When I create a website for my library, there are several components I would like to incorporate. I spent a lot of time visiting several websites and these are the five basic areas I would include. First, there would be the basic information about the library which would include the library hours and basic rules. Some of the libraries had the library rules and expectations laid out specifically so students would know what was expected of them. I liked that a lot. Secondly, I would want the on-line catalog of the books available in the library. This is a valuable tool to have so students and teachers would have access to find what books are available in the library 24-7 to put on hold and be able to pick up later. Links to the local public library and the state library would be included in this area as well. Third, I would want to list website links pertaining to each of the major curriculum areas: Literature/English/Writing, Math, Science, and Social Studies. Within the English area I would include a link to Citation Machine for research documentation and book ideas sites like "Children's Book a Day" site and "Guys Read" and a link to audio books available in the public domain (I found this on the Chief Joseph website in Bozeman!). Fourth, I would include links to various reference resources like World Book Online, EBSCO Database, and Culture Grams and Native American websites (websites were listed on the Helena and Great Falls school websites). I found a link to ' Safe Google Search' on Bozeman's Hyalite Library webpage. I think this would be especially useful for elementary and middle school libraries, but could be used on a high school webpage as well. Fifth, I would include a section that addresses helping the students to be successful in school such as links to a tutoring site such as HomeworkMT, Wordsmyth, Dictionary, reading lists, book reviews by students and teachers, links to school reading programs like Accelerated Reader (the Belgrade Schools use AR but they only have an online catalog for the their library home page) and Reading Counts. The Citation Machine or Easy Bib could be included here too.
You have some great ideas! Here is the one thing that I would do differently -- just for your consideration. Citation generators don't teach students how to cite and then they are at a disadvantage when they get to college. Citation generators are very inaccurate because of user error (filling the wrong things in the blanks) and because of the many different kinds of info that a program can't take into consideration. Instead of linking to citation generators, I would link to sample sheets of how to cite books, articles from databases, webpages, etc. -- the info formats that students use the most.
ReplyDeleteThis one thing sticks out to me because I spend a lot of time with college students who can't create a citation because they've always used generators and their professors won't accept the semi-naccurate citations.
Thank you for your suggestion. I assumed it was a good idea because I saw it on some of the library websites. It is always better to just do it on your own. I remember that from the citations we did for class last semester.
ReplyDeleteGreat advice! I agree-even though citation machine is a great tool, students do fill the boxes incorrectly. Not only that, they sometimes do not know which resource type to use, so information isn't exact.
ReplyDeleteAt times, I am finding that students rely too much on technology and can't think for themselves, so when an error occurs, they blame the computer, instead of accepting their mistakes.