The SurRural Librarian

When I first saw this laptop shade (which would sure come in handy by the sandbox this summer) I was immediately struck by its similarity to a microfiche reader.

In the early 90s I had a great job that paid me by the hour to browse through reels of old patent illustrations on microfilm, just looking for cool illustrations for an arty magazine.

I was sent to the BPL with bags filled with rolls of quarters. I still remember, I got paid 8 bucks an hour.

Them were the days.

I wrote an article for this month’s VEMA newsletter about the new site I made for my school using Wordpress. I go on ad nauseam about all the fun reasons I love this software, and how it’s a perfect fit for those of us with little money and less time.

The site has been up for three months and its use and popularity with the school community is growing exponentially. It’s working out real swell.

The .pdf is here on VEMA’s (also soon to be redesigned) site.

A question just went out on my local listserv asking about libraries that use credit cards to buy books online. I’ve used a credit card (sometimes personal, sometimes business) in my two most recent positions and highly recommend trying to convince your school to get you one. I buy almost all of my books on Amazon, often getting used copies. I save copious amounts of money doing this. I was able to just buy all the titles on the DCF list, a few of the Caldecott and Newbury lists, and some audiobooks, all for less than $340.

My impression is that most school librarians still use vendors for most of their book buying. The argument being that receiving books pre-processed saves so much time (and time=money) that it’s just worth it. But I just don’t see it.

Granted, sellers of used kids books on Amazon are a different breed than what I was used to from my college days. I got some real dogged-eared volumes when I first started out. You have to be much more selective about who you buy kids books from. But even the new Amazon prices are so much lower than what I’ve seen from the vendors.

I average $9/hardcover on Amazon. That easily covers the 45 seconds it takes to catalog. I have volunteers (and occasionally students) do the stickering, stamping and all the other terrible things we librarians do to books. And sometimes, if you’re really lucky, you can get ex-library books that already have mylar wrapping.

So I’d estimate that for every two books I could get from a vendor, I get three online. And that’s one extra happy kid for every two.

I’m sure other librarians have many additional arguments against the idea (we always have good arguments, don’t we?). I’d love to hear some, and do my best to convince you otherwise.

Just make sure you pay off that balance every month, whatever you do.

Today the whole school countra danced to funky blues.

Waiting in line yesterday to check out her book, a first grader started singing (ala Ramones) “Hey Ho, Let’s Go”

96 percent of my students completed the March Reading Challenge in which they read every day and keep track of how many minutes read. Each one got home made chocololate chip cookies in return.

Today’s most common “I forgot my library book” excuse:
My road is too mucked up for the school bus so we had to hike to the main road, and I couldn’t fit them all in my backpack. (Vermont mud season is tough on readers)

My del.icio.us feed has been growing fast and furious lately, so much so that I needed to highlight these few fun things.

~ Accessibility Software for the Colorblind

My colorblind husband sent this one to me. Reading graphs online can be a major difficulty for some kids.

eyePilot is an easy to use, interactive software program that lets anyone
work more efficiently with the full range of colors in the computer environment.

~ The O.P.E.N. Citation Maker from the Oregon Public Education Network Clearing House is a nice, very simple citation maker. My students and I have tried so many of these, and this one is one of the simplest we’ve found yet. Very nice.

And in the category of There Has to Be an Educational Use for This…

~ The Make Blog is a consistently inspirational read. I think every science teacher in the country should be subscribing to this. It’s sad that Bre Pettis isn’t teaching in schools anymore, but this here is quite a legacy. DIY from weather balloons to bird feeders.

~ Sheesh, what am I saying. Libraries should also subscribe to Make Magazine. It’s an absolute DIY joy.

~ Finally, there is this little mind bending, guy. Cute too.
Robot with Rhythm article and videos

Another strictly adorable video here.

Toys go out : being the adventures of a knowledgeable Stingray, a toughy little Buffalo, and someone called Plastic
by Emily Jenkins;  Paul O Zelinsky

I just picked up Toys Got Out, what a great book! An outstanding read aloud, it’s very much in the spirit of Winnie the Pooh, updated. It’s a short collection of stories with the same three main characters: a stuffed buffalo, a stingray and a rubber ball name Plastic (who experiences some existential angst in chapter two in a search for self-knowledge). There’s also a bath towel named TukTuk and a singing washing machine named Frank.

Really, what more do you need to know?

There are some fabulous little bits in this that gave my 5 year old and I full-on belly laugh attacks. And you know an author who has the dad doing the laundry has their act together.

And on a tangent… I was just in a workshop last week on Visual Thinking Skills, in which a super librarian insisted that picture books would make excellent material for VTS. The Zelnisky drawings in this book are a perfect example. They are beautiful, and tell a story, without being too literal. I’m going to try them out some time.

Here’s an excellent free online tool for converting files from one format to another. An elegantly simple solution for those students who have PCs at home and Macs in school, or teachers trying to share material with each other.

I also like the ability to save YouTube videos to your computer, since it’s tough to project YouTube in class, you never know what comments or other videos are going to come up when you view a vid there. I do wonder about the implications of downloading material to your computer than might be copyright protected, unbeknownst to you. Something to watch out for.

This really is an excellent tool, and free. Awesome.

via Joyce Valenza

Update: I just realized it does not support Appleworks, something my teachers would love. Still, great for many other uses - especially those music files.

Booklist has published a list of their picks of the top graphic novels for youth of the year.

What makes me particularly happy about this article is that it has books for the youngers too.

I haven’t seen most of these titles yet, so I can’t comment. But I’m looking forward to reading them.

I’ve been lurking around Koha for what seems like ages, going back and forth on if I should give it a whirl. So far, the cons have outweighed the pros, the largest obstacles being lack of time, lack of a Linux box and the huge learning curve I’d have to conquer.

But I was just looking at the release notes for the upcoming version, and things are looking pretty exciting. It will be coming out with Amazon jacket-covers and reviews as well as patron reviews and rankings.

I’ve been desperately wishing my students could add meta-data of their own to our catalog, with kid reviews and suggestions. And my current little catalog has no book covers or book descriptions. I had played around with Delicious Library, but it’s really made for individual - not library - use. Among other drawbacks, it has no user privacy.

So, in the spirit of Real Simple, let’s write this down.

Here’s what I’ve got in my Yes column for Koha:

Free, free, free
Web interface (I don’t even currently have a web OPAC)
Firefox plugins
Patron reviews
Book jackets
Much better notice templates and customization than what I’ve got.
I’ve got such a teeny collection, it can’t be that big a deal, can it?
Could run on my Mac server.

Under No:

It will all happen on my own time.
I currently pay a really obscenely low amount for my catalog (don’t tell my vendor I think so).
That’s it, I think.

I think a change is gonna come.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends NO screen time for children 2 years and younger. Yet something with the unsavory title of “Giggles Computer Funtime for Baby”  for  children 6-24 months old appears on The Association for Library Service to Children’s 2007 Notable Computer Software for Children list.

I have some students who are rabid for Dashboard, so I collected a list of fun widgets that have at least a modicum of educational value.
I omitted the one that gives you the Matrix digital rain. It was a tough call.
Here are my favorites…
http://del.icio.us/PamatMES/widgets

This is the most helpful thing I’ve seen in days. I use Google Image search an awful lot, mainly looking for images to use in my booktalks. I’ve always hated how many clicks it takes to get to the actual image. And I’m constantly being called on to explain to people how they ended up with just a thumbnail when they thought they were getting a full size picture. Google Image Ripper is a nice little hack that gets rid of all that for you, what a relief.

Though, I should also mention, I steer my students away Google Image search, it’s really too easy to stumble on inappropriate material. We’ve found that Picsearch is much more appropriate for student use.

I abandoned Talk of the Nation soon after Ray Suarez, so I missed this until now.

Neil Gaiman, Christopher Paolini and Tamora Pierce were on back in December. Audio can be heard here.

Two articles in my aggregator this evening have me wanting to hide under the covers. I haven’t heard people so stressed since Y2K (which, I confess, I insisted we spend off the grid, just in case.)

Here’s one on the impending mess resulting from the new Daylight Savings change.

And here’s another explaining on how the internets are going to stop working this year because of all the videos we’re posting.

I do believe the change in daylight savings time is the most under-reported story of the week. I have yet to talk to anyone who realizes we’re changing the clocks this weekend. When I tell people, they give me a blank stare. I honestly don’t think anyone believes me. It’ll be strange, but is it really going to mess with my Tivo? yikes!

Mac users, run your regular upgrades now. PC folks might want to check out the MS site to determine the patches they need.

The Shouts and Murmurs page by Paul Rudnick in this week’s New Yorker provides a hilarious and very bawdy commentary on the whole affair of the Higher Power of Lucky and the you know what.

I highly recommend it, though quoting it here would get me banned by school filters.

It’s not online at the New Yorker yet, but check back if you don’t have the print copy.