Monthly Archives: November 2009
Look what I found! Chronicling America
Headline: Train Wreck in Washington, DC, December 30, 1906
The Library of Congress has partnered with the National Endowment of the Humanities to develop a web-based searchable database of historic newspapers.
The Chronicling America web site provides free access to more than a million pages of historic newspapers from 11 states, published between 1880 and 1922.
Topics widely covered in the American press of the time include comic strips, Bloomer Girls (women’s baseball), Ellis Island, Jack the Ripper, the race to the North Pole, the San Francisco earthquake, and more! To find out when new things are added, sign up for Chronicling America’s weekly notification service.
In 2008, the Library of Congress began offering historical photograph collections through Flickr in order to share some of our most popular images with a new visual community. Now, its Flickr collections include illustrated and visual content from historic American newspapers. To view the photos on Flickr, go to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/collections/ and select the Historic Newspapers collection. You do not need a Flickr account to view the images.
Invitation to Join the Inquiry Circles Book Discussion Group
Inquiry Circles Book Group – starting soon! – TeacherLibrarianNetwork via kwout
I would like to invite you to join us on the Teacher Librarian Ning where we are forming a book discussion group about Comprehension and Collaboration: Inquiry Circles in Action by Stephanie Harvey and Harvey Daniels. Everyone is invited to join the conversation as we engage in inquiry of our own to explore the concept of inquiry circles! This book discussion will be of interest to librarians, teachers, and administrators of all ages and content areas. Please surf over to the Teacher Librarian Ning discussion forum for more details and to share your input as we determine official dates and ideas for facilitating the discussion.
Many thanks to Beth Friese and Kristin Fontichiaro for spearheading this exciting learning opportunity!
What’s On the Horizon for 2010? Peer Into the Future with the Horizon Report 2010 Preview
The New Media Consortium recently released the Short List of Horizon Topics for 2010 and the Horizon Report 2010 Preview. These documents, which you can view by visiting the Horizon Report Wiki, are the result of the rounds of discussions and voting by the Advisory Board members. The final report will be officially released on January 20, 2010.
The report preview organizes topics by “time to adoption” and includes a description of the topic; the relevance for teaching, learning, and creative expression; examples of how the topic is being applied, and suggestions for further reading. In addition, the preview version of the report includes a section called “Critical Challenges” as well as a section for “Key Trends.”
Consider the six final topics:
- Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less
- Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years
- Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Four to Five Years
Where are we as K12 libraries in preparing to utilize these technologies, particularly that of mobile computing and open source applications? How can we as school librarians help lead the way for the integration of these tools not only into our libraries but also in our school classrooms? What are K12 vendors doing to help school libraries prepare to adopt and integrate these technologies effectively?
I also find the “Critical Challenges” particularly interesting and encourage you to read the details of each challenge.
- The role of the academy—and the way we prepare students for their future lives—is changing.
- New scholarly forms of authoring, publishing, and researching continue to emerge but appropriate metrics for evaluating them increasingly lag behind or fail to appear.
- Digital media literacy continues its rise in importance as a key 21st century skill, but there is a widening training gap for faculty and teachers.
- Institutions increasingly focus more narrowly on key goals, as a result of shrinking budgets in the present economic climate.
These challenges leave me with many questions:
- Will it be school librarians who lead the resistance and coup d’etat, against the test driven school culture that is diametric to 21st century learning that values inquiry, creative expression, and collaboration?
- Are we teaching our students and teachers about new forms of scholarship? How do we redefine authority and find new ways to evaluate and assess authority?
- How do we help posit new literacies (media, digital, transliteracy) as mainstream literacies for students and for teachers?
- How do we as school librarians turn budget crises into innovation?
- How do we tap into emerging technologies to create even more effective programs in the face of financially challenged circumstances?
What might happen if we as school librarians formed inquiry circles with public librarians, academic librarians, teachers, technology personnel, administrators, students, parents, and vendors to explore these questions, challenges, and trends? How could we work together to find inventive and meaningful ways to harness the powers of these technologies? What might learning look in both K12 and higher education if we engaged in inquiry and problem solving together?
Although these documents represent the “preview” and not the final draft of the report, please read the draft forms and put these ideas on your radar if they aren’t there already. What is your response to the report preview? How do you see K12 libraries meeting the challenges outlined in the draft? How do you see the key trends impacting the 21st century school library and our practices? I have cross-posted this entry on the AASL blog; please share your responses there as well as here.
Buffy Hamilton, Ed.S.
School Library Media Specialist
Creekview High School, Canton, Georgia
Custom EBSCOhost Mobile Links Now Available in GALILEO
Dear GALILEO Users,
Beginning today, you will find the following custom EBSCOhost Mobile links appearing in GALILEO:
- EBSCOhost Mobile Academic
http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zbda
-EBSCOhost Mobile Espanol
http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zbdb
-EBSCOhost Mobile Public Library
http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zbdf
-EBSCOhost Mobile High School
http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zbdc
-EBSCOhost Mobile Middle School
http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zbde
Each of these interfaces has been configured to provide a direct multi-database search of EBSCOhost databases that are appropriate for the indicated audience. For detailed information regarding which databases are included in the search, please see the “More” link that follows the database name within the Databases A-Z list.
If you have any questions about the EBSCO Mobile Interfaces, please submit a comment to GALILEO via our Contact Us form: http://www.galileo.usg.edu/contact
Thanks,
Katie
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Katie Gohn
GALILEO Support Services
Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia
We the People
Dear Library Media Specialist/Teacher Librarian:
The ALA Public Programs Office is pleased to partner with the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for the seventh We the People Bookshelf project. This year’s theme, A More Perfect Union, invites reflection on the idea of the United States as a union, a One as well as Many and will complement library programs observing the sesquicentennial of the Civil War.
To stimulate programming, the Bookshelf features a DVD edition of The Civil War, the award-winning documentary by Ken Burns, including the rights to show the series to public audiences.. Public and school (K-12) libraries are invited to apply online through January 29, 2010 at http://publicprograms.ala.org/bookshelf. A single application may be submitted on behalf of multiple libraries within a library system, school district or community. Individual branch and school libraries are also encouraged to apply.
In spring 2010, NEH will award 4,000 libraries a collection of 17 classic hardcover books for young readers, related to the theme, “A More Perfect Union”, as well as the option to receive Spanish translations of three titles, and bonus materials for readers of all ages. Successful applicants will also receive accompanying materials for programming, including bookplates, bookmarks and posters.
For programming ideas and tips, access to the guidelines and application, book titles, and further details, visit http://publicprograms.ala.org/bookshelf. With questions, contact publicprograms@ala.org.
Sincerely,
American Library Association Public Programs Office
50 E. Huron – Chicago, IL 60611
