Library Services Newsletter
December 4th, 2015 Edition
Announcements
Ordering Deadline
What is the MY Denver card?
This free "membership" includes free access to all Denver Public Libraries, recreation centers, pools, and nine of the City's cultural partners. This includes the Skyline Park Ice rink.
The MY Denver card has gone through some changes, here is the current lowdown:
This fall parents had the ability to "Opt in" to the My Denver card during DPS school registration.
DPS then shared the student data with Parks&Rec and DPL (data sharing agreements are in place)
Students can pick up their cards from any Park & Rec center (started in November).
Students that did not opt in or registered later in the year can go online or go to any Denver rec center (see below)
Technically speaking, even without picking up their MY Denver card, they are given a Denver Public Library account. They should be able to log in online to use DPL databases and ebooks using their student ID and birth year.
If students already had library cards, they will be cancelled once the student goes to a public library to use the MY Denver card. ALSO, they will no longer be able to log in using their student ID once they use their MY Denver card at a public library. Caroline is working on this with DPL.
Bookmobile cards will be impacted. More info to come.
Register online by adding the free MY Denver membership to your cart and completing the required questions.
Register in person at any Denver recreation center. Visit denvergov.org/mydenvercard for more information.
Teacher Librarian Happy Hour - Learn & Linger
They are the second Thursdays of the month starting in December. 4:30 - 6:30 (although for those of you that get out early feel free to begin:) We will spend the first 30 minutes connecting on a topic. For December we will be discussing the mission/vision statement for libraries in DPS. Your voice is important!
December 10th: The Historian on Broadway (park on east/west streets crossing Broadway)
January 14th
February 11th
March 10th
April 14th
May 12thALA 2016 Youth Media Awards
...will be announced at 8:00 a.m. Eastern time on Monday, January 11, 2016. View all 2015 winners. This include Newbery, Caldecott, Pura Belpre and many more!
http://www.ilovelibraries.org/booklovers/youth-media-awards or join the live webcast http://ala.unikron.com/2016/
Resources
New Launch of Colorado Historic Newspapers
The Colorado State Library is pleased to announce the launch of its new Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection (CHNC) online database, located at www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org. The State Library has made the new site faster, easier to navigate and more user-friendly. CHNC allows K-12 students to interact directly with primary source materials by engaging with history as it was originally recorded and interpreted — something the history books can’t even begin to do. One Colorado teacher who uses the site says it’s great “as a tool for teaching search strategies while working with American History classes.” She finds “the local perspectives to be enlightening for students in many ways.”
It offers free online access to more than 199 local and regional newspapers, primarily including newspapers published between 1859 and 1923.
On-going support for maintaining and providing access to CHNC is paid for with state and federal funds administered by the Colorado State Library.
For more information contact:
Leigh Jeremias, Digital Collections Coordinator, Networking and Resource Sharing, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection, Colorado State Library. ljeremias@coloradovirtuallibrary.orgColorado Book Club Resource (from Colorado State Library)
Are you a Colorado library that holds book club meetings at your facility? Are you in need of some additional book options for your book clubs? Then, the State Library “Colorado Book Club Resource” is the ticket for you! This website is your connection to plenty of books for your perusal and borrowing purposes. We have many titles http://cobookclubs.cvlsites.org/plethora/ to choose from and all the titles have five or more copies available.
Recently, we have expanded the YA titles. The two new titles in our “Classics” genre happen to be geared towards young adults as well. They arePersuasion (10 copies) and East of Eden (14 copies). We added four other new titles just this week as well.
Please take a peek at this week’s additions and more at:
http://cobookclubs.cvlsites.org/plethora-within-a-genre/
Contact Arian Osborne, NRS Consultant Support, for more questions or information
Osborne_a@cde.state.co.us 303.866.6900
Ideas and Best Practices
Cardboard Challenge at Holm Elementary
The 4th grade students were inspired by Caine’s story from the YouTube short video about Caine’s Arcade. Many students made connections with him about their own personal lives (working parents, loneliness, nothing to do). Our GT teacher, Math Interventionist, 4th grade teachers and myself collaborated on this project. The GT teacher actually received a Grant to help pay for the ultra safe cardboard cutters. The students worked in collaborative groups of 3 and researched Cardboard Challenges worldwide. After brainstorming ideas (that must have some form of math element) they submitted a Project Proposal via Google Docs that included: Title, Goal, supplies needed, rules of the game, where they did their research, etc. These proposals were submitted for feedback and any changes that needed to be made were commented on and appropriate changes were made by the group members.
Building Day- The whole 4th grade took over the school auditorium and cut, pasted, and taped their hearts out. It was a huge mess, but the students really got a chance to work collaboratively on this project from original idea to the actual creation of the project.
Cardboard Challenge Day- Other grade level classes were invited to join in the fun. The 4th grade students ran their arcade games liked champs. The 5th grade students were impressed with the variety of games and felt challenged with the math elements of each game.
Overall, the students had a terrific time learning, creating, collaborating and challenging themselves. What more could we ask for?
Kacie (Teacher Librarian at Holm Elementary)
Cardboard challenge folderPuppet Pals at Polaris
This week, at Polaris, the children are working on their fractured fairy tales unit which is great fun. This collaborative lesson plan created by Gail Axt and Katie Ray incorporated technology into the curriculum, teaching students skills while they have fun. Each group has a fractured fairy tale for which they take pictures of themselves in costume and they select backgrounds for their virtual play for their tale.
Students then manipulate the images while reading their scripts. The final edited project is shown to the parents who love seeing the children’s literacy and technology skills being presented on the big screen in a way that is fun and adorable.
You can see some examples of this project on Katie Ray’s School web page here: http://polarisstars.weebly.com/Food for Thought About the Current State of Why We Read
Why are we motivated to read on our own time? What is meaningful about it? How does it enrich our lives and help us thrive in our world?