Diigo

Diigo

Diigo is an online tool that allows users to socially bookmark any web content just like Delicious and other social bookmarking tools, but it goes far beyond these other sites with vital tools for consumers of digital media. Diigo was recently put near the top of ALA's AASL Top 25 Websites for Teaching and Learning. Users can highlight or add annotated "sticky notes" to any webpage (including subscription databases!) to revisit later with the click of a button. Sharing websites and annotations is made simple by collaborating within a shared group or organization. Stuck behind firewalls that won't let you download applications? No problem, Diigo has a tool called Diigolet with slightly fewer functions that you simply add to your favorites within your browser so no download is required. Visit the Diigo homepage for more information at http://www.diigo.com/ or www.diigo.com/tools/diigolet and click the link below for the introduction tutorial from Diigo's homepage:

YALSA blog - 31 days of dollars and sense

If you haven't had a chance to check out YALSA's blog of 31 days of dollars and sense, now is your opportunity. The blog has some fantastic ideas concerning technology, advocacy, summer reading ideas and more.

New YART Chair-Elect

Congratulations to Sarah VanRaden who is the new chair-elect for YART! Sarah is the young adult librarian at the Saddlebrook Branch of the Omaha Public Library. We are thrilled to have her as a board member for YART.

Looking for some great books for young adults?

Recently I was lucky enough to attend a talk given by James Patterson, a well known young adult author. He is very passionate about young adults finding books which will inspire them to be life long readers. He firmly believes that it is the job of all us who have contact with young adults to encourage reading. Now you might be thinking he is an author who just wants to sell his books and of course he is going to encourage reading and in particular his books. As I listened to Mr. Patterson, I was struck by his depth of emotion as he described the importance of reading. Of course, it does not hurt that he has a sixth grade son who really was not a reader until he was given a few books which were just right for him. We all know that there is that so called "perfect book" out there for everyone, but the hard part is sometimes finding it. Mr. Patterson is helping us to find those books for our young adults through his web site readkiddoread which provides a wide selection of recommendations based on age. There is a multitude of great information and book recommendations to be found on the site, take a look and see what you think.

What Do Teens Want?

What do teens want in terms of library services or books to read? Publisher's Weekly just published a survey generated from the membership of teenreads.com which tries to answer that very question. Although the survey was open to the entire membership of teenreads.com, the overwhelming majority of responders were female and the results are reflective of that fact. Over 53% of the respondents indicated that they have changed their book buying habits due to the economy and are now utilizing their libraries more. So what are they looking for in the library? Well, it seems that they are reading romance and fantasy books and 48% indicated they wanted more help from "experts" in selecting their reading materials. This is an opportunity where we as the "experts" can help teens find books they like by posting peer reviews of books. Over 83% of the respondents indicated peer recommendations as the reason they read a book so peer reviews could be a very powerful marketing tool in our libraries. Take a look at the survey and see what you find interesting or intriguing and let's start a discussion in this space on how this information might help us to serve our teens better.

Publisher's Weekly
The Sassy Librarian (reflections on the survey)

iPod Winner!

Congratulations to Cherie Curtis of Millard Public Schools. She won the drawing for the iPod Shuffle during the NLA/NEMA Conference!

Win an iPod Shuffle!

Stop by the YART Booth in the Exhibition Hall and enter a drawing to win a new iPod Shuffle! If you are not already a member of YART, we will have membership forms available.

Countdown to NLA/NEMA...

Hope to see you there!

Social Networking Tools for Librarians

Check out these great 3-minute video tutorials "In Plain English"!

Words of Wisdom

Gayle Roberts - Youth Services Librarian, Blair Public Library

How long have you been in the library profession, and in what capacity have you served?

If I go way……. back, I was actually the law librarian for the firms I worked at during the 1980s; and then served as archivist and law librarian during my tenure at Ag Processing Inc, amongst a few other hats. It wasn’t until 2001, however, before I began working reference at UNO’s Criss Library.

What do you enjoy most about working with teens/youth?

I love the adventure we have every single day. There is never a dull moment! With the adventure, though, come moments of trust, respect, and truth. Teens teach us every day that life in our world has changed, and they challenge you to keep up with it.

What do you consider your greatest success so far?

As a Youth Services Librarian, I serve all ages, and my biggest success involving all of our youth has been the opening and operation of our “toy library” – a/k/a educational resource center. We have resources for kids up to age 19, and it has been a huge success with the kids and the parents. On a more behind the scenes level, I am even more pleased with the bridge building and community partnerships I have been able to procure during the last year and a half. This has allowed our youth activities to expand, and has given the library a more permanent place in the youth community. Teaching research and information literacy never felt so good!

What one issue should teen/youth librarians be prepared to address?

Automatically, my brain jumps to technology. Kids love the new techie toys and websites. We, as librarians, need to know how to help them navigate their technical world. However, I think youth librarians need to be prepared to address the unexpected. As an example, our community just dealt with a teen suicide. Thus, we had students flocking both to talk and to find information and books to comfort them. Some days, it's bullying. Some days, it's teachers and harassment. Some days it's sex. We have to ensure that our library and collection will serve our youth for all those unexpected happenings that they encounter everyday in their unsure world.

What are you currently reading? Are there any books you recommend?

Everything! I'm just starting Evidence by Jonathan Kellerman. I love sneaking in my "adult reading". Lately though, I've been finding books on topics mentioned above, and thoroughly recommend What Happened to Cass McBride by Gail Giles and The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf

October's Book Pick & More

After
by Amy Efaw

An infant left in the trash to die. A teenage mother who never knew she was pregnant . . .
Before That Morning, these were the words most often used to describe straight-A student and star soccer player Devon Davenport: responsible, hardworking, mature. But all that changes when the police find Devon home sick from school as they investigate the case of an abandoned baby. Soon the connection is made—Devon has just given birth; the baby in the trash is hers. After That Morning, there's only one way to define Devon: attempted murderer.

After is a heartbreaking story ripped straight from the headlines. Young adults will find themselves drawn into Devon's life as they try to make sense of her actions and the resulting consequences. For more information and resources on After head to Efaw's website.

Need more book ideas?

Reading Rants is an out of the ordinary teen booklist site. The site is composed of several lists covering genres such as Nail-Biters (teen psychological thrillers), Boy meets Book (best boy books), and Reality Bites! (non-fiction about teens, for teens). Whether you are looking to recommend a book or working on collection development you will be sure to find some great books on Reading Rants. Check it out today!

Summary of After provided with permission from Viking Children's Books.

Technology Tip for October

Creating Book Trailers With Animoto

Book trailers are hooking teen readers through media that speaks very personally to them and are connecting teens to books in an entirely new way. These trailers are finding a very comfortable home on websites like TeacherTube, YouTube, and most recently on library webpages. Book trailers are similar to movie trailers in that they rely on visual and audio media to leave viewers anticipating and eager to know more, but book trailers can’t draw upon visual images and tangible characters from the actual movie itself.

The trick to creating successful book trailers is to capture the essence of the plot and characters through carefully selected visuals in a way that doesn’t spoil the mental images that make a book personal and unique to its readers. Ambiguous images and videos of objects that strike emotional chords and convey the theme in a book work well to pique interest without ruining the reading experience. A free, user-friendly, downloadable application called Animoto produces TV-quality videos using photos and video clips in just minutes. Animoto is perfect for making or, even better, assisting patrons and students in making their own book trailers.

It's so simple to do. Choose a song to capture the tone of the book as the soundtrack to your video and Animoto will analyze every nuance of it. Producing a totally unique video each time with intriguing transitions, no two videos are ever the same. Animoto has hundreds of quality, copyright-free songs to choose from or utilize one of the many websites containing copyright-free music. Then simply choose your photos (or select from Animoto’s quality images) or video clips, add optional text, and Animoto generates the video for you using music recognition tools to change slides at just the right moment in the song.

Sharing the book trailers is a cinch as well. Once the video is created, it will give you the choice for what you want to do with it next. Add them to your website, post them on your blog, e-mail them to friends, put them up on YouTube, TeacherTube, Facebook, or other applications, or download them onto your computer. Animoto book trailers will have your readers diving headfirst into books. Visit http://animoto.com/education to sign up for your free educator account. (Heads-up – don’t get discouraged when it takes several days before they respond with your educator code. It’s well worth the wait.) In addition to scanning the thousands of book trailers on YouTube and TeacherTube, visit the Pettus Library blog to see how one librarian uses Animoto to capture teen’s interest in books through online trailers. http://pettushs.blogspot.com/

Once you set off to use Animoto for the first time, PLEASE contact me if you have any questions at all, no matter how basic, or just need a little guidance along the way. I am by no means an expert and if I can't answer your question, hopefully together, with our shared resources and colleagues, we can figure it out.

Anna Bley

Library Media Specialist

Papillion-La Vista South High School

abley@paplv.esu3.org

(402) 829-4600