The Lighthouse Diary Entry #16: Curation as a Library Service

We are in the in-between days. It is nearly the end of the academic year and preparation for closing out the year and graduation is in full speed. As this happens, we look to the coming summer and the inevitable in-service work that lies ahead. Curriculum alignment. Unit Planning. Attendance to professional development activities. 

Teachers have been planning on interdisciplinary projects that inspire collaboration. Librarians and libraries can lend support in this learning experience. I am sharing this email I sent out to teachers on curating and how it can support collaborative projects.

Curating sources of all media types and formats, people services and community resources is a library service we can do (and have been doing) with you. It is aimed at assisting teachers and helping students archive, record and manage information and meaningful content following citation formats and bibliographic standards (Ola, academic honesty!). Curating is best done collaboratively by teachers, the librarian and his/her staff, a class or a study group learning about specific units of study or projects. Curating can come in the form of a simple bibliographic lists of concepts in a unit of study, a LibGuide, a Pathfinder or a curating app that can be accessed and used via a mobile device. 

The tools for curation are many. Google Classroom has one as well as apps that can be merged or embedded in Google Drive. There are web apps like Scoopit, Pocket, Pearl, etc. World Book Online, which we have a subscription to, has Pathfinders. A class can create one and this is can be "shared" not just for a grade level, but to other classes in other schools here and abroad. We can also subscribe to LiGuides. Our new WebOPAC can also host and link curated sources and content. And, as your teacher librarian, I can also do it by request. We can sit together and plan a curating system that can function as an independent learning tool for your class.

It will get mixed reactions, I am sure. But, at the end of the day, I know I did my job.

Learning With Technology: Snagit

Because technology is a tool for learning new things, I tried Snagit. It is an app extension available via Google Chrome. Using an old presentation in Google Drive, I recorded a narration to go along with the slides. It's fun!

This is just a trial, a sample  of good things to come using technology for teaching and instruction.

Take a look! Listen!

Bridging Books and Children Into the World of Digitization 4 of 4

Enter Technology

And now we talk about technology. Our traditional reader’s advisory and reading guidance services still holds water to children of this day and age. But as mentioned earlier, children growing up in the digital age can develop a genuine love for books and reading even more when we use technology as an enabler. Not only will technology provide access of these books by children, technology becomes the environment where children can explore and discover reading materials that will empower them.

Using blogs and wikis to post new titles of books, accessible through the library website is a start. Having a mobile app like ThingLink to create book promo materials presents a virtual image that chidden can interact with. Keeping a Twitter page and a Facebook account of the library where librarians post books, reflections on books read create a buzz of interesting books to read. Creating book trailers and posting them up on You Tube extends the interest of reading books. Get an account in Goodreads and post book reviews and recommendations. This way your network of children's literature readers expands. This can help in collection development. Involve children in the process of creating their own storybooks. Worthy of mention is the Early Readers Project of the Beacon Academy. High school students make their stories for younger readers which they can download for free. Another is Halo Halo books that follows the same model.

Indeed, books bring people together. You put a transformed librarian between books and children. The results can be life changing!

In conclusion, children's librarians are more relevant today than in any other time in empowering young readers to become citizens of the 21st century. With a knowledge of the young reader, the literature that is valuable for their development and the intelligent use of technology, children's librarians are transformers in their respective communities. It is my hope to see best practices of children's librarianship, backed up by sound research to further improve the profession.

Thank you for listening. Mabuhay!

The Future of Publishing

Here is a video on The Future of Publishing by Dorling Kindersley and Penguin Group. It was very popular back in 2010 when ebooks were having a resurrection.

I'm posting this on the blog to prompt readers, and myself, to think about the ebook boom of this age and time.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Weq_sHxghcg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

SLIA's Dear Librarian: Epekto ng Paglaganap ng Teknolohiya sa Aklatan

Last year, Augie Ebreo, librarian from the University of Batangas, asked me of my opinion on the effects of technology to libraries today. 

Mam pwede po makabasa ng inyong view sa epekto sa library ng patuloy na paglaganap at pag-unlad ng teknolohiya. May posibilidad po ba na bumaba na ang bilang ng mga gumagamit ng books o tuluyan ng malusaw ito. Salamat po.

Translation: May I ask your views on the effects of technology to libraries. Is there a possibility that book use will be non-existent in light of the rapid technological changes? Thank you!

I will post my reply to him next week.