Never stop learning

So here we are, our final week. Hard to believe we are finished with this project, it feels like we just started! I have to admit, at first I was not very excited to learn about all these online tools. I am not very computer savy (quite frankly they intimidate me a bit). As long as I can access my email and browse through Facebook, I don't have much of a desire for technology in my day-to-day life. However, once I started exploring some of the sites, I have to admit, I enjoyed it. And it wasn't nearly as scary as I had first imagined it would be. I'm not one to spend countless hours trolling the internet; I tend to get overwhelmed by all that is available online. Being able to traipse along, with no real destination, quite literally stumbling on different websites based on my interests, is exactly what I need! That's why this week's site, Stumbleupon, is quite possibly my favorite website of them all. I think it is probably the one I will end up using the most in my personal life. Pinterest will remain my go-to site for work related ideas. It always has some great ideas for crafts for childrens programs as well as unique ideas for book displays that we can adapt to our space. The only task that I really didn't enjoy is this one, blogging. No real reason, just not something I enjoy doing. Now that the 23NB program is over, I am very glad to have had the opportunity to take part in it. As I mentioned, spending time exploring the internet and all it's offerings is not something I do in my spare time (probably has something to do with the antiquated computer I have at home) so I am glad to have had the chance to explore some websites that I never would have found on my own. Thanks!

 

 

 

 

 

Apps

Our Things of the Week are Apps for mobile devices - fairly easy since I already had both apps installed on my phone :) OverDrive is not one I use often (I still prefer having a "real" book in my hands) but I can see the appeal of electronic books for people who travel or have vision difficulties and like the option of enlarging the font size - large print book without the extra weight. BiblioNB is one that I will use more frequently now that I have my account saved on my phone. I bring in quite a few holds and the ease of placing them from home using this app is great!

On the Teen Book side of life, our book club met today to discuss The Giver by Lois Lowry. A few had read it to the end, some were only a couple chapters into it. The ones who hadn't finished it were quite shocked to find out that part of the book was about euthanasia. We had a good discussion about that topic, was it ethical for it to be performed on humans as well as animals, what circumstances it would be acceptable for it to be performed on humans, who could make the decision, etc. Most of them felt that it should be an option for humans if they wish. This led quite nicely into the next book, which is The Fault in our Stars by John Green. I wonder if they will change their opinions regarding euthanasia after reading that book?

Sharing and Scoop.it

Our Thing of the Week is sharing information via a website called Scoop.it. From what I can see, it's like Pinterest for articles. I found a couple interesting topics to follow, mainly having to do with YA literature and libraries, plus one on e-learning and incorporating technology into teaching. Quite interesting material and hopefully I'll find some new books to use for our book club :) Yet another website that I can see myself getting lost in...

Videos and podcasts

The first part of our Thing of the Week challenge is to post a YouTube video to our blog. Here is my personal favorite video of all time. Shot on location in the library, it features my daughter doing what she does best - going off on a rant. While she is an animal lover in general, you will quickly see which animal is not her favorite, or even on her top ten list. (Please note - this was not a random video shoot but rather an assignment for her high school debate class.) Adding this video did not work simply clicking on it. I had to go to the Share button under the video and select the Blogger icon to add it.





The next part of our Thing of the Week was to watch a video or listen to a podcast related to libraries and summarize the key points. I had no idea there were so many options to watch and/or listen to! Who knew authors were creating trailors for their new books! Being someone who works quite a bit with the young people of our school, I can see how this would be a great way to entice teens to check out new books. Adolescents are constantly online so what better way to engage them than by using a format they are already using. There is even a trailer out there for Jay Asher's "Thirteen Reasons Why" that does not mention the book title OR his name - what a fantastic way to intrigue someone! YouTube is not something I have used much (I never really though there was anything interesting or worthwhile on it). Apparently, I was wrong. A whole new world has just been opened up to me and I'm quite excited to explore it's possibilities.

Pinterest

This week's challenge was, again, something I already have played with - Pinterest (maybe I'm not as tech-challenged as I though...). While I don't use it often, I do have an account that I go to when I am stumped for display ideas. I am usually the one who does up our display in the student area and am always looking for new and creative ways to display books that the students might not otherwise look at. The best display by far has been the Blind Date with a Book display. Simple, easy, and grabs their attention pretty quick. If you have never seen one before, a Blind Date book is covered with paper so the jacket is not visible and a short (2-3 lines) "hook" is on the front. The only way you can decide if the book is worthy of your time is based on this short description. We did it last year and it was so popular, the students asked for it again and even offered to do the write ups for their favorite books. All because of a post on Pinterest... :)

Book Club update: The book this time is based on a studen't suggestion: the Warrior Cats series. It is just as the name says, an entire series devoted to warrior cats. Doesn't sound like much, and I was not excited at all, but the student was very keen on sharing it and even agreed to write up the discussion questions. I have to say, I have been plesantly suprised by the selection. While it will never go down as the next great classic, I can certainly see why it is such a popular series with teens, especially ones that are not interested in dystopian/vampire/zombie apocolypse. Since many of the members of the book club live on that genre, I'm looking forward to hearing their thoughts on something so far out of their comfort zone. Stay tuned...

Images and Copyright

This week's task is to find an Creative Commons image and add it to our blog with the appropriate attribution given to the author. I must admit, I am finding this task more difficult than the others. I have a hard time wraping my brain around where to find the links and how to insert them onto the picture and I don't find that the information on the blog had much guidance on how to do that. But I will try my best...



Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrea_arden/6551399293/

So the next thing for this week is creating a wordle. I like wordles, I think they are quite fun. I had a very hard time getting my wordle copied to my blog. There was no information indicating that it had to be saved to a public gallery, then the code copied and pasted into HTML form on my blog. Like I mentioned earlier, I am quite non-savy when it comes to technology and I like it when programs are user friendly. I did not find this one very user friendly, but thanks to a great co-worker, I was able to learn how to complete this task. I have had to re-do my wordle several times though because it continues to be quite blurry, much more so than on the website. But here it is...





This is a list of the books that the teen book club at our library read last year. If anyone has any ideas on how to get the wordle not so blurry, I would love to hear them because this was the fifth attempt at inserting a world into this blog. I tried re-sizing it and changing the fonts, but they always come out looking out of focus.

Social Reading

This week's thing is actually something I already have - a Vision account. While I don't use it as much as I should, I do like having the shelves to keep track of book I have read. What I do use more is my Goodreads app. Whenever I read a magzine review of a book that looks interesting, I will add it to my reading list. I know I could do the same thing with my Vision account, but for some reason I find the Goodreads one much easier. Maybe because I needed my library card number to start with Vision and it wasn't readily accessible whereas Goodreads didn't need anything. At any rate, I will try downloading the Biblio App and see how it goes. Stay tuned...

We had out book club meeting today. They had the book 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher. Personally, I liked the book, although it is not my favorite by him (The Truth About Us, awesome!). The group review was split on this book. As I expected, most of the younger members did not enjoy it while the older ones did. I think for the youngers girls, the topic was a bit too hard to deal with. As one said, "I don't mind murder and killing, as long as they aren't doing it to themselves." None the less, we did have a good discussion and eneded with a Thumbs Up review overall.