Informing with an Infographic

Sometimes all you need is a little inspiration. This week, my inspiration arrived via the announcement of the American Library Association's Youth Media Awards. These include the Newbery, Caldecott, Printz, and Coretta Scott King Book Awards. It's always exciting to see the books that did and didn't make the list. Inside, it's always reassuring when books that you thought were standouts make the cut.

Of course, these awards are of no use if the students, the very individuals that the awards are centered around, aren't alerted. While the winners are always listed in a nice orderly manner on a document, I always prefer the posters and book marks that surface a month or two after with more eye-catching graphics.

While these "big" awards are covered, one award/list that doesn't always get as much attention is Texas Library Association's Maverick Graphic Novel Reading List. The Maverick was the brain child of two library students, Alicia Holston and Tuan Nguyen, who released the first list in 2010. "Maverick" was selected as the name since it's the first state created graphic novel reading list.

I decided to harness this maverick mentality and create my first infographic. Though, I have played around with Visual.ly I decided to give Piktochart a try. I know you've heard a million times, "it's so easy," but this Web 2.0 tool truly is a breeze. You can create your own infographic from scratch or choose from a few themes under the free option. I decided to start from scratch and had fun choosing the layout, colors, and graphics. The grid lines were especially helpful in making sure that everything is evenly spaced and there's a great variety of fonts. A couple hours later, this is what I had:

It's not perfect, but, boy, did I learn a lot...and it was fun! I saved this infographic as a jpg, but you can also upload the html version to your website or blog to make links available. This would be such a cool way for students to display a book review, science experiment results, or an historical timeline. The options are endless and I can't wait to use this tool to simplify information in a visually pleasing format for my personal and professional life. 

There's an app for that!

After much trial and tribulation, Montgomery Library finally has an app! Though, the process was a bit difficult, mainly the uploading to Apple's App Store... which was never successful, the end product simplifies access to the most used areas of our library site by way of phones and tablets. One can simply scan the QR code with any QR reader installed on their device or visit http://tinyurl.com/nx2suqv to download the app. 

Donna has worked diligently over the past two weeks to aid all 5th-8th graders in downloading the app to their devices during their designated library time. The students are always excited to use their phones and tablets and were instantly trying out of the features. They were blown away that the library has a Twitter account. Social media is a huge draw for students, so it's a fun way to connect with them. Even the kids that are too young to have a personal account can read the posts. 

So far, the roll out has gone very smoothly. I'll let you know of any app updates in the future!

Biblionasium

I began the year with with the intention of really pushing student book reviews and recommendations for the 5th and 6th graders. While some students seek book recommendations from me and other librarians, there are students that would rather hear one from a friend. I can't say that I blame them. I'm always asking friends what they read recently that was really good, so I wanted to give the kids the resources and knowledge necessary to share their favorites with one another.

I began by doing book talks and showing the kids some book trailers I had made. We talked about how reviewing books can not only help you think more in depth about the book you just finished, but that it's also a good way to exchange recommendations.  Next, the students wrote short reviews on "book tickets" that were posted on the circulation desk. There was a drawing from the entered book tickets and four students won gift cards to the school store.  

Last week we moved on to the next phase of the book review roll out,  Biblionasium. I wasn't sure what the kids would think about the site since I hadn't used it with a group before, but they loved it! It's a safe site for kids, because educators or parents must set up their accounts and there is no personal information required. I set up all of the students' log-ins beforehand in 5th and 6th grade groups, so they were already connected to their peers.

The site is easy to move around with a navigation bar to the left.  They also have the ability to recommend books to their classmates. When they log in the home page let's them know what books their classmates have added and recommended.

Students can add books that they have finished, are currently reading, and want to read.

  

They were really excited about the awards they can earn by reaching certain milestones; like completing their first book, reading for a certain amount of time, or meeting a challenge. Challenges can be set by the teacher or the student. So, one challenge could be for them to complete a book by a certain date and if that challenge is met they would be rewarded. 

I told the students that this is a great way for them to continue to share books with one another over the breaks and that they now have a go-to place when they don't know what to read next. I'm assigning my first challenge in a few days after I have seen all of the classes. I'm excited to see how well they do!