CGHS Library

Stolen FIC Christopher

This Printz Honor Book sounds dark, but Madison Williams said that even though it started slow, it was a good book.

Discussions in Google Docs

Google announced an enhancement to the Google Docs commenting system called "discussions." Discussions will allow document collaborators to have threaded conversations in the margins of a document. By including the @ symbol before a collaborator's name you can reply directly to that person. Another option in discussions is the option to be notified via email of replies to your comments in Google Docs. 

Right now discussions in Google Docs is only available for new documents. If you created a document prior to this morning, it won't have the discussion feature enabled. Watch the video below to learn more about Google Docs discussions. (from Free Technology For Teachers)

 

A Guide to Annotating Using Diigo

A Guide to Annotating using Diigo from José Picardo on Vimeo.

Google Bookmarks With Lists

Happy Birthday, Mr. Frost

I have been one acquainted with the night. 
I have walked out in rain - and back in rain. 
I have outwalked the furthest city light. 
I have looked down the saddest city lane. 
I have passed by the watchman on his beat 
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet 
When far away an interrupted cry 
Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye; 
And further still at an unearthly height, 
One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right. 
I have been one acquainted with the night.

Who is Mark Twain?

Vote for Next Year's Teen Tech Week Theme

Vote for the 2012 Teen Tech Week theme through March 31! Finalists are: ESC @ your library, FYI @ your library, and Geek Out @ your library. Vote today!

Go Ahead, Try To Focus.

Children's Book Library Online

The International Children's Digital Library is the beginning of something very cool. The site features children's books from a variety of cultures.

"But I'm a HIGH school student," you say, "Why would I be interested in CHILDREN's books?"

1. If you need a trigger for your artistic imagination, nothing beats the art in children's books. It can be very strange indeed, but it can also be beautiful, and it will almost always make you see the world in a slightly different way than you had before.

2. If you are learning Spanish or any other language, a good way to hone your language skills is to read a children's book in that language.

3. Many of the books featured in English are old books. If your time machine is broken, you can experience something of what it was like to live a hundred years ago by reading an old version of The Arabian Nights, for example.

4. If you haven't already killed every ounce of intellectual curiosity you ever possessed, and I'm guessing if you have read this far, you have not, this is a good way to dabble in other cultures. This site has books in Persian/Farsi, in German, in French, in Spanish, in Finnish, in Arabic and in many other languages. (MHouse)

QR Codes

We've been hearing a lot about QR codes lately. The following image courtesy of jumpscan does the best job of explaining what a QR code is. Jumpscan allows you to create a QR code of your own. A free QR code generator is QRickit.

After hearing a LOT about school libraries putting QR codes on books that would take readers to video book trailers when they scanned them with a smart phone, we did some experimenting. Unfortunately, every single book trailer we looked at was, well, to put it as gently as we can, incredibly STUPID, poorly designed, or a horrible representation of the book. Maybe we are just too picky. (We know there are good book trailers out there, we just didn't find anything at the high school level with a QR code that we liked.) We will keep looking, and when we find something good, QR codes will show up on the books here.