The high school library seems to be the perfect hyperlinked environment. The potential is there for connections to be made that are multi-dimensional. Students are encouraged to explore, to innovate, to be creative and to imagine. Many high school libraries have multi-purpose spaces for different types of activities. Here? We have the spaces, or some of them at least but we don’t seem to get the buy-in from students or staff to use the space to its full potential.
In The Hyperlinked School Library, we are told that it is necessary to explore emerging tools and to use them as part of our library services. Some examples of these tools would be using digital cameras to get stories online or recording podcasts or short video clips. I love these ideas, but at my school either they are already part of another class, or students just aren’t interested.
Students are scheduled throughout the day at my library for study blocks. Other students come and go for books or photocopies or other reasons, and occasionally classes will come down to check out books. The librarian pushes into some classes for various topics but classes are not taught in the library. I’ve tried to engage students with books- suggesting they could help create book trailers or short reviews that could be posted to social media. I either get a blank stare or an insincere “sure.”
Now this is only my second year at this library and I’m not about to give up. I’m considering looking into using augmented reality, virtual reality, or QR codes to help engage the interest of students. This article discusses how to use student’s phones as VR headsets. I need to do more research on how this would best work in our situation, but I like that this is a low-cost (free!) possibility. Perhaps I could connect a history assignment to a VR activity? IFLA discusses the use of augmented reality. One image shows how AR can help students to find their way around the library more easily with this technology. How cool is that? AR can bring parts of our non-fiction books to life even. Wow!
I recently discovered that some authors have created playlists for their books. I have a display in the planning stages where I get Spotify links to those playlists and display them along with the books. While not fancy, this is a starting point. If I can get some students involved in this project it will help our library to become more connected as it should be.
Pictures of my library after students have gone home for the day.
@deniseml I like these ideas. The IFLA link is super interesting. I could see it almost like a AR/VR scavenger hunt in the stacks. Non fiction books could come alive!
A scavenger hunt in the stacks could be a lot of fun!
Wheels are turning!
Denise,
I love that authors have created playlists to coincide with their books! You could take it even a step further and try to get some students to make their own playlists for some of their favorite books. It would be a chance to let them express themselves through their personal music taste, while also reading and taking part in the library.
Millicent-
Thank you for the idea! Getting them to make playlists of their own might be a way to get some buy-in from readers! I really struggle with getting students to check out books voluntarily. Maybe if I can get some to help with this it would show that reading is for the cool kids too?
@deniseml I love the idea of students creating playlists to share with each other. I’m fascinated by the format of the BBC’s Desert Island Discs radio program which asks interviewees to pick the 8 tracks that they would take with them if being cast away on a desert island. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Island_Discs
I love this format because it forces interviewees to select the music that is most important to them, which tells the audience about interesting biographical moments and the role that music played in those moments. I could imagine a 8-track Desert Island Discs style playlist prompt that asks participants to choose their favorite 8 pieces of music and write a line about why the music is important to them.
Cheers!
Arthur
I’ve not heard of that radio program- but that is very cool. I can’t imagine only picking 8 songs to listen to forever, because music carries so much memory with it.
I just looked into that program and found I could listen to it here:
This is just cool and if I can get these students into the playlist idea I will use this program to get them thinking.