Library Lingo

Do you ever find yourself thinking, "Gee, I wonder how often the library gets new books?" The answer is...all the time! Whether it's a new release that I know the kids are dying for, or books chosen by reading reviews and blogs, or non-fiction titles chosen based on interest as well as our curriculum, books are constantly coming into our library. New books can always be found on display in the library on top of the shelf labeled - appropriately - "New Books." Please feel free to stop by and check out our selections! There is another shelf in our library labeled "Staff Picks." I would love it if any of our staff members chose books from our library that they have read at some point and enjoyed, and put them on display on that shelf. Believe it or not, students (and library patrons in general) tend to take books that are on display! You may also have noticed the bulletin board in the library with Bitmojis of staff members. This is there so students...

You - yes, you! Did you know that citation is something that should be done in every subject? Did you know that you need to cite not only written works but also images, music, and graphs (unless, of course, they were self-created)? Did you know that citation makes our students responsible research and digital citizens? Well...it's all true! If you have not yet familiarized yourself with Noodletools, now would be a good time to do so. Noodletools is our online subscription citation and research website, and it is exceptionally helpful for citing sources and organizing information for research. How to you access this awesome tool? It's super easy - it's actually one of your Google Apps. Simply go to the waffle of boxes up at the top of your gmail, and scroll down until you see Noodletools. Noodletools gives users the ability to cite any type of source of information. It also allows users to create digital notecards that are tied directly to the source they came from, a...

Hi everybody! It's my first monthly blog post of the year - I can tell that you're super excited. As with previous years, this blog will discuss various library media center-ish items that I feel are useful for our staff to know. As this is the first one, I'll be blogging about more than one thing, so bear with me! Banned Books Week This past week we celebrated Banned Books Week. This is a celebration that takes place all across the country and draws attention to the intellectual freedom we enjoy in our country and the harms of censorship. Why is it a celebration? Because even though thousands of books are challenged (meaning people want them to be removed from library shelves) every year, books are rarely banned (actually removed from the shelves). Essentially, it's a celebration of our freedom to read what we want and to seek out information from various points of view. Hooray! For a list of the top 10 banned books this year, please click here . Flocab...

Warning: this is not a normal blog post. This is in no way affiliated with discussing good research tactics, electronic resources, or new books into the library. What could it possibly be about?!?!?! After my last post about the Youth Media Awards, some staff members expressed interest in a YA book club. You know, so we can keep up on our YA literature and amaze our students with our knowledge of books. Not that we're lacking in knowledge of books. I, personally, think that our staff is particularly great about reading middle grade novels and suggesting good reads to kids.  That being said, sometimes it's fun to read books in a group...so...I'm willing to give it a try if you are! I'm currently thinking that we could meet the first Thursday of each month after school in the media center. With snacks, naturally.  Here are the books that we'll do for the next few months: March: The Girl Who Drank the Moon  by Kelly Barnhill April: Scythe  by N...

Happy new semester, everyone! For those of you who don't know, and in case it wasn't obvious, I love  YA literature. It has come a long way in recent years as far as the variety and sheer amount of what's available, as well as its sophistication. So, it should come as no surprise that I always get excited when it's time for the Youth Media Awards. What are the Youth Media Awards? Basically, they're the Oscars for books, audiobooks, and videos that are aimed at children and young adult audiences. The Youth Media Awards are a big deal in library-land. Librarians sit on the committees that choose the winners and "honor" books (being on one of these committees involves a lot  of reading), and the winners are revealed at the American Library Association's (ALA) annual mid-winter conference. The announcements happened on Monday, January 23rd - and for future reference, are live-streamed in case you ever feel like you might want to watch them with your ...