Our first ever Harry Potter interactive movie night was awesome! Teachers and students came together on a Friday night in May to watch Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Everyone received their ticket for the Hogwarts' Express, selected a licorice wand from Mr. Ollivander's shop, grabbed a bottle of polyjuice potion or phoenix tears for the ride and experienced many surprises along the way. Silly string is a great substitute for Devil's Snare! Many have asked for this to be an annual event! Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets might be coming to a Helias library near you!

One of the things I try to address with all of our students is the importance of evaluating their sources. I am amazed at how different research is for our students in 2018 compared to the process I went through as a high school student in the 1980s. Our research was limited to scholarly journals, books, encyclopedias, newspapers, and magazines with an occasional audio or video clip. While there was certainly bias and inaccuracy in materials decades ago, the majority of the sources were solid having been gathered by research and collection specialist librarians or our faculty. Today's technological advancements provide most everyone who has a TV, laptop or mobile phone access to information 24-hours a day. While there are wonderful resources to be found in this digital world, there are also many less accurate, biased, and in some instances, fake sources, as well. All of us, not just our students, need to acquire the skills to critically evaluate all that we see, read and hear so that we are responsible consumers of information.

How do we do that? Listen to and watch a variety of news programming. Don't accept as fact what you hear...do your own investigating. Use primary sources when at all possible. Look to see who is funding a website and who comprises the advisory board. Research before hitting "share" on an article that seems controversial. Remember...anyone can create a website and claim to be an expert. I have fooled many students here with made up websites that look like real news authorities to make my point. If a story or fact causes you to raise an eyebrow, don't be afraid to ask someone what their source is. I LOVE when a student challenges me with this because it means they are questioning and the lesson stuck.

Adding some fun stuff to the maker area of the library. We will still have the table coloring and sticker posters, but I've purchased building blocks (think Legos) and this cool item which explores physics through the creation of mazes and traveling marbles. For all of you who thought the library was just about books! Surprise!