World Book School Kids

The way this reference site is organized is very helpful. A student can browse subjects, in this case, mammals, if they are not sure which animal to choose, or, they can search by name. They are then given an option of viewing the article which is written in paragraph form or view an "exhibit" which is helpful information in a list format. The appeal of this site is the visual content--pictures in the articles as well as videos. A great reference tool for students just beginning the research process.
There are options for sharing and printing the information found as well as translating the test to a different language and text to speech. At the end of the article is a section on how to cite the source and sites for further information. What a great place to start a research project!

Cheshire Cheese Cat

Title: The Cheshire Cheese Cat

SubTitle: A Dickens of a Tale

Publisher: Peachtree Publishers

Pub Date: 10/01/2011

ISBN: 9781561455959

Although I read only an excerpt of this book I am really looking forward to its release. I am posting this so I will have a record of the title and ISBN so when it is released in Oct. I will remember to get it.
What's not to love about a cat who talks to mice because he likes cheese, who lives in London and gets to spend time with Charles Dickens.

Book reviews

After a year of saying nothing I have decided to return to this blog and post reviews of books I have been reading. I am signed up with NetGalleys and receive a lot of good books and now I feel guilty about not posting something about them. So, here goes: first off (in no particular order)
This Girl is Different by JJ Johnson, Published by Peachtree Publishers (04/01/11)

Imagine being 17 and not knowing about the inside of a school. That is what Evie wants to change when she decides to spend her senior year at the local public high school. From the first day, Evie causes quite a stir with her unconventional ways and desire to change the status quo. Evie gains insight into friendships and loyalty while at the same time realizing that she is not the only one who is different. This is a fast read with interesting quotes at the beginning of each chapter which gives the reader a glimpse into Evie's thoughts as she prepares to tackle a system. There is a plausible and satisfying resolution to the conflict that surrounds the actions of Evie and her friends which perhaps would give readers the strength to undertake things in their own schools that might need to be changed. Check it out.

American Library Association Mid-Winter Denver

I just returned from my first ever ALA Mid-Winter Conference. It was a great experience and I would highly recommend attendance to anyone in the library field. My husband went with me and he had a great time as well. The exhibits offer enough interesting things for people with a variety of interests. I was especially excited about the opportunity to attend the awards announcement press conference for the young adult awards, Newbery, Caldecott and several others. I have seen the seals for these awards for years, watch for the list as it appears on the internet and this year I was there when the announcements were made. Great fun.

Learning

All the lessons have been completed and now I must tell what I have learned. There was a lot to learn and one thing I learned is that there is a lot to learn--nothing is static, things on the internet are always changing and it will take time to learn. I think one thing I learned is that I must take a few minutes each day to investigate things on the internet. It is much like taking time to smell the flower, by taking a walk each day, stopping at the store to talk to people, pausing to look at the sky, slowing down and observing. It seems people use the internet to speed up their lives and for that it is convenient but to appreciate it fully takes time. I think it could become addictive, information overload, isolating from the world, but for every good thing there are bad things that go with it.
Overall it will take discipline, discipline to log on and learn something, investigate something each day and also discipline to not spend too much time looking at a screen and spend time looking at the world around me.

WIKI

I logged on to the South Dakota Library challenge today to see if I was behind. I haven't looked at it for awhile--busy time of the year. I was pleased to find out I wasn't too far behind. I looked at the lesson about Wikis and went to a few of the sites. I am familiar with Wikis but never really knew how they worked. I know from experience that the Wiki the students use at school, the encyclopedia, is often full of partial or misinformation, however it is a good place to start. After I read up on Wkis I realized why the site the students use is full of partial and misinformation. It is user driven. So, that is the advantage and also the disadvantage of Wikis. On the American Library Assoication web-site there is a Wiki for the upcoming Mid-Winter Conference in Denver. I will be attending that so I was interested to see what was on there. Now I understand why some of the areas in the schedule are filled in and others are not. The advantage of using Wikis for this type of information is that it can be changed quickly and easily, added to by people responsible for the event and easily accessed.
I saw on one web-site a Wiki that had been vandalized--the disadvantage. I guess people had changed information or added information inappropriate to the site. Even though this is a disadvantage there are ways to insure this does not happen--securing the site with registration is one way.
All in all Wikis are fun, useful tools to share information quickly and easily.

Widget

In taking this Library challenge and doing the activities, I have found so many things on the internet, some I knew were there just haven't used them and others I had no idea what they were. I recently discovered "widgets" which are fun and interesting tools. I use one on my computer at home for the Coke Rewards. It is on the desktop, so when I want to add a code it is there without logging onto internet then the website. I thought I would try this one from Schoastic to see what it would do. Here goes: