Incorporating Blogging in the Media Center

I've been thinking of ways to incorporate blogging into a media center. Here are the ideas I have:

-Using blogging for a book club.
-Maintaing a general media center blog about the goings on around the media center. This would be a great way to create communication between parents and the media specialist.
-Creating a school blog that the all the faculty participated in and could collaborate.

These are just some ideas. Please share your blogging ideas!

Significant Posts

I think Teresa has made the most significant posts. The first being the post about the responsibility of the school media specialist. I have printed a copy to keep for myself. I've compared what the media specialist that I volunteer for does and no wonder she never takes a lunch. There is quite a bit to be accomplished in a day. The second significant post is the FLIP camera footage of the media center that Teresa works at. I thought she did a wonderful job of integrating technology into our blog. The media center looked like a lot of fun too.

Insights About Myself

Because it is a blog, I forget of it it is also class work. So I have procrastinated and procrastinated about blogging. However, I have enjoyed that experience. Teresa has been a wonderful partner throughout the blogging experience and has offered some incredible blogs herself. My favorite being the Flip camera footage she added of the media center that she works at. I'm comfortable with blogging because I do have experience with it. I appreciate the opportunity to use it.

Applications of Blogs to my Practice

As an aspiring Media Specialist, I will use blogs. Already my husband and I maintain a blog on our family website as a means of communication to our family and friends. Weekly, I ready 2-3 other blogs as well. I love blogging and candidiness that comes alongs with it. A lot of times I find them more informative than news sites and much more global minded. As a media specialist, I would maintain a blog for the media center as a book club. I think that would be a wonderful way to teach middle and high school students. I can also blog about our upcoming events and themes that will be taking place at the media center.

Interpersonal Skills

Here is an article I pulled from my 6461 class as well. The authors discuss the interpersonal skills necessary to be a successful media specialist. I found it interesting that the skills discussed were the same as required in my former career of being an account manager...strong marketing and public relation skills. In my next career as a media specialist, I'll be marketing books and technology. I'll be using PR skills to sell to new clients which are library patrons...teachers, students, parents, administrators, etc....I hope you enjoy the article.

Koganuramath, M., Angadi, M. (1998). Interpersonal Skills for Effective Library Management. Retrieved March 11, 2008 from http://eprints.rclis.org/archive/00001616/01/Interpersonal-skills.PDF

Teacher Collaboration

I am also an aspiring media specialist and found this article for a recent MEDT 6461 assignment. This article is in regards to the role that media specialists play in teaching and collaborating with teachers, and how the type of scheduling in place in a school's media center affects these roles. It has results of several studies and surveys of media specialists, and how they view this part of their jobs as far as how they fulfill them as well as their attitudes about them.

The Instructional Consultant Role of the Elementary-School Library Media Specialist adn the Effects of Program Scheduling on Its Practice

Significant Postings from the Blogging Experience

Andrea's BLOG on the Rubric for Georgia DOE Media Specialists was the most significant to me because there was alot of good, factual information given pertaining to my field of study. Information such as the media center must be on a flexible schedule, square footage requirements, book requirements per student, etc...is what I need to know for my future profession. After reviewing her BLOG, I see several DOE requirements that we do not follow at our school, such as being on a fixed schedule at our Primary School media center. I also find it interesting and a little disturbing that Media Specialists are not required for SACS accredidation. We upcoming Media Specialists must work hard to justify our worth!