I’m taking just a moment from the conference to make an on-the-spot blogpost (since today is my normal posting day).

The pre-conference meeting called Treasure Mountain just wrapped up.  In this one-day meeting focused on SLM research, scholarship, and innovation, we talked about several interesting things:

• Ross Todd gave a presentation last night, boldly asserting that we need to find better ways, more evidence-based ways, to show our impact on student learning.  He’s advocating ten new principles for organizing our work – be on the look out for these.
• Valerie Diggs described her media program, which has been designed as a Learning Commons. If you look for her on GALILEO, you’ll find a fascinating article about how a traditional program can become  a learning laboratory and learning space with never an empty seat.  I really enjoyed what she had to say, and wondered how her ideas might translate into elementary programs.
• Had a Skype visit from Peter Cookson, who talked about his Learning Sphere idea, recently published in Educational Leadership.  A centerpiece of this design is a big real-world problem, collaboratively attacked by learning teams distributed over the world (supported by technology, of course) – with the possibility that big problems could actually be solved.  He named John Dewey as one of his inspiring theorists, and I was reminded of the Creative Problem Solving model created by E. Paul Torrence at UGA.  The school library could become a resource center full of the tools, information, technology, and coaching needed to support such an idea.
• A couple of questions came up with sometimes heated discussion.  First: what are the dispositions media specialists need to be effective, and how do we support those through the process of professional preparation?  Second: what should we call ourselves these days?  Consensus is not forming around any one label, although many are being used all over the world.

This is the kind of stuff we’re doing here in Charlotte.  I hope to hear many more ideas over the next two days!

Mary Ann Fitzgerald

University of Georgia

GLMA North Central District held their second meeting of the 2009-2010 school year on October 29, 2009 at the North Georgia RESA facility in Gilmer County.  Ruth Fleet, media specialist at Rusk Middle School, introduced the attendees to Wordle and all the wonderful changes Wordle has implemented, including the ability to change colors, fonts and shapes.  We were then delighted to have ReLeah Lent speak to us about Intellectual Freedom and Censorship.

ReLeah is the author of At the Schoolhouse Gate: Lessons in Intellectual Freedom, Engaging Adolescent Learners and Literacy Learning Communities as well as Literacy for Real: Reading, Thinking, and Learning in the Content-Areas.  ReLeah won both the NCTE and ALA’s Intellectual Freedom award for her publication of At the Schoolhouse Gate: Lessons in Intellectual Freedom (resisting censorship)

 Donna Harrington from the Sequoyah Regional Public Library (Pickens County Branch) concluded the day’s activities by demonstrating Overdrive, the library’s free service that provides downloadable books.

 The afternoon wrapped up with reminders that our January 28th meeting will be at Coker Elementary in Murray County with special guest Kara Leonard, technology guru from Murray County, sharing new and exciting technology tips, tricks and resources.
 

Esther Brenneman
North Central District Chairperson

This amazing, free tool can get your life so organized that your cohorts will not recognize you! Evernote is a means by which you can collect everything (from web pages to audio files to personal notes to bills to virtually anything you see) and organize as searchable content. Items can be assigned tags so that all contents are easily searched. But, entries can also be searched by any word in the document, not just assigned tags.

So, what kind of gallimaufry can be assembled with this tool? Word documents, web pages (partial or full), pdf files, photos of ANYTHING, personal notes (Handwritten or typed), audio files, and multimedia files are among the myriad of things that can be included.

Now, how does this work in a professional world? Obviously, the ability to clip and save websites is useful. All websites you save are searchable by any word at the site. Same with documents, any word in the doc, text, pdf, etc. file can be located and highlighted within the document. In addition, anything that is photographed can be searched. This is amazing – simple photos of scratched out notes, bulletin board or white board shots, business cards, air line tickets, purchase orders, to do lists – anything that can be photographed can then be automatically searched. Evernote scans the image and identifies words in the photo. The item is retrieved even though the photographed document has words that may be handwritten!

Think about the way this compilation of data can help you to organize information. Examples listed at the Evernote website include:

• Snap a photo of a business card or a white board with your phone, and have an easy way to store and access contacts or retrieve information gathered at a meeting or conference.
• Capture plane tickets and confirmation numbers, hotel invoices, and receipts for your expense reports.
• Get inspired. Keep a file of anything cool you want to buy for yourself or as a gift, whether it’s online or out in the real world.
• Keep notes from your meetings all in one place. Take a picture of a whiteboard and you’ll be able to find it later.
• Plan your next trip. Clip web pages, maps, and itineraries. Capture sights, sounds, tastes, and anything else.
• Research web sites and clip pages directly from your browser.
• Keep a record of your favorite foods and drinks by snapping a photo of the label when you find one you like.
• Remember the things you were supposed to remember. Create to-do lists, jot down random thoughts, leave a voice memo, and more.
• Create notes right from Twitter and save tweets that you like by following @myEN on Twitter.

Remember that tags can be assigned, so this adds another method for labeling and organizing files and content. And you can create notebooks with specific information included in the notebooks – similar to folders where you organize your files. Think about all the possibilities with this type of capability – immediate access to everything, literally, that you might ever need to remember for professional or personal use!

Phyllis R. Snipes,
University of West Georgia

Evernote Homepage

Sample Evernote Notebook

 Georgia Library Media Association (GLMA) and ProQuest, jointly sponsor the Intellectual Freedom of Information Award.  The award recognizes the contributions of a school library media specialist who has affirmed in an active way the rights of students to information and ideas furthering the cause of intellectual and academic freedom.  This award is donated by ProQuest® and will be given at the 2010 COMO Annual Conference.

Applications can be downloaded from the following web site:

http://glma-inc.org/freedomaward.htm 

Please submit all nominations by November 30, 2009 to: Valerie Ayer, DeKalb County Schools, valerie_ayer@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us or Fax: 678-676-2427

Posted on behalf of GLMA member Windee Little:

I am presenting at GaETC and would like some statistical information to help emphasize some points I will be making. Would you please take a few minutes and complete this survey for me so that I can obtain this very important information? I would greatly appreciate your help. Any anecdotal information is also welcome through email. (Please forward to any other media specialist/librarian you know that may not be on this listserv.)

Survey Link

Come see me at GaETC, Friday, November 6 from 8:30 -9:30 in Spanish I-II. Thank you for your consideration!

A new children’s book by Toni Buzzeo (who was the keynote speaker at our GA COMO conference) plus there are lots of links to instructional resources including a ppt!

Creekview High School LibGuides – Georgia Peach Book Award Nominees and Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl 2009-10 – Home via kwout

We are kicking off Teen Read Week 2009 with a brand new research pathfinder for some of the most popular authors and books at The Unquiet Library!   Check out our new Georgia Peach Book Award Nominees and Reading Bowl research pathfinder page! I have created a landing “home” page with general resources and information as well as book widgets for the Georgia Peach Award nominees and the Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl.

I am also in the process of adding tabs for each nominated author that will include:

• RSS feeds for each author’s blog (if available)
• RSS feeds for each authors’ Twitter account (if available)
• YouTube videos featuring the author and/or his or her works
• Websites related to the author and his/her books
• The “Books from Our Catalog” feature spotlighting some of the books by each author; there is also a link to the Destiny catalog so you can search on your own
• Other links of interest, such as interview with the author or official websites for a book or for a series by the author
• Book widgets with previews of the author’s books when available

This is a work in progress, so please check back often!  If you like the materials here, please feel free to use and link to the page.

Creekview High School LibGuides – Geor

Buffy Hamilton, Ed.S.
Creekview High School
http://theunquietlibrary.wordpress.com

Copyright is a regular topic in our school library program at Georgia Southern but we focus on it during the Administration class. This semester we’re trying something new-every student has to create a wiki with a set of copyright resources designed to be used by differerent grade levels of students or teachers. Many more links will be added in the next week or so but I thought you’d like to see our work in progress and I’m sure our students would appreciate any feedback about what they’ve done.

Judi Repman and Stephanie Jones

Hi Members of the Georgia Library Media Association,

I am a retired middle school media specialist, and I am researching children’s choice award programs all across the country, including both the winners and the nominees. Information on the Georgia Children’s Book Awards web site includes all the winners and the nominees from 1999 to 2010. I have been in contact with a person from the College of Education at the University of Georgia and have been sent many more of the nominee lists, but I am still missing lists for fifteen years. My interest is limited to the Middle Grade Novels section of the award. Would any of you happen to know the nominees for the Grades 4-8 Award for the following years and be willing to send them to me? The following are the years I am still missing: 1970-71, 1972-73, 1974-75, 1976-77, 1978-79, 1980-81, 1981-82, 1982-83, 1987-88, 1989-90, 1990-91, 1992-93, 1993-94, 1994-95, and 1996-97. If anyone could help me with this information, I would certainly appreciate it.

Thank you in advance,

Christine Blair Media Specialist (Retired from Nuttall Middle School) Robinson, Illinois

In the School Library Journal, Joyce Kasman Valenza and Doug Johnson have compiled a great list of “Things That Keep Us Up at Night” and it’s a wonderful wake up call for those of us who might be sitting on the fence about some things.   It’s especially great for a library graduate student like myself to see what they consider some of the current big issues.

I guess I like it so much because it’s sure to cause some arguments.  Heck, it already has.

But that’s why I’m so excited to enter this field.  It is forever changing and librarians always adapt (or, I suppose, get left behind).  It’s wonderful to talk with members of the profession who have been at it since before their school even had one computer, let alone the banks of them we have now and have embraced and are excited by these changes.  They still do wonderful story times and dictionary lessons–but now they publish in blogs and wikis and show their students and staff how to connect beyond the walls of the library.  We can never imagine where these changes will take us next.  What will the profession be like in 18, 25, 30 years?  Who knows?  But I know one thing.  There will always be more information and there will always be a need for those who can help to find, evaluate and share it.

Can’t wait to see where we go next.

What keeps you up at night?  What do you think can be done about it?

Thanks,

Jim Randolph