Shelf Check #526

"Indiana Library Lets 9-Yr-Old Check Out Erotic Novel"--The Huffington Post

Shelf Check #275 (renewed)

For everyone who listens to storytime music alone in the car:

By poesygalore | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

"Our Library A-Z"--made with My A-Z, fun free photo app to know

My A-Z is a great free iPad and iPhone app that lets you easily make flashcards using your own images. At the library, I recommend it to parents ("Make multiple alphabet sets with your child! Try an Our Vacation A-Z, a Walk Around the Neighborhood A-Z, Actions A-Z (What should we take a picture of for the 'J' card? How about us JUMPING!", etc). This morning I finished an "Our Library" A-Z to print on cardstock and post in the children's area. All are pics of our library, with the exception of K, P, Q, and R, which I found via a Google search on images that were free to use and modify:

 

Possible storytime uses for this app: you can make several photo flashcards per letter, so if you regularly have a letter of the week, you could have several flashcard examples of things that start with “D” with photos that you took personally and display them to kids on an iPad. They could be things around your library’s neighborhood, around your library, around your city or state that kids might recognize, etc. You could also “Make Our Alphabet” during storytime, one letter and photo a week—for example, that Action Alphabet (J is the letter of the week. What can we all do with our bodies that starts with J? I know—JUMP! I’m going to take a picture of us all jumping!). Then, revisit the new flashcard the following week (“Who remembers what we did for the letter of the week last week? What action did we do for Our Alphabet photo?”)—re-cementing last week’s letter and showing them the photo, now in flashcard-format, before moving on to the new letter of the week. Other ideas?

Shelf Check #525

Shelf Check #524

Shelf Check #523: Happy National Library Week!

Tame the Web is my Alma Mater

...a new guest post I wrote for Tame The Web's 10th anniversary, with a focus on how blogs and listservs--and now MOOCs, Twitter, and SlideShare--provide a place for library paraprofessionals to contribute and participate in ways we are often unable to do in our physical workplaces.