Librarian Blogs

Comment

Comment by G. Hovinen on April 29, 2008 at 5:11pm

1. Grandview Library Blog
http://www.grandviewlibrary.org/
This is a very visually appealing blog. It has a nice arrangement of graphics and seems very well organized. I like the web at the top that allows you to link to sites dedicated to grades K-3 (there are also a lot of other links you can explore, including ones that direct you to poetry selections and a listening center, which I was not authorized to enter). When you select a specific grade level you are then directed to a classroom link (which I am also barred from). At each class site one links into a companion site called DIGITAL PENCIL where the teachers and the students communicate/collaborate on various different graphic organizers that have been selected specifically. This is extremely cool and a wonderful way for the librarian to collaborate with the teacher in utilizing technology to organize and present information. After spending some time looking at other blogs I must say that this site was the most appealing and one I would come back to again.

2. First, I was tantalized by looking at a blog from a library in Kendriya vidyalaya Pattom, Thiruvananthapuram at http://librarykvpattom.wordpress.com/.
That’s in India. It has a lot of links to outside websites. It lists the rules and regulations of the library (one book per student for two weeks). It has a fairly impressive picture and note from the Commissioner Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan of New Delhi complementing on the new initiative on Library. I then went into the personal blog of the librarian (S.L.Faisal) entitled musings unclassified…life and librarianship (sic) at http://musingsunclassified.wordpress.com/. This is a more personal space where Faisal notes and briefly reviews the books he is reading and some of his advice (and frustration) at being a librarian. This was a really interesting view into another person’s library life.

3. Mrs. Horowitz has been a librarian at Northside Elementary in Midway, Kentucky for 16 years. As of the end of March, she’s trying to get board certified. You can find her blog at http://ilearn.woodfordschools.org/shorowitz/ Her latest entry is a heart felt plea begging for comments and feedback from her students on the books they are reading. She has certainly created a friendly, welcoming atmosphere on this blog. She has short entries with some fun pictures. She seems to be writing mostly to herself, however. Her posts have only elicited three comments, two on Harry Potter and one from another teacher at a different school commenting on the clean design and text. Obviously this blog is new this academic year, but it makes me think about all that a librarian needs to do to promote the web site so it becomes a useful tool for more than just reading up on the new books acquired that year.

Comment by PDixon on April 16, 2008 at 2:30pm

School Librarian Blogs by Penny Dixon 4/16/08
1) Washington Library Media Association
http://schoollibraryblogs.blogspot.com
Excellent article for school librarians with detailed plan on how to implement blogs building-wide - for staff and students. I shared this with our tech integration specialist for possible use next year.
2)School Library Blogs
http://libraryblogs. suprglu.com
Articles and comments re: metadata and the future of libraries, Godwin & Parker's new book Information Literacy Meets Library 2.0, plagiarism, teaching about copyright, and more.
3) Calling All School Librarians - A Weblog for School Librarians in CO
http://casl.wordpress.com/
Outstanding and well organized with sections for staff development, news, archives, links. Offers an advocacy video by Joyce Valenza, a poll on the relevance of circulation stats and print materials, and even an article by our very own Dave Sanger on 21st Century Skills!

Comment by maria shuman on April 14, 2008 at 10:05pm

Library Blogs by Maria Shuman
I first went to the list on www.blogwithoutalibrary.net and could not believe the extensive list of school library blogs! This is an awesome place to start. From there I chose three random blogs and reviewed the following:
1. Bullard High School (http://bullardlibrary.edublogs.org/)in Fresno, CA: This was a very attractive site with links to podcasts, book sites, ebooks (need password from library). Blogs exist on a number of different subject matters. I can see high school students accessing and using this site easily.
2. Northside Elementary (http://nseslibrary.blogspot.com) in RockHill, South Carolina: This didn't seem like much of an interactive blogging site to me. It was more just a listing by the teacher librarian of activities and events.
3. robdarrow.wordpress.com was a totally cool blog! There are amazing discussions going on about all sorts of stuff-- copyrights, fair use, Doug Johnson. I'd definately go back to this one. It was more of a professional site, not a school site, even though I think he's associated with schools in Clovis, CA.

Comment by G. Hovinen on April 13, 2008 at 2:05pm

What a Variety!
1. Grandview Library Blog
http://www.grandviewlibrary.org/
This is a very visually appealing blog. It has a nice arrangement of graphics and seems very well organized. I like the web at the top that allows you to link to sites dedicated to grades K-3 (there are also a lot of other links you can explore, including ones that direct you to poetry selections and a listening center, which I was not authorized to enter). When you select a specific grade level you are then directed to a classroom link (which I am also barred from). At each class site one links into a companion site called DIGITAL PENCIL where the teachers and the students communicate/collaborate on various different graphic organizers that have been selected specifically. This is extremely cool and a wonderful way for the librarian to collaborate with the teacher in utilizing technology to organize and present information. After spending some time looking at other blogs I must say that this site was the most appealing and one I would come back to again.

2. First, I was tantalized by looking at a blog from a library in Kendriya vidyalaya Pattom, Thiruvananthapuram at http://librarykvpattom.wordpress.com/.
That’s in India. It has a lot of links to outside websites. It lists the rules and regulations of the library (one book per student for two weeks). It has a fairly impressive picture and note from the Commissioner Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan of New Delhi complementing on the new initiative on Library. I then went into the personal blog of the librarian (S.L.Faisal) entitled musings unclassified…life and librarianship (sic) at http://musingsunclassified.wordpress.com/. This is a more personal space where Faisal notes and briefly reviews the books he is reading and some of his advice (and frustration) at being a librarian. This was a really interesting view into another person’s library life.

3. Mrs. Horowitz has been a librarian at Northside Elementary in Midway, Kentucky for 16 years. As of the end of March, she’s trying to get board certified. You can find her blog at http://ilearn.woodfordschools.org/shorowitz/ Her latest entry is a heart felt plea begging for comments and feedback from her students on the books they are reading. She has certainly created a friendly, welcoming atmosphere on this blog. She has short entries with some fun pictures. She seems to be writing mostly to herself, however. Her posts have only elicited three comments, two on Harry Potter and one from another teacher at a different school commenting on the clean design and text. Obviously this blog is new this academic year, but it makes me think about all that a librarian needs to do to promote the web site so it becomes a useful tool for more than just reading up on the new books acquired that year.

Comment by Dean Raizman on March 28, 2008 at 11:25am

The web site http://www.libdex.com/weblogs.html#in provides an interesting page of links to blogs in lots of other countries. It is interesting to see what other countries are doing with the technology. I have come to realize that the technology wave is going forward, and it is going to take some effort to keep up with things. I literally went and signed up for a Web 2.0 class even as I was doing this assignment.

I did a search on Doug Johnson and the term blog. This led me to his Blue Skunk Blog at http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blogsiread/
The page I found interesting was the page about the blogs that he read. I found it helps to have someone do the groundwork for me of finding the good links.

Finally I went to http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/ and took a look at what teachers are doing with technology. Like all my other sites, I found the technology intimidating. I was left with a sense of the conscious effort that I need to make to keep up with the way things are changing.