Bing? Google? WolframAlpha? How do you search?

What’s your favorite search engine?

Microsoft’s improvements to its search tool, now named Bing, have many people asking if Google is the only way to google.

In recent weeks, I’ve been trying side-by-side searches in Google, Bing, Yahoo, Ask, and another new search engine/database called WolframAlpha. Each has advantages and disadvantages, and I encourage you try more than one of these (and possibly some of the others out there) for the kinds of searches that you commonly do.

There are also new search “mash-up” sites that make it easier to compare various choices.  Addictomatic.com may be the most extreme search mash-up, aggregating search results from 15-20 sources. Most search mash-ups just compare two search engines.  Bookmark some of these or add them to the search toolbar in your browser to make the comparisons easier as you search during the next few weeks.  Try www.bing-vs-google.com to see how Microsoft’s new contender compares to the defending champ.  My favorite, however, is www.Goofram.com which puts web results from Google alongside those from WolframAlpha’s “computational knowledge engine.”

WolframAlpha is particularly good at math, science, and statistical searches (the sorts of things I may have looked up in an almanac in bygone years), and is worth showing to the math & science teachers in your school. (For a more detailed demo, if you have a few minutes to watch, check out http://www.wolframalpha.com/screencast/introducingwolframalpha.html) Its database and query algorithms still have many gaps, however, so using Goofram as my default search tool allows me to see WolframAlpha’s results (if any) right next those from a more traditional search engine.

Next time you search, try one of these new options.  Evaluate and decide which ones you like best.  Then, plan a lesson or two to help your students discern the pros and cons of each and how to distinguish between ads and actual search results on the various options.

What do you think?  What’s your favorite way to search?  What other good options have I overlooked?  Tell us about it.

A Succinct Big6

• What info? — What information do I need?
• Which sources? – Which sources might have the information?
• Where? — Where can I find those sources? (& Where will I look within the source?)
• Learn.
• Create.
• Evaluate.

(adapted from big6.com by Mike Eisenberg and Bob Berkowitz)

Thanks to those who attended our session at WLMA/OASL!

If you’re looking for the links used in our presentation, please check IdeasAndInfo’s Delicious Pages and look for the @WLMA tags.

We would appreciate your feedback.  Please “comment” below or email us.  Thank you.

What do School Librarians Do? (Part 2 of 2)

We do three important things that contribute significantly to student learning:

• We teach 21^st century research and technology skills. (Information Literacy Teacher)

• We inspire kids to become enthusiastic readers. (Reading Cheerleader)

• We manage information so that great resources can be readily available to students and staff. (CIO)

In the words of Mike Eisenberg, “School librarians teach meaningful information and technology skills that can be fully integrated with the regular classroom curriculum. They advocate reading through guiding and promoting it. And they manage information services, technologies, resources, and facilities.” [SLJ Sept. 2002] Eisenberg is the co-author of the Big6 curriculum adopted by many school districts to help students develop the kinds of research skills that have become essential in the 21^st century. If we want our students to become not only capable readers, but also successful citizens and leaders in this information age, can we afford to be distracted from our core mission?

Of the 40+ “jobs” that we listed school librarians doing in part 1 of this topic, which ones clearly fit under one of our three core roles? Which tasks contribute to (and which ones distract from) our goals of helping all students become enthusiastic readers and effective users of ideas and information?

What do school librarians do? (part 1 of 2)

I’ve been thinking about all the things that school librarians do.  Some of these tasks are core to our mission (book-talking to classes, providing reference services).  Some tasks may be natural corollaries (administering AR, Reading Counts, or a similar book quiz program).  Other tasks are outright distractions from our main roles, but in most schools all school employees do a few of these things (bus duty or lunch supervision, for example).  So, can we list all of the tasks that librarians are sometimes asked to do?

Click on the “Comments” link below to view and add to our list.

Next week, in part two, we’ll discuss prioritizing these roles.

What’s a Shelfari?

Want a great way to share book lists?

Carter showed me a site called Shelfari. It is similar to LibraryThing.com (another good service) but I think that the look-and-feel of Shelfari is a better fit when working with my elementary students.

I’ve used Shelfari a few different ways:

• to share book lists with other grown-ups,
• discussing literature through reviews and groups,
• I’ve even used an LCD projector to “display” books during a class discussion.

Take a look at one or more of these Shelfari pages and tell us what you think:

• The Sasquatch Book Award: shelfari.com/sasquatchaward
• YA Books Adults Should Read Group: shelfari.com/groups/10334/about
• IdeasAndInfo’s professional recommendations: shelfari.com/ideasandinfo
• My own shelf: shelfari.com/fullertones (which is a bit of a hodge-podge)

–Sean

Organizing your collection

In my school library, I’ve been trying to figure out how to make it easier for students to find “the right book.”  I’m curious what other librarians have done (or considered doing) to improve access, make the shelves attractive, and help students browse effectively.  Any ideas?

Social/Professional Networking Tools for Teacher-Librarians

Collaboration is a hot topic among school librarians. Teachers and librarians never seem to have a enough time to meet.  But unless we meet how can we help each other effectively serve our students’ needs?

Well, maybe we don’t need to meet in person. What online tools can we think of that could allow librarians to collaborate with colleagues and patrons?

–Sean