A Poll for Librarians: What Is Your Favorite Library 2.0 Tool?

Take a moment and let me know about your favorite Library 2.0 tool!

 

Final Draft: “Granny’s Chiffarobe”

“Granny’s Chiffarobe”

Polished gleaming mahogany

Gold patina handles inviting you to open doors to the past
Lingering odor of fluffy golden buttery biscuits mingled with Rose Milk perfume and musty mothballs
Former home to faded calico cotton dresses and floral aprons
         and your two weapons:  a well-worn Bible and a pearl-handled pistol
Ghostly tufts of quilting cotton left as breadcrumbs leading back to a time now existing only in my memories
The secret door to Narnia I never could find.

 

©Buffy Hamilton, 2008

Looking Ahead: Teen Read Week October 2008!

Information for Teen Read Week 2008 is now available from YALSA!  This year’s theme is “Books with Bite”—how delicious!  :-)  Teen Read Week will be celebrated October 12–18, so now is the time to start planning ahead!

One terrific resource is the Teen Read Week 2008 Wiki!  This wiki is truly a gold mine of ideas and resources for celebrating Teen Read Week and ways to incorporate the theme, “Books with Bite”, into your festivities! 

Teen Read Week - YALSA

 Another fabulous resource is the Programming Ideas page at http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/teenreading/trw/trw2008/activities/index.cfm. Here you can read more about ways to incorporate podcasts, tech programs, a fim festival, a taste test, display contests, and more for your week of celebrations!

If you are a librarian, go to http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/teenreading/trw/trw2008/registration/index.cfm to register now!  There are some great incentives for the first 100 registrants, including the following:

2008 Registration Incentives

1. The first 100 registrants to sign up for YALSA’s Teen Read Week will receive a free, unabridged young adult audiobook compliments of Teen Read Week Promotional Partner Listening Library. Teens at your library will enjoy hearing their favorites novels come to life on audio.
2. All new regular members of YALSA who join through the Teen Read Week Web site will receive two free paperbacks courtesy Promotional Partner Scholastic.
3. The first 4,000 registrants will receive one free paperback from Galaxy’s Golden Age series, courtesy Promotional Partner Galaxy Press.
4. Register by midnight on July 14 and you could win a free copy of Breaking Dawn, the latest entry in the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer, courtesy Promotional Partner Hachette Book Group USA/Little, Brown & Co. On July 15, we’ll select 200 registrants at random.
5. Twenty-five registrants will be chosen at random to receive a complete set of titles from Zest Books (about fifteen books total). The drawing will be held on Mon. Sept. 15, 2008.
6. One lucky registrant will win alibrary of Mirrorstone titles, approximate value $500 and based on availability. Five runner ups will win an autographed copy each of Sucks to Be Me and The Stowaway. The drawing will be held on Mon. Sept. 15, 2008.
7. All registrants can download YALSA’s pocket-sized, illustrated Books with Bite Recommended Reading Pamphlet, full of recommended titles drawn from YALSA’s awards and booklists and annotated by YALSA’s Teen Read Week committee. These trifold pamphlets can be printed on 8.5 x 11″ paper, cut to size, and then handed out to teens by the dozens.

 

“Granny’s Chiffarobe”: Poem Inspired by Kelly Bingham Poetry Writing Workshop

YA author Kelly Bingham is here in our library as I write!  She is doing poetry writing workshops with our English classes today….what an amazing poet!

Here is my poem from the list writing strategy she showed us today:

“Granny’s Chiffarobe”

Polished gleaming mahogany

Gold patina handles inviting you to open doors to the past
Lingering odor of fluffy golden biscuits mingled with Rose Milk perfume and musty mothballs
Former home to calico cotton dresses and floral aprons
         Your worn Bible and pearl-handled pistol
Bits of quilting cotton left as breadcrumbs to a time now existing only in my memories
The secret door to Narnia I never could find.

Draft 2, posted 12:55

“Granny’s Chiffarobe”

Polished gleaming mahogany

Gold patina handles inviting you to open doors to the past
Lingering odor of fluffy golden biscuits mingled with Rose Milk perfume and musty mothballs
Former home to faded calico cotton dresses and floral aprons
         Your worn Bible and pearl-handled pistol
Ghostly tufts of quilting cotton left as breadcrumbs to a time now existing only in my memories
The secret door to Narnia I never could find.

 

Draft 3, posted 2:10

 

“Granny’s Chiffarobe”

Polished gleaming mahogany

Gold patina handles inviting you to open doors to the past
Lingering odor of fluffy golden buttery biscuits mingled with Rose Milk perfume and musty mothballs
Former home to faded calico cotton dresses and floral aprons
         and your two weapons:  a well-worn Bible and a pearl-handled pistol
Ghostly tufts of quilting cotton left as breadcrumbs leading back to a time now existing only in my memories
The secret door to Narnia I never could find.

 

PowerTwitter

I stumbled across another fun Twitter tool this evening called PowerTwitter.  If you are using Twitter in Firefox, this add-on allows you and others to see your Flickr photo stream embedded in your profile and a link to your 30 Boxes account.    You will need to set up an account with 30 Boxes for PowerTwitter to work.

Here are the basic steps to install this fun tool:

1.  Go to http://30boxes.com/blog/index.php/2007/04/09/power-twitter-by-30-boxes/. 
2.  Right click on the link for the add-on and save it to your desktop.
3.  Literally drag the installation icon you have downloaded into the middle of your Firefox browser.  Firefox will automatically install it for you.
4.  Restart your Firefox browser.
5.  Once you go to your Twitter account, click on your profile, and your Flickr photostream will pop up!

Who Inspires You As a Librarian?: Ode to Joy

Who inspires you as a librarian?  I have been blessed to have many librarian mentors along the way as a child and as an adult.

Joy Mabry is someone who has been an inspiration to me for nearly twenty years now—I first met her as a barely twenty-something at our district teacher center, and she has been an unfailing source of support, encouragement, friendship, and wisdom.  She is an educator who has touched countless lives in the Cherokee County School District—she still has students from her days as an elementary school librarian who approach her with words of gratitude and thanks for what she did for them as their school media specialist.   I can only hope that I could have even an ounce of the positive influence on students as Joy Mabry has done and continues to do so even as I write this post.  If Joy were a library book, she would have been showered with every literary accolade and prize that one could win—she is definitely a Pulitzer  of a librarian!

Joy has especially been my “rock” the last few years as I opened my media center, and our patrons at Creekview High owe her a debt of thanks as she was an advocate of our media center (and still continues to be!!!) when our library barely had shelving in place.  I have also had the pleasure of interviewing her for a research project at the University of Georgia in which she shared her history as a reader and writer with me; I am hopeful she will let me eventually make that interview a live podcast you all can enjoy. 

When I think of people who have shaped me as a person and as a librarian, Joy is at the top of the list.  Her spirit, her wit, her boundless energy, her faith, and unwavering enthusiasm always make my day.  I am proud to be an “adopted” granddaughter to her and grateful she doesn’t judge me for my inability to change lamination film (she did this for me throughout 2006-07!).  Thankfully, my other qualities do make up for that flaw.  :-) 

I would like to publicly give a shout of thanks to Joy Mabry—friend, mentor, muse, librarian pioneer, maverick, and lifelong learner.

National Poetry Month Celebrations

National Poetry Month Celebrations

Originally uploaded by theunquietlibrarian

Here is a cool mosaic I made using fd’s Flickr Toys at http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/ . I chose the mosaic option and pulled photos relating to National Poetry Month 2008.

I am proud to say one of our photos, The Unquiet Library, is a member of the “Poem In Your Pocket” photo pool!

The National Archives Experience: Digital Vaults

A few months ago, I blogged about the Georgia Archives Digital Vaults, but have you seen the National Archives Digital Vaults?  Many thanks to Sandi Adams for pointing me to this FABULOUS resource! 

What can you do with the resources in The National Archives Digital Vaults?

• Create a movie
• Create a poster
• Search by tag or keyword
• Collect primary source documents and images for a project

For lesson plans and ideas, go to the Educator and Student Resource Page at http://www.archives.gov/nae/education/.  In addition to great resources for teachers and students, teachers can find wonderful guides and handouts to use with students that explain primary sources and analysis worksheets for an array of primary sources, including written documents, photographs, maps, cartoons, sound recordings, posters, and motion pictures. 

Go to http://www.archives.gov/nae/education/tool-box.html to access these materials!

You may also want to read this great blog post by Glenn at the HistoryTech blog at http://historytech.wordpress.com/2008/04/12/digital-vaults-social-networking-for-primary-sources/.

This is a resource that can make history come alive for students!  We would love to collaborate with you as a teacher and develop a project or research unit that incorporates this treasure trove of primary source documents.   Please let me know if you would like to explore ways to incorporate the digital archives into your instruction!

How About a GA Library 2.0 Summit?

Thanks to my Library 2.0 Ning, I came across this amazing upcoming conference sponsored by Mississippi State University Libraries:  http://blogs.library.msstate.edu/web2summit/?page_id=13.

This is a conference dedicated to integrating Web 2.0 tools seamlessly into your library program and harnessing the power of Web 2.0 to improve your service to your patrons.  You can go to http://library.msstate.edu/mslibrarysummit/2007summit/index.html to view last year’s conference agenda as well as hear podcasts from last year’s session.

Here is a preview of this year’s conference focus:

 

Mississippi State University Libraries : Mississippi Library 2.0 Summit

What if we had something like this for Georgia librarians?  What about a Georgia Libraries 2.0 Summit for 2008?  Anyone out there interested in exploring and organizing this venture? 

Buffy Hamilton

Coming To A Virtual Library Near You: EBSCOhost 2.0!

While I received an email notice about this nearly a month ago, this afternoon is the first time I’ve taken the opportunity to watch this wonderful sneak preview of the new and improved EBSCOhost 2.0 interface!  Be sure to take some time to view this Flash video that will give you a guided tour of the new EBSCOhost 2.0!

As you know, we are fortunate to have access to many of the high quality EBSCOhost databases through GALILEO, but now these databases will have several new features that make the databases even more searchable while offering patrons more options for personalizing content delivery.  The new look and features make the database look like an information portal in the vein of Pageflakes! 

If you are a librarian, you can visit the awesome EBSCOhost 2.0 Support Center to prepare and familiarize yourself with this very cool new interface!  Be sure to use the tabs at the top of the page to browse the treasure trove of training materials available.  You will an array of helpful resources, including:

• a rollout timeline
• screenshots you can incorporate into training materials
• a PowerPoint highlighting the new features
• Flyers and posters you can customize to promote the new interface to your patrons

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In addition to the EBSCOhost 2.0 Support Center, you can go to the EBSCOhost 2.0 Information site to get detailed information on all of the new features.  I think the new changes are definitely going to make these databases more user-friendly and more appealing to our users!   

Finally, visit http://support.ebscohost.com/ebscohost2/training.php to sign up for a free webinar to get your first wave of training!  The new interface should be available to most users in July 2008, so now is the time to start planning ahead for how you will use this database with your patrons in 2008-09.   I am truly excited about this new “facelift” for our EBSCOhost databases!

The Unquiet Library Celebrates “Poem In Your Pocket” Day!

 

The Unquiet Library celebrated National Poem In Your Pocket Day on Thursday, April 17!  We created “pockets” of poems throughout our media center where our patrons can go and get a poem to read for fun!  We also gave each English teacher a pocket of poems for his or her classroom to help students celebrate this event of sharing poems.

You can come by the library and get poems for your pockets for the rest of the month!  Please stop by the media center and browse our pockets of poems, which are a terrific mix of classic, modern, and student written poems!  Several of our pocket poems were written by Creekview’s finest! 

Happy poem reading!

 

 

Fun Twitter Tool: TweetStats!

Do you ever wonder how much you are Twittering?  Would you like to know the times of day you are most likely to Twitter?  Has it occurred to you that you might need to enter a 12 step recovery program for Twittering?  (LOL! ). 

Here is a fun little tool called TweetStats!  It will calculate the following stats:

• Your Tweet Timeline
• Your aggregate daily Tweets
• Your aggregate hourly Tweets
• Direct replies (percentage to whom you give direct replies)
• Percentage of Tweets per Twittering application

You can view my Tweet stats at http://tweetstats.com/graphs/buffyjhamilton.