Blogs, in my opinion, hold a world of possiblities for school libraries. As social software, sites like MySpace and Facebook, and free blogging sites become more and more a part of everyday life, library blogs are a great way to draw students in. Of course, the same principle would hold true in any library, but it seems especially relevant for school libraries.
Here are a couple of school library blogs that I like:
Valley View Middle School Library - This "Book Blog" serves a great model from which to get a school library blog started. It consists pretty much entirely of book reviews. The tagging is great; it allows students to search for reviews in subject areas of interest. One improvement I personally would make to this blog would be to allow student volunteers access, to act as student reviewers.
Newton North High School Library - This high school library blog goes a step beyond the VVMS blog, incorporating not only book reviews but pop culture connections and book news, such as notice about upcoming movie adaptations of popular books. The librarian also includes a links list to further engage students' interest. Again, the addition of student reviewers would help to take this blog even further.
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- Emma McCandless
- I'm a full-time teacher, part-time grad student and occasional amateur movie snob.
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2 comments:
Emma, I like Newton North High school library blog. Its link to pop culture is definitely a teen attention catcher. I think the reason the two libraries won’t allow access for comments, is the high maintenance of that feature. A librarian has to check and possibly edit every comment. Regular checks for comments require time as opposed to posting say every week.
I love the idea of using blogs in school libraries... I wonder how successful these are in practice. I particularly like the Newton North one... the librarian has obviously given a lot of thought about what would bring students to the site. I agree with you that it would be nice for there to be a way for students to interact with these blogs.
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