Being an old fogey, I'm still reeling from the amount of new information in our readings, and am unsure what to make of a lot of it. I have to say, though, that I am very enthusiastic about the ideas in "School Library 2.0" by Christopher Harris. He talks about librarians creating an interface for students to create their own "virtual bookshelf" of favorite books, with reviews and ratings. This reminds me of the "shelf talkers" we had in the bookstore where I used to work. People love to get a little bit of information about a book from someone who loved it, and the shelf talkers enabled them to get it without having to move out of their personal browsing mode - not everyone likes to talk to a salesperson or a librarian. In the kids' section, we would have shelf talkers with reviews from our young customers (we also put some in our store newsletter).
I really like the idea of having students creating these "bookshelves" to collect their own ideas and to share them with others. It's probably much handier to jot some words online than to remember to ask for a form to fill out the next time you're in the library, and to hope that the librarian will be diligent about posting your review.
I've been looking at librarything.com/, and thought I'd better untangle myself from the fun and get to work writing this blog entry before the day is over. It's a great idea, and one that I know I would have loved as a teen, since I was always carrying around with me lists of book and album titles that friends recommended so that I'd remember what to get. I think that in the context of schools and school libraries, an interface through the LMC's webpage could be very useful for teachers as well as students, for creating book discussions, writing journal entries, and involving all the school's readers in booktalking.
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8 comments:
I have played with LibraryThing a few times and it's easy to get sucked into finding the perfect cover for the book I just added or looking at what other people are reading. When I'm done with school in May, I'm going to update my catalog, although there's a 200 book limit (I think) for the free account. I've written down every novel I've read since 6th grade (I know, that's very dorky), so I'll have to pick and choose what I want to catalog. Most of the books on there now are from my YA class.
This is a great idea for students. I think they would enjoy sharing their ideas and feeling a part of the whole. Thanks for the idea.
Number one, you are not an old fogey. Number two, I explored Library Thing yesterday after reading your post and I agree, that is an awesome avenue for kids. A virtual bookshelf that is shareable could help kids not only to remember what they've read and review it but also to find kids that like the same books and make friends over something meaningful as they mature. I set up an account yesterday and was also a little engrossed with finding the right cover art for the books I was posting and got frustrated when I couldn't find the right cover. This is definitely technology to explore with youth services! Great topic!
OK..I agree:
you are not an old fogey.
AND
LibraryThing could be a useful tool for getting young people talking about books media. I wish I would have it when I was a teen.
Great to see people talking about Web 2.0 in a school context. I like the idea that we can teach kids how to use social software in ways that are responsible. The earlier we can build this "new literacy"....the better.
Keep up the good work.
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