Dinah Zike Workshop

Photo: Cook Inlet Literacy Council board members with featured presenter Dinah Zike.

Dinah Zike's dynamic presentation on uses for Foldables in the classroom again inspired me!

Slideshow: examples of Foldables used in classrooms.

City Dog, Country Frog by Mo Willems

Thanks to Leslie McCluskey at Follett for bringing this title to my attention!

Although unlikely playmates, these two animals become best friends through the cycle of the three seasons; spring, summer and fall. A lonely winter, rendered in heartbreakingly cold, spacious watercolors, leads to anticipation of more good times with his friend come spring. Alas, it is not to be. Fortunately dog finds another friend, leaving the reader to welcome the coming seasons again!

NoveList K-8 Rediscovered

Although the AK State Library has provided access to Novelist for many years, it took hearing an enthusiastic presention from Lisa Dennis of EBSCO to rekindle my interest in using and promoting Novelist K-8 at my elementary school!

Three Ways to Find Books! The opening page of Novelist contains 1) a standard search box, 2) a sidebar of popular reading genre lists and 3) a “recommended reads” selection of current popular items so the user can decide how to start looking for books. (The popular titles are selected based on the retail books sales of the Baker & Taylor book company.) This was so appealing to my classes that I have already requested inter-library loans of highlighted titles!

More About the Search Box! When searching for specific authors, titles and series a sidebar of recommended reading is automatically is generated. After an author search a list of nine similar authors is generated, after a title search a list of nine similar titles is generated and after a series search a list of nine similar series is generated – print this list to give to your patrons! Hover your mouse over the book covers to get more information or click on the magnifying glass to read more about the authors and series.

Appeal Factors! For some readers, author/title/series access to books is not enough, so Novelist categorizes each book on Storyline, Pace and Tone and Writing Style. Search for “funny”, “gruesome”, or “action-packed” reading.

Anchorage School District is linked to Novelist so users know right away if a title is available to them, although an additional search of the OPAC is necessary to indentify the school collection that owns it.

AKLA Conference 2011 / Information Iluminated

I recently attended the annual library conference in Juneau with a single mission: to find stimulation, inspiration and information to lift me out of my February slump. Mission accomplished!

I attended the following sessions and will post about some of them in the near future:

Friday 2/18

• Battle of the Books Title Selection workshop
• Keynote speaker : Lorrie Heagy "Digital Storytelling"
• Social Media Starter Kit
• Authors to Alaska Luncheon
• AkASL Meeting
• Mobilize Your Website

Saturday 2/19

• Marla Frazee - Putting Pictures to Words
• Allyn Johnston - the Real Deal About Picture Books
• Brandon Mull - Fantasy as a Gateway to Literacy
• Highlights from the AASL Fall Forum
• Empowering Librarians with Novelist

Sunday 2/20

• I Can Recommend This Book? (Ann Dixon on self published books)
• Gene Ambaum's Favorite Moments in Graphic Novels