First eReader in the Library

So it is official.  I have cataloged the first Kindle eReader for my library.  It has been a year-long effort that included researching different eReaders and book formats, talking to dozens of people about what they are doing, or not doing in most cases, and reading reviews.  More consideration has gone into it than may have been required, but it is done and I have a list of students who are interested in devouring books loaded on the devices in their two week checkout period.
Are eReaders the future?  I have no idea, but right now they are a great way to load dozens of books that are hot and up and coming.  They are cost effective compared to purchasing tablets or other computer devices.  I don't really have any concern of a student checking them out, walking away and damaging or losing them.  If they do, it won't break the bank and should be reasonable to replace.
The eReader of choice for my library is the Amazon Kindle.  I did not find any eReader that really fit what I wanted, which is a reader that I can load books on and tailor for a student then switch the books out and create a new set of books for another student.  That ability does not exist, at least not with the eReaders on my list.  I do like the Amazon Whispercast and the way I can group devices, but this won't be helpful unless there are books that I want on multiple Kindles.  Yes, I have to purchase multiple copies of a book if I want a title on multiple Kindles.  Speaking of purchasing books, I created an eBook order for the Kindles and my order total was $14,324.36.  Sticker shock!!  That was a "little" over my budget.  I discovered that Whispercast takes the order and puts all the books on to all the devices in whatever user group is choosen.   I chose the user group that had all my Kindles. I canceled that order, of course. The solution was to create a User group for each device and do a separate order for each Kindle.  Not a big deal, I guess, except the district office has to divvy out 20+ purchase orders each time I want to put books onto the Kindles.  They have been terrific about working with me, but I imagine it may get old for all of us real quick.  Time will tell on that.
A couple irritants that have gone along with this process is that every Kindle has to have its own email address, so my tech office had to create those.  I am still trying to figure out how to get the Kindles to remember the wifi security key to our schools' network.  Kind of a pain to reconnect constantly but it's not the end of the world.
Some reading this may think this wasn't a good decision.  My wife is in that camp, but she gets to hear all the frustrations.  There are several positives. First, Amazon makes contacting them almost a joy.  I have yet to wait more than 60 seconds to talk to someone and the phone operators know their stuff.  The representatives often didn't tell me what I wanted, but they gave me a straight answer so I could move on to find solutions.  They are even apologetic when a Kindle policy doesn't really work for me.  In these days of bad customer service, waiting on hold, and inadequate knowledge, this was a breath of fresh air.  Another positive, the Kindles are really easy to lock down so the students only have access to books and documents we put on there.  All in all, there isn't anything out there that does exactly what I want, but Amazon and the Kindle make it easy to make adjustments to put these into the hands of kids who want to read.  They even grab the attention of kids who aren't all that interested in reading but like the "gadgety" tool.
I can't wait for the first checkout of these to hear how someone took one of these and read until they couldn't read anymore.  Have you had experience putting a Kindle or other eReader into your library?  I would be interested in reading your stories.

Twitter, Television and Agents of Shield

Outside of watching sports on television, I don't watch much t.v.  It isn't because I am one of those who think everything on t.v. is junk, I just don't like to wade through all the content to find something I like.  Anyway, I have been anticipating Marvel's venture into broadcast television extending the Avengers story with Agents of Shield.  The excitement of the show kept me checking social media for any bits of information that I could get.  Through the updates I learned that there would be a live Twitter feed going during the first broadcast of the show.  I realize that this is probably pretty common, but it was the first time I really noticed a non-reality t.v. show having such a feed.  My impression of following a live Twitter feed during a show is that it would be terribly intrusive and break the suture of the show.  Nonetheless, I decided I would join in on the conversation.

It was kind of fun to read what others were thinking about the show as it proceeded, but soon after the first commercial break I got a little tired of trying to keep up with all the posts.  I also found most posts to be trivial and not interesting.  I didn't really care that some people were lamenting that they were missing another show while watching Agents of Shield.  I did like the posts where people repeated their favorite lines said by the characters.  I participated in that fun.  What I did find interesting, and would guess could make for some really interesting data for social scientists and marketers, were the trends in comments.  For example, I discovered that most people must not watch much television on their televisions.  Numerous posts were complaining how they had to watch the show on t.v. which I implied that most shows can be watched online before or in conjunction with the original broadcast of the show.  I have no idea if that is true or not.  Several tweeted that they were having a hard time dealing with the quality of the signal they were watching and wishing they could watch it online.  I'm sure other trends could have been pulled out of the feed, but it was interesting.  I don't know that I will follow feeds during shows often, but it was kind of fun.  

Oh, I did enjoy the show, and I definitely look forward to the second show next week.  

Blind Date with a Book

Love was in the air on Valentines, especially in the library during extended homeroom.  That was the culmination of the Blind Date with a Book.  A little more than 20 students took a chance and checked out a "Blind Date" book.  About 40 eligible books were covered with brown paper so students could not see the covers and 5 key words from the summary of the book were written on the back of the book.  Students could read the back of the book, but they could not open the book for any other details of what the book was about.  So based on the five word character profile, students checked out the "Blind Date" books.  Anticipating some unhappy readers, we created a "dumped" box with sayings such as "It's not you, it's me," "It's just not working out," and "We can't even be friends anymore" written on it, so as we met "post-date" to discuss our dates students could throw the "dumped" books into the box.  Surprisingly, out of the 13 students in the post-date meeting, only one books got dumped!  Students discovered new authors and new types of books that they came to like.  Several students reported having a rocky start to the date, but it got better the more chances they gave their date.  One successful couple received a box of chocolates to celebrate with and the one dumped date also received a box of chocolates to drown the sorrows.  All received a kiss...a Hersey's Kiss, that is.
In all seriousness though, one of the best parts of the "Blind Date with a Book" for Valentine's day was that over half the students reported that they read books they never would have checked out if they could have seen the covers.  

Time to move? NOW!

So I was walking out of my office into the library when I looked over at a row of computers.  There was a girl typing a paper and a boy sitting next to her working.  What caught my eye wasn't that the boy was working on the computer, but he was sitting back in the chair with one leg crossed over the other and a tablet in his lap.  I asked him what he was up to, and he said he was doing some research.  I asked him why he wasn't using the computer.  Thinking he was in trouble, he started to put his tablet away and was sliding his chair in to log in to the computer, but I assured him it was okay that he was using the tablet, I was just wondering why he made the choice to use a tablet with a perfectly good computer in front of him.  He didn't know the answer, but I had a pretty good idea.  He was using the tool he felt most comfortable with, a tablet.
It is time for schools to move on and use the tools with which students want to and need to learn.  Students have always wanted to use the most recent gadgets and technology, so why limit them?  This is a great opportunity for education to show students that using smartphones, tablets and e-readers is okay to learn and communicate with, but we need to teach ethical and proper use of these in the educational and world setting.
I feel that I may be preaching to the choir because many schools seem to be heading the way of one-to-one and BYOD, but it also seems that caution is a hindrance and not a safe open door.  We need to protect students and school networks but we don't need an iron curtain keeping information out and students frustrated.  A moderate security policy with clear expectations as well as instruction of staff and students on proper use of technology would go a long way in creating a 21st century environment.
My vision is that technology isn't locked in a computer lab or classroom or any one room or area in a school, but rather it is a part of the school environment.  Technology could be used anywhere, so learning isn't limited to a specific place, but rather it just happens.  Students find the answer to their query in the hall on the way to class, they complete a presentation at the lunch table, they record an interview in the classroom or office, and on and on.
There are problems that will occur, there always are and there always were even before computer/wi-fi technology.  But with an honest and effective approach, the problems should be minimal.  Is it worth the risk?  I believe so.

Interestingness...I wasn't really interested until I discovered it

Thanks to Dirk Puehl on Google+ for posting these awesome vintage advertisements for libraries.  They come from a blog that is new to me, but I will definitely be checking in with frequently, called Brain Pickings.  It seems that Maria Popova is the creator and main contributor to the blog which claims to be "a human-powered discovery engine for interestingness."  What is that?  Good question, so she defines it as placing "a subjective lens on what matters in the world and why, bringing you things you didn't know you were interested in -- until you are."  Well, the post that includes these posters interested me, so I am buying in to this concept of "interestingness."

I think we need more "interestingness" in our lives.  I like this last poster because I believe that we have lost a sincere curiosity in things that matter.  What does that mean?  I'm not sure but I know we don't find it by immersing ourselves in hours of television watching, playing hours of video games, or hours of time on social networks.  We have to diversify our lives with some of the simple things (mentioned above) but also the complex and rich things that might take a bit of effort (world affairs, books, face-to-face time).  I don't know, but it sure was cool to find these gems today!

The Top 10 (or so)

The results are in and the top book of the first semester at IVC high school is Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why.  It is no surprise that this book, an Abraham Lincoln Book Award Nominee, that addresses relationships we have with others is the most popular book.  I would not be surprised if it shows up in this spot this semester as well.



A very close second and third are Suzanne Collins Catching Fire and Mockingjay, respectively.  If you are wondering, The Hunger Games shows up in a large group tied for ninth on the list.  Rounding out the top five are John Flanagan's The Ruins of Gorlan and Mary Higgins Clark's mystery The Lottery Winner Alvirah and Willy Stories.

Some other notable titles that I was pleased to see out being read are: The Maze Runner, The Graveyard Book (one of my favorite books), Graceling, and The Hobbit.  Also, another Abraham Lincoln Book Award Nominee made a showing in the top 10 as Alexander Gordon Smith's Lockdown came in sixth.

Print to digital or just giving up?

After returning to school after the break, I checked my mailbox and of course it was full of the magazines that came over break.  As I began to process them to put them out on the library floor, a couple covers caught my eye.  First, the headline on the Newsweek issue is "#LASTPRINTISSUE".  I thought it might be a publicity stunt to get some to open the issue, but, nope, it really is the last print issue.  
As I read Editor in Chief, Tina Brown's "Perisope" issue introduction titled, "A New Chapter: Sometimes, change isn't just good, it's necessary," it seems that she makes an apologetic "sorry, but we tried" statement.  She talks about how in 2010 Sidney Harmon purchased Newsweek from the Washington Post company to attempt to save the magazine.  Then she goes on a two page summary of the "heroic" efforts of attempting to revive the publication.  Brown concludes with a statement that "this is not a conventional magazine" and they are embracing a digital medium "that our competitors will one day need to embrace with the same fervor."  I'm not buying this "we are innovators" speech.  A note on the side of her editorial notes that digital Newsweek will be found in iTunes, Zinio, Google, Kindle or Nook.  She says that her competitors, who I am assuming are Time and other news magazines, will need to follow up with the same fervor.  I hate to notify Tina Brown, but the other major news magazines have already done this, but have managed to keep a print magazine.  What I think Brown is saying is, we gave it a go as print, now we will try digital to save on printing and postage, but we may just fade away, so farewell.  I would have preferred an honest statement of, we gave it our best shot to bring the integrity back to the Newsweek brand and it just didn't work, so now we are rebranding as a digital publication.  Good luck Newsweek.  
In my introduction, I mentioned that two covers caught my eye.  The second caught my eye, probably, because of the Newsweek cover.  While the Newsweek brand is basically hanging it up after 80 years, National Geographic is celebrating it's 125th anniversary with a Special Issue.  I realize they are two completely different animals, but what an interesting juxtaposition.