Saving Gale articles to Google Drive!

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Organizing research articles can be challenging. Printing articles or saving them in various locations gets confusing for students and are often lost or forgotten. To make research easier, Gale has teamed with Google to allow students to save Gale database articles straight to their Google Drive…including the citation information! *happy dance*

Our dual credit English class learned about this new tool last week and was very excited about how easy it was to use. I’ve never seen so much excitement about research before! 🙂

Here’s how it works:

  1. Sign into Google within a Gale database.
  2. Find an interesting article.
  3. Highlight important information or add notes.
  4. Select download from the tools menu and save to Google Drive.
  5. You will find your document in your Google Drive under the folder of the database you were using.
  6. Now you can edit the document, share it with others, and take advantage of all Google Drive features!

Gale to Google Drive Tip Sheet

“Finding Joy” in author visits!

joy-PrebleI absolutely love author visits! They are so engaging and provide students an opportunity to have meaningful conversations with published authors.

Author Joy Preble visited Tompkins HS on Thursday, November 12th and spoke about her writer’s journey and her latest novel, Finding Paris. The students really enjoyed hearing about her experiences as a writer and asked very thoughtful questions. We have some serious writers in our school that are trying to learn as much as they can about the writing world. They inspire me!

One of my favorite quotes that Joy Preble told the students was, “No one can tell your story except you.” As young writers, students hesitate to write because they don’t know what to write about or feel their story is not original. She stressed to the students that their story is unique.

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We ended the author visit with a drawing for some free signed books and Starbuck’s gift cards. Finding Paris is about a road trip (among other things) – and no road trip is complete with a stop at Starbucks. 🙂

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Be on the lookout for Joy’s next book, It Wasn’t Always Like This, coming out in 2016! It’s about a girl, a boy, a fountain of youth, and what happens when you’re stuck at 17. Definitely adding it to my 2016 MUST READ list!

Teen Read Week – in review

TRW_logo_Teen Read Week was a success! The library checked out over 230 books to students throughout the week and held lots of fun activities.

The library displayed the Teens’ Top Ten finalists books and encouraged students to vote for their favorite books during the week. The votes were tallied and the winners are…

  1. The Shadow Throne by Jennifer A. Nielsen (Scholastic)
  2.  I Become Shadow by Joe Shine. (Soho Teen)
  3. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han. (Simon & Schuster)
  4. My Life with the Walter Boys by Ali Novak. (Sourcebooks)
  5. Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas. (Bloomsbury)
  6. The Bane Chronicles by Cassandra Clare. (Simon & Schuster/Margaret K. McElderry)
  7. The Young Elites by Marie Lu. (Penguin/G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
  8. The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson. (Macmillan/ Henry Holt & Company)
  9. Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson. (Simon & Schuster)
  10. The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith. (Hachette/Poppy)

View a list of the winners with annotations here. (PDF)

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We gave away lots of great prizes with our Library Trivia and “If YA Characters Were on Twitter” contests.

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We also celebrated our Top 25 patrons with a donut party in the library before school. The students loved this! We even had one student come in a day early in anticipation! hahaha!

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Thank you, Falcons, for helping us celebrate reading for fun all week!

Weekend Reading

There has been a lot of buzz around Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely‘s new book, All American Boys. It’s a story about two teenage boys – one black, one white – and the realization that racism and prejudice are still prevalent in our country. It’s a story about stereotypes and police brutality. And it’s a story about the strength of these boys and the risks they take to make the world a better place.

I’m only about 75 pages into the book, but I can already feel the importance of the story being told. This is a timely book and will provide many opportunities for meaningful conversations.

Check out this audiobook excerpt!

Teen Read Week – Read for the fun of it!

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The Tompkins Library will celebrate Teen Read Week (October 18-24, 2015) with special events at encouraging teens to read for the fun of it.

Teen Read Week is a time to celebrate reading for fun while encouraging teens to take advantage of reading in all its forms —books, magazines, e-books, audiobooks and more! It is also a great opportunity to encourage teens to become regular library users.

Strong reading skills are more critical than ever because they translate into better performance at school and better preparedness for careers. This is why it is important to take advantage of Teen Read Week and show teens that reading is a fun and relaxing activity they can do for free.

The Tompkins Library invites teens to participate in several special events during Teen Read Week.

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Teen Read Week is a national adolescent literacy initiative created by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association. It is held annually during the third week of October. For more information, visit www.ala.org/teenread.

“Finding Paris” in our next book club!

FindingParisThe Tompkins library is excited to announce that we will be hosting author Joy Preble in the library on Thursday, November 12th during Enrichment.

In order to attend the author visit, students must join the book club and read Preble’s latest book “Finding Paris” (either attend the face-to-face meetings every other Wednesday before/after school in the library OR participate in the Canvas discussions…or both!!) If interested in joining, please stop by the library and let me know you want to join and I will add you to our Canvas book club.

Books are available for purchase in the library, but students are not required to purchase a book from the library to participate. We do have a couple of copies in the library available for checkout.

Learn more about Joy Preble and “Finding Paris” HERE!

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How to find an epic nonfiction read.

I cannot live without books. ~Thomas Jefferson

Readers often identify themselves as either fiction or nonfiction readers. Those that enjoy losing themselves into another world and those that want to learn more about the world they live in. As a librarian, I’ve noticed that our students tend to pick up fiction books for a variety of reasons. I’ve also noticed an increase in teachers actively encouraging nonfiction reading. If you are a fiction reader, this request can be quite daunting.

To help ease fiction readers into the world of nonfiction, I’ve come up with a few tips.

1. Know where to begin. Entering the nonfiction section of the library can be overwhelming. Figure out what subjects are you interested in learning more about. Browse that area of the dewey or search the catalog for ideas at www.gofollett.com. What books look interesting and relevant to you?

2. Check the awards lists. The Robert F. Sibert Informational book award is awarded annually to the author and illustrator of the most distinguished informational book published in the United States the preceding year (American Library Association). Since this award was established by the Association for Library Service to Children in 2001, many of the books are geared toward children. However, the winner/honor award list is MUST when looking for quality nonfiction literature. Another great award list to consider is the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults. This annual award focuses on honoring the best nonfiction book published for young adults (ages 12-18). The YALSA Nonfiction award list is one of the first lists I look at when deciding on what nonfiction books to order for the library.

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3. Consider literary style/structure. Nonfiction does not have to be boring. Many nonfiction writers today are writing in a variety of styles, such as narrative nonfiction and verse. Narrative nonfiction, also known as literary nonfiction, uses literary styles and techniques to create factual narratives. Verse allows the author to express themselves in a poetic manner.

4. Ask for recommendations. Ask your friends, teachers, and librarian for recommendations. They may have a suggestion that might spark your interest in a new subject area.

Student iPad Checkout

The library has iPads available for student check out with parent permission. Parents must view an informational video on student iPad checkout (see below). This video will explain the parent/student responsibilities of iPad checkout, procedures, and replacement costs if the iPad is damaged or lost. In order for students to check out an iPad, parents will be required to view the video, read the online contract, and sign a google form giving their child permission to check out the iPad. Once we receive the completed google form, the library staff will follow up with a phone call to the parent to verify student permission. Once permission has been verified, students may check out iPads through the library. These iPads must be used for classroom assignments and can only be checked out for 5 school days at a time.