Power Up Your Library

Based on the methods of the New York City Library Power Program, this is a practical handbook for revitalizing or rebuilding the school library. Putting the many facets of the media specialist's professional life into the context of a flexibly scheduled, collaboratively planned teaching program, the book offers simple strategies for effecting positive change. It covers such topics as the librarian's role as teacher, programming, assessment, collection development, facilities, technology, the library budget, support staff, and public relations. Written for the school library media specialist who has or plans to have a library that conforms to today's vision of an effective school library media program, this book places the library media center at the heart of the school's educational program and shows how to position the library as the catalyst for school reform.

Capture the hearts, minds, and attention of your digital-age listeners using read-aloud experiences that engage technology. "I wish my learners would be as excited about reading as they are about technology" is a lament frequently sung by those who seek to support reading development. There is no debate that reading is fundamental and that reading aloud strongly supports lifelong reading engagement. Technology, however, is ubiquitous in our society, and engagement with it is essential for our success. Reading and technology are therefore in competition for learners' attention, but by combining reading and technology through use of read-aloud, facilitators can create engaging digital read-aloud programs to enhance the learning experience. Digital read-aloud can be used with multiple age groups, in a variety of settings, and with differing degrees of expense and technology complexity. Understanding that these myriad options can be overwhelming, however, Andrea Paganelli offers detailed information on the background, implementation, evaluation, and sustainability of technology-infused read-aloud for reading support persons, school librarians, public librarians, instructional librarians, teachers, and professors. Her ideas span multiple ages and subjects and include practical examples designed to engage both educators and readers.

Grow your own talent! Bill Lucas, a leading international expert on life-long learning, shows that while we have learned more about how the brain works in the last decade than we have ever known, only a fraction of this is grasped and applied by most people. Power Up Your Mind applies this practical knowledge for the first time and shows you how to learn. Drawing on research from a wide variety of subject areas, from neuroscience to psychology, from motivation theory to accelerated learning, from memory to diet, this book shows how everyone has the capacity to succeed and how most people use only a very small portion of their talents. For learning to be effective, an understanding of how the brain works is essential and unlike most of the recent thinking on the mind, Lucas connects an understanding of the brain with the reality of the workplace and translates what we know about the brain into useful insights for work. Much work-based training is a waste of time and money because the majority of people are neither emotionally ready nor practically inclined to apply their learning to the way they behave. Power Up Your Mind offers a new model of learning - READY, GO, STEADY - which will revolutionize the way you learn and perform.

‘This is terrific. A friendly and sensible guide for anyone needing to give their confidence a boost.’ Dr David Lewis, Chairman and Director of Research, Mindlab International Ltd Professionally speaking, there’s nothing more important than confidence. It’s the single skill that matters most – whatever the situation. From meetings and presentations to negotiating, selling and managing staff, better confidence will give you better results. It’ll make you more capable and convincing, it’ll raise your performance and prospects, and it’ll give you the courage and determination you need to succeed. Specially written to help you build and boost your confidence at work, Power Up Your Confidence is a friendly, powerful and practical guide that’ll show you how to: Stay in control – always feel on top however tough the situation Find your positive mindset – switch your confidence on whenever you need it most Say what you want – be taken seriously and never regret what you didn’t say Look self-assured – be convincing even when you don’t feel it Be more resilient – bounce straight back from any knocks on the way Whatever you do and wherever you do it, to be at your best and grasp success, you need to power up your confidence. ‘Packed full of easy-to-use gems, helpful hints, tips and observations to enhance your confidence at work and beyond.’ Ann McCracken, Managing Director, AMC2 and Vice President, ISMAuk ‘Powerful approaches that work – highly effective and well worth reading!’ Nicki Beveridge, Fellow CIPD, member ISMA, business coach and HR consultant

The digital divide is a disturbing reality, and teens in our society increasingly fall into distinct categories of technology haves and have-nots, whether or not computers are available to them in the schools. This trend undermines the futures of our youth and jeopardizes the vitality of our society. Today's librarians are in a unique position to help bridge the gap. This guide helps librarians to identify tech-nots—technologically disadvantaged teens—in a community or school and to reach out and build information literacy in underserved teen populations. Farmer goes beyond recommending computers for every teen, and demonstrates how to overcome teen misperceptions and disinterest in computers. After examining the problem and the populations most affected, the author discusses how to build awareness and motivation, train staff, create space and time, build the collection, develop partnerships with other agencies and organizations, offer services, and overcome barriers with specific populations. Citing benchmark programs and services from around the country, Farmer offers a wealth of exciting new ways for libraries to connect with at-risk teens today. Grades 6-12.

Since its publication in June 1998, Information Power has become the most talked about book in the school library world!

Provides articles and tools for school librarians to teach children information literacy, discussing such topics as curriculum mapping, collection mapping, information-powered professional development, community engagement, and resource development.

Everhart provides practical guidelines and ready-to-use forms for evaluating a school library media center, as well as important results derived in other studies. She includes qualitative and quantitative techniques for the areas of curriculum, personnel, facilities, collections, usage, and technology. She also gives step-by-step instructions on how to create in-house surveys, conduct interviews, and use observation to gather useful data. Conduct research, collect statistics, and evaluate your program with this useful resource. Everhart provides practical guidelines and ready-to-use forms for evaluating a school library media center, as well as important results derived in other studies. She includes qualitative and quantitative techniques for the areas of curriculum, personnel, facilities, collections, usage, and technology. She also gives step-by-step instructions on how to create in-house surveys, conduct interviews, and use observation to gather useful data. For example, there are directions on how to assess information literacy with rubrics. In addition, each chapter gives detailed references, a list of further readings, applicable Web sites, and dissertations. A quick and easy guide to justifying and supporting your SLMC operations and effectiveness, this book is invaluable to all school library media specialists. It will also be of interest to school library media supervisors and researchers.