Google Reader Assignment

Elementary Librarian by Joycelyn is my favorite blog from the reading assignment. Joycelyn is an elementary librarian who writes a blog offering timely and practical advice. I found her blog on April 7, 2013, titled "Are Librarians Still Necessary?",  to be very reassuring when it comes to the future need of school libraries and librarians. Her advocacy for the relevance and necessity of school libraries/librarians helped me see how valuable I can still be in this technological world. She addressed my concern about eBooks replacing traditional print materials. Joycelyn quoted a statistic from Library Research Service Website, that only 23% of Americans read an eBook in the past year. Showing that there is still a desire for traditional books. A great infographic she shared at School Libraries and Student Achievement shows the correlation of school libraries and student achievement on standardized reading test scores. This is a great tool to advocate for keeping school libraries and librarians. Elementary Librarian also shares book reviews, curriculum ideas and for a cost you can purchase Joycelyn's detailed lesson plans. This is a blog I will keep up with after the course is over.

I have never read or subscribed to blogs before this assignment. I found that in my busy daily life it was difficult to find time to sit down and read the blogs. However, I did find that it is nice to have "go to" professional advice for questions  concerning what I am experiencing in my library. For example, a couple of weeks ago the librarians in my district met to discuss implementing Follett's Destiny circulation system and concerns with circulating eBooks. I searched Google Reader for blogs that reviewed Destiny from actual users of the program. I was prepared to share some practical information with our librarians. I now have a great resource tool at my fingertips.

Another blog that I enjoyed reading was TeachesTech.info this is a blog by Mark Hess, a technology coordinator. His blog re-posts information that he finds useful and is a great place to find information on all types of educational technology tools. For example, I found his blog "50 Ideas for iPads in the Classroom" posted April 21, 2013, to be a very good resource for the use of iPads in the classroom.