LibraryTrax

I mentioned in a previous post that I was lucky enough to attend the TechSource Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Symposium this year in Chicago.  You can now find audio from most, if not all, the sessions over at TechSource.

It’s hard for me to highlight just one of the many terrific sessions I attended, but if you only have time to listen to one or two of the sessions, here are my picks:

• James Paul Gee’s keynote address on Libraries, Gaming, and the New Equity Crisis.  James Paul Gee is the Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies at Arizona State University, and he is providing some of the best research out there on video games and learning.  His keynote was an excellent look at key learning principles and how games address them.  My favorite!
• Eli Neiburger’s featured presentation on  The Payoff, Up Close and Personal.  Eli is the manager of Information Access and Systems at the Ann Arbor District Library in Michigan.  He runs the game program at AADL, and has lots of anecdotes about the positive role games have played in not only bringing young people into the library, but also how it has changed their view on who we are and what we do.

There is audio for more than 30 sessions available, so take a look!

Senator James H. “Jim” Ritchie, Jr., Majority Whip, announced the six iAm Laptop Pilot Program grant recipient schools on August 13. $5 million in funding will go to six public schools to provide laptops to all ninth grade students. If this pilot is successful, it is anticipated to be expanded to all SC schools, providing laptops to all SC ninth grade students.

The schools chosen for the pilot are:

• Midland Valley, Aiken School District
• Scott’s Branch, Clarendon School District 1
• CA Johnson, Richland School District 1
• Lakewood High, Sumter School District 2
• Bethune-Bowman, Orangeburg School District 5
• Creek Bridge, Marion School District 7

Two alternate schools were also named:

• Broome High, Spartanburg School District 3
• Marion High, Marion School District 1

Senator Ritchie said, “The iAm Laptop Pilot Program provides a unique opportunity to couple cutting edge technology with modern teaching techniques to greatly enhance the competitiveness of all South Carolina students, especially those currently stuck in underperforming schools. No longer will our students be limited to traditional school hours and teaching methods. Instead, this program will provide our young people with the educational resources necessary to say ‘I am in charge of my future. I am the future of South Carolina.’ This program places South Carolina in the forefront of innovation and is an important strategy to improve equity and opportunity among all of our high school students.”

The program begins Fall 2007.

A few months back, Julie posted about LibraryThing’s new service, LibraryThing for Libraries: www.librarything.com/forlibraries/. With this service (not free, but not exorbinant either) a library will be able to provide tag browsing, user reviews and ratings, and book recommendations via their online catalog.

Now Richland County Public Library is doing a test of LibraryThing for Libraries in their catalog. I would love to know if any other library in the state is also trying out this service.

Not all materials have added content (notably CDs and movies) and this is still a test, but the results look great so far!

Here are some screenshots from The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Notice the similar books feature right on the front page of the catalog record. Now you as a librarian don’t have to know -anything- about a book to come up with at least a few Reader’s Advisory suggestions. The tag cloud is also a great way to find out something about the book. Now we know it is about friendship in the Middle East, likely in Afghanistan, focusing on the Taliban War.

But the best part may be when you click on a tag. Here is what happens when you click on friendship. Now you get books that are in the RCPL catalog that are tagged friendship as well. You also get a list of tags again from The Kite Runner and a list of tags that are similar to friendship (such as coming of age, family, and young adult).

Notice also the search box where you can search for tags right in this screen. Now when someone comes looking for “something semi-biographical set in Paris in World War I about loyalty and orphans”, I’ll know where to search.

It’s no secret how much we like Michael Stephens here at SCSL.  He wowed us (and many of you) last year at the TechExpress Technology Institute.  It turns out that he hasn’t forgotten us either.  He recently published a post titled Nothing Could Be Finer over on ALA TechSource about South Carolina.  He writes:

“And I’m also keeping a close eye on the state of South Carolina. If here ever was a state filled with library goodness, it would be there.”

He highlights the results of our Emerging Technologies survey, as well as SCSL’s web site, and the “Day in the Life of SC Libraries” photo project.  Read the whole article here, and check out Michael’s blog, Tame the Web.  He’s always publishing great things there.

So here’s a big THANKS to Michael for getting the word out about us, but more importantly, THANKS to the SC library community for helping us be something to talk about!

I finished Harry Potter last night. (Don’t worry…you won’t get any spoilers out of me.) So the question is…if JK Rowling doesn’t write more HP books, where will I satisfy my craving for new spells, Quidditch, Harry’s burning scar, and bickering between Hermione and Ron? How about over at LiveJournal?

I had the good fortune to attend the TechSource Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Symposium a couple of weeks ago. Great conference! (You’ll be hearing more about it in future blog posts.) One session I attended was We’re in Ur Library Bein’ Ur Books: Making and Using Book-Based RPG’s with Middle Schoolers. RPG’s are role playing games, and in this case, I’m talking about a role-playing game, using LiveJournal, a popular blogging site, where players write in the voices of book characters.  I did a keyword search of LiveJournal and found about 30 active Harry Potter RPG’s.

What a fascinating idea! How many times have you sat down with a book and imagined the story that isn’t written on the pages in your hand? I feel that way all the time, especially with a series like Harry Potter, where there are so many interesting characters that go somewhat undeveloped. Think of the great play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard, the story of two minor characters from Hamlet.

Why not try something like this for a library program? I think it would be great for kids and teens, but my bet is that you’d get interest from adults too.

Kit Ward-Crixell, the speaker at the symposium session gave these tips for setting a program:

• Set up a LiveJournal account for the game (or some other environment, like Ning or Yahoo Groups, where you can easily create a community)
• Create the community, with settings and backstory, and rules
  • Some rules to start:
    • Only write for your own character
    • No posts that involve other characters without that character’s permission
    • No killing off characters that aren’t yours
• Establish a “rating range” for posts—G, PG, PG-13?
• Establish a time period. How long will the game run? Don’t let it go on indefinitely.
• The moderator should make the first post and set up everything for the other players
• Players do introduction posts to start, laying out there characters
• Moderator decides how much to control the plot
• Create another community that is the “backstage” area where only members can post and read other posts. Players can use this area to share ideas without interfering with the storyline.

If you’re concerned about copyright, start with a folk tale and its characters or perhaps use historical figures in fictional situations.  The point is to get your players to be creative, to write and to read other writing.  In order to participate successfully, they have to read the posts of the other players and be more than a little familiar with the original work that inspired the game.  Who knows, you may be able to foster the talent of the next JK Rowling.