Keeping the school community informed

This is a brief overview of the world of ebooks published as the Academic Focus article in our Head Master's Bulletin, a weekly newsletter.

What's happening to books?
This question concerns many as they see the gradual closure of bookstores and the reduction in the numbers of print titles on library shelves across the country. Be reassured, books are alive and flourishing in many different formats in our school.

In our library we have an excellent mix of good quality reading material for curriculum purposes and for recreational reading. Some of these books and magazines are in traditional paper format but increasingly many are electronic files, ebooks and audio books across the range of fiction and non-fiction.

A wide variety of ebook formats are available on the market. With the ubiquitous spread of mobile platforms, many students are now able to access books on their portable device. The blend of text, interactive games, animation and learning software enhances many books. Ebook formats allow the reader to highlight information, look up unknown vocabulary, add notes to the text and navigate quickly to any part of the book. Text size can be manipulated and accompanying audio is often available.

Some formats can be used on computers only; others are suitable and available for downloading to a wide range of portable devices. These include smart phones, Android or Apple, along with a plethora of other devices, ereaders of many varieties and idevices such as iTouch and iPad. The almost universal access students have to MP3 devices widens the possibility for book access through audio. Access to books on mobile platforms is provided through apps, some examples of which are provided here. One does not need to have bought a Kindle to read with the Kindle app as it is available across operating systems. This comparison chart guides you to the file formats suitable for use on your device.

Many other academic texts are available through databases accessible from the Library Home Page. The number of other etextbooks, both paid and free increases daily. A compilation of these sites and others providing access to ebooks, is located here for your perusal. Many titles located through the listed sites, can be downloaded to the platform of your preference.

During this last week the newest form of digital book has been promoted to be read on iPad and iPhone. The TED talk entitled A Next-Generation Digital Book by Mike Matas runs for 4m 35s and is well worth viewing. In this talk you will see the new book from Al Gore, Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis. This book uses the newest technology available, enabling the reader to manipulate the book and its contents in a surprising range of ways. It is indicative of the directions in which books are heading. This book is available for reading on library iPads.

Self-publishing sites have opened the ebook world to many previously unpublished authors and to those who wish to have more control over their own material. The results of their efforts can be seen at this range of sites. If you have a budding author in your family these sites provide a starting point for publishing an ebook.

With such a wide range of publishing options available and such easy access to ebooks, what is the library’s role?
Just as we continue to select the best in print books, so too, we concentrate on selecting the best from the ebook market for students. The library now has some Kindles for loan and students may request titles for adding to the Kindles. The iPads are available for in-house reading and other ebooks and etextbooks are housed on the library website. Audio books too are available for borrowing along with our range of printed books and the ever popular graphic novels.

Suggestions for students - Download some reading apps and add some titles. Use your device for more than music and games. Catch up with all those great classics you’ve not had the chance to read; they are free and often available as text and/or audio. Borrow ebooks and audiobooks from your local library, the Overdrive app brings remote borrowing to your device.

The world of books is being revitalised in previously unimaginable ways. Enjoy this renaissance of reading.

Many pathways: LibGuides

photo © 2007 Chris Gladis | more info (via: Wylio)
What criteria do you use when considering the publication of library pathfinders? Do you have procedures in place to regularly review their content and appropriateness?

These questions have been in my thoughts for some time now, and I have been prompted to write set guidelines for our staff as we move content to LibGuides.
Joyce Valenza's New Tools pathfinder has attracted much well deserved positive comment along with a suggestion for a slight reorganisation by Colette Cassinelli. This has led me to look at and evaluate Libguides content from many schools around the globe. I have taken inspiration from many, in particular from the LibGuides published by Leanne Windsor at TIGS and Cathy Oxley at Brisbane Grammar School.

In our context, several staff will have the opportunity to write and publish guides. Like Joyce and many other librarians, we have had guides in many different places and sometimes these have varied widely in standards.
The following guidelines have been written to remind us to consider as many options as possible. Your comments are welcome.

Policy and Procedures

This site is the web portal to learning resources developed by the teacher librarians in conjuction with the Trinity Grammar School community of learners. http://trinity.nsw.libguides.com/index.php

Guides published here must meet the following criteria:

• Is there a demonstrated need for information on this subject?
• Has the appropriate faculty, department, subject teacher been consulted? 
• Are procedures in place to notify all relevant stakeholders?
• Has a timeline been established for publication and review of guide?

Guides are to contain the following basic information:

1. Guide description, includes purpose and scope of guide.  
2. Association to a Subject area so that guides are appropriately grouped and appear in the Subject search list
3. Tags of a general nature, likely to be used by students or staff for retrieving material.
4. Individual pages (tabs) within guides should be ordered alphabetically unless there are special circumstances, e.g. where HSC and IB tabs are used they should be adjacent. This rule also applies to sub-pages in dropdown menus.

Individual pages

1. The Home page of each guide must contain a Links to Guides box in the upper left column. The contents of this box can be determined by the guide’s author, either a selection of related guides, popular guides or recently published guides. 
2. Each page added must include a description.
3. A page should be added only when there is likely to be enough content to be used in 2 or 3 columns, i.e. enough to fill an average web screen.  If there is not this amount of material, consider a box on a related page, it can always be moved to a new page should the need arise.
4. Pages are to be added as tabs where possible unless sub topics clearly fit underneath a particular heading. A subject guide may have tabs for Year levels with pathfinders for those year levels as subpages.
5. Pages should be hidden while editing, this applies particularly where a new page is being added to an already published guide.
6. Each page should have at least one illustrative element, i.e. image, video or other visual. High quality images and screenshots should be used rather than clipart.
7. Column width can be adjusted when needed, but the 3 column layout is the preferred default. 

Content
Content within guides should be selected for quality, authority, relevance and the reading level of intended audience. It should include as many of the following elements as possible:

• web links
• database search guide – list of suitable databases, recommended searches and/or journals 
• embedded multimedia – webcasts, podcasts, webinars, video, audio, interactive content or any other non-textual format 
• primary sources 
• recommendations for mobile apps (multiple platforms) 
• reading list of books, physical and/or etexts 
• RSS feeds
• Recommended search terms for web, library catalogue and social bookmarking sites
• Images, charts, mindmaps, diagrams and other non-interactive representations of information

Publication Procedure

All guides are to be previewed by the Head of Information Services before publication.

Guides are to be allocated a ”friendly URL” at the point of publication.

What have I missed? Do you have further suggestions?

Recipe for inspiration - Pecha Kucha style

1. Research finished, mandatory document and Powerpoint completed for assessment, disinterested students.
2. Introduce one Pecha Kucha 5 slide presentation, 20 seconds on each slide to explain the process.
3. Set challenge - who can revisit finished work and repackage their content?
4. Result - motivated students, buzz of discussion and endeavour.

Here's my very simple presentation explaining the process. This was enough to set the class buzzing. I look forward to their presentations next week.

Pecha Kucha

View more presentations from Carmel Galvin

Slide 1: Pecha Kucha (pe-chak-cha) refers to the Japanese sound for chit chat. It is used to describe a method of presenting a talk with uncluttered images and limited timings. This helps the audience concentrate on the speaker, with each slide appearing on the screen for only 20 seconds.

Slide 2: Slides are usually images only and their automatic progression after 20 seconds allows the presenter to fly smoothly through their talk rather than be entangled in a web of words appearing on the screen. The audience is relieved of the need to read the text. The image selected should reinforce the message.

Slide 3: It is important to get to the point, focus on facts and delivery, only what is important. The audience should not be distracted with transitions and effects unless they add to the message being delivered.. Text on screen is kept to 5 words or less. Original Pecha Kucha presentations use images only.

Slide 4: When done well, your classes and teachers will never be bored by presentations again. Creative Commons images must be used and image sources acknowledged on the last slide. Good places to start searching for high quality images are the advanced search options in either Flickr or Google.

Slide 5: Let's give it a spin and see if you can present your research via the Pecha Kucha method. Remember, you have only 5 slides and 20 seconds for each slide. Choose content then some inspiring images and wow the class next week. Are you ready for the challenge?