LIS S574 Paseo 6.2 Build a Plan: The Important, Subversive, Crazy Talk!

The Media Center I want to work in:

The media center I want to work has some architectural, and design elements that make it modern and user friendly,and coming up with those ideas was a lot of fun. However, what is more important about a school library media center is it’s operating mode. The media center and it's staffing should be designed to work collaboratively with teachers. We need to educate our students on the very important and extremely relevant topics in information literacy and support classroom instruction all while finding the time to foster a love of reading for pleasure within the heart of everyone on campus.

What the media center should not be is a place for students to go during a teacher’s prep time with a set schedule that leaves no room for flexibility. It shouldn't be a place where lessons and book browsing for pleasure are crammed into one short class period only to see the students hustled out the door to make room for the next batch.

The geography itself should be big and heartily staffed to accommodate multiple classes with different objectives on any given school day.  It should be open, inviting, and flexible; ready to meet the needs of a growing student body in a changing world.

Ideally, the entire school would be free of outmoded standardized testing and rigidly mapped curriculum and the library could support a fully functional program of inquiry, using AASL 21st century information literacy standards to help guide the students as they, with the help of the teachers and staff, educate themselves!

The media center should be busy and buzzing, but not frenetic, with areas for study, reading, instruction, storytelling, and viewing or listening to media. Above all, the atmosphere must never feel rushed and the activities that happen there should never ever be an afterthought.

What I am saying is, "Let us do what we do best!"

LIS S574 Paseo 6.2 Build a Plan: The Spaces

The library I would design would have clearly delineated spaces that allow for freedom from distractions.


The classroom area, equipped with computers, I-Pads and and a Promethean Board, would have ergonomic seating and sound insulation.  It wouldn't become storage or the auxiliary reference section and it would have it's own climate control. There we would spend more time teaching the research model, citations, information seeking and how to evaluate sources.  Finally, the room would be big enough to accommodate a room of 30 5th graders and the necessary personal space bubble that keeps the emotional climate of the room in check.


I made a Pinterest Pin Board of some ideas for a media center classroom area.


Follow Kristen's board Library Design- Classroom and Computer Lab Areas on Pinterest.


The study area of the library would be separate from the classroom area and the browsing or story area. There would be lots of natural light and once again, careful insulation and climate control to keep everyone comfortable and attentive. I would love to add a soothing, not too loud, water feature to help enhance the calm atmosphere.  This would ideally be a place where teachers and students alike could do silent solo work or whispered collaborations. Check out my Pin Board below for a few ideas.


Follow Kristen's board Library Design-Study Areas on Pinterest.



The main part of the library with the shelves, the circulation desk, the catalog computers, and the story area could be one open area. It's great for patrons to hear the stories being read as they browse. It's free entertainment! It also encourages people to read something different than they might typically choose if they hear something new and different that grabs their attention. This part of the library I designed would be down right whimsical. It would have lots of light, some outdoors in and plenty of cool places to relax and read, read, read.


Get ready to check out the awesomeness in the following Pin Board:


Follow Kristen's board Library Design-Story Areas and Shelves on Pinterest.

LIS S574 Paseo 6.2 Build a Plan: Introduction

Oh if I could only design a school library from scratch!

First I envision the spaces and what they could be with a healthy budget.

Then I fantasize about time and autonomy and the trust of the administration to let us do what is best.

Oh if I could build a school library what could it be?  So many things.

This assignment is a wishlist and ultimately, sadly, a fantasy.




I know the week has already passed.  I spent mine running the Scholastic Book Fair to raise money to support my position.  Half of my paid hours are funded by the book fair proceeds.  Still, I work extra hours each week.

LIS S401 Proficiency Project 3C: MUVE-ing Experiences

A couple of years ago, I took a communications class at IUPUI called, "Finding Your E-Voice".  In fact, there are some posts from that class in this blog.  One of the assignments was an adventure in the Multi-User Virtual Environment (MUVE) called Second Life.  Second Life is just what it sounds like; it's an additional life that you can life in the virtual world.  There are virtual cars, buildings, businesses and people in Second Life where citizens can conduct business and socialize every day.  In fact, some people use their Second Life avatars in second life board rooms to have real business meetings, in fact.

If you explore a while, you can find the Eiffel Tower as it was in the 19th century and then you can go scuba diving in a tropical sea.  Your avatar can talk to other avatars (or not), and it can sit around or have adventures depending on what you feel like doing.  My assignment was to create an avatar and explore places in Second Life and then to explore my feelings about my choices of appearance and activites.  I also had to conduct a group assignment that involved meeting in-game.
What's cool about Second Life is that many parts of the real world are recreated and sometimes improved in the virtual world.  In fact, as many have proven, Second Life can be a great resource for librarians.  The American Library Association has a virtual headquarters there where librarians can find resources and network with each other.  Even better though, is the Caledon Library which is located in the Victorian virtual city of Caledon and contains valuable primary resources entirely from the 19th century that have been digitized and stored there in the virtual world.  The exercise of finding and digitizing those primary source documents helps to keep the past alive.

While SL was cool, I didn't spend time on Second Life after my class was over.  Frankly, my computer at the time had a hard time keeping up with the graphics.  For me,  it's more of an exercise in frustration than fun, but I was impressed with what the users of the world had built.  It was also fun to create a virtual self. Sadly, I must admit that my virtual self was more fit than my real self.

LIS S401- Proficiency Project 3C: Book Review

The era of great fantasy is upon us.  In fact, fantasy has escaped the domain of Dungeons and Dragons enthusiasts and has found its way to the main stream with great novels. When the Lord of the Rings trilogy hit the silver screen, the floodgates of fantasy opened and the rivers that followed carried the Chronicles of Narnia to movie screens and George R.R. Martin’s epic series, Game of Thrones, to televisions worldwide.  And now, hoping to capture us with his own magic spells and fantastic tales is Patrick Rothfuss, a remarkable storyteller and wordsmith who weaves a tale of adventure with just the right amounts of sadness, joy, love and despair.   In The Name of the Wind, the first of what will be at least a three book series, he introduces us to Kvothe, a man of humble origins who becomes a legend in his own time.

Kvothe, now a humble inn owner known as Kote, tells an incredible story of his beginnings as a boy traveling with a troupe of performers, to his unlikely rise through the ranks in the magic university where he learns the name of the wind itself. As his story unfolds, we learn that the world he lives in now is becoming more and more frightening.  The evil that lurks outside the doors of his cozy inn is one that no one dares to speak of, but that Kvothe can’t ignore. 

The Name of the Wind is written for adults, but doesn’t have Martin’s signature sex and violence.  On the other hand it doesn’t have the talking animals that Lewis wrote for his nephews and nieces. Rothfuss’work fills a niche somewhere in the middle of Lewis’ Narnia and Martin’s Westeros with language that tends toward the modern, compared to the complex prose of Tolkein.  This is great fare for adult newcomers to fantasy fiction and it’s appropriate for older teens, too.  

LIS S401- Proficiency Project 3C: Social Networking

I have to admit that I absolutely love social networking.  I really enjoy keeping up with my friends around the world, and as an aspiring librarian, I just really like to know things!  I crave information.   I even enjoy some of the misinformation that comes through as reposts of stories that are too good to be true or too bad to be true, as well.  It’s fun to use Snopes.com for rumor research.  I also occasionally enjoy Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and FourSquare, but Facebook, as cliché as it may be, is my favorite.  I even play some of the games. 

I have a group of friends that used to meet up virtually in a message board.  We came to know each other when we all ventured into those boards on a website related to our mutual interest in poker.  Now, ten years later, we interact with each other daily in a closed Facebook group, in addition to our annual Vegas gathering and other incidental meet ups that often coincide with vacations or business trips.  Moving the group to Facebook gave us the option of more easily sharing pictures, videos and music, in addition to our regular conversations.

In addition to Facebook, I have accounts with LinkedIn, Instagram, FourSquare, and Twitter.  I don’t use these accounts nearly as much as I do Facebook, but they definitely have their uses.  Instagram makes my terrible phone photography look cool and while I don’t tweet much, I like to follow the tweets of my favorite celebrities on Twitter.  LinkedIn is good for professional connections, but I do find it odd that one can endorse people professionally without having to prove they have real knowledge of the profession or the endorsee’s professional life.  Although, I like that there are professional associations with groups on LinkedIn.  I particularly enjoy the American Library Association group there.  Some interesting discussions have arisen in that group on a wide variety of library topics. 

Librarians are using LinkedIn to learn from each other and share their experiences in their own communities. Also, like many other users on the site, they use it to network in their own industry to keep abreast of job opportunities in librarianship.  

As I muse here in the virtual world about the virtues of Facebook and LinkedIn, an analogy comes to mind.  Facebook is dinner with friends and LinkedIn is a breakfast business meeting.