School Library Advocacy

2/11/2021

The Truth About School Library Advocacy

Library advocacy is an interesting topic. It can evoke so many different images and ways that librarians are supposed to work and make their space visible. In some cases, people think that advocacy is speaking and writing on a national and state level to request adequate funding for library programs, public and within schools. Some people look at library advocacy on a more local level, speaking at the board of education meetings and with those who hold the local purse strings to the school budget. Then there are the librarians working at the school level to advocate from within their own buildings to change the rhetoric around school library programs and convince teachers, administrators, parents, and the community of the value of a school library program.

GEt the FREE CHECKLIST!

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Today, I am talking about the latter, the boots, or super cute booties, on-the-ground librarians who are most likely doing advocacy work without even realizing it. Because, while we need those who are doing the legislative work at the national, state, and local levels, the Truth is that the most important library advocacy starts with changing the culture at the school level. And, that doesn’t happen when laws are changed, or new or additional funding streams are found, it happens from within. See, it’s not always about the money honey!

The TRUTH is that the most important library advocacy starts with changing the culture at the school level!

Branding Your School Library

8/15/2020

Why branding your school library matters

I am a school librarian who likes to dabble in graphic design. This turned into me being one of those people who is TOTALLY judging your font choices. Well, it is more like being that person who totally appreciates the time you put into the font choice and wants to know where she can get her hands on it!

But how does that lead to creating an awesome and FREE five-step guide to branding your school library?

GEt the first 5 steps Branding Guide!

The Best Free Citation Generator for Students

11/21/2019

The Best Free Citation Generator for Students

Are you struggling to get your students to cite their sources? Do you need a quick and easy, not to mention, FREE citation generator for your classes? Do you want to end the whining and complaining about requiring your students to include an MLA or APA citation as a part of their research? Never fear teachers and librarians, after almost a decade and a half of teaching MLA citations to my students, I have found what I consider to be the best free citation generator for students!

I did not believe that there was an easier citation tool than easybib. It was my go to citation generator in college, graduate school, as an ILA teacher and as a librarian...and it failed me this school year.

The ads were distracting to my middle school students, the pop-up videos were a hindrance to the work we had to accomplish in a 50 minute class period; and I could see the mounting frustration in my students' faces as they ran into roadblock after roadblock trying to use what I kept telling them was the best option out there. But, boy was I wrong!

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Quick and Easy MLA and APA Citations

It is not a myth my friends. The new tool I found really is all that and a bag of chips! It has truly changed my students outlook on having to complete a works cited page or bibliography.

I and my students are officially hooked on a free citation tool called mybib.com. This is a FREE, no advertising sidebar, pop-up absent, MLA and APA citation generator for students.

You don’t need an account to reap the benefits of all the things you pay for with other programs. For example: APA is free, in-text citations are free, annotations are free, among other things.
You can easily set up an account with an email address and a password. This allows you to work on multiple bibliographies at the same time.
They have an authority/reliability measure. This walks students through the process of going back to look for additional information.
They have a quick and easy pop-up box to catch all the little nit-picky rules about citations, like when to capitalize parts of a title.
Switching between formats is as simple as the click of a button.
The interface is simple and clean.
You can select manual entry if you want your students to learn the basics before using the “auto” cite feature.
Even if you use “auto” cite, you are still shown the manual cite page to check your work.
You can add in an annotation, which is then auto added to the final works cited page.
It easily formats the document and then allows for downloading or copying and pasting into a Word document, as well as other programs like Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.

If you want to read more about how my students are taking notes for research, or just need a place for students to apply their use of mybib.com, check out this posting about Teaching Research in the Middle School Classroom.

Disclaimer: I am in no way sponsored by this resource, nor am I paid in anyway to promote it. These thoughts and opinions are completely my own.

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School Library Advocacy

The Truth About School Library Advocacy

Branding Your School Library

Why branding your school library matters

The Best Free Citation Generator for Students

The Best Free Citation Generator for Students

Quick and Easy MLA and APA Citations

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