Presentation for School District Librarians

Waukegan Public Library: Putting Quality in Your (School’s) Life Morgan Hansen Youth Reference Assistant 847-623-2041 x 280 morganhansen@waukeganpl.info

Patrick Toto Youth Services Manager 847-623-2041 x 285 patricktoto@waukeganpl.info

http://www.waukeganpl.org

This Morning’s Agenda 

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Finding information on our website and in our catalog Good websites for finding books your students want to read Helping your teachers and students evaluate websites

Finding Items in the Standard Catalog   

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http://www.waukeganpl.org Click on “catalog” in the top menu bar Commonly used search options  Keyword  Title  Author (must type last name first)  Subject Limit Options  Children’s  Adult  AV (CDs, Movies, Audiobooks)  Limit to Available

Finding Items in the Kids Catalog   

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http://www.waukeganpl.org Click on Kids, then Kids Catalog Type it = similar options to standard catalog Picture it

Finding Good Books 

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Scholastic Teacher BookWizard ( http://bookwizard.scholastic.com)  Leveled Search  BookAlike Search International Reading Association Choices Book Lists (http://www.reading.org/resources/booklists.aspx)  Children’s Choices  Teachers’ Choices  Young Adults’ Choices

Finding Good Books (cont) 

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Kids Reads.Com (http://www.kidsreads.com/index.asp)  Lots and Lots of Features!!

School Library Journal (http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com)  Scroll down to bottom of page and click on “Archives”  Choose the issue you’d like to view & click on it  Click on “Book Review” for the appropriate grade level or graphic novels Cooperative Children’s Book Center – CCBC ( http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/)  Click on “Books for Children and Young Adults”  Themed booklists  Book of the week  Much much more!!

Booktalk Resources 

Booktalks Quick and Simple (http://nancykeane.com/booktalks/)  Booktalking FAQs and tips  Browse booktalks by author, title, subject, or grade level

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Scholastic Booktalks and Video Booktalks ( http://www.scholastic.com/librarians/ab/booktalks.htm)  Browse booktalks/video booktalks by book title

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Teachers @Random (http://www.randomhouse.com/teachers/librarians/booktalks.ht ml)  Browse booktalks by author or title

Booktalk resources (cont) 

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Book Talk! (http://www.mackinbooktalk.com/)  Has book talks for this years’ Abraham Lincoln, Bluestem, Monarch, and Caudill Nominees  Choose the award list you’re interested in and then the specific title Digital Booktalk (http://www.digitalbooktalk.com)  Video Book Trailers  Click on “Browse Books”  Can sort by title, author, genre, content level, or lexile level  Find-a-book  Read-alike

Any questions so far??

Diamond or Cubic Zirconia?

Evaluating Information you Find on the Internet

So many websites….. 

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Google any topic and you will probably get over a million results But not all websites are accurate so you must examine each site closely before you decide the information is true

Eenie, meanie, minie, mo… 

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There are a number of questions you should ask yourself to determine if the website is accurate or not These questions will help you determine the website’s:  Author/Authority  Accuracy  Objectiveness  Currency

Author & Authority  

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Websites have authors just like books, articles, etc But ANYONE can publish a website (books and articles have to go through an editor who checks to make sure the information is correct) It is also often much more difficult to tell who the author of a website is AND whether they know about the subject they’ve written about

Questions to ask yourself 

To determine who the author of the website is and whether they have authority, ask these questions:  Is the author’s name listed anywhere on the website?  Is there an “about” section?  Who is sponsoring/hosting the website?  What is the domain? (.com? .org? .edu? .net?)  Does the author have past experience or knowledge with the topic?

Accuracy ď Ž

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Accuracy means how true or correct the information on a website is It IS possible to make a decision about the accuracy without knowing a lot about the subject or doing a lot of research if you ask yourself the right questions

Questions to ask yourself 

Questions that will help you decide whether information on a website is accurate or not:  Is there a list of sources used to gather the information?  Are there links to other information on the topic?

Do these links work?  Is there an editor or someone else who verifies the information?  If you have any knowledge on the topic, can you spot any information that is incorrect?

Objectiveness ď Ž

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Because anyone can publish a website, it is common to find sites that are simply someone voicing their opinion on a topic It is important to be able to separate fact from opinion when looking for information on the internet

Questions to ask yourself 

To decide whether information is OBJECTIVE (presents the facts) or BIASED (someone sharing their opinion, ask:  Are multiple perspectives (opinions) of an issue/topic represented?  Does the information include the words “think”, “believe”, or other keywords that might indicate this is opinion and not fact?  Are there ads the page related to the information?  Why do you think the author wrote this website – to inform? To persuade? To sell something?

Currency ď Ž

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For many topics, it is important to have the most-upto-date or current information There are a couple of simple indicators that will tell you whether the website is maintained and kept current

Questions to ask yourself 

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There are a couple red flags that will tell you right away if the site is not current:  Is there a “date last updated” listed?  Do all (or most) of the links on the site work (or do you get a “page not found” error)?

If the “date last updated” is from more than 6 months ago OR if there are a lot of links that don’t work, chances are the site is not current

Why should I care about all of this?   

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It’s on the internet, so it’s correct, right?

And even if it’s not, who cares?

Taking information from websites that aren’t reliable can lead you the wrong direction if you’re not careful…. http://descy.50megs.com/mankato/mankato822.html It is important to get into a good habit now of evaluating information before you take as fact so that you can be a smart consumer of information as an adult.

For more information…. 

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http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Intern et/Evaluate.html http://www.library.jhu.edu/researchhelp/general/evalua ting/ http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/evalcrit.html E-mail me questions at morganhansen@waukeganpl.info