On Libraries and New Media, powered by Library Journal and School Library Journal
Karyn M. Peterson (kpeterson@mediasourceinc.com) is a former News Editor ofSLJ.
A new Harvard study examines US students’ attitudes towards technology in schools. Although 78 percent own cell phones, activating them in schools is restricted, which frustrates students. Students also express frustration with school’s limited WiFi access, Internet filtering, monitoring, and the push to embrace tablet computers.
As younger and younger children recognize and use electronic devices as sources of information and entertainment, what is the impact on their literacy skills? Largely a positive one, according to a study in the January edition of SAGE Open.
School library media specialists, especially in high schools, expect ebook usage by their students to rise incrementally, according to the 2013 Survey of Ebook Usage in U.S. School (K–12) Libraries. The annual survey, the fourth of its kind, was produced by School Library Journal and sponsored by Follett.
Follett has partnered with Macmillan Publishers to distribute Macmillan’s collection of popular ebook titles for PreK–12 students. The collection adds to the more than 250,000 ebook titles currently available through Titlewave, Follett’s collection development, search and ordering tool.
Follett has partnered with Simon & Schuster to make more than 450 PreK–12 titles in ebook format available on Titlewave, Follett’s collection development, search, and ordering tool. The partnership brings the total number of Follett’s offerings through Titlewave to more than 250,000 ebooks.
McGraw-Hill’s professional’s ebook catalog of more than than 5,000 business, consumer, education, technical, and medical titles is now available for K–12 school libraries and public libraries worldwide on OverDrive. Also, some 700 of McGraw-Hill’s 2012 and 2013 offerings will be offered at special rates.
EducationSuperHighway is launching a comprehensive national effort to upgrade broadband access in America’s schools, funded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s Startup:Education organization, the Gates Foundation, and several other groups.
Follett has announced that many of its online services—including Titlewave, Destiny, and Follett Shelf—will be unavailable from Thursday, November 28, though Saturday, November 30, as the company moves its data center to another location in Illinois.
Lerner Digital has launched its Lerner Digital eReader App for Android devices, featuring more than 3,000 available K–12 ebook titles across many interest areas and genres. The app, which is available free in the Google Play Store, is the Android equivalent of the app that the publisher debuted for the iPad in October 2011.
The most important resource for creating a successful library maker space—whether in a school or public library—is one’s own community, according to librarians Justin Hoenke, Amy Koester, and Michelle Cooper. Strong relationships and community involvement, not big budgets and high-tech gadgetry, are key to reaching children and teens, the trio of makers say.
