The Mansfield Library

Practical Marketing for Your School Library

2025-12-03T17:34:00.000-08:00

Hot off the press!

Practical Marketing for
your School Library

I can't believe I am finally able to hold my new book in my hands! Some of you may know, I have spent the last 3 years researching, writing and editing this (hopefully) useful resource for school librarians. This book uses traditional business analysis tools to transform your school library and bring it to the forefront of your school community in terms of engagement and respect. Feedback is welcome and I am happy to answer any questions about any of the tools, techniques and tips outlined in this book. I truly hope that some of you will take away maybe one or two ideas. I'm looking at it now -- the chapter on Kaizen and Kanban boards -- and thinking "Oh! I'm gonna try that again with my Library Ambassadors Club this year!" Stay tuned for more useful ways to make your library the best it can be! Practical Marketing for Your School Library is available on the Bloomsbury website, Amazon, Follett and many other places where Professional Development education books are sold.

2022-11-25T00:55:00.005-08:00

Here is a handy-dandy diagram to use when teaching students about using journal articles.

Got Fake News?

2020-10-06T21:10:00.000-07:00

Never before has the challenge of finding the truth been so difficult. Sorting through the internet can be daunting especially to those that are new to doing research and academic writing. Click Here for an excellent infographic on Fake News and how to spot it from Cornell University Library.

2020-10-06T20:59:00.003-07:00

We just got this book of beautifully rendered information this week!

Click here to go to the web site that gives you even more info.

Latest Library Lookups

2020-10-06T20:56:00.003-07:00

Ageing population diseases.

Vanilla cupcake recipes.

Guided 10-minute meditations.

2020-06-10T20:25:00.002-07:00

Summer’s Coming (Again!)

The Summer is finally almost here!

It's time again to make a list of all of the interesting and fun projects you’re going to complete! Is there something you’ve been longing to do? Need inspiration?

Here are 5 new ways to get started:

1. Go on a Virtual Vacation, Staycation or Virtual Volunteering Mission. Going on vacation is usually a fun experience, no matter where you choose to go. Because of the pandemic a lot of people are staying home or having mini staycations. If you're lucky enough to live next to the beach or a campsite - then great! For the rest of us, just taking your mind on a trip may be what's in order for this year.

Consider a Virtual Volunteering experience! You can make an impact wherever you are hunkered down. Whether it's doing some graphic design work for the United Nations or talking to someone on a crisis hotline, it's possible to make a difference without leaving your favorite chair. Virtual Volunteering is not a new concept, however with social distancing and travel restrictions, it may be a growing sector in the volunteer world. Check out this article for more info.

Further reading:

GoodNet: 7 Top DIY Websites That Will Inspire Your Next Creation

The Spruce: The Best DIY Websites for Home Decorating Projects

Apartment Therapy: The 10 Best Sites for DIY Projects

Home Stratosphere: Top 50 DIY Sites

3. Read (or listen to) a Good Book. Whether you're jazzing up your surroundings with a new complicated DIY project or doing some virtual design work for the United Nations, you could be listening to a great book at the same time! It's never too late to tune in to a great story. Check our Audible.com. They have free titles and deeply discounted titles as well as all of the bestsellers and more. A great way to find out what everyone else is reading is (of course) to check out the New York Times Bestseller List. (tinyurl.com/nytbk ). They categorize all genres and age differentiations, as well as hardcover, paperback and e-book editions. What should you read next? Whatshouldireadnext.com) is a great website to use for suggestions on your next literary conquest. Simply type the title of the last book you’ve read into the search field and a list will be generated of several appropriate titles.

Here are my top ten titles from my current Audible Summer Reading List - this year I felt like it is necessary to mix it up a little with some very serious issues and some light fiction:

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of the National Book Award-Winning Stamped from the Beginning

By: Jason Reynolds , Ibram X. Kendi

Narrated by: Jason Reynolds , Ibram X. Kendi

Through a gripping, fast-paced, and energizing narrative written by beloved award-winner Jason Reynolds, this book shines a light on the many insidious forms of racist ideas - and on ways listeners can identify and stamp out racist thoughts in their daily lives....

Food of the Gods

The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge : A Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution

By: Terence McKenna

Narrated by: Jeffrey Kafer

Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 09-28-12

Language: English

Publisher: Tantor Audio

The Murmur of Bees

By: Sofia Segovia, Simon Bruni - translation

Narrated by: Xe Sands, Angelo Di Loreto

Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 04-16-19

Language: English

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Uncommon Type

Some Stories

By: Tom Hanks

Narrated by: Tom Hanks

Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 10-17-17

Language: English

Publisher: Random House Audio

Nothing to See Here

By: Kevin Wilson

Narrated by: Marin Ireland

Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 10-29-19

Language: English

Publisher: HarperAudio

The Dutch House

A Novel

By: Ann Patchett

Narrated by: Tom Hanks

Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 09-24-19

Language: English

Publisher: HarperAudio

White Fragility

Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism

By: Robin DiAngelo, Michael Eric Dyson - foreword

Narrated by: Amy Landon

Length: 6 hrs and 21 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 06-26-18

Language: English

Publisher: Beacon Press

The Bees

A Novel

By: Laline Paull

Narrated by: Orlagh Cassidy

Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 05-06-14

Language: English

Publisher: HarperAudio

Get Well Soon

History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them

By: Jennifer Wright

Narrated by: Gabra Zackman

Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 02-07-17

Language: English

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

The Country of Ice Cream Star

By: Sandra Newman

Narrated by: Lisa Reneé Pitts

Length: 26 hrs and 34 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 06-16-15

Language: English

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

4. Recycle an old t-shirt. Don’t throw it away! There are so many ways to repurpose old t-shirts. Check out these ten ideas on the Greenopolis website. (tinyurl.com/greenop). Or this neat little grocery bag from a conscientious blogger: tinyurl.com/greengrobag).

Further reading/watching:

DIY Make a Mask out of a T-Shirt

What to do with an old T-Shirt

Pinterest: Recycled T-Shirts

5. Finally: Stay home and relax. This is a post I wrote from last Summer. It still applies today. Sometimes the best thing you can do for yourself is nothing. Or almost nothing. Use your relaxation time to reflect on yourself and work out your thoughts. The simple act of becoming relaxed can have great health benefits. Here are some great resources for learning how to relax. Stress management and relaxation techniques from the Mayo Clinic. (tinyurl.com/strsmgt) Blissing Out: 10 Relaxation Techniques To Reduce Stress On-the-Spot from WebMD. (tinyurl.com/blissout) Go to Naturalnews.com for relaxation news, articles and information.

Further reading/listening:

Listen to the Hoh Rainforest for free on Audible.com

Relaxing Meditation: Sleep Island free from Audible.com

Whatever you choose to do this summer, have a happy, safe, and healthy one!

2020-06-10T17:43:00.002-07:00

Are any school libraries open for Summer Borrowing this year?

Here are our new summer borrowing rules:

Any books that were borrowed before the shut down must be returned by June 15th
Books borrowed after the shut down will be extended for the summer
Up to 20 books can be borrowed for the summer, as long as there are no overdues from before the shut down
Only returning students and staff can borrow books
Summer borrowing begins June 19th

2014-09-04T05:15:00.002-07:00

The Six Benefits of Weeding Using the CREW Method

There are six major benefits of weeding the collection. Saves Space. Shelf space costs money in a variety of ways, not the least of which is the actual cost to buy additional shelving to house more and more materials. For a library such as my current school library that has limited space, it is unrealistic to think that additional shelving will be purchased. Where would we put them? A well-maintained collection saves the cost of dusting books that no one is using and of shifting materials to make room for more items. Students lose patience trying to find items that are crammed onto overcrowded shelves. When there is a little room here and there on the shelves, the library becomes more attractive and easier to use. Good practice says that shelves should never be more than 85% full (and 75% is even better). In my current school library, because our weeding rate is very low, our shelves are generally 90-95% full at any given time. In addition, retaining unused material takes up shelf space that could be used to display recent items. Also, here in my current school library, we have the maximum number of shelves available so that we can accommodate our classes with an interactive white board, space for tables and chairs and for our computers. Weeding allows us to maintain the open, friendly appearance that is the hallmark of my lovely current school library. Saves Time. Saving the time of patrons and Library staff is important. Shelves crowded with ragged books with illegible markings cost time. When students are looking for a particular book and have to sort through items that are clearly not of use or that they don’t want to touch, it wastes their time. On many occasions here in my current school library, students have come up to the library looking for a specific title in between classes – this sometimes gives us only a few minutes to locate materials. Time is wasted then we try to shelve returned items and have to shift and re-shift books to make space. When the librarian tries to use the collection for reference or reader's advisory services and must peruse outdated items to find the correct, current information, valuable time is wasted. An excess of citations from the online catalog that leads to outdated or unusable materials slows searching and frustrates users. Library housekeeping, from dusting to shifting sections, is impeded and made more labor intensive by an overload of useless books and other materials. Makes the Collection More Appealing. By replacing ragged, smudged books and unattractive rebinds with attractive new books, the collection becomes more appealing. Even perennial favorites and classics benefit from being replaced by clean copies with updated covers. Circulation can be increased by simply making the shelves look more attractive and user-friendly, even if there are actually fewer books. It is better to have fresh air and empty space on the shelves than to have musty old books that discourage investigation. Some of the recently weeded books in my current school library had not been touched for decades and were inundated with thick layers of dust and book mold. Many libraries report that patrons assumed they had purchased a lot of new books when all that was done was to weed vigorously. When you remove clutter, you can see what you really have on the shelves more clearly. Enhances the Library’s Reputation. For reliability and currency and building public trust within our student population and parent community, as well as the confidence of our teachers in the library’s viability, the library shelves must reflect our commitment to our students and teachers through collection development and attention to what is going on in the school. We hope that because my current school library has a highly credentialed Teacher-Librarian taking care of the Library, that students, teachers, faculty, and staff expect that library materials are selected by an expert, and that the information is up-to-date and reliable. For many users, especially younger students, the mere fact that a book is in the library lends authority to it. For example, a section of astronomy books that include many pre-Hubble space exploration books or books that include Pluto as a planet create a credibility gap of astronomical dimensions! Nothing will discourage a student as much as writing a paper based on research performed with library materials that provided obsolete or erroneous information. We owe it to our patrons who rely on my current school library to provide accurate information. Patrons will quickly decide that the library has ‘nothing’ of value if they are made to sort through a lot of outdated material. Keeping Up with Collection Needs. Because the CREW method provides a continuous check on the need for mending or binding, it alerts the library staff to lost or stolen books in need of replacement, and guarantees a more accurate volume count. This process also allows for both on-going weeding, where shabby items, superseded items, or unused items can be removed almost without effort, and scheduled weeding where one would look at specific areas of the collection on a regular basis. Librarians that weed continuously have greater knowledge of the collection. Having Constant Feedback on the Collection’s Strengths and Weaknesses. This information can be helpful when soliciting donations and making decisions about purchases. For example, knowing that the business books are out-of-date, the librarian can approach an organized group or an individual and request specific assistance in building an area of special interest and usefulness to them. CREW keeps the present shape of the collection clearly in mind and helps in planning future directions for it. CREW helps the librarian see the cohesion of every task performed in the library and the purpose of every task in relation to the patrons and the collection.

2014-09-04T05:11:00.000-07:00

To Weed or Not to Weed...? The question of whether to keep certain materials in the library collection or to discard them is a question that vexes even the most seasoned librarians around the world. The answer comes from a combination of understanding the library collection, education and expertise in the field of Library Science, and an understanding of the way the materials are used by library patrons – in the case of my current school library, when we refer to “patrons”, we are referring to the students, parents, faculty, and staff. The criteria we rely on here at my current school library are from the CREW method, a set of philosophies developed by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. These methods are taught in foundational courses in any qualified Master of Library Science program. These methods help librarians determine the best course of action when it comes to whether or not an item has outlived its usefulness. I became a librarian because I love books and information. In my career, I have had to overcome my own sentiments that would otherwise hold me back from weeding materials that are no longer appropriate to serve my library’s customers. In collection development, not only do I use my knowledge and understanding of the collection to purchase new materials and fill “holes” that I perceive in the collection, but also make sure that there are no grey areas of under-usage or “shelf-waste”. In my own mind, I had to get over the idea of basing my ideas of collection development on the book as an object and not focusing on the content of the collection that is needed and used by my library patrons. I’m writing this article now, because I feel that it is important to address concerns that others may feel about holding on to library materials and what the costs associated with doing so entail. The current school library’s Mission Statement is to empower students to be life-long learners, informed decision-makers, users of information technologies, enthusiastic readers, and practitioners of intellect. Bearing this in mind, think of how a poorly maintained collection could negatively impact the ability of the library to meet those goals. When taking all of that into consideration, it is clear that weeding is an important part of the library program. Here at my current school library, we were only able to weed around 1% of the collection over the summer, but the impact on the integrity of what remains is tangible. Many librarians around the world consider the following principles, the Five Laws of Library Science from S.R. Ranganthan, as a foundation for operating their library: 1. Books are for use. 2. Every reader his book. 3. Every book its reader. 4. Save the time of the reader. 5. A library is a growing organism. Keeping these principles in mind, my current school library uses the CREW Method which embodies those principles as well as considers the patron usage of a school library. CREW stands for Continuous Review, Evaluation, and Weeding. “The CREW Method makes it easy to remove outdated and unused materials from the collection while also learning where the collection has gaps or needs new items.” Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Austin, Texas, 2012 When weeding, many factors are taken into consideration including, but not limited to: --the demands of the library’s community of users – in the case of my current school library, K4 through Grade 12 students, faculty, and staff --the area of the collection where the material is housed (Reference, Fiction, Non-Fiction, etc.) --the copyright date --the current condition of the material --the circulation history of the material --the availability of more suitable materials --the ability of the library budget to replace damaged items or items in need of update --the possible future usefulness of a particular item --the availability of more current information on the Internet --the ability of the library to acquire new materials, --a set of criteria for weeding called the MUSTIE factors. MUSTIE is the acronym for six negative factors that make books and other materials prime candidates for weeding. Misleading (and/or factually inaccurate: Weed outdated editions and books that are no longer accurate. Pay special attention to areas where information has changed recently or where it changes rapidly, like in medicine and travel. Ugly: (Self-explanatory) Superseded (by a truly new edition or by a much better book on the subject): Especially for reference materials, test guides, and travel manuals, weed older editions. A current and useful school library does need to keep older editions for research value. Trivial (of no discernible literary or scientific merit; usually of ephemeral interest at some time in the past): Weed older titles that were of fleeting interest or are about outdated popular culture. Irrelevant to the needs and interests of your community: Even e-books should be expected to circulate or be used online at least once every few years. Also weed self-published e-books that are not circulating. Elsewhere: The material or information may be obtained expeditiously Elsewhere. Especially for items available at no cost, such as through Project Gutenberg or an e-book available through an online public library, In my current school library, we try not to clutter the library catalog with material that is not being used or is out of date. “A rule of thumb held by many library professionals is that about 5% of the collection be weeded every year. This allows for turnover of the collection every twenty years. While this doesn’t literally mean that no book that exists in the collection in the year, 2000 will still be there in 2020, even classic literature and perennially useful materials will generally become worn and tattered after twenty years of use and need to be replaced with a fresh copy. More important than raw numbers, however, is the librarian’s commitment to making weeding part of the regular duties and responsibilities that are addressed every week.” Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Austin, Texas, 2012 In general, the things that a librarian takes into consideration when weeding books are: Poor content – outdated and obsolete information, trivial subject matter, mediocre writing style, inaccurate or false information, unused sets of volumes, repetitious series, superseded editions, material that contains biased, racist, or sexist terminology or views, unneeded duplicates, self-published or small press materials that are not circulating Poor condition or contain attributes that are unappealing to patrons – Worn out, ragged items, poorly bound or poorly printed editions, rebound editions that are worn and shabby or have torn pages, items that are dirty, shabby, warped, bug infested, or otherwise marked up, mutilated, or ‘edited’ by patrons, books with very small print or poor quality pictures, scratched CDs or DVDs, brittle film or magnetic tape (in the case of video and audiocassettes), media that is beaten up from wear or has broken or missing parts, books with yellowed, brittle, torn, taped, or missing pages, books with dust jackets or cover art that is dated, especially on children’s and young adult books Unused materials – Items that have not circulated within the past 3-5 years and are not being used for reference or in-house research for 5 years or more, duplicate copies that are no longer needed, regardless of condition, periodicals that are not indexed, periodicals that are available in full-text databases, unused volumes in sets or series, unneeded titles in subject areas that are less frequently used, materials on the ‘hot topics’ that were popular more than five years ago, more books than are needed on any single subject, formats that are no longer popular in your community, especially if the technology needed to use the format is no longer owned by people in the community, material that is no longer important to the collection because of changes in local demographics, school curricula, or other factors More specific criteria can be used for different specialized areas. For example, Geography titles more than five years old are invariably misleading and inaccurate and according to the CREW guidelines, should be weeded. Most of our Geography materials in my current school library are far older than that, but we have kept them as they are not easily replaced. The older the title, the more inaccurate the content will be. Imagine how useless a title published before either of the World Wars is to a student today working on a research paper topic from the 20th century. There is a misguided belief surrounding the school library that ‘anything is better than nothing’ and this belief has perpetuated the retention of many outdated and inaccurate nonfiction items, often to the detriment of the student. At best, providing a student with information that is no longer current can result in a lower grade on an assignment. Outdated information also provides a warped and inaccurate view of the subject and results in a lowered regard for the expertise of the librarian. Parents, teachers, and children will then question the validity of the collection. It is better to lack enough information on a topic than to have erroneous information. (Larson, 2012) As I showed the faculty at the beginning of the year in my Library Orientation presentations this year, loads of information can be found using proprietary databases and public libraries on the Internet. Our school library must remain a valuable resource for students and not just a place to store books. It is not a book museum, literary archive, or store room, but a center for research and scholarship which all of our students, faculty and staff can utilize to enhance learning and instruction. For further reading: Sunlink Weed of The Month www.tinyurl.com/weedofthe American Library Association Factsheet on Weeding www.tinyurl.com/alafactsheet15 Book: Baumbach, Donna J. and Linda L. Miller. Less Is More: A Practical Guide to Weeding School Library Collections. Chicago: American Library Association, 2006.

2014-02-25T22:56:00.002-08:00

I've been experimenting with creating infographics lately. Infographics are a great way to visually display information and make cumbersome data easy to understand at a glance. When I assign research papers, the paper length is in word count. I often have students ask about the length of pages in relation to the word count, and so I created this handy-dandy infographic to point to in these instances. Now I only need to point to the wall where it hangs for students to quickly understand the scope of their projects.

2014-02-25T22:40:00.001-08:00

TuVa Labs (Tuvalabs.com) Cool website which uses raw data sets to create interesting math lessons. Their description say: "Enable Critical Thinking & Reasoning With Data -- Enable students to think critically about data, ask meaningful questions, make evidence-based conclusions, and communicate their findings."

Latest Library Look-Ups

2014-02-25T22:35:00.005-08:00

Fahrenheit 451

Sleep and Obesity

Caffeine

Socrates

Aristotle

Chinese Education Vs. American Education

Ancient Rome

Cheetahs

Silk

Amelia Earhart

Kittens

2013-04-09T03:56:00.001-07:00

Created by Customer Magnetism, an award winning Internet marketing agency.

Latest Library Look-Ups

2013-02-18T04:00:00.001-08:00

From time to time we post a snapshot of "Library Look-Ups". Life in the School Library Media Center can be chaotic, sometimes even downright schizophrenic! Here is a quick list of things that students were looking for today:

Media and Adverstising
Global Warming
Shark Aggression
Extraterrestrial Life
Dante's Inferno
Milton's Paradise Lost
Color Theory
Adolf Hitler
Vampire Squids
Scolpamine
Salvia
Nicotine
Benjamin Franklin
Thomas Edison
Marie Curie

The Anatomy of a Great Teacher

2012-10-02T08:38:00.004-07:00

Source: Top Teaching Colleges

The International Children's Digital Library (ICDL)

2012-06-18T06:26:00.002-07:00

The ICDL is a rich resource for children, parents, teachers, and librarians that allows users to children's books from all over the world in many different languages! It is searchable by audience, appearance, content, genre, subject, or country. More options for searching are available in the advanced search mode. Children can expand upon the stories to create games; parents can extract themes to help explain important lessons; teachers can utilize the multicultural nature of the collection to teach languages; librarians can enrich community outreach programs with tales from around the world and; of course, anyone can just open a book to read for pleasure.There are many suggestions for activities on the home page, and many more can be imagined!

Summer’s Coming

2012-06-01T06:44:00.000-07:00

Are you ready for the Summer? Have you made a list of all of the interesting and fun projects you’re going to complete? Is there something you’ve been longing to do? Need inspiration? Here are 10 ways to get started:

1. Have a unique travel experience. Going on vacation is usually a fun experience, no matter where you choose to go. When you have the whole summer before you, the experience can be rich and rewarding as well. There are many places on the web that you can use in your travel research — a great place to start is a blog from the author of the book The 4-Hour Work Week (tinyurl.com/exo4hr). A number of very exotic locations with very low price tags are discussed. Links for further research are also included.

If you’d like to give back a little and soak up some culture at the same time, perhaps a charitable volunteering vacation is for you.

Check out Voluntourism.org for some interesting (and possibly rewarding) summer vacation ideas. Programs such as Bike & Build send young adults on working bike trips. During these trips, participants stop along the way, between 8 to 10 times, to help build homes with the local affordable housing groups in the area. Past trips have included the mid-west and the Gulf Coast.

Educators have the unique opportunity to volunteer teaching time all over the world. Explore volunteerinternational.org for additional resources on overseas volunteering. As a teacher, you can decide which program is right for you. They have many different levels of autonomy and creature comforts. You can also decide whether you would like to go to an urban or rural area.

More travel ideas and suggestions from Yahoo! Can be found at travel.yahoo.com/ideas.

Fodor’s has a wealth of information on hundreds of destinations around the globe. Go to fodors.com/world.

Fodor’s also have information on cruises and travel deals.

2. Do a little DIY. Seasoned do-it-yourself-ers know the best place to find great information on any home improvement subject such as painting, windows and doors, flooring, decorating, remodeling, electrical work, plumbing, bathrooms, kitchens, or yard work is the official DIY Network (diynetwork.com). Go to this site for expert advice, inspiring ideas, and sources for purchasing home improvement related products. Better Homes and Gardens also has a great section on DIY projects (tinyurl.com/bhgdiy).

3. Read a Good Book. A great way to find out what everyone else is reading is (of course) to check out the New York Times Bestseller List. (tinyurl.com/nytbk ). They categorize all genres and age differentiations, as well as hardcover, paperback and e-book editions. What should you read next? Whatshouldireadnext.com) is a great website to use for suggestions on your next literary conquest. Simply type the title of the last book you’ve read into the search field and a list will be generated of several appropriate titles.

5. Throw a party. Now is the time to reconnect with old friends and cultivate new relationships. It’s easy to plan a party of any size when you have a theme in mind. For summer, if you have a grill, you might want to have a traditional barbecue, a shish-ka-bob party, or a fish fry. If you’re a vegetarian, you could have a vegetarian chili cook-off and have your guests bring the main course. Crock-pot pot-luck parties are always fun — just provide some side dishes, put out some power strips, and let your guests plug in!

Here are a few sites to help you plan the perfect summer get together:

Summer Party Planning from Country Living Magazine (tinyurl.com/clsummer).

Summer Party Planner from Real Simple Magazine (tinyurl.com/RSsummer).

Summer Party Menu Planner from Epicurious.com (tinyurl.com/EPIsummer).

Great Summer party planning tips from the site She Knows (tinyurl.com/sheknowsSummer).

Summer party planning tips from the Food Network (tinyurl.com/fnetsummer)

6. Improve Your Cultural Cred. You may just want to kick back and do nothing but lie around all day this summer — but don’t squander that opportunity to learn about something new. Plug into your ipod and veg out to these excellent culturally enhancing and mind-expanding podcasts.

The Dinner Party Download (tinyurl.com/dpdnld)

Interesting stories about history, current events, food, and celebrity interviews. The Splendid Table(splendidtable.publicradio.org) Hosted by Lynn Rossetto Kasper , this is the best podcast in the country for recipes, ideas, and food-related information.

Open Culture Library (tinyurl.com/oclibr )

Hundreds of downloadable cultural and educational podcasts.

7. Redesign your surroundings. Have you developed a personal style for your home and surroundings? Over the years, people acquire things that may not be in line with the core style that they want for their homes, and over time, the overall style of their homes become unclear. Use the time you have this summer to take stock of what you have and purge those things that might be diluting the core style of your home. It would help to first choose a specific style, source, or period, (i.e. mid-century modern, rustic, mission, French country, minimalist, pottery barn, West Elm, Design Within Reach, etc.) that you find aesthetically pleasing. Here are a few sources to inspire:

Design*Sponge (designsponge.com)

Design*Sponge is a design blog run by Brooklyn-based writer, Grace Bonney. Launched in August of 2004, the site updates between 6-8 times per day and was declared a “Martha Stewart Living for the Millennials” by the New York Times. Design*Sponge attracts a diverse group of devoted readers across the globe.

Apartment Therapy (apartmenttherapy.com) Their mission statement says it all: “Helping people make their homes more beautiful, organized and healthy by connecting them to a wealth of resources, ideas and community online.”

8. Beautify Your Table. Nothing brightens up a room or makes a positive impression like fresh flowers. Summer is a great time to start brightening up your table with a nice vase full of fresh flowers. Whether from your own yard or the store, fresh flowers make a subtle statement in any room. Here is an excellent video about creating summer floral arrangements from Master Florist Chris Giftos on the Martha Stewart Show: (tinyurl.com/msflsum)

Go here: tinyurl.com/florclass for an excellent outline of all the tools and techniques you need to create professional looking flowers arrangements.

9. Improve your eating habits. In a recent documentary, Forks Over Knives, scientists show how a healthy diet with little or no animal products improved common medical problems such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Even if you’re not willing to give up your cheeseburgers entirely, it might be a good idea to use the summer as a kick-off for healthier eating. Here are some interesting sources on the web:

Healthy Recipes from the Food Network.

(tinyurl.com/healtheat )

The official Forks Over Knives website has success stories, recipes and more. forksoverknives.com)

10. Stay home and relax. Sometimes the best thing you can do for yourself is nothing. Or almost nothing. Use your relaxation time to reflect on yourself and work out your thoughts. The simple act of becoming relaxed can have great health benefits. Here are some great resources for learning how to relax. Stress management and relaxation techniques from the Mayo Clinic. (tinyurl.com/strsmgt) Blissing Out: 10 Relaxation Techniques To Reduce Stress On-the-Spot from WebMD. (tinyurl.com/blissout) Go to Naturalnews.com for relaxation news, articles and information.

Whatever you choose to do this summer, have a happy, safe, and healthy one!

The Museum of Mathematics

2012-05-25T08:09:00.003-07:00

Set to open this fall, NYC's Museum of Mathematics hopes to inspire math exploration and discovery. Check out their new website -- there are a lot of interesting events and exhibits planned.

The Museum of Mathematics

Cool Things to do in Small Spaces

2012-05-25T07:56:00.003-07:00

The Music Box - New Orleans

Latest Library Look-Ups

2012-05-16T08:57:00.000-07:00

Literary Criticisms for The Great Gatsby
Life in Ancient Rome
The Use of Light and Dark in Romeo and Juliet
The Civil Rights Movement
The Atomic Bomb
Music in the Middle Ages
Chivalry

Revitalize Your Social Skills

2012-05-02T07:45:00.003-07:00

So you have a Facebook page, a MySpace page, and a Twitter account – think you’re on top of the Social Media game? Here are a bunch of up and coming networks that may give our go-to sites a run for their money. Whether you’re interested in a specialized area or just want a place to keep all of the fun sites you visit categorized and easy to access in one place – there’s something for everyone here.

Delicious (Delicious.com)

Use this free social bookmarking web service for storing, sharing, and discovering web bookmarks. Delicious is the place to collect and showcase your passions from across the web. Save what you like - videos, pictures, tweets, blog posts, or articles - on topics you enjoy and compile them into one themed stack for easy sharing. To get started, drop the Delicious bookmarklet in your browser bar and use it to add websites to themed stacks. Personalize each link with your comments and invite friends and colleagues to contribute their own links as well. You can keep your stack private, or, when it’s ready to share, publish your stack and help others discover your finds.Stacks can be about anything you’re interested in - your favorite cookie recipes, how the federal budget works, or the world’s most atrocious sweaters.

Digg

(Digg.com)

This site builds lists of popular stories being shared across the web. Every story has a “Digg” button which also shows the number of people who have indicated that they like or ‘dig’ that story. The number of ‘diggs’ a story collects over time can affect how that story spreads and gains in popularity.

Fark

(Fark.com)

Fark is a community website created by Drew Curtis that allows members to comment on a daily batch of news articles and other items from various websites. As of June 2009, the site boasts approximately four million unique visitors per month, which puts it among the top 100 English language websites. The site receives over 2,500 story submissions per day and approximately 100 of them are publicly displayed on the site, spread out over the main page and tabs (Entertainment, Sports, Geek, Politics and Business).

StumbleUpon

(stumbleupon.com)

StumbleUpon is a discovery engine (a form of web search engine) that finds and recommends web content to its users. Its features allow users to discover and rate Web pages, photos, and videos that are personalized to their tastes and interests using peer-sourcing and social-networking principles.

Mixx

(Mixx.com)

Mixx is a user-driven social media web site that serves to help users submit or find content by peers based on interest and location. It combines social networking and bookmarking with web syndication, blogging and personalization tools.

(Reddit.com)

Reddit is a social news website where the registered users submit content, in the form of either a link or a text "self" post. Other users then vote the submission "up" or "down," which is used to rank the post and determine its position on the site's pages and front page..

Technorati

(Technorati.com)

Technorati is an Internet search engine for searching blogs. By June 2008, Technorati was indexing 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media. The name Technorati is a blend of the words technology and literati, which invokes the notion of technological intelligence or intellectualism.

LIBRARIAN’S CHOICE: Pinterest (Pinterest.com)
Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.

Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.

Save Time and Money with Your Library Card

2012-04-24T10:29:00.002-07:00

When thinking of ways to save money in these tough economic times, the public library might be your best bet. For those of you who pay attention to personal finance, the public library should be near the top of the list of money-saving resources. It’s true that we have unprecedented access to a lot of free information and services, but there are still some expenses that can be significantly reduced if we take the time to use the library’s resources.

Top Ten Advantages to Having a Library Card:

Books. If you enjoy turning the pages of a solid tome in your hands, there are many advantages to borrowing books from the library. Besides being free, library books can be requested online and picked up at any location you like. Public libraries usually have bestsellers and new non-fiction titles in prominent easy-to-browse displays. Treat your library visit like a shopping trip and peruse what’s new.
DVDs. No matter what you pay to rent movies, it costs more than checking them out from your local library. Picking up DVDs from the library isn’t as convenient as Netflix or other home streaming video services, but it’s still frugal. You can go online and put movies on hold, browse by subject, actor, or release date.
CDs. Again, pick them up for free, listen to them for free.
Downloads. It’s a little-known fact that many libraries allow cardholders to download audio and electronic books, movies, and MP3s from the comfort of their homes. How exciting is that?
Museum Passes. Lots of libraries hold one or two passes to local museums that cardholders can check out for a day in order to avoid entrance fees. These passes tend to be popular though, so it’s a good idea to stop by the library early in the day to request them. Libraries sometimes also offer free passes for patrons to attend concerts and local events.
Software/Databases. We are fortunate to be able to access a lot of free information and tools from our homes thanks to Google and open source applications, but libraries often have subscriptions to resources like LexisNexis, Gale Cengage databases, local history resources, and the Adobe Creative Suite. All you need to access them is a library card.
Librarians. These people are trained to research and find answers to all of your most probing questions completely free of charge, and most of them really enjoy doing it. Librarians are there to help you find any type information that you might be looking for, whether it’s a phone number, a tax form, or how to access library services — just ask!
Classes. Libraries exist to encourage life-long learning, so they frequently offer classes or discussions on a variety of subjects. You usually don’t need a library card to attend these, and they can range in subject from arts and crafts to how to purchase real estate. Many libraries also offer online courses on various subjects.
Wi-Fi. Absolutely always free.
A Place to Kick Up Your Feet. Unlike Starbuck’s, at the library you can settle in for some quality work, studying or reading without having to fork over $10.00 for a latte and a muffin.

Besides offering so many important things for free, libraries are community staples and great places to learn about what’s going on in your neighborhood. Explore what your local library has to offer — your wallet may thank you!

Go To The Library -- For Your Health!!

2012-04-24T10:24:00.002-07:00

Finding quality information on nutrition, fitness, and health can be easy if you know where to look. There are a lot of unreliable sources out there. Check out the following links to find information about general nutrition and health, the various food groups, and physical activity information, as well as resources geared towards children, parents, and communities.

Harvard School of Public Health publishes an online nutrition news and resource center:

tinyurl.com/hsph100

The Harvard Prevention Research Center on Nutrition and Physical Activity works with community partners to design, implement and evaluate programs that improve nutrition and physical activity, and reduce overweight and chronic disease risk among children and youth. The Harvard Prevention Research Center offers additional materials and resources that compliment this Food and Fun curriculum: tinyurl.com/hsphprev

Let’s Move is First Lady Michelle Obama’s initiative to provide parents with the support they need to make healthy family choices, provide healthier school foods, help kids to be more physically active, and make healthy, affordable food available in every part of the U.S. www.letsmove.gov

Alliance for a Healthier Generation is a joint venture between the American Heart Association and the Clinton Foundation with a mission to reduce the nationwide prevalence of childhood obesity by 2015 and to empower kids nationwide to make healthy lifestyle choices. www.healthiergeneration.org

The Nemours Foundation's Center for Children's Health Media created KidsHealth to provide families with doctor-approved information that they can understand and use. Includes sites for parents, children, and teenagers and provides a variety of health information, including nutrition and fitness topics.

www.kidshealth.org

Also available in Spanish:

tinyurl.com/khspan

2012-04-13T22:21:00.000-07:00

Information Literacy Check

by Corinna Mansfield, School Library Media Specialist

In the School Library world,

the term “Information Literacy” appears quite often in mission statements, is frequently thrown about in collaborative planning sessions, and is invariably used as the theme for library-related conference programs. It’s high time to remind ourselves what this term

really means for students, for teachers who bring their students in for library instruction, and for the school library in general.

In order for a School Library Media Program to be effective, Information Literacy must be the foundation — the central idea that drives all of the other pieces in the program — and everyone involved must have a clear understanding of the outcomes to strive for. According to the American Library Association, “Information Literacy is the ability to identify what information is needed, understand how the information is organized, identify the best sources of information for a given need, locate those sources, evaluate the sources critically, and share that information. It is the knowledge of commonly used research techniques.” Most importantly for students in this world of ever-growing information, Information Literacy is the compass needed to navigate information of any format. Information used in

student research should be authoritative, current, and reliable, and the truly “information-literate” student will be able to identify those features. The information-literate student will also be able to identify when sources are biased, out of date, misleading, or false. Another piece of the puzzle is the ability

to easily use different types of technologies to access, manipu- late, and create information. Once students have mastered these abilities and tools, (hopefully well before the end of high school), they can then use them in every phase of their lives. Not only used for academic purposes, mastering these skills is a necessity to be successful in the workplace, while making consumer purchasing decisions, for becoming an informed citizen, and for exercising their right to vote.

Here is a sampling of some of the objectives School Library Media

Professionals incorporate into their lesson planning:

⇒ Understand the basics of the Internet — More and more people are using the Internet as their only source of information. Students who have a firm understanding of what the Internet is, how it works, and where the content comes from will be able to easily access that information.

⇒ Identify different levels of information authority —When students have the skills to differentiate between the types and quality of the information they are accessing, they can then make better decisions. Students should understand the difference between what is popular and what is scholarly. They should be able to identity whether or not a source is primary or secondary.

⇒ Differentiate between formats of information — Students in the Library Media Center learn about using databases which sometimes include magazine and news articles, audio clips, videos, reference sources, and more. A student working on a research paper must be able to identify what type of source they are using and include an accurate citation of it in their bibliography.

Explore Your Own History

2012-03-08T07:54:00.002-08:00

I recently became acquainted with the genealogy-tracing website Ancestry.com. Fortunatly, I have a well-documented family history chock-full of people seemingly obsessed with recording all of their minutia into the public record for the last thousand years. Although I already knew that I was related to the original pilgrims, John and Priscilla Alden, and that five of my ancestors fought in the revolutionary war, I did not know that I was related to several medieval knights and noblemen, and that my family is associated with 10 different castles located all over England, Wales, Scotland, France, and Germany. It was fascinating to see all of the first names like Rufus, Comfort, Theophilus, and Saphronia that were used regularly for nearly 300 years, only to disappear several generations ago.

Rockland Female Institute

Using Ancestry.com, I can now see how I am directly connected to all of these people and places through time — and ultimately how we are all connected. I have a new appreciation and understanding of the efforts and toil that people suffered before me, and how they were all essential to the existence of me and my future generations.

Fittingly, for Women’s History Month, I discovered that I am related to the Reverend D.L. Mansfield, the headmaster of the Rockland Female Institute who in 1873 caused a “sensation” by bringing four young ladies down to the election polls to cast their ballots and “test the question” of women’s suffrage in Nyack — 47 years before the 19th Amendment was ratified.

The oldest ancestor I could locate, with any documented certainty from one of the twelve lines I was tracing, was Lady Fredegunde (died 760), great-grand-daughter of Chlodia, one of the first Frankish kings who was rumored by legend to have been sired by a quinotaur. That’s where I stopped — I draw the line at being related to mythical creatures. I think the further back you go, the sketchier things become. It will be interesting to see where the other lines go.

For additional information on local history and genealogy use your library card to access the Rockland County Ramapo-Catskill Library System. Resources include Britannica's Annals of American History, The Hudson River Valley Heritage digital collection, HRVH Historical Newspapers database, Ancestry Plus,

ProQuest Historical New York Times database, the Rockland County Messenger, and Biographies in Context databases. Happy hunting!!