September 20 Reading Log

According to the Empowering Learners book, because the school librarian serves as a teacher, information specialist and instructional collaborator, he or she serves as an agent of change in both the library and in education (p. 19). It can be said that in today's school library, media specialists need to be on top of the current technology in order for their library to become effective, appropriate, and appealing to students living in today's technological world.

In "Using Technology to Market Teen Library Programs and Services," Linda W. Braun suggests that we use a variety of Web 2.0 tools in order to make the library website and catalog more dynamic and interactive for students as well as becoming more viral. Using something like a Facebook page can keep students aware of different activities that are happening in the library. In "Why Go Virtual," it is mentioned that today's students have grown up using technology and learn and think differently than kids did even a few years ago. By using different tools that many, if not all of the students have used many times, we are connecting the library and learning to them in ways they wouldn't have been reached otherwise.


Making the library more technologically accessible and appealing to students includes creating a library website that makes students want to come to the library. The article "Your Library Going Virtual" mentions a variety of ideas on what to include in the website. These things include book talks, reading lists, ebooks, and the online catalog. Students don't necessarily want to come to the library just to find a book recommendation or even what's in the library. Giving them access to it in a website gives them an opportunity to see what's available.

While the website may be more interesting for students to use, it's not going to be any use if the website itself is not accessible. In the article about accessible web design, the author mentions that the librarian needs to make the website accessible to all students, including students with hearing and visual impairments as well as making the website look professional, simple and easy to use. This article reminds me of my other class when I had to make a website. If we had pictures, we had to add descriptions for the pictures so that any readers can understand what's being depicted in the picture.  The website also needs to be organized in such a way that so that it can be easily found.

I think that if a library considers how students learn in today's world using technology and makes use of the available technology, librarians can make their school library a place where students want to go to interact, learn, and ultimately read.