Library Media Tech Talk

This semester I will be completing my practicum requirement at Ouachita Baptist University's Riley-Hickingbotham Library. I am completing an ALA-accredited information science degree so I can work in an academic library much later in my professional life. Having been a graduate student several times over the past two decades, I've used academic libraries frequently. I want to share a few of my experiences about this on the blog. I especially want to share tools and methods I learned about that could be used in school libraries. After spending the last four months at Ouachita Baptist University, I've learned so much about the organization and layout of an academic library. Each person in the library has a specific area for which they are responsible. In addition, they collaborate and assist each other when needed. WorldCat and Interlibrary Loan Some of the most interesting items I've learned about so far have been Interlibrary Loan procedures and the basics of ho...

For many years, I have taught research skills to high school students. I have always wanted to make it a more interactive experience for learners when teachers bring classes to the library. This year, Mrs. Mari Simmons requested to bring her 8th grade ELA class to the library to begin their World War II research project. She asked if we could teach them about some of our many resources in the library. Mrs. Simmons had recently received a Chromebook cart for her class to use. This was an added bonus since I had been anxious to incorporate devices into such a lesson. In this article, I want to share how we designed a research lesson around the Chromebooks and Google Classroom. HyperDoc in Google Classroom I brainstormed during the weekend prior to the lesson. I kept thinking back to the HyperDoc session I attended at the Google Summit during summer 2016. It seemed an interactive document like this might be a nice way to keep Mrs. Simmons' learners engaged all through our...

I learned about Minecraft while attending the Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert Forum in Denver this past summer. Earlier this year, I wrote about a few of our students that had shared their Minecraft skills in the library during the summer. We were all amazed at their passion and creativity during summer school classes. I. Jared and Shawn (Library Build) Lakeside Freshmen, Jared and Shawn, indicated they had an interest in Minecraft while I visited with them in summer school classes. I decided to let them use my Microsoft Surface to show me what they could do with Minecraft Education Edition. The two worked together and built the high school library in the digital environment. They enjoyed the process so much, they came to library during their off days from summer school. Over the days, they added electrical wiring and lighting in the library rooms. I made sure to show their work to teachers and administrators that visited the library. Everyone was amazed at the two summer sc...

I'm in my 5th year as a library media specialist (LMS) at Lakeside High School. I am so fortunate to have great working relationships with our faculty. Both Misti Bell (also a LMS at Lakeside High) and I are frequently asked to present sessions on research tools and technology. It is exactly what I envisioned when I entered this career field! I hope the school library will always be a place teachers and students come to seek assistance with research and tech tools! Recently, I had the opportunity to do a full day of sessions to one section of our 8th grade English classes. Mrs. Mari Simmons requested that I share Britannica School and EasyBib as preparation for a small research project on poets that her students will complete using Prezi . I enjoy sharing these tools with all ages, but especially 8th graders because it is their first taste of the research process at the high school level. If we can get them comfortable with this process at the beginning, it will make a huge...