February 1st NewsFlash!

Did You Know…?

February is  “I Love to Read Month!”    - Talk to your district liaison, if you haven’t heard about this.  Each district was given a few hundred bookmarks for Overdrive.  This is our digital reading initiative.

February 6th is Digital Learning Day! – If you have nothing planned, pull out those bookmarks for February 6th! – Let me know if you need more.   If someone asks you what your plan is, say we are promoting Overdrive that day and give them a bookmark J

The POST STAR  and the SARATOGIAN – both have agreed to print articles on Overdrive and our I LOVE TO READ  initiative!    The Post Star reporter called this morning.  I asked her to apprise me of when the article will run.  A few librarians were interviewed for the article.  So, if you see it, let everyone know.  She said it would be a “secondary” story  (that means not front page…).

Study the diagram below.  It is from PARCC (parent assessment organization of the CCSS).  The importance of this picture is it is a visual representation of what they EXPECT  instruction to look like which is aligned with the CCSS.  So, if you are not seeing teachers come into the library for research projects, there is a disconnect.   This is not coming from me.  You can find this fully explained at this link: http://www.parcconline.org/parcc-model-content-frameworks     It is entitled, “Model Content Frameworks.”      (They have a diagram like this for every level.)   We still have some of the little postcards available, if you like – ‘Information Investigation Invitation’

We have about a dozen people attending SSL in Rochester, in April.   It is our intention to share the knowledge and tips on the listserv with everyone!

News from Overdrive: Dear School Partner, I am pleased to report that your school’s OverDrive-powered website will be updated with a few new features as part of OverDrive’s Next Generation School Library platform on Tuesday, February 5. These new features will simplify the user experience for your students, staff members, administrators, and community. Please review the following important information prior to launch. 1.     OverDrive Read: We are extending your eBooks to new devices with the introduction of OverDrive Read. In addition to all of the current apps, eReaders, and other options your students will continue to enjoy, this new browser-based reading option allows users to read many eBooks immediately without installing any apps or Adobe activation. Students will be given the option of reading in their browser, when available, with the simple click of a button after checking out a title. More information. Please note: Users of Internet Explorer 7, 8, or 9 will be prompted one time to install a Google Chrome Frame Plugin. The plugin is free and only takes a few seconds to install. 2.     One-Step Checkout With “One-Step Checkout,” students will simply click on a title and choose to add to their Locker, where they can immediately begin enjoying the title. 3.     Updated Help page: An updated Help page will be implemented to assist users with the new process. 4.     Accessibility improvements We are confident that your school and users will greatly appreciate the ease of use of these updates. Thanks, Karen Jakubczak, Account Specialist

January News for North Country Librarians!

The SLS will pay for one person from each district to attend the NYLA  Section of School Librarians (SSL) state conference.  This will be in Rochester  April 25-27 2013  as described at this link:     http://sslspring2013.wordpress.com/   If you are your district liaison and do not want to go, you may offer your spot to someone else in your district.  If you are not a liaison, and would like to attend, please let me know and if there are spots available, I will try to accommodate your request.   There is no CASDA conference this year, so for the same price we can pay your state conference registration, if you pick up lodging and travel.  

 __________________________________________________________________________

“Adapt”   “adopt”  or ignore – That is the advice for the NYSED  CCSS exemplar modules.    

So,  in a building with a well-stocked library, there is NO need for teachers  NOT to use your resources rather than the recommended titles.   That is an example of adapting the module.  The main objective of listing titles in the module is to insure that the students are experiencing ever-increasing difficulty in Lexile.  Those resources have been planned for Lexile scaffolding.  For example, Your building should not have to purchase books on “Freaky Frogs”  if you have amphibian books that will accommodate their research needs.  

 __________________________________________________________________________ 

Liaison Meeting on January 24^th  12:00 – 3:00 :  We will be discussing an important database option for Opals users.    We are piloting in 3 schools the Opals database access interface, which eliminates the need for passwords and captures all statistics for you.    We will discuss this, have an opportunity to try this out and compare this to another new option of a pre-chosen selection of databases from Eastern Suffolk BOCES.  (To which you could add Ala carte databases that may not be included in the package).     

In addition at the meeting we will be discussing what it means to focus on vocabulary and close reading.   Techniques will be shared for you to understand this instructional shift, and you will be able to field questions in your building.  

___________________________________________________________________________________ 

ILLs on Opals:    - We are all stressed out and under-staffed, but if you can make time at least every-other day to check your ILL requests, it will make the system work a bit better.   I have had inquires lately, wondering why some libraries or librarians, do not even respond to requests.  One librarian aptly remarked, “I don’t have an aid right now, and I’m trying to respond to other’s requests—I can see in the catalog that the book I need is “checked in,”  so I’m wondering why they don’t just reject the request or let me know.”    

We work with a great group of savvy librarians, and are so grateful for the cooperation that has existed over the last 10 years!    If you are one that needs to check your ILL requests, please ask you aid to do this, if you can’t find the time.  If you have no aid… well, let us know you can’t fill the request. 

Thanks for understanding.  And… here is the link to the CDLC  courier schematic that I placed on the blog site in December: http://wswhesls.blogspot.com/2012/12/inter-library-loan-101-with-pictures.html

___________________________________________________________________________ 

DIGITAL LEARNING DAY  is February 6^th! – Why not encourage your school to participate.  Visit this link for ideas: http://www.digitallearningday.org/participate/educators/     Share your ideas on the listserv, if you participate.  Here are a few thoughts:

•  Encourage every teacher in the building to integrate one tech tool
•  Use Overdrive on the smartboards
•  Use our ebooks on the smartboards
•  Send home bookmarks with database or Tumblebooks and Brainpop passwords
•  Encourage the use of library databases to find “evidence in a text” to support a position (CCSS)
• Use library databases to “Research to build and present knowledge”
• Showcase tech creations in the library that day
• Invite the PTA in for a technology showcase of your own ____________________________________________________________  

      Overdrive Bookmarks have been ordered for the secondary library – They had a good deal on February bookmarks.   I will inquire about elementary bookmarks, asking for a  more “juvenile” picture on the bookmark and order those, if they accommodate my request.    These will be distributed at the January 24^th meeting.    

_____________________________________________________________________________________________