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.  

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“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.  

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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.  

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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

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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.    

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Inter Library Loan 101 - with pictures

     Let's communicate some recent changes to our ILL connections to higher level institutions in our area..."To the universe and beyond," as Buzz Lightyear would say.
     This summer we were informed that the CDLC courier (which used to connect us with colleges and library systems in NYS) had been eliminated. There is a new state-wide courier connection, but it costs too much money to participate (5K). However, we have been able to replicate connections by using our own BOCES courier van to connect us. Here's a schematic:

What this translates to is that if you send an ILL book to us, properly labeled, we will be able to deliver it to the loaning or borrowing library.   Please take time to label your books properly.  People that depend upon the white tape label at the top of an envelop are kidding themselves into thinking that users read that.   PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO LABEL YOUR ENVELOPE CORRECTLY.  That will insure its arrival and return to the proper destination.    Please take the time to label your recipient clearly with:

DISTRICT à BUILDING à PERSON   (or at least “library”) 

If a book is going to another Library System it should be labeled as: 

CDLC à Siena  à library  

Or,   à Cap Region BOCES à Burnt Hills HS  Library   

Listed below are some basic ILL instructions for connecting to colleges in our area:

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Borrowing from area libraries and Colleges:

1 – Know what you are looking for:

·         Book – title and author ?

·         Article   (author, publication, date…etc.)

2 – Find out who holds the item: by searching in the CaDiLaC online catalog
                http://www.cdlc.org/CaDiLaC/cadilac.shtml  

3 – Determine whether the lending library is an ILLiad user.  If they are an Illiad user, you must use Illiad to  request the item.   http://www.cdlc.org/Resource_Sharing/ill/illILLiadPoint2Point.shtml
                For example, the short list below is from the CDLC page.  These colleges require that you use the  ILLIAD system to request material from their libraries:  

CDLC Point-2-Point ILLiad Libraries

·         Albany Law School ILLiad institutional logon

·         Albany Medical College ILLiad institutional logon

·         College of Saint Rose ILLiad institutional logon

·         Fulton Montgomery Community College ILLiad institutional logon

·         Sage Colleges ILLiad institutional logon

·         Schenectady County Community College ILLiad institutional logon

·         Siena College ILLiad institutional logon

·         SUNY Cobleskill ILLiad institutional logon

·         Union College ILLiad institutional logon

Additional ILLiad libraries

·         University at Albany ILLiad - contact the UAlbany Interlibrary Loan Department at 518-442-3613 to set up an Institutional Borrowing account

·         Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute ILLiad - complete the first time user registration to use this system

4 – If the library is NOT an Illiad user, please use the online ILL eForm at via this link:
http://www.cdlc.org/ill/ILLRequest/request.shtml    This online eForm will automatically send the request to the correct library.  (Occasionally, there is a small library working with volunteer staff that might not know what to do, but most all institutions will reply and respond within a day.)  

·         Go to http://www.cdlc.com.

·         Click Resource Sharing.

·         Click Interlibrary Loan.

·         Click on CDLC ILL eForm.

·         Under the “School Libraries” dropdown box, choose you school, then click the Enter button.

·         You will be asked for a username and password -Enter them, using all capital letters.

·         Type in all pertinent information.  Fill in as much information as you can regarding the book or article you are requesting.  The clearer your request, the easier you’ll make it for the lender so they can respond as quickly as they can. 

o    If you are requesting an article, you need to choose which Copyright Compliance is appropriate [“ccg” or “ccl”].  There are libraries that won’t fill your request if you haven’t chosen one.  According to the Midwest Collaborative for Library Services, this is the rule of thumb regarding Copyright Compliance:

Use CCG when you are requesting a photocopy of an article from a journal if:

·         the article is dated within the last five years, AND

·         your library does not own the journal title, AND

·         this is the fifth or fewer request your library has made for this title within the current calendar year.  

Use CCL in all other instances of requesting photocopies, for example:

·         if the article is older than five years, OR

·         if your library owns the journal title, OR

·         if this is the sixth or greater request within the calendar year and if your library is paying royalties to the Copyright Clearance Center or document delivery vendor.

·         You probably won’t need to fill Borrower Contact Info that out, because your contact information is at the top of the form. 

·         On the bottom of the eForm, you’ll need to choose the library you want to send the request to.  You can only request from one library at a time.

·         Then click the Submit button.

You will then be shown the finished eForm that has been sent to the lender.  You will probably want to print out a copy for your own records, as there are no statistics or records kept online.

5- If you need to update your library’s contact information on the CDLC page, please follow these instructions:

Go to the CDLC website (www.cdlc.org).

·         Click on the Resource Sharing tab.

·         From the Resource Sharing page, click on Interlibrary Loan.

·         From the Interlibrary Loan page, click on CDLC ILL Directory.

·         Click on ILL Administrator’s Page [right side of page]

·         You will need to choose your library from the School Libraries drop down box, and then click the “Update” button.

·         You will get to a page requiring a username and password.  If you do not have your username and password, you may request the current username from myself, Sharon, or Marie Noonan at CDLC  (mnoonan@cdlc.org)

·         You will then need to check your library’s information in the directory.  Please change or expand upon it if necessary.  But please do not change your OCLC Symbol

·         Once the information is entered, you will need to click on the “Submit” button at the bottom of the page.

The Courier Codes below represent your username logins:

School name		Username
Argyle Central School		VUAC
Bolton Central School		VUAD...etc.

eBook Explosion!

There are many "studies" done capturing research on today's hyper-connected youth, and its always fun to compare our own data to the national picture.  Here's a sample comparison:

[he graphs below come from the recent PEW Study Entitled, Younger Americans’ Reading and Library Habits (URL hyperlinked for those wanting the whole story...) and from our Overdrive Download eBook Library statistics.

 According to this chart, 12% of HS students are reading eBooks.    Our statistics show we have had 34K students traffic our library.  That is about 1% of our total student population.  Therefore, we can conclude that 10% of our students might  not be aware of our service, or who for one reason or another, have not downloaded and read a book from Overdrive.  

Now this PEW  statistic seems to report that almost half of the ereaders (people not devices) will read on a cell phone!   Glory be... our mobile statistics are only a fraction of our total checkouts.  Therefore we have some major marketing that needs to be done!    

      

Here's a look at our most popular online titles.  This is no surprise! 

The real message is that our students are reading on portable devices, and perhaps we need to market our eBook options a bit more.   It is only through meeting needs that people will embrace the value of our services.   If we don't meed their needs, they don't need us.   For most of us, our days consist of meeting needs:  the needs of our students, the needs of our teachers, the needs of our program, the needs of our family and more!  Here's one more need for the list!    

We will look into additional marketing tools from Overdrive so that we can help you in this endeavor! 

Library Teaching Ideas from Network Meeting

Here are some great suggestions which came from the brains of our 50+ librarians that met in October at WSWHE BOCES!  These library content teaching suggestions are great for someone looking to align their instructional areas with Common Core goals: 

 

POINT OF VIEW

Elementary

Class discussion Post Read Aloud

Fractured Fairytales – True Story Three Little Pigs vs. Original Tale

Debate

Use novels that are told by two voices (i.e. Jake and Lily by Spinelli)

Mock Trials

Voices in the Park (Browne)

Journal from different “Points of View”

Diary of a Spider (series) – first person view

Secondary

Points of View + Role Play (situational)

Witness – Karen Hesse- Great book for Point of View

Position papers

Historical Fiction (journal) and primary source

                 compare point of view

HS Databases – Utilize SIRS when instructing Point of View + locating articles that would validate either side of a social issue

Mock Trials

Keesha’s House

Salem Witch Trial – accused or accuser

Rewrite Cinderella from other characters’ point of view

Show clips of heated debate provide bio info, have students figure out who belongs to which bio

Edmodo – character role-play

(Template on Google Docs for Facebook)

Source Evaluation

CARS -   Credibility

Accuracy Authority

Reasonableness/Relevance

Sponsorship – supported

BOGUS SITES

BACKUP (value as good or bad site)

B – bias

A – author          

C – credibility/current

K – Knowledge (adding to it)

U – Understand

P – Page navigation

BrainPOP intro video

Evaluate

       Purpose

       Audience intended?

       Currency?

Cybersmart resources

Example – Hoax websites:

Oct 31 not available – part of commonsensemedia.org

Learning parts of website – URL – sponsor, etc.

  

INFERENCE

Elementary

Work backwards from conclusion

Use text that appeals to age group

Use graphic organizer

Combine background knowledge with context clues to formulate            new knowledge

Student-generated questions to guide research

Use picture books (wordless)

Colloquial expressions:  “If I told you once, I’ve told you a thousand

                times…” What does that mean?

 Secondary

Combine background knowledge with context clues to formulate new knowledge

Colloquialisms – and idioms

 You drive me to drink

 Nothing to write home about

 Newspaper headlines

 Butterflies in my stomach

Concrete example:  A friend throws away pizza after one bite – will you buy the pizza for lunch?  Why or why not?

Predicting

Cause/Effect

Clear lesson objective

MAIN IDEA

Elementary

Use Ham’s by Burdich VanAllsburg

Use picture books

 Wordless picture book

 Who is the dude?

Use painting/illustration

 What is the main idea?

Read short story – students write new title

Secondary

Give them a full note card to write about what they read – then give

            ½ a note card and write – give an even smaller card and have

            them boil it down again or limit number of words

Oxford Art Encyclopedia Online for paintings – use classical

            paintings as a visual prompt

Have students read a text and summarize main idea in a faux tweet (140 characters)

  Narrowing your search

Elementary

Demonstrate an actual search

            Natural vs. Boolean

            Show advanced options

Demonstrate with objects – have them sort

Demonstrate with students if they had (ex) hat and jeans

Order cards (1-fruit, 2-apple, 3-Granny Smith)

Start with an index as example

Online shopping – clothing, jeans, color

 Secondary

Keywords

•  Order makes a difference
•  Choosing proper keywords
•  Using Boolean
•  Using timeline

Use pyramid search – Brainstorm

•  Europe – WW II
•  France
•  1942

Related

•  Narrower
•  Main Idea
•  Broader

 

Use database and model broader and narrower terms – compare results

 Finding Evidence and Facts

Elementary

I know _________________________________

because ________________________________

Credible facts to support project

            Mascot choice – elementary

            8^th grade – holocaust – Who was most evil?  Hitler or SS?

Role-playing based on research ex: Salem Witch Trials

Debates (Presidential) using fact checkers

Ask – How do you know that?

Expect verbally what you expect in writing “According to…”

Secondary

Locate resources to answer essential questions

Look at each resource

 Pull evidence – as direct quote from text

 Summarize – quote

 Write interpretation as to how it relates or answers essential questions