The SurRural Librarian

I just started updating my Library Thing library with favorite books. I’ve simply given up on the idea of adding local notes to my catalog to keep track of my particular book needs. With LT, I can keep track of favorite books for different uses - great read-alouds, great books to book talk - as well as favorite books that go along with classroom units -insects, letter writing, pirates, etc.

Sadly, I don’t yet have a web-based OPAC (I know, shocking! welcome to the k-8 wilderness) so I can’t use Library Thing for Libraries yet, hopefully some day.

It is so easy to use, and fast. You can import books from your catalog, or from vendor purchase lists - as long as there is an ISBN on the page somewhere. And I like that other LT users have added their own scans of book covers, so I can choose the one that matches the edition I have.

Someday, I’ll get tags into my catalog. Until then, I’m loving Library Thing.

photo by striatic

My JH students are working on their annual independent research projects. This year, I’ve set them up with a shared del.icio.us account to help manage the online sources they’ll each be using. I installed the “add to del.cio.us” buttons to the browsers on all the classroom computers, including the teacher’s laptops. When the students or the teachers add a site, we just tag it with the name of the student it’s meant for. The teachers picked it up immediately, and it’s SO easy for them to bookmark sites for students at any time, anyplace.

I added their account to my network, and I subscribe to my network feed so I can keep track of who uses what whenever I’m online, which is really handy.

When I was showing them how it worked, someone raised a hand and asked if it was also a good way to find good sites on your topic. If someone else has tagged the same site you have, they might know about more good sites, right? Of course! That’s tomorrow’s lesson, but I was so excited that she saw the potential of the “social” aspect of the site before I even mentioned it.

I’m a big one for finding legitimate academic uses of fun internet tidbits, so I’m sure there is a great curriculum just waiting to be written around this fabulous video. Or maybe I’ll just show it to the kindergarten on the 100th day of school.

Video at YouTube of 100 people in order of age - 1 to 100 years old - each banging a drum.

I’ve been using Net News Wire Lite for a couple of years and really like it. I’ve always been too cheep to buy the regular version. But now the full-blown Net News Wire is now a free download. Can I say w00t? Or is that now unfashionable?

Thanks M@