Scholar visits Faith Library

On August 29, South Dakota Humanities Council Scholar Greg Garon visited the Faith Public/School Library to start a group book discussion.  Ten individuals came to listen and visit with the scholar.  Greg who has lived in Timber Lake for the past 30 yrs. is formally a high school teacher and has taught in Timber Lake, Wisconsin and Chicago.  He and his wife now enjoy the slow town life of western South Dakota.  When Greg is not traveling for the South Dakota Humanities Council, he enjoys going on hunting trips. 

The South Dakota Humanities Council is sponsoring this event by paying for a scholar to come to libraries who receive grants specifically for the humanities.  Also, the books that we are using are courtesy of the Council. Thanks to the Council, the Faith Public Library has received a grant to assist with the summer reading program for the past two years.  Many mini grants can be applied for through the Council for libraries and communities. 

Greg shared with us what to look for while reading a book for discussion – some points to consider are:

·         Factual points that the author is revealing

·         Is what the author sharing true or his/her perspective

·         Is the book enjoyable and what are you getting out of the book (context)

·         Having an opinion and being able to share is valuable

·         Not all books can lead to a great discussion

Greg encouraged us to read the book and share with others.  Write notes and thoughts while enjoying the book.  Bring others to the discussion even if they have not read the book to listen and bring perspective.

Our final book discussion for this book – “The Journey of Crazy Horse” by Joseph M. Marshall III will be Oct. 3 @ 6 PM.  Some copies are still available at the Faith Library. 

Scholar comes to Faith Library

Greg Garon from Timber Lake is coming to the Faith Library on Monday, Aug. 29 to start a book discussion.  Please come to the library from 6-7 PM.  You can pick up your copy of the book and do not have to have read the book until our final discussion on Oct. 3.  Please come join us for the unique experience!  This opportunity is sponsored by the South Dakota Humanities Council.

Overdrive Coming

What is this?  A great opportunity to get books - ebooks and audio right from your home computer.  Thanks to the Faith School District, who purchased a three year subscription for this great service.  You can get the books that you want to read immediately.  Our staff is currently training and getting the system up for overdrive.  More info to come in Sept. 2011!

A Combined Library - here to serve you!

The Faith Public/School Library is a wonderful place for everyone!  It is a city and school library.  What a great way to use resources and everyone wins! Our library is accessible to everyone from students to public patrons.  The library open hours are Monday, Tuesday and Thursday 8 AM – 7 PM; Wednesdays 8 AM – 4 PM and Fridays 8 AM – 3 PM.  In the summer, the open hours are Mondays through Fridays 9 AM – 1PM and special evening hours in May through July- Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays 5-8 PM.

There are two librarians.  The library supervisor is hired by the school and serves the public a few hours per week on city budget.  The City hires a library assistant part-time to serve patrons in the late afternoon to evening.  Both staff members make it work to provide the community with the resources and technology.  This staff is here to serve our community members and provide the needed assistance for finding information, resources, teaching how to use technology and finding that favorite books to read.  If they don’t have the book, they can order it for you from another library.

Special events happen through-out the year.  The Faith Public/School Library holds two book fairs.  One in November and a Buy One, Get one Free Book Fair in March.  There is always a planned Family Event for family fun activities, games and prizes!  The Summer Reading Program is also at the library in the summer for six weeks.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays, preschool to eighth grade children are invited from 9 – 11 AM for storytelling, games, activities and fun!  Monday evening offer a time at the library for the adults to get-together and discuss books or do activities.  Please contact the library for more information.  Thanks for supporting our library!

How to tell a great story!

Storytelling is a form of ancient art.  Anyone can be a great storyteller with great communication skills.  There are suggested skills for a storyteller found at: How To Tell a Great Story: Ten Tips For Story-Telling Success http://www.suite101.com/content/how-to-tell-a-great-story-a37508#ixzz1JLDPkBc6  Some of these include:

·         Start with a phrase that will catch your audience’s attention – “Once on a dark night..” or “Did you hear about the cat that had no hair?”

·         Avoid repeating yourself or filling space with ums or other distractive words.  Giving the audience a little break helps them to absorb what you are saying

·         Know your audience – make sure that you develop your story to your audience so it interests them.

·         Plan how you are going to tell your story with a beginning, middle and ending.  You want to make the story exciting to your audience.

·         Keep your audience’s attention by providing details to your story.

·         Keep your story short and not too long.  You do not want to lose your audience’s attention.  The story should be long enough to cover the plot but not too long, where everyone forgets what happened at the beginning.

·         Use appropriate humor – laughing or making your audience laugh is a great way to get your audience involved.  Remember, don’t offend anyone and think about what you are going to say before you say it.  Practice telling your story to someone else for their feedback before performing for others.

·         Tell your story by expressing yourself.  Change the tone of your voice, adding hand gestures or props such as puppets, costumes.  Be dramatic in your storytelling.  If you can, don’t stand in one place.

Bibliographies:

Do you know what a bibliography is?  A short definition of a bibliography is to cite where you find the information for research.  What is the proper way to do a bibliography citation?  There are many ways, but the most preferred method is MLA style.  A bibliography must show the author’s name, title of book, place of publication, publisher, date of publication, and page used for research project.  An annotated bibliography even adds more with written brief information of the source and an evaluation.  This description is about one hundred fifty words in length.

There are many reasons to have bibliographies: to give credit to the author to use the resource; respectfully borrowing one’s ideas or writings;  offer additional information to your readers;  to give the readers the opportunity for accuracy (is the information correct);  and it is often included in an assignment to reference the sources found in a bibliography page.

How do you write the correct bibliography?  One should cite information differently based on the source.   A periodical will also have to include the title of the article as well as the title of the periodical.  For an online resource, the entire web address needs to be included.  Some online resources such as ProQuest(an online data base for articles and publications) offers a tool for students to build an online bibliography list. 

Your best bet is to also ask your teacher the proper way that he/she expects you to write your bibliography. 

This resource provides many ways to cite information correctly and give you an opportunity to answer other questions, too.  Please take a look @ http://www.aresearchguide.com/11guide.html#bib

Periodicals

What are they and how do you use them for resources?  Periodicals are magazines and newspapers that are printed on a timely basis.  You can find current events, articles, stories and author’s opinions. The Faith Library has many periodicals for your viewing needs.  Newspapers can be viewed on site.  The Rapid City Journal and Aberdeen American Paper can be viewed on a daily basis at the library.  The Rapid City Journal is one day late due to the mailing of the paper.  The Aberdeen American News comes each day in the mail.  Newspapers can a great source of current events. 

There are many magazines which may come weekly, bi-weekly and/or monthly.  The periodicals (magazines) that the Faith Public/School Library has for adults are: Better Homes and Gardens; Body & Soul; Country Home; Country Woman; Family Circle;  Family Fun; Field & Stream; Health; Hot Rod;  Parenting; Seventeen;  Sports Illustrated; Taste of Home; Time and Western Horseman.

The magazines available for children are: Highlights (language arts); Sports Illustrated for Kids; National Geographic for Kids and Ranger Rick.  The Kindergarten and First grade classes enjoy checking periodicals out weekly, more than any other class!

Many periodical subscriptions can be found online and viewed from there.  It may not have as many pictures as the printed version, but you can read the text.

Magazines can be checked out for two weeks.  Remember, that magazines are even more fragile than books, so take care of them.

The DDC

How are the books arranged in the Faith Public/School Library?  You know – by the Dewey Decimal System.  What is the Dewey Decimal System? It is a classification system to arrange books in the library developed by Melvil Dewey in 1876.  According to this site: http://www.oclc.org/dewey/ , there are 200,000 libraries worldwide that use this system to organize books and materials.  The Dewey Decimal Classification System or DDC is split into ten major categories.  The books are division hundreds – with the zero hundreds 000’s being general knowledge.  The one hundreds (100’s) are books about psychology and philosophy, 200’s – Religions and Mythology; 300’s – Social Sciences and Folklores; 400’s – Languages and Grammar; 500’s Science and Mathematics; 600’s Technology or working books; 700’s – Arts, Sports and Recreation; 800’s Literature;  and 900’s – History, geography and biography.  Biography can also be found in its own section under the 92’s.  What is a biography – a story about a person’s life?

Often times, you find that libraries will place the literature in the fiction section rather than the 800’s due to the lack of space.  It will be arranged by author’s last name.  Also, the numbers above classify nonfiction from fiction.

So now you know how books are arranged in the library and you will have an easier time finding what you need.  The following resources were used: http://www.oclc.org/dewey/ ; This website is for K – 12 students and teachers to take a look at the individual categories (hundreds) and find sample titles of resources found: http://www.deweybrowse.org/

The DDC

How are the books arranged in the Faith Public/School Library?  You know – by the Dewey Decimal System.  What is the Dewey Decimal System? It is a classification system to arrange books in the library developed by Melvil Dewey in 1876.  According to this site: http://www.oclc.org/dewey/ , there are 200,000 libraries worldwide that use this system to organize books and materials.  The Dewey Decimal Classification System or DDC is split into ten major categories.  The books are division hundreds – with the zero hundreds 000’s being general knowledge.  The one hundreds (100’s) are books about psychology and philosophy, 200’s – Religions and Mythology; 300’s – Social Sciences and Folklores; 400’s – Languages and Grammar; 500’s Science and Mathematics; 600’s Technology or working books; 700’s – Arts, Sports and Recreation; 800’s Literature;  and 900’s – History, geography and biography.  Biography can also be found in its own section under the 92’s.  What is a biography – a story about a person’s life?

Often times, you find that libraries will place the literature in the fiction section rather than the 800’s due to the lack of space.  It will be arranged by author’s last name.  Also, the numbers above classify nonfiction from fiction.

So now you know how books are arranged in the library and you will have an easier time finding what you need.  The following resources were used: http://www.oclc.org/dewey/ ; This website is for K – 12 students and teachers to take a look at the individual categories (hundreds) and find sample titles of resources found: http://www.deweybrowse.org/

South Dakota School Library Content Standards 2010

I had the honor of serving on the South Dakota School Library Content Standards committee to revise the standards.  These standards are in the draft phase and need to go to other committee to pass before becoming a tool for librarians to use in the fall of 2011.   It was very crucial to update these standards to coincide with the 21^st Century Learning Skills.  Preschool students also needed to be involved, as they are a crucial component of our school audience.  By viewing the standards, the librarian/teacher can see that they follow and integrate into the language arts curriculum.  The standards are developed in a chunk format so students will develop skills in a 2-3 year progress.  This provides opportunity to master library skills.  The standards are integrated with the Bloom’s taxonomy, 21^st Century technology skills along with the language arts curriculum standards.  Many resources were used in the development of these content standards and can be seen at the website below. There are also sample lessons for the librarian to use that are developed by other librarians.

The standards are not intended to evaluate the library or librarian – they provide the librarian guidance in which to teach library skills to students.   They reflect what students need to know in order to prepare them for their future in the work place and college environments.

The School Library Guidelines Introduction gives school and administration a guide to follow when developing the library.  The three areas of guidance are: place, program and professional.

Please take a look at: http://schoollibrarystandardsguidelines.wikispaces.com/School+Library+Content+Standards+Introduction for more information.

Social Networking

What are your thoughts about social networking?  Is it gossip or a way to share with others?  Technology is so vast these days; it’s hard to keep up.  There are many opportunities to social network on the computer.  Many individuals know that Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, MySpace and many chat places provide ways to talk to others.  It’s a great place to meet and communicate with family and friends to reconnect. People can share interests. There are also many challenges and hazards that can arise if you don’t use these networks wisely.

While people can use Facebook to communicate to family members around the world, share pictures and many other capabilities, it can be an unsafe haven for cyber bulling.  Keep yourself safe!  Do not share personal information for everyone to see; only invite people you know, don’t meet or talk to someone you don’t know.  More information of pros and cons of social networking, please take a look at this website: http://socialnetworking.procon.org/ According to this site, many businesses and individuals spend more time online meeting people than face to face, also more money and time is spent on technology, less time from is spent meeting with family in the home because the individual in on the computer.  On the other hand, individuals can find all types of information ranging from health issues to current events.  Information on this site state - “Studies have shown those who have social network accounts are healthier than those who don’t”.  Also, using these social networks can become addicting and take valuable time away from loved ones. Is this true? You be the judge.

Story telling: sharing from the past to the future

What is a way to pass history to our future?  Through story telling!  Storytelling can be done in a variety of ways.  Storytelling is the oldest form of communication and is an honored tradition of sharing stories from person to person has been done for years.  Cultures have told stories to everyone and pass history to generations.  Storytelling stimulates the listener’s imagination.  There new ways are electronically through the Internet such as social networks.  Have you used computer programs such as movie time to develop a story?  If you haven’t, it isn’t difficult.  Movie time is free of charge and can be downloaded from the Internet.  There are step by step procedures for easy reading.  You can down load pictures, sound and music.  Don’t forget to ask permission and give credit for using copywrited materials.

Many libraries are starting to use digital imaging and recording to share interviews from grandparents and family members.  This offers the opportunity to share rich history from the past and preserve it for the future.  Traditional storytelling is still fun and a great way to share stories.  You can become a great storyteller by using your voice, facial expressions and body language to bring your story characters to life.  Also, story props such as puppets or visual elements are great to add to your story telling adventures.

Storytelling is also a teaching tool.  This process involves all language arts areas by involving communication skills, language and comprehension skills.    This process provides the skills of creating and innovating, collaborating; finding and evaluating information; problem solving; and analytical thinking.  More information about storytelling and teaching 21^stCentury Skills can be found @ www.thestoryconnection.com

Story telling: sharing from the past to the future

What is a way to pass history to our future?  Through story telling!  Storytelling can be done in a variety of ways.  Storytelling is the oldest form of communication and is an honored tradition of sharing stories from person to person has been done for years.  Cultures have told stories to everyone and pass history to generations.  Storytelling stimulates the listener’s imagination.  There new ways are electronically through the Internet such as social networks.  Have you used computer programs such as movie time to develop a story?  If you haven’t, it isn’t difficult.  Movie time is free of charge and can be downloaded from the Internet.  There are step by step procedures for easy reading.  You can down load pictures, sound and music.  Don’t forget to ask permission and give credit for using copywrited materials.

Many libraries are starting to use digital imaging and recording to share interviews from grandparents and family members.  This offers the opportunity to share rich history from the past and preserve it for the future.  Traditional storytelling is still fun and a great way to share stories.  You can become a great storyteller by using your voice, facial expressions and body language to bring your story characters to life.  Also, story props such as puppets or visual elements are great to add to your story telling adventures.

Storytelling is also a teaching tool.  This process involves all language arts areas by involving communication skills, language and comprehension skills.    This process provides the skills of creating and innovating, collaborating; finding and evaluating information; problem solving; and analytical thinking.  More information about storytelling and teaching 21^stCentury Skills can be found @ www.thestoryconnection.com

Summer Reading Program Sponsors and Speakers

The Summer Reading Program at the Faith Library for summer 2011 would like to thank the following sponsors for their contributions.

The Robert OSheas American Legion Auxiliary purchases books, the Cricut Cutting Machine for Scrapbooking, drinking water cooler and many other gifts for our library. 

The South Dakota Humanities Council who gave the library a grant for $1,000 for the Summer Reading Program supplies, speaker fees and prizes that given to participants in the program.  The South Dakota Humanities Council serves the state in many capacities.  It provides professional speakers, resources, and traveling exhibits.  These opportunities provide South Dakotans education and access to many resources like people.  You can look at more information on their website: http://www.sdhumanities.org/

Our special speakers for the program will be on May 26 @ 10 AM.  Linda Mohagen, puppeteer will be at the Faith Library to share stories from different ethnic backgrounds. The Summer Reading Program is celebrating people around the world.  Our special speaker brings puppets magically to life and tells stories from around the world.  Everyone is invited and there is no charge.

Another special speaker who will be featured is Joyce Jefferson from Rapid City.  Joyce came to visit us at the Faith Stock Show when we celebrated our Centennial.  She will present to our Summer Reading Participants at the Faith Library on June 28 @ 10 AM.  Joyce will also present at 6 PM at the Faith Community Center, stories from around the world to the public.  There is no charge for the event.  More information will be shared closer to the date.  If you would like to find out more information about Joyce, please check out the website: http://joycejeffersoncreatesstories.com/

Summer Reading Programs

Do you know that you can travel and never leave the house?  How?  The way is through a book.  The Faith Library will have a program for children, teens and adults.   The theme for each group is: children’s –“One World, Many Stories”, teens- “You are Here” and adults – “Novel Destinations”.  The children and teens will meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 – 11 AM starting May 23 – June 30.  The adult group will meet each Monday evening from 6-7PM.

Each group will do different activities for their age level.  Teens and children will do some activities together and different ones at their level.  These activities will include crafts, scavenger hunts, puppet shows, storytelling and virtual traveling.  Everyone gets a passport and we will travel to faraway lands and visit the people.  After visiting the country, the each participant will get a stamp on their passport.  Doesn’t that sound fun?  We will taste the food and experience the culture.  All participants will have opportunities for prizes and gifts for reading books. Speakers are coming, too!

The adults will have the experience to travel too!  All participants will receive prizes for reading.  Just post or call the library.  Monday evenings are for participants to get-together and have book talks, do an activity like inviting someone to paint or share.  Participants do not have to come to Monday evening, just let the library know that they are participating in the summer reading program and post to this blog with reading comments.  It should be lots of fun!  So let’s travel!

For more information, please contact the Faith Library @ 967-2262!

Why is or isn’t the movie as good as the book?

This is the topic of today.  The book is probably too long and the movie does not have enough time allotted to show information about the book.  Is watching the movie going to ruin your opportunity for the book?  Often times, readers read the book and are disappointed by the movie saying it just wasn’t like the book or there were missed parts.  Or taking a look at the movie, and then reading the book offers another point of view.  Many patrons at our library comment saying- “I will not watch the movie, tell I have read the book”.  If it takes too long of time to read the book and you watch the movie first, be ready.  You may be heart broken or “I watched the movie and it does not match the book”.  Do you think that movie producers use the book for their script development?  The ideas and pictures may have come from the book to develop the movie.  I think that the author gives one perception and then the producer of the movie wants another perception.  Everyone wants the credit these days and make the dollar.  Inspirational and morality lesson movies can be exciting to help life’s decisions.  The drama and action is now the ticket to fun.  The idea is to keep the reader/viewer interested. The book and movie may not directly match or the movie director and book author somehow made no connection at all.  You be the judge! 

Book Reviews

Reviewing books can be easy and it’s a great opportunity for other readers to see your opinions about the book that you just read.  Just go to http://www.goodreads.com/ and sign up.  Be sure that you don’t include personal information.  You can even sign up for a group discussion and talk about books together.  This site gives the reader an opportunity to share books with others.  Your posts can be seen by others, too.  Make sure that you do not be a spoiler (that is do not tell the ending).  You also get to rate the book.  The directions at this site are easy to follow.  Goodreads is a fun site and can be a guide for you when you pick that next book to read.  I even make a list of the books that I read and wrote my opinion of each book.  Readers can also see other books and opinions.  I also enjoy seeing the pictures of the books and how to find the exact book that you read, but may have forgotten the author or other information.  You can find the book just by searching for it.  This site also give readers an insight of what new books may be coming out.  As, a librarian, I enjoy seeing what books are popular and decide if I should purchase it for the library based on book review of others.  So check out this site, get yourself an account and please remember that everyone can see what you place on here!  Enjoy!

What book or movie interests you?

Tangled looks like a hilarious movie!  You could get your laughs worth.
Lighten up your day and take a look.

What are your favorite books?

Many of the books that I have read include mysteries, westerns and romance.  It's interesting as a librarian (and fun) that I know and about recognize most of the 18,000 titles that we may have.