"Recently, I've also been fascinated by the way the human mind interprets visual symbols. From doodling to reading and writing text, the brain is wired with a proclivity for visual sensory ability. In order to help students harness this power, we have been trying our hand at visual notes and sketchnoting in class. Then I decided to try some lessons with infographics."

Here's Joyce Valenza's take on the idea, with suggestions for collaboration with teachers and some other web 2.0 tools: http://blogs.slj.com/neverendingsearch/2013/06/20/recording-kids-history-as-readers/

"Anita Brooks Kirkland explores an important aspect of the changing nature of teaching and learning in school libraries and the learning commons. As always, her theoretical considerations are attached to very practical applications that may be useful today!"

The Seattle Public Library launched the 2013 Summer Reading Program by setting a new world record for the longest book domino chain!

What emerging trends are changing library services? What does the connected world of "continuous computing" mean for 21st Century libraries? The Hyperlinked Library MOOC offered by the School of Library and Information Science at San José State University provides a roadmap toward becoming a participatory, interactive, user-centered library.

The following visualization was adapted from PewInternet.com, of a keynote address for the 2012 State University of New York Librarians Association Annual Conference.

Original video here. Hidden Gems in video link below.

"Most of us are on the Internet on a daily basis and whether we like it or not, the Internet is affecting us. It changes how we think, how we work, and it even changes our brains."

List includes both history and current trends. Social Media History includes a great interactive infographic.

Make any web page print friendly to save paper and ink. It may also make screen reading easier.

"E-readers and tablets are becoming more popular as such technologies improve, but research suggests that reading on paper still boasts unique advantages." I suggest you try this article in Print Friendly.

The Adventures of Library Girl: I am not an artist. But when I created this blog, I knew I wanted an avatar that would come to be synonymous with "Library Girl." I figured, if I was going to don a virtual super hero persona, I would, at minimum, need a cartoon character version of my self who, if not able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, would at least sport a cape.

Libraries have done a world of good for schools. They provide a self-directed learning environment and a quiet place to work and study - not to mention the wealth of carefully organized stories, articles, reference materials and other information for students to use whenever they need it. It's no secret that the library is essentially a campus warehouse for media products. Trouble is, media is changing....

A wealth of knowledge from libraries, archives, and museums

"Children's books are an excellent means of 'travel'. With some good writing and an active imagination, you can go quite a lot of places without getting up off the couch. But did you know that many of the fabulous children's books out there were inspired by and written about real places? From Harry Potter to Beatrix Potter, authors have been drawing their inspiration from real life for a long time."

"Flavia de Luce has a passion for poisons. Picture an ancient country house somewhere in England. The year is 1950. Picture a girl who lives there with her most eccentric family....Picture a long abandoned Victorian chemistry laboratory....Put them all together and you have a deliciously original approach to detective fiction."

22.03.13 | Bookseller Staff Goblinproofing One's Chicken Coop has been named as the winner of Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year. Philip Stone, The Bookseller charts editor and Diagram Prize administrator, said: "People might think the Diagram Prize is just a bit of fun, but it spotlights an undervalued art that can make or break a work of literature. Books such as A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time all owe a sizeable part of their huge successes to their odd monikers." And then there's my favorite, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and others in Alan Bradley's series.

The worlds of Brian Selznick's Wonderstruck and The Invention of Hugo Cabret offer rich possibilities for classroom learning in every area of the curriculum. Read our guide to teaching with Brian Selznick's award-winning books, filled with rich resources for teachers and students. From a virtual field trip inside the American Museum of Natural History-the setting for much of Wonderstruck-to discussion guides, classroom activities, and interviews with Selznick, it's all here!

According to this survey of teachers, conducted by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project in collaboration with the College Board and the National Writing Project, the internet has opened up a vast world of information for today's students, yet students' digital literacy skills have yet to catch up....Given these concerns, it is not surprising that 47% of these teachers strongly agree and another 44% somewhat believe that courses and content focusing on digital literacy should be incorporated into every school's curriculum.

"It's never the book you want, it's the book beside the book."

Here is my very modest proposal: we pick the top "ICT skills" that classroom teachers should be able to expect of all students and design short, authentic tasks that can be easily assessed. If each core classroom teacher gives and evaluates one skill at the beginning of the freshman year, a profile of every student can be compiled and remediation can be provided through classes taught by the librarian.