If You Love to Read (video)

This might just be my theme song! I loved the video and song. If you look around the 2:35 mark you can see four books by Anne McCaffrey, my FAVORITE author! :-) Check her out.

Thank You

The year is over.
Chances are nobody will see this post.
Chances are most of these posts were never seen.
Sigh...
But it was a great year.
I enjoyed being a part of the IKM-Manning family.
I enjoyed getting to know the students and staff.
I enjoyed geeking out about The Hunger Games with students.
I enjoyed learning about Hailey Abbott, Cecily von Ziegesar, Sarah Dessen, and Melissa de la Cruz.


I wish I were able to come back in the Fall with everyone, but I'll be close by. Thanks for a great year. For now it's time to enjoy SUMMER VACATION!

The End is Near

While the end of the year may seem like years away to students, here in the library the time is flying by much too quickly.  I have books to locate, inventory to begin, and shelves of books to shift! I have decided that all books will be due before the last day of school. As a librarian I would much rather have open check out up to the last day but it just won't work. So here it is, the DUE date for all library materials!

Senior library materials due: Wednesday, May 9th.
9-11 library materials due: Wednesday, May 16th.

This translates to one week before YOUR last day of school. So please keep these dates in mind as you finish with class projects and any books that you would like to read.

What do you want to read?

As students have begun checking out our brand new Nooks I have heard a lot about the selection of titles. Some people have found several books they would like to read, while others have been disappointed. I tried to look at many different kinds of books when I began purchasing Nook Books for our devices.But I also knew I wouldn't be able to find something for everyone. With that in mind I placed a simple, short survey in the front cover of the case. If there is a book you think would be a good addition to our Nooks please write down the title and author (if possible). While not all titles have a Nook Book available, many of today's new releases will have a Nook Book option. So let me know what you are looking for!

Nooks

The Nook Simple Touch eReader has finally made it's way to the IKM-Manning HS Library! The middle school should begin their program by the end of this week or the beginning of next. I can't believe they are finally ready!

We have 6 Nooks to check out. Due to the small number available the check out period has been set at 10 days. So if you want to read something be serious about how much time you've got because there are NO renewals and no overdues allowed. There are about 25 titles purchased for the Nook currently. Each Nook has the exact same titles loaded. If we add more Nooks to our collection they will have different titles available. If you have a suggestion for a book I'd love to hear it. There is a short informal survey in the case of each Nook, when you return the device just fill out the survey.

I'd like to say how grateful I am to be a part of a school that values both reading and technology. I hope to end this school year with positive reviews of our eReader program and am looking forward to the challenges still to come!

Happy Reading!

Happy Hunger Games!

Mark your calendars, you are hereby invited to the Hunger Games Movie Premiere Party hosted by the IKM-Manning High School Library! The movie hits theaters on Friday, March 23rd and our party will take place on Thursday, March 22nd at 5:00 pm.

Events will include Hunger Games training sessions in camouflage, knot tying, and other survival skills. Games and prizes as well as food and drinks will be provided. Come to discuss your thoughts on the FIRST BOOK and movie such as:

• The cast: good, bad or indifferent?
• The story: what will they mess-up/get right?
• The soundtrack: (Taylor Swift) brilliant or not quite right?

If you are seriously interested in attending this event please RSVP to Ms. Stohlmeyer in the library!

Online Bookshelves

Hello Readers! Ever have trouble keeping track of the books you want to read? If you're anything like me your list never seems to shrink, just grow! There are several ways to handle this problem.

1. Write down titles on scrapes of paper, margins of notebooks, class assignments, or any available space.

2. Keep a list of titles in a Word doc or other text file on a flash drive or other electronic storage device.

3. Create an account at one of several online sites created for book lovers around the world! For example Shelfari, LibraryThing, and GoodReads.

Let me give you a piece of advice, choices 1 and 2 don't work. I don't know how many books I've forgotten to read because I lost the scrape of paper where I wrote the recommendation down. Keeping a Word doc is great, until you realize you lost your flash drive. So if, like me, you need a better way to organize what you read there is an "app" for that! I have personally used LibraryThing and Shelfari. I recommend Shelfari or GoodReads for causal readers, and here's why:

I prefer Shelfari for the horrible reason that it was prettier than my LibraryThing account. But I also found that the ways I could store information about my books was better. There are three "shelves:" books I plan to read, books I am reading, and books I have read. I can write a review of any book I have read for all to see or I can make notes for myself. I can rate the book, and note if I own a copy or would like to own a copy.

I know that GoodReads is similar to Shelfari, but they have more ways to personalize the organization and look of your "shelves." I feel like GoodReads is the next level up on the social media scale. This site is geared toward sharing and recommending books for all. I enjoyed my brief look at the site and would probably have started an account if I didn't already have a Shelfari account.

If you are looking for more information about any of the sites talked about in this post come on over to the library!

Countries of the World!

Are you looking for more in-depth knowledge about the United States or another country? Well look no further than Culture Grams Online Database provided by the AEA Online.

To begin choose between the World, State, or Provinces Editions. Next choose the location desired. For example in the World Edition I clicked over the continent Europe then clicked on the country I was interested in, France.

Once you get to the main article for the country you can browse around for the information you want. The left hand navigation has a variety of choices: Background, The People, Customs and Courtesies, Lifestyle, Society and finally At a Glance. The right side navigation has the following options:

Photos, Videos, Slideshows, Interviews, Famous People, Recipes, and more. I enjoy looking up information about famous people and recipes just for fun. some of the same options can be found at the top of the page navigation. Click on Recipes along the top and you are prompted to pick another country. This is navigation makes it easy to look up similar information about different countries.

The Real Book vs The eBook

I love books. I am a librarian. But I recently dived into the world of eReaders as well. I have a Nook, my mom has a Kindle, and my sister is still holding on to real books. Don't get me wrong I will not stop buying real books just because I own a Nook. I know traveling with an ebook is much easier than a real one. However it's not as comfy to curl up on the couch with an ebook as it is with a real book. I believe there is a time and place for both formats. But I tend to lean towards real books myself. How do you prefer to read a book?

Here is a video for the REAL book lovers!




Now here is a student made video I found and loved. These students created a video for their school to promote the new eReaders at their school library. As far as "commercials" go I enjoyed this one.

Reading Rants!

Reading Rants is an awesome website/blog about great books to read. It is run by a school librarian in NYC. Reading Rants has been around for more than 10 years. If you are looking for something to read this great site offers suggestions. Here are some Reading Rants List you can browse:
Stoned
Riot Grrrl!
Boy Meets Book
Nail Biters
Virgin Run
Word UP!
Gods and Monsters

These list and more can be found here at the Reading Rants website! Although the IKM-Manning HS Library doesn't have every book suggested we will always try to Inter Library Loan (ILL) any title you might like to read.

Better Watch Out!

It's friday the 13th!

Welcome Back Students

The first day back to school is traditionally a busy day in the library, and today is no exception. Books coming in and going out, library projects in various stages of completion, new study hall teachers/seating charts and ILL runs amok. As the day is a busy one I'd like to remind students that it is okay to stop and ask for help or stop and talk to me, the librarian! (!) if you need me. This is a short, fast week so make the most of it!