have some fun - we bought iPod shuffles and circulate them with audiobooks on them, which we get either from iTunes or Audible. Since we were wicked early in this game, we still get a lot of phone calls about this from school librarians all over the country, everything from how-to nuts and bolts type stuff to how to get people on board and believing in the project.

I've also attended a couple talks or conferences here and there where apple set up somebody to talk about what they are doing with iPods in education. Each time the person has mentioned having students create audiobooks - out of current, popular books. Each time I have asked about copyright. Each time the person has answered that it's ok 'cuz they're not selling it. Or, it's ok 'cuz its kept within the school. And the audience usually agrees, and because I'm just somebody in the audience, I bite my tongue while shouting in my head that they are in fact, breaking copyright law.

Fast forward to the good stuff: our new initiative is to try and partner with LibriVox.org, a group of stellar volunteers creating audio versions of out-of-copyright stuff that are really high quality, and available to all online, including us, for free. We're starting to recruit super-kid volunteers, I posted on LibriVox and they were pumped to give it a go. What made it all come together in my head was the LibriVox volunteers started talking about a method whereby people who didn't want to read would edit other people's files. I don't have time to edit these files, and while the super-kids are super-great, they are also super-busy - asking them to read a chapter of a book is one thing, to spend the time editing is another.

We couldn't find an apple product that we could use as a portable, circulating digital audio recorder - I looked. Since the new versions of iPods recently came out, the accessories haven't caught up. And there are angering quality issues. So we purchased a Sony Hi-MD with microphone. We were able to really quickly and easily record onto the Hi-MD, had to use their software to transfer it from device to computer, but for the very first and probably the last time ever, Sony has done the right thing. It recognizes files created on the machine using a line in as being your own. You can import them in their format, and use their software, or you can import them in .wav format. Which means I can then open them in a number of different ways, and convert them to different file types.

Inigo Montoya (as me), "Fezzik, you did something right!"
Fezzik (as sony), "Don't worry, Inigo, I won't let it go to my head."
(best if you can imagine the voices of these characters from the Princess Bride in your head)

This was a point I was really worried about, and could not really and truly know if it was going to work out until I had it in my hand. Very worrisome when you are spending someone else's $385. I knew I'd be able to do it somehow, but had visions of twenty steps. This was three.

So this weekend a friend with experience reading textbooks for the blind is going to be recording Hans Christian Anderson's The Elderbush for LibriVox, using our new toy. This will be our test file for making sure we can upload it and get it to an editor in a reasonable fashion. Then, bring on the kiddies.

Foodies luv libraries

2006-02-27T05:37:00.000-08:00

Here's a cool discussion going on over at I'm Mad and I Eat about how to get the most from your library amongst foodies- not really any library insiders posting, just people exchanging info - you can get email holds? I didn't know that - kind of thing.

Call me pimp-mommy master . .

2006-02-18T07:30:00.000-08:00

This is a rush job because I am just so damn excited I am posting in the midst of school work: I knew Ask Jeeves had reworked itself. I recently read about Gary Price's new job over there. And so when the class assignment for Principles of Searching had us compare a search using Dialog to a search engine of our choice (what results did they think we were going to come up with? Dialog? Seriously.), I decided to take a break from my love affair with google and test out Ask.

Coolness. Expanded search suggestions on the side, narrowed suggestions, too. I can save my searches? I can save my searches! And tag them!

There are plentyo'things I haven't played around with yet, and a couple features I haven't figured out the point of - like the little binoculars giving me a super small peek at the website I'm going to. It's way too small for me to make any judgements about. (Maybe I just need to put on my glasses.)

But holy cow. Tagging of my saved searches. This is just what I've been looking for.

Weekly Echo

2006-02-05T05:02:00.000-08:00

Weekly Echo draws together images of the things/people/events most in the news/blogs/search engines of that particular week. Really interesting for me - I don't have tv, and I read my news in an aggregator and listen to NPR - in other words, I just don't see many images associated with the news (and this is also pretending that entertainment news is actual news).

It's simple but well done - mousing over images gives you a little pop-up to explain the image (and I needed a lot of explaining for some of them), clicking links you to a news story somewhere about the subject of the image. And soon there will be commenting. Social fun.

an interview . . .

2006-02-03T12:47:00.000-08:00

. . . but not a job interview.

Heidi over at Quiddle asked me about my lack of membership in ALA and other related stuff. It's good to think these things through a bit more, and the act of answering her questions helped me do that. For now, it seems I am happy to be active on the local level, though I'd like to be more active.

The World Is Small . . .

2006-01-29T10:30:00.001-08:00

So I've told you I applied for a couple different jobs. I also read Heidi's blog Quiddle, which is about a lot of things but is recently mostly about her experiences applying for jobs, the interview process, and so on. Quite excellent for all newer job seekers in the library field.

So the other day she posted about a telephone interview, including the questions and the vague description, "a public library in a small town about an hour away from a major city."

And I thought, nah, couldn't be. Heidi lives on the west coast of Canada. She's applying for jobs all over the country. But I emailed her anyway. And actually, it was one and the same job.

She was really gracious in the exchange, and I learned a lot, namely, a) that if that's the caliber person being interviewed, I'm out. But also b) if that's the caliber person willing to seek out a job in po-dunk NH, I need to step up my game if I'm serious. I didn't know before if I was, and this has only muddled that issue for me. Not the question if I would be serious about the job (I most definitely would be, it sounded fabulous in many ways), but if I didn't get that job, I hadn't really thought through how far I'd be taking this job applying thing. Still haven't thought it through thoroughly, but it is on the brain now.

PostSecret

2006-01-22T05:16:00.000-08:00

Not 1, but 2 library related secrets in today's new batch.

If you are unfamiliar: the author encourages people to send in, anonymously, a secret written on one side of a homemade postcard. They are endearing, they are funny, they are disturbing. They create a connection with a stranger. Mostly, I love the art of it.

Now there is a book.

Small news

2006-01-15T05:12:00.000-08:00

When I first talked to my wonderful current boss about applying for a different job, she took a look at the job description, nodded, said she'd be happy to write a recommendation, which she did, wonderfully.

Now another job opportunity has come my way. I went through the same thing, told her about it, asked what she thought, and she got really bummed. Paraphrasing, "I thought you'd go to the interview of that first job and say 'forget it.' The job description showed nothing promising. This position is worth applying for, and taking if it is offered to you." So she will give me the recommendation, and it will be a good one, and she will keep me without reservation if I don't get the job, but she is bummed.

So yeah, I'm applying for a job that looks really good. I didn't set out to do all this, I just needed something to give me a fresh perspective on my own job, which is great but pays poorly and is tiresome and repetative. I think this second job is much more of a reach and I am much less likely to be a super-strong candidate, though I think I'll make candidate status.

As I told my reference writers, I've never applied for a professional position before, so I consider these excercises in that - part of my grad school education.

Other small news - I'll be giving two talks at NHEMA later this spring. My wonderful boss is organizing the conference, so there's that. But there's also something I am still coming to terms with: in comparison to a lot of library folks, I am very techy and cutting-edge. If I compare myself to librarians online, I am ten steps behind. But the people I give the talks to are comparing themselves to me - and I am 20 steps ahead. It's all very weird to me, but since a lot of the stuff I talk to my cool boss about is new to her - and she is smart and in general keeps up with stuff - that makes me sure I have things to share with all these other school librarians. One talk is on digital audiobooks, the other is more generally on "Library 2.0" (gasp! I used that buzzy term! I didn't on the conference thingy though - I entitled my talk, "Keepin' Up With The Kids: The interactive web and how it can work with and for school libraries and their librarians.") So blogging, but also rss feeds and aggregators, social software spaces like LJ and myspace, flickr and other photosharing spaces, and so on and so on. You get the idea.

Thinkin' about moving on . . .

2006-01-05T14:24:00.000-08:00

I'm applying to a different job. A public library job.

As I told my boss, I'm not necessarily leaving, and it'll be a miracle if this new little library (just opened last summer) can pay me enough that I can actually go, and on top of that be populated by a director as cool (read: supportive, progressive, risk-taking, relaxed, and able to let people do their thing) as she is. So it's not that I am jumping ship here.

I've just been really run down lately by the little things. The endless non-stop process of asking kids for passes in order to make sure they are really supposed to be in the library is number 1 on the short list of things that are making me look elsewhere. (What happened to the school library being a place for geeks and nerds? Ours is full of those kids, but also is destination central for all kids skipping class. A lot of libraries struggle with bringing patrons in. We struggle with only allowing in a number that can sustain learning.)

Also as I told my boss, sometimes it takes looking elsewhere to know how good you got it where you're at. I've gotten to do a lot of things that library aides like me don't get to do in a lot of places - collection development, cataloging (yeah, I love it, so I'm a dork), book club blogs, knitting clubs, teaching classes, developing lesson plans, bringing audiobooks on ipods to students . . .

But it would be nice not to have to ask for passes all day, and to work in a different and new place (I *heart* change), and mostly, not to have to get to work until 10am.

Patriot Act News

2005-12-08T13:44:00.000-08:00

it's bad, but not as bad as it was before. These days, I take small improvements in the land of suck as good news:

The provisions that drew objections from lawmakers included one that allows the Federal Bureau of Investigation to subpoena business and library records to gather information for a counterterrorism investigation. The agreement requires the FBI to show the information it seeks is relevant to a counterterrorism probe, a claim that is reviewable in court, Specter said. (from Reuters)

To clarify: before, FBI could take any library records for any reason (and you can be damn sure they weren't handing out reasons like it was Christmas). Now, they've got to have a reason directly related to counterterrorism (though who defines what that means is a whole 'nother pot of worms).

Also, this provision is one of the few that won't go perm. 4 more years to fight against it.

Better coverage from npr.

It's still not a done deal, so if you are a voice raiser, the time is now.

conference blogging - CMTC - Copyrights (and Wrongs) in a Digital Age

2005-11-30T12:01:00.000-08:00

CMTC 2005
Susan Adams, Educational Technology Coordinator, NHPTV

Overview of patents, trademarks, and copyright
No real laws per se, guidelines that have been interpreted by judges in court cases

History:

Article 1 Section 8 U.S. Constitution
Copyright Act of 1790
and so on . . .

If something is created when the person is "on the clock" it is owned by the employer. So for teachers, anything created at work or during work hours - lesson plans, curriculum - is owned by the school district.

5 rights of a copyright holder:

reproduction right (copy, transcribe, imitate the work)
modification right (create new or derivative work) with the notable exception of satire or parody
distribution right (sale, rental, lease)
public performance right (musical, play)
public display right (on the wall, on tv)

Everything prior to 1923 - public domain

Fair Use based on 1841 Supreme Court Case Folsom v. Marsh

nature, quantity, and quality

1976 Revision, section 107 fair use, section 108 library/archival copying

Fair Use:

criticism
comment
news reporting
teaching
scholarship
research

4 Fair Use Factors

Purpose and character of use (entertain or occupy not cool)
Nature of the work
Amount and substantiality of portion used.
Effect of use on potential market for or value of work

Taping Off Air

may be used in face-to-face for 10 consecutive school days and then held for review 45 days after
only broadcast, not cable channels
may be used once in a class, may be repeated once per class
programs can not be recorded in anticipation, only by specific request of a teacher
no broadcast program (like wizard of oz or something) can be recorded off air more than once at the request of the same teacher (you can get it every year)

Text

complete article, story, essays less than 2,500 words
excerpt from prose not more than 1000 words or 10%
no more than 5 poems from an anthology
only 3 poems per poet

Motion media

up to 10% or 3 minutes, whichever is less

Images

must be used in their entirety
no more than 5 images of an artist's work
no more than 10% of 15 images from a collection, whichever is less

Music

Up to 10% of a copyrighted composition, but no more than 30 seconds

nhptv.org/kn/christa

Playaway, review by Brendan

2005-11-30T11:44:00.000-08:00

B just sent me a written review of his experience using the Playaway we bought last week:

My Review of the Playaway digital audio book.

I was skeptical at first. To be honest it looks a little cheap and is powered by a normal AA battery, but it wound up being very good. I have a couple of issues with the design. I found the earphones too big so I switched them out for my apple ear buds. The Apple ear buds are too big for most people I know so I doubt that these earphones would fit in most people. To minimize the number of buttons there is only one volume button, which to be honest you only really need to set once. This poses a problem that if you want to turn it down you have to go all the way up and blow out your ears to get to the lowest. The other buttons work well skip forward and back, fast-forward and rewind, and Play and pause all work well. I was nervous that there was no hold lock. I thought that when I tossed it into my bag the play button might get pressed and I would lose my spot or run down my battery, but that did not happen. You have to press the play button twice to activate it, once for it to load your last place, which takes a couple of seconds, and again to play. The buttons don’t seem too prone to accidental pressing.

The book that I was listing to was a double feature Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, by Road Dahl and read by Eric Idle. This gave me the opportunity to use another feature of the Playaway. While the first book is good and fun the Glass Elevator is not that great of a book so I used the speed up button. There are three speeds you can listen to book in, normal speed, one star, which is a little faster, and two stars, which is much faster. It speeds up the rate at which the book is played back. At first it sounds a little “chipmunky” but you get used to it real quick. This is such a cool feature. I wish I were able to do it with my iPod.

The one button I did not use was the bookmark button. I did not have to. It remembered exactly where I was when I restarted. I would be cool if it rewound a couple of seconds before you played so your not immediately thrown into new stuff, but that’s not that big of a deal.

Hears another kicker. I listened to both books, total time 7 hours (it is closer to 5.5 since I listen to the second double time); the battery is still _ full. If I was to listen to this on my iPod it would have taken 7 hours and I would have had to charge it at least once, or kept it plugged in. The price is comparable with both the CDs and the MP3s available from the iTunes music store.

The sound quality was quite good, but this book was rather short. I wonder if for longer books, like The DaVinci Code, if the storage inside is expanded or the audio is compressed. I don’t think it would be as good if it were more compressed and tinny.

To answer his last question, according to the Playaway website the audio is never compressed - the memory inside is expanded to accomodate longer books. And just to mention a previous point, some of the books are comprable pricing, but some Playaways are much more expensive than the ITunes version.

conference blogging - CMTC - iPods across the curriculum

2005-11-30T11:40:00.000-08:00

CMTC 2005
Stephanie Estes, South Portland High School (Maine) Special Superstar Apple Technology Educator.

“There’s a coolness factor to an iPod” (I say this all the time, and my coworkers shrug me off and laugh at me - so it was nice to hear my words come out of someone else's mouth.)

Using ipods for recording oral exams for world languages – kids just step out into the hall, record for a few minutes, come back in, pass it off to the next kid. On average, every two weeks. 5 world languages teachers share 2 ipods. Before, oral exams only done twice a year because it was a long involved project.

Local oral history projects.

Audio tour of neighborhoods – uploaded to community website.

NHS students reading books – creating audiobooks – chapters reflect actual chapters in book – ok copyrightwise according to people in the room if you don’t distribute and if you own a physical copy of the book.

One audience member shared examples – has so integrated it into the classroom that the kids are asking/letting the teacher know when they should be recording – kids read their own written work aloud, want it recorded to hear again – special guests come and read books, kids suggest that it be recorded so they can listen later.

Got my hands on an ipod video for a few moments – tres cool. Video is so clear. Bright enough for daylight. Sold.

conference blogging - Christa McAuliffe - Moodle

2005-11-30T08:20:00.000-08:00

CMTC 2005
Daryl Hawes presenting on Moodle, opensourse web-based course management system, to a totally packed house - floor sitting space only.

Available online but really need a local server.
moodle.org - free support and very strong online community
moodle.com - business side
Instant Messaging! within the class - also just general messaging - so I can see who else in my class in online right now, and message with them - also, I can send them a message and they can either get it when the login or they can set their preferences to have those messages emailed. HOT! (and I really really really want it for my own online learning - ecollege bleck)
RSS feeds (created by Daryl himself) Also something I want.
Coming soon - blogs and podcasting features
Read/Unread tracking that narrows it down to the actual conversation (Daryl uses the word 'forum') and highlights it for you.
coming soon - better wiki module
set preferences for emails whenever something new (a post, a news item, etc.) appears. You don’t have to check if there is something new, it tells you and then you go read it.

A lot of my enthusiasm here is not how could this be applied to mpow in the near future, but how realizing for the 20th time how crappy my courseware for grad school, ecollege, is.

love my library, but . . .

2005-11-28T15:20:00.000-08:00

Rushing from my work library to my public library this afternoon I was thinking how annoying being there near closing time is. At quarter to, when I still think there's plenty of time to gather a couple more books and get them checked out, they go around telling everyone its time to leave. At five of, the lights go off. No joke. At the hour of closing, all the workers are out the front door and walking to their cars.

Now, I understand how terrible it is to be working someplace and be kept late by an annoying and inconsiderate customer. And I understand how these things snowball - five minutes, ten minutes, suddenly its half an hour you've just volunteered at your own work place (believe me, I know - this is what is happening to me at my work/library).

So perhaps, in my dreams, they'd pay the workers an extra fifteen minutes for the closing type tasks. So they could still kick the people out on time, but they could turn the lights off after, and shut down their computers and the copy machine. All those things that don't take long but when added together means you've just worked an extra fifteen minutes after the last patron left.

Just doesn't feel good when people turn the lights out on you.

Seems Jessamyn is talking similar talk over on librarian.net: balancing the happiness (work hours) of staff with the needs and happiness of the patrons.

Playaway

2005-11-26T06:31:00.000-08:00

I read the monstrous article on this new device in the Cleveland Plain Dealer and have been mulling over this little cutie since. Now I am near a Borders, so B and I went over to pick one up. Ours cost $40 for a 7 hour rendition of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Charlie and the Glass Elevator, not that much over the $30 Itunes download if you don't have a device. Some others are way overpriced: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was $35. The same is $18 from Itunes, the whole Chronicles was $70 on CD. And the Plain Dealer isn't joking about some of the physical problems - the battery door I find impossible. With a pocket knife, B got it right away.

Another problem I hope they work out - that LCD screen is tooo small. I have sharp eyes, but for people for whom reading is a problem because of sight and want to use the device for that reason, it's a real hurdle.

Bonuses over an iPod shuffle (which is what I'm currently using at my high school library job)- ability to control the speed of narration (well, you can make it faster and faster still, I'd also like to be able to slow it down, especially for my readers who really aren't reading well quite yet), ability to create your own bookmarks for easy reference later, and, duh, any screen at all - even if it only tells you what chapter you're on and how much time is to go in that chapter and how your battery is doing.

I definitely see possibilities for libraries, especially for libraries for whom, for whatever reason, circulating ipods or other mp3 devices wouldn't work. They are small and cute and digital, and erase any need for any kind of player. They would also be easier for libraries to circulate, as they fit into a more traditional model of a tangible thing, easily cataloged, easily checked out, easily returned.

The other thing that strikes me, neither good nor bad but just different - the Playway prominently displays the cover of the book on its front. When you attach the (suprisingly very sturdy and super-high quality) lanyard and wear it around your neck, everyone can see what you are listening to. With any other device, there is a level of anonymity - that iPod or Rio signifies nothing other than you are listening. To music, to audio, to podcasts - we don't know. With the Playaway, it's all right there for everyone to see.

And I agree with this former employee's comment about the sharing. That is so cool. Since the Playaway doesn't involve you loading anything onto the device, you are stuck with the book you bought. What to do? Playaway encourages all kinds of sharing. Give it away, loan it, leave it on a bus - that kind of thing. Mebbe they can include - donate it to your library.

Useful things . . .

2005-11-19T16:31:00.000-08:00

My first two classes in library school are very different. One is about information behavior, and is a whole lotta academic journal article reading about different types/groups of people and their information needs and how they react to those needs. It's theory, and right now I am not a fan of theory.

The other class is info tech. In the past two weeks I have doubled my previously cobbled together html knowledge and am making forms, creating cascading style sheets, tables, and frames. The latter two are kinda lame when you know the first two, but I am glad of the knowledge at any rate. I had had this previous thought that forms and css were a huge jump from where I had been. A big step, but just a step, after all.

I love getting my money's worth.

yet another . . .

2005-11-15T15:50:00.000-08:00

blog for me, yet another library school student blog for the web.

Why?

Well . .

Being so busy with grad school, I don't have much time for food bloggin'. And I miss blogging. And I find funky fun things that I want to share, and I want to document my experience in some way, and there are a lot of library school student blogs out there for budding academics, and super-achiever types, but not a whole lot for school media specialization kids and regular kids.

So there.