I am so very happy. So very, very happy. Delighted, in fact. I have discovered, you see, several awesome librarian blogs.
The first is "A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette" at http://libetiquette.blogspot.com/. Tragically, it has not been updated since 2013, but I still intend to spend some glorious time looking through the many short posts about how to adhere to etiquette within a library. Well, actually, it is etiquette in irony only--but that does make it even funnier! Every post is a bit of tongue-in-cheek advice that should never be followed if the librarians wish to continue to have patrons.
The second, which has already provided me with both amusement and horror, is "Awful Library Books" at http://awfullibrarybooks.net/. This blog is dedicated to cataloging the horrible library books that the bloggers are weeding from the shelves and which should probably never have been published. For example, there is a special page called The Doris Hall of Infamy, which is specifically dedicated to the horror that is the collaboration between Doris Sanforth and Graci Evans. Herein lies their joint tribute to concentration camps in "My Friend the Enemy" and worse. Be careful among these books, and, above all, DO NOT SHOW THESE BOOKS OR PICTURES TO YOUR KIDS. That said, though, the website as a whole is absolutely hilarious and horrible at the same time and is an excellent testimony to the necessity of weeding in any type of library. Just don't mistake this website for a kid-friendly one.
By the way, you might say, based on the last site alone, that I am a troll. Why, yes, I am. I am a troll. I am a terrible book-loving troll who gets crankier every year. Who's tramping over my bridge? Where did those illustrations come from? And who misspelled "government" as "governmant" on the spine of my government textbook? (True story!)
Anyway...
I have one more special blog that I would like to share with you--the award-winning "The Adventures of Library Girl" at http://www.librarygirl.net/, which is a blog by a school librarian. What I love about her blog is that she is so very enthusiastic about everything! Even when she is listing some of her problems, she is brilliantly optimistic and explains how she got past certain hurdles. For example, last fall she came in to the first day of her new school to find, to her horror, that she was expected to have a short presentation ready for all the staff, which she had not known about because she was not yet on the email list! Yeek! However, she pulled it off with great aplomb by using sticky notes. You see, she had recently read a blog post about the importance of listening, so she decided to make her first impression a good one. How? By asking teachers what they would like to see in the library--by asking them specifically what would characterize their dream library and what would motivate them to use class time to bring students into the library. It was an enormous success--and you should read the blog post here.
So, what is the moral of the story? It is that exploring the blogosphere is a great thing, trolling aside. Actually, even trolls might learn something.
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Why Go Diigo?
This week I was asked to explore social bookmarking websites such as Diigo, which was a totally unfamiliar concept to me. I have never even used Pinterest, really. Sure, I have heard the term "social bookmarking," but I was thinking about something totally different than what I found the reality to be.
Oh. Wait. I was thinking of social networking. Never mind. I never heard about social bookmarking before last week.
Anyway, I tried Diigo, which is a great concept but didn't really work for me. If you sign up, you are technically supposed to be able to bookmark, highlight, and essentially interact with webpages for better retention and organization. The problem? I'm lazy and like Internet Explorer. Plus, I'm having computer issues, so I really have no motivation to get Google Chrome, which is basically required in order to use Diigo to its full capacity. What that means is that I was only able to explore others' bookmarks and webpages and see how it is kind of supposed to work.
So, my problems aside, how might this be useful in a school library setting? Well, for starters, it could be a great way to show students how to make notes. During a class, the teacher could demonstrate how to pull out the major ideas and categorize them. This could be especially useful when working on a project which requires citations and sources and such. I am still passionate about using hard copies, but even I will grant that printing out every web page is a bit excessive. Usually I just try to cite it so well that I can find it again with no problem (isn't that the point of citing anyway?), but that can get a bit tedious sometimes. If teaching a class of even twenty students, Diigo could be a dream come true if every student were required to find and cite and incorporate three sources of at least five pages each. (20 x 3 x 5 = 300 pages!!!)
Diigo is also designed to help its users to avoid the dreaded digital trap--that of reduced retention. It addresses this problem by inviting users to directly interact with the material by highlighting, underlining, annotating, bookmarking, tagging, and organizing what they find and read.
We must be careful not to see Diigo as a panacea for digital distraction, though. The problem with the Internet is that it is so easy to instantaneously access information and multitask. I can be on Facebook chatting with a friend while searching for and reading three articles and also thinking about the final assignment due on Friday. How much might Diigo help me in this situation? Not much. I am actively fragmenting my brain's functioning, so no matter how organized Diigo might be, I have to actually decide to go into something in-depth. And that is what we need to teach our students above all.
Thus, I present the radical idea that we should never start with digital information-seeking technologies before we show our students how to do the same thing with print. Otherwise, they will, like us, be entranced by the glitter of the Internet's offerings and will have more difficulty focusing on a single task for a prolonged length of time and looking at something in-depth than they would if they started with delving into information with print materials that they could interact with personally.
Oh. Wait. I was thinking of social networking. Never mind. I never heard about social bookmarking before last week.
Anyway, I tried Diigo, which is a great concept but didn't really work for me. If you sign up, you are technically supposed to be able to bookmark, highlight, and essentially interact with webpages for better retention and organization. The problem? I'm lazy and like Internet Explorer. Plus, I'm having computer issues, so I really have no motivation to get Google Chrome, which is basically required in order to use Diigo to its full capacity. What that means is that I was only able to explore others' bookmarks and webpages and see how it is kind of supposed to work.
So, my problems aside, how might this be useful in a school library setting? Well, for starters, it could be a great way to show students how to make notes. During a class, the teacher could demonstrate how to pull out the major ideas and categorize them. This could be especially useful when working on a project which requires citations and sources and such. I am still passionate about using hard copies, but even I will grant that printing out every web page is a bit excessive. Usually I just try to cite it so well that I can find it again with no problem (isn't that the point of citing anyway?), but that can get a bit tedious sometimes. If teaching a class of even twenty students, Diigo could be a dream come true if every student were required to find and cite and incorporate three sources of at least five pages each. (20 x 3 x 5 = 300 pages!!!)
Diigo is also designed to help its users to avoid the dreaded digital trap--that of reduced retention. It addresses this problem by inviting users to directly interact with the material by highlighting, underlining, annotating, bookmarking, tagging, and organizing what they find and read.
We must be careful not to see Diigo as a panacea for digital distraction, though. The problem with the Internet is that it is so easy to instantaneously access information and multitask. I can be on Facebook chatting with a friend while searching for and reading three articles and also thinking about the final assignment due on Friday. How much might Diigo help me in this situation? Not much. I am actively fragmenting my brain's functioning, so no matter how organized Diigo might be, I have to actually decide to go into something in-depth. And that is what we need to teach our students above all.
Thus, I present the radical idea that we should never start with digital information-seeking technologies before we show our students how to do the same thing with print. Otherwise, they will, like us, be entranced by the glitter of the Internet's offerings and will have more difficulty focusing on a single task for a prolonged length of time and looking at something in-depth than they would if they started with delving into information with print materials that they could interact with personally.
Saturday, February 7, 2015
Skypetastic-less
Skype: The new generation of telephones. Almost everyone knows what it is, but I only tried it on my own for the first time this week. The operative words being "on my own."
I remember my family trying to use Skype a long time ago--maybe ten years ago by now. I remember it as an arduous process that didn't work very well. We tried it a few times and then gave up because there were better ways to communicate with family.
I didn't think of it again until I signed up for italki.com to try to polish up my Spanish skills a bit. That was last fall in 2014. However, I didn't cave. Every single person I started a chat conversation with on italki.com wanted to become Skype friends and chat in person, but I was leery. Why would I want complete and total strangers to be able to see and talk to me? I don't know enough about computers to know that they couldn't figure out where exactly I live just from talking computer-to-computer. Plus, I was more interested in improving my writing skills than speaking skills at the moment. Call me paranoid, but I didn't want to download Skype onto my computer.
Fast forward to the present day; I have had to download and use Skype for a class. It's funny because this is the second time that I have been required to do something for a class that I refused to do earlier because I had reservations. Ah, well. Such things happen. But I still don't like the idea of being found by complete strangers.
Yes, that happened. Less than a week after setting up an account on Skype, I got an unsolicited friend request from someone whose last name was Singh. I didn't friend her immediately, but sent a chat message asking her to tell me more about who she was, how I knew her, and, basically, why I should accept her friend request. Her reply? She was bored and was browsing the Skype directory to find someone to talk to. Honestly, it took far too many exchanges for me to brush her off and report her as spam, but I did learn that the more irritated I get, the more formally I write/speak (probably to counter her txt-spk). Stiff, firm politeness is my weapon of choice. I changed my profile picture to an anonymous Paint-produced picture immediately moved on, but, to be honest, I am seriously considering uninstalling Skype after this class because it creeps me out. It won't exit on my computer. It's always on! Even when I am signed out, it is down in my taskbar looking like it's on. Seriously. If I press that little red X in the top right corner of an application, I want it to shut down until I click on it again. The only way I can get rid of it is to right click the icon and choose "Quit Skype." That works, but I feel like it's still waiting for me...
Fortunately, I have had one good experience on Skype. It's probably not enough to make it totally worth it and make me keep the application forever, but Skyping with a classmate by chat and by video call was nice. It was a lot like broadcast classes, which I am really comfortable with. I can imagine that it would be really useful in a school classroom as a way to have relatively inexpensive class visits with authors, but I would prefer to use it for an organizational/academic use because of my current reservations. If it turns out to be a better communication tool for some people, I would reconsider, but for now, it is something I will have to consider more.
So how exactly might Skype be useful in a school setting? For starters (as long as it is NOT on my computer!), it could be a great tool for author/expert visits. Are students working on a complex research or technological presentation and want the help of the experts? By all means, find someone who has created great [documents/PowerPoints/speeches] and get his or her input. Make it into a class Q&A session or pass the teaching torch for a day. Are kids working on publishing or something? See if you can get them to talk to someone who is actually IN publishing--an editor, a cover designer, a publisher, etc. It could be an awesome teaching tool, and it could especially be used for areas that we don't often think of.
Really, author Skype visits are increasingly common, but could we use that idea for different areas? It could be especially fun to get the students' input on what they are not understanding in class or what they want to learn directly from an expert in the field. It could also be a great ending to a career exploration unit. There are myriad possibilities.
I remember my family trying to use Skype a long time ago--maybe ten years ago by now. I remember it as an arduous process that didn't work very well. We tried it a few times and then gave up because there were better ways to communicate with family.
I didn't think of it again until I signed up for italki.com to try to polish up my Spanish skills a bit. That was last fall in 2014. However, I didn't cave. Every single person I started a chat conversation with on italki.com wanted to become Skype friends and chat in person, but I was leery. Why would I want complete and total strangers to be able to see and talk to me? I don't know enough about computers to know that they couldn't figure out where exactly I live just from talking computer-to-computer. Plus, I was more interested in improving my writing skills than speaking skills at the moment. Call me paranoid, but I didn't want to download Skype onto my computer.
Fast forward to the present day; I have had to download and use Skype for a class. It's funny because this is the second time that I have been required to do something for a class that I refused to do earlier because I had reservations. Ah, well. Such things happen. But I still don't like the idea of being found by complete strangers.
Yes, that happened. Less than a week after setting up an account on Skype, I got an unsolicited friend request from someone whose last name was Singh. I didn't friend her immediately, but sent a chat message asking her to tell me more about who she was, how I knew her, and, basically, why I should accept her friend request. Her reply? She was bored and was browsing the Skype directory to find someone to talk to. Honestly, it took far too many exchanges for me to brush her off and report her as spam, but I did learn that the more irritated I get, the more formally I write/speak (probably to counter her txt-spk). Stiff, firm politeness is my weapon of choice. I changed my profile picture to an anonymous Paint-produced picture immediately moved on, but, to be honest, I am seriously considering uninstalling Skype after this class because it creeps me out. It won't exit on my computer. It's always on! Even when I am signed out, it is down in my taskbar looking like it's on. Seriously. If I press that little red X in the top right corner of an application, I want it to shut down until I click on it again. The only way I can get rid of it is to right click the icon and choose "Quit Skype." That works, but I feel like it's still waiting for me...
Fortunately, I have had one good experience on Skype. It's probably not enough to make it totally worth it and make me keep the application forever, but Skyping with a classmate by chat and by video call was nice. It was a lot like broadcast classes, which I am really comfortable with. I can imagine that it would be really useful in a school classroom as a way to have relatively inexpensive class visits with authors, but I would prefer to use it for an organizational/academic use because of my current reservations. If it turns out to be a better communication tool for some people, I would reconsider, but for now, it is something I will have to consider more.
So how exactly might Skype be useful in a school setting? For starters (as long as it is NOT on my computer!), it could be a great tool for author/expert visits. Are students working on a complex research or technological presentation and want the help of the experts? By all means, find someone who has created great [documents/PowerPoints/speeches] and get his or her input. Make it into a class Q&A session or pass the teaching torch for a day. Are kids working on publishing or something? See if you can get them to talk to someone who is actually IN publishing--an editor, a cover designer, a publisher, etc. It could be an awesome teaching tool, and it could especially be used for areas that we don't often think of.
Really, author Skype visits are increasingly common, but could we use that idea for different areas? It could be especially fun to get the students' input on what they are not understanding in class or what they want to learn directly from an expert in the field. It could also be a great ending to a career exploration unit. There are myriad possibilities.
Friday, February 6, 2015
A Spontaneous Conversational Review of Howl's Moving Castle
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne JonesMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Rated PG for maybe one scene involving (possible) nudity and a teensy bit of romantic humor that is appropriate for most ages.
[The following review is really a conversation with myself. You have been warned.]
1] Aarrgh. I love this book far too much for a novel without a plot.
2] Wait--what?
1] Did I type that out loud? Oh, yeah. I guess that I did type it out...and then save it. Yes, you read right. This book does not have a totally coherent plot. In that respect, the movie is better than the book.
2] *GASP* DID YOU REALLY SAY THAT?
1] Yes. I did.
2] BUT THAT IS AGAINST ALL THE RULES OF BOOK NERDDOM.
1] (defensively) So?
2] BUT THAT IS AGAINST ALL--
1] I know! But it's true! What else am I supposed to think about a plot in which the characters are awesome but the plot is totally confusing? It's based off of a nonsense song. Actually, it's based off of two nonsense songs! Not one but TWO! They are totally central to the plot and practically describe it! In detail! I could probably totally write a 10-page research paper describing the similarities between the plot of Howl's Moving Castle and those two loony tunes!
2] Okay. Spill. What are they?
1] John Donne's poem "Song"--
2] Which begins "Go and catch a falling star"? That one?
1] Yeah--and plus a Welsh nonsense song called Sosban Fach.
2] The one you have been singing for days before writing this review?
1] . . . y e s . . .
2] Is that why you decided to learn how to pronounce certain Welsh words? And is that also why you bought not one but two separate recordings of the same song?
1] . . .
2] Okay. Moving on. So this book has plot issues. How?
1] Well, the hero is a selfish, whiney, vain almost-villainous hero; the heroine is a young-introverted-girl turned pushy-old-cleaning lady with a mild case of OCD combined with control freak, the villain is someone who attacks the heroine for no reason whatsoever and is strangely amorphous in appearance and behavior, and the sidekicks are a talking hearth fire and a wizard's apprentice with a crush one of the heroine's sisters, who has also taken the name of the heroine's other sister. Oh, and there is a dog that changes shape and as well as a weird old scarecrow in there somewhere.
2] Uhhh....
1] Yes. It's complicated, to say the least.
2] So if there are so many problems with the basic premise of the story, WHY DID YOU RATE IT FIVE STARS ?!
1] Because the characters win at life! They are awesome in every way ever! Especially Howl and Sophie. They have made my life.
2] (resignedly) But why? YOU SAID that Howl (I'm assuming he is the main "hero") is "a selfish, whiney, vain almost-villainous hero" and Sophie "is a young-introverted-girl turned pushy-old-cleaning lady with a mild case of OCD combined with control freak." What's so awesome about that?
1] Think about it for a second.
2] ...Oh. It's because they are totally unique, aren't they?
1] Yes. Howl is the very best kind of antihero because you're rooting for him at the same time you want to slap him in the face, and Sophie is the best kind of heroine because you want to kind of slap her as much as you want her to get turned into a young girl again.
2] I don't actually get why wanting to slap the hero and heroine makes a book worth five stars.
1] Because I still like them, that's why! Even when I want to slap them, I want them to have a happy ending! That never happened when I read Great Expectations. I wanted Pip to get slapped by every single character in the book, I wanted to smack his face, and I wanted him to get the comeuppance he deserved at the very end.
2] You do realize that you are saying that a modern nonsense book with a plot that is obviously lacking in plot is in some ways better than an acknowledged classic of English literature, right?
1] Hmph. I didn't like Great Expectations.
2] I see. Okay. Leaving Great Expectations aside, you basically just like the book for the characters?
1] And the world! The world is awesome! Who doesn't like a world in which seven-league boots may end up dumping you very realistically and unromantically in a cow pat?
2] That's funny to you?
1] It's funny because it's nothing that would ever happen in a fairy tale!
2] I KNEW that fairy tales had to be part of this if you liked it.
1] YES! Howl's Moving Castle is a glorious parody of all fairy tales! Who ever heard of a 90-year-old heroine who is (a) a hatter and (b) a cleaning lady? And who has ever seen a vain, whiny, selfish young wizard in a fairy tale? Name one!
2] Well, I can't think of anything off the top of my head except maybe...Petronella! Ha!
1] That's a modern fairy tale that is also a parody of fairy tales. Ha! I win!
2] Oops. Forgot. You're right, that is pretty cool. But you said it was the whole world, right?
1] Yes. Most of it is really that Howl is awesome and transcends two universes.
2] Okay. I give up. You win. You make no sense and this book obviously makes no sense. There is no logic. There is no Hero's Journey. There is no logic or reason.
1] Well, that kind of book has to exist, right?
2] If you say so. Although you are right that it does sound kind of funny and ironic, even if it doesn't have a plot.
1] I did start this review/conversation by saying that I love this book far too much for a novel without a plot.
2] That you did. And I still think that you may be certifiably insane. But, then again, a lot of other people love this book, too. Plus, Hayao Miazaki made an entire movie based on it. So maybe I'll try it after all.
1] (smug silence)
View all my reviews
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Some Things I Have Been Reading Recently
The Anonymous Librarian's Recent Reads
This was astonishing. I read it at my dad's recommendation after going to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. I read it on a plane, and I could not put it down until I finished it. It is so powerful--I can't even really explain my r...
Rated PG.
Reminiscent of Patricia C. Wrede's Sorcery and Cecelia series, Gail Carriger's novel is a fresh, fun steampunk novel which features an entertaining, smart heroine who is simultaneously a bit uneducated and pretty observant. F...
Rated PG-13 for violence.
I have a sneaking suspicion that I have been lured into reading this series under false pretenses, but I still really like it. Divergent is my favorite dystopian series after The Giver, and as far as I am conc...
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