Schroeder Library Media Center

We recently updated our nonfiction collection with 2020 research titles. Our career collection now includes expanded options for careers in sports, forensics, coding, social media, gaming, and piloting droids, along with more traditional careers like plumbing, carpentry and police work. We also have new titles on addiction, phobias, and disorders. Among the new social issue book topics are immigration, toxic masculinity, intersectionality, climate change, reproductive rights, poverty, vaping, disability rights, genetic testing, lead contamination, biological/chemical warfare, the #metoo movement, and critical thinking about digital media.

We still have openings for book tastings during the two days prior to Thanksgiving Break. Book tastings give students the opportunity to sample books from different genres and make tasting notes about the books. During the process they will learn defining characteristics of book genres, as well as reviewing text features. At the end of the book tasting, students look over their notes to select a book to check out. If you'd like a custom table curated for your curriculum, we can arrange that as well. Book tastings work well for career exploration, selecting independent reads, identifying research topics, and more.

The data that we gather in the library helps us to improve teaching practices. We can see how many database searches students conduct. For our Gale databases, we can also see what search terms students are using, and how this is impacting their ability to retrieve an article. Take a look at the word cloud of search terms above. The larger the search term, the more often it was searched. Our data tells us that "women" only offers a 23% article retrieval rate. Something more specific, like "water rights," leads to a 74% retrieval rate. Using this information, we can better guide students in search term generating.

Keep data analysis in mind for your next research project. I would love to help you look at your own statistics so that we can provide targeted instruction.

Here is the link to access the WXXI Education Newsletters. You can subscribe to have them delivered monthly to your inbox. Please fill out this form one week in advance of the program that you would like to have recorded.

5663: Total number of student library users

270: Average number of student library users per day

2015: Number of database searches

134: Number of books checked out

5: Number of classes using library services

New titles

We now have audiobooks available for some of our more universally used classroom titles. The list of titles and number of copies of each is here.

Searching for Titles

Within the library catalog, the easiest way to search is to select "sound recording" (nonmusical) from the material pulldown menu and click on "Limit to Follett Audiobooks." Next click on "keyword." You will get a listing of our 17 audiobook titles.

Checking out Copies

Because these are single user audiobooks, only one person can check out each copy at a time. We have between one and five copies of each book. If the audiobooks are getting use, I will try to steadily increase our collection. For titles where there is only one copy, my recommendation is that a teacher check out the copy.

You (and your students) must be signed into the catalog to check out an audiobook. The username is your email address up to the @ symbol. Use your Gmail password.

Here is a guide to using the Follett audiobooks themselves. I have also attached some further reading on the benefits of audiobooks.

Please let me know if you would like me to attend your PLC to walk you through some of the audiobook features. Also, keep in mind that for choice reading, students can access audiobooks from the Sora app.

Email: jennifer_strege@webstercsd.org
Website: http://www.websterschools.org/districtpage.cfm?pageid=890
Phone: 585-670-5006
Twitter: @wshslmc