Competency 9- Internet

http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/aboutaasl/aaslcommunity/quicklinks/slmstudents.cfm

Using the Google search engine, I found the American Association of School Librarians (AASL)website. It provides information that school librarians need to know. They address the issues and help guide the agenda for the profession. It is a resource for professional development and continuing education. They are the only national organization advocating for the needs of school library media specialists. There is a wiki that comprises a working bibliography of resources. If you are a member there is access to publications and journals. There is also a monthly e-mail newsletter called Hotlinks.

I chose this website because it is geared towards school librarians. It keeps the librarian current on issues in the field. It is also a useful networking site. There is an access to a facebook community. You can network with peers.

Competency 8 Research Visual/Multimedia

http://librarypublishing.scholastic.com/content/stores/LibraryStore/pages/images/slw_06.pdf

A big topic in school libraries today is flexible scheduling vs. fixed scheduling. I chose this graph because it shows the increase in reading, writing and ACT scores in school libraries that use flexible scheduling. It gives teachers more time to collaborate with librarians and it can give the librarians more time with students in the library.

Competency 7: Image

I found this image by searching Google images. I thought it shows the many items available in an elementary or middle school library for finding out information to questions. The image comes from www.schodack.k12.ny.us/scs/libraryservices.htm

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.