The Unquiet Librarian

Is your club looking for a service project or a way to publicize its service projects?  Take a look at this wonderful little blog called 25 Days to Make a Difference.  While this is a project this little girl has taken on out of love for her grandfather, I think it shows what students, even the youngest ones, can do to make a difference in the world. http://twentyfivedays.wordpress.com/  This idea could easily be adapted as a project for your club (25 Days To Make a Difference in which your club does something daily and documents it on the blog) or as a way to show the great things your club is doing for our community. If you would like assistance doing a project blog like this, please see me, and I would be more than glad to help.  If you choose to start one, let us know so we can get the word out via the library blog.  J 

Buffy Hamilton

The Unquiet Librarywould like to give its best wishes to Ms. Tena Williams, queen of the custodians in Cherokee County, as she leaves us today to begin a new journey as the lead custodian for our entire Creekview Zone.  Ms. Williams, who has come to the rescue of our library more than once, has been a true friend of our media center.  We want to let her know that we appreciate her exceptional efforts and all she has done to help the media center in the last 18 months since we opened.  Ms. Williams and her staff were invaluable and instrumental during the hot summer of 2006 when Mrs. Hamilton was working to get our library ready for opening day. 

Thank you, Ms. Tena Williams, for being such a great friend to our library and Creekview High School.  We will miss you! 

While I am on the “high” of my “Library 2.0″ moments of the week, I want take time to jot down a few thoughts!

Google Scholar, Google Library, Google Books, Del.icio.us

I used a combination of Web 2.0 tools to locate information sources not in our collection as well as to tap into existing information sources we do have as part of our virtual collection.    I then integrated the RSS feeds for these resources into a pathfinder I created for one of our Honors English teachers.

Conversations I’ve had recently with UGA librarian Nadine Cohen and UGA Professor Mary Ann Fitzgerald have had me thinking about how I could harness the power of Google to point students to quality information sources with more ease.  First, I used Google Scholar and Google Books to search for nonfiction texts that we did not have access to through our databases or print collection.  I then created a “My Google Books Library” to create an online collection that the students could access through a RSS feed link. 

If you have not used Google Books, you MUST check it out!  Books are searchable and some can even be downloaded as PDF files; plain text options are also available for viewing.  Students also get “similar books” suggestions available through Google Books, and they also have bibliographic data available at their fingertips for that particular book.  Students can also subscribe to our RSS feed for this feature and keep up with the latest additions to our Google Books!  These tools are powerful because they provide access to materials you might not be able to obtain in print and increase accessibility to these resources to EVERYONE 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 

The other tool we have been using as part of our research pathfinders this year is del.icio.us.  Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking web 2.0 tool that allows you to bookmark and catalog your favorite web resources with “tags”—think of tags as keywords or subject headings.  You can access these resources from any computer—not just your home computer.  For this assignment, I tagged some articles from our GALE Virtual Reference Library (GALE is the only vendor right now that we can “infomark” directly to articles, but we are hoping more vendors will get on board with this feature). 

I then used Google Scholar to search for scholarly articles related to our research topics.  While we can’t use Google Scholar to interface with our databases in the ways that college libraries can at this point in time, we do have access to JSTOR, a college level database of scholarly research articles covering all disciplines.  Because JSTOR is a vendor partnered with Google Scholar, we can use Google Scholar to search for articles and then “tag” those articles with our del.ici.ous account.  While some would argue doing this takes away the element of students searching for articles on their own, I would counterargue that this method is more of an “entry” into the database that will hopefully entice students to further explore that information source once they have acquired a “comfort zone” by looking at what we have put on the “menu.” 

The teacher was extremely excited about these new tools and felt it was a major improvement on the research pathfinder from last year (we collaborated in 2006 on this same assignment).  The students will be in here tomorrow and Friday, and I think once they have time to get “immersed” in these tools, they too will feel excited and energized about the research project. 

It makes me feel good to know that I can provide our students access to new materials we don’t physically own!  I also am excited that I can use web 2.0 tools to help my students “mine” or find an entry into quality information sources we own but that may be intimidating to students.  I hope that this hybrid of web 2.0 tools will make our database resources and books seem “cooler” and more relevant to our students.

That is today’s Library 2.0 roundup!

While we as educators are all sadly familiar with “traditional” means of bullying, you may not be aware of a new flavor of this distasteful reality of YA life:  “cyberbullying.”  According to eSchoolNews, as many as one in three children have been bullied, threatened, harassed, or taunted through some means of computer or electronic communications, such as text messages, social networking site postings, or chat rooms.   While many of us may be more familiar with the more extreme cases of cyberbullying, such as the teen suicide related to bullying from a MySpace hoax last month in Missouri, research indicates more subtle forms of cyberbullying occur on a daily basis.  The issue is of such great concern that the  December 2007 issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health includes a supplement devoted to “youth violence and electronic media.”

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) even has a web page that outlines the problems associated with technology and youth violence.  The CDC says: 

Youth can use electronic media to embarrass, harass or threaten their peers. Increasing numbers of adolescents are becoming victims of this new form of violence. Although many different terms-such as cyberbullying, Internet harassment, and Internet bullying-have been used to describe this type of violence, electronic aggression is the term that most accurately captures all types of violence that occur electronically. Like traditional forms of youth violence, electronic aggression is associated with emotional distress and conduct problems at school.

How can we as adults stop cyberbullying?  Stop Bullying Now has these tips for educators:

• Educate your students, teachers, and other staff members about cyber bullying, its dangers, and what to do if someone is cyberbullied.
• Be sure that your school’s anti-bullying rules and policies address cyber bullying.
• Closely monitor students’ use of computers at school.
• Use filtering and tracking software on all computers, but don’t rely solely on this software to screen out cyber bullying and other problematic on-line behavior.
• Investigate reports of cyber bullying immediately. If cyber bullying occurs through the school district’s Internet system, you are obligated to take action. If the cyber bullying occurs off-campus, consider what actions you might take to help address the bullying:
  • Notify parents of victims and parents of cyberbullies of known or suspected cyber bullying.
  • Notify the police if the known or suspected cyber bullying involves a threat.
  • Closely monitor the behavior of the affected students at school for possible bullying.
  • Talk with all students about the harms caused by cyber bullying. Remember — cyber bullying that occurs off-campus can travel like wildfire among your students and can affect how they behave and relate to each other at school.
  • Investigate to see if the victim(s) of cyber bullying could use some support from a school counselor or school-based mental health professional.
• Contact the police immediately if known or suspected cyber bullying involves acts such as:
  • Threats of violence
  • Extortion
  • Obscene or harassing phone calls or text messages
  • Harassment, stalking, or hate crimes
  • Child pornography

Educators may also want to check out this great PDF file:  Educators’ Guide to Cyberbullying and Cyberthreats from The Center for Safe and Responsible Use of the Internet.  If you are a parent, check out their tips for moms and dad at http://stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov/adult/indexAdult.asp?Area=cyberbullying .

Other resources for identifying, preventing, and stopping cyberbullying:

• http://www.ncpc.org/newsroom/current-campaigns/cyberbullying
• eSchoolNews tips
• Cyberbully 411:  Stop Cyberbullying
• CDC Podcast on Cyberbullying/Youth and Electronic Aggression
• Search SIRS Researcher for current articles on cyberbullying
• PARADE magazine article on cyberbullying
• WiredSafety.org resources for adults and teens on cyberbullying
• Information on cyberbullying for students and parents at http://csriu.org/cyberbully/

Have you ever thought about joining the world’s coolest profession:  school library media?  Are you looking to embark on a career that presents a new challenge every day?  How would you like to actually get paid to LEARN something new every day and be on the cutting edge of learning?   How would you like to join the ranks of those who are “unquietly” leaving an indelible mark on education?

If you answer “yes” to any of these questions, then check out the announcement below from the University of Georgia, the alma mater of The Unquiet Librarian and Georgia’s ONLY AASL accredited school library media program!  As a proud graduate of this program, I can assure you that you will receive top-notch preparation should you join this cohort of librarians in training! 

Hello,slmedia@uga.edu to see if space is still
available.http://www.coe.uga.edu/epit/slm/. Application
requirements and instructions can be found there as
well. Please call us at 706-542-3810 if you have any
questions or write to slmedia@uga.edu.

We are pleased to announce that we are now accepting
applications for admission into the eighth cohort of
the Flexible Delivery School Library Media Program
(SLM) at the University of Georgia. This program is
open to anyone seeking initial school library media
certification at either the M.Ed. or Ed.S. level;
non-degree certification is available for qualified
candidates. Students accepted into the SLM program
will begin their studies in the fall of 2008.

The program is designed to accommodate working
professionals through a combination of online classes,
evening classes, Saturday classes at the
University of Georgia Gwinnett campus, and summer
sessions. The first application deadline is February
1, 2008, so now is the time to apply.  Note
that the GRE is required. After February 1 please
contact

We have found that media specialists are among the
best marketers for the profession. If you know a
teacher (or anyone with a Bachelor¹s degree) whom you
believe would enjoy the challenges of this exciting,
service-oriented
profession, please encourage them to apply to our
program.

Information about the program can be found online at

Mary Ann Fitzgerald, Ph.D.
University of Georgia