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Independent School Libraries: Perspectives on Excellence
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Evidence of studying at Sidwell Friends
Upper School Library
Essay Links & Bibliography

Upper School Library
Sidwell Friends

Links from the Essay

Clowes, Dan. Cover Image - Aliens Reading. The New Yorker 8 June 2009: n. pag. The Cartoon Bank.  N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2009.

Cummins, Julie. “Design of Youth Services.” Managers and Missionaries: Library Services to Children and Young Adults in the Information Age. Comp. University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Ed. Leslie Edmonds. Urbana-Champaign: U of Illinois, 1989. 29-40. Internet Archive. Web. 29 Sept. 2009.

Open Source Systems
Open Source Initiative
LibLime Koha   
Evergreen Project
Social Networking
Twitter
Facebook
My Space
Social Bookmarking
Diigo
Delicious
Photo Sharing
Flickr
Picasa
Video Sharing
You Tube
Teacher Tube
Video calling
Skype
Wikis
PB Works
Wiki Spaces
Wikipedia
Free Software Applications
Google Apps for Education
Microsoft Office Live
Moodle

SIDEBAR 8.2 Library-IT Venn

Associations
  • American Library Association (ALA)
  • American Association of School Librarians (AASL)
  • Independent School Section (ISS) of AASL
  • Association of Independent School Librarians
  • ISTE Conference (International Society for Technology in Education)

Journals
  • Knowledge Quest
  • School Library Journal

Online
  • American Libraries Direct weekly e-newsletter
  • The Wired Campus from Chronicle of Higher Education
  • Doug Johnson’s Blue Skunk Blog
  • Joyce Valenza’s NeverEndingSearch
  • Kathy Schrock’s Kaffeeklatsch
  • Will Richardson’s Weblogg-ed
  • National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) Ning
  • NAIS Guidelines of Professional Practice for Librarians
  • The Horizon Report and The Horizon Report, The K-12 Edition

Karen Douse, Director of Library and Information Services at Harpeth Hall School in Nashville,Tennessee
Marilyn Meyerson, Head of Libraries and Technology at the Key School
Patt Moser, (retired) Upper School Head Librarian and Director of Information Services at Sidwell Friends Academy
Anne Macdonell, Academic Technology Coordinator and Head Librarian PK-12 at
St. Andrew's Episcopal School in Potomac MD.

Bibliography
“Standards for the 21st-Century Learner.” American Association of School Librarians. American Lib. Assn., 2009.

Stephens, Michael. “Ten Trends & Technologies for 2009.” Tame the Web: Libraries, Technology, and People. N.p., 12 Jan. 2009.

Stone, C. Walter. “Research and Practical Experiences of Recent Years That Support the Concept of the School Library Materials Center.” The School Library Materials Center: Its Resources and Their Utilization. Comp. University of Illinois Graduate School of Library Science. Ed. Alice Loher. Champaign: Illini Union, 1964. 1-11. Internet Archive. Web. 29 Sept. 2009.


Williamson, Susan, and Independent School Section, comps. “ISS Data Committee Survey.” American Association of School Librarians. American Lib. Assn., 2009. Web. 29 Sept. 2009.

Wilson, Martha. School Library Management. 3rd ed. 1917. New York: Wilson, 1922. Internet Archive. Web. 29 Sept. 2009.

Beyond the Book
As we are all thinking about the many discussions about ebooks with will be having with our faculty and our administrations, you might want to read these two articles. The first, from the April 26th New Yorker is excellent! It's called "Publish or Perish Can the iPad topple the Kindle, and save the book business?"

Filtering Fixes: District leaders make changes to offer greater online access to students. By Kathleen Kennedy Manzo Education Week, Published Online: August 31, 2009; Published in Print: September 2, 2009, as Filtering Fixes.

A New Chapter? A Launch Of The Bookless Library, January 15 2013 discussion of a soon-to-open bookless library in Bexas County,
Texas.

Independent School Libraries: Perspectives on Excellence

Purchase the Book

Faster Than a Speeding Bullet:
Technology in Independent School Libraries

by Patt Moser
Sidwell Friends, Washington, D.C. School

I have been Upper School Head Librarian at Sidwell Friends School in Washington DC since 1998.  In 2006 I also assumed the position of Director of Information Services and now oversees the three divisional libraries, the three divisional technology integrationists, and the IT department.  Prior to moving to Washington, I was head librarian at Concord-Carlisle High School in Concord, MA, a public school serving students in two small, but culturally rich towns.  If you delve deep into my past, you will discover that I ran local access cable television operations for both Chelmsford and Methuen, Ma, before becoming a school librarian.


 
ESSAY ABSTRACT

School libraries have striven for over a century to keep up with the latest and most useful technologies that promote learning which means that trying to describe a library with the ideal selection and amount of technology is like trying to catch a speeding bullet  – impossible.  In the first decade of the 21st century, technology has changed so swiftly, with new applications and equipment appearing daily, that it seems almost fruitless to try and prescribe the best technology for school libraries in these static pages. It is easy to imagine a school librarian several decades from now selecting a quote from this chapter to show how “quaint” school library technology used to be in the 2010s.  Despite this daunting challenge, this chapter takes the plunge into crystal ball gazing and recommends seven essential tools for the independent school library.  Their use will vary depending on the grade level each library serves, yet all are needed in varying degrees.

These tools are:
 1. Books
 2. ILS (integrated library system)
 3. Reliable online information sources
 4. A computing device available for each student and staff member
 5. Wireless access to the “cloud”
 6. Great relationships with your IT (Information Technology) department members
 7. Flexibility and experimentation


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