Library Featured in the Gauntlet

Thanks to the Saint Stephen's newspaper, The Gauntlet, for featuring information about the new, improved OverDrive service! The MISBO collection is indeed enormous and added several thousand books to the collection on August 1st. If you don't know your Patron ID, email me and I can get it to you immediately.

http://www.ssesgauntlet.org/features/2014/09/26/introducing-overdrive-free-ebook-rental-service-comes-to-media-center/

LA Times - iPads vs. Libraries

I've spent a lot of time considering the digital divide and the roles that schools play in leveling it.  When people ask me if libraries are going away, I don't have an easy answer. I'd like to say no, but they are dependent on continued funding and support. I'm lucky to work at a school that supports both traditional research and innovation. The library is used individually or by classes virtually every period of the school day, and students are waiting when I arrive in the morning. One could argue that some of that work doesn't need to take place in a library now that students have iPads, and they'd be correct. Yet students seem to like working in a space that is devoted to knowledge and discovery. Learning is hard work and it takes effort. I don't see that changing even though facts are more easily retrievable. 

The framing of iPads or libraries as a civil rights issue surprised me. Both libraries and technology require continual support; it's not enough to "purchase" one and be done with the investment. So there is the obvious cost-benefit question, but how much should we consider student preferences about what makes them excited to learn?
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-constantino-lausd-ipads-or-libraries-20140915-story.html

Leaving Digital Footprints

Here's the redirect to my monthly AISL post, this month looking at 6th graders' thoughts on digital footprints. http://aislnews.org/?p=1649

Speed Selection Games for MS Reading

Heard about speed dating? Not with 7th graders...hence "speed selection." This is the 7th graders first introduction to the library that they'll be using for the next six years, so why not make it memorable. On library blogs and listservs, around February and Valentine's Day you start seeing suggestions for speed dating library activities. The premise is that students have access to a preselected number of books. They have a few minutes to choose, then a few minutes to read. You run through several rounds, until everyone has found a selection they'd like to take home for the next few weeks. It's kind of a competition, but not really, and different enough than coming to a silent library so it draws the attention of the boys.

There was a fair amount of forethought that went into this, not the least just moving tables and obtaining enough green tablecloths. I decided on several general categories, based largely on what has interested Middle Schoolers in past years. There were so many ideas, but my final signs are: sports/adventure, worlds gone wrong, realistic fiction (both heartbreaking and hilarious), nonfiction vs. graphic novels, read around the world and into the past, and down the rabbit hole-magic, fantasy, and other worlds. There's also one "blind date" table: Don't Choose a Book by its Cover. This was a chance to showcase books with ugly or uninteresting covers. All of these books were covered with black paper. There is a drawing or map or poem or other short description on each. I was honest with the kids and told them that this was for fun; I didn't want it to be all about grabbing those books and just opening them to the title page right away.

There are about a hundred books at the ready, enough that there are options for the students, but not enough to inspire the dreaded look of overwhelmedness that has surfaced in years past when they are let loose in the entire fiction section. (Which was always a nerve-wracking moment for me anyway, since there are books there that are much more appropriate to 17 years olds than to 13 year olds.) It worked to have three minutes of selection the first time around, followed by four minutes of reading. All subsequent selection times were reduced to two minutes. I noticed that this was enough time for students to wander between tables and smile at their friends and page through books, but it wasn't enough time for them to get entirely off task. Some did wait until the 10 second warning, and then they grabbed the closest book at hand. Also, it started to look a bit like a game of musical chairs as kids rushed to the circle ringing the books. I was prepared for this, and there were double the chairs needed. This hasn't become a contact sport. :)

Lessons learned: 
Dystopias are still reigning in popularity. Next up, football!
Make this a lesson on print books. I wanted to get all of the students logged into Overdrive on the same day (what can I say?, I'm excited about the service) but this ended up being much more efficient focusing solely on print. Next month's activity can be entirely electronic instead. 
Students will still ask for books that they want if they don't see them. Ironically, this provided more time for readers' advisory than simply letting students loose in the stacks. 
My high schoolers are begging me to talk to their English teachers because it's something they didn't get to do in Middle School. I haven't yet had a high school English teacher bring a class in to get books for completely recreational reading. I welcome that opportunity.