Blogging Librarian » Useful Resources

Resources for Teens

Isaak Kwok — Wed, 14 May 2008 05:40:20 +0000

Yesterday, I had a post more towards to children books. So, for today, I found two resources (via LibrarianInBlack) for teens.

The first one that you should check out is Turning The Paige. It’s a teens’ book review blog and is run by Paige Turner, who reads and reviews the books. You can search for books by genre, age level, series or grade through the categories in the sidebar. Turner has a rating system for the books reviewed which would not be foreign to students … A+ to F-. As the site was started only at the beginning of the year, there are not many reviews at the moment. But you might be interested in the “Top 10 Lists” category to find interesting reads.

As for the second resource, the name of the site is Ergo and is created and run by the State Library of Victoria, Australia. Information literacy for students and teachers at the high school / secondary school level is the focus of the site. It has great resources on research skills, essay writing skills and study skills. It has also many great resources for teachers as well. Although the site is quite Victoria- and Australia-centric in terms of the content, there are still many useful tips that anyone can use.

Quick Links - Pokemon Teaches Kids About Libraries And Other Stories - 13 May 2008

Isaak Kwok — Tue, 13 May 2008 09:08:58 +0000

- “Libraries Aren’t Just Buildings Where Books Are Kept”

(via The Shifted Librarian)

- Just One More Book
Just One More Book is a podcast about children’s books. It is run by a husband and wife team and the podcasts are recorded in their favorite coffee shop somewhere in Ottawa, Canada. The podcasts are posted about 3 times per week and they range from 5 and 25 minutes in length. The topics for the podcasts cover favorite books and interviews with authors as well as literacy issues. To date, there are more than 300 podcasts that have been archived. Do go check it!
(via LibrarianInBlack)

- Lexicographical Longing
The Oxford English Dictionary (O.E.D.) seems to be going the way of the dodo bird. The publishers, Oxford University Press, has decided not to publish a new print edition. So, the last printed edition of O.E.D. was done in 1989 and was in 20 volumes. At the moment, the editors at O.E.D. are slowly transferring all the content onto the Web. You can register for an account at OED.com though it costs money (US$300 a year or US$30 a month).

Quick Links - Librarian Song and Other Stories - 27 March 2008

Isaak Kwok — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 06:51:41 +0000

The Librarian Song by Joe Uveges

YouTube Direct Link

- Taking Play Seriously at the Public Library with Young Video Gamers
The New York Public Library recently organized an event as part of their “Game On @ The Library!” initiative to showcase their latest addition to their collection - video games. Game consoles, such as Nintendo’s Wii, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s Playstation 3 amongst others, were put around the lobby of the library for anyone to try out the different video games on giant TV projector screens. And they hope to expand their range of games to even online PC games such as ever popular World of Warcraft.
(via LISNews)

- Seven Deadly Words of Book Reviewing
This is meant more for my personal note as I do a little book reviewing for MPOW. Anyway, some choice words that you should avoid using when doing your book reviews such as poignant, compelling and intriguing.
(via LISNews)

- Lookybook
An ebook site dedicated to children’s picture books. Definitely worth a look if you’re a children’s librarian. Currently, there are about 200+ titles and the site hopes to expand that to 1000 by the mid of the year. Reading is free and you don’t even need to register. However, registration to the site allows you to create bookshelves, read and write reviews, and email interesting books to your friends, amongst other privileges.
(via LibrarianInBlack)

Quick Links - “100 Books Every Child Should Read” and Other Stories - 23 February 2008

Isaak Kwok — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 00:30:33 +0000

- 100 books every child should read
A pretty long article that has been broken up into 4 parts. This first part is just an introduction into the joys of reading, particularly when you start at an early age. The other three list the books according to the age of the child: early years, middle years and early teens.

- Kerpoof
What’s this you ask? Well, this is the children’s version of Facebook without the deluge of ignoring application invites. The site is for children to communicate and collaborate with each other online. And the site only allows kids that know each other to interact online. Interestingly, the company that runs Kerpoof says that more and more schools are using it in the US. I guess teachers are also making of online tools as much as librarians in engaging kids.
(via Techcrunch)

- Bookchase®
Ever wanted to run your own little bookshop, but without laying out the actual capital? Well, now you can! A company in the UK has developed the world’s first board game about books. And it does look really interesting. The price is a little steep for a board game at S$90 before shipping, but I know who would be interested in playing it.
(via LibrarianInBlack)

- Gaming, School Libraries and Curriculum
Next time anyone asks you why you are playing so much video games, point them to this article. Just don’t quote me on it. Alternatively, you might also want to read Paul Waelchli’s article on the skills used to play popular videogames.
(via The Shifted Librarian)

- MCL Learning 2.0
Chance upon this site when I was doing some search on Web 2.0 usage in libraries. Very interesting and I’m sure we can use some of this to encourage more staff to dip their toes into the giant pool of Web 2.0 tools and technologies. I think I’ll also be using this to prepare for my talks to teachers on the use of Web 2.0 tools for schools.

- Librarians at the gates
Although this news article is about the striking library staff in Victoria, Canada, I particularly like the quote from one of the reference librarians, Peter Thompson, who says, “If you don’t like working with people, you won’t like librarianship.” How true!!! Read the article for more inspiring quotes from this same librarian.
(via LISNews)

- Public Transportation Meets Public Library
Very interesting concept to put book vending machines at BART stations (that’s like our MRT stations). However, the concept might not work in Singapore given that most libraries are at close proximity to the MRT stations. But maybe we can put it at, say, Changi Airport for travelers to pick up a book on their way out of the country.
(via Library Stuff)

Video: Google Docs in Plain English

Isaak Kwok — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 09:31:22 +0000

Click To Play

Common Craft has just created another kick-ass video on the new version of Google Docs, that now includes Presentation in addition to Document and Spreadsheet. If you noticed, they have also made a name changed from “Google Docs and Spreadsheets” to “Google Docs”.

Enjoy the video.

Quick Links - News from Around the Library World - 28 August 2007

Isaak Kwok — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 09:02:57 +0000

- Beyond Google: How do students conduct academic research by Alison J. Head
A research paper that looks at how students do their research. Surprisingly, the study found that the majority of the students started their research by first consulting their lecturers’ course notes or on their school’s library website for online access to scholarly journals rather than going straight to Google, Yahoo! or Wikipedia. However, they did have a difficult time in determining and evaluating the information they found from the scholarly journals. Well, that’s a very short summary of the entire paper. What I found interesting from the paper is that the students do know where and how to search, but what they have difficulty with is the evaluation and presentation of the information found. As for students in Singapore, they rely a little too much on search engines and Wikipedia, which I found out when I was conducting a library workshop on electronic databases yesterday. So, more effort needs to put into encouraging better use of our electronic databases that are available in our public libraries.

- Multimedia Librarian
A wiki of useful websites, listservs and other resources that are of help in the collection development of DVDs, CDs and web content.
(via LibrarianInBlack.net)

- Beloit College’s Mindset List for the Class of 2011
A useful list for everyone, particularly teachers and librarians, to just know a little bit more about those who were born in 1989 and who would be entering university this year (for the ladies in Singapore as the guys will have to serve National Service).
(via The Shifted Librarian)

- Ask for What You Want
An interesting article in this month’s Library Journal by Michael Casey and Michael Stephens about the need for librarians to change our image in the eyes of the public. Whenever I tell someone that I’m a librarian, their first impression is that I stamp books or spend the whole day reading. So, what do you think can help change the image of librarians?
(via Tame The Web)

Technorati Tags: librarians, libraries

My Top 10 Tools for Learning

Isaak Kwok — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 04:44:27 +0000

Inspired by Ruminations’ Top 10 favorite learning tools, here’s my top 10 list.

Firefox / Safari - I use both browsers interchangeably though my current default browser is Firefox as I like the extensions it allows me to install that helps in my learning. However, Safari seems to be a little faster in processing the pages, but I’ll have to sacrifice the extensions. So, normally, I’ll have both browsers open. By the way, Safari 3.0 Beta is also available for Windows XP and Vista.
del.icio.us - A social bookmarking tool that allows me to store my bookmarks online and I’m able to share with others if I want to.
NetNewsWire / Google Reader - Most of my learning and reading is through my RSS feed reader. When I don’t have access to my MacBook Pro, then I’ll rely on Google Reader.
Google Search - I’m sure everyone uses Google Search, particularly librarians. Just need to know how to use this very powerful correctly.
WordPress - All my blogs run on self-hosted WordPress. If you are not into self-installing, then they have a hosted version that you can sign up for free at WordPress.com.
Flickr - Since I moved to digital photography about 5 years ago, I’ve got tons of photos that have not seen the light of day as I had no way to display it online. The difficult way was to create a website and put all the photos up there. Or the new and simpler way which is simply upload it to Flickr. However, I’ve also started using another photo-sharing site, Zooomr, which has the same functionalities as Flickr but with a little less restrictions on what you can put up.
YouTube - A great place for me to find out what other libraries are doing as overseas libraries, particularly in the States, are quite fond of putting up videos of their events as well as promotional videos.
iTunes / iPod - Great place to download podcasts to find out what’s happening. And when I’m not at my MacBook Pro, then I’ve got my video iPod with me.
Wikipedia - It’s a good place to find some understanding of any topic so that I can do further searches on Google or NLB’s cataglogue though it can’t be totally relied on for factual information. However, there were some unscientific tests done that showed that the accuracy of information was higher than Encyclopedia Britannica in the subjects of science and engineering.
Amazon / Bookjetty - I usually come here to look for the latest books published as well as the bestsellers lists so that I can make informed decisions on the requests to acquire books. And Bookjetty allows me to search for books on both Amazon and NLB’s catalogue at the same time.
Gmail - I use Gmail for subscribing to library-related mailing lists.

So, what are some of your useful tools of learning as well as your thoughts on the tools I’ve mentioned above?

Technorati Tags: amazon.com, bookjetty, flickr, gmail, google reader, google search, ipod, itunes, list, personal learning toolset, top 10, wikipedia, wordpress, youtube, zoomr

New List of the Seven Wonders of the World

Isaak Kwok — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 05:22:32 +0000

A non-profit foundation has just announced the list of the Seven New Wonders of the World at a glitzy ceremony at Portugal’s Benfica stadium last Saturday.

The list is as follows:

The Great Wall of China
Machu Picchu in Peru
Statue of Christ in Brazil
The Colosseum in Rome, Italy
Petra in Jordan
The Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza in Mexico
Taj Mahal in India

According to the organizers, New7Wonders, about 100 million votes were received over the Internet or through SMS messaging. The whole process has taken six years before the seven locations were announced.

However, it must be noted that this list has not been sanctioned by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which has its own World Heritage List that currently numbers 660 cultural and 166 natural sites.

(via BBC News, CNN.com and news.com.au)

Technorati Tags: news, seven new wonders of the world

New Feature on BookJetty

Isaak Kwok — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 15:06:53 +0000

Just saw this on Herryanto’s blog about a fantastic new feature for BookJetty users.

If you haven’t used BookJetty before, then this is a perfect time to join and use it. This new feature will SMS you the book call number when you click on a SMS link on the book title you are looking for. This replaces the need to write it down on paper, which can be misplaced easily.

The feature is made possible via integration with Twitter.com’s API. If you don’t have Twitter account yet, then you would have to register for one in order to use this SMS notification feature.

It’s definitely a cool feature that will be useful to lots of people. Though you might have the call number in your phone, you can still approach a librarian to help you locate a book quickly.

Technorati Tags: amazon, bookjetty, books, catalogue, libraries

Quick Links - Online Resources - 15 May 2007

Isaak Kwok — Tue, 15 May 2007 05:15:41 +0000

- Encyclopedia of Life
Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) is an online reference source and database for 1.8 million specifies that are named and known on Earth. What’s interesting is that the information on EOL is mashups of content from different sources and then verified by scientists for authenticity. The information on EOL will also be updated as and when data is discovered from scientists around the world. You can watch a YouTube video presentation of what to expect as the main resource has not been launched yet.
(via Techcrunch)

- Online Community/Social Media SUPER List by Shara Karasic
A huge index of public online communities and network sites as well as links to online resources.
(via Full Circle Online Interaction Blog)

- You don’t look like a librarian!
The site is “a collection of talks and resources relating to the image and perception of librarians in the Internet age.”
(via What I Learned Today…)

Technorati Tags: librarians, online communities, online resources