Over the past week, I have been looking at different online book communities. An online book community is a website that readers can use to create and organize book lists. It is also a social media site where you can connect with other readers to see what they are reading and read their reviews on books. In the past I have used Goodreads which I feel is a great site, but what else is available? The other communities that I looked at were LibraryThing, Shelfari, Booklikes, and Biblionasium. Let me tell you a little about each of these sites.
Goodreads is a very easy to use online book community. Then interface is plain but user friendly. You can create virtual shelves on which to place books and you can name the shelf to help you identify it. You can mark books that you want to read, as well as review and rate books you've read. The site also has the option to see other people's lists and read what other people have said about books.
You can start an online book discussion or look at the lists that books have been placed on to find similar titles or to see what others are reading. Goodreads also provides links so you can easily get a copy from online book retailers. My favorite feature is that it recommends books for you based on the titles you have place on your shelf and books that you've rated. You can also explore popular books, enter giveaways, search by genre, title, author, or ISBN number. Signing up for an account is free and can be done via Facebook, Twitter, Google, or Amazon. It is a social network where you can connect with friends and coworkers to share thoughts about your reading. Is it appropriate for classroom use? Probably not - there is not a way to block inappropriate materials from students so it would definitely have to be used with teacher/parent guidance. It is great for personal or professional book lists.
The first thing I noticed about Librarything is that you can sign in with Facebook or Twitter. Even though I used Facebook to sign in successfully, I had issues connecting with retrieving my friends list and connecting to others. It was fairly easy to create a virtual shelf and add books to it. I like that you can edit the book information by changing the text or the picture or adding tags to make them easier to find. It also provides links to purchase books. Users can review books, rate books, join groups, and talk about books with others. LibraryThing also has a feature to create a widget of you shelf to place on a webpage or a blog. This site has free book giveaways that you can sign up for and you can share your lists on a newsfeed. Two unique things about LibraryThing are that it has an app for iPhone and it has an introduction tutorial. Again - it may show books that are not appropriate for students.
Shelfari is hosted by Amazon so you can use your Amazon account to login. I love Amazon so I was excited to try this site. It has social media capabilities and users can follow people on Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, and Yahoo. Like the other book communities, you create virtual shelves to hold your books. You can mark your books as those you plan to read, those you are reading now, and books you've read. You can set reading goals, see reading statistics and join groups. You can also embed your shelf on your blog. It sounds like a great idea, but after following directions it did not actually embed into my blog, but rather just placed a link to my shelf -
Shelfari: Book reviews on your book blog. I like the way you can link your Amazon purchases to your shelves, I think that it is very handy. I really wanted to like Amazon Shelfari because I really like Amazon, but it just wasn't as user friendly as some of the other sites.
I found Booklikes to be more focused on blogs about books that creating lists. Like the others, you can login with Facebook. Signup was not as easy as the other because they provided a long difficult verification code to type in. It provides you with a virtual shelf, a reading timeline, reviews, book publishing information, and book giveaways. This was the site I felt gave me the least information about books that I placed on my list. It does however provide a feature to include photos, videos, or web links in your blogs and reviews.
Biblionasium is a reading community for kids. Of the online reading communities that I tried this week, this is the appropriate one for your students. Teachers register their students and recommend or require books for students to read by placing them on virtual shelves. Students can also log their reading and parents can create an account that links to the child's account to see what their child is reading. It also provides resources for classroom use including a parent letter to help parents get started. It is very user-friendly and it provides you with guidance to set help you set up student accounts and get started using the website. Students can create their own lists and see what their classmates are reading. I think this would be very helpful in encouraging some of our reluctant readers and in finding a good fit book for students that have difficulty finding something to read.
For my personal use, I will continue to use Goodreads. I like the way that it provides suggested readings and I already know how to use it. In my Information Literacy Center, I can't wait to get started by adding students. I have already placed the Bluebonnet Nominees on a shelf that is ready to share.
On a side note - I used a free software called Skitch to create and edit screenshots. It is very easy to use and has great results. If you would like to try it out, go to https://evernote.com/skitch/ to download it.
I am fairly new to the world of Podcasting. Podcasting is a method of sharing information that involves recording a digital audio file and sharing it on the internet. What makes a podcast different from an MP3 file is that you don't have to go to a site to download it. Like a blog, you can subscribe to a podcast series or an RSS feed and your computer will automatically download it for you until you are ready to listen to it or you can go to a podcast site and download it yourself. There a two main ways to use a podcast - to create and share information or to listen to podcasts that are created by others. Here are a few ways to use podcasts in the library:
To promote the library through booktalks, read-alouds, book reviews, announcing students achievements, and explaining library programs or policies.
To share information by allowing students to create their own podcast as a culminating activity - interviews, reading passages, explaining the processes they used , or sharing about a book that they read.
To share school library news about upcoming activities and events and increase community involvement.
To present professional development including tutorials, book reviews, discussion guides, policies, or an overview of library policies.
My previous podcasts were made using Audacity - a free software that allows you to record an audio file and edit it. I used Podbean to host my podcast. This time, I looked at three different free audio hosting sites - Soundcloud, audioBoom, PodOmatic.
Soundcloud allows you to upload, record, promote, and share your original audio files. The uploads can be in any format and you can follow audio blogs and connect with musicians and podcasters around the world. Users can share their files with Twitter and Facebook share buttons. Audio files can be distributed through widgets and apps. Listeners can post comments on individual parts of tracks and it used by a lot of musicians. I uploaded an audio file and it sounded great. I also recorded a file and it was just as clear as the Audacity recording. However, there is not a way to edit any recording you make on the website. Overall it has a simple interface and is easy to use, but feels more geared toward music than podcasts.
In audioBoom, users can select categories to follow or they can search for content manually. With this one web 2.0 tool you can create, broadcast, and listen to podcasts. It is geared toward the spoken word and not music which makes it better for education purposes. You can also imbed playlists on your websites and apps. AudioBoom is pretty easy to use although it took me a couple of minutes to figure out how to record and I wasn't happy with the recording quality. You can upload a file you have already created or you can record a file directly to audioBoom. Files that I uploaded to audioBoom were nice and clear, but audio that I recorded directly to the site were distorted and hard to hear. It also did not give me any options to edit my audio other than to set stop and start times.
Using podOmatic, you can upload audio files, share your recordings through Facebook and Twitter, and follow others. Right away, I saw the button on the task bar for creating a podcast. It is easy to upload files but there is not an option to record files. When you upload a file, you can choose quality option based on content - talk, music, or original (requires a PRO account). You can add an image to go with the podcast if you choose so you can customize it some. It took longer to upload an audio file than audioBoom did. You can also create a slideshow from photos called a "minicast" which I thought was a nice bonus. It is also available as an app.
Podbean is still my podcast hosting site of choice. I really like the interface and you can change the theme to fit your style. Like the others, you can upload files, share them on social media, embed them in blogs and websites, and follow podcast series that you like. You can not record audio on the site or edit audio files. That's okay with me because I like Audacity and I like being able to have more control over my recording and edit things I don't like.
Recently, I chose to create a podcast to celebrate student success. At my school, we have a Millionaires Club that students join when they have read a million words. We are celebrating our first member of the school year by honoring him with his own day. He will be treated like royalty on his special day and get to be first at all of his activities for the day. We also placed his picture in a million dollar bill that we have placed on the wall. He recorded the following podcast to tell others how he reached goal, what he enjoys reading, and why he thinks reading is important.
Enjoy!
-Lisa
Information Ethics is the ethical and moral use of materials
and resources from the internet as well as text and media. There are four principles of information
ethics – 1) Respect for intellectual property, 2) Respect for privacy, 3) Fair
Representation, and 4) Non maleficence. Unfortunately,
not everyone behaves morally and ethically.
I asked my librarian friends which of the principles of
information ethics they had the most issues with and their answer was “respect
for intellectual property”. The reason
they felt that this was the most abused principle is because students regularly
take things from the internet and don’t give credit where it is due and they do
not check for a creative commons license.
But the misuse of this principle doesn’t stop with students. It is also an issue with teachers. Teachers misuse internet resources as well as
photocopy workbooks and textbooks on a regular basis because there are not
enough funds to buy the needed materials for student use.
The librarians attempted to resolve these situations with a
high regard for ethics and morality. In
the case of the student’s misuse of
internet resources, the librarian approached the English teachers and
asked to teach collaborative lessons with the teachers about digital
citizenship, respecting other’s intellectual property, and how to properly cite
sources. She reported that the lesson
worked well and the students were doing a much better job with using the
internet ethically in projects and presentations. In this case, I feel that the librarian
approached the situation in a positive way in order to reach the most
students. It was a proactive plan that
worked well.
In the case of the teachers breaking copyright laws, the
librarian was not as successful. She
talked to the teachers at a staff meeting about copyright laws and posted a
copy of the copyright laws at the copy machines. She also talked to the campus administrator
about copyright laws, but the Principal was not concerned. She was not successful at lowering the amount
of illegal copying that was occurring on her campus because she did not have
the support of administration. In this
case, the librarian did her job, but to no avail.
I also had a librarian share with me an issue regarding
student privacy. She had a student on
campus that she had noticed was had checked out several books that might
indicate that he was not doing well emotionally – An Angry Guy’s Guide by Hal Marcovitz, A Lonely Guy’s Guide by Hal Marcovitz, An Unloved Guy’s Guide by John Logan, and A Stressed Out Guy’s Guide by Travis Clark. She did not want to violate his privacy by
sharing information about what he was checking out from the library but felt
that he needed to talk to someone. Her
solution was to tell the school counselor that she had noticed that the student
was quiet and having trouble making friends and she suggested to the counselor
that she might meet with him to see how he was adjusting to his new
school. The librarian also made an
effort to make conversation with him and get to know him. Her solution worked well and the student has
become more comfortable at the school and made friends. I feel that her solution was a great way to secure
the student’s privacy and get him the help he needed. I think another idea would be to include him
in a book study or club that the librarian could sponsor because she already
has a connection with him.
Information Ethics will continue to be an issue because
people rely on the internet as a resource for work and school. School librarians need to be vigilant in
teaching about digital citizenship, advising their students and staff to follow
the copyright laws, and promoting good privacy practices on their campuses.
-Lisa
Bell, M. (1998). Kiss
and information ethics. TAET Journal, Spring, 1998.
Clark, T. (2014). A
stressed-out guy's guide: how to deal (a guy's guide). Jasmine Health:NY.
Logan, J. (2014). An
unloved guy's guide: how to deal (a guy's guide). Jasmine Health: NY.
Marcovitz, H. (2014). An
angry guy’s guide: how to deal (a guy’s guide). Jasmine Health: NY.
Marcovitz, H. (2014). A
lonely guy’s guide: how to deal (a guy’s guide). Jasmine Health: NY.
