eBooks!!!!!

Two weeks ago I wrote about the new Destiny Quest app. You can read about it here Since writing that post I have figured out the ins and outs of reading eBooks on your mobile devices. Quest works with another app called Follett Shelf. Together you can check out eBooks on your iPad or tablet. Pretty cool. While you can't use the Quest App on a Nook or Kindle you CAN use the Follett Shelf on them. 

So here is the deal...

1. If you plan on checking out eBooks on your device, you must have created a username and password in the library. You cannot check out if you do not log in.  If you need to create a username and password please stop by the library and we will help you!
2. Download the Apps! Destiny Quest is much easier to use but you should also download Follett Shelf. Both can be found in the App store or Android market
3. Once you have them on your device you will be asked to provide the URL for St. Philip's Library. For Destiny Quest it is www.stphiliptheapostle.follettdestiny.com for Follett Shelf it is https://wbb08619.follettshelf.com
4. Just like Destiny Quest is linked in a tab at the top of this blog so is Follett Shelf. If you just want to read eBooks I suggest using Follett Shelf as a starting point. 
5. The best part about Destiny Quest/Follett Shelf is that you do not have to come to the library to check out an eBook. You can do it right from your device! The loan period is for 5 days. If you haven't finished the book after the 5 days, just check it out again. If you have finished the book, please check it back in for others to enjoy. 

Once you start exploring you might realize that we don't actually have THAT many eBooks. But fear not fellow falcons because I just placed a huge order for eBooks! Once everything has been processed they will be placed in our system and ready for immediate check out!

If you have any book suggestions don't be afraid to let me know!

If you haven't heard...

The new databases are officially up and running. I have blogged about them quite a bit you can read about ABC CLEO Here and Proquest HERE. These subscription resources are truly amazing. In fact I believe they are vital to an education. Students must learn how to find reliable information beyond Google. Not that Google isn't good; it just shouldn't be the only place to find information. In fact, there is a world of free search engines out there that work differently than Google and return some amazing result. BUT that is an entirely different post.

If you missed my explanation of a database please read all about them HERE

Where will your research lead you?

I have tried to make accessing our subscription databases as easy as possible. Up at that top of the page is a tab title Databases. Once you click on it you will see a page with links and buttons to each of our subscriptions. Not every database offers a button or search widget. I hope the databases that are simple links don't get lost among the ones with the fancy buttons. I have also included a small explanation of the purpose of each database. Some cover a full range of grade levels while others are more specific to younger or older students. Take your time to read about them and explore. Now is the best time to do this. It is better to have some knowledge of them before you have to use them for school work. That way when the time comes you already know which database will suit your needs.

Because they are paid subscriptions you need a password to log into them. To simplify this I divided up the databases by username and password.

As always, do not hesitate to comment below with questions or email me.
 

Destiny Quest Mobile App for Android and iOS devices

We have had Destiny Quest available from home for awhile now. Recently I learned that there is an app for your mobile devices. I played around with it a bit last night and found it to be useful but also lacking some features. I hope with updated versions they will add some of the more social features that we have come to love with the full website version. For now you can log into your account, look up books and put them on hold as well as create lists of books you are reading or would like to read.

If you have not created an account and would like to be able to log into to Destiny Quest stop by the library at your lunch time and fill out an account form!


Here is a video of how to set it up. Just be sure to use our web address when you first want to access our catalog. https://stphiliptheapostle.follettdestiny.com



And another video that shows you the features of the mobile app

Rounding Out the Lineup!

I am very excited to announce our brand new database subscriptions from the well known ProQuest Databases. Touted as "indispensable research solutions that connect people and information" I was first introduced to it in high school. Since then I have been a loyal ProQuest user throughout my various careers as student and then educator. Last year I discovered that ProQuest offered services for the elementary library! After some investigation I realized these services were the perfect tools for our students as well as an excellent way to round out my goal of providing a place for our students to access accurate and safe information.

 You may be asking yourself what is included in our new subscription. But first let me tell you that due to some glitch or error I can't provide you with access to these just yet. I'm really disappointed because I want you to explore first hand. Until I hear back from ProQuest I can only paint a little picture of these powerful tools.

Here it is, strait from ProQuest

Makes learning fun and intuitive for young students
"The database includes carefully selected, 100% full-text articles and images from more than 1,900 domestic and international newspapers, magazines, and government documents, along with 9,000+ educational weblinks via the integrated Discoverer WebFind content set."  


Concise, reliable, and up-to-date country reports delivering the world... to you
"CultureGrams helps researchers discover the world with concise cultural and statistical snapshots of every country recognized by the United Nations -- from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. Local experts document the unique, intimate details of each country's customs, traditions and daily life."

The ultimate elementary reference resource
"Students of all ages use eLibrary Elementary's powerful, yet engaging and easy-to-use search interface to find the answers they need from more than 140 magazines, newspapers, books, transcripts, maps, images, educator-approved websites from Homework Central®, plus audio/video titles, all selected as appropriate for elementary school studies."

I feel like I'm writing a brochure for ProQuest!

But in all seriousness, I am very excited that the St. Philip's Library is able to offer these resources to our students. In the coming weeks I will be posting much more about these databases and how best to utilize them. Also look for a post or update about how to access them from home or school.    



 

Librarian for the Day!

It is that time of year again! Today we had to special St. Philip's students as Librarian's for the Day. So I'm handing over the Falcon's Fables to them so they can tell you about their day.

It was fun because it was the best day at the school for us. In the library we got to check out the books. We read to the kinder gardeners. My sister picked the books and she choose Arthur's Underwear and Arthur's Chicken Pox by Marc Brown.

We made a quiz for the third graders. It was about the library. Here are some of the questions we asked.

1. What kind of reference tools do we have online? (Databases and Encyclopedias) 
2. What type of book is the World Book? (Encyclopedia)
3. What is our library website called? (The Falcon's Fables)
4. What type of library tool is an encyclopedia? (Reference tool)
5. If you are reading a book and you don't understand a word, what reference tool can you use to find the meaning of the word? (A dictionary)
6. If you were trying to find a fiction book by Betty G. Birney what would the call number be? (FIC BIR)
7. If you were to find a book on California, what part of the library would it be in? (The Non Fiction Section)
8. Can you check out a reference book? (No)
9. What are some ways in which you can use your Destiny Quest account? (Recommend books, write reviews, save books to lists, put books on hold, make friends)
10. If you aren't finished with your library book and it is due what can you do with your book to keep it for another week? (Renew it!)

If a student got the answer right, they would get a book from the book box to keep.

Today, was a lot of fun.


    

Wall Wishers

Lets celebrate this past school year! Tell us about your favorite day in the library!

Twitter

Just thought I would write a quick little post announcing the use of Twitter in the library. I actually set up a twitter account at the beginning of the school year after I came back from my conference in Minneapolis. I was inspired by technology use in school libraries. But, then I wasn't sure where I wanted to go from there. Of all the ways to use technology in our daily lives I've never been one to pick up my phone and tweet my life away. I just haven't latched onto personal tweets. Yet, over the past year I have found myself to be a follower on twitter. I sign up to follow mommy blogs, cloth diaper sites, historical costumers and photographers (I have a lot of hobbies). What I have come to realized is that I enjoy twitter as a place to learn about updates from my favorite people who offer tips and trick for all my hobbies and interests.

Recently I thought using twitter in this way was the way to go with The Falcon's Fables. If my goal for this blog is to keep the St. Philips community informed of various reference tools as well as report on classes and events, Twitter seems like a logical step in the process. Not meant to replace blog posts where I can get more in depth, I want Twitter to offer small nuggets of information that I think would be useful to our parents and students alike. I have started following various children's authors on twitter as well as other school librarians. I think it will be nice to occasionally have the library classes compose tweets of their own. I know they will be excited to share a book they have read or lesson learned.

I hope you all follow @FalconsFables on Twitter. 

It's Finally Here!!!!!

I've been doing my happy dance! Do you know why?!?! Its for something that we have been wanting for a very long time.

Finally, Destiny Quest, our online library manager and book club is available online. St. Philip's students have learned to enjoy the graphic interface of the program, utilizing it's unique online search engine, social network and book search while at school. As long as a student has created a username and password they can access these features from home.

1. They can search for library books and save them to personal lists.
2. Make friends to share and discuss favorite books and authors.
3. Recommend books to their peers.
4. Write book reviews
5. Use the search engine to access kid and parent approved websites. 

Trust me, it is fun for all. Currently 1st - 5th grade classes have a username and password. If your child does not have one and would like to make one they must come to the library at their lunch time and fill out a request form. I would like to see Jr. High utilizing this wonderful program. 

To access Destiny Quest use the tab located at the top of this blog. Go ahead and bookmark the page also!

5th and Jr. High Databases

The databases for the older students are up and running. We are subscribing through a company called ABC CLEO. I asked for teacher feedback to help decide what databases would be most used by the students. It was decided that Religion and Social Studies would get the most use from the databases. I have done a few random test searches and have found the articles to be interesting and useful but definitely geared toward middle school student. You can access the databases through the tab on top of this page. The username and password are provided on the database page.

We have the following databases:

• American History
• Daily Life Through History
• World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras
• World Religion

1st Database!

Our first database subscription is up and running! To access it you must go to the Database tab at the top of this blog. For now, this is where the access point will be for all database subscriptions. There are two links on the database home page. The 1st is World Book Online, which is our subscription to World Book Encyclopedia. The second link is our brand new database. Pebble Go is geared toward K-3 and is actually two database subscriptions. The first is Animals and the second is Earth and Space Sciences. Both can be accessed thru the same link.

Just like World Book Online, Pebble Go requires a username and password. It is pretty easy for all Falcon's to remember but if you forget, I put them on the database home page.

NOW! Go off and explore!!!!!

Open House

Open house is always such a fun time. When I was a St. Philip's student I remember it being a very exciting day full of anticipation and fun. I see that same excitement on the children's faces today. This is not the same excitement that occurs on the first day of school. Instead of wondering what their classroom will look like and how they will get along with their teacher, open house provides them with the opportunity to show off their classroom. It is now a space that belongs to them and is no longer unfamiliar territory.

I love seeing prospective parents come through the library. I am quite proud of our little space and the wealth of knowledge provided to the students. Perhaps one of my favorite aspects of open house is listening to the 8th graders give tours. I can hear them approaching the library saying things like, "and this is our new library", this always gives me a chuckle and I wonder when we cease to be "new".  In they walk with prospective parents in tow and I become very proud of our students. They speak about the various aspects of the library with confidence. These little tidbits help me see the library from their perspective. I begin to understand what they value and what they are most proud of.

Open house is also a wonderful opportunity to show off what library classes do. I had one very proud 5th grader bring her family to the library. She walk right over to where we store her folder for the year long research project. She probably spent about 5 minutes explaining the project and showing off what she had learned so far. It felt rewarding to know the children are proud of their work. Earlier in the week the kindergarten classes read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff. We discussed the plot of a story and cause and effect. They then wrote their own version of the story and drew illustrations. I told them to stop by during open house to see their work displayed. It was fun to watch them show off their work, read the story to their parents, and point out their illustration.

If you get a chance stop by to read If You Give a Snake a Popsicle and If You Give A Dog an Egg by the kindergarten classes. 

Redesign

The past few weeks I have been working toward revamping The Falcons Fables. I wanted it to be more user friendly and easier to navigate. I believe I have achieved those goals.

The major change has been to move all my links from the side bar to the tabs at the top of the page. I believe the most exciting tab to add was Databases. I have been speaking of them for a while now. I promise that by the end of the year we will have a few more links within that tab. Right now the link for World Book online is located there. Keep an eye out for many more. Also check out the Other Blogs tab. There are many great book related blogs on the web.

I hope you like the redesign. I had fun doing it!

 

You Learn Something New...

I was putting together resource list for the teachers today. While playing around in Destiny Quest, trying to figure out the best way to print a list of specific titles I stumbled upon a way to not only create lists of titles, but to make them available for all to see! I thought that was pretty cool!

So I now have plans to make all kinds of lists. Keep an eye out for them! Once they are created they will be available on the main Destiny Quest page. Here is what it will look like!

Main page with lists

Once you click on a list you can see the titles

Library Lion

One of my all time favorite picture books is Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen. It is a very sweet tale of a lion that wanders into a library and quickly gains a love for story time. Being an animal lover and book lover I immediately take to these types of books and there are plenty out there. For Example...

Another all time favorite is of course Dewey. While the other books are make believe, Dewey was a real life library cat. Abandoned at birth and left for dead in a library book drop, the small town librarians took pity on the tiny kitten. He was nursed back to health and adopted by the town who in turn named him Dewey.

Oh how I wish and dream of such a thing happening in our library. While I know we couldn't keep a kitten or really, any animal in our library I still find joy in the book.  I find joy in all the books that contain libraries and animals. They are charming and after my own heart. While I try to read a diverse selection of books to the children I find that every year I pull Library Lion off the shelf to read. Good thing the children like it also.


So that brings me full circle, back to the original intent of this post. Last Monday I walked into the library, logged into the computer, worked on my lesson plans, checked in some books, drank my coffee, checked my email. I did not go into the the other room where the book shelves are. At 8:30 2A walked in for their class. We gathered in the other room and I began to let them know what their assignment was for the day. Mid explanation I glanced up and gasped. I don't think I finished saying whatever it was I was saying because there, on top of the bookshelves was our very own library lion. I started laughing, only slightly hysterically, while the 2nd graders became more and more perplexed, unsure if I had lost my mind. After gaining control of myself I let them in on the joke. I pointed to the top shelves and they all laughed in relief that no, Mrs. Natalie had not lost her mind after all.

So now we have our very own library lion. I am happy to say that it came from the book fair. I noticed him there. Of course I loved him and even thought how cool would it be if he were in our library. It would be just like the book. Ahaha little did I know! Thank you to whoever decided the lion needed a home in our library. He warms my heart and brightens up our stacks.

He needs a name! What should we name him?

Thank You!

Well another book fair has come and gone. It is probably one of my favorite events. I just adore seeing children and parents getting excited over books. As part of the St. Philip's book fair tradition parents are given the opportunity to purchase books for the classrooms and library. I thought I would give a shout out to the people who donated to the library. So here goes....

Donated by Alisa Balian

Donated by Alexander Balian

Donated by The Norton Family

Donated by Roxanne Key

Thank you for the wonderful books!

I Am a Librarian

I'm a Librarian on Prezi

Bringing Our Students Into the 21st Century

I promissed to tell you about some of my ideas for the library. You see, AASL11 really did open my eyes a bit. First I was so happy to see that our library is right on par with other school libraries. Many of the lessons taught in our library are very similar to other librarians lessons. It is always nice to receive some validation or reassurance that what you are trying to do is not only working but correct.   Second, I have returned with an overflow of ideas for the library and school. I also came to realize that four years after our library opened it is time to step up our game.

The library is now in a comfortable position. We have a circulating collection of almost 6000 books, an excellent online catalogue, and a curriculum that strives to teach inquiry, use of information and book appreciation by the time the students leave 5th grade. While, my lessons continue to be fluid by evolving and adapting each year, I feel it is time to add another focus in my plan to provide a 21st Century library for our school.

What world of information could be hidden in this portal to knowledge?

While reflecting on my conference experience I realize that we must provide our students with safe, easy to navigate online tools. When assigned a research assignment our students automatically turn to Google and Wikipedia. While these resources are not necessarily bad, they should only be used as a jumping off point and most definitely with a certain amount of caution. What the St. Philip student needs is to learn to use online tools such as databases and encyclopedias. Often these things are free through the public library and that is great. But the school should be providing them for our students also. I am currently testing a few databases in my library classes. I have also asked the teachers to take a look at and assess the usefulness of various databases. In my opinion, our lone World Book Encyclopedia subscription is not enough. I plan to provide more before the school year is out.

I am excited to test these databases with both my 4th and 5th grade classes. Look for more posts on how I plan to utilize our free database trials.

Private School Visits

Breck's Elementary library

Very large circulation area.  

I was very excited that AASL11 was offering school tours. I must say, both school were quite impressive! the libraries where HUGE! We are talking K-12 schools.

At the Breck School there were three libraries total. A beautiful elementary library, a small middle school library and an inviting high school library. Each fulfilled the needs of its age group. I must say I was jealous of the space in the elementary library.

They have some very nice reading programs and a wonderful media center connected to the library. They also run a zero period friends of the library program. A representative from each class meets during this time to discuss events, recommend books and work on library related projects. Even the elementary library participates. I'm not sure if something like that would be beneficial to our library program but it was an intriguing idea.

Self check out computer!

Starting in 2nd grade the library offers self check out. Now tha surprised me! This is certainly something I am mulling over in my head. The head librarian could not praise their self check out program enough. While there, I witnessed a few children come into the library, find a book and then self check out.

Smaller middle school library. 

While the elementary library was a dream, the middle school library was more compact and similar to our library. I was excited to see that we have many of the same books. I could tell that Minneapolis children are interested in the same genre and authors as our Pasadena children. The middle school librarian spoke about their current transition from print reference media to online databases. This very idea is something that I have had stewing on the back burner. Part of the Breck School's reasoning is that their middle school library is small and doesn't have the space for reference books. Of course, today's learner is not used to finding their information strictly from books. The biggest contributing factor in their switch is to provide their students with good resources from which they can pull information that is not only useful but easy to access. Unfortunately databases are expensive.

Hello tech. department!

Both schools I toured run a 1 to 1 program where each student has their own netbook or notebook depending on their grade. I believe both programs start in 4th grade. The parents pay a technology fee that essentially purchases the computer and pays for the upkeep and refurbishment each summer. The employ an entire technology department that is available for students and teachers should there be issues with their computer. The computers follow the students through graduation.

I didn't come home with just grand ideas but some fun programs that I think I might doing in our library. When the libraries have an overflow of donated books they put them on a pay it forward shelf. The books are not checked out at all. The students can take a book from the shelf and read it. Once they are done they can pass it on to someone else or bring it back to the shelf. The students can also bring in their own book to add to the shelf.

This is another fun idea. Post a trivia question once a day or once a week. The children submit their answers. All correct answers are put into a drawing to win a bookmark, pencil, free book, etc. I really like this idea!

All in all, the tours were interesting. I enjoyed seeing how other libraries are organized and run. I was happy to note that our library is right on par with these larger libraries. Now I have some things to think about. Perhaps I can implement or adapt some of their library programs for our wonderful library.

Look at all those librarians!