Thursday., June 11, 2020
I met with librarians from all over the world today (maybe not the Far East - too late for most people there!):France, Germany, India, Thailand, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and a lot of other places. The session was conducted by two library directors from Sweden, and the topic was, of course, reopening libraries. This was very interesting, for many reasons. The most shocking tidbit from the conversation? They don't disinfect (or quarantine) books and materials in Sweden! Perhaps they don't have the sheer number of COVID cases that we have in the U.S., but this does not seem to be a concern over there. They also have not been required to wear masks. They do wear gloves and disinfect furniture and technology devices, as well as conform to social distancing guidelines. Many people are working from home in Sweden, so there does appear to be concern for safety. But libraries were never closed, which speaks to the importance of this institution to society.
I also had open office hours as well as a Google Meet about our fine collection of eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. I anticipate these resources will be widely used this summer! I am eagerly waiting the release of a new EBSCO eBooks app that will greatly improve the user experience.
Weds., June 3, 2020
Today I met with the CT. State Library Digital Library Advisory Board, and I was a little nervous in my new role as vice-chairperson. It will take some practice to get used to the formalities of the proceedings! Some of the topics today: increased collaboration among all types of library in the state, broader interlibrary loan coverage, spending of grant money to alleviate the digital divide for students without technology access, new programs for patrons looking for employment, status of funding for state-provided databases, statistics for electronic resources provided by the state, virtual library cards, and strategies for marketing of library services - just to name a few.
Afterwards, my attention turned to some students who were desperately trying to improve their grades by completing unfinished work. Email is a wonderful thing, but not always timely. Like a well-designed reference question, I try to be one step ahead of the student so that I do not need to wait for a reply to follow-up. For instance, one student wanted to know why they couldn't access NoodleTools. The easy response might be, "what did you try, and what happened?" I had a feeling the next question would be "how do I cite an online article" or, "how do I cite a photo?" I answered all of these questions simultaneously by sharing a Google Doc with specific instructions, and I was pleased to see the student turn in their revised and completed final project a short time later.
Tuesday, June 2, 2020
I am fortunate to have the opportunity to deliver caps/ gowns to some of the graduating seniors this Saturday; it will be great to finally see some of you again, if only for a few seconds from behind a mask in my car!
I've spent much of today reviewing English research projects to get a sense of how the students are doing concerning finding, synthesizing, paraphrasing, and citing online news articles. Given the option to use a news article database over searching with Google, most of the students still prefer to use Google. Many of these students have trouble properly citing articles and images found with a Google search; there isn't an option to copy a preformatted citation (and even EasyBib doesn't typically do a good job citing articles, although it is doing a better job reminding students that they need to find the missing elements of a partial citation). The reality is that databases take a little more effort to access and identify appropriate search terms to find what you need. As sophomores, some of the students are getting the necessary practice to be at ease with the intricacies of database navigation. Hopefully, I can work in some extra collaboration time with classes next fall!
Monday, June 1, 2020
I continue to peruse hundreds of digital magazines (many titles I've never heard of, but great quality, nonetheless) to support our curriculum for next year, making lists of first, second, and third choices. Foreign language titles really open another window of opportunity.
If you'd like to return your library materials, I will see you between Friday, June 12th and June 26th! Remember to ask your family to schedule a time on the PowerSchool Parent Portal. If you'd like to keep your books until next year, that's not a problem at all (I've already made arrangements with the graduating seniors).
I've also been in touch with the CT. State Library Digital Library Advisory Board; we'll be meeting this Wednesday. I spent today reviewing materials as the last meeting was cancelled right about the time the COVID-19 pandemic was picking up steam. Part of our business will be a review of the resources in researchIT CT. Incidentally, EBSCO just released an app to make mobile access to some of these databases even easier.
Our CHS Summer Reading program has been revised to permit students to choose any book they would like to read this summer and complete the existing organizer as planned for the first week of school. We were all very excited to work with the books we had chosen back in March, but hopefully we can resume our regular highly-enjoyable summer reading program next year!
Friday, May 29,2020
Sometimes something so technologically commonplace (in schools, anyway) as sharing a Google Slide presentation does not go as planned. One of our teachers reached out to me this morning because a student said they were receiving the message that "the file is too large." This is not really applicable to sharing anything across Google Drive accounts in the same domain, so what does this mean? It's always more difficult to assess the problem when the student doesn't reply, which is one obvious shortcoming of distance learning. Stay tuned!
Otherwise, I've been continuing to check on English 10 students' progress with their presentations, making sure that everybody is including their 'works cited' pages and giving complete attribution to their sources of information. This may sound trivial to some, but as I tell my students, it IS the most important step in the research process: a project is only as good as the information it is derived from. This is why I always go directly to the 'works cited' or 'bibliography' before I even begin to read a student's work - or anything else, for that matter (books, newspaper articles, magazine articles, etc.). And then, there's always the plagiarism aspect to consider.
Beyond that, I was happy to be hosting open office hours again today, as well as an additional instructional session on WeVideo for anybody who missed the first couple sessions. WeVideo is continuing to prove it's worth as an extremely valuable distance learning tool!
Thursday, May 28, 2020
I'm still fielding technology troubleshooting requests this late in the year, and they are always welcome! Just a reminder that you can also email: help@coventryct.org
Today I worked with some students on properly formatting MLA citations and the 'Works Cited' page. It's always easier when the student has made their best effort and there are only minor changes to be made. Fortunately, it's becoming less common to see a 'works cited' with only URLs (this used to seemingly be standard practice years ago!). Recently, the most common errors tend to be incomplete citations (missing date of publication, author, publisher, etc.), lack of alphabetization, and incorrect indentations.
Most of the information students reference nowadays is online, so we often overlook (or don't have the time) instructing about the practice of citing a print resource, e.g. a book. It was worth a reminder to classes today that NoodleTools makes this very easy, as it integrates with WorldCat (the world's largest book catalog) to search a massive database for preformatted citations. All you need to do is input the book's ISBN, which you can simply Google if you don't have the book handy. Technology can be absolutely wonderful when you're aware of the options it presents!
Weds., May 27, 2020
It was a busy Wednesday with open office hours, a Google Meet to discuss the eBook/ eAudio/ and digital magazine offerings at CHS, and a meeting with the CT. Library Consortium and librarians from all over the state.
Although the CLC meet was slightly less-attended than the last due to a national School Library Journal all day conference, there was still a large turnout to discuss end of year procedures. It's always fascinating to hear how different places are managing the COVID-19 pandemic and all its curveballs. Most of the school districts seem to be on the same page for collecting or distributing educational materials, and there are still a ton of questions!
Some schools have no plan yet for permitting staff into the building to close up their library (or classrooms) for the summer, while some places are staggering days/ times for staff members to get back into their rooms. Some of my colleagues won't be returning to their buildings at all this school year. Most of us are forgiving overdue books until next year. We also discussed copyright issues and procedures for using copyright-protected materials online, in particular for read-alouds with classes. Most publishers and authors are making special allowances during the pandemic that will expire at the end of the school year.
Today's CLC meeting was supposed to be the last of this school year, but we all agreed we'd like to meet again - it's always good to share ideas!
Tues., May 26, 2020
Tomorrow I'll be conducting a Google Meet instructional session on accessing/ downloading eBooks, eAudio, and eMagazines. So today, I've been test-driving all platforms to which our patrons have access in an effort to foresee any pitfalls. These platforms are frequently updated, which means that things don't stay the same for very long! Additionally, I'll be working with staff from all grade levels, many of which don't typically have access to these resources. Success will be dependent on making sure that everyone has a definitive access point with valid user credentials, and that users recognize how the various search/ browse features operate in each platform - they can be very different.
We'll be walking through Follett Destiny for eBooks and eAudio, EBSCO eBooks for K-12 content, and Flipster for digital magazines. I've been building the purchase list for next school year, and researching new periodicals for our Flipster subscription. Flipster is really an amazing product; it accommodates unlimited users (including access to back issues) and permits downloading and printing for most magazines. And the price for a digital subscription is usually a fraction of that for the hard copy. Add to that a great user experience, and it's easy to understand why Flipster is one of my favorite library resources. See you tomorrow!
Friday, May 22, 2020
It's amazing how many questions there are about how this pandemic will resolve itself, and how/when/if we will return to normal. Yesterday evening, I participated in a live session hosted by the American Library Association with librarians from all over the country - over 1,200 in attendance! Different states, or even different towns, are "re-opening" to various degrees. I thought it would be interesting to hear from some of these places that are trying it out and to track what their progress will be like. Some of the topics: phased reopening, meals from the library (yes!), virtual book club meetings, graphic design, video editing, remote conferencing technology, social media presence, better accessibility to databases, data analytics, curating digital carousels, coding, reader's advisory, HTML/ web design, collaboration, handling stress, well-being, plexiglass shields, recent virus study data (24 hours for books/ paper?), green laser pointers for pointing on patron computer screens, and much more.
Most libraries are subject to the guidelines of their parent institutions (CHS for us!), but the American Library Association is still recommending that libraries remain closed to patrons and non-essential staff until the risk of disease has passed. An excellent plan for gradual reopening was shared by the Univ. of North Carolina Charlotte Library. But our district is developing its own plan, and I have great confidence that it will be one with everyone's best interests and well-being in mind.
Today was also "open office Friday," and I've scheduled two sessions for next week in addition to instructional sessions for WeVideo and downloading eBooks/ eAudio. For more details, check out the district technology calendar on our faculty/staff portal for these and other sessions offered by our library and tech staff: https://www.coventrypublicschools.org/faculty-staff/distance-learning-teacher-resources
Weds., May 20, 2020
Today, the library media specialists and technology team met again to discuss the findings of the technology professional development survey. There are some clear "wants" for distance learning instruction/ tutorials, so we split up the requested areas and scheduled further sessions to go until the end of this school year - and possibly into the summer!
Open office hours will continue as well (including today) to address specific needs with technology, or anything you need answered to succeed in your objectives! The plan for this week and next: I'll be designing my sessions for WeVideo, eBooks/ eAudio/ digital magazines, and possibly Google Forms for assessment (depending on demand). I'll schedule the times on the "Tech PD" calendar which is posted on the district website, but I am always up for an impromptu session at any time. And don't forget about office hours.
I've been continuing to use WeVideo for my own instructional videos, because it's really a lot of fun! There are some tricks to get it to behave, but that's why we offer these Google Meet sessions. Instructing about accessing and downloading eBooks/ eAudio remotely may be tricky, because it's a lot easier to access from within the school building where the platforms authenticate using our IP address. I may need to set up user accounts for participants, but we'll see what happens. It's just a lot more encouraging when technology functions without hiccups!
Tuesday, May 19, 2020
Today's topic is "the reference question." This is a big deal among librarians! This means that when a patron comes to you with a question, it's usually very general in nature. So what's the problem? Answers and information can be very specific. To be able to give a worthwhile answer to our patrons, we need to know what is at the root of their question. For instance, one of my tasks today was an email from a senior with a very general question: "where are the passwords for the databases?" Well, the basic answer is: "right on the library homepage." The problem is: I'm quite certain this student is going to have many more questions once they find the passwords, which I tried to anticipate in my email response. But many students tend to avoid too much pageantry; they want to get right to their work and finish as quickly as possible. I can appreciate that, so I try to keep my reference questions brief and get a good read on the student's attitude. It's like a sales pitch; you don't want to be too pushy or long-winded, or you'll scare your customer away. Anyway, this student never replied back - so that was the end of the line. I hope their research turns out well!
The reference question is a fascinating subject that I could go on and on about; any decent librarian should be able to predict where their patron is going with a question, and conjure up some quick follow-up questions to get the exact information the patron is looking for.
Back to my point: distance learning is going well, and many of my reference sessions tend to be done electronically even during the best of times. But right now, it is impossible to follow up with students if they don't respond to emails! I can assume they are doing fine with their research queries, but it "used to be nice" when I could simply catch up with students as they filed into the library during study hall.
Monday, May 18, 2020
The library media specialist team met again today to discuss the pending results of the professional development survey - we are still taking requests! It's nice to see that a number of staff is interested in learning more about checking out eBooks/ audio/ digital magazines. Although our district is relatively small, we have a lot to offer in the realm of digital resources.
English 10 research has moved on to the presentation phase, where students will need to cite images for use in their project. This is not an easy task: while images on the internet are a snap to find with a simple search, they rarely have attribution. How do we credit the creators of this intellectual property? Start with NoodleTools. Cite an digital file, or online image. If the image doesn't have a title (most don't), at least provide a description. No author (or photographer)? Make a serious effort to track the image down to its source. Wikipedia is actually a really good source for finding images with creative commons rights attached. If they aren't in the public domain, they usually specify exactly how the image can be used. There are public domain image libraries out there, but they often don't have a lot of content relevant to the topics students are addressing in their research. Of course, students at CHS should be well-versed in the concept of 'fair use,' so they should be able to argue why they are able to use an image in their educational project as long as they give credit to the creator by citing their work!
Friday, May 15, 2020
I'm still available for questions regarding technology and/ or digital resources; I hosted open office hours today to respond to questions live! I can see from the results of our professional development survey that there is still a demand for instructional sessions concerning distance learning resources and Google classroom/ meet related issues. We will be scheduling more instructional sessions in the coming weeks to fill any demand, specifically relating to the preferences communicated by teachers on the survey.
We also met with the district literacy council today; we typically meet every other month for a two hour session. It was great to see everybody together again; it's a large group consisting of our director of teaching and learning, director of educational technology, K-12 ELA specialist, building principals, reading teachers from each school, reading consultants, special education teachers, and library media specialists. We are very privileged to have such a group- I meet with librarians from all over the state, and they are always envious of the connections we make across curriculum here in Coventry. Today, we discussed summer reading ideas with respect to the physical limitations we are experiencing due to the pandemic. We were also fortunate to be joined by librarians from Coventry's Booth & Dimock Library to hear about their ideas and how to integrate our programs.
Thursday. May 14, 2020
I spent today with the Early College Experience personnel from UConn, and a number of the UConn librarians. They always have incredible insight to the world of academic research, which is my favorite component of high school librarianship. College preparedness is so important to most high schoolers, and I feel nothing is as important as educating students about where to find all of the answers to their questions (not the internet, especially for college level research!). I attend these information sessions twice per year, and I always leave with a huge revelation about yet another amazing resource or process to find reliable information.
Part of the session was to inform ECE instructors how to set up student accounts to make sure they are able to access all of the UConn resources seamlessly. Many students are not aware they have access to their own remote desktop at UConn. This has come in handy for students researching a topic like "gun control" which is blocked by our internet filter at CHS, but students can still find the information they need by logging into a desktop at UConn - without ever leaving CHS!
Another option that has been big with our students recently is the interlibrary loan program, where they can get scanned documents of articles they can't access online - in as little as eight hours! Most of my requests have been filled in no more than two days.
The last session of the day was about newspaper and TV news databases (yes, UConn has several). How timely, considering English 10 is wrapping up their newspaper research unit final assessment! I had a number of requests today for help locating articles based on three key terms chosen by the student. It's easiest to assist when the student has a clear purpose in their mind for the article they are seeking. For instance, suppose a student is looking for an article about "power" and "war." I can find thousands of articles with no knowledge of what the student is trying to do with that article. But if they specify they are trying to draw a parallel between Donald Trump's notion of "power" and Hitler's abuse of power, it is much easier to find relevant articles. (This is an actual student topic, not my political views!)
Weds., May 13, 2020
The district library media specialists are offering an online book fair with Scholastic! This is a great way to get books delivered straight to your door while helping out the libraries and students of Coventry. To get a look at some of the great books available for purchase, visit:
Wednesday means... open office hours online! It's always good to hear how other teachers are doing with distance learning, and how the students are coping. Sounds like everything is still on track!
I attended two webinars today; the first was with the CT. Library Consortium to talk about how schools are preparing to reopen. There's no question that this is a hot topic, judging by the 96 library media specialists and other library professionals in attendance. Many of the attendees are from the part of the state bordering New York, one of the hardest hit areas of this pandemic - so they are justifiably concerned about safety issues when schools reconvene. There aren't a lot of answers out there as of yet, but it is reassuring to know that most districts are in the same position with trying to plan for reopening. There are a ton of questions, though: Where do the funds for PPE come from? Will library spaces be temporarily repurposed as spaces for socially-distanced classrooms, or quarantine areas for returned technology hardware or textbooks? What is the best way to sanitize? When will staff members be allowed to return to organize their classrooms, and what protocols must they follow? Will staff members feel safe (some schools have cases of COVID-19 among their staff)? Is budget money being taken away from some areas, and how will this affect your purchasing for next year? If distance learning continues into the Fall, what resources should be purchased for next year (physical books, or eBooks)? What kind of licensing agreements should you consider for digital resources? Should you offer curbside pickup/ returns?
With so many questions, it is a good thing the CLC library media specialists' roundtable will meet again in June!
Tuesday, May 12, 2020
Time has been extended for English 10 students to continue their research and analysis of news articles. This research is not easy; there are many levels at which the students are having difficulty: Finding articles, synthesizing information from contemporary issues with themes from a historical novel, citing articles and images, accessing digital resources, internet connectivity, etc.
As each of these issues shows up in students' commentary, I've been trying to reach out in a number of ways to resolve the problem: email, commenting directly on their submitted documents, making new screencasts to address the questions, and offering times for Google Meets. Today's screencast addressed how to cite online images using NoodleTools.
Salvaging a summer reading program is also a topic that has been getting some airtime as of late. We will be meeting with our district literacy council on Friday to further discuss the matter. I don't think there is a library on the planet that will be able to conduct their summer reading program in the manner which they intended, unfortunately. But librarians are a determined bunch - this is something we don't want to miss!
Monday, May 11, 2020
Occasionally we still run into "access" issues with our online resources; one student this morning was saying that they were unable to sign in to NoodleTools. These are isolated incidents, and typically students just resort to using another resource such as EasyBib. I suspect that some students see this as an escape to something easier, but experience will prove that it's quite the opposite.
I always look forward to our weekly district library media specialist gathering on Mondays; most school districts don't have the togetherness that we have in Coventry! Having the administrative support to develop a scope & sequence for our library curriculum is a privilege we really appreciate. We are continuing our virtual office hours this week, and we'll be looking at the results of a recent survey to design opportunities for technology professional development in the near future.
Certain research topics can be very frustrating, and today was a day for frustration! After checking student work on an English Google Classroom, it was apparent that some of the students weren't going to make the due date for the final assessment. Even in a remote distance learning environment, there are so many options for collaboration. For motivated students, I made personalized screencast recordings which I shared on Google Drive to address their research questions. To go a little further, I invited students to a Google Meet on the CHS Library Google Classroom for immediate feedback and answers to their questions. And for the students that were reluctant to communicate by either method or email, I shared individual Google Docs with links to relevant resources specific to their chosen topic.
Even in our small school setting, this is really business as usual - sometimes students don't feel like walking across the building, or they can't make it down to the library at a certain time. Distance learning sometimes happens even when school is in session and we are all no more than a few hundred yards apart. But it gets the job done as efficiently as possible, and part of our mission in the library is to meet our students' needs wherever they are.
Friday, May 8, 2020
CHS is working on the possibility of a large-scale return/drop-off session for academic materials that students still have in their possession, so I won't need to make separate arrangements for library book returns from seniors. I will stick to my policy that returning students may hang on to their books until school reconvenes.
While most of my virtual meetings have relied on Zoom or Google Meet, there have been other platforms we've used. Today, I had to trial yet another in preparation for next week's UConn Early College Experience day-long training. The morning session will cover the UConn Library website and research guides, while the afternoon session will focus on news databases.
I spent much of today perusing original research about how the COVID-19 virus behaves on library materials, and the recommended practices for reopening. Thus far, most of the research I've been reading has come from general health organizations, which is fine - but libraries are public institutions that are all about circulating resources that are a combination of materials, requiring different sanitization treatments or quarantine periods. For this, we look to the Online Computer Library Center, a non-profit global library cooperative dedicated to furthering access to the world's information while reducing costs. Fortunately in Connecticut, we still have time to consider best practices for reopening.
It's also renewal time for our online resources, so I'm starting to put together quotes and purchase order requests for our databases, and wish lists for books, eBooks, audiobooks, magazines, and digital magazines. We are here to serve our students and staff, so I always prefer to take requests from the audience!
Thurs., May 7, 2020
The English 10 newspaper research project is due next Tuesday, so I'm keeping my eye on students' progress to see if they need any assistance. Most of them have just started looking, and it's great to see a comment such as this: "Research is going pretty good and I've found that researchIT CT is actually super easy to use which is making research go much smoother."
That means at least some of them are taking the advice to use the newspaper databases rather than spin their wheels in Google. I'm anticipating many more questions in the next several days, but I like what I'm seeing so far.
During any normal year around this time, I'd be catching up with all of my students to try to round up any long overdue books. I'm actually feeling no stress (regarding this issue, anyway), and here's why: all libraries are dealing with the same conundrum, and the consensus is to just catch up with the students next year. No problem; enjoy your books over the summer! But what about the graduating seniors? Well, I started that process in February, so I only have two books that are still checked out to seniors. I would have no problem picking those books up at some prearranged location, but we still have time to figure that out.
Today I attended a Zoom meeting with Infobase, the company that supplies our high school curriculum video on demand database. This database is like YouTube specifically for high school subjects, but better: it includes teacher resources for many videos, videos are discoverable by state standards (or any other standards), all videos have full public performance rights, all videos have transcripts that are searchable for keywords (you don't have to sit through an hour long video if you are searching for a particular part), videos have preformatted citations, and all content is curated by experts for accuracy and reliability. The topic today was "21st Century Skills & Media Literacy/ Integrating Media Assets into Your High School Online Classroom." Again, I'm not a fan of adding another confusing resource for no good reason; it must have clear value to staff and students and create a better user experience for all. Classroom Video On Demand does, so today we were looking at how to search keywords in transcripts of videos to create custom video segments to embed in Google Classroom, where students won't even need to log in to the service to access the videos. Outstanding. Time to make the screencast!
Weds., May 6, 2020
Today was "Open Office" Wednesday! Always happy to host a Google Meet to answer tech questions and connect people with the library resources they seek.
I was happy to see that NoodleTools (our bibliographic research platform) has integrated with ABC/CLIO (our most popular set of databases for Social Studies/ History research). This means that when students do research on any of the history databases in ABC/CLIO and find an article they want to use, they simply click a button to export the citation to their project in NoodleTools. Integration is a big deal in LibraryLand; you really want all of your products to speak to each other so your patrons can spend more time focusing on their work. Companies sometimes have a hard time working together because of $$$ - we've had NoodleTools for over three years and ABC/CLIO for eight, and they're just getting together now! As a librarian, it's my job to make sure teachers and students know about features like this, and convince them that it will save them time and effort. And the real-world application for a bibliographic research platform? Everyone is using them; it's not cheating. Every university library provides access to one; UConn uses something called RefWorks (it's just a fancy NoodleTools). Our students are ready for it, and they won't get sued for plagiarism when they publish their academic dissertations.
I also checked in with the EastConn regional library council on a Zoom meeting; it was great to see my colleagues from places like Brooklyn, Eastford, Pomfret, and Quinebaug Middle College. The topics today, of course, were distance learning and eventual reopening. Still so many questions, but everybody adds their own piece of the puzzle and we come out of every meeting feeling more prepared for the next step.
It's a fact that every library program is very different from school to school. I really enjoy meeting with other librarians to hear about what their teaching practices are like, and how they collaborate with staff and interact with students. It's a great way to get new ideas - and it always confirms that CHS is an awesome place to work!
Now I'm off to check in with the English 10 students to see how their research is going.
Tuesday, May 5, 2020
It's reassuring to know the library is still the place that students (and parents) think of going to when they need help with something, even when it's a simple password reset or a question about a chromebook. It's just like being back in the CHS building! When I can't solve a tech issue, the tech office door is right behind me and the students can go right in. For now, I just direct them to: help@coventryct.org if I can't resolve their problem. Our tech department is awesome!
Newspaper research started today for English 10; let the collaboration begin! I pushed out a message on all of Mrs. Goodale's Google classrooms to explain the research process for this particular project, including links to the research tips document and the screencast that I developed specifically for this assignment. The objective is to make the students' investigative work more efficient so they can focus more on the writing part of the final assessment for this unit. I realize that students aren't always motivated to reach out for assistance, so it's a huge advantage that I can see the students' progress on Google classroom and contact them if needed.
Even with the news that school will be closed for the remainder of this year, we are seeing more articles speculating about how libraries are planning to reopen when the time is right. I am scheduled to attend three webinars in the next week concerning this subject. In many places, different types of libraries are planning together- state libraries (or national libraries) are setting the standards, and public libraries and school libraries are coordinating their arrangements. I believe this is a wise choice, so patrons may have an expectation of safety and confidence emanating from the institution as a whole. Most libraries have an online presence that is already a force to be reckoned with, so patrons can enjoy the innovative programming and virtual resources for the time being.
Monday, May 4, 2020
In our weekly team meeting today, we discussed our next objectives for technology professional development offerings to district staff. We decided it might be a good idea to survey the staff to find out what the needs are, and then tailor our programs with those responses in mind. We began distance learning so abruptly that much of the technology we had in our possession was still new to many people. The learning curve was quick, though - it seems like teachers and students are in a comfortable zone at present. The library media specialists and district technology coach are still holding open office hours this week, as we will the rest of the year. So, "stop by" if you need anything!
We also discussed the concept of curbside pickup for library books and/ or a virtual book fair. We are moving in the direction of a virtual book fair, as curbside pickup is not advocated by the American Library Association due to health risks for staff and patrons.
It's also teacher appreciation week; the CHS student council is working on compiling student-submitted videos to show teachers how much they miss and appreciate their hard work! The deadline was extended to encourage more participation, which I've announced on the CHS Library Google classroom to make sure all of the students get an opportunity to be a part of this.
I've been keeping an eye on work being turned in by students for the final assessment of "The Faithful Spy" in English 10 classes. I forgot to remind students that researchIT CT Newsstream provides pre-formatted MLA citations (usually accurate) which would save students time as opposed to internet articles, where they need to enter data into a NoodleTools form. I'll be sure to revise the "news sources" tip sheet to include this information - right now!
Friday, May 1, 2020
We made it to May! Kicked the month off with a Google Meet instructional session for WeVideo. I've become fond of a new "trick" that I found useful and efficient for my own purposes; hopefully others found it useful, as well. Because I was screencasting instruction for an app, I wanted to be able to create the video entirely on my phone (or iPad). This can work well for websites, also. The benefits of screencasting from a mobile device can be numerous: screen recording is free and easy to start, you can select audio for recording from both the internal mic and system sounds (most free screen recorders won't record system sounds), the microphone on these devices are quite good (in contrast to chromebooks and many laptops), they are extremely portable, you can use speech to text to fill in fields, and it's easy to move the video file to Google Drive where I can publish it to YouTube if necessary.
So my updated instruction for teachers looking to use WeVideo for screencasts included using their phone or iPad for the main video track and narration, and adding a background soundtrack and text boxes using WeVideo. Throw in some transitions and fades, and now you've got something quite professional!
Still looking forward to working with four sections of English 10 who are just starting out with their newspaper article research assignments. I've been keeping an eye on their comments and prep work leading up to this assignment to anticipate any potential research problems. I did add some new ideas to the help document I created for the classes about researching with Google, which is already shared on Mrs. Goodale's Google Classroom and the CHS Library classroom. The most important tip for using Google (which I still don't recommend over researchIT CT Newsstream) is to use the "Site: " function in the a search query. This allows students to search for their keywords and ideas (part of the assignment they've already completed) on a single website, such as the Wall Street Journal or New York Times. I made sure to point out to students that researchIT CT Newsstream searches for articles only in those publisher's archives by default, and there are far more archived articles to be found on the database than on the internet.
It will be interesting to follow the students' research instincts! This is one situation where we really could have used good ol' fashioned co-teaching in a real classroom. But I'll still be able to see how all the students are progressing on Google Classroom, and possibly schedule a Google Meet if there is a need for large scale group instruction.
Thurs., April 30, 2020
Started the day off uploading my instructional video for Destiny Read to YouTube, but determined it wasn't very exciting. It's a four minute video, but I ended up spending another two hours working on it just to make it more- "interesting." I put it back into WeVideo so I could add some text commentary and audio. With a rockin' soundtrack and some animal sound effects, it was ready to be pushed out to all of the students of CHS! I hope it inspired them to check out the app and check out some eBooks in response. All that practice with new ideas on WeVideo has given me a lot more to share for my Google Meet tomorrow!
During all of this, I was able to host my online office hours and this week's Google Meet session for Edpuzzle. Definitely a light turnout; further confirmation that teachers are really getting the handle on distance learning tools.
At the end of the day, I attended a Zoom meet hosted by the CT. Library Consortium regarding the status of summer reading programs in CT. There were over 190 attendees, so the issue is definitely on the minds of many educators and librarians. Some are waiting to see how things turn out, while some are already planning remote programs. Curbside pickup and return of books is a hot topic in the library world right now; some are willing to try this and have been given the go ahead by their superiors. In some places, this is not an option at all.
I'll be meeting with our district team on Monday to discuss our thoughts on this issue!
Weds., April 29, 2020
Today I worked on the screencast for the Destiny Read app, which is a dedicated eBook/ eAudio player for whatever digital content a patron of the CHS library has checked out. eBook apps are never without their deterrents, in fact, no digital platform performs flawlessly all of the time. Take the screencast I'm working on, for instance. I needed to import six minutes of video from my phone (where I demonstrated the app and its features) to Google Drive (where I'll store the unedited video) and then import to WeVideo. Well, WeVideo doesn't like that six minutes of video. I was able to get it there without a problem, but the cloud-based platform is having a hard time catching up to the large file. Do I really need video, or should I make it easier on myself by using static screenshots of the Destiny Read app at work on my phone? I'll only be able to tell what is best by living through this experience.
And that is my point about the eBooks apps - they all work to a certain extent, but some are better than others. I am introducing and recommending Destiny Read based on my experience with it. It plays downloaded Follett digital audiobooks and Follett eBooks, and does so better than the regular Destiny Discover platform. Navigation is easier, zooming is easier, downloading and returning a title is easier. But it still has its bugs - and that is a big part of my job: finding the pitfalls, and warning the customer "don't bother with this, but use this instead." Technology can be frustrating, and I don't want to waste anybody's time.
The RB Digital eBook platform recently changed to a layout very similar to Destiny Read, and I was pretty disappointed. Their old reader was better! So, why Follett (Destiny) eBooks? They are the most cost-effective books for a school library. We keep the titles forever, and they are always improving the platform.
Checking the results for this week's "Good news, or fake news?," it seems like students are more willing to accept the existence of UFOs rather than take the word of the Department of Defense...! Well, it's not that simple. I asked students to read a Buzzfeed article about The Pentagon releasing videos of UFOs, and reply to these questions: Do you believe UFOs exist? Should you ALWAYS trust the word of The Pentagon, Department of Defense, and the U.S. Navy (all sources that were cited in this article)? And finally, are you skeptical of any of the information in the article? Just a light-hearted, fun topic to get the students' minds off the pandemic, yet keep them thinking about reputable sources and information literacy.
Tues., April 28. 2020
Professional development is a big deal for educators right now, and the same is true for librarians. Library media specialists like to cover both bases. At the high school level, I am very focused on educating our students about the research skills that will be required of them during their college careers. This also translates into a valuable life skill, for those that say they don't have any interest in college. Information literacy is important to everyone, no matter what they choose to do. Anyway, I had successfully registered for an online conference about distance learning resources for academic librarians (college librarians), which I feel applies to me: CHS is a UConn Early College Experience affiliate; we offer UConn courses. I co-teach with college-level instructors and instruct the students how to access and navigate the UConn research databases. I work with academic librarians on two advisory boards for the CT. State Library. And I'm always looking for relevant real-world examples to inspire our students to take pride in their research skills and strive for scholarly/ peer-reviewed information rather than "stuff" they find on the internet. Long story short, I received a last minute notification asking me to consider giving up my virtual seat at the conference because attendance was so high with a long waiting list and limited spaces.
Given that I just registered for a day-long conference with the UConn library in May, I reluctantly gave up my spot for today's conference. I was looking forward to hearing about how other types of libraries are planning on re-opening (not necessarily when, though), concerning protective and sanitary measures which are still much in question even after much correspondence with the CDC.
I hosted open office hours again today, and caught up on some back office maintenance in Destiny, our online library catalog. Circulation stats for our eBooks has increased, as expected. There is also a "new" app for reading downloaded eBooks and listening to eAudio (only two stars in the app store, though). After testing, I find it to be an improvement from the old platform. Custom-made screencast coming soon!
Mon., April 27, 2020
The library media specialists of CPS met again today for our weekly debriefing and planning session. As these mostly focus on tech concerns for distance learning, we are fortunate to have our Director of Educational Technology and our District Technology Coach at the helm of our sessions. We discussed our planned Google Meet sessions for the week; some of us are moving on to teach about different digital tools, and some of us are continuing to offer sessions about tools for which people are still seeking instruction. Just a reminder that each one of us are regularly hosting "open office hours" twice per week for assistance with any topic.
I also attended a national online session with the American Association of School Librarians, "Best Tips and Practices for Remote Learning." Very timely! We heard from library directors in Washington and New York City; we really are all in this together. It was reassuring to hear that most of the tips and practices they spoke of are things we are already doing: providing equity of access concerning technology and library resources, hosting "coffee chats" with our colleagues and peers to stay informed about what is happening around us, compiling lists of resources for distance learning, providing asynchronous lessons using screencasts/ videos/ Edpuzzle/ etc., providing remote readers' advisory tools with social media posts or lists on Destiny (online catalog), planning for the eventuality of book return and how to disinfect or quarantine books by CDC guidelines, and ordering books/ eBooks/ audiobooks for next school year with consideration of the possibility of another extended distance learning event.
It's always good to hear about the experience of our colleagues all over the country and pick up new ideas whenever we can. Another thing we could all agree on was how we handle the avalanche of "free" resources that are being offered temporarily. It may seem silly not to accept such generosity, but the group brought up some valid points when deciding to take on new resources: Is there an actual need for this resource? Is it student data-privacy compliant with your state's laws? Would you purchase this product if you had the funds? Should you offer it for two months, only to have to take it away at the end of June? Is the product sustainable?
Most libraries already offer so many great resources; it's very important to make sure there is a clear path to what's on offer, and let those things shine!
Friday, April 24, 2020
There's still no shortage of staff eager to learn about better educational and technological resources for distance learning! I offered another instructional session about WeVideo today on Google Meet, and I'm always happy to answer specific questions by email or during my open office hours on Google Meet. These digital resources are not tricks or window dressing; they're tools to make everybody's work easier, and their experience better. I'm a big advocate for keeping things simple; I would not be using or recommending any tool/ service if it did not serve a real purpose. WeVideo is a must-have for teachers in general, but especially during this era of distance learning. For instance, I made a nine minute long screencast instructing students how to access and search on a specific database called researchIT CT Newsstream - now, I recognize that nobody wants to sit through nine minutes of that! The screencast software I recorded on does not easily allow me to edit, but I was able to move that video in to WeVideo where I could tear it apart, then add some music to make it more palatable for the students. I could also overdub text boxes and additional audio narration if anything changes, and I won't have to redo the whole video.
Thurs., April 23, 2020
Busy day today, starting with a Zoom meeting for the CT. State Library eResource Advisory Task Force. I think we've all been missing our regular social outlets, because it turned into a rather long meeting! It's always a pleasure, and I look forward to our next meeting in June. Today we discussed statewide resource sharing across all types of libraries, and how we can most effectively make it happen. We already share books and other materials to a certain extent, but we'd like to consider the possibility of sharing human resources. What if an academic librarian specializing in American History could regularly visit high schools to speak with social studies classes? What if a children's librarian from the public library could regularly visit schools that don't have certified library media specialists? What if staff at many libraries could collaboratively develop their collections using evidence-based acquisition models? It's the job of the task force to get feedback from the community - our patrons, our staff - to figure out ways to get all libraries to work together so everyone in the state gets equal opportunities.
We also discussed the progress on the rollout for the statewide digital library app, Simply E. There are 192 public libraries in the state; so far 23 of those are live on the app. The app does require a library card, but it will be the only app patrons need to access all eBooks/ eAudio to which their library has access. Since January, the state has added over 1200 new items to RB Digital, the statewide digital library. There are now almost 8,400 eBooks/ eAudio titles available on RB Digital. The Simply E app will allow a patron to access those titles from RB Digital along with 13,000 items from the Digital Public Library of America and whatever digital titles their public library owns. That is a lot of reading, right on your phone!
Immediately afterwards, I hosted an online open office hour to answer any questions about distance learning resources and library digital resources. As always, I check my email frequently for anyone who couldn't make it to the Google Meet.
To finish off the day, I hosted another instructional session on Edpuzzle (see last week's blog entry). More and more teachers are recognizing the benefit of adding that extra bit of assessment/ engagement to self-paced curricular video content. It's a great way to make sure students are processing and retaining learning objectives both visually and auditorily.
Weds., April 22, 2020
Distance Learning Wednesdays are currently reserved for staff to do grading, collaboration, and professional development among other things that we can't get to when we are immersed in classroom teaching. I don't always have the time to attend all of the webinars I'd like, but fortunately most are recorded so registered participants can view at any time. So today was the perfect time to catch up on "Information Literacy in Today's World: A Pandemic, Fake News and Elections."
I feel that teaching information literacy is one of the most important roles of being a library media specialist, so it's extremely useful to pick up on every bit of new learning that's available. The COVID-19 pandemic is a real-world case in point. Even as an adult whose life revolves around analyzing the reliability of information, there is so much unknown about the current situation -even by scientists or economists - how do we know what to believe? You need to be critical of the information being released to the public by so many sources. Who do you trust? What are other sources saying? What is at stake for the author of such information? Is there newer information available? Are we getting the whole story, or just part of it?
The webinar focused on the premise that there is a general distrust of the news media, and the term "fake news" has been used so often by unreliable sources that it is no longer really valid. The answer? Educators need to develop rigorous lessons to challenge students to delve deep into the farthest corners of the information universe. Librarians have long had the key: curated information in peer-reviewed and scholarly databases, or book resources produced by reputable authors and publishers. But using open-web content through a Google search can also be fruitful when students know how to scrutinize the information found on a webpage and research the source of the information. Students should be well-versed at "reading laterally" - checking many different web resources about the same subject before deep-reading even a single one.
Tues., April 21, 2020
Headline: "Sunlight destroys virus quickly, new govt. tests find, but experts say pandemic could last through summer"
Jana Winter and Sharon Weinberger-,Yahoo News•April 17, 2020
Was this article trustworthy? 57% of CHS students who responded to my short survey didn't think so. The other 43% were not sure.
Here is a great response from one student:
"It seemed it was only one experiment and many people are making extreme conclusions about it. The experiment may have suggested that sunlight killed the virus more quickly, and it may be true, but the article enhanced the results into sounding like a fact. Even though other experts said not to make determinations from the data the article again portrays it as a fact. The source does not seem too credible since it doesn't seem they will be publishing in a scientific journal and other organizations haven't taken it up. The sources only come from a few people and one was a Yahoo Medical Contributor."
This kind of analysis is exactly what I like hearing from my students! Great job., anonymous student. Looking forward to the next episode of "Good news, or fake news?"
I held "open office hours" this morning to answer questions relating to tech for distance learning and digital resources. Based on the response, I feel that our district is in a really good place as far as distance learning goes, and only getting better! I'll be online again Thursday morning between a session with the CT. State Library and another Google Meet instructional session on Edpuzzle. Drop by!
Mon., April 20, 2020
Started a feature on my Google classroom this weekend (I couldn't wait), called "Good news, or fake news?" I was inspired after reading some of the misinformation in the news recently (perfect examples of the types of things we as librarians teach students about website reliability, authority, currency, and bias), and I was curious what my students would make of some of these stories.
I simply post a news story, and ask the students (via a questionnaire on a Google form) whether they believe the claims in the story, and to briefly explain their rationale. This isn't an assignment or a grade, and I stress that there isn't a right or wrong answer - but it's the kind of dialog I share with students during the course of a regular school day in the library at CHS or when I collaborate with classroom teachers on lessons. It's important for students to use their critical thinking skills and determine for themselves whether information presented from any source is reliable. And I value the opinions of all my students, so I like to hear what they have to say.
The first story was this: "Sunlight destroys virus quickly, new govt. tests find, but experts say pandemic could last through summer."
Try it for yourself. What do you think? I'll share some of the responses from students tomorrow.
Friday, April 17, 2020
I had a great time today running a Google Meet session about using WeVideo to create instructional videos (hopefully the attendees had an equally good time). I admit the session was rather lengthy, but WeVideo is not the easiest tool to decipher. It's a relatively basic cloud-based video editing program, but it still has an arsenal of features that can be extremely useful to both teachers and students alike. iOS devices have iMovie, Chromebooks and PCs had... nothing, until CPS provided WeVideo.
What I shared with teachers today is that WeVideo makes easy work of taking image files, video, and audio and arranging them to your satisfaction - mostly by clicking and dragging to wherever you want them. You can import files from Google Drive or a physical drive, then use cool effects like green screen and fading, and overdub copyright free audio right from the program while inserting text boxes with lots of unique fonts. You can record video or audio directly from your device. Make a screencast if you want to, with more editing capability for than most of the standard screencast apps available - making it perfect for distance learning and creating instructional videos.
WeVideo is also an amazing tool for students to demonstrate their learning. All of the students at CHS have accounts, and teachers can set up classrooms to assign students video projects while being able to see their progress as they work, collaboratively or individually. I've seen some amazing CHS student-produced videos which really set the standard for what can be done with WeVideo!
Thurs., April 16, 2020
Business as usual today, helping students access state library databases and CHS library databases such as Opposing Viewpoints and ABC/CLIO (it's easier when they are in the school building!). I try not to leave anybody hanging; I'm happy to say that I've been able to return most emails within an hour when requesting access assistance or help locating specific resources - even during the evening! I appreciate the effort our students exhibit at any hour of the day, and I understand the need for flexibility during unusual times such as these.
I've also been reviewing the documents for next week's meeting with the eResource Advisory Task Force of the CT. State Library, our first virtual meeting during my two and half years of service with this committee. Of course, one of our subjects of discussion will be how libraries are adapting to the COVID-19 crisis. Most would say we are thriving! I'm also looking forward to hearing the updates to a new service called eGO which is being piloted in several libraries across the state, and expected to reach the rest by the end of the year. eGO will consolidate all of a library's digital holdings (eBooks/ eAudio) into a single app called SimplyE, so that users will be able to discover, check out, and read or listen to a title from a single app. I love having the opportunity to work with other librarians who are as passionate as I am about these types of things!
Weds., April 15, 2020
Today I spent some time on Google Meet instructing staff members about what I believe to be one of the best flipped classroom/ distance learning tools available, Edpuzzle. Basically, you take a highly-engaging curriculum-related YouTube video and turn it into an assessment by inserting questions, audio, notes, and links. It's a very easy tool to master, and the curriculum connections are endless. Edpuzzle's strength lies in its high level of engagement for students; everybody loves YouTube. The assessment part barely gets in the way of the sheer enjoyment of viewing the video, but rather makes it a truly interactive experience. The objectives of a lesson can be happily met with a well-designed Edpuzzle.
Now I'm off to work on Friday's instructional session, WeVideo. What's that?
Tues., April 14, 2020
As I've mentioned before, there are a lot of resources out there for distance learning. Some work better than others, and some just aren't right for a certain application. Some are better for certain grades, and some are too complex. Some are too expensive, some don't comply with Connecticut's law for student data privacy. It takes a lot of work and experience to figure out what resources to use for your students, and even more work to become so well versed with those resources that they become efficient. And after all that, you can only hope that this promotes engagement, productivity, and a passion for learning in your students.
We are fortunate at Coventry Public Schools to have access to awesome digital tools such as Google Suite, Google Meet, Seesaw, Flipgrid, Screencastify, Edpuzzle, WeVideo, and many more. What are those? They're all at the forefront of distance learning, and guess who was responsible for promoting and teaching staff about these tools this week? The incredible tech department and library media specialists of CPS! We are happy to be a part of this, and we hope that it will make everybody's work easier and more enjoyable. As always, please let us know if you have any questions.
Mon., April 13, 2020
It's great to see students still depending on the research databases for reliable information, even on the weekends, even when they cannot gain immediate access. But access is never more than an email away, and I try to get back to the students ASAP so they can continue their hard work!
Update on The Faithful Spy research assignment for English 10, and I'm really excited about this: The newspaper article research assignment is now the primary task for this summative assessment! Finding newspaper articles from the last 15 years and relating them to the key themes of the novel (which takes place during WW II) will be a challenging task - think about it - which I have no doubt our 10th graders are up to. I shared a detailed instruction sheet and screencast for all four sections of English 10 which should help them focus more on the synthesis aspect of the assignment without losing their minds as a result of the research component. Further instruction will be given once the students begin their journey, but let's see how they do - I can't wait!
Thurs., April 9, 2020
"Find three local or national newspaper articles online (published during your lifetime) relating to the topics of war, faith, duty, loyalty, power, patriotism, fascism, sacrifice, or pacifism. How do these articles relate to the book you are reading right now?"
This might seem like an easy task, but it's actually quite difficult. This is not the average search that a student would conduct. Sure, you can enter a few search terms into Google and then further narrow the results using Google News. It's also easy enough to throw out any search results that don't fit the time period of note. But you'd be left with a lot of blogs, magazine articles, opinion pieces, and other questionable websites. Remember, we are strictly concerned with local or national newspaper articles. Yes, you could add a specific publication's name to your search terms. But are their articles available for free? Does their online archive go back, say, 20 years?
A research-savvy CHS student knows about researchIT CT, a serious collection of databases provided by the good people at the CT. State Library. We typically rely on a feature called "One Search" to find a broad variety of articles. A rare occurrence in my tenure at CHS, I am recommending something else: researchIT CT Newsstream.
This is going to get the job done for the students in English 10 who will be working on a newspaper scavenger hunt for the the graphic novel The Faithful Spy. Stay tuned for how this is going to work!
Weds., April 8, 2020
Attended a Zoom meeting today with 22 other high school library media specialists from all over the state to discuss the innovative ways we are interacting with our staff and students. The biggest take away here was something I already suspected: that distance learning wouldn't be a huge departure from the way many of us operate under normal circumstances. You see, libraries have been evolving to meet current trends for quite awhile now. While some people think libraries are going the way of the dinosaur, the opposite is true: we have actually been "meeting our patrons where they are" for quite some time. This means successfully delivering our services to patrons whether they are in the building, at home, or halfway across the globe. We are technology experts (none of us would like to admit we don't know how something works). We are the administrators of the digital resources we provide, which means we are constantly troubleshooting to make sure remote connections are working. We're also customer service fanatics; if something isn't working efficiently, we want to make sure you are happy.
In recent weeks, there has been a flood of well-meaning, free distance learning resources. On the surface, this is a great thing. But as we know from curating a library full of thousands of items, it can be difficult to "pick through the pile" to find the ones that are truly useful. After several weeks of distance learning, the consensus from the librarians I met with today was this: the best resources for their students were already posted on their own web pages. And it has always been free for our staff and students.
Mon., April 6, 2020
Being stuck at home isn't going to stop any librarian from planning on how to keep their library shelves full of the latest and greatest titles for their patrons. We reference reviews from industry-respected sources such as Booklist, Horn Book Magazine, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, School Library Journal, New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Teacher Librarian, Voice of Youth Advocates, and many others. While we read through all those reviews, we picture all the students that pass through our doors, and what those students like to read. Then we compile lists of titles that we think our students will appreciate - what will make them enjoy reading even more?
On top of that, we must consider a number of factors when planning to purchase for next year: What purchases take budgetary priority? What books do we need to support curriculum? What books will keep our students coming back? In a district fortunate enough to have a certified library media specialist in every school, how do we best build on the culture of reading that was already established at our students' former schools? What content is appropriate for our particular audience? What genres are popular in our library, and which genres need more representation? Are there aging areas of our collection that are in desperate need of updating? Should we purchase more than one copy? What format would best serve our users purpose: hardcover, paperback, eBook, or eAudio?
Anyway, today was as good a day as any to add a few more titles to our wishlist for next year after considering all of these factors (and more) for every title I come across that looks like a good fit for the students at CHS! That being said, I'd still rather "take requests from the audience."
Fri., April 3, 2020
I produced and uploaded another screencast which you can find on the CHS Library Google Classroom:
This short video explains how to access researchIT CT, a collection of databases which most students - at CHS or any university the world over - use for scholarly research on a variety of topics. The new twist here is that students typically access researchIT CT from school, where they simply navigate to the website to access the articles. Access from home is not quite as easy.
Here are the scenarios detailed in the video to access researchIT CT :
As always, please let me know if you have any issues!
Additionally, I'm still receiving requests from students for inter-library loan articles from UConn to fulfill blocked Google Scholar results - and, YES! I can gladly still get those for you.
Thurs., April 2, 2020
There is always a lot going on in the library world. And there are different kinds of libraries. Different types of libraries work together, and the CT. State Library is a huge benefactor to all libraries in the state. I am privileged to serve on two boards with the state library, and although we can't meet in person at present, we are still working together electronically! Here is some of the news that I learned today from the CT. Digital Library Advisory Board:
Weds., April 1, 2020
There really is an art to navigating research databases and figuring out how to execute an effective search for information. Contemporary Issues students are charged with finding current, credible information from reputable sources for a research paper about international conflicts. Ultimately, this means they must use databases like researchIT CT or ABC-CLIO, possibly Opposing Viewpoints. But each database has its "preference" for keyword searches, and its own set of tools for narrowing down potential results. It takes a lot of practice to become proficient at finding relevant, timely information - it's not Google.
On top of this, what is a student to do with a relevant article that turns out to be 23 pages long and written in professional jargon intended for academic scholars? With practice, students can extract important qualitative and quantitative information for their own research without fully understanding the entire article. These are some of the "tricks of the trade" that I really enjoy working on with students, ideally in the context of their particular research assignment.
Today, I developed a very specific document of academic resources in response to a single student's request, which I'll modify to suit the needs of the general student population in Contemporary Issues. And here is a link to a new screencast introducing the CHS databases and access points:
Tuesday, March 31, 2020
I've posted the first of a series of screencast videos to help students find credible resources using the CHS Library's databases, excluding researchIT CT for the moment. There are advantages and disadvantages to particular databases, and this is just one of many elements of college preparedness that I think is exclusive to what we as library media specialists are able to impart upon our students. As a student, it really does make your task of researching a lot easier when you have a good idea about all of the information resources that are available to you, and you understand the purpose or strength of each one.
This has personal relevance to all of us right now, with so much fake news circulating about the current health crisis. People want to be safe; how do you know what information is credible? Library media specialists spend a lot of time teaching our students about information literacy. How do we discern which information found online is truthful? Where else can we find reliable information? Students in the Coventry Public School district are fortunate to have access to several world-class databases, and they know how to use them. What do these research databases mean to them? That the information found within is trustworthy, presented by experts in their relevant field. So the next time you read or hear something in the news that sounds unbelievable or scary, ask your student to fact check it using the awesome resources on their school's library web page.
Monday, March 30, 2020
For those of you working on the Contemporary Issues research paper on Terrorism, I've been putting together a document with some recommended credible resources - you need five of them! Where do you go when you can't use websites? Please contact me directly if you'd like some assistance with finding sources or properly formatting your Chicago style footnotes or bibliography.
Friday, March 27,2020
I continue to make changes and additions to this Google Site in order to provide the best and latest information possible for our students! I've been communicating with the Digital Content Coordinator at the state library in order to make sure all of our students and staff are able to fully access the databases at researchIT CT; there have been a few issues including students who don't have library cards to get remote access. EBSCO was working on a geolocation feature, which may still be in the works, but in the meantime you can use this link if needed:
researchIT CT One Search for high schools:
Thursday, March 26, 2020
The Homer Babbidge Library at the University of Connecticut is an amazing place - even when it's closed. CHS students in Early College Experience classes have access to all of UConn's research databases, which is a lot of information to choose from. I also regularly provide assistance to any student who goes that extra mile to find scholarly or peer-reviewed sources, only to be cut off by a paywall on Google Scholar! Again, UConn's databases have us covered - most students at CHS are in the habit of emailing the title of an article to me that they'd like to use, and I send them a digital copy that I've obtained from UConn's databases within a matter of minutes. Any content that I can't access right away, we're able to request via interlibrary loan and receive a digital copy within a day or two. I'm fortunate to have already established this practice with the CHS community, as it continues unhindered during this period of distance learning. Remote library services are a wonderful thing! Keep the requests coming.
Wednesday, March 25, 2020
I've had requests for eAudiobooks for some students in English classes, which I'm happy to say we have those titles! Just go to the Destiny catalog on the CHS library page (https://www.coventrypublicschools.org/schools/chs/library-media-center ) and search for your title. Every year, I try to make sure we match all titles on the English curriculum reading list in hard copy, eBook, and eAudio format. I should note that sometimes we are only able to afford a single copy (eAudiobooks are VERY expensive) which is pretty standard for lending institutions - publishers are not keen about giving away potential profits. Although the Audible streaming audiobook service is providing some titles for free, the books in question are not part of their offer. Keep in mind that students (and parents, and teachers!) have access to additional free (and popular!) eBooks and eAudio through their town's library and the Connecticut State Library, which opens a whole other set of possibilities. Please contact me if you'd like assistance accessing those resources (bmutch@cpsctg.org).
Tuesday, March 24, 2020
Hi! I spent a good amount of time today analyzing the collections of other similar high school libraries to see if there's anything popular that we're missing - and we're doing pretty well! It's important to take into account the likes and dislikes of our student population, and do our best to accommodate that. That's probably what I like best about working at a smaller school - getting to know all of the students personally, and being able to address their literacy and informational needs (and wants)! I've been putting together our purchasing list for next year, so please let me know if there's anything you'd like to see on our shelves - or in our digital catalog. Don't forget about audiobooks!
Monday, March 23, 2020
While libraries are a vital physical space for the community they serve, there is so much we can do to assist our patrons remotely. Although our doors are closed to students and staff at the moment, we are hard at work making sure our resources and expertise are available to all students at all times.
I will post updates and helpful links on this website during our distance learning phase in order to keep the CovHS LMC Google Classroom clutter-free and dedicated to "normal" school operation. I also recognize that it is important for students to focus on their core courses during this difficult time, and I'd like to reserve my Google Classroom (which hosts all CHS students) for only the most important Library-related announcements/ assignments which need to be shared with the entire school population. The CovHS LMC classroom also facilitates assignment and announcements for other subjects wishing to reach the whole school.
On the first day of distance learning, I am working to ensure that students have seamless access to all of our databases (find them here: http://www.coventrypublicschools.org/schools/chs/library-media-center. I also attended a two-hour webinar to learn how libraries can best respond to the needs of their patrons during the COVID-19 pandemic. Professional development is an important part of being a Library Media Specialist, as we work with all aspects of school curriculum and are responsible for administering the entire library and all its resources - physical and digital.
Students and parents, as always, please feel free to reach out to me at any time with your questions or concerns: bmutch@cpsctg.org
I'm looking forward to hearing from you!