Best Free Reference Websites of 2011

Chrisharvey/StockFreeImages.com

The American Library Association produces an annual list of 25 noteworthy and open access sources of information (obviously with an American-centric bias).  These four sites stood out as being particularly useful to schools:

1.  Worldometers for statistics, geography, citizenship, sociology, general studies, PSHE and economics.

2.  Photography in 10 lessons  for 16+ photography

3.  Current value of old money  especially

Cost of living during WWII  for history and english
Cost of living in Jane Austen's England for history and english

4.  Pros and cons of controversial issues (currently 42 issues covered) for critical thinking, citizenship, PSHE

Plugged, unplugged

Image by SocialGrow

The two current online learning courses that I'm participating in are becoming mutually beneficial.
Thing 6 of 23 Things for CPD is online networks.  Week 3 of EduMooc 2011 is Online Learning Technologies.   Some overlap here, although from very different angles, so I've been researching and giving quite a bit of thought to online networks.

I've seen the latest statistics on the Social Media Revolution.  I've learnt that MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) encourage Bethany Bovard to run amok.  I now know 7 Ways to Get More Out of LinkedIn, including using status updates and getting recommendations.  For the LinkedIn neophyte I found Viveka von Rosen's 12 Most Useful Tips I've Found to Use LinkedIn Effectively.  I've listened to leading gurus in networking and relationships at the Global Networking Council.  In a similar vein to Helen's post I know which  Winnie the Pooh character I'm most like and just to stop that inflated sense of ego, that all this networking might engender, I discovered that Some Grey Bloke believes Twitter to be an insignificance awareness engine!

Here, in no particular order, are my experiences with some of the networks:

Facebook-not really a contender for me as the school where I work advises against using it.

LinkedIn - joined sometime ago and this " thing" did make me feel guilty enough to  revisit, which I am grateful for.  Can see its value for job hunting.  Also think the groups are good for professional discussions BUT I need to put more effort in.  Must try harder!

LIS New Professionals Network -  joined sometime ago and this " thing" did make me feel guilty enough to  revisit!! Was rather embarrassed to see that I had a new friend request from January (SO sorry Lisa)  I'm dropping out of this one.

Google+ - just getting started.  If she works hard she should get some good results.

School Librarian Network Yahoo Group - this has been invaluable to me for encouragement, inspiration and practical ideas.

I think the potential of online networks is huge.  It's still a learning curve for me which means that I will try some things and move on to others.  More and more I'm appreciating the way that online negates the barriers of time and space and choosing it as my preferred way of learning.

Thing 5 - Who's counting?

It can be hard to stay motivated when you meet with barriers.  This weblog by Seth Godin  "Which of the four are getting in the way" has recently informed my reflective working practices.  The idea of work as play is one I am trying to live up to!   I don't think that you can be an effective reflective practitioner without time.  One strategy that I find useful is The Double D2 Strategy  which advocates splitting your time between development, diversification, discovery and divestment.  The most important, and the hardest to achieve, being the divestment part or the stopping of the things which don't add enough value in order to make space for new things.  I believe that perspective comes with distance, I love the Google 20% rule and Stefan Sagmeisters' one year in seven sabbaticals.

To all term time school librarians out there have a great summer holiday!

I'm with Grace - killing Twitter is my only real chance of leaving.

Image by wonderferret

In my opinion Twitter is by far the most useful of the three tools.  Been using it for about a year and find it fast, easy to use and just a little bit addictive!  So easy to follow and unfollow, so quick to find new, inspiring people.  Great for archiving things to return to and check out later.   Not that I'm an expert and I certainly have more to learn, especially about the terminology of twitchforks and twestivals.


I did try Google Reader but I just didn't open it very often and when I did somehow the information had found me some other way.  Robert Scoble back in October 2009 gave several reasons why he wasn't using Google Reader anymore.  For me it's about productivity,  twitter allows me to stay current more quickly and more easily.  And because it's all about time Pushnote is just one more tool that I won't be adopting - unless at some point it begins to solve a real need.

Oh well, time to get back to Grace's new book!

The Presentation of Self in Online Life

Image on flickr by kxande2

I was amazed at how quickly many 23 CPD Thingers posted when Thing 3 was published. This one, for me, is taking some time to work through. The problem lies in how to weigh up the presentation of the polished, professional librarian self and how far to go with the human, haphazard, complex, multi-faceted me. What happens if I change my profession? Something of my online profile will die and need to mutate.

Integral to my brand is the "why" behind my online activities.   This is primarily about a PLN to support me as a lifelong learner.   Interestingly, the Arcadia lecture this week, by Richard  Harper, was about this very subject. He talked about the bonds of work and play, the bonds beyond time and place and communication channels as cultural practice. He discussed the development of mobile phones that enabled others to glance or look at  what the phone owner was doing to see whether they were open to communication or not. Research discovered that people glanced as a way of getting the person being glanced to glance back and thus we have the new social practice of  "glancing".

Erving Goffman talks about "expressive responsibility" in order to avoid unplanned and inappropriate impressions. He sets the individual's performance or brand firmly in the context of  social encounters and societal structures; here we get into the psychology of groups and the way that a social community offers place and support as a protection from doubt, but also as a way of self-deception.

So this brand business is complex!  I guess for me it's OK to have an evolving online persona dependent to some extent on on my competency with the tools and my understanding of digital literacy.  Watch my evolving digital wisdom.

23 Things 2 Looking around and saying hello

Image of Indianapolis Central Library by Serge Melki

I started by finding another school librarian's blog to investigate
Wise Owl Librarian

Then I was attracted to London library girl as this must be an amazing place to work.

Then on to The Padded Envelope

and finally a school librarian in the U.S. Library Wanderings

There are some really creatively named blogs out there and some great posts...I'm feeling slightly overwhelmed!!

CPD 23 Things 1... Oops we've started already!

Hi there
I've been working in libraries for just short of 8 years now, first in two different academic libraries and currently in a school. Whilst school librarianship is incredibly creative, challenging and rewarding I feel that the future for me might involve a sideways move somehow into museums/art galleries. (No one told me how similar to social work the role of a school librarian could be!)

After starting to blog last year- many of us school librarians get a wonderfully long summer break- I kinda lost the habit when work got in the way. I took on a temporary additional library job Sept to Dec 2010 and when I went back to doing just the one job I had sort of got out of the habit of blogging.

I've dabbled with quite a few of the 23 things and even started to include some of them in my working role, but feel that more practice and getting inspiration from others will be really beneficial to me.