Media Center-Marsha Collier

March Newsletter

Please click on the link for the March Newsletter. There are active links to resources embedded in the newsletter as well.

"March " on in to the Media Center and check out the following:

The excitement has been about all the new books that are available for check out. We have over 260 new titles for students and teachers. Teaser titles are various ghost stories, science books on alternate fuels, new biographies and additional Cirque du Freak titles. Stop by and check them out!

Recently we have had on display art work from some of Mrs. Weisz’s 8^th grade students

The students were to calculate diameter and circumference as well as some other geometric shapes. If you haven’t seen them, do stop by and take a look. All of the “Sunface Designs” are displayed above the non fiction shelves.

Mrs. Tolbert’s students have been very inspired. They created pop-up books based upon books that they read. These books are on display on the second case in the fiction section, directly next to the floral arrangement. Not only do you get to look at the books but you can get a good summary of the book.

There are also student projects on a variety of topics displayed in the biography section.

Celebrate "Women's History Month" by reading one of the books on display.

Celebrate St. Patrick's Day by checking out one of the books on display.

The Media Center is the place to be -- remember "Knowledge is Power."

Welcome back or should we say “It’s about time we came back to provide an update on what has been going on at the media center.”

During the months of January and February there has been a flurry of excitement and a great deal of hard work transpiring in the media center.

Ms. Baker’s, Mrs. Ruh’s, Mrs. Strader’s, and Mrs. Steiffel’s classes were hard at work learning how to utilize Destiny and specific databases in the Cobb Virtual Library (CVL) for research. They worked with print as well as electronic resources and learned how to site sources and put them in correct bibliographic citation form.

Ms. Running’s students had researched various topics that stemmed from political or environmental issues. Ms. Marko’s students worked on the decades from the 1960’s through the 1990’s.

Mrs. Montogomery and Mrs. Tolbert have checked out many poetry books for their students to use for a poetry unit, Mrs. Sanford has books on biomes, Mrs. Clarke has books on oceans, and Ms. Baker has checked out books on animals. Thanks for using our many resources!

Citation Machine and EasyBib were introduced to all classes that have been doing research these past two months. Citation Machine and EasyBib are free citation tools that assist in the proper format of any type of source used. Users of these resources are asked questions each step of the citation for proper data. Anyone with internet access can utilize these resources. We have provided a link from the home page of Destiny for easy access.

The excitement has been about all the new books that are available for check out. We have over 260 new titles for students and teachers. Teaser titles are various ghost stories, science books on alternate fuels, new biographies and additional Cirque du Freak titles. Stop by and check them out!

Not only should you learn to read well, you should be well read!  At the Barber Media Center you will find a variety of resources that will help you achieve both goals.

The Media Staff is currently working on a book order for this year. We would like your input.  Book suggestion forms are available at the circulation desk. Please take time to offer suggestions for our collection.

There is a Veteran's Day Display in the Media Center in honor of the brave men and women who sacrifice so much in order that we can live in "the home of the brave  - the land of the free." The Media Staff invites you to check out these books and take time this week to thank a veteran.

Can you guess what these books have in common?

And the answer is ...

The books on display are on the American Library Association's list of the top 100 novels of the 20th century that have been banned and/or challenged.  For the entire list of titles, visit

http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=bbwlinks&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=85714

or

http://www.ala.org/ala/pio/piopresskits/bbbwpresskit/bannedchallenged.htm

Now that you are reading our blog, check out some of our previous postings. Remember "Knowledge is Power."

The first nine weeks

It has been a fantastic start of the school year. It’s hard to believe that the first nine weeks have just ended. We are very pleased with the number of students that visit us on passes. If you can believe it, we have had over 6,600 books checked out by Barber students and staff. It’s really fantastic to see what a body of readers Barber Middle has become. Some of the most popular titles have been the Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot, Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan, A Child Called It by David Pelzer, and Scary Stories by Alvin Schwartz. Check in on future blogs for updates on what Barber Middle is reading.

Students in 8^th grade language arts have had an introduction to doing research. They have learned that there are specific resources to use when conducting scholarly research and most importantly the Cobb Virtual Library (CVL). Remember to get the password from the media center so you can access the CVL resources 24/7.

            

Citation Help

Great news! The latest version of Destiny will create the citations for books and websites found through Destiny. Here are the directions:

1. In Destiny, find the titles of the books you have used and click on the phrase "Add to this list."

2.  If you used websites from WebPath Express, find those sites in Destiny and click on the

     phrase "Add to this list."

    To create the citations:

3. Click on "Resource Lists."

4. Click on "My List."

5. Scroll to the bottom and click on Go next to Create Citation List.

6. Print the citation.

   To create the citation for websites:

7. Click on the Online Resources Tab at the top.

8.  Repeat steps 4-6.

9. You'll have to combine the two citation lists to turn in with your paper.

Good luck!!

"Spring" into a good book.

New books have recently arrived and ready for you to "spring into a good book."  Several classes have been in the Media Center this week for checkout  so students should have lots of reading materials for spring break!

Websites on careers

8th grade students will be coming to the Media Center March 5 - 7 to do research on careers. In addition to using Destiny,the following are websites to be used by Mrs. Rhyant's students for information on careers:

http://www.bls.gov/oco

http://www.bls.gov/k12

http://www.careercruising.com

Overdue Books

There are over 300 students with overdue books.  We know those books are either at home, in a locker or a bookbag.  These books need to be returned......

Thanks for your help!!!!!  We want books to be used but returned so others can read them!