Williamsburg Regional Library, Williamsburg Virginia

2020 Year in review: A look back at the stories that affected libraries. (2021). American Libraries, 52(1), 22-27.

https://web-p-ebscohost-com.proxy.lib.odu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=9&sid=aceeab51-9a00-4f18-8529-90996aa4ceb5%40redis

The closing of libraries during the Covid19 pandemic cut off digital and computer access to many library patrons. Williamsburg Regional Library was featured in the 2020 Year in Review article as having a story that affected libraries and library patrons during this tough time for our country. During the pandemic ALA called on libraries that were shutdown to the public, to leave their Wifi access on. This caught my attention because this is a huge problem in the extremely rural area that I live in on a day to day basis, so of course it was a problem during the pandemic. In many areas of my county internet access is sparse or not available at all. My local school district set up wireless internet access points on school buses. The school buses were then driven to central locations throughout the county to provide Wifi for students and their families. It pleased me to read that Williamsburg Regional Library was noted in the article for providing a mobile hotspot van to their area. The van featured a sign that gave information about the mobile hotspot schedule and website information.

WRL Resources and Collections:

Williamsburg Regional Library offers a 24/7 elibrary with nearly 50 databases on a wide variety of topics such as arts and crafts, genealogy, employment, a huge selection of magazines and newspapers, along with multiple research databases.

WRL has joined forces with the Williamsburg-James City County Public School district to increase the access to ebooks and digital audiobooks for students. Of course the ebook and audiobooks are still available to the public, but through a specially created app, students can access thousands of titles from home, school, or wherever 24/7 along with the school’s e library titles. The app also includes benefits for teachers such as exportable notes and reading inventory logs to encourage individualized learning.

WRL gives its patrons access to over 3,200 digital magazines by using the Overdrive website or the Libby app. Patrons may also stream up to three hours of ad-free music daily and download three songs per week from the Sony catalog. In addition, all WRL library card holders may stream up to four movies per month from a collection of over 30,000 titles including classics, documentaries, and foreign films.

WRL is also a Learn at Home partner with Williamsburg-James City County Public School district. The library has created a special online platform for students to access educational resources, links, books by age, or videos. Students can request assistance from a librarian by completing an online form. The mobile wifi hotspot schedule is also posted here.

Services:

WRL users may create an online account for searching the catalog, placing holds, and renewals. In response to COVID19, WRL is now fine free. They do not charge overdue fines. There are several book drops conveniently located throughout the city where items can be returned.

If you don’t have time to come in the building, WRL has you covered with a touchless hold curbside pick up service. Using their library account and card information an appointment can be made for curbside service at their convenience.

The WRL has its very own app to access all of the same features you see on the website.

Browsing the catalog is made easy by dividing the library collection into adult, teen, and kids titles. There is also an online form to complete to suggest a title that a library patron may want added to the collection in the future. A weekly newsletter is available for patrons by request and gives information on programs and services. Patrons may request help in finding a good book to read by completing an online form including an interest checklist. There is a live chat feature available during regular library hours or patrons may text a librarian as another option. WRL is now observing normal business hours 7 days a week.

Programs:

WRL has a bookmobile and mobile wifi that makes daily stops throughout the libraries service area. A schedule is posted online for patron’s convenience. WRL offers outreach programs for youth and adults. This program takes the library out into the community providing visits to preschools, daycare facilities, assisted living facilities, adult care facilities as well as churches and apartments. This program provides residence with carts of books, assistance in finding books and resources, access to movies, ebooks, and audiobooks. Library staff also offer programming to senior communities, encouraging lifelong learning and socialization. Coming up in the month of November the library will host a virtual preschool training workshop for its users.

The Williamsburg Regional Library provides meeting room space for public use. The fees are set by the library’s Board of Trustees. Applications to request access to the meeting room maybe completed online.

Availability and More:

Along with their informational website, WRL is available by text, email, and phone. You can also find The Williamsburg Regional Library on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

There are opportunities on the website to become a friend of the library by giving donations of books or money as well as volunteer opportunities.

Due to Covid19, masks are strongly encouraged by patrons two years of age and older. The library has masks available upon request. Currently the main entrance is the only entrance into the library at this time. WRL has a new self check out system for contactless convenience. The library has intensified their cleaning procedures and provides hand sanitizer at all doorways and service desks.

An Exterior Exploration of the Patrick County Branch Library

I have had a some experience with coding as a media specialist this past year, so I decided to explore Tinkercad and 3D Printing. Thank goodness for the tutorials and step by step instructions. I would have been lost without them. Even though I had the mini lessons, I still found it frustrating to move and resize objects on the workspace. I chose to design a flower which I thought would be pretty simple using cylinders and resizing them as the directions stated. I basically came up with a bunch of circles placed close to each other in the end. I am sure I could figure this out, given more time and I am confident that most students would have no trouble at all. My students amaze me when it comes to technology skills every single day. Many of them know more than me when it comes to things such as coding and gaming, and even programming.

I am glad I read Snelling’s and Moen’s article prior to my exploration with 3D Printing otherwise I wouldn’t have seen the benefits this could have for students. While both articles mainly focused on coding, essentially 3D printing is somewhat like coding. It is a language and a building activity. Using 3D printing in schools will help students identify problems and find solutions. (Snelling, 2018). As educators it is our responsibility to teach the skills needed for students to move forward in their life and on to their careers being confident critical thinkers and problem solvers. Coding and 3D printing are two tools to help our students get there successfully. Thinking critically and problem-solving are “necessary skills” as Moen states in her article. (Moen, 2016).

Snelling, J. (2018, April 3). Don’t stress about coding: Focus shifts to teaching problem solving not computer skills. School Library Journal. Retrieved, July 24, 2021 from https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=dont-stress-coding-focus-shifts-teaching-problem-solving-not-computer-skill

Moen, M. (2016, September 30). Computer coding and literacy: Librarians lead the connection. International Literacy Association. Retrieved July 24, 2021 from https://www.literacyworldwide.org/blog/literacy-now/2016/09/30/computer-coding-and-literacy-librarians-lead-the-connection

I started this week’s exploration with QR codes. I am pretty familiar with QR code generators, so I explored more with changing the colors and shapes. It was fun, but there are limitations as it won’t generate the code if the colors won’t work together. I found that a white background worked best. As I did this, I thought about how cool it would be to put my school’s mascot in the QR codes that we use this school year. The QR code I generated to share is of a music festival I attend yearly in my hometown that is coming up this weekend. If you have never heard of Floydfest and you enjoy music and all things hippie-ish, you should look in to joining us next year on the mountain. You won’t regret it!

Next, I went on a Google Expedition. I desired to visit the zoo, but was a little disappointed. There were four small exhibits that took me to see only penguins at the St. Louis Zoo and then three smaller exhibits to a zoo in Nigeria which were most disappointing. I love animals and was hoping for a more enriching experience. Instead of packing up my computer and heading out, I chose to play around a little further with Google Expeditions. I decided to visit Yellowstone National Park and here I was not disappointed. The trip was much more engaging with a lot more to see. I began my journey at the Grand Prismatic Spring, which gets it’s name from the rainbow you see within the spring. This is thanks to the broad spectrum of bacteria that live within the spring. It is also the largest spring in the United States. Old Faithful Geyser was next and I learned that it erupts every two hours and has since 1870, wow! Google should include a video of an eruption in the trip since it happens that often. The trip also included, Hayden Valley, the Upper and Lower falls with a height of 309 feet, Mount Washburn, Tower Falls, West Thumb Geyser Basin, and finally Yellowstone Lake. This trip didn’t disappoint and has me looking forward to visiting Yellowstone in real life one day.

I will continue to use QR codes in my school and the media center in a variety of ways. QR codes make it much easier for my younger students to access websites without having to type in the long urls. Our school system uses Chromebooks for students with cameras, so using an app on the Chromebook makes this process very simple once I train the students on how to do it. I plan to share the idea of using QR codes for back to school paperwork and forms with my teachers as they prepare for the new school year and back to school open house. QR codes are very useful and they save paper, which is always an incentive.

The Augmented Reality Pop up books were really cool. I could especially see boys loving these. I am envisioning these being used as a station in the library/media center.

Bitmoji classrooms are all the rage these days with so much virtual learning surrounding us. I will continue to use this platform to connect students and parents to the media center. It is so convenient to have everything in one place. In the future I plan to use Bitmoji classroom for a means of sharing student projects on a wider scale. I also want to consider creating a Bitmoji classroom specific to each grade level in my school, so I can include more specific sites, links, and apps for students at their level. This platform would also be helpful to a substitute teacher and make things a lot easier on the teacher in preparing sub lesson plans.

There are so many options with Layered Reality. It is definitely a transition we are going to see in education from this point forward.

In my exploring of the presentation choices and through my reading this week, I learned that less is more. Quality is better than quantity in so many aspects of life and such is true with presentations. I sure do wish that some of the presentations I have endured in my career would have adopted this idea! I might have done less daydreaming and more listening. There will be no more death by Powerpoint moments for my students or co-workers to endure from this point forward. I learned a great deal through reading this week and exploring the presentation options.

First, I played around with Prezi. This option seemed very engaging and offered several options for presenting including the option for the presenter to appear alongside the presentation. I think that would be useful during virtual teaching. There were many templates to choose from and you could make charts, reports, infographics, and posters. I liked that it linked to unsplash as an option to search images. Unfortunately it limited you to the images you could use without upgrading to the paid version. Prezi had an undo button, which is something I always look for when exploring design options.

Like a Haiku poem, Haiku Deck seemed simple and easy to do. I actually started my presentation with this platform, but soon realized they wanted my money. It is very limited to the options you can have for free. Also you can’t download your presentation without upgrading to the PRO package option. The tutorial was easy to follow, and I liked that when clicking the help button it highlighted all of the sections of the screen and what they were for. That was helpful. Overall, I would probably not use this in my media center with students because of the constant annoyance of an upgrade option.

The Emaze tool had the options to create presentations, albums, blogs, websites, and Ecards. It had many design features and templates with the free version. The templates seemed easy to use and there were many different fonts available to choose from. Adding images could be done from your computer, Facebook, or many other social media platforms. I liked that it had a Chrome Extension as an option for users. This would be helpful since my school uses only Chromebooks for students.

Lastly, I explored Genial.ly. This is the tool I chose for my presentation. It was the most user-frienedly in my opinion. There were so many templates to choose from that it would be easy to use with just about any subject or topic. One could also collaborate easily with others using this tool. That would be great for group projects especially during virtual learning. This tool also had the option to create infographics which I think is helpful. It was nice that Genial.ly offered a free learning academy option to help out users. This was helpful to me to learn more about the how-tos instead of having to Google or YouTube my questions. Of all the tools, I liked Genial.ly the best, and I think it would be a good option for the resources presentation.

My Genial.ly Presentation: https://view.genial.ly/60f1a32e315fdb0d6202808c/presentation-willie

Citations:

Vernon, A. (2019). Statue will. [Photograph].

Vernon, A. (2020). Playful will. [Photograph].

Vernon, A. (2020). Furry belly will. [Photograph].

Vernon, A. (2020). Will and lyla. [Photograph].

Vernon, A. (2021). Will and jasper. [Photograph].

Vernon, A. (2021). Will and mom. [Photograph].

There are many benefits to using video as an instructional tool both in the media center and the classroom. As Reynolds points out in the text, video can take one closer to being in the moment and touch someone more deeply. Video has the power to make us feel, as Reynolds says video is an emotional generator. The use of video pulls the viewer in , engaging their brain, and bringing them deeper into the presentation. (Reynolds, pgs. 128,129, 132, 133.)

I explored all of the video tools for this week. The three I will discuss are Kapwing, TinkerLab, and Animoto. Kapwing has a lot of bells and whistles compared to the others I explored. With Kapwing, you have the ability to add layers of images and audio to create a video exactly the way you want it. It can be used on a phone, tablet, or computer. Your work is saved to a cloud, so you can access it anywhere. Kapwing also offers the option to collaborate with others on projects which would work well for group projects. It is advertised as kid-friendly, but I have to disagree. Initially after exploring all the options, I chose to do my video in Kapwing because you could do more with it. However, once I began working with my photos and trying to make changes and additions, it was very confusing and hard to use. I wasted a lot of time trying to figure it out before scrapping my project and using Animoto instead.

Animoto was very user-friendly and would work for even someone with limited knowledge of technology. It is compatible with multiple devices and easy to share once your project is complete. I could see myself using Animoto much more in my media center than Kapwing because it is easier for elementary students to use. Animoto also has multiple templates for various needs or themes. You can easily change the layout of your video and undo any mistakes made with a click of a button. It saves automatically to your account, which is free to create. There are a lot of free music options to add to your video without the obligation to upgrade to a paid subscription plan. I really enjoyed making the special video welcoming a friend’s newborn baby to the world. I will be using Animoto to make my videos in the media center for our school TVs as well as the videos I make for special events, Facebook, and end of year celebrations. Goodbye, Google Slides, Animoto is so much better!

Lastly, I explored TinkerLab. TinkerLab was all about creating stop motion video animation. The possibilities were endless with this program. It is super easy to make inanimate objects appear to move on their own. You can experiment with different backgrounds and settings to create virtually anything. I plan to set up a STEAM station in my media center and use TinkerLab. I would like to have a character basket available for students to create a story where they pick a background and plan a story using their chosen characters with stop motion. I think this would be a great group project for students to complete over a period of time in the media center and during my technology period as well.

I learned a lot from exploring the video options this week and look forward to using some of them in my media center as well as sharing them with the teachers at my school.

Before having this exploration assignment, I never imagined using podcasts with students. I enjoy podcasts often on my rides to and from work, especially self-help podcasts that encourage me to live better and be a better person. My favorite podcaster is The Angry Therapist. I am now very excited about using podcasts in my library and introducing the use of podcasts to my teachers for use in the classroom. As a former reading teacher, I enjoyed reading the article about podcasts improving reading skills. The article mentioned listening to podcasts to help with decoding as well as listening while reading, reading more accurately and for enjoyment. I now see how a podcast could convert reluctant readers into literate listeners at all levels K-12.

I easily got lost in exploring all the podcasts and following suggested podcasts for further exploration. There are SO many podcasts out there for students and teachers to use at all grade levels and learning levels. My favorite podcast, after exploring many, was Buttons and Figs created by Pamela Rogers. This podcast was a very engaging and educational way to look at literature and especially wordplay. As a classroom reading teacher, wordplay was one of my favorites to teach. I was immediately intrigued by this podcast. This podcast seemed unique to me because of the mix of songs and kid to host input. The host has excellent voice inflection that sets the tone and creates energy in the podcast. Many of the podcast would be good to use whole group, individually, or even as a center rotation. Topics covered were immense. Some topics included were parts of speech, poetry, and types of figurative language. I specifically enjoyed the podcast entitled Idiom Play where the host invited a class of 3rd graders to co-host with her. It was extremely engaging, fun, and educational. I continued exploring and found the website https://buttonsandfigs.com/ to be a useful supplement to the podcast.

I will definitely be using podcasts more in my media center and sharing this teaching tool with my teachers and staff for the upcoming school year. Such fun!

Rogers, Pamela(Host). (5 March 2020). #47 Idiom Play. Buttons and Figs. Apple Podcasts. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/buttons-figs/id1150715877?mt=2

https://tinyurl.com/yervsqcz

Wow! My daughter and I enjoyed Voki so much, so I chose it to share over the other options. We played around with the characters, backgrounds, and loved the different voiceover options. I would use this in my media center in a variety of ways. Students could create a character from a book and share a summary of the book to share with others. My second graders have a biography research project that they do every year. Voki would work well to use in the presentation part of their project. I like how it gives the option to record your own voice or text to talk. This would be helpful for shy, apprehensive students. I am envisioning using Voki at the beginning of the upcoming school year with my upper elementary students to create an All About Me presentation. I just love this tool!

I also liked the Online Voice Recorder audio tool. While it only allows you to record voices, it has editing tools such as auto silence trimming, cropping options, and the choice to add text or an image to your creation. This would be good to use for podcasting, digital storytelling, or giving feedback to students in a quicker way than written feedback. I look forward to sharing this tool with my teachers and staff.

The possibilities are endless with Chrome Music Lab. What fun! I have already shared this tool with the music and art teachers at my school. I imagine us collaborating using this awesome tool with the Kandinsky option. I could read a book, students could create art using Kandinsky’s method that supports the book, and then the music would be added. I also enjoyed playing with the Spectogram tool and could see my students enjoying this as a center option in the media center or during my tech classes.

Audio tools have so much to offer students, especially in the virtual learning world. While I hope we never have to experience virtual teaching and learning as we have these past two school years, audio tools offer an engaging and fun alternative to the normal virtual learning activities. Audio tools are another great way for students to discuss their learning in a way that focuses on ideas and creativity without the stress of spelling and grammatical errors. I could see these tools building confidence in students as well.

After spending quite some time exploring Canva, Easel.ly, and Piktochart and looking at many templates, I decided to go cold turkey and create my own. The tutorials were somewhat helpful, but I really just had to play around and get use to the tools and options. My biggest challenge was making it balance. I enjoyed playing around with the fonts and color options the most. I will use this infographic in my library this coming school year. I think it is important for students to choose books that they not only are interested in, but that are appropriate for their reading level, not too hard, not too easy…just right. I will begin this lesson with a discussion on why it is important to choose books to check out carefully. I will then teach the steps involved in picking a just right book and follow up with modeling how to choose a just right book using several different books and different levels. Lastly, I will hang the infographic in my library in several places that can be easily seen by students.