Creating a web2.0 Library with Pageflakes

Inspired by The Unquiet Library's Pageflakes I spent some time today developing several pages for my high school library. Several weeks ago I staked our claim by setting up accounts on Twitter, Facebook and delicious in addition to the library wiki I set up some time ago. I am so very happy that The Unquiet Library has been generous enough to share their pages. It has given me a starting place that I can learn from and build on. I hope to encourage staff members to start their own pages which can be added as this resource grows.

This YouTube video gives a quick explanation on sharing options for your pages - Pageflakes: how to share your page.

One of my main reasons for taking the library online has been to encourage students to read using as many tools as possible. The Unquiet Library has some great ideas for feeds on their YA Lit 2.0 page. These include author interviews and book trailers from YouTube, author blogs and teen books review blogs.

A Teen Author Blog index can be found on the TeenLib Wiki. At the bottom of the list of authors are links to other lists of teen author blogs. I chose a couple of authors that are popular with our students as well as the fabulous Reading Rants blog.

Check your local public library for blog feeds. Ours is running a summer reading book club that I've added a feed for.

This will be a work in progress as I hope to:
- add pages for socials, science and english classes
- set up pages for specific large research projects
- add a flickr feed for images around a theme.
- create news feeds for events such as elections or the upcoming 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver.

Are you using Pageflakes or an equivalent service like Netvibes? How do you envision it being used to serve a school library community? Please offer your comments!

Image credit to me!

Book Blogs

Last year I came across Readergirlz a blog which reviews great books for teen girls with terrific author information that includes playlists selected by the authors themselves to go with specific books. A recent example is Laurie Halse Anderson's playlist for her novel Prom. I have Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, one of her choices, playing in the background as I type. And there's more: links to reviews of her book, interviews with the author and a roundtable discussion. This is a dream site for teenaged girls who read and may entice many who aren't avid readers already. It has been named one of the ALSC Great Web Sites for Kids.

Today my RSS feed offered the suggestion of a site that will appeal to the male population. GuysLitWire "... was created after a broad discussion among YA bloggers within the lit blogosphere about the lack of books for teenage boys." A quick read of recent posts turns up a review of the classic gem Kon Tiki and a list of books with strong heroic characters. I loved their comment about both sexes needing strong role models and that you have to learn how to take care of yourselves because there's not always a hero around when you need one. Read more about them here. I'll be spending some time reading through the posts as I prepare my next book order.

If you have English teachers looking for blogs to share with their students these two would be great choices.

YA Blog

A blog worth subscribing to: The YA YA YAs blog is written by three YA librarians who combine, "book news and reviews (of fiction, non-fiction, and manga), thoughts on librarianship, links to online resources, and craft ideas to use for programming, all with a YA bent". I love their enthusiasm!

YA Authors Cafe has interviews with authors writing for teens along with a list of links to YA authors who blog.

School Library Journal has an interesting blog post written by Anastasia Goodstein "What Would Madison Avenue Do? Marketing to Teens".

It reminded me that I am truly living my dream. I was born a few decades too soon. My home town library had no teen section. The high school library was the kind of place where dropping a pencil in the hushed atmosphere could get you thrown out if the librarian didn't like the look on your face.

Now I run an 8,000+ volume high school library with excellent Internet access. The place is hopping from 8:00 AM until 4:00 in the afternoon. We average around 21 class visits a week, often double or triple booked for some blocks. It is not a quiet place; it is a busy place.

The kids are so busy in fact that they seldom have time just to read for pleasure. It hurts to see the look of regret on a student's face when I show them a book I know they would love and they tell me they simply don't have the time just now. I want to declare a 'no homework' week. Month? I want to ban all needless, endless testing. Why DO they have to memorize things it would take them less than a minute to find online? Who cares exactly when the battle on the Plains of Abraham took place? I rant.

I wish they all had more time to read more of the wonderful YA titles out there. More Stephenie Meyer, more Shelley Hrdlitschka and Susan Juby, more Jane Yolen, more Chris Crutcher, Alex Flinn, Anthony Horowitz. These authors know how to engage teens. Check out Stephenie Meyer's playlist for her novel Twilight.

Image Credits: The Webfooted Booklady, all rights reserved.

The Alex Awards

The ALA award lists for 2008 have just been posted. Of interest to YA librarians will be the Alex Awards 2008 list which gives ten adult books with specific teen appeal. I have read five of the titles from the 2007 list and enjoyed all of them:

Black Swan Green by Mitchell
The Book of Lost Things by Connolly
Eagle Blue by D'Orso
The Thirteenth Tale by Setterfield
Water for Elephants by Gruen

Must get busy with some new orders now!