Computers and smartphones have changed the way we work. I have been using the internet since its inception as a text-based system, and used to do online searches of remote databases using a 'dumb' terminal. In addition, the skills I learned searching for information for students in print indexes way back when have served me well into the new century. I have adapted to the new technologies without becoming a slave to them; that is I use digital devices as tools rather than as my social or intellectual world. I love to talk to far-away friends and family members on Skype while I am looking something up, but too much multi-tasking is a distraction from the work at hand. In a recent article by Lisa Perez(Learning & Leading with Technology, March/April 2011) I am encouraged to become a more savvy school librarian, who can 'leverage technology to prepare students for a successful future'. I definitely agree with her assessment that students consume a wide variety of electronic formats and need a 'digital age library' and 'savvy' information professionals to teach them 'to effectively navigate and use vast amounts of information'. No question that she is correct there, and I do work collaboratively with many teachers in my school to teach information literacy skills. Yet I am troubled because, although I appear to have been working for many years on realizing the long list of recommendations which uber-librarian Joyce Valenza outlines in her 'Manifesto for 21st Century School Librarians' (automation, website, wikis, pathfinders, pathfinders as wikis, collaboration, Facebook and LibraryThing presence, etc.), I still feel that the major contribution I am making to my school community is to provide great books for everyone to read. Librarians have many skills which make them an essential piece of the successful school equation, but we are champions at providing the best reading to the most people, as Perez points out "School libraries...provide an equitable, fiscally responsible strategy for sharing resources across grade levels and the curriculum while addressing core reading, information, and technology literacies."
So, while I will continue to blog away in hopes that it catches the attention of a few book and library lovers, the daily act of pushing books, and helping students navigate the internet remain a one-on-one, human interaction in my rather industrial 20th century library.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Bialik Bookblasters Select Best Reads of 2011
Our Bialik Bookblasters members have recommended their favorite titles for this year's Bialik Reads! contests. Junior Bookblasters have made their selections with the incoming Sec.1 class for 2011-12 in mind as well as the Summer Reading list for the incoming Sec.2 group. Senior Bookblasters have created their own list to be posted on the library website as recommended reading for all students in the Senior School (Sec.3-5). Here is the list of books they read and loved and want to promote in the next Bialik Reads! contest. In an upcoming blog I will announce the winning titles for each grade.
Sec.1: Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer by John Grisham; The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman; Half-Brother by Kenneth Oppel; The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan; Diary of A Young Girl by Anne Frank; The Giver by Lois Lowry; Holes by Louis Sachar; Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan; Eragon by Christopher Paolini; Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S.Lewis; The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan; The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins; The 30 Clues by various authors including Rick Riordan, Gordon Korman, etc.
Sec.2: Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan; Courage Tree by Diane Chamberlain; In Your Room by Jordanna Fraiberg; The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky; Just Listen by Sarah Dessen; It's Kind of a Funny Story by Nick Vizinni; Last Song by Nicholas Sparks; The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd; Little Brother by Cory Doctorow; Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld; Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card; We All Fall Down by Eric Walters.
Sec. 3-5: Least Difficult Reading: I Am The Messenger; The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak; The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury; The Tenth Circle; The Pact by Jodi Picoult; The Princess Bride by William Goldman; Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane; Rule of the Bone by Russell Banks; When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Lawrence Kushner; The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold; Looking for Alaska by John Green.
More Difficult Reading: I'm Not Scared by Niccolo Ammaniti; The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks; The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill; The Client by John Grisham; A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray; The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffeneger; Lost In Place by Mark Salzman; Little Brother by Cory Doctorow;
Most Difficult Reading: Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut; Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer; Faultlines by Nancy Huston; The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien; Mr. Vertigo by Paul Auster; Kafka On The Shore; Dance, Dance, Dance by Haruki Murakami; Time's Arrow by Martin Amis
Sec.1: Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer by John Grisham; The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman; Half-Brother by Kenneth Oppel; The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan; Diary of A Young Girl by Anne Frank; The Giver by Lois Lowry; Holes by Louis Sachar; Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan; Eragon by Christopher Paolini; Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S.Lewis; The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan; The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins; The 30 Clues by various authors including Rick Riordan, Gordon Korman, etc.
Sec.2: Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan; Courage Tree by Diane Chamberlain; In Your Room by Jordanna Fraiberg; The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky; Just Listen by Sarah Dessen; It's Kind of a Funny Story by Nick Vizinni; Last Song by Nicholas Sparks; The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd; Little Brother by Cory Doctorow; Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld; Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card; We All Fall Down by Eric Walters.
Sec. 3-5: Least Difficult Reading: I Am The Messenger; The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak; The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury; The Tenth Circle; The Pact by Jodi Picoult; The Princess Bride by William Goldman; Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane; Rule of the Bone by Russell Banks; When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Lawrence Kushner; The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold; Looking for Alaska by John Green.
More Difficult Reading: I'm Not Scared by Niccolo Ammaniti; The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks; The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill; The Client by John Grisham; A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray; The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffeneger; Lost In Place by Mark Salzman; Little Brother by Cory Doctorow;
Most Difficult Reading: Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut; Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer; Faultlines by Nancy Huston; The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien; Mr. Vertigo by Paul Auster; Kafka On The Shore; Dance, Dance, Dance by Haruki Murakami; Time's Arrow by Martin Amis
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