Competency 6: Databases/Citation Pearl Search

For my Citation Pearl search I used LibLit as a database to search.

I typed in the author Denise Geier I had found in a previous search. I used one of the subject headings children's reading projects to begin a search. This gave me 1080hits. I had to modify my search by adding elementary or middle school library and this brought my search down to 71 hits. I found two great articles I did not fiind before by using this search.

Hall, S. (2007, October). How I learned to run a really popular book club and what I learned about its effect on students' reading skills and attitude. Teacher Librarian 35, 1 32-36.

Patten, K.B. et al. (2007, June). iPods and English-Language Learners: A Great Combination. Teacher Librarian 34, 5, 40-44.

Competency 6: Databases/Successive Fractions Search

For this search I used the Academic Search Complete database.

I was told to begin with the largest facet first: I used librar* = 516,980 hits
I narrowed the search by using elementary or middle school library = 7,327 hits
I narrowed by adding a third facet media activities = 598 hits
I knew this was still large, but I added limits of full text only and that narrowed it to 76 hits.
76 full text articles was workable.

I found this article applicable to my search:

Fontichiaro, K., Buczynski, S. (2009, March). Connecting Science Notebooking to the Elementary Library Media Center. School Library Media Activities 25, 7 24-29.

Competency 6: Databases/Specific Facet Search

For my specific facet search I used the Nexis Lexis Database.

I tried to begin with a very specific search term. I used school library activities. I only searched within Blogs and Web publications for the previous year. I received 58 hits. I found a library activity that could be used in elementary or middle school researching about Hurricanes.

Competency 6: Databases/Building Block Search

For my building block search I used the ERIC/EBSCO database. My building block search was: I wanted to find reading activities for children to do in the school library.

S1: library=57,300 hits
S2: reading=114,442 hits
S3: elementary school or middle school=87,750 hits

S1+ S2+ S3= 682 hits
Combining my three searches decreased my hits, but the number was still too big. I narrowed it down by searching for only full text which gave me 302 results. This number was still too big. I then decided to narrow the search by years. I searched from 2005-present. This gave me a number of 36 hits. This was manageable. I found one article very useful for my blog. It talks about using children as book reviewers. The children in my language arts class love writing book recommendations for the class. This article would be a great project for the librarian to implement in the library.

Geier, Denise B. (2008, January). Elementary Students as Book Reviewers. Library Media Connection. 26,4, 42.

Competency 5 Tagging/Indexing/Cataloging

I went to Librarything.com to set up a free account. I added information to the list of tags that were already there for our book by Heting Chu. I then decided to search for good read alouds that could be used in elementary and middle school classrooms. I think reading books aloud to all ages are beneficial. Teachers are always looking for a good read aloud book. I found the book The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease. "Tags" are words used to describe the book. This is the tag cloud I found:


(4) 372.6(2) @library(2) Bibliography(2) book lists(16) books(19) books about books(13) books and reading(6) children(7) children's(7) children's book summaries(3) Children's books(7) children's literature(21) ed(3) education(44) fumcn(2) home(3) Homeschool(12) How To Homeschool(3) kids(4) language arts(2) literacy(8) literature(6) nf(3) non-fiction(30) oral reading(7) own(5) parenting(35) power of read aloud(2) professional(4) read(6) read aloud(19) reading(63) reading aloud(5) reading to children(3) recommendations(5) reference(23) signed(3) tbr(3) teaching(3) Trelease(4) unread(3) What to Read(2)

The link for these tags is: www.librarything.com/work/96385

Competency 4

For this competency I needed to add an RSS feed to my blog. I added feed from School Library Journal-Breaking News. I chose this feed because it relates to school libraries. It contains breaking news daily in school libraries. Some other sites I searched did not have anything posted since 2008. It will be a great way to keep current on the latest news in school libraries.

The link is: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SchoolLibraryJournalBreakingNewsfeedburner

Competency 3

I used Google as a search engine to find a podcast site to be used in the elementary school. The site is called Storynory.

http://storynory.com/

This site could be used in the library or in an elementary classroom as a reading station activity. They highlight stories for the holidays or themes that may be used in the classroom. They have stories that come in serials that will appeal to boys or girls. They update content regularly. There is the ability to download whole categories of stories, or individually to a computer or iPod/MP3 player. You also have to ability to stream the story from the site. The child listens to the story being read to them and can use their imagination to follow along. The words are also there which is great for a beginning or struggling reader to use. This would also be very helpful to ESL students to learn English.
Here is a podcast from this site.

http://storynory.com/2009/02/02/the-valentine-witch/

I have been thinking about different ways to use podcasts in the school as a librarian. I found a great site http://www.runkle.org/Podcasts/index.html. This school has podcasts from children in the school, teachers and librarians reviewing books. The podcasts about the books are listed by grade level. There are script worksheets for students to fill out about their favorite book. The reviews are short and would encourage many students to read that book after listening to the short review. Children in the upper grades of elementary school or middle school would love recording a podcast and listening to other reviews of books. This would be a great project as a librarian.