Minnesota - Group: MN Promoting Your Media Center to Teachers

Group Activities

2009-11-16T21:18:53Z

No matter how excited I get to talk about library databases (pretty excited, I assure you), I realize that not every audience is always quite as excited to hear about them from me.
So I find that it can be helpful to get groups of people to teach each other about databases. In library training sessions, where applicable, it often works wonders to divide into small groups, have each small group work on an activity, and then have each group present that activity to the large group as a whole.
Everybody gets their feet wet; everybody sees what everyone else was working on.
I wonder if this would work with teachers? I just posted three sets of activities to get an in-depth knowledge of the Points of View Reference Center, Student Research Center, and Encyclopedia Britannica. Find them in the Documents tab. They are organized in the "Hands-On" title section. You, as the media specialist, might have to do some instruction at the outset in introducing these databases, but would having teachers teach each other about database content be useful in promotion?

RE: Why and how to use this group

2009-08-25T17:15:34Z

Hey Wendy,
Thanks for watching the video, and for the kind words! It was made using a piece of software called Camtasia. Camtasia is pretty easy to use, but is not free. The publishers of it have a free version with limited functionality called Jing: http://www.jingproject.com/. If you have questions about using either of those, let me know.

I do think these kinds of videos could offer a lot of promotional value. Here at Minitex we're planning on creating a bunch of very short (2 or 3 minutes) videos providing introductions to the new ELM databases. We hope this will allow folks to learn about these resources on their own schedules, rather than having to work with ours, and to be able to pick and choose from topics or databases that interest them.

Same ideas would apply in school settings, for sure. I'd love to hear about what you're planning to present to staff, if you'd feel comfortable sharing.

RE: Why and how to use this group

2009-08-20T21:11:02Z

Matt, I just viewed the video on promoting the media center. How do I make one like it? I want to create one using the same format and music that I can present at a staff meeting. Yes, it doesn't replace getting out there and selling the media center and its services, but the format you used in that video is compelling, fresh, and very effective.

American School Board Journal article: The Changing Library

2009-08-13T15:50:30Z

The August 2009 issue of American School Board Journal has a great article highlighting the benefits of a media center to student achievement. The article is called "The Changing Library." Any ideas on using this for promotion? Might be an opening for some informal promotion with your school board...

You can see a brief description of the article on the publisher's site. You can see the full text of the article by using the Academic Search Premier database at elm4you.org, or by using this direct link.

Have you used the Research Project Calculator?

2009-07-15T17:17:59Z

At the ALA annual meeting in Chicago this weekend, Jane Prestebak of Robbinsdale, MN, presented on information literacy across the k-16 spectrum, and used the Research Project Calculator as an example of how to help students manage the research process. Has anybody used this very student-focused tool as an "in" to help promote their media center more generally? http://rpc.elm4you.org/

Reading Incentive Programs and new ideas

2009-06-17T14:30:35Z

I am looking to revise, update, change the Reading Incentive Program
in the fall here at Marshall High School. If you have a reading
incentive program (other than AR) you would like to share please
respond. I will share responses if others are interested.

* We have a Battle of the Books program that runs something like a
forensic competition. We have had 1/3 of our high school
students participate. If you would like more info, please
contact me.
* We only se AR and the usage has reduced so much in the last 2
year, I don't feel that the usage justifies the buying of more
quizzes.
So, if you receive other responses, please let me know.

Other than the two responses above, I will also share what I currently
do at Marshall High School. Maybe you have some constructive comments
to make as to how I can promote the program, increase student
participation or make changes.

Marshall High School's Reading Incentive Program

I introduce the Reading Incentive Program when I have 9th grade and
new students in the media center for orientation and I spend 5-10
minutes in English classes to reintroduce the program to returning
students. Students simply need to read. They keep track of their
reading on a reading log provided by the media center. Students come
into the media center after they have recorded at least one hour of
reading signed off by a teacher, para or parent. Then students receive
a "lottery ticket" to fill out for every hour they have read and media
staff sign off that the student received a "lottery ticket" for each
hour noted. We also keep track on a spread sheet the number of hours
each student has as they turn in more hours. We have a weekly drawing
(every Thursday) where we draw a winner from the "lottery tickets"
collected. The "lottery tickets" stay in the drawing for the whole
year even if a student has won in first, second or third quarter.
During fourth quarter students we separate the students into two
groups under 50 hours of reading and 50+ hours of reading. We then
have nine prizes for students to win in each of the two groups. Once a
student has won during fourth quarter then the student cannot win
again during that school year.

Prizes are purchased from the cash profits from a Scholastic Book
Sale held in December. During the first three quarters of the school
year, I purchase $5.00 gift cards from area businesses such as Family
Video, the local movie theater, Hardees, Culvers, Cold Stone Creamery,
DQ. The prizes available during the fourth quarter include books or
gift items chosen from the sales from Imagination Books for the Under
50 hours group. The 50+ hours group can win items such as portable dvd
player, ipod shuffle, digital camera, mini refrigerator, small
microwave oven, or a 19" tv.

I have found that participation the last two years has been around 65
students, which is down from approximately 80 students the year before
that. We have 750 students attending our high school which means only
about 10% participate. Is this uncommon? I have heard comments from
students that they do not want to take the time to fill out the
reading log. I have the main office announce the weekly winner in the
announcements, have the administrative assistant include the winners
on the school TV announcements that are shown daily and I post the winners on
a special board in the media center. I allow students to include
literature, such as class novels, that they read in English class as a
part of their reading for the program. I have had the local newspaper
write a story about “what’s happening in our schools” and have
included information about the reading incentive program in parent
newsletters they receive during conferences.

I am interested in any responses or comments.

RE: From frustration comes innovation

2009-06-01T14:50:00Z

Hey, that is an interesting site. Thanks for telling us about it! Looks like it provides lots of good examples and ideas to help in brainstorming ways to get the word out about libraries and media centers. I've added a link to the page in the Documents section of this group.

RE: From frustration comes innovation

2009-05-28T20:55:03Z

I just stumbled upon this interesting website with various ideas on how to promote the Media Center. http://eduscapes.com/sms/advocacy/promotion.html

The buzz in the hallway

2009-05-27T19:07:29Z

This is an exciting time of year, in that everyone at your school is most likely ready for summer. Hallelujah, it’s almost June! Is there anything you can do to leave a positive impression on your students and teachers the summer through? Now might be a nice time to promote your media center as a fun, in-tune resource that doesn’t always take itself too seriously. Any good ideas to share?

Why and how to use this group

2009-05-07T15:03:28Z

We just posted a short video discussing why and how one might use this group. Check it out in the Documents tab or by visiting this link. And please share the video link with any colleagues you think might be interested in talking or learning about library promotion. The more people who use this group, the better it'll be. Thanks for taking part as we get it up and running!

(For easier copy/pasting, here's the link: http://www.minitex.umn.edu/events/webinars/archived/WJMN/WJMN.htm)

What's your elevator speech?

2009-04-28T21:06:04Z

If there was one person who made budget decisions about your library and you had 30 seconds to talk to that person directly, what one thing would you choose to talk about?

RE: From frustration comes innovation

2009-04-23T21:06:50Z

Hey Jeanne, love your idea of enlisting teachers who’ve used the library successfully to tell other teachers about library services. And your pet peeve sounds totally maddening, although I think you’ve found an elegant solution in a statistics display. That’s such a good and widely-applicable promotional idea that I hope you don’t mind if I put a link to the flickr page you point out in the Documents section of this group. Folks should steal that idea!

RE: From frustration comes innovation

2009-04-23T16:09:18Z

This is just a pet peeve. We are usually mega-busy in the media center from 7:00 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. or even later. We multitask like crazy and help hundreds of people daily. Then a teacher or administrator will walk in the door during a five-minute lull and say, "boy it's peaceful in here." Aargh! It doesn't happen often, but since our typical pace is fast-forward these comments make me crazy. I need to collect some statistics on our usage. That can make a powerful message! I just saw a disply at the Eden Prairie library that took statistics on their branch and really packed a punch. There's an image of it on their flickr account. Check it out! http://www.flickr.com/photos/edenprairielibraryEden Prairie Library

RE: From frustration comes innovation

2009-04-23T16:04:42Z

Keep trying. Persistence pays off. But focus lots of time and energy on the teachers who enjoy collaborating and whose students clearly benefit from the work you do together. With a wealth of success stories, other teachers may "get it" and want to work with us too.

RE: From frustration comes innovation

2009-04-15T22:00:37Z

Here's a scenario I've heard several media specialists relay: There's a library database or tool that'd be perfect for a specific class. The media specialist tells the teacher of that class about it, but then when the media specialist follows up to ask how it's going, the teacher doesn't remember the interaction . The teacher is thrilled ()because the database or tool would indeed be perfect for his/her class, but they've never used it. Anyone have any ideas for making the initial interaction in this scenario more "sticky"?

From frustration comes innovation

2009-04-08T21:32:38Z

Hey, welcome to the Discussion page!
Why don't we start off our discussion of outreach and promotion of MN media centers by talking about some of the troubles or frustrations you've come across out there on the front lines. Have you tried to reach out to teachers? What went wrong?
Anybody care to share? Perhaps by airing your grievances, you'll find someone who's experienced and overcome them in their library.
At the very least, it'll be therapeutic.