Saturday, November 21, 2009

Competency - Successive Fraction WorldCat

I decided to go back to WorldCat for this search and to use only descriptor terms since they seem to turn up the best search results. First I looked through the thesaurus and found collection development was a descriptor term.

SS1 - collection development (su) - 2268 hits

Next I searched the thesaurus and saw elementary school libraries as a subject term.

SS2 - collection development (su) AND
elementary school libraries (su)

I got 28 hits. All of the records looked promising, but all except 2 were books. This isn't really a problem, but if the searcher needs the information immediately, or as many people in our class, live out of the country, this could be troublesome to them. There was even a book by our friend David Lankes listed here! I chose this record as my favorite:

Competency - Internet

I am a huge fan of School Library Journal's website. There is so much information available on this one little website! Please check it out and enjoy! I hope you find it as useful and informative as I do.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Competency - Image

Please enjoy my image:

How many times have we heard these responses? Retrieved from: http://www.librarian-image.net/2004/Top10.jpg November 12, 2009.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Competency 6 - Pearl Growing Academic Search Complete

For my pearl growing strategy, I started with this citation:


This article was about how a school improved its collection and the effects it had on library usage and the checking out of materials. I used these subject terms for my pearl growing:

SS1 - DE(School libraries -- book selection) OR DE (School libraries -- collection development)

I received 70 hits, all of which were useful articles on collection development in a school library. If I were doing a research paper on a more specific aspect of collection development, I probably would add another descriptor to my search to narrow down further. I chose the record for a good article on how to select Spanish language or bilingual books for a school library if you aren't bilingual. While I can speak Spanish, I am not completely bilingual (yet). At my school, over half of the classes in each grade level are bilingual English/Spanish. Our library is filled with Spanish language books, but I'm not sure I would know which are the best titles to order. Here is the record:

Competency - Multimedia

I chose this video because it can be difficult getting kids interested in reading. As soon as they find out that a movie was originally a book, they immediately want to read it. This video shows the interesting dynamic between an author and movie director developing a book into a movie. I also picked this clip because I am a little biased. I love this book! This video was retrieved from: http://www.hulu.com/watch/99642/movie-trailers-where-the-wild-things-are---maurice-sendak-and-spike-jonez-vignette on November 8, 2009.