Module 1: Introduction to Children's Literature

For my first blog post for Literature for Youth, I have decided to include a review of one of the books about reading simply because I loved it so much.

The book is Bats at the Library, written and illustrated by Brian Lies.


Bats at the Library is about a group (flock? -- no, it's a colony) of bats who find an open library window and spend the night exploring everything the library has to offer. They read, they talk about their favorite books, they play games, and they even have storytime. I really did love this book. The text is rhythmic and clever, and the illustrations are filled with humor and detail.

Of course, you don't have to take my word for it (a small homage to the now canceled Reading Rainbow). Bats at the Library has received excellent reviews.

• From Booklist, "The rhymed narrative serves primarily as the vehicle for the appealing acrylic illustrations that teem with bats so charming they will even win over chiroptophobes. -- Perkins, Linda. Booklist; 10/15/2008, Vol. 105 Issue 4, p46, 1

• From School Library Journal, "Lies's acrylics are a successful fusion of fantasy and reality. The rhyming narrative is generally smooth, with enough humor and sophistication to propel readers along. And who can argue with the message? --Lukehart, Wendy. School Library Journal; Nov2008, Vol. 54 Issue 11, p92-92, 1/5p

Bats at the Library could be used in a storytime, but I really see it as an introduction to the library for young children. Children are like the young bats in the story who see the library as a playground, but the older bats know better. Young or old, they all get pulled into a good story.

Thing 19: Google Docs

I've used this for awhile. It's handy when you want to have access to a document without uploading it from your computer. It was also useful when I was creating an itinerary for my vacation and needed to share it with my husband. The only thing is formatting is a lot harder in Google Docs and if you paste something from a Word document or vice versa, there's a lot of editing to do to make it look like you want it to.

Wikis

Here's the reason I love Wikipedia: I can find a basic explanation of just about anything. I'd never use it as a research source, but it's great for becoming familiar with an unfamiliar topic. I've had to use it before in the library when a patron didn't really know what they were looking for and I had no idea what they were talking about and needed something quick and easy so I'd have a clue as to what kind of search would give them what they wanted.

I made a page and a subpage on DFW 23 Things, but for whatever reason, I could only make one subpage. Every time I tried making another subpage, it bumped me back to the main page. I do understand how it works, though. And I know that a lot of libraries and other organizations use wikis to provide information to employees.

LibWorm

I think this is a good idea in theory, but I'll probably stick to my own RSS aggregator. I did a few searches and looked at a few of the subject areas, but few of the results were even remotely close to the search term or subject area. Sorting by relevance definitely helped, but it meant dates were all over the place. If I want something relevant to my search that was written recently, I have to hunt for it. The site would be improved by being able to sort by relevance and only show results from a cetain time period.

I did find results that made for interesting reading, but if I'm following an issue, I want results that are both relevant and recent, and from what I can figure out, this site isn't capable of that.

LibraryThing

So a couple of months ago, I was having trouble remembering which books I'd already read, and my library doesn't track check-outs, so I looked for something to use online. I saw LibraryThing, but I didn't like the interface, and I didn't like that there was a limit on how many books you could add for free.

I started using Shelfari instead. I like the interface better, and I already have over 200 books on my shelf. I don't know if LibraryThing has this feature, but I'm able to sort my books by the ones I've already read, what I'm reading now, and what I plan to read. I can see what others are reading, see reviews, make my own recommendations, and Shelfari has book clubs for everything you could think of.

Now I just need to start using it again...

Can you Digg it?

Digg is dangerous, at least for me. I'm not sure how long I've sat here reading articles and following links, but I can see myself getting sucked into the vortex. I found a picture of Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint from 2000, an article on games you can play to train your brain, an article about Starbucks selling beer and when I searched "library" an article about a woman from Killeen with an arrest warrant for an overdue library book (she has to show up in court and pay a $340 fine, which seems like a lot, but I've seen bigger, and it's a misdemeanor even in my city) and the same for another woman in Iowa, who was charged with fifth-degree theft.

The funny thing is, even though I looked at a lot of different categories, I saw articles that have shown up in my Google Reader. I think if I'm bored or procrastinating, Digg is great, but there's so much on there that I'll probably stick to my feeds.

Thing 14: Delicious

I knew what Delicious was in a vague sense, but I didn't realize how much better it would be to use, especially with being able to use your bookmarks from any computer. It won points when it imported my bookmarks from Firefox, and it won more points that it automatically made my bookmarks private. I can see how sharing bookmarks would be beneficial (thanks Common Craft!) but since I'm using this for my personal searches, I'm glad I didn't have to go through all of them to change the security settings.

Also, I don't know why anyone wouldn't want to add the buttons to their browser. If you're doing this for convenience, it's not convenient to go the web site every time you want to look through your bookmarks. Not only does clicking on the bookmark button show the actual bookmarked items, but it also shows how you've tagged them, so it's super easy finding the thing you want.