Hello and welcome to my Library Administration Blog. My name is Lisa Garro and I have wanted to be a librarian for several years now ever since I finally figured out that because of my love of reading, I wanted to encourage children to love reading as well. I went to college the first time years ago and as an undergrad, worked in the library on a work study at Central Methodist University (previously called Central Methodist College). I loved working there and remembered that when I was looking to get out of computer programming and into something more gratifying. I am currently attending the University of Central Missouri as a graduate student and am enrolled in their Library and Information Sciences program.
I am currently employed with the Heartland Regional Library System as their children’s librarian. Our library consists of four branches that are located in two counties. I develop activities for children through young adults and am in charge of ordering the easy, juvenile, and young adult books. I work with local schools to encourage public library visits from teachers and their classes. I am a member of the Missouri Association of School Librarians and always read all of the books they nominate for all reading levels every year.
I have used a lot of web 2.0 tools in the past and currently use several. I use Symbaloo as my home page which gives me access to all of my other web tools at a click. I use Facebook, Twitter, and ScoopIt to keep up with everyday news. I use Remember the Milk, Dropbox, and Evernote to keep all of my documents, photos, calendar events, and favorite Web sites well organized. I use NetVibes, LiveBinders, Prezi, Wall Wisher, Wordle, Glogster, Speaking Avatars, One True Media, VoiceThread, Shelfari, LibraryThing, and Good Reads to teach adults and students to be organized and creative with their literary knowledge. I often use widgets to place student creations into wiki’s for everyone to enjoy. I use Skype and have created several screencasts for previous classes.
I am familiar with and try to keep up with current developments in the areas of 21st Century Skill and Learning and I am slowly learning about the new Common Core State Standards.
Hello Lisa. I am impressed with all the tools that you use. I hope to get there at the end of this journey and can expand my knowledge. Nice meeting you!
ReplyDeleteWow, I can't wait to learn about all the tools that you use! It must be a lot of fun planning and implementing your various programs for the kids of your library communities! Hope to get to know you better throughout our class together.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like you're certainly ahead of the game in the technology department, lol... I'm looking forward to working and learning with you this semester!
ReplyDeleteI can thank our instructor for the technology knowledge. I've had several classes with him now and he LOVES technology. I have to say, I love it too. I struggle with getting others to try different Web tools because they just don't want to take the time but I keep telling myself, "baby steps, Lisa, baby steps."
ReplyDeleteI've not seen this background before. I think it is terrific. Is it one that comes built into Blogger?
ReplyDeleteI'm very interested in hearing about your desire to go into school library work after being in the public library sector. I realize that they can be very different jobs (like the difference between an elementary and secondary school librarian!) but you don't mention why you are wanting to make the switch.
Are you using Shelfari, Good Reads, and LibraryThing all at the same time? Which do you find most useful?
I'm very interested in the 2.0 tools that you are using. I'm putting together a class for next semester along the lines of "Preparing a student for a 2.0 world" and a lot of the things you mentioned are tools that I want to cover in that class as well.
My background is a picture I took with my own camera of our shelves. I then had it tiled down the side. Copy it if you like!
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I'm not sure what library direction I want to go at this time. There are pros and cons to both public and school libraries. I know that I want to go where I will have the most impact on instilling a love of reading. For now, I'll just keep plugging on with school and see what takes place.
I do use Shelfari, Good Reads, and LibraryThing all at the same time. Each one works well with different things. I've been testing Shelfari and LibraryThing on wiki's (I'm leaning toward Shelfari as my favorite there) and Good Reads is good to use with Facebook. I want to use something to promote and discuss books such as MASL's nominations to students through one of these.
As far as 2.0 tools, I use Symbaloo to organize my every day sites. I have a tab for personal stuff such as my emails, family calendar, family Web sites, wiki's, Girl Scout sites, etc. I use another tab for work...link to the libraries Web site, library wiki's, InterLibrary Loan site, book review sites, etc. I created a tab just for school that has links to my classes, the library, blogs, wiki's, etc.
I also use Dropbox to store documents and pictures of personal, work, and school things. I like it because I can put something in Dropbox at home, then when I get to work, I can go to dropbox and it is there. I can also share photos with others instead of emailing them or putting them on a cd or flash drive because the file is too big.
Evernote, I use mostly to store Web sites when I see something I can use in the future for work or home. It's a good way to organize the sites and again you can get to Evernote from wherever you can get on the Internet. I use ScoopIt, Twitter, and Facebook to keep up with the latest news in librarianship and education.
I used Prezi, Wordle, Glogster, Speaking Avatars, One True Media this summer for the summer reading program. I didn't have a lot sign up for this but it's a start. Kids read a book then created a book review by creating something in one of these programs. Here is a link (just scroll down and there are four links to the wiki's in the center column): http://heartland.lib.mo.us/
During stars and constellations week, I used Wall Wisher for patrons to suggest a new nmemonic for the planets. Here is the link: http://wallwisher.com/wall/mnemonic
I've only used NetVibes, LiveBinders in previous classes and haven't used them in awhile now but I'll think of something to use them for soon. I'm thinking of having some computer classes to show adults (especially teachers) how to use these for their classrooms or personal lives.
I've played around with VoiceThread and plan to use it to discuss books from MASL's nominated lists. I've created three, one for each level...Gateway, Truman, and Mark Twain. I just wish I could create more than five without having to pay!
I need to clear up the matter of my career path. My initial intentions were to become a school librarian. I went back to school to get my teacher certification and I chose high school social studies because it was the quickest route (and I do love history) but little did I know that this field is usually tied to coaching. (Seems like schools need coaches more than teachers!) So, I started my masters in the summer of 2011 and started a paraprofessional position that fall. I also took the Elementary Education Praxis and passed it in the fall. In December, I was offered a newly created position as the children's librarian at the public library. I love my job and have the potential to move up so now, I don't know.
ReplyDeleteYeah, my brother's a History / Government teacher in Salem. He's now a coach as well, lol...
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