Bucks County Public Libraries In Search of Volunteers!

Bucks County Public Libraries

QR CODES COME TO THE LIBRARY!

"WHAT IS A QR CODE?" A QR code is a 2-dimensional code which, when scanned by a barcode reader, brings the user to a document, webpage, email, text or phone number. One of the beauties of a QR code is that users don't have to enter in long url's to access a webpage or contact info, they just scan the barcode.

Come check-out out our books on display which have QR codes linking to book trailers. Just scan the barcode with your smartphone and the book trailer will atuomatically open on YouTube!


One of the books we have on display is Winter's Bone of which the movie version is nominated for the 2011 Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Actress. We have a QR code which links to the movie trailer.

STUDENTS WIN A SWEET PRIZE

Jacob Goodman and Michaela Glover enjoy their donuts

Mr. Finley's homeroom won the contest for have the least amount of overdue libray books during the second marking period. They were treated to a breakfast of Dunkin Donuts.

Literary Characters for Library Courtyard Mural

NH-S students! You have an exciting opportunity to have YOUR IMAGE painted on the library courtyard mural! The design concept for the mural is to include literary characters from well-known books. YOU are invited to come to school dressed as a character which you believe should be included on the mural. If your character is selected, YOUR digital image will be used as a model for the painting of that character.
Come dressed as that character on TUESDAY, DECEMEBER 7th. Your picture will be taken and your photo will be submitted to a panel of teachers and students who will make the final selections.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Library News!

CUBAN AMERICAN AUTHOR VISITS STUDENTS AND COMMUNITY

Tim Vaughan-Ogunlusi, Marisa Lewis, Margarita Engle, Patrick Carvalho, Ariel Ozbeki

On October 13, Cuban American poet and novelist, Margarita Engle, honored New Hope-Solebury with two presentations; one for students during the school day, and another in the evening for the community. The author’s visit was part of the NH-S Read the World program and was provided through a grant from the NH-S Education Fund. This year’s Read the World program focuses on Latin American countries, featuring two of Engle’s works, The Poet Slave: Juan Francisco Manzano and The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom.

Ms. Engle spoke to NH-S high school Spanish and English classes about her Cuban background and about her inspiration for her young adult books. The Spanish students have been reading The Poet Slave and have been learning about Cuba in their classes and the English students have been reading The Surrender Tree. Both books explore Cuba’s history through a collection of poetic verses, and both have won numerous literary awards. Ms. Engle spoke again in the evening, allowing the community an opportunity to learn about Cuban culture and history and to hear about Ms. Engle’s writing process.

The Read the World program is a collaboration of the New Hope-Solebury High School, the Free Library of New Hope and Solebury and the New Hope-Solebury Education Fund. The goup’s mission is “one community exploring cultural diversity one book at a time.” Two additional presentations have been scheduled which celebrate the cultural diversity of other Latin American countries. On October 25th at 7:00 pm, photographer, Bob Krist, will present his professional photographs of various Latin American countries such as Mexico, Costa Rica, the Galapagos Islands, Peru, Buenos Aires and Easter Island.The presentation will be held in the Stephen J Buck Auditorium at New Hope-Solebury High School. On October 28th at 7:00 pm, there will be a Mexican Fiesta Dancing demonstration via a live video feed. A professional dancer will be demonstrating Day of the Dead dances in the New Hope-Solebury High School Cafeteria.

Further information can be found at http://www.nhs-read-the-world.com/ or by contacting Mary Schwander, NH-S High School librarian, at mschwander@nhsd.org or 215-862-2028.Donation information for the NH-S Education Fund can be found at http://www.nhsedfund.org/.

Reflecting on the Google Experience

This past December, I was pleased to attend the Google Teacher Academy in Washington DC. I was quite honored that my district's assistant superintendent, tech director and my principal contacted me to suggest that I apply. I was honored even more to have been selected among a truly terrific and respectful group of educators.

My GTA Application Video:

The day and a half with Google gurus was quite unbelievable. My head was spinning with all the applications I was learning about and all the ideas I had about using those applications. On my home, I thought of all the ways which I could use Google tools as a library media specialist, and became excited about what I wanted to share with my teachers, and with other librarians in my professional learning network.

It didn't take me long to start making some changes in how I was running my library. I changed my library website from iWeb to Google Sites, used Google Docs to switch from a paper system to an online schedule, and used Google Forms for things like book recommendations and to keep track of books read by students for a reading competition.

I took advantage of the many Google search tools by adding custom search engines and embedded Google Books to my library pathfinders. I instructed students how to create their own search engines and how to customize their searches with Google Alert and Google Custom News. I also created a Google Earth trip for a lesson our 9th graders did on Shakespeare.

I encouraged students to using advanced Google Image searches for finding copyright free photos and Google Books to help in their research.

Of course, I couldn't keep all this good Google stuff to myself and was eager to share it with teachers and other librarians. I presented to teachers at department meetings in my school and my district and to librarians at the Pennsylvania School Library Association conference. The librarians seem to appreciate the Google information and, in fact, one of the librarians along with her tech director are visiting me at my school next week to learn more about Google. Another librarian plans to visit this summer.

My attempt at a fun Google Search Story for librarians:

This summer, I am looking forward to presenting two full-day workshops on Google tools for my district teachers. I also look forward to creating a Google Lit Trip for our Read the World program on Latin American literature.

What is most exciting to me is the fact that virtually everyday there is something new in the world of Google! I know that this summer I will be exploring some new tool which Google has unveiled, or improved upon a previous tool. I am now pursuing certification for a Instructional Technology Specialist and I am sure that Google will be helping me and inspiring me along the way.