Chore One complete

Today we finished weeding. It went much faster than anticipated. We have over sixty boxes of books to be transported into town AFTER the shelves are brought in AFTER the new walls are built. With a few exceptions the books will be processed into the system over the next school year.

It is a relief seeing everything ready to go to town or to new homes elsewhere. I did save a few "oldies but goodies" as examples of why a collection needs to be weeded. Hawaii waiting to be the forty-ninth state, etc.

Opportunity or Chore

This summer I will have a great opportunity or a dreadful chore. We have closed our K-8 rural school and made the decision to put all library service in one physical location. The K-12 school currently houses the collection in two locations, one in the HS/MS and one in the elementary. Consequently I am always in the wrong location whenever someone is looking for me.
School is out and I have finished weeded the in town collection. Monday we start on the rural school collection. I have volunteered grandchildren to help.

Nebraska Learns 2.0 #35

I am ladyhawk on Wakoopa.
It has been a long time between activities for me. I decided I needed to get back in the game. Wakoopa might not have been the best place to start, but you have to start somewhere.

I had a hard time inviting you, Michael. I didn't have an email address, finally figured out where to get one today. (I'm a little slow this time of year.) Joining the Librarians Team was easier. I could not figure out where or how to write a review. I couldn't figure out the widget. When I tried it and previewed the link it would show my profile page. When I clicked on the link on Rapunzel 2.0 I was sent to Smart Shopper.com. Neither seemed to be what was desired.

I didn't find too many surprises when I looked at my profile. At home I often play games. I find Wakoopa interesting, curious; but I don't think I would use it very much. I am at Devotee level. I guess I found this one of the more interesting things about this site. One strange thing happened. I downloaded a free trial game - Montezuma's Treasure. It showed up on my profile as Сокровища Монтесумы. As a school librarian I doubt I would use it at work. It would not be my decision anyway.

Getting Social with World Cat

I have used WorldCat, BUT not like this. I use it for looking up items that a teacher is looking for - books on a topic that we don't have, a video to match a book, etc.)This was quite interesting. I created a profile, used a picture from my better days. Not all my favorite libraries were listed on World Cat. I found two. (For some reason the school library name is misspelled.)

I created two lists - "libraries and librarians in juvenile fiction" and "Middle School Fiction" and started to follow a science fiction list. These lists would be handy for reference if someone wanted a book on a topic I was not very familiar with or if a teacher wanted several books on a special topic. Or you could start a list "books I've read" and refer others to it. You could refer patrons to this site and lists you have created in place of printed lists of books on favorite topics (Christmas, dolphins, baseball, etc)

I didn't link any books on this blog to WorldCat, but I did link some on my other blog where I have been doing book reviews. http://wpmu.esu13.org/cmatthew

summer begins

Just had to try Spell with flickr again. Finally got it to work!!
School is out, but inventory is not complete. My garden plot is tilled, but not planted. I have a new computer; upgraded from Windows 2000 to Vista. I have A LOT of relearning to do and I still haven't transferred everything from the old to the new, or downloaded what was on the old. Guess, I better start setting up a new To Do list.

Thing #16 - Library 2.0 & Web 2.0

I looked a several articles for this Thing.
"Away from the icebergs": Started out fine, but when I got to the second "iceberg" I realized he is talking to a different audience. "Libraries are poorly equipped and insufficiently staffed for teaching . . . We need to focus our efforts not on teaching research skills but on eliminating the barriers . . . My job as a school librarian IS to teach research skills.

"Into a new world of librarianship" gave me much to think about. do I exhibit these characteristics in my work"?

I couldn't quite get with Schultz's comparison in "To a temporary place in time." I see the library's "commodity" as information and knowledge, not books.

I decided to look somewhere else for a clearer picture of my role in this 2.0 world. I searched for "school library 2.0" and discovered "Say good-bye to your mother's school library" by Christopher Harris in the May 1, 2003 School Library Journal. So many things in this article left me thinking. He suggests re-shifting /re-working the old, not starting new from scratch.

We library professionals have continually sought to establish the media center as the central foundation of a school. We must persist in this effort. But in its 2.0 incarnation, the digitally re-shifted school library, as I call it, must transcend the physical space to bring services and programming to every student and teacher throughout the school wherever learning is taking place. Consequently, librarians, while still based in the media center, will interact more directly with students as well as their teacher peers in new spaces.

His conclusion:

Digitally re-shifting your school library is about harnessing the power of new ideas like Web 2.0 to help fulfill the mission of school libraries. It does not necessarily mean discarding the old, but rather reconsidering what works best in meeting new challenges in a changing educational world. It’s all a part of helping students become literate users of information in order for them to have successful careers in school and beyond. Remember that for some students, a rich school library experience may be their only library experience. Let’s use every opportunity to help our students engage the joy of reading and the power of information.

I need to recreate my role in a world that thinks "it's all on the internet," but doesn't know how to find and evaluate what is there. Making the work I do behind the scenes visible. Taking the lead in using Web 2.0 tools. Fight the battles if necessary to open sites and tools. (or find the right person to fight them for me) Yes, in the elementary it will be a lot of compromise and waiting.