LMC – Library Media Connection

Please read Michael Stephens’ article All About Podcasting in the February issue of LMC magazine. Michael Kindly quoted me several times in the article and I’m very flattered! The article really does cover “all about podcasting” with information on engaging the learner, creating content, equipment, hurdles and consideration. Congratulations Michael! Great work!

Media Specialists, Teachers… Mark Your Calendars!

As President-Elect of the Michigan Association for Media in Education (MAME) – the statewide association for Michigan School Library Media Specialists – I am also the Chair of our annual conference, October 24-26. This year’s theme is “School Library 2.0: Curriculum Collaboration.” The theme reflects technology and collaboration between media specialists and classroom teachers – both essential components of media centers and responsibilities of media specialists. We are hoping that classroom teachers who collaborate with their media specialist or want to collaborate will attend the conference. We will also have some sessions by collaborative teams. Of course, any educator is welcome to attend the conference. In fact, if you are from another state and wish to attend please do! That would be great. I will be posting information on the MAME conference website and wiki in the near future.

Dictionaries – Is it just me?

I am a touch obsessed with looking up the meaning of words (if only I could actually remember those meanings so that I didn’t have to look them up more than once). I love dictionaries – paper, electronic and website formats – and I sometimes wonder if that is something that many librarians have in common – I foresee a survey in the future!

I have a paperback of the Oxford American Dictionary next to my couch, the American Heritage Dictionary on my Palm TX and, of course the every handy and wonderful merriam-webster.com at my fingertips. What can I say except “busman’s  holiday.”

My Palm TX

I started using Palm handhelds several years ago after weaning myself off of a Franklin Planner. I depend on my TX for the calendar and address book but I also enjoy many other applications. I use the American Heritage Dictionary, Notes, Memos, the calculator, expenses and games. I’m one of those people who likes to play Solitaire, TextTwist or Bejeweled 2 on my Palm while watching tv. I know a lot of people who are switching to a Treo but I’m not ready to make that switch although the thought of using a convergent device which includes both handheld and phone is appealing. Maybe someday… or maybe someday the iPhone!

iTunes Celebrity Playlists

If you use iTunes, the free Apple download that allows you to purchase music legally and easily, you already know that it is a great resource. I love iTunes for many reasons. I already mentioned that it lets you legally download music because you pay for the songs and that it is easy to use but there are many other reasons: I can create playlists- jazz, dinner music, Christmas music, lounge music, Rosemary Clooney, whatever I want from my iTunes downloads or from my own CDs; I can move the songs from my playlists to my iPod or burn them on CDs to play in my car; I can download TV shows (The Office! Yeah!); and I can search for a song I just heard on the radio and own it immediately. However, there is a gem on iTunes that I check every few months for entertainment value and to peruse songs that I may want to purchase.

This gem is called Celebrity Playlists. I know that may sound innocuous or trivial but it’s a fun and a good resource for finding songs. I only check a celebrity’s list – actors, singers, atheletes – if I’ve heard of them or if I’m a fan. That may sound weird but I don’t know a lot of the singers and atheletes so I’m not that interested in their lists. I always find it interesting to read the playlist of a celebrity from my age group. I like it when they mention an “old” song from my younger days. I actually downloaded China Cat Sunflower by the Grateful Dead after reading Al Franken’s playlist.

If you check out the Playlists you will see that each celebrity writes a one-liner on why they have that song on their iPod. Sometimes that is the entertaining part!